Since its last outing at Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin's Road America 500, the Panoz Motorsports American Le Mans Team has been pushing hard with many changes to ensure a competitive and Porsche-challenging effort at Road Atlanta's Petit Le Mans on September 25.

The team, including Élan Motorsports and Élan Power have been on a compressed development program to address the issues of cockpit environment that have plagued the team since the Infineon Raceway event in July.

"We found most of the answers we needed at the former NASA wind tunnel on Langley Air Force Base in Hampton, Virginia," said Team General Manager, Ed Triolo. "Élan Motorsports, working together with thermal management engineering experts at the Southern Research Institute have developed a comprehensive solution that we'll test leading up to Petit Le Mans.

Based on Road Atlanta testing and lap times at circuits like Mid-Ohio, Mosport and Road America, we know the Panoz Esperante GT-LM is fast. It's our goal to have a customer-friendly Ferrari and Porsche challenger available for next season," Triolo stated.

Belgian driver David Saelens will not be with the Panoz team for the last two races of the championship. "We appreciate the help that David has been in the development of this car," Triolo said. "We've agreed to go our separate ways and we wish him all the best." Joining team regular Gunnar Jeannette at Petit is expected to be Marino Franchitti who will try the car the first time in a Road Atlanta test session later this week. A third driver for Petit Le Mans has yet to be named.

"Having Marino help out for Petit will be a great addition to the team," said Triolo. "He came second in a Porsche this summer in the LMES race at Nurburgring and earlier this year captured the P2 Pole at Sebring. His Viper experience in the 2002 ALMS will also serve us well. We're excited to put him in the Panoz Esperante for Petit Le Mans."