The 2008 American Le Mans Series season was the 38th season for the

IMSA The International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) is a North American sports car racing sanctioning body based in Daytona Beach, Florida under the jurisdiction of the ACCUS arm of the FIA. It was started by John Bishop, a former executive direc ...

GT Championship, with the tenth season known as the

American Le Mans Series The American Le Mans Series (ALMS) was a sports car racing series based in the United States and Canada. It consisted of a series of endurance and sprint races, and was created in the spirit of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The American Le Mans' hea ...

. It was a series for

Le Mans Prototype A Le Mans Prototype (LMP) is the type of sports prototype race car used in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, FIA World Endurance Championship, IMSA SportsCar Championship, European Le Mans Series and Asian Le Mans Series. Le Mans Prototypes were create ...

s (LMP) and

Grand Tourer A grand tourer (GT) is a type of car that is designed for high speed and long-distance driving, due to a combination of performance and luxury attributes. The most common format is a front-engine, rear-wheel-drive two-door coupé with either ...

(GT) race cars divided into four classes: LMP1, LMP2, GT1, and GT2. It began March 15 and ended October 18 after eleven races. The Audi Sport North America team wrapped up its title defence of LMP1 class Teams Championship with three races in hand after the

Sports Car Challenge of Mid-Ohio The Sports Car Challenge at Mid-Ohio is a sports car race held annually at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. The race began in 1963 as a part of the United States Road Racing Championship. It was part of the IMSA GT Championship from 1972 until 1 ...

in August. Drivers

Marco Werner Marco Werner (born April 27, 1966 in Dortmund) is a professional racer from Germany. He is a winner of the Triple Crown in endurance racing. In his early career, Werner finished runner-up in the Formula Opel Euroseries in 1989 and runner-up in t ...

and

Lucas Luhr Lucas Luhr (born 22 July 1979) is a German BMW factory racing driver, currently competing for BMW and Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing in the GTLM category of the Tudor United SportsCar Championship. Early career Born in Mülheim-Kärlich, Luhr ...

also secured the Drivers Championship after the Detroit Sports Car Challenge. It was a record fifth ALMS drivers title for Luhr and a fourth for Werner. The

Petit Le Mans The Petit Le Mans ( French for ''little Le Mans'') is a sports car endurance race held annually at Road Atlanta in Braselton, Georgia, USA. It uses the rules established for the 24 Hours of Le Mans by the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO), which a ...

saw the drivers title for GT1 decided with

Jan Magnussen Jan Ellegaard Magnussen (born 4 July 1973) is a Danish professional racing driver and was a factory driver for General Motors until the end of the 2020 season. He has competed in Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART), NASCAR, the FIA Formula ...

and

Johnny O'Connell Johnny O'Connell (born July 24, 1962) is the most successful GM factory racing driver from the United States. He currently drives for Cadillac in the Pirelli World Challenge, winning the 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015 GT driver's championship. Caree ...

taking the title while

Jörg Bergmeister Jörg Bergmeister (born 13 February 1976, in Leverkusen) is a former racing driver from Germany and an ambassador of Porsche. His late father, Willi Bergmeister, owned a workshop and dealership where Michael Schumacher learned his trade as a ...

and

Wolf Henzler Wolfgang Henzler (born 5 April 1975) is a former German Porsche factory racing driver. He began racing in 1991 with a win in the German Junior Kart championship. Born in Nürtingen, Baden-Württemberg, he won one time the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2 ...

likewise secured the GT2 drivers championship. It was O'Connell's fourth GT1 title and Bergmeisters third GT2 title.

Schedule

The

Lone Star Grand Prix The Lone Star Grand Prix was an American Le Mans Series sports car race that took place at JAGFlo Speedway at Reliant Park in Houston, Texas, United States. The Lone Star Grand Prix was part of the Grand Prix of Houston race weekend. The event t ...

was originally scheduled to take place on April 26. However, following the merger of the

Champ Car World Series Champ Car World Series (CCWS) was the series sanctioned by Open-Wheel Racing Series Inc., or Champ Car, a sanctioning body for American open-wheel car racing that operated from 2004 to 2008. It was the successor to Championship Auto Racing Teams ...

and

Indy Racing League The IndyCar Series, currently known as the NTT IndyCar Series under sponsorship, is the highest class of regional North American open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars in the United States, which has been conducted under the auspices of ...

, the Champ Car Grand Prix of Houston event was initially cancelled. The American Le Mans Series race, as well as the support races, were later cancelled on March 3.

Season results

Overall winner in bold.

Teams championships

For races under three hours, points are awarded to the top 10 finishers in the following order: * 20-16-13-10-8-6-4-3-2-1 For races between four hours and eight hours, points are awarded in the following order: * 25-21-18-15-13-11-9-8-7-6 For races longer than eight hours, points are awarded in the following order: * 30-26-23-20-18-16-14-13-12-11 Cars failing to complete 70% of the winner's distance are not awarded points. Unlike the

Le Mans Series The European Le Mans Series (abbreviated as ELMS) is a European sports car racing endurance series inspired by the 24 Hours of Le Mans race and organized by the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO). The European Le Mans Series is similar to the fo ...

where teams with multiple entries have each entry number scored separately to the championship, teams with multiple entries only score the points of their highest finishing entry in each race.

LMP1 standings

LMP2 standings

GT1 standings

GT2 standings

Drivers championship

LMP1 standings

† - Frank Biela and Emanuele Pirro were both penalized three championship points for their entry making avoidable contact during Round 4.

LMP2 standings

† - Sascha Maassen and Patrick Long were both penalized three championship points for their entry making avoidable contact during Round 2.

GT1 standings

GT2 standings

Partial season entries

* Team Cytosport, following a partnership with

Charouz Racing System Charouz Racing System (CHRS, also was known as Lotus in World Series Formula V8 3.5) is a racing team from Czech Republic, created in 1985 by . History In the 1980s, Charouz participated in the European Championship of Circuit Races' 1600 ...

and Team Jota to run in the

and

24 Hours of Le Mans The 24 Hours of Le Mans (french: link=no, 24 Heures du Mans) is an endurance-focused Sports car racing, sports car race held annually near the town of Le Mans, France. It is the world's oldest active Endurance racing (motorsport), endurance r ...

, plans to return to the ALMS at Mid-Ohio * Although Team ECO attempted to run their diesel-powered

Radical Radical may refer to: Politics and ideology Politics *Radical politics, the political intent of fundamental societal change *Radicalism (historical), the Radical Movement that began in late 18th century Britain and spread to continental Europe and ...

SR10 LMP1 at Sebring, homologation problems have forced the team to delay their debut until Mid-Ohio. * Autocon Motorsports will run a partial schedule, skipping most street circuit rounds, to concentrate on their bid for the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Their car will be upgraded to full CA07 specification by Le Mans.

Green Challenge

On June 24, 2008, the ALMS has announced for a new challenge called the ''Green Challenge''. The challenge, integrated with the series races, and which will debut at this year's Petit Le Mans, and continuing with the entire full season in 2009, emphasizes on targeting the series for "green racing." The ALMS was the first motorsport racing series in North America to be recognized by the

United States Environmental Protection Agency The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is an independent executive agency of the United States federal government tasked with environmental protection matters. President Richard Nixon proposed the establishment of EPA on July 9, 1970; it be ...

(the EPA), the

United States Department of Energy The United States Department of Energy (DOE) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government that oversees U.S. national energy policy and manages the research and development of nuclear power and nuclear weapons in the United Stat ...

and the

Society of Automotive Engineers SAE International, formerly named the Society of Automotive Engineers, is a United States-based, globally active professional association and standards developing organization for engineering professionals in various industries. SAE Internatio ...

(SAE International) to be recognized as a "Green Racing Series", and these three will take part organizing the challenge. All the teams will be eligible for the ''Green Challenge''. The point system will be the same as the regular ALMS scoring system, but teams start out with the most possible points a team in the ALMS have during the season, and the points are deducted based on the performance of the vehicle. The lowest points at the end of the season would be the ''Green Challenge'' season champion.

References

External links

American Le Mans Series
{{IMSA GT Championships American Le Mans Series seasons

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...