ON BELLE ISLE
de Ferran Motorsports is set to tackle its first street circuit in its American Le Mans Series debut year when Gil de Ferran and Simon Pagenaud contest this weekend's ninth round of the championship at Belle Isle in Detroit.The Panosonic-sponsored Acura ARX-01b will compete at the venue where Gil de Ferran previously completed a run of seven race starts during his Indy Car career from 1995 to 2001. The Detroit Sports Car Challenge presented by Bosch ALMS race forms a double-header this weekend with the IndyCar Championship. Saturday's ALMS event will be show live on SPEED TV in the US and Motors TV throughout Europe.
GIL DE FERRAN"This weekend we are at a venue that I was very familiar with. I last raced here in 2001, but it was a while back that I actually competed on exactly this track configuration."It is a very difficult track and a real driver's circuit. Detroit presents some unique challenges since it is quite bumpy, the walls are never too far away and it provides an interesting combination of high, medium and low speed turns."This will be the first street circuit for de Ferran Motorsports but we are looking forward to the challenge."
SIMON PAGENAUD"I have really enjoyed street circuits in the past in Champ Cars and this will now be my first street circuit race in the Acura ARX-01b."Our car is really well suited to the high downforce tracks and it also works really well under braking. That should be very important around here."I am looking forward to the weekend because our car should work pretty well and Gil has had a lot of experience here in the past."
BELLE ISLE FACT FILE
WHAT: Round 9, 2008 American Le Mans Series
WHERE: Detroit Belle Isle / Detroit, MI
EVENT: Detroit Sports Car Challenge presented by Bosch
RACE DURATION: 2 hours, 45 minues
LAP RECORD:Qualifying - 1:13.357– Ryan Briscoe, Porsche RS SpyderRace - 1:14.993– Ryan Briscoe, Porsche RS Spyder
TRACK LENGTH: T2.07 miles, 14 turns
TIMETABLE:Friday, 29 August9:00 am - 10:30 am: Practice - All Classes3:20 pm - 4:20 pm: Practice - All Classes5:05 pm - 5:25 pm: Qualifying - LMP1/LMP2
Saturday, 30 August9:50 am - 10:15 am: Warm Up - All Classes2:35 pm - 5:20 pm: Race - 2 Hours 45 Minutes
2007 RESULTS:LMP1: Overall: P2. Marco Werner/Emanuele Pirro, Audi R10, 106 lapsLMP2: Overall: P1. Romain Dumas/Timo Bernhard, Porsche RS Spyder, 106 lapsGT1: Overall: P10. Johnny O'Connell/Jan Magnussen, Corvette C6-R, 103 lapsGT2: Overall: P12. Jaime Melo/Mika Salo, Ferrari F430 GT, 101 laps
TELEVISION:Saturday, 30 August - LiveUSA: SPEED TV, 2:30pm - 5:30pm (EDT)
Saturday, 30 August - LiveEUROPE: Motors TV, 8:30pm - 11:35am (CET)UK: Motors TV, 7.30pm - 10.30pm (BST)
GIL DE FERRAN AT BELLE ISLECARTYear – Start/Finish1995 – 16th/16th1996 – 7th/3rd1997 – 1st/3rd1998 – 9th/3rd1999 – 3rd/22nd2000 – 4th/9th2001 – 3rd/6th
KEITH JONES FUND: - Donations can be sent to either our shop or directly to the bank:
National City BankKeith E. Jones Fund1072 N Green StreetBrownsburg, IN 46112
Shop address:de Ferran Motorsports485 Southpoint CircleSuite 900Brownsburg, IN 46112
