Corvette Racing has just released the first part of a 12 part series, chronicling the team’s build up and follow-through for the 2010 American Le Mans Series. The first video in the series doesn’t waste any time dealing with Corvette Racing’s crushing finale at Laguna Seca, where contact by one of the Flying Lizard Porsches sent driver Jan Magnussen into the wall, just seconds from the finish line. (see below).

Crew Chief Dan Binks expresses his anger, but says that the best way to avoid that situation in the future is to build a car that’s so far out front, this problem won’t occur. Corvette thinks they’ve got such a car, but this year the competition is even tougher, with the GT1 and GT2 classes amalgamated into a single GT class. Plus, for 2010 (like in 2009) the new C6.R is much more closely based on the street car and new for 2010 is a smaller 5.5-liter V8 engine.

We’ll be sure to keep an eye on how the new car stacks up, with the 2010 ALMS Season beginning with the 12 Hours of Sebring, March 17-20.

See after the jump for a video of last year’s season ending crash.

With the start of the 2010 American Le Mans Series (ALMS) just around the corner, Corvette Racing has announced a new 12-part video series that will take an in-depth look at the new car, while following the team’s season this year.

Each of the videos will be posted on the Corvette Facebook page, starting with this first trailer. Over the past decade, Corvette Racing has been a dominant player in the GT1 category, switching to GT2 last year after there was really no one left to race against. For 2010 the GT1 and GT2 classes have been joined to form a single GT class and the racing will be ultra-competitive with Ferraris, Porsches and numerous other exotics looking to take the win in each and every race.

For 2010 (like in 2009) the new C6.R is much more closely based on the street car and new for 2010 is a smaller 5.5-liter V8 engine.

The 2010 ALMS Season begins with the 12 Hours of Sebring, March 17-20.

GALLERY: 2010 Corvette C6.R

Corvette Racing has just released the first official photos of its new GT Class (formerly GT2) C6.R team, with new livery for 2010. The teams consist of Corvette Racing drivers Johnny O’Connell, Jan Magnussen, and Antonio Garcia in the No. 3 Compuware Corvette C6.R, while Oliver Gavin, Olivier Beretta, and Emmanuel Collard will pilot the No. 4 car. All drivers have been testing the cars this week at Sebring International Raceway in Florida.

Along with new livery, the car’s have a new 5.5-liter V8 that many expect will be the new base engine in the next generation (C7) Corvette. Last year Corvette Racing only ran a partial season in the new GT (then GT2 Class) cars, using a downsized 6.0-liter version of the old GT1 Class 7.0-liter V8.

The 2010 ALMS Season begins with the 12 Hours of Sebring, March 17-20.

GALLERY: 2010 Corvette Racing C6.R

Official release after the jump:

Corvette Racing boss Doug Fehan has confirmed that when the team of GT2-spec Vettes debut for their first full season at Sebring in March, they will be equipped with an all-new, smaller V8 engine. Gone is the 6.0-liter V8 from last year, which Fehan said was just an temporary engine. That motor, essentially a donwsized version of the GT1-spec 7.0-liter V8, had very little in common with the street-going Corvette’s V8.

This new 5.5-liter V8, however, is expected to be in many ways similar to a production V8 that will find its way into the next generation C7 Corvette. In fact, it will be built alongside engines for the ZR1 and Z06 at GM’s Performance Build Center.

We’ll be watching the new GT2 Corvettes closely during the 2010 American Le Mans Series (ALMS) season, in articular during their race debut at the 12 Hours of Sebring running from March 17-20.

GALLERY: Corvette Racing ALMS GT2 Cars

Official release after the jump:

After launching the R8 LMS race car in Europe last year, Audi has now announced its intentions to bring the track-only version of the R8 to North America. In an interview with the American Le Mans Series (ALMS), Audi Sport boss Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich, said he’d like to have the car run in something like the ALMS’s GT Challenge class in 2011.

The GT Challenge class is the entry-level class, which is part of a new set of classes the series has created to stay competitive confuse people.

“From 2011 on, we want to the cars available to customers in the United States,” he said, commenting that obviously Audi would need to support the teams and not just sell the cars.

With Audi’s huge involvement in the ALMS over the past several years with its TDI diesel R8, R10 and now R15 cars, the German automaker has done a lot to raise the series’ profile. Dr. Ulrich hinted that it would be nice if the GT class could accommodate Audi, which has done so much for the sport. With Audi not as involved in the ALMS any more, however, he even commented that Audi would like to continue to support the series, something the introduction of a fleet of R8 race cars most certainly would do.

[Source: ALMS]

Going by the name of Mattzel (or FONESupports), his videos have become a YouTube phenomenon. That being said, we couldn’t resist the urge to post up his latest motorsports-related work – a compilation of slowed down clips from some of the world’s premiere racing series including: Formula One, NASCAR, ALMS, WRC and there’s even some touring car and bike racing tossed in. Oh, and there are several amazing crashes included in the clips.

Combined with some subtle music it has a serious TopGear look and feel that we could just put on repeat and watch all day.

Be sure to check out FONESupports YouTube channel here and subscribe for his next masterpiece.

[Source: AxisofOversteer]

See after the jump for the original Racing in Slow Motion video:

Along with its announced plans for Formula One next season, British sports car maker Lotus is also looking at expanding its racing efforts to include IndyCar, GT and Le Mans racing. Newly appointed company CEO Dany Bahar made the announcement to employees, stating that Lotus is studying expanding its racing efforts under a new corporate outlook.

Bahar, who comes from working for Red Bull’s Formula 1 team and as the former head of marketing for Ferrari has ambitious plans to return Lotus to its former position as a motorsports leader, using motorsports as a way to brand the company’s road cars, while using technology gained from racing efforts to help improve those very cars and develop new ones.

Lotus has made known plans to field a two car Evora team at next years Nürburgring 24 Hour race but now it appears as though as more long term plan may be coming into place.

No official decision has been made but we expect to see Lotus cars racing in the European and American Le Mans series in the near future.

[Source: AutoCar]

An Acura will run at the 24 Hours of Le Mans next year. British Strakka Racing intends to compete with the car, in the Europe Le Mans Series, including at the famous 24 Hours of Le Mans, with an Acura ARX-01b prototype that it is currently in the process of buying from the Lowe’s Fernandez team. Fernandex racing, despite winning the LMP2 championship in the American Le Mans Series (ALMS), has yet to secure a sponsor for the 2010 season and so it has decided to entertain the possibility of selling the car.

Strakka Racing has already made known plans to run the car and to hire on British racer Danny Watts, although no official deal has been announced.

[Source: AutoWeek]

Corvette Racing driver Jan Magnussen almost saw the top of the podium during the American Le Mans Series finale at Laguna Seca, but instead he saw the track-side hospital. Magnussen, driving the No. 3 Compuware Corvette C6.R spent the last several laps of the race battling alonside Jörg Bergmeister in the Flying Lizard Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 RSR, before crashing into the wall just feet from the finish line, allowing the Porsche to finish first just 1.037 seconds ahead. (Skip ahead to the 1:52 mark for the best action).

Magnussen even took the lead several in the second last lap, but had to give the position back as it was determined (quite obviously) that he had passed over the pit-exit line to do so.

“I’m definitely sorry Jan went into the wall,” Bergmeister said. “I didn’t want that to happen. But it was a banging game. I’m glad he’s OK. It was tough racing. The Corvette passed me the first time at the hairpin but he went in way too deep and I was able to get back around him. He was a little quicker I have to say. I wasn’t trying to figure out where he was gaining time on me. I was trying to stay on track and in front.”

Magnussen recalls the incident slightly differently. “I didn’t think I even had a chance after I had to give the position back,” he said. “Going into the last corner I was too far away to make a proper attack, but Joerg parked the car. I didn’t see that, so I slid up and hit him a little – he went sideways and I managed to get on the inside. It was a drag race up the hill, and I managed to get ahead of him. Then he turned me into the wall, and he kept turning in. Then I spun around the nose of his car.”

Corvette Racing is looking into the incident but it’s hard to point fingers as there was a lot of bumping going on in the final laps of the race. “It’s unfortunate it ended the way it did. I think we’re going to review the videotapes and see what we can do to ascertain what went wrong there,” said Corvette Racing program manager Doug Fehan. “I’m sure we’ll be working with the sanctioning body to address it and put into place safeguards to make sure incidents like this won’t happen again.”

Still, Fehan had to admit that, “Those last six laps were as exciting as I’ve seen in motor racing in a long time – two great teams, two great cars, two great drivers.”

The podium spot is the fifth consecutive podium for Corvette Racing in as many races, since the team joined the GT2 class.

[Source: Corvette Racing and ALMS]

Ever wonder what it’s like to drive the world famous Laguna Seca race track? Apparently the folks at Google were curious and so they sent out one of the Google street view cars onto the track.

For some reason the Google street view doesn’t include a whole lap of the track, just from around turn five to turn 10. That portion does include the famous Corkscrew but the Google street view car doesn’t seem to capture it, which does make sense to anyone who’s taken the corkscrew before. One of the things that makes the Corkscrew so challenging is the fact that it’s so steep you don’t even know where the road is until you’re going down it (or, if you’re unlucky, driving down the dirt). Likely the Google street view camera was filming the sky at that point.

The filming appears to have been done during a practice session at last year’s ALMS race, as you can see the black and yellow GT1 Corvette and one of the Flying Lizzard Motorsports Porsches. Make sure to look behind you though…. yup, that’s a LMP2 Acura and the Audi R10 TDI.

Ride along with the Google street view car at Laguna Seca here:

Google Streetview Drives Laguna Seca

[Source: Google]