Will Michelin Make History at Utah Grand Prix?

Michelin and its technical partner teams will have extra incentive as they seek an unprecedented 100th American Le Mans Series (ALMS) victory at the Larry H. Miller Dealerships Utah Grand Prix at Miller Motorsports Park, May 17, the fourth stop of the 2009 ALMS season.

Since 1999, thirty-five drivers; eleven different model cars and nine teams have combined to deliver 99 race wins to Michelin in the first 102 ALMS races.

Michelin ALMS milestone race wins
No. 1 - (3/20/1999) - Twelve Hours of Sebring, FL: BMW V12 LMR, driven by JJ Lehto, Tom Kristensen and Jorg Muller.
No. 25 - (8/25/2001) - Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, OH: Panoz LMP01, driven by David Brabham and Jan Magnussen.
No. 50 - (7/25/2004) - Portland Raceway, OR: Audi R8, driven by JJ Lehto and Marco Werner.
No. 75 - (3/31/2007) - St. Petersburg, FL: Audi R10 TDI, driven by Allan McNish and Rinaldo Capello.
No. 99 - (4/18/2009) - Long Beach, CA:  Acura ARX-02a, driven by Gil de Ferran and Simon Pagenaud.

The Michelin success in sports car/endurance racing is not just limited to the American Le Mans Series where it has claimed every tire championship in the history of the series in which it has competed and every driver, team, manufacturer and tire championship in each of the past three seasons. Michelin has also dominated the 24 Hours of Le Mans, taking overall honors for the last 11 consecutive years. Michelin technical partner teams also won the 2008 Le Mans Series and FIA GT championships.

Michelin and its technical partner teams enter the Utah Grand Prix seeking a 50th consecutive overall ALMS race win. The current 49 ALMS race win string began with Audi R8 drivers JJ Lehto and Marco Werner’s victory at Road America in August 2004 and continued uninterrupted through Gil de Ferran and Simon Pagenaud’s Acura victory at Long Beach in the most recent ALMS event.

From Adelaide to Gatorade, Michelin and its technical partner teams have scored victories at every ALMS race venue, 23 in all, including 11 victories at Sebring and all three previous events at Miller Motorsports Park.  In races run on a wide variety of circuits and conditions, they have won at every ALMS race distance, from 100 minutes to 12 hours.