AUTO RACING ROUNDUP News and notes

Corvette aiming for another Le Mans win: Corvette Racing will be going after its sixth class win in eight years this weekend at the 24 Hours of Le Mans endurance race. To win another title in GT1, one of four classes in the French race, rivals will require a flawless performance by America’s premier production sports car racing team. Chevrolet’s two-car factory team and two Corvette privateers will face four Aston Martin DBR9s, including a pair of factory-backed entries, a Saleen S7R and a Lamborghini Murcielago. “I’m ready to go and bring our Corvette into the winner’s circle,” said Max Papis, who joins American Le Mans Series champions Oliver Gavin and Olivier Beretta in the No. 64 Corvette C6.R for this long-distance event. “Between Daytona and Le Mans, this will be my 20th 24-hour race. I would have never thought in 1996 that I would reach that mark. It means a lot, and I hope it means we get a good result, especially after the disappointment of last year.” Aston Martin upset the Corvettes in 2007. The logistics of racing in Le Mans are daunting for an American team. Every nut, bolt, fitting and spare part must be transported across the Atlantic. Corvette Racing’s first shipment, a 76,500-pound, 18-wheeler filled with equipment and supplies, was sent by ocean freighter to England in late April. A second shipment was airlifted to Europe in May following an ALMS race in Salt Lake City. The second load included the two Corvette race cars and 13,500 pounds of toolboxes, spare bodywork, and other supplies. The team will also have 48 people working in Le Mans. Many of those team members have been in France since late May, adjusting to the time change and the European culture. Their only opportunity to test on the 8.48-mile track, which includes public roads and highways, was a rainy day on June 1. Dodging intermittent showers, the two Corvettes completed 81 laps and gathered valuable information for the upcoming race. “With the limited running time that we had, I think the team really maximized its results,” said Doug Fehan, program manager for Corvette Racing. “We were able to obtain excellent data on the aerodynamics, the gearboxes and the power delivery. The team has worked very hard and we’re very well prepared. We wouldn’t come to Le Mans if we didn’t think we could win.”

Going up: Last Saturday night’s Bombardier Learjet 550k at Texas Motor Speedway ranks as the highest-rated and most-viewed IndyCar Series race broadcast ever on ESPN2 and the second most-viewed series race in ESPN and ESPN2 history. The broadcast produced a 1.0 cable rating and reached 939,160 households, surpassing the .85 rating for this year’s season-opening race at Homestead that previously held the ESPN2 record. It was also a 44 percent increase over last year’s Texas race, which drew a 0.7 rating and 639,952 households. The rating is the percentage watching a program among homes with televisions. It was another step up for the series, which has seen steady gains since it was announced in February that the two rival American open-wheel series were unifying under the IRL IndyCar Series umbrella. “This is a positive step forward for the league post-unification,” said Eddie Gossage, president of the Texas track, “but there is a lot more work to do on a national scale to make the IndyCar Series more prominent among sports fans.”

New schedule: The 2008-09 schedule for the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport, a series that runs from September through May and races around the world, again does not include an event in the United States. The fledgling series, which includes a team representing America, ran a race at Laguna Seca in Monterey, Calif., in 2006, it’s inaugural season. But the U.S. has not been on the schedule since. “We are expecting an A1GP round in the United States, if not two per season, and we’re going to do everything possible to bring the World Cup of Motorsport to home ground,” said Rick Weidinger, owner of the U.S. team. “We ran out of time to do it properly for the upcoming season.”

Associated Press