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Michelin Wins Overall, GTS and GT Categories in ALMS Finale in Australia

31 December 2000

Posted By Terry Callahan
Motorsports Editor, The Auto Channel

* Michelin Wins Overall, GTS and GT Categories in ALMS Finale in Australia - For the ninth time in the 2000 American Le Mans Series (ALMS) season, Michelin-shod cars won the overall, GTS and GT categories. This time, Allan McNish, Rinaldo Capello and Brad Jones drove their Audi to a one-minute, 32-second overall victory. Despite an injured back that limited his practice to only a few laps on Friday, McNish was able to race and score the ALMS Driving Championship.

Driving a Michelin-shod Dodge Viper, Olivier Beretta, Karl Wendlinger and Dominique Dupuy scored the GTS victory while Lucas Luhr and Dirk Muller won the GT category in a Michelin-shod Porsche. In total, Michelin scored 10 of 12 GTS victories and 11 of 12 GT victories in 2000 ALMS competition. Beretta and Muller clinched the driving title in their respective categories.

* Michelin Led 99.7-Percent of 2000 ALMS Laps - By leading all 225 laps today in Australia, Michelin teams led 2,101 of 2,106 laps in ALMS competition this season. Additionally, Michelin cars led every one of the 368 laps at Le Mans.

* Michelin Records Fastest Qualifying and Race Laps - Michelin cars recorded the fastest qualifying and race laps in all three categories in Australia. That was the 12th time this season that Michelin cars accomplished the feat in the prototype and GT categories. In GTS, Michelin-fitted cars recorded the fastest qualifying lap nine times and the fastest race lap 11 times this season.

* Michelin Scores Tire Championships - After dominating the ALMS throughout the 2000 season, Michelin secured the Tire Championship for all three ALMS categories. Unlike other major racing series such as CART, NASCAR and the IRL, the ALMS features head-to-head competition among several major tire manufacturers including Michelin, Goodyear, Pirelli, Dunlop, Yokohama and Avon.

* Michelin Wins Big In 2000 - Michelin won the four biggest sportscar endurance races in the world this season. A Michelin-shod Dodge Viper won the 24 Hours of Daytona while Audis fitted with Michelin tires won the 12 Hours of Sebring, the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the 1,000-mile Petit Le Mans.

Michelin has won overall every 2000 ALMS race run thus far, including Sebring (Audi), Charlotte (BMW), Silverstone (BMW), Germany (Panoz), Sears Point (Audi), Mosport (Audi), Texas (Audi), Portland (Audi), Petit Le Mans (Audi), Laguna Seca (Audi), Las Vegas (Audi) and Australia (Audi).

Text Provided By Bob Andrew

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