American LeMans
ALMS: Petit Le Mans Tuesday Notebook
News and notes from the final day before official on-track activity begins for American Le Mans Series teams.
John Dagys  |  Posted September 22, 2009
Jorg Muller returns to the wheel of a V8-engined BMW for the first time in the ALMS since 2001, when he scored the GT drivers' title. (LAT)
Jorg Muller Makes ALMS Return


It’s been a while since Jorg Muller turned a wheel in the ALMS, and that’s about to change Wednesday. Eight years since claiming the GT drivers’ championship, the veteran BMW factory driver returns to the cockpit of an M3 for this weekend’s Petit Le Mans powered by MAZDA6.

Muller joins BMW Rahal Letterman Racing Team co-drivers Dirk Muller and Tommy Milner in the No. 92 Need For Speed: Shift-sponsored machine, making for a “M-3” (Muller, Muller, Milner) lineup in the BMW M3. Catchy, ain’t it?

While Saturday will be Muller’s first race since his 2001 GT crown, the German has been staying busy in the World Touring Car Championship, as one of BMW’s lead drivers. He’s also been a part of the automaker’s European test program with the GT2-spec M3 and is fresh from a tire test in Budapest, Hungary two weeks ago.

He’s racked up over 20 days of testing and developing the V8-engined beast, as has fellow BMW Motorsport works driver Andy Priaulx, who is also here this weekend. The three-time WTCC champion makes his U.S. driving debut in the BMW RLR’s No. 90 machine.

“The entire team is here to win the class. Otherwise, I would have stayed in Germany!” Muller said. “The car is competitive now and I’m in a very good team with great teammates. I think all six drivers will tell you the same.”

Muller has bittersweet memories of Road Atlanta. He’s scored two podium finishes in four previous starts, but the ones that have gotten away have bitten him the most.

After claiming Twelve Hours of Sebring and 24 Hours of Le Mans victories, BMW Motorsport was aiming for the endurance racing “triple crown” in 1999. Everything appeared to be on track with Muller and co-driver JJ Lehto dominating the Petit Le Mans that year, until late-race drama ended their hopes.

Muller drove BMW's V12 LMR in the 1999 and 2000 ALMS seasons. (LAT)
“We were leading and I spun into the gravel with 15 minutes to go,” Muller recalled. “The thing was that I wasn’t pushing anymore. Lap times went down and nobody really could tell me what happened. I lost it in the straight-away and was at the end of the braking. It was probably a loss of concentration.

“I eventually got out of the gravel, but it took ages! As a driver, you’re thinking that 10 seconds was already 10 minutes and I was waving my hands and pushing my helmet. But nobody was coming. I eventually got out, and we finished third. After the race, we looked into the tape and data and never ended up finding anything. It was quite frustrating. We had led it from the beginning to nearly the end.”

Muller’s other not-so-fond memory of the Petit Le Mans came in 2001, when at the wheel of the legendary M3 GTR when teamed with then-rising star Dirk Muller.

“We lost the race because I cleaned the windshield!,” Jorg said. “There were just four mechanics allowed on the car and it was getting into the nighttime and my window was completely filled with oil. So I radioed the pits and said, ‘Get me a piece of paper, I have to clean the windshield because I can’t see.’

“I knew there wasn’t enough mechanics on the car so I thought I could also clean the windshield because I’m also allowed to help with the seatbelt. All of a sudden we got a one-minute penalty because I was working as a fifth mechanic on the car!”

The penalty dropped the duo to a second place finish, but still good enough for Muller and BMW to lock up the GT championship.

The three M's: Muller, Muller and Milner team up in the No. 92 M3. (John Dagys)
Now returning some eight year later, Muller is determined to break his bad luck streak at Road Atlanta, with the aim of standing on the top step of the podium Saturday night.

As a side note, I had asked Jorg to compare his BMW 320si WTCC car to the GT2-spec M3. I was especially curious to see his thoughts after reading Allan McNish’s Monday blog on the Audi A4 DTM vs. the R15 TDI.

“In the World Touring Car, you’re always complaining about bad power, lack of downforce, and lack of grip,” Muller said. “The cars are not really technically sophisticated, because they’re very much road-car based. But on the other hand, the races you do in WTCC are some of the most exciting races I’ve done in my career, other than Formula Ford, which was a long time ago.

“To me, the less downforce you have, the more interesting the races get. You can follow the other cars very close, even in fast corners and you have a lot of overtaking maneuvers. That’s all very interesting, but as a racing driver, you always want more power and grip. That’s why I’m very happy being back in the American Le Mans Series and the M3 because it can do everything better than our WTCC car!”

No Direct-Injection For Corvette Racing

Corvette Racing’s two GT2-spec C6.Rs unloaded today in a different engine configuration as seen in the car’s first three races. After lobbying from Porsche and Ferrari, the ACO politely asked Corvette to remove its direct injection system for the remainder of the season.

“There’s nothing in the rules preventing us from running direct injection this year,” said Corvette Racing Program Manager Doug Fehan. “We had a waiver from the ACO to do so. However, competitors waged some concerns, the ACO asked us if we not run it for the last two races, and we’ve agreed to do that. It’s that simple.”

Both Corvette C6.Rs will run without direct injection for the remainder of the ALMS season. (John Dagys)
Direct Injection, or DI for short, has been one of the latest trends in optimizing fuel economy for production cars and has slowly made its way into the ALMS. Audi first introduced its variant, FSI, in 2002 for its 3.6-liter V8 gasoline-powered Audi R8 prototype and made significant gains on fuel economy, particularly at Le Mans. Porsche also developed DFI for its RS Spyder last year.

Corvette had DI on its 7.0-liter LS7.R GT1 engine, which was used as a base for its 6.0-liter GT2 powerplant for this year. It had only seemed logical to continue using DI for this year.

“The ACO said that was fine, but what they didn’t talk about was that direct injection was legal in GT1 but not legal in GT2 unless it’s on the road car,” said IMSA’s Doug Robinson. “There are a couple of cars coming in with it in GT2 because they’re also putting it on their road cars. I think Ferrari is going to have it next year. When the ACO agreed to [let Corvette run the 6.0-liter engine], they weren’t thinking about the direct injection. It turned out to be a point they didn’t talk about.”

Corvette’s philosophy for running DI was for improved fuel economy and not added performance. Fehan said they found no significant gains in horsepower.

“Direct injection isn’t necessarily a performance issue as much as an environmental issue,” Fehan said. “It provides for more complete combustion, resulting in less emissions. We’re hoping that the sanctioning bodies will see the wisdom in that, and everyone will be allowed to run direct injection next year. That would be my wish.”

Corvette will launch a new in-house developed 5.5-liter V8 for the 2010 season. It's expected that powerplant will also be equipped with DI. (John Dagys)
ACO rules state that DI could only be used if it’s on the production vehicle. Currently, the Corvette C6, or ZR1 for that matter, are not equipped with it, meaning it’s unlikely to be equipped on the GT2 car in the near future, unless the ACO makes an amendment to the rules, or future production Corvettes are outfitted with it.

It’s doubtful we’ll see any distinct performance differences with the Corvettes not running DI, but fuel economy could play into factor. Cellulosic E85 burns quicker than E10, and the Series allows for a 20 liter larger fuel tank to offset the difference. And while the Corvettes have met the mileage of the E10-fueled GT2 competition, they could end up a tad short without the fuel-saving DI system. We likely won’t know its impact until race day on Saturday.

“We’re trying to keep everyone on the same bases here,” Robinson said. “It makes a big difference in a 10-hour race. It won’t affect their performance at all, but will take away some of their fuel economy advantage. I still think they’re equal or a little better than most of the cars in class. The fact that they’re running on E85, they get the advantage in the environmental greenhouse gasses.”

1998 Petit Le Mans Race Program

By: Marshall Pruett

Take a gander inside the program for the what’s recognized as the first (unofficial) race for the American Le Mans, the inaugural Petit Le Mans event held at Road Atlanta in 1998. While the 1999 Twelve Hours of Sebring owns the distinction of being the first official ALMS event, the ‘Little Le Mans’ from the previous year set into motion the series we know today.

The newly renovated Braselton, Ga. track played host to the first event that married the cars and rules conforming to ACO regulations to the vision of Don Panoz for an American-based series for Le Mans-spec cars to have a home.

Relive the inaugural 1,000-mile marathon at Road Atlanta with the 1998 Petit Le Mans program.
Run just five years after the close of the GTP era, the first ALMS race could be considered a bridge between IMSA’s past and future. Petit 1998 featured GTP’s replacement, World Sports Car (WSC), and the Le Mans Prototype (LMP1), and before long, WSC gave way to the LMP cars of today.

And as you’ll see inside, more than a decade later, many of the same faces are present for the 2009 edition of Petit Le Mans.

1998 Petit Le Mans Race Program
(Courtesy of the American Le Mans Series)



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