Australian ALMS race finally canned
The American Le Mans Series will not be visiting Australia this year as organisers have failed to find a suitable venue to stage a sequel to last year's Race of a Thousand Years
The Adelaide race, held on New Year's Eve, was cancelled by South Australia Premier John Olsen in February, forcing series organisers to find an alternative venue. A temporary track in Sydney was the number one choice, but as the series showpiece, the Le Mans 24 hour race, approaches this weekend, time has run out.
"We have simply run out of time," said series founder Don Panoz. "We can't keep the shareholders of our series waiting any longer because it is not fair to them. We've elected at this time to not hold an Australian event in 2001."
Panoz spent much of last week Down Under trying to finalise arrangements for the event to no avail and although a race is not taking place this year, Panoz did not rule out returning to Australia in the future.
The Adelaide race was to make up part of the all-new Asia Pacific Le Mans Series comprising entries from both ALMS and ELMS. The cancellation of the Australian event is not expected to affect the Malaysian round of the Asia championship at the Sepang circuit on November 11.
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