HERTA'S SEASON ENDS ON HIGH NOTE.Byline: Tim Haddock Motor Sports Valencia's Bryan Herta Bryan Herta (b. May 23 1970, Warren, Michigan) is an American race car driver. He currently drives for Andretti Green Racing, which is co-owned by former CART and IRL driver Michael Andretti, in the ALMS, although his career has primarily been spent in open-wheel cars ended his first season on the American Le Mans Series The American Le Mans Series (ALMS) is a sports car racing series based in the United States and Canada. It consists of a series of endurance and sprint races, and was created in the spirit of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. in rallying fashion Sunday. The Panoz Motor Sports driver, along with teammates Bill Auberlen Bill Auberlen is a race car driver born in Redondo Beach, California, USA on 12 October 1968. He was the Grand-Am GT Series champion in 2002 and 2004. Auberlen currently drives a BMW Riley in the DP class for Sigalsport, a BMW M3 for Turner Motorsport in the Grand-Am and Gunnar Jeanette, went from 11th at the start to fifth at the finish in the season finale Petit Le Mans The Petit Le Mans (French for little Le Mans) is a sports car endurance race held annually at Road Atlanta in Braselton, Georgia, USA. The race was first run on October 10, 1998 as part of the IMSA season, then in 1999 became one of the original events of the at Road Atlanta Road Atlanta is a 2.54-mile (4.088 km) road course located in Braselton, Georgia, USA. The track has 12 turns, including the famous "esses" between turns three and five, and Turn 12, a downhill, diving turn. . Herta, a Hart High graduate, said the fifth-place finish was about all he and his teammates could get out of the LMP-900 entry. ``We race with the tires we qualify on,'' Herta said. ``We had a problem with the car in qualifying. We knew were more competitive than that. That was the maximum we could have achieved that day.'' Herta and his Panoz teammates finished ahead of the other Panoz entry driven by Jan Magnussen Jan Magnussen (born July 4 1973 in Roskilde) is a race car driver from Denmark and a GM factory driver. Career history Lower series racing Magnussen had a dominating 1994 British Formula 3 championship with Paul Stewart Racing, winning 12 of the 16 events and , David Brabham and David Donohue, who were seventh. The Audi R8 team of Rinaldo Capello and Tom Kirstensen won the 1,000-mile Petit Le Mans. Kirstensen also won the American Le Mans Series season championship, finishing two points ahead of teammate Capello in the drivers standings. Herta was 10th in the American Le Mans Series drivers championship. David Brabham was the highest finishing Panoz driver, in sixth place. The Panoz Motor Sports team was second in the manufacturer standings, finishing 64 points behind Audi. Herta finished his one-year contract with Panoz and already is looking for Looking for In the context of general equities, this describing a buy interest in which a dealer is asked to offer stock, often involving a capital commitment. Antithesis of in touch with. work for next season. He said he isn't ruling out returning to the American Le Mans Series, but he has a number of possibilities he also is considering. One of those possibilities is testing for the Minardi team in Formula One. Herta drove a Minardi Formula One machine in October and is working on putting together a formal test with the team. He expects to have a test in Italy with Minardi within the month, but no dates for a test have been confirmed. While he has no set plans for next season, one thing is for certain: Herta would prefer to stay in open-wheel or sports-car racing. ``I like road racing,'' Herta said. ``And I would miss it right now.'' The American Le Mans Series announced its schedule for the 2003 season this week, with new dates in Mexico and Europe. The 11-race schedule will have the drivers heading to 2.75-mile Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in Mexico City on April 6 and a yet-to-be-determined event in Europe in May. The American Le Mans Series will have its traditional start with the 12 Hours of Sebring at Sebring International Raceway Sebring International Raceway is a road course auto racing facility located in Sebring, Florida. The raceway occupies a portion of Hendricks Field, a former military training base and currently an active airport for private and commercial traffic. in Florida on March 15. The season is scheduled to finish Oct. 18 with the Petit Le Mans. --NASCAR Winston West Series: Greg Pursley of Santa Clarita finished well ahead of fellow rookie Mike David in the NASCAR NASCAR (National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing), organization that sanctions American stock-car races, est. 1948. It held its first race in Daytona Beach, Fla. Winston West season finale at Las Vegas Motor Speedway Las Vegas Motor Speedway, located in Clark County, Nevada, just outside Las Vegas, is a 1,200 acre (4.9 km²) complex of four different tracks for automobile racing. The complex is owned by Speedway Motorsports, Inc., which is headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina. , but it wasn't far enough ahead to win the top rookie honors. Pursley finished 11th in The Orleans 150 last Saturday. David was hampered by an oil leak and finished 26th but managed to win the Winston West top-rookie award by three points. Scott Lynch won The Orleans 150, followed by Eric Norris and Brent Thompson. Norris captured his first Winston West championship. He won two races during the 10-race Winston West season. Austin Cameron, who won a series-leading five races, finished 25th in The Orleans 150. Cameron ended up third in the championship. --NASCAR Featherlite Southwest Series: M.K. Kanke of Frazier Park has won more races at Mesa Marin Raceway Mesa Marin Raceway was a high banked half mile racetrack in Bakersfield, California that was demolished following the 2005 racing season to make way for housing developments in the foothills of northeast Bakersfield. in Bakersfield than any other active driver on the NASCAR Featherlite Southwest Series. Sitting second in the championship standings, 120 points behind series leader Eddy McKean, Kanke might be looking for a little help from history in Sunday's 1-800 CLEANUP 150 to climb closer to the points lead. Kanke has four wins at the Bakersfield half-mile, his last coming in 2001. He also won Southwest Series at Mesa Marin in 1996, 1997 and 1998. Other area drivers entered in the race are: Frank Maronski Jr. of Quartz Hill, Rod Johnson of Canyon Country and Bob Lyon of Agua Dulce. NASCAR Winston Cup star Robby Gordon, who drives for Richard Childress Racing RCR Enterprises, LLC, doing business as Richard Childress Racing, is a NASCAR team fielding Chevrolets for Kevin Harvick, Clint Bowyer, Jeff Burton, and Scott Wimmer in the NEXTEL Cup Series as well as the #2 BB&T Chevy for Clint Bowyer, the #21 AutoZone Chevy for Harvick , also is entered in the Mesa Marin race. CAPTION(S): photo, box Photo: Valencia's Bryan Herta finished fifth last Sunday in the American Le Man s Race Series finale, the Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta, after starting 11th. Tony Dejak/Associated Press Box: THIS WEEKEND |
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