American Le Mans Series: Prototypes

After a season of ups and downs, Highcroft Racing has managed to retain the title they won last year. But the battle has been long for David Brabham, who also won a second consecutive driver title, with his new French team-mate Simon Pagenaud.

If the 12 Hours of Sebring saw Peugeot and Lola Aston Martin, visiting the series to prepare for the 24 Hours of Le Mans, and monopolizing the podium, but it was the Porsche RS Spyder Team CytoSport fourth overall, who had the best result of regular competitors of the ALMS. Simon Pagenaud and David Brabham quickly responded with three consecutive wins at Long Beach, Laguna Seca and Salt Lake City.

At that point in the season, it looked like the Franco-Australian duo would crush the competition. But that does not take account of the reliability of the RS Spyder, which allowed CytoSport to stay in contact, and even win in the fifth round at Lime Rock. But in testing for Mid-Ohio, the accident of driver-owner Greg Pickett caused the withdrawl of CytoSport from that event. Supported by factory drivers, Klaus Graf and the RS Spyder set off in pursuit of Highcroft Racing, chalking-up a second win at Mosport. But it was too late, and Brabham and Pagenaud kept the advantage to the end at Petit Le Mans. The absence of the RS Spyder at Mid-Ohio would be very expensive for the final calculation, and demonstrates that as in GT Prototypes, the level of competitiveness is such that any failure is unacceptable.

Behind this duel between CytoSport and Highcroft, Lola put up a great fight. Represented by four teams (Racing Drayson, Dyson Racing and Intersport Racing Autocon), the British firm has even used this numerical superiority to fit between HPD and Porsche in the final constructors tally, with two consecutive wins, thanks to Dyson Racing (Mid Ohio) and Drayson Racing (Road America), results were acquired with two different engines (Mazda Dyson, Judd Drayson): That says much about the excellence of Lola coupes, which will no doubt be at the forefront again in 2011. A season that we hope is as rich and hotly contested as 2010, demonstrating once again the excellent health of the ALMS.

Manufacturers Standings
1 Honda Performance Development - 182 pts
2 Lola - 173 pts
3 Porsche - 162 pts

Team Standings
1 Highcroft Racing - 182 pts
2 Team CytoSport - 162 pts
3 Drayson Racing - 110 pts
4 Dyson Racing Team - 98 pts
5 Autocon Motorsports - 67 pts
6 Intersport Racing - 69 pts

Drivers Standings
1 David Brabham / Simon Pagenaud - 182 pts
2 Klaus Graf - 162 pts
3 Jonny Cocker - 110 pts
4 Chris Dyson - 98 pts
5 Paul Drayson - 94 pts
6 Guy Smith - 92 pts