The 2012 American Le Mans Series season was a multi-event

auto racing Auto racing (also known as car racing, motor racing, or automobile racing) is a motorsport involving the racing of automobiles for competition. Auto racing has existed since the invention of the automobile. Races of various sorts were organise ...

championship for

sports racing cars Sports car racing is a form of motorsport road racing which utilises sports cars that have two seats and enclosed wheels. They may be purpose-built prototypes or grand tourers based on road-going models. Broadly speaking, sports car racing is o ...

which conform to the technical regulations laid out by the

International Motor Sports Association 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 ...

for 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 the fourteenth season of the American Le Mans Series, and the 42nd season overall of the IMSA GT Championship. The season began with the 60th annual

12 Hours of Sebring The 12 Hours of Sebring is an annual motorsport endurance race for sports cars held at Sebring International Raceway, on the site of the former Hendricks Army Airfield World War II air base in Sebring, Florida, US. The event is the second round ...

on March 14–17, and covered ten events.

Calendar

Virginia International Raceway - Full Course

On September 30, 2011, ALMS president Scott Atherton announced an eleven race schedule for 2012. All nine of the events on the 2011 race schedule are carried over, while two new events are planned but not yet announced. Atherton stated three different venues are vying for the two calendar spots. One of the two new events was later removed from the calendar. The calendar will also share the 12 Hours of Sebring with the successor to the

Intercontinental Le Mans Cup The Intercontinental Le Mans Cup (shortened ILMC) was an endurance sports car racing tournament organised by the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO) started in 2010.

, the

FIA World Endurance Championship The FIA World Endurance Championship is an auto racing world championship organized by the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO) and sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The series supersedes the ACO's former Intercont ...

, while the Petit Le Mans will count as the final round of the

European 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 ...

. It was also announced that four events would be televised live, while the rest would be streamed live on

ESPN3 ESPN3 (formerly ESPN360 and ESPN3.com) is an online streaming service owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company (which operates the network, through its 80% controlling ownership interest) and Hearst Communications ...

and televised on a tape delay the following day. All tape-delayed events were broadcast on ESPN, and began approximately one hour into the race. On January 16, the ninth round was announced to take place at

Virginia International Raceway Virginia International Raceway (commonly known as "VIR") is a race track located in Alton, Virginia, near Danville. It is less than a half-mile from the North Carolina/Virginia border just outside Milton, North Carolina, on the banks of the Dan ...

on the Full Course layout. It will be both the first visit by ALMS to Virginia, as well as the first competition held on this layout.ALMS ADDS VIR TO 2012 EVENT SCHEDULE
/ref>

Entry list

Team announcements

*On November 11, 2011, it was announced that

Rolex Sports Car Series The Rolex Sports Car Series was the premier series run by the Grand American Road Racing Association. It was a North American-based sports car series founded in 2000 under the name Grand American Road Racing Championship to replace the failed ...

team

Dempsey Racing Patrick Galen Dempsey (born January 13, 1966) is an American actor and race car driver. He is best known for his role as neurosurgeon Derek "McDreamy" Shepherd in ''Grey's Anatomy''. He had early success as an actor, starring in a number of fil ...

, owned by Hollywood actor/driver

Patrick Dempsey Patrick Galen Dempsey (born January 13, 1966) is an American actor and race car driver. He is best known for his role as neurosurgeon Derek "McDreamy" Shepherd in ''Grey's Anatomy''. He had early success as an actor, starring in a number of fil ...

and driver Joe Foster, and Silicon Tech Racing (STR), owned by racer Henri Richard, would partner, creating Silicon Tech/Dempsey Racing, to campaign an

Oreca FLM09 The Le Mans Prototype Challenge (shortened to LMP Challenge or LMPC) was a spec racing, spec sports prototype formula created by the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO), organisers of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, and sports car racing, sports car constr ...

in the LMP Challenge class for the 2012 season. Later in March, Dempsey announced that they will be fielding an LMP2 car in the 2012 ALMS season. *

Aston Martin Racing Aston Martin Racing is a British auto racing team established in 2004 as a partnership between automobile manufacturer Aston Martin and engineering group Prodrive. The partnership was initially created for the purpose of returning Aston ...

will be returning to GT for the 2012 season after fielding a prototype for several years. In addition to the 12 Hours of Sebring for the WEC, AMR will also participate in the Long Beach and Monterey rounds to prepare for the 24 Hours of Le Mans. * Lotus will also be fielding a team with Alex Job Racing. *

SRT Motorsports SRT may refer to: Automotive * SRT, (Speed & Racing Technology) American high-performance automobile group associated with Dodge, Chrysler and Jeep. * Suter Racing Technology, a Swiss Moto2 constructor * Selleslagh Racing Team, Belgium * Swiss ...

will be fielding a two-car factory backed GTE effort in a

Riley Technologies Riley Technologies LLC is an American auto racing constructor and team specializing in the design and manufacture of complete race cars, as well as prototype development for racing and manufacturing applications. In 2001, Bob Riley and son Bill, ...

developed

Dodge Viper The Dodge Viper is a sports car that was manufactured by Dodge (by SRT for 2013 and 2014), a division of American car manufacturer FCA US LLC from 1992 until 2017, having taken a brief hiatus in 2007 and from 2010 to 2012. Production of the two ...

. Drivers include

Kuno Wittmer Kuno Wittmer (born 6 September 1982) is a Canadian racing driver who currently competes in the Michelin Pilot Challenge. Career In 2014, Wittmer won the United SportsCar Championship GTLM class. Prior to the 2020 Michelin Pilot Challenge season, ...

Dominik Farnbacher Dominik Farnbacher (born 26 September 1984 in Ansbach) is a German sports car racing driver, and currently an SRT factory driver, driving an SRT Viper GTS-R in the Tudor United SportsCar Championship. Career After beginning his career in karting ...

Tommy Kendall Tommy Kendall (born October 17, 1966) is an American race car driver and television broadcaster. He is best known for his IMSA GT Championship and SCCA Trans-Am Series career. Racing career Son of race driver Charles Kendall, Kendall began his ...

and

Marc Goossens Marc Goossens, nicknamed The Goose (born 30 November 1969), is a Belgian professional racing driver that currently competes in the NASCAR Whelen Euro Series, driving the No. 14 Chevrolet Camaro for SpeedHouse in the EuroNASCAR PRO class. Ra ...

. The car has received a waiver from ACO as its 8.4L V10 engine is above the maximum displacement of 5.5L allowed by the rules. The team will debut the cars at the Mid-Ohio round. *Libra Racing will enter a Radical SR10 using a Roush-Yates Ford

Ecoboost EcoBoost is a series of turbocharged, direct-injection gasoline engines produced by Ford and originally co-developed by FEV Inc. (now named FEV North America Inc.). EcoBoost engines are designed to deliver power and torque consistent with thos ...

V6 into P2 from Laguna Seca onward.

Results and standings

Overall winners in bold.

Championships

Points were awarded to the top ten cars and drivers which complete at least 70% of their class winner's distance. Teams with multiple entries only score the points of their highest finishing entry in each race. Drivers were required to drive a minimum of 45 minutes to earn points, except for the Long Beach event which required only 30 minutes. Drivers are required to complete a particular amount of the minimum number of laps in order to earn points. The number of laps vary depending on the course size.

Team championships

Teams with full season entries are awarded points in the team championships. Teams which participated in a partial season or on a race-by-race basis are not included in these championships. As long as they compete full season and comply with ACO regulations, the top P1, P2 and GT team at the end of the season receive an automatic entry to the

2013 24 Hours of Le Mans The 81st 24 Hours of Le Mans (French: ''81e 24 Heures du Mans'') was a 24-hour automobile endurance racing event for Le Mans Prototype and Le Mans Grand Touring Endurance cars held from 19 to 23 June 2013 at the Circuit de la Sarthe close ...

P1 standings

P2 standings

PC standings

All teams utilize the

chassis with

Chevrolet Chevrolet ( ), colloquially referred to as Chevy and formally the Chevrolet Motor Division of General Motors Company, is an American automobile division of the American manufacturer General Motors (GM). Louis Chevrolet (1878–1941) and ous ...

LS3 engine.

GT standings

GTC standings

All teams utilize variations of the

Porsche 997 GT3 The Porsche 911 GT3 is a high-performance Homologation (motorsport), homologation model of the Porsche 911 sports car. It is a line of high-performance models, which began with the Porsche 911#911 Carrera RS .281973 and 1974.29, 1973 911 Carrera ...

Cup.
Note: the #11 JDX Racing car won the Mid-Ohio round but driver Tim Pappas failed to meet the minimum driving time requirement. JDX was allowed to keep their "win" but the first place points and prize money went to the #66 TRG car for that race.

Driver championships

Drivers who participated in races but failed to score points over the course of the season are not listed.

P1 standings

P2 standings

PC standings

Drivers in the PC category are allowed to drive for more than one car during an event. If a driver is in each car for a minimum of two hours each, he is allowed to score the points from whichever car he chooses.

GT standings

GTC standings

References

{{IMSA GT Championships American Le Mans Series seasons