Return of the Aston Martins 

The Astons (David Brabham, Darren Turner, Stephane Ortelli) came to the Mobil One 12 Hours ofSebring in March and beat the Corvettes on U.S. soil.  In June, theCorvettes (Oliver Gavin, Olivier Beretta, Jan Magnussen) turned the tablesand won on European ground at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.  Petit Le Mans marksthe RUBBER MATCH between these two GT1 goliaths.  And don’t count out thesisters cars – Aston Martin (Pedro Lamy, Peter Kox and Tomas Enge);Corvettes (Ron Fellows, Johnny O’Connell, Max Papis).

 Frank Biela & Emanuele Pirro of Champion Audi are close to nailing downthe ALMS overall championship, dethroning teammates JJ Lehto/Marco Wernerwho are also reigning 24 Hours of Le Mans champions.  Biela and Pirro havean 18-point lead over Andy Wallace of Dyson Racing.  All they need tocapture the championship is to take a 24-point lead into Laguna Seca.

Earlier this spring at the Grand Prix of Atlanta, Panoz (Bill Auberlen,Robin Liddell) registered its only win of the year against the Porsches inGT2 during a dramatic bump and grind finish between Liddell and TimoBernhard of Alex Job Racing.  A little home-cookin’ could do the local teamgood perhaps.  Panoz has finished off the podium every race since.

Liz Halliday, the only female to have won (twice) on a major U.S. racingcircuit this season, once again teams with Clint Field of Intersport Racingin an LMP2 Lola, hoping to help Field take over the class lead in which hetrails by only two points.