Maserati to Challenge the Corvette C6.Rs at Petit Le Mans

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Doran Racing has entered their Maserati MC12 in the GT1 class for this weekend’s running of the Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta. This is their second race this year, after coming in third at Road America in early August. Drivers for the MC12 are Fredy Lienhard, Didier Theys and Andrea Bertolini. This will be just the third race this season where the Corvette Racing team has had competition in the GT1 class. An Aston Martin DBR9 fielded by a privateer battled Corvette at Sebring back in March, but it just wasn’t strong enough to give the two C6.R’s a run for the top spot on the podium. Unfortunately it is looking more and more likely that this will be the final year for the GT1 Corvettes. The team has been a victim of their own success in the American Le Mans series and unless they get an announcement from Prodrive’s Aston Martin or another serious contender whose committed to racing a complete season, this could be the end of the line. Pratt and Miller, builders of the Corvette C6.Rs for the Corvette Racing team are busy building a P1 prototype. Talk about moving down to GT2 appears to have waned as well as my favorite idea of taking it to the European FIA-GT circuit where there is no shortage of challengers in the GT1 class. Before future plans are made through, Corvette Racing still has two ALMS races to finish. After this weekend’s 10 hour/1,000 mile Petit Le Mans, the season wraps up at Monterey on October 20th. In other Corvette Racing news, the field has been narrowed and voting is underway for the “From the Fans” award, considered to be one of the most coveted honors of the ALMS. Corvette Racing’s Program Manager Doug Fehan and Team Manager Gary Pratt are among the five finalists. Word from Bad Boy Vettes is that Acura is stuffing the ballot box, so click here to vote for either Doug or Gary for the From the Fans Award. And speaking of Ron Fellows (nice segue, huh?), the Most Popular Driver award is again up for grabs and what a send-off it would be for Ron Fellows should he win it for the fourth year straight. Click here to vote for the ALMS Most Popular Driver award. Ron will be making his final start this weekend as a co-driver in the #3 Corvette C6.R sporting a pink helmet that will be auctioned off this Thursday October 4th to support breast cancer awareness. If you are interested in bidding on the custom helmet visit the bid page for the 2007 Le Petit Elegance silent bid page. The 10th running of Petit Le Mans, will start at 11:15 a.m. ET on Saturday, October 6. The 1,000-mile/10-hour race will be televised live on SPEED Channel from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and from 6:30 to 10 p.m. ET.
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CorvetteRacing.com Related:
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