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Source:www.pcmracing.com
Pacific Coast Motorsports withdraws from American Le Mans Series
Oxnard, California (September 01, 2005) – Pacific Coast Motorsports (“PCM”) has announced today its withdrawal from the 2005 American Le Mans Series (“ALMS”) with immediate effect. The team contested the first seven rounds of the ALMS campaigning the #5 Menards-Yokohama Corvette C5-R in the GT1 class but has decided to cancel its program prior to the end of the season.
The Oxnard-based team, the reigning Toyota Atlantic Champions, will use the time gained by not concentrating their time and efforts on the three remaining ALMS events to evaluate its on-track options for 2006 and beyond.
The decision to leave the ALMS, where the team scored its first GT1 podium finish with Alex Figge and Ryan Dalziel in Portland at the end of July, is based purely on the desire to channel the resources available to the independent team into a more competitive racing program.
Team Director Tyler Tadevic explains, “Put simply ‘You can’t fight City Hall!’ As a privateer team we just don’t have the resources to continue to compete in the ALMS and hope to win races against the factory-backed entries.”
“Our decision to leave is in no way a comment on the series, we’ve absolutely loved running in the ALMS but we’re a team used to winning and as a privately funded organization we can’t hope to run as competitively as the teams in the series who enjoy manufacturer backing.”
He continued, “I’m delighted that we’ve been able to represent General Motors and the Corvette brand by extending the life of the C5-R chassis into the 2005 season. I’m proud that as a team we were able to join Corvette Racing on the podium in July and our thanks go to Doug Fehan and Gary Claudio for their encouragement and for the support from Pratt and Miller and Katech Motors as well as from Art Michalik and Cheech Yamauchi at our tire partner Yokohama.”
“There are no hidden politics behind our decision to leave the ALMS,” Tadevic said. “We just believe our resources, and those of our corporate partners, will be better served competing in a series where we can utilize our skills and experience to maximum effect! I’m delighted that Menards and Ironclad have supported us throughout the year and we look forward to further developing our relationships with them. The lead time we’ve now established to prepare for 2006 will keep the team together and hopefully increase our ability to be competitive come the start of our next campaign.”
Alex Figge will continue to race with PCM while his ALMS team-mate, Scotland’s Ryan Dalziel, also has an offer to continue his relationship with the squad into 2006.
Reflecting on PCM’s time in the ALMS Tadevic concluded, “Don Panoz and Scott Atherton have put together a first rate organization and it goes without saying that if we had the opportunity to return to the series with manufacturer support then we’d jump at the chance. Our decision to leave is based purely on the resources we have available to us and the responsibility we have to our corporate partners to be competitive – we race to win it’s as simple as that.”
PCM’s Corvette C5-R chassis is for sale immediately, interested parties should contact the team for further information.
ENDS – www.pcmracing.com
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Bad news for the ALMS. Still, fortunatly there should be a 2nd MC12 on the grid soon to replace the now vacant spot PCM will create and will hopefully be a lot more competitve too!
Good news on the horizon too IMO with the news that Aston Martin will enter the ALMS with a works team if no customers can be found for 2006. A shame to lose PCM but IMO it does smell a little bit of sour grapes, they had a old chasis, 006 which is a 2001/2002 car? The team were reportedly dissapointed that GPLK were choosen over them to have a 2004 spec C5R.
Slightly off topic but today
Autosport Magazine reports that GPLK have put in a order to Pratt and Miller for 2 C6R's that they intend to run in next years FIA GT championship.