Just over a month ago at the Detroit Grand Prix weekend, Corsa Motorsports announced its intention compete in the ALMS LMP1 class with a hybrid-powered race car built in England by Zytek. The new car was supposed to debut this weekend at the Petit Le Mans race at Road Atlanta. Unfortunately, earlier this week, the Utah-based team decided that the hybrid system wasn't quite ready for primetime. According to a release on the team's website, they are confident in the safety of the system, but the reliability is still a concern. Therefore, Zytek is continuing to exercise the system on its dynamometers until they are confident that the system can run the full race distance. In the meantime, Corsa, which is moving up from the GT2 class where it has been running a Ferrari F430GT, is running the Zytek chassis with a conventional E10-fueled 4.0L V8. Hopefully, we'll see the hybrid system running at the 2009 season opener at Sebring.

[Source: Corsa Motorsports]

The tenth running of the Petit Le Mans took place on Saturday and along with celebrating a decade of the American Le Mans Series it also marked the debut of the ALMS Green Challenge. For those of you that TIVO'ed the race you can come back later. The rest of you can follow the jump to see who won.

[Source: American Le Mans Series]

Next weekend marks the tenth running of the Petit Le Mans endurance race at Road Atlanta and the debut of the Green Challenge in the American Le Mans Series. The usual suspects like Audi and Peugeot will be on hand with their diesel-powered LMP1 cars. However, Corsa Motorsports will jump into the fray with the first hybrid racer in the ALMS. The team will campaign a Zytek chassis powered by a combination of a Zytek V8, three phase AC induction motor and a lithium ion battery. The new car has been running since July in England and has now been shipped to the U.S. for its race debut. The team is planning to run the full 2009 season with the hybrid as the Green Challenge becomes a permanent fixture. Hybrid technology will also be expanding in motorsports in 2009 with Formula 1 implementing it and possibly Peugeot as well in the European Le Mans Series. Veterans Johnny Mowlem, Gunnar Jeanette and Ralf Kelleners will drive the car at Road Atlanta.

[Source: American Le Mans Series]

Audi has clinched its third consecutive P1 class championship in the American Le Mans Series with the diesel-powered R10 TDI. The driver pairing of Lucas Luhr and Marco Werner came out on top after a disappointing race at the Detroit Grand Prix this weekend. Luhr spun into the wall on lap 13 and the teammates went on to cross the finish line third overall which would have kept the championship race open at least until the Petit Le Mans next month. Unfortunately for Fässler and Pirro, their car was disqualified for being about 5 lbs underweight during post-race scrutineering. Also unfortunate this year is that Audi only has one season-long rival in the LMP1 class. At Petit Le Mans, the Peugeot 908s will be back from Europe and next year Audi will face competition from new LMP1 Acuras. Hopefully Acura will follow Audi and Peugeot and bring another diesel to the P1 class. Alternatively, they could get the hybrid system that will be used by the Honda Formula 1 team and apply it to the prototype. Either way, the efforts to promote green racing in the ALMS will likely heat up the competition.

[Source: Audi]

British race team ECO Racing has announced their intention to compete in three of this years remaining American Le Mans Series races with a car running on biodiesel. ECO racing is taking up the ALMS's Green Racing challenge with a Radical LMP1 chassis powered by a production based V10 diesel. The team had originally planned to compete at the Sebring 12 Hour race earlier this year but regulatory issues kept them off the track. They are now back and ready to compete at Road America, Road Atlanta and Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. ECO racing first ran a biodiesel fueled car at Le Mans in 2004 two years before the debut of the Audi R10 TDI. The team runs a jatropha based fuel supplied by D1 Oils. The Petit Le Mans race at Road Atlanta will also be the debut of the ALMS Green Challenge where teams will earn points based on the total carbon footprint of there cars. A team like ECO Racing should have a good chance for that trophy since they run an efficient diesel engine fueled by an oil from an inedible tree.

[Source: American Le Mans Series]