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As an American, I can regretfully say that the American Le Mans Series is unequivocally the most relevant racing series in the United States. I know that will not sit well with hardened NASCAR fans but it is a truism that has been proved yet again this weekend at the Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta. It’s not because I am a Formula 1, road course snob (although I admit that I am), or that I have some latent frustration with NASCAR (although I admit that I do) or that I am bereft of what real acing is (although I have been accused of such).

It is because the cars I’m watching battle for the GT2 championship today are cars I could actually purchase. They are modified for racing but remain the same marque that the showrooms across America have proudly displayed. Ferrari, Corvette, BMW, Porsche, Jaguar and Ford all participated in this weekends battle at the storied circuit Road Atlanta. They remain relevant because unlike NASCAR, they are actual chassis’s that the manufacturer makes. They have no carburetor’s and have working headlamps. They are real and not neolithic cars with an engine that still looks like a 1970’s muscle car.

NASCAR hasn’t been relevant for many years, in my opinion, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t entertaining. It just depends on your motivation for watching. I prefer racing series that utilize road course as a more entertaining measure of the car and driver. I like that the cars in the GT series are real manufacturers and that they possess technology that is current in road cars. I find ovals boring and without the nuance and essence of racing as I was raised of road course and not ovals. That may differ completely with a fan who was raised on ovals and loves the gladiatorial nature of NASCAR regardless if the series is relevant or not. That’s fair, we all have our reasons for watching.

In the end, The American Le Mans Series is, in my opinion, a far superior series than NASCAR because it is more closely related to its fan base from a consumer and market appeal. NASCAR may ahve the stickers that represent the marketing appeal for sponsors but ALMS has the actual car itself that harkens back to the reason road racing in America began back in 1948 at Watkins Glen.

An the LMP class in ALMS? That’s just the icing on the cake. A glimpse of what the technology could do with larger budgets and manufacturer support. Those are the cars by which the series is measured but the cars that represent the heart and soul of American racing is the GT class. I am aware of the different worlds of NASCAR fans and ALMS fans but I’ll be damned if I can understand it.

Remember how Kimi Raikkonen was doing OK during the first day of the Rally of France?

Well, hang on — and if you haven’t checked in yet and don’t want to know about Day 2, well stop reading — because it went from “typical” to … “more typical.”

Kimi, at almost no speed, drove off the road and was stuck in the mud for 37 minutes. He went from his solid, if unspectacular seventh spot all the way down to 50th.

And he isn’t happy:

“We went off the road at basically zero speed,” said the Finn. “It was so stupid. We got stuck on a mud bank with the car half on the road and half off the road. Eventually we had to get a rope to get the car back on the road.”

As I wrote yesterday, it seems to me that Kimi’s choices for next year come down to being seventh to 10th in WRC or somewhere in the same neighborhood in Formula 1, given the car he would get at Renault.

But at least when you drive off the track in F1, you’re done — you don’t have to keep going. No ice cream time for Kimi this weekend.

As dawn broke over Road Atlanta this race day, the talk of the paddock was the battle between Audi and Peugeot. With pole secured by the French marque’s 908 Diesel in the hands of F1 driver Anthony Davidson, the air is electric and the battle should be epic.

Road Atlanta offers a unique venue for the Petit Le Mans with its .54-mile circuit replete with 12 corners and over 75% of the lap on full throttle. The race will consist of 1,000 miles or 10 hours. The weather is beautiful and the crowd is expected to reach 100,000. That’s a lot of people attending the final ALMs race but Road Atlanta is a terrific venue and one of the more accommodating to view the race in its entirety. Ample seating, free parking and access to the teams and paddock are just some of the benefits of Road Atlanta. It truly is a fabulous circuit.

As the cars launch into the final practice session prior the race, the series 17 points championship only have awarded two so far. The final race has it all to play for across all classes and it is being fielded by an astounding 45 cars which means serious traffic for the LMP class. Today also represents 62nd anniversary of American post-war road racing which happened in 1948 at Watkins Glen. A fitting anniversary for what should prove to be a classic race.

The main storyline from this morning is the complete re-build of the Audi Chassis. Just before the end of the last free practice session on Friday morning Dindo Capello had slipped off the track in turn 3. The front end of the Audi R15 TDI got stuck on a bump in the rough field and was pushed under the car in such an unfortunate way that the left-hand side of the monocoque was damaged. For safety reasons Audi Sport Team Joest decided to change the monocoque. In less than four and a half hours the car was completely dismantled and prepared again. A few minutes before the qualifying session started Dindo Capello drove the R15 TDI into the pits accompanied by a round of resounding applause. Dindo said:

“I’ve got to really congratulate the crew: to prepare such a heavily damaged car again in such a short time is really exceptional. It shows yet again why we’ve won so many races and championships with this team. These guys are simply great. Of course the car didn’t have optimal balance in qualifying and was difficult to drive. The lap time I was able to drive under these conditions makes me optimistic for tomorrow. Now we need to correct a few minor things, put the car on the measurement platform and then we should be able to attack tomorrow.”

The plots are set, the battle will begin and the storyline’s will write themselves. Road Atlanta will host the finest field in Petit Le Mans history and with history comes the weight of legendary performances––I suspect we are going to witness just such a race this afternoon.

This weekend’s Petit Le Mans will represent the second race in the new Intercontinental Le Mans Cup (ILMC). The 2010 edition of the new world tournament includes three race in 2010 and seven in 2011. The Automobile Club de l’Ouest (ACO) organized the tournament and many of the teams have been very receptive. The challenge, of course, will be for the privateer as global travel and the expense it represents will prevent many teams from participating outside their respective series such as the American Le Mans Series or Europe’s Le Mans series.

One team that is embracing the new tournament is Audi Sport Team Joest. The team will contest the second race in the ILMC here at the Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta this weekend after facing a defeat in round one at the 1000km at Silverstone by arch rival Peugeot. The German team will bring their R15+ chassis 202 and 203 to the battle and are banking on upgrades that should favor the unique circuit characteristics of Road Atlanta.

Audi have a stellar history at the Petit Le Mans with nine victories in the past ten years. Driver Allan McNish will be returning the scene of the crime that saw Peugeot snatch victory in a rain shortened race last year. He will be joined by veteran drivers Dindo Capello and Mr. Le Mans himself, Tom Kristensen. The sister car with be handled by Marcel Fassler, Andre Lotterer and Benoit Treluyer.

Of the three drivers, Dindo Capello has the most victories at the Petit Le Mans and despite an off Friday morning in practice, he’s looking forward to the event:

“I think that this track will suit our R15 plus a bit better. We were always very strong in this race in the past. That’s why I’m confident that we’ll be able to clinch victory for Audi. This race has always been very fortunate for me. I won five times there at seven events. That’s another reason why Road Atlanta is one of my favourite tracks.”

With four wins under his belt at the Petit Le Mans, Allan McNish has unfinished business from 2009 as he spun just prior tot he race being called for rain. We were here last year and it was a deluge. McNish was very quick and seems to expect a good showing this weekend:

“I love Petit Le Mans! 100,000 fans in such a compact arena as Road Atlanta––That’s simply great. And there’s hardly a track that suits me as well as this. It’s very fast and fluid. It demands an aggressive driving style. Every moment is a very intense experience”.

Tom Kristensen hasn’t been to the Petit Le Mans since 2002 and while it’s been a long time, he is Mr. Le Mans. That experience and pace can’t be denied and whil the circuit has changed since he last raced here, Tom is looking forward to it:

“It’s been quite a while that I last contested ‘Petit Le Mans.’ I’m very much looking forward to running there again after such a long time. I know from my two team colleagues that the track has since been resurfaced, which makes it even faster than it was back then.”

There is no doubt that the #7 car has seriously talented and experienced drivers. It should represent Audi’s best chance at defeating Peugeot this weekend but an interesting twist is that Audi’s #9 car will have three drivers who have never raced at the Petit Le Mans before. Lotterer, Fassler and Treluyer will face ten hour endurance race for the first time but it isn’t their maiden voyage for Audi having helped the marque sweep the 24 Hours of Le Mans earlier this year.

Practice sessions at Petit have revealed an approximate pace gap of 9/10’s of a second. That’s practice. The real pace of Audi and Peugeot will not be known until qualifying later today but if the speed delta is accurate, there are ten hours of racing that tactically could be Audi’s secret weapon. The build-up tot he race is proving to be exciting and it could represent one of the best Petit Le Mans in recent memory.

In a word: Typical.

At the end of the first day of the WRC’s Rally of France, Kimi Raikkonen is sitting in seventh place, pretty typical of his performance this season. He’s well back of the leaders, as well:

1. 1 S. LOEB M 1:18:27.8 0.0 0.0
2. 2 D. SORDO M 1:18:50.5 +22.7 +22.7
3. 7 S. OGIER M 1:18:53.4 +2.9 +25.6
4. 4 J. LATVALA M 1:19:09.6 +16.2 +41.8
5. 11 P. SOLBERG 1:19:13.6 +4.0 +45.8
6. 3 M. HIRVONEN M 1:20:18.6 +1:05.0 +1:50.8
7. 8 K. RÄIKKÖNEN M 1:21:55.2 +1:36.6 +3:27.4
8. 9 F. VILLAGRA M 1:24:02.4 +2:07.2 +5:34.6
9. 5 M. WILSON M 1:24:25.9 +23.5 +5:58.1
10. 43 K. BLOCK 1:25:29.2 +1:03.3 +7:01.4

He finished all the first day stages in that same seventh position, as well, so it isn’t like he’s had a particularly brilliant stage yet, either. That doesn’t strike me as boding well for his suddenly shooting up the leader board.

All the times are coming from the official WRC site.

I know it’s too early to make broad predictions, but it’s clear that Kimi’s WRC foray at this point has been fairly “meh.” Sure, he’s new to most of the circuits and the whole WRC experience. And sure next year might offer a more equal field with the changes to the cars… but has he shown you anything that really cries out for him to stay in WRC instead of returning to F1? (Setting aside, for a minute, the issue of where he might be having more “fun” etc.)

My counter to that is whether in a Renault he honestly could expect to be finishing much higher than seventh next year in F1. You have to figure the three top teams this year will be back at the front, which already claims six spots.

Maybe for Kimi, realistically, it is a matter of which series he’d rather run mid-pack in, and thus the whole issue does come down to: What’s more fun?

I still hope Kimi’s playing hardball as he waits for MINI to make him an offer he can’t refuse.

The big news in Formula 1 today is coming from Paris — and no, it doesn’t have anything to do with the FIA.

At the Paris Auto Show, Porsche Chairman Mattias Mueller announced that the company would consider how and when to get involved in Formula 1. We detailed that earlier here, and here’s his key quote:

“With LMP1, there are two classes and two brands – Audi and Porsche. We do not like to both go into LMP1 [against each other]; that is not so funny.

“So therefore we have to discuss whether it makes better sense for one of the [two] brands to go into LMP1, and the other brand into Formula 1. So we will have a round-table to discuss the pros and cons.”

It seems hard to believe that Audi would leave Le Mans racing for F1, so that pretty much opens the door for Porsche to return to F1. The question for you is:

Should Porsche return just as an engine supplier or should it come in as a full team, ala Mercedes?

Also: Why?

After 4 long years of waiting F1 fans are thrilled around the globe to be getting a new widely-produced game. F1 2010 from Codemasters (the folks responsible for TOCA, Dirt, and Grid) was the first F1 video game since the final edition from Sony in 2006 so the crowd here at F1B has been chattering about it since its release last week. This week though I thought it time to put together a proper review of the PS3 version of F1 2010.

Driving Engine/Physics
Overall Codemasters new physics engine isn’t bad for a first generation untested one. There is a strong tendency to spear off track with only minimal application of the brakes. Shifting the balance to the full rear setting and using ABS doesn’t seem to help much either so those of you that like to brake all the way to the apex will need to adjust your style a bit. One thing that should have to simulation junkies excited it the varying pavement grip. The car’s feeling will change as you transition between old and new tarmac and the curbs are absolutely brutal, often sending you far from your intended target on track. It is also nice to see that effort was put into making these cars feel different from those before the formula change last year.

The rain really sets this game out though, the car feels brilliantly realistic in the wet unlike games past when it just was a cheap low-downforce drift. The puddling, drying lines, and differing conditions in each sector are the highlight of the game.

Graphics
I’m not normally one to nitpick about how a game looks, for me it’s more about the driving experience. But with F1 2010 it seems like the graphics (with a few other areas) were worked on tirelessly but lack some simple things. The 3rd Gen console and brand new engine mean that circuits are incredible detailed and the cars look spectacular. Conversely the humans in the game are a bit cube-like, even the animated Holly Samos looks to be made out of about 4 pixels. When on track the shadows and reflections around the car share the same problem while the bounce, and I mean bounce(one step away from being a rally car bouncing), round’ the circuit.

4 Year Gap
One unique challenge to the new game is the big gap between the last version and this one. There has been a big change in circuits since 2006 which makes for a fun time at places like Bahrain and Catalunya where I was incessantly forgetting that the layout was altered and found myself flying off-track at the new sectors. Valencia and Singapore has me lost as well. 26 turns that all look identical is rather difficult even after a 30 lap race.

Race Weekend
Another bonus for the sim-racing types is the car setup. When arriving at the track the car is set to a basic setup that requires either a lot of tuning or the use of the quick setup feature which works fairly well. The other realistic features like in car tweaks and the use of Todd’s favorite tire rule are respectable too, but the qualifying sessions need some work along with the penalties which are given at random and don’t have any sort of scale.

Career
F1 2010′s major feature was supposed to be the option to “live the life of an F1 driver” and while this game lets you do that more than any other, it does need refinement. The setup will remind many of the old F1 Career Challenge, a game I was very impressed with. The difficulty level is adjustable each week which helps on the new tracks where surviving the length of the race is the goal. I did find it odd when the STR’s took a 1-2 at Australia the first season with both HRT’s in the points.

Online
Online racing in F1 2010 is still a bit rough, the game runs a bit slow and the cars have a tendency to run into each other because of that. The varying levels of difficulty match you with people you can be comfortable with and that is a welcome sight.

Overall the game design isn’t bad. The multiple game modes were each designed with enough flexibility to suit all skill levels, something not seen much anymore. That being said it seems many somewhat obvious details were overlooked. Things like the lack of knockout qualifying in most levels and unrealistic car levels made it seem like the producers were not aware of what goes on in Formula 1. The producers are planning a patch that should solve the save-corruption and pit bugs that are hampering some.

On one last note for those of you that do have the game, be sure to check out the F1B competition in the forum. Andy is in the planning phases of a time trial competition and we are still looking for drivers!

The auto world is focused today on the Paris Auto Show, where Lotus has made news (not for its F1 name fight but for releasing a handful of new cars), MINI (ahem) showed off its WRC rally car and Luca di Montezemolo pronounced what is the “best car in the world.”

No, it isn’t Fernando Alonso’s F1 car.

Nope, not the new 458 Italia. Also, not the fires that come with the Italia.

Not an old Dino.

It’s the car he drives everyday. And it’s …

‘‘A Fiat Panda,’’ Luca Cordero di Montezemolo, the Ferrari chairman, said Thursday in an interview at the Paris Motor Show. ‘‘It’s the best car in the world.’’

Now you know.

Kimi Raikkonen’s official website has an article up with a very straight-forward title: “Article on potential F1 comeback for Kimi.”

Go on…

The reprinted Turn Sanomat — Finland’s third-largest daily paper — story basically is a bunch of short Q&As with Formula 1 personalities — drivers, owners, etc. — on the topic of Kimi’s possible return.

I’d share highlights, but Kimi’s website doesn’t allow for copying. (Change that!) Go here to look and then come back to discuss.

Highlights for me?

• Nick Heidfeld saying that a single year out of the sport won’t be as difficult to rebound from as the three-year hiatus has been for Michael Schumacher. Maybe true, but for sure “ouch.”
• Jenson Button saying that Kimi didn’t seem to like the sport much last year so he doesn’t expect him back.
• Button and Chris Dyer both talking about how much Kimi seems to love rallying.
• Felipe Massa on Kimi: “Only Kimi himself knows what Kimi wants.” Seems like Felipe was paying attention while the two were at Ferrari together.
• Nico Rosberg, always the pragmatist, figures the lower pay Kimi can expect might not be a big inducement.
• Red Bull’s drivers are divided (who’s surprised?), with Mark Webber saying Kimi’s moved on to rallying and Sebastian Vettel wanting Kimi back. (Did you hear that Mark?)
• You’ll have to read what Kimi’s doctor has to say for yourself. (Hint: Subtle jab at Schumacher!)

So… thoughts? When Kimi first went to WRC, I suggested that, freed of the yoke of F1, he should use his website to really promote himself and his, shall we say, special personality. He hasn’t done that, which makes this post fairly unusual. That speaks volumes to me. I’m just not sure if it says, “Oh, yeah, I’m serious about coming back” or “Red Bull and Citroen, you better fork over some more cash to keep me.”

It didn’t take a ghost come from the grave to tell him, but Felipe Massa has admitted in his latest “diary” that his drivers title chances are over.

The comments come near the very bottom of what effectively is his review of the Singapore Grand Prix: “In the end, I made up a few more places thanks to a couple of Stewards decisions after the race and although personally, it does not mean much to me, given that obviously my own hopes in the Drivers’ championship have gone, it did mean I got a couple more important points for Ferrari in the Constructors’ classification.”

See, Felipe is at least a team player!

Massa does detail how his strategy — which worked so well for Fernando Alonso at Monaco this year — didn’t quite do the same for him:

But I’m not the sort to give up and in the debrief with the engineers on Saturday, we decided to go for a similar strategy to the one used by my team-mate Fernando in Monaco this year when he could not qualify either: as Marina Bay is also a street circuit, we felt there was a good chance that a Safety Car could come into play and at least let me move up a few places through a strategy gamble. That gamble did not pay off on Sunday evening, because having come in immediately to switch to the hard tyres, the Safety Car did come out, but really it was too early by maybe just one or two laps. Without that, I might have got in front of Hulkenberg and had a different sort of race. But, as it turned out, I had a rather boring, but very tough race. I was stuck in a train of slow cars with no possibility of overtaking and the heat and humidity feel even worse when you are in someone’s slipstream all the time.

I love that last bit about the heat and humidity, and I’m sure Grace can commiserate with poor Felipe.

I wonder how his admission about his season will play out on the track during the next four (three?) races. And I wonder how having a supportive team mate will help Fernando Alonso versus his four title competitors — who are all competing with their team mates still.