De Ferran Motorsports was a motor racing team that competed in 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 ...

. The team was owned by the

2003 Indianapolis 500 The 87th Indianapolis 500 was held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana on Sunday, May 25, 2003. Two-time defending champion Hélio Castroneves won the pole position and was trying to become the first driver in Indy history to ...

winner

Gil de Ferran Gil de Ferran (born November 11, 1967 in Paris, France) is a French-born Brazilian professional racing driver and team owner. De Ferran was the 2000 and 2001 Champ Car champion driving for Team Penske and the winner of the 2003 Indianapolis 5 ...

. On August 7, 2009 de Ferran announced that he would retire from racing at the end of the 2009 season. He also planned to move the team to the

IndyCar Series 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 o ...

, but instead merged with Luczo Dragon Racing to form de Ferran Luczo Dragon Racing.

Racing History

The 2008 season started late for the team.

and co-driver

Simon Pagenaud Simon Pagenaud (born 18 May 1984) is a French professional racing driver. He is contracted to drive the No. 60 Honda for Meyer Shank Racing in the IndyCar Series. After a successful career in sports car racing that saw him taking the top class ...

's first race was the 2008 Utah Grand Prix where they finished an incredible third overall. The team, however, was unable to match their debut result for the rest of the season. A scary pit lane fire also lowered the team's confidence toward the end of the season. By season end, the team finished 6th in the teams' championship and 14th in the drivers' championship. For the 2009 season, de Ferran Motorsports was one of two teams chosen by

Honda Performance Development Honda Performance Development, Inc. (HPD) is a subsidiary of American Honda Motor Co. which was established in 1993 and is based in Santa Clarita, California. It is the technical operations center for Honda's American motorsports programs and is ...

to campaign Acura's brand new ARX-02 LMP1 car in the

. Due to the absence of Audi Sport North America, the team's main competition was De Ferran Motorsports. The team's first victory came at Long Beach, the second race of the season, which started a 4 race win streak. Also claiming the last race of the season, de Ferran Motorsports finished the season second in the teams' championship and drivers,

and

3rd in the drivers' championship.2009 ALMS Drivers' Championship Results
2009 2009 would be the last racing season for the de Ferran Motorsports team, and would also be the end of the Acura

factory racing program. However, HPD would continue to develop the ARX line of LMP1 and LMP2 prototypes.

References

{{Reflist

External links

de Ferran Motorsports
American Le Mans Series teams American auto racing teams