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ALMS: Michelin again sweeps ALMS event at Las Vegas

30 October 2000

Posted By Terry Callahan
Motorsports Editor, The Auto Channel

Audi, Dodge Viper and Porsche Score Wins on Michelin Tires

(Las Vegas, Nev.) - For the second consecutive year, Michelin cars swept the American Le Mans Series (ALMS) event at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Today, Frank Biela and Emanuele Pirro drove their Michelin-shod Audi to the overall win while Dodge Viper and Porsche scored the GTS and GT victories on Michelin tires (in 1999 at Las Vegas, BMW, Dodge Viper and Porsche won all three categories for Michelin).

This was the ninth time in the 2000 ALMS season that cars fitted with Michelin tires have scored three category victories. Furthermore, Michelin cars have won the overall competition at each of the 11 ALMS rounds this season.

After starting on the outside of the front row, Biela and Pirro fell out of the top five at the drop of the green flag. About two hours into the event, Pirro dodged a multi-car accident that included teammates Allan McNish and Rinaldo Capello, Jan Magnussen and David Brabham in a Panoz and JJ Lehto and Jorg Muller in a BMW.

"When you're on a roll, you're hard to stop...Audi is certainly on a roll" said Jerry Rinaldo, Michelin Racing Manager. "Michelin has worked hard with Audi for the past several months and Audi clearly have a lot of momentum. We've had a lot of success together this season and are looking forward to the final race of the season in Australia. Not until then will we be able to enjoy our success."

Dodge Viper Scores GTS Win for Michelin

Olivier Beretta and Karl Wendlinger out-paced their Dodge Viper teammates David Donohue and Tommy Archer to score the GTS category victory. Beretta and Wendlinger started from the pole and went on to score Viper's ninth win of the 2000 ALMS season.

Michelin-shod Porsche Scores GT Win

Bob Wollek and Sascha Maassen scored the GT win in a Porsche GT3 R fitted with Michelin tires. Their Dick Barbour Racing teammates Lucas Luhr and Dirk Muller finished second. The victory marked Porsche's tenth win and Dick Barbour's seventh win of the 2000 ALMS season.

Michelin Scores ALMS Tire Championships

After dominating the ALMS throughout the 2000 season, Michelin has 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 Scores Big Wins 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 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) and Las Vegas (Audi).

Michelin Leads The Way

By leading all 129 laps today, Michelin teams have now led 1,876 of 1,881 laps in ALMS competition this season. Additionally, Michelin cars led every one of the 368 laps at Le Mans.

Text provided by Bob Andrew

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