Texas ALMS preview: Audi again, one suspects…

While this year's fight for overall championship honours in the 11-round series will boil down to a straight tussle between the works Audi R8 and the factory Panoz team, it is the German marque that holds all the cards for the this weekend's race.

The crack Joest team arrives at Fort Worth for the three-hour event on the combined oval and road circuit layout with an entirely proven and successful package in its R8 prototype, whereas Panoz has an all new car to develop.

For Audi, in fact, the only change from 2000 is that its champion driver Allan McNish has left to concentrate on his Toyota Formula 1 duties. In Danish ex-BTCC racer Tom Kristensen, it has a brilliant replacement who should prove the fastest R8 driver as he joins Rinaldo Capello in the No1 car.

Team mates Emanuele Pirro and Frank Biela won a scorching Texas race last year, however, and must start their campaign strongly.

Panoz stars David Brabham and Jan Magnussen are down to drive the marque's all-new LMP07 at Texas, but the car has struggled with reliability in the team's winter testing programme.

The potential's there, but it's not yet ready to beat the Audi. So Panoz is also fielding two 2000-spec Roadster LMP-1s for its secondary team of Gualter Salles and Klaus Graf, along with an entry from its customer Westward Racing team, which will be driven by Britain Richard Dean.

A slim Texas prototype entry will be bolstered after June's Le Mans 24 Hours by factory Chrysler and Cadillac entries, as well as Dyson's new Riley & Scotts. But for now, the only cars racing against the big two factory squads are Champion's privateer Audi R8 and Scott Schubot's Lola-Ford.

Former Le Mans winner Andy Wallace is leading the Champion driver, and could be a real contender for victory if the works Audis trip up slightly.

In the lower categories, the works Chevrolet Corvettes have only to brush aside two privateer Dodge Vipers to claim the GTS class honours. Their main rivals Saleen will not be seen out until the blue-riband Sebring 12 Hours in a fortnight.

Autosport-backed Johnny Mowlem provides the British interest in the hotly-contested GT class, sharing a factory-affiliated Porsche 911 GT3-RS with sportscar legend Bob Wollek. Their White Lightning team, along with the primary two-car Porsche squad from Alex Job Racing will face strong opposition from the three works BMW M3s due for Texas, including a Schnitzer-run car for former Grand Prix driver JJ Lehto and his star co-driver Jorg Muller.

The ALMS race at the newly-revived St.Jovite circuit in Canada is under threat, the series organisers have admitted.
The refurbished mountain track was due to host the round 8 of the 11-series as the second leg of Canadian tour for the ALMS in August. ALMS officials have refused to cancel the event outright, but have openly stated that their race is under review until the circuit owners sort out unspecified 'problems'.