2012 American Le Mans Series
The 2012 American Le Mans Series season was a multi-event auto racing championship for sports racing cars which conform to the technical regulations laid out by the International Motor Sports Association for the American Le Mans Series. It was the fourteenth season of the American Le Mans Series, and the 42nd season overall of the IMSA GT Championship. The season began with the 60th annual 12 Hours of Sebring on March 14-17, and covered ten events.
Calendar
On September 30, 2011, ALMS president Scott Atherton announced an eleven race schedule for 2012. All nine of the events on the 2011 race schedule are carried over, while two new events are planned but not yet announced. Atherton stated three different venues are vying for the two calendar spots. One of the two new events was later removed from the calendar. The calendar will also share the 12 Hours of Sebring with the successor to the Intercontinental Le Mans Cup, the FIA World Endurance Championship, while the Petit Le Mans will count as the final round of the European Le Mans Series. It was also announced that four events would be televised live, while the rest would be streamed live on ESPN3 and televised on a tape delay the following day. All tape-delayed events were broadcast on ESPN, and began approximately one hour into the race.On January 16, the ninth round was announced to take place at Virginia International Raceway on the Full Course layout. It will be both the first visit by ALMS to Virginia, as well as the first competition held on this layout.
| Rnd | Race | Length | Circuit | Location | Date |
| 1 | 60th Anniversary Mobil 1 12 Hours of Sebring | 12 Hours | Sebring International Raceway | Sebring, Florida | March 17 |
| 2 | American Le Mans Series at Long Beach | 2 Hours | Long Beach Street Circuit | Long Beach, California | April 14 |
| 3 | American Le Mans Monterey | 6 Hours | Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca | Monterey, California | May 12 |
| 4 | American Le Mans Northeast Grand Prix | 2 Hours 45 Minutes | Lime Rock Park | Lakeville, Connecticut | July 7 |
| 5 | Grand Prix of Mosport | 2 Hours 45 Minutes | Canadian Tire Motorsport Park | Bowmanville, Ontario | July 22 |
| 6 | Mid-Ohio Sports Car Challenge | 2 Hours 45 Minutes | Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course | Lexington, Ohio | August 4 |
| 7 | Road Race Showcase | 4 Hours | Road America | Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin | August 18 |
| 8 | Baltimore Sports Car Challenge | 2 Hours | Baltimore street circuit | Baltimore, Maryland | September 1 |
| 9 | American Le Mans Series VIR 240 | 4 Hours | Virginia International Raceway | Alton, Virginia | September 15 |
| 10 | 15th Annual Petit Le Mans | or 10 Hours | Road Atlanta | Braselton, Georgia | October 20 |
Entry list
Team announcements
- On November 11, 2011, it was announced that Rolex Sports Car Series team Dempsey Racing, owned by Hollywood actor/driver Patrick Dempsey and driver Joe Foster, and Silicon Tech Racing, owned by racer Henri Richard, would partner, creating Silicon Tech/Dempsey Racing, to campaign an Oreca FLM09 in the LMP Challenge class for the 2012 season. Later in March, Dempsey announced that they will be fielding an LMP2 car in the 2012 ALMS season.
- Aston Martin Racing will be returning to GT for the 2012 season after fielding a prototype for several years. In addition to the 12 Hours of Sebring for the WEC, AMR will also participate in the Long Beach and Monterey rounds to prepare for the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
- Lotus will also be fielding a team with Alex Job Racing.
- SRT Motorsports will be fielding a two-car factory backed GTE effort in a Riley Technologies developed Dodge Viper. Drivers include Kuno Wittmer, Dominik Farnbacher, Tommy Kendall and Marc Goossens. The car has received a waiver from ACO as its 8.4L V10 engine is above the maximum displacement of 5.5L allowed by the rules. The team will debut the cars at the Mid-Ohio round.
- Libra Racing will enter a Radical SR10 using a Roush-Yates Ford Ecoboost V6 into P2 from Laguna Seca onward.
Results and standings
Overall winners in bold.| Rnd | Circuit | P1 Winning Team | P2 Winning Team | PC Winning Team | GT Winning Team | GTC Winning Team | Report | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Rnd | Circuit | P1 Winning Drivers | P2 Winning Drivers | PC Winning Drivers | GT Winning Drivers | GTC Winning Drivers | Report | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1 | Sebring |  ChampionshipsPoints were awarded to the top ten cars and drivers which complete at least 70% of their class winner's distance. Teams with multiple entries only score the points of their highest finishing entry in each race. Drivers were required to drive a minimum of 45 minutes to earn points, except for the Long Beach event which required only 30 minutes. Drivers are required to complete a particular amount of the minimum number of laps in order to earn points. The number of laps vary depending on the course size.Team championshipsTeams with full season entries are awarded points in the team championships. Teams which participated in a partial season or on a race-by-race basis are not included in these championships.As long as they compete full season and comply with ACO regulations, the top P1, P2 and GT team at the end of the season receive an automatic entry to the 2013 24 Hours of Le Mans. P1 standings
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