Race of a Thousand Years

The 2000 Race of a Thousand Years was an endurance race and the final round of the 2000 American Le Mans Series. It was run on the Adelaide Street Circuit in Australia on New Year's Eve, 31 December 2000. The race was run on the full 3.780 km (2.349 mi) Grand Prix circuit used by Formula One for the Australian Grand Prix between 1985–1995, rather than the shorter 3.219 km (2.001 mi) Supercars version of the circuit used since 1999. The Race of a Thousand Years was intended to be run for 1000 kilometres but was stopped short due to time constraints, two hours before midnight, after completing 850 kilometres.

Background

Like the 1999 Le Mans Fuji 1000 km, the Race of a Thousand Years was intended as a precursor to a planned Asia-Pacific Le Mans Series (APLMS) run by Don Panoz and the Professional Sports Car Racing body, just as the Silverstone and Nürburgring events earlier in the season were for the European Le Mans Series (ELMS). After a small number of entrants for the European series in 2001, as well as a lack of entrants for a third Asian-Pacific exhibition event at the Sepang Circuit, the APLMS plans were cancelled.

The race was the final of twelve endurance sports car racing rounds of the 2000 American Le Mans Series and took place at the Adelaide Street Circuit on 31 December 2000.[1] The event was the first in a nine-year contract, but was abandoned after only one. Over 135,000 fans attended the race meeting, with almost 70,000 of them in attendance on race day. Organisers expected around 200,000 people in attendance during the race weekend.[1]

Race Summary

By completing the first 25 laps (and in the lead after having passed teammate Frank Biela on lap 17), Allan McNish became the 2000 American Le Mans Series LMP Drivers' Champion. McNish and teammate Rinaldo Capello completed 225 laps in their Audi Sport North America R8. Australian driver Brad Jones had also qualified the R8 but did not drive in the race. Jones, the team owner and lead driver of Audi's factory backed Super Touring team in Australia, was on stand-by for Scotsman McNish who had injured his back a few days before the race while stepping out of his kilt after a photo shoot and had spent the day before the race flat on his back in bed in a successful effort to be fit to race. The Audi team suffered a setback on the morning of the race when Capello crashed the R8 (painted in crocodile livery in honour of the host country Australia) into the tyre barriers on the outside of turn six. However the team were able to repair the car to allow McNish to start.

The GTS class was won by Olivier Beretta, Karl Wendlinger and Dominique Dupuy who piloted their Team Oreca Dodge Viper GTS-R (known as a Chrysler Viper in Australia) to 3rd outright, while finishing 5th outright were the GT class winners Dirk Müller and Lucas Luhr in their Dick Barbour Racing Porsche 911 GT3-R.

McNish (Audi), Portuguese driver Ni Amorim (Viper) and German Luhr (Porsche) set the fastest laps in their respective classes, with McNish's time of 1:25.2189 being the fastest ever non-Formula One race lap of the Adelaide circuit (compared to the outright lap record of 1:15.381 set by Damon Hill in a Williams FW15C-Renault during the 1993 Australian Grand Prix).

The winning Rinaldo Capello / Allan McNish crocodile liveried Audi R8 driven early in the race by McNish.

Top 10 Qualifiers

Pos No Team Driver Car Time Gap
Pole 77 Germany Audi Sport North America Italy Rinaldo Capello Audi R8 1:23.8038
2 78 Germany Audi Sport North America Germany Frank Biela Audi R8 1:23.9783 0.1745
3 12 United States Panoz Motor Sports Australia David Brabham Panoz LMP-1 Roadster-S 1:24.9890 1.1852
4 2 United States Panoz Motor Sports United States Johnny O'Connell Panoz LMP-1 Roadster-S 1:25.1683 1.3645
5 1 United States Panoz Motor Sports Denmark Jan Magnussen Panoz LMP07 1:26.8596 3.0558
6 31 France Motorola DAMS France Éric Bernard Cadillac Northstar LMP 1:27.5513 3.7475
7 32 France Motorola DAMS France Christophe Tinseau Cadillac Northstar LMP 1:27.7513 3.9475
8 0 Italy Team Rafanelli SRL Italy Domenico Schiattarella Lola B2K/10 1:28.8167 5.0129
9 28 Germany Konrad Motorsport Austria Franz Konrad Lola B2K/10 1:32.9607 9.1569
10 91 France Viper Team Oreca Monaco Olivier Beretta Dodge Viper GTS-R 1:34.6027 10.7989

Official results

Class winners in bold.

Pos Class No Team Drivers Chassis Tyre Laps
Engine
1 LMP 77 Germany Audi Sport North America Italy Rinaldo Capello
United Kingdom Allan McNish
Australia Brad Jones
Audi R8 M 225
Audi 3.6L Turbo V8
2 LMP 28 Germany Konrad Motorsport Austria Franz Konrad
United States Charles Slater
Australia Alan Heath
Lola B2K/10 G 204
Ford (Roush) 6.0L V8
3 GTS 91 France Viper Team Oreca Monaco Olivier Beretta
Austria Karl Wendlinger
France Dominique Dupuy
Dodge Viper GTS-R M 202
Chrysler 8.0L V10
4 GTS 92 France Viper Team Oreca France Jean-Philippe Belloc
Portugal Ni Amorim
Dodge Viper GTS-R M 202
Dodge Chrysler 8.0L V10
5 GT 5 United States Dick Barbour Racing Germany Dirk Müller
Germany Lucas Luhr
Porsche 911 GT3-R M 199
Porsche 3.6L Flat-6
6 GT 15 United States Dick Barbour Racing Mexico Randy Wars
Canada John Graham
Germany Christian Menzel
Porsche 911 GT3-R M 191
Porsche 3.6L Flat-6
7 GT 6 United States Prototype Technology Group (PTG) United States Terry Borcheller
United States Anthony Lazzaro
BMW M3 Y 190
BMW 3.2L I6
8 GTS 61 United Kingdom Chamberlain Motorsport Venezuela Milka Duno
South Africa Stephen Watson
Australia Ray Lintott
Chrysler Viper GTS-R M 190
Chrysler 8.0L V10
9 LMP 12 United States Panoz Motor Sports Australia David Brabham
New Zealand Greg Murphy
Australia Jason Bright
Panoz LMP-1 Roadster-S M 190
Élan 6L8 6.0L V8
10 GT 10 United States Prototype Technology Group (PTG) United States Brian Cunningham
United States Bill Auberlen
Sweden Niclas Jönsson
BMW M3 Y 190
BMW 3.2L I6
11 GT 66 United States The Racer's Group United States Robert Orcutt
Australia Darren Palmer
Australia Christian D'Agostin
Porsche 911 GT3-R P 188
Porsche 3.6L Flat-6
12 GT 8 Switzerland Haberthur Racing France Patrick Vuillaume
Austria Manfred Jurasz
Spain Francesc Gutiérrez
Porsche 911 GT3-R D 187
Porsche 3.6L Flat-6
13
DNF
LMP 0 Italy Team Rafanelli SRL Italy Domenico Schiattarella
Belgium Didier de Radigues
Germany Norman Simon
Lola B2K/10 M 183
Judd GV4 (Rafanelli) 4.0L V10
14 GT 30 United States White Lightning Racing United States Mike Fitzgerald
United States Randy Pobst
Porsche 911 GT3-R M 178
Porsche 3.6L Flat-6
15 LMP 78 Germany Audi Sport North America Germany Frank Biela
Italy Emanuele Pirro
Audi R8 M 170
Audi 3.6L Turbo V8
16 GT 70 Australia Skea Racing International United Kingdom Johnny Mowlem
United Kingdom Richard Dean
Porsche 911 GT3-R P 164
Porsche 3.6L Flat-6
17 GT 51 United States Dick Barbour Racing Germany Sascha Maassen
France Bob Wollek
Porsche 911 GT3-R M 162
Porsche 3.6L Flat-6
18
DNF
GT 69 Canada Kyser Racing Canada Kye Wankum
United States Joe Foster
Canada Jeff Pabst
Porsche 911 GT3-R P 159
Porsche 3.6L Flat-6
19
DNF
LMP 31 France Motorola DAMS France Éric Bernard
France Emmanuel Collard
Cadillac Northstar LMP M 72
Cadillac Northstar 4.0L Turbo V8
20
DNF
LMP 32 France Motorola DAMS France Christophe Tinseau
Belgium Marc Goossens
Cadillac Northstar LMP M 54
Cadillac Northstar 4.0L Turbo V8
21
DNF
GT 71 Australia Skea Racing International United States Doc Bundy
Australia Rohan Skea
Australia Des Wall
Porsche 911 GT3-R P 53
Porsche 3.6L Flat-6
22
DNF
GT 7 United States Prototype Technology Group (PTG) Germany Hans-Joachim Stuck
United States Boris Said
United States Johannes van Overbeek
BMW M3 Y 30
BMW 3.2L I6
23
DNF
GTS 37 United States Intersport Racing United States Vic Rice
United States Kevin Buckler
Porsche 911 GT2 D 19
Porsche 3.8L Turbo Flat-6
24
DNF
LMP 1 United States Panoz Motor Sports Denmark Jan Magnussen
Germany Klaus Graf
Panoz LMP07 M 2
Élan (Zytek) 4.0L V8
DSQ LMP 2 United States Panoz Motor Sports Japan Hiroki Katoh
United States Johnny O'Connell
Germany Klaus Graf
Panoz LMP-1 Roadster-S M 187
Élan 6L8 6.0L V8

† – No. 2 Panoz was disqualified for allowing an unassigned driver, Klaus Graf, to drive the car during the race.

Statistics

  • Pole Position – Rinaldo Capello – No. 77 Audi Sport North America – 1:23.804
  • Fastest Lap – Allan McNish – No. 77 Audi Sport North America – 1:25.219
  • Average Speed – 148.048 km/h

References

  1. Frank, Michael (14 December 2000). "Adelaide: Race of a Thousand Years". Forbes. Retrieved 6 April 2018.
  • Auto Action, 12–18 January 2001
  • Official Program, Adelaide Race of a Thousand Years, 29–31 December 2000
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