I was at Long Beach today to watch the American LeMans Series... first time for this series in Long Beach. It was great watching the pair of Audi R10 prototypes (Diesel, TDI) blast around this tight road course. In the end, they didn't do so well, finishing 8th and 9th, but it wasn't because the cars were slow, they just ran into bad luck with a flat tire due to a nudge and spin for one and problems pitting for the other.

But it's the first time I saw these cars run. They stand apart from other cars not only because of their gorgeous silver and crimson paint scheme, but because they are super quiet for a race car. No howling like the others. They were turning in lap times of about 1 min 15 seconds...only six seconds slower over the 1.97 mile course than the fastest Champ cars during qualifying. Their main competition was from the Porsche and Acura P2 class cars...these cars are 330 lbs lighter, but with a smaller engine. The R10s were developed originally for a big, long course like LeMans, so they were at somewhat of a disadvantage here, although, as I said, they did not give up anything on lap times compared to the P2 cars.

All in all, an exciting race.... glad to see this kind of road racing becoming more widespread. Next ALMS race is Houston...I think CBS Sports will televise that one.[/align]