ALMS Season Preview

Sportscar fans have been waiting since the last year's race at La Sarthe for an all-out fight for global supremacy between Audi and Peugeot and there is sure to be one this year, although not a lot of it will be fought in America.

Peugeot won't contest any ALMS rounds after Sebring. They're so desperate to win Le Mans this year that they've brought a solitary 908 HDi over to America (where they don't even attempt to sell cars) purely for the endurance practice.

Le Mans Series regulars Nicolas Minassian, Stephane Sarrazin and Pedro Lamy will fly the flag this weekend, and should have the pace between them to threaten even the fastest of the two Audis.

The German manufacturer's reigning ALMS champion crew of Allan McNish and Rinaldo Capello - joined by seven-time Le Mans winner Tom Kristensen - will be tough to beat at Sebring and will be even more eager for success because it's unlikely they'll return to the US until after Le Mans.

Missing three rounds will make it tricky at best to retain their 2007 crown.

Lucas Luhr and Marco Werner in the sister Audi could be next in line to challenge for the ALMS title in the absence of McNish and Capello, but Audi is still to decide how much of the season this pair will campaign. Mike Rockenfeller will join Luhr and Werner for the endurance races.

Once Audi and Peugeot have returned to Europe, the fight will be between LMP2 front-runners Porsche and Acura. The Porsche RS Spyder was the dominant force overall last season and, thanks to the regulations, should be able to challenge the mighty Audi again on most circuits if the German manufacturer does return to the series later in the year.

Penske's familiar yellow RS Spyders are expected to lead the way again with Romain Dumas and Timo Bernhard making up a driver line-up almost as strong as that in Audi's lead car. Sascha Maassen and Patrick Long will share the second Penske entry and the team will call up Ryan Briscoe and Emmanuel Collard for the enduros.

Privateer team Dyson Racing needs to improve on an underwhelming first season with the Porsche last year and former Le Mans winner Guy Smith should help them mix it with their works rivals on occasion, but could be outscored by the team's second pairing Butch Leitzinger and Marino Franchitti - the latter getting a big break after some impressive outings with the Acura in 2007.

Four Acura teams will be hoping to overcome the Porsches this year and the marque is confident that it can become a regular race winner.

David Brabham will lead the Highcroft attack with former Sebring winner Scott Sharp returning to sportscars. Veteran Stefan Johansson will join the pair this weekend.

Fernandez Racing have swapped Lola for Acura this season and have a driver line-up that should present a challenge to the Porsches with Adrian Fernandez teaming up alongside Luis Diaz. The experience of Bryan Herta and Christian Fittipaldi should also guarantee consistency for the Andretti Green Acura.

The final Acura entry comes from Gil de Ferran, who has got the driving bug back four years after his retirement and has decided to do it the hard way, starting a team from scratch.

GT1 will be the easiest class to predict this season with precious little opposition for Chevrolet. With nobody to race against, the team have had to resort to creating their own challenges, and will run their Corvette C6.Rs on E85 bio-ethanol.

You wouldn't bet against Oliver Gavin and Olivier Beretta winning their fourth consecutive title, but Jan Magnussen and Johnny O'Connell will at least have the freedom to take the fight to them without having to worry about any Aston Martins this year.

Well, maybe just one Aston, but it's highly unlikely that Bell Motorsport's private entry will be able to threaten the factory Chevys.

By contrast, GT2 is a hotbed of competition again. The Ferrari 430 proved to be the car to have last season but champions Mika Salo and Jaime Melo will have a bit more competition this year with Tafel Racing switching to the prancing horse from Porsche.

But Porsche will present a better challenge this year, too, with an updated 911 GT3-RSR and the two Flying Lizards cars will be joined by examples from Grand Am GT champions Farnbacher Loles, and VICI this season.

Patrick Friesacher returns to racing this year in the second Risi Competizione car, and examples from Panoz, Aston Martin, Chevrolet, Dodge and Ford will ensure that GT2 is again the most diverse class in the ALMS.