CHARLOTTE - ALMS


Many ALMS races were contested on "Rovals" during the 2000 season. These venues were not particularly popular with the fans or teams. Round two at Charlotte was one of these tracks. This event only had twenty-three entries, which was attributed to the attrition in the preceding race at Sebring and teams preparing for Le Mans.

At the start J.J. Lehto in a BMW V12 LMR and Panoz driver Jan Magnussen left the field behind. Magnussen led the early part of the race but a poor pit stop forced him and co-driver David Brabham to play catch up. The duo of Lehto and Jorg Muller captured the win in the No. 42 BMW.

The No. 10 BMW M3 of Peter and Brian Cunningham led the late stages of the race by a comfortable margin. However, a full course yellow with about twenty minutes remaining in the race bunched the field. Maassen and Wollek were able to take the GT win which moved the Cunningham duo to second place.

Bob Wollek and Sascha Maassen took the GT win in the Dick Barbour entered Porsche GT3R. The pair qualified on the class pole and were able to take the lead with less than twenty minutes remaining in the race.

Dindo Capello spun during the practice session. He shared the Audi R8 with Allan McNish and Michele Alboreto. Unfortunately, a spin during the race damaged the car and took the team out of contention - they finished eighth in the Prototype class and twentieth overall.

The No. 91 ORECA Dodge Viper GTS-R started the 2000 season very strong. The team took class and overall honours at the 24 Hours of Daytona and also captured the GTS class win at Sebring. Drivers Olivier Beretta and Karl Wendlinger continued this trend by taking the class pole and win at Charlotte.

The trio of Brian Simo, Gunther Blieninger and Norman Simon drove the No. 02 Judd powered Riley & Scott. They started and finished eighth overall.


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