PORSCHES ON TOP IN ADELAIDE GT OPENER

Porsches have dominated the opening day's practice session of the first round of the Australian GT championship on the streets of Adelaide. Canberra driver James Koundouris in his Porsche 997 GT3 outpaced defending champion David Wall and Victorian Max Twigg to lead a big field of 31 GT cars. Tony Quinn in the controversial Mosler MT900 was the only car to challenge the Porsches which featured in five of the first six places. High profile Lamborghini driver Peter Hackett had to play second fiddle in the battle of the Gallardo's to local driver Andrew Taplin. Former GT champion Mark Eddy debuted his new Audi R8 LMS in 11th spot just ahead of the battling Dodge Viper pair of Greg Crick and Ross Lilley.

2010: LE MANS BIG BANGERS EXIT STAGE RIGHT

The 2010 Le Mans 24 hour classic will be the last chance to see the big banger turbo diesels in action. Changes to regulations for 2011 and beyond are expected to cut the maximum engine size of the diesels back to only 3.7 litres a far cry from today's 5.5 litre 700 BHP powerplants. Already the two major players in the diesel race at Le Mans have signalled their intention to develop cars for the new regulations. According to the respected magazine Racecar Engineering, Audi will develop a new car powered by a 3.7 litre Turbo V6 while Peugeot have announced that they are actively developing a hybrid powered racer to replace the current 908 HDI FAP.

De FERRAN BOWS OUT ON TOP IN ALMS: BRABHAM/SHARP TAKE THE TITLE

Gil de Ferran brought his stellar career to a close with a closely fought win at Laguna Seca to close the 2009 American Le Mans Series. De Ferran and co-driver Simon Pagenaud won the Monterey Sports Car Championship after a thrilling duel with Adrian Fernandez in the final 30 minutes of the four-hour classic. De Ferran beat his long-time open-wheel rival by just 0.662 seconds earning the Brazilian his fifth win of the season. “It certainly wasn’t easy. There wasn’t much time to think about anything else,” an emotional de Ferran said after the race. “Coming into the weekend, there were a lot of different thoughts going through my head. But I had a job to do as a driver. It was a tough weekend from that standpoint. In a way, the race was so intense that I never had time to think of anything else.” The Patrón Highcroft Acura finished second in class and third overall, to secure the LMP1 driver championship for Australia's David Brabham and US co-driver Scott Sharp.

LAST LAP AT ROLEX GRAND-AM MID OHIO

THE SPEED TV LE MANS WRAP

PEUGEOT WINS LE MANS: BRABHAM BREAKS THROUGH

French manufacturer Peugeot has broken through to take it's first Le Mans 24 hour race since 1993 and for the second time the name Brabham has gone into the record books. The team of Marc Gene, Alex Wurz and Australia's David Brabham led from early in the race holding on to win from the popular local team of Sebastian Bourdais, Stephane Sarrazin and Frank Montagny Audi who had dominated the race for the last decade had a tough weekend despite a finishing third. Alan McNish, Dindo Cappello, and Tom Kristenson survived a number of mechanical problems to make it to the finish six laps down on the leader. A number of incidents studded the race, the biggest being early in the morning involving Pescarollo Peugeot driver Benoit Treluyer. Treluyer crashed after taking over the car from Simon Pagenaud who pitted  with smoke coming out of the car. The Peugeot returned to the race after repair but Trulyer made it only as far as just after the Dunlop Bridge when his Peugeot left the road and struck the barrier at high-speed. The car was totally destroyed in the accident. The driver was taken to hospital, shaken but without major injury. Japanese driver Seiji Ara was also lucky to escape injury after his LMP2 Porsche Spyder had a big crash late in the rate heading into the playstation chicane on the fast Mulsanne straight. LMP2 was won by the Team Essex Porsche Spyder of Casper Elgaard, Emmanuele Collard and Kristian Poulsen. The small GT1 field was dominated by the Corvette team in their final ever GT1 appearence, Johnny O'Conell, Jan Magnussen and Antonio Garcia taking the win from the privately entered Luc Alphand Adventures Corvette of Xavier Maassen, Julien Jousse & Yann Clairay. O'Connell's team-mate Sacha Massen led late in the race but mechanical failure cost him any chance. GT2 was a Ferrari benefit with the Risi Competizioni car of Jamie Melo, Mika Salo and Pierre Kaffer taking the win.

SENSATIONAL SARRAZIN AS PEUGEOT TAKES LE MANS POLE

Peugeot will start the 2009 Le Mans 24 hour race from pole following a sensational last gasp qualifying lap by Stephane Sarrazin. Audi looked set to take pole after dominating free practice Wednesday evening with Allan McNish setting the fastest time. But as the clock headed to the midnight close of session Sarrazin reeled off a spectacular 3m22.888s just seven tenths quicker than McNish to give the French Automaker it's third straight pole position. The McNish Audi breaks up a Peugeot dominated front grid. The car of Nicolas Minassion. Pedro Lamy and Christian Klein will start from their ahead of the “borrowed” Peugeot of the Pescarollo team led by Jean-Christophe Boullion. Australia's David Brabham will start from fifth place thanks to a fast lap from Marc Gene, they'll start alongside the second Audi led by Marco Werner. The third Audi of Bernhard, Dumas and Premat will start out of position number seven with the Lola/Aston-Martin of Charouz, Enge and Mucke the fastest of the petrol powered cars in eighth place. Aston Martin rounds out the top ten with the Davidson, Turner and Verstappen car just in front of Jarni, Belichi and Prost. Danish driver Casper Elgaard won pole in LM P2 with the Essex Porsche RS Spyder just ahead of the other RS Spyder, of the Japanese Navi team Goh. Third in LM P2 is the Speedy Racing/Team Sebah Lola Judd. As expected Corvette dominated the dwindling GT1 field with Jan Magnussen leading the category at the wheel of the #63 Corvette. The two GM works cars easily lead the class, outpacing the #66 Jet Alliance Aston Martin by over two seconds.   Porsche won the first battle with Ferrari in GT2 as the American based Flying Lizard team took their first pole at Le Mans. The famous red and silver Porsche 911 GT3 RSR of  Jorg Bergmeister won pole with a best lap at 4.03.202. The 2008 champions the Risi Competizione Ferrari team  is third, after being overtaken by another Porsche 911 GT3 RSR, the #77 car of the Felbermayr Proton racing team. Australian based Danish driver Alan Simonsen will start out of position number 47 in his Ferrari 430 GT2. The Le Mans 24 begins Saturday at 3.00 p.m. local time, Australian viewers can watch the start live on ONE HD from 10.30 p.m.  Radio Le Mans is broadcasting live at www.radiolemans.com . Macintosh users having trouble accessing this feed should install VLC player and go direct to mms://mercury.radica.com/radioshowltd or mms://venus.radica.com/radioshowltd .

ASIAN LE MANS SERIES CONFIRMED

Great news for fans of sports prototype & GT racing with the news that the innaugural Asian Le Mans Series scheduled for later this year will go ahead.   Speaking at the Spa 100KMs race the ACO announced an official entry list of 31 cars for the events which will take place at Okayama Japan and the Shanghai International circuit in China.   Among the 8 LMP1s, a 6-sided battle looks on the cards between the Sora-Racing Pescarolo Sport Peugeot HDi FAP 908, the 2 Courage Oreca AIMs entered by the Team ORECA Matmut AIM, the 2 Sora Racing Pescarolo Judds, the Speedy Racing Team Sebah’s Lola Aston Martin without forgetting the Signature Plus Courage Judd and the Tokai University Courage Oreca YGH Power, which will seize any opportunity that comes their way.   The attraction for many of the smaller teams is the prize of automatic selection for the 2010 Le Mans 24 Hours for the winners of the LM P1, LM P2, LM GT1 and LM GT2 categories.

FIA GT3: THE STARS COME OUT AT NIGHT IN ITALY

After two thrilling races at Silverstone, the teams and drivers competing in the 2009 FIA GT3 European Championship head to Italy for the first visit by the series to the Adria International Raceway near Venice.    The 2.7km circuit is one of the most technically demanding on the 2009 calendar and, in another first for the FIA GT3 European Championship, will also feature a night race on Saturday evening. Last week at Silverstone, the opening round of the 2009 championship saw 37 cars line up to take the start behind the AutoGT Racing Morgan of Dimitri Enjalbert, who claimed Morgan’s first ever GT3 pole position. Enjalbert lost the lead to the Hexis Racing Aston Martin of Thomas Accary on the run into the first corner but fought back at Maggotts to emerge onto Hanger Straight back in front. Accary had to fend off the attentions of the two Audi’s of Christopher Mies (Team Rosberg) and Nicolas Armindo (Team Rosberg). After the pitstops Johan-Boris Scheier in the leading Morgan was caught and passed by Christopher Haase in the Team Rosberg Audi. However the young German was denied a debut win by a transmission failure six laps from home and victory went to the Morgan, the manufacturer’s first international win since 1962 at Le Mans and a first for AutoGT Racing.

MOSLER MONSTERS STREETS OF ADELAIDE

  A winning debut for the controversial Mosler MT900 as New Zealand driver Craig Baird wins race one of the Australian GT Championship on the streets of Adelaide. Starting from pole Baird jumped to an immediate lead and was never headed despite close attention from David Wall in the Porsche 997 GT3 Cup S. Klark Quinn showed his potential as a professional driver with a strong third place in his Porsche 996 GT3 also taking the win in the Challenge class. 24 cars finished the race with the tight confines of the Adelaide street circuit testing even the best drivers. Jim Richard's retired early after contact with another car, John Tuelan spun his Mosler late in the race and John Briggs was out early in the Dodge Viper. The second race for the Australian GT Championship will be held tomorrow (Sunday)