Borcheller and Mowlem ACEMCO Saleen drivers for 2004

[Liz]

Saleen savvy

Terry Borcheller has one piece of his race puzzle set with the announcement that he will return to the American Le Mans Series GTS class in 2004, driving the ACEMCO Motorsports Saleen S7R for team owner Jeff Giangrande. Borcheller, who recently moved to Gainesville, Ga., will share driving duty with Johnny Mowlem of Warfield, England.

Borcheller knows how to score in a Saleen. From 1998 to 2001, he won three professional driver championships and 17 races in Saleens. He will be on familiar ground in the ALMS, where he won the 2001 GTS championship in a Saleen S7R. The ACEMCO program will also reunite Borcheller with Pirelli, which has provided high-performance tires and worked closely with him since 2000.

"It's really an honor to be involved with a businessman / team owner such as Jeff Giangrande. I am very impressed with his direction and leadership," Borcheller said. "You can judge someone's character pretty quickly by what they believe or some of the things they say, and his character has been inspirational to me.

"I had the unique opportunity to see his business operation - it functions unbelievably! A lot of the same successful principles he's implemented in his business, he's putting in place in the racing team. I hope it has the same results, which would be to be at the top level of competition. It's a pretty high standard, but he's done it in business and it would be great if he could do it in racing."

I'm told by reliable sources that Shane Lewis will have an announcement in a few days that will please his many fans and with which he's quite happy too. This ought to be an awesome season for us Saleen fans! And good to hear that Terry will be back in a competitive drive again too.

[KA]

Very good news- that ought to be a very competitive car with Mowlem and Borcheller on board

[SALEEN S7R]

The thing I want to know is though, under the ACO regulations have the cars penalties been taken off for 2004? At this years Le Mans the restrictors were still in place. A 20kg ballast restricton and a 10% power decrease were the penalites if I remember rightly. Will be intresting, anyone know if the penalites have been removed like in the FIA GT Championship? If so then yes the car will be VERY competitve. Otherwise....

[slicktsax]

yes the penalties have been removed from the saleens in the ALMS this year, they are now up to full strength. the acemco saleen should also have a sequential tranny too but i'm not sure

[Fab]

What a cracker ! Roll on Saleen !

[SALEEN S7R]

Excellent news - hopefully RML or Acemco get a entry for LM next year - or even better, both! I remember back in 2001 the factory Saleen driven by Oliver Gavin set a GTS pole time of 3:52.849 which has yet to be beaten by any other GTS class car. Hopefully now almost 3 years on from then RML and and Acemco can improve on that even further. With fast drivers in the cars it should certainly be possible.

[Graham Goodwin]

Don't forget the circuit changes have made the ;lap time considerably slower Chris

[19dodge]

I dont think Acemco will be at LM in 2004. but Borcheller and Mowlem will probably be picked up by RML or Nash. (probably not Konrad, since he uses mostly pay drivers)

[SALEEN S7R]

Originally posted by Graham Goodwin
Don't forget the circuit changes have made the ;lap time considerably slower Chris

Have they Graham? If I remember rightly the overall 2002 pole time was faster than the 2001 pole time, okay GTS wasnt but that was mainly due to Prodrive only being in their 1st year with the 550 and the Corvette being a slow coach anyway, had the FACTORY Saleen been at the 2002 event with top drivers Im sure they would have gone even faster. I beleive the track changes whilst they have extended the track length have increased the speed as to which the drivers can get onto the power onto Arnage and onto the Mulsanne than before. To be honest Graham Im expecting the lead GTS cars to be doing high 3:48's, at the very least 3:49's in qualifying next year. The Prodrive cars this year got a 3:53 and that was with the 10% power decrease and at a circuit like Le Mans it makes a huge differnce as u know. Prodrive might have some serious competition next year in the shape of the factory backed Saleen squad. Then in 2005 when Maserati joins the fray then who can tell. Still lets just wait and see what happens.

[paul-collins]

Drivers said the esses after Dunlop were worth about 3 seconds.

[slicktsax]

don't forget that prodrive is developing the aston martin DB9 for the GTS class for customers in 2005 so prodrive might not even run the 550's again next year unless care racing funds them again. most of prodrive's resources will be focused on developing the new aston so hopefully david price will buy the 550's and campaing them in the alms and lemans or maybe BMS scuderia will enter lemans as they have an auto entry

[SALEEN S7R]

I beleive that BMS have said that they would enter LM if they had a automatic entry from winning the FIA GT, GT category, and as we know they have so I think we can expect to see one BMS entry there and the Care racing machine that finished 3rd in the championship as the Lister isnt eligable for LM. So whether or not the 2 Ferrari's will enter under the BMS banner or Care Racing is uncertain but either way I beleive the Care Racing car and BMS car are run by the same people but I might be wrong on that.

[Graham Goodwin]

BMS get two entries - the earlier list was wrong

[Audi R8R]

Originally posted by SALEEN S7R
Have they Graham? If I remember rightly the overall 2002 pole time was faster than the 2001 pole time, okay GTS wasnt but that was mainly due to Prodrive only being in their 1st year with the 550 and the Corvette being a slow coach anyway, had the FACTORY Saleen been at the 2002 event with top drivers Im sure they would have gone even faster. I beleive the track changes whilst they have extended the track length have increased the speed as to which the drivers can get onto the power onto Arnage and onto the Mulsanne than before. To be honest Graham Im expecting the lead GTS cars to be doing high 3:48's, at the very least 3:49's in qualifying next year. The Prodrive cars this year got a 3:53 and that was with the 10% power decrease and at a circuit like Le Mans it makes a huge differnce as u know. Prodrive might have some serious competition next year in the shape of the factory backed Saleen squad. Then in 2005 when Maserati joins the fray then who can tell. Still lets just wait and see what happens.

I can't see any of the cars getting five seconds over a single winter development, that's a lot, especially around Le Mans.

As for the new configuration of circuit being quicker, I can't see how braking for the esses after the Dunlop bridge can be faster than the old flat out stretch that used to be there.

2003 Pole - 3m 32.843s
2002 Pole - 3m 29.905s :confused:

[Fab]

Originally posted by Audi R8R
As for the new configuration of circuit being quicker, I can't see how braking for the esses after the Dunlop bridge can be faster than the old flat out stretch that used to be there.

2003 Pole - 3m 32.843s
2002 Pole - 3m 29.905s :confused:

As strange as it could seem, the 2002 lap record was made with the NEW Chapelle esses configuration : and the pole was faster than with the straight... but I admit that we should'nt see the times getting faster, as the rules for the cars have changed significantly. Lucky that they are allowed to use the 2002 air intakes, instead of the penalizing 2003 ones...

[Chevyguy]

Slicksax, can you tell us where you heard that the penalties would be lifted? I would like to see that with my eyes, as it is crucial to the S7R. If true, most of the cards in place for a fantastic '04, and an explosive '05. Next, the Viper and Carrera... hopefully. So far though, next year brings two new types of GTS car, the rebirth of one, and the Vettes (C6Rs?).

I hate it when Borchellar races against my team, he is just so good. Maybe he can when the GTS and DP championships, and the separatists can be united. lol

[BSchneiderFan]

Does anyone know anything much about ACEMCO?

[RM40]

Well they entered a 360 GT all through the ALMS last year. That's as much as I know about the race team.

[Gunman]

ACEMCO ran a Porsche in Grand Am prior to last year.

[slicktsax]

ok well i believe i read in an issue of autosport a month ago that saleen has produced the required amount of road cars,but i do know that the restrictions on the saleens are lifted and i believe at the american lemans sight when their article on the anouncement that acemco will run a saleen said that there wqere enough road going S7's so check the ALMS archives