No ALMS for Rafanelli

[marcus]

Gabriele Rafanelli has announced that his team will not compete in this years ALMS series but instead concentrate on the FIA GT championship.

they are planning to return in 2002 and are aiming to win the championship (which will be a tough call)

for 2001 they will run 2 Ferrari 550's in 2001 and Jean-Marc Gounon,Marc Duez and Pier-Hneri Raphanel are candidates for the seats.

Its a huge shame they are not doing the ALMS this year as they have won many fans in that series but lets hope they do well in the FIA series and return in 2002 bigger than ever.

[Heeltoe6]

It is a shame, especially because the team was quick, it seemed they just had terrible luck and lost pace towrds the end of the season, but then came back against at Adeliade only to succumb to more problems. I wish them the best in fia gt and anticipate their return. But yet another P car leaves ALMS, where does that leave the count? 2 works Audis, 2 privateer audis(champion), 1 Panoz(at least to begin), 1 Konrad??, any Reynards?? or have they been scrapped altogether?

[marcus]

Im not sure about the Reynards..but its an interesting point you have mentioned Heeltoe.

we have all been praising Don Panoz for the ALMS (and rightly so) but it seems as if the prototype class is looking a bit bleak for 2001..thank godness Audi decided to sell their R8's to Champion racing.
its a shame that rafanelli has decided to get out of the series but what is the ALMS's loss is definately the FIA Gt series gain.

will audi take the top 4 spots in the championship or will Panoz get up there and split the 2 teams or do they have any chance of competing and beating the factory Audi team..at least that will be an interesting battle.

the end result is we need more prototype's in the series..I doubt the konrad team are in a serious position to win races even though they finished 2nd at Adelaide..I would have to say that was just good luck..but who knows they may surprise us all come round 1.

[Heeltoe6]

Well, the small bit og good news we have is that Panoz will run 2 cars at each event despite rumors to the contrary. No lineup announced though(Johnny Kane has been talking with the team...might I also suggest Scott Pruett[if he can get released from his contract] and perhaps Andy Lally), so that's still up in the air. But that's at least 6 good cars, what we had last year. Just gotta make sure there are enough privateers to flush out the field.

[DNQ]

That's sad - it means less Sports Prototypes. boo hoo