• The 2008 Acura Sports Car Challenge marks the American Le Mans Series’ seventh visit to the 2.25-mie, 13-turn Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.

Eighteen (18) previous event winners with a total of 31 Mid-Ohio victories are entered: Olivier Beretta (2006, 2007 GT1); Jörg Bergmeister (2007 GT2); Timo Bernhard (2005 GT2, 2006 and 2007 overall and LMP2); David Brabham (2002 overall and LMP1); Dindo Capello (2006 LMP1); Romain Dumas (2005 GT2, 2006 and 2007 overall and LMP2); Clint Field (2004 LMP2); Oliver Gavin (2006 and 2007 GT1); Wolf Henzler (2006 GT2); Darren Law (2004 GT); Butch Leitzinger (2005 overall and LMP1); Jan Magnussen (2001 overall and LMP1); Emanuele Pirro (2002 overall and LMP1, 2007 LMP1); Johannes van Overbeek (2004, 2006 and 2007 GT2); Marco Werner (2004 overall and LMP1 and 2007 LMP1) and Bryan Willman (2002 LMP675). Dyson Racing’s Butch Leitzinger and Corvette Racing’s Johnny O’Connell are the only drivers competing at Mid-Ohio in 2008 who have raced their in all six previous American Le Mans Series events. Drivers entered at Mid-Ohio with previous wins in other series include: David Brabham, Adrian Fernandez, Jon Field, Oliver Gavin, Wolf Henzler, Darren Law, Butch Leitzinger, Raphael Matos, Tommy Milner and David Murry.

• Seven (7) former Mid-Ohio Series pole sitters with a total of 15 pole position starts are entered: Timo Bernhard (2004 and 2005 GT2, 2007 overall and LMP2); Dindo Capello (2007 LMP1); Jon Field (2002 and 2004 LMP2); Oliver Gavin (2004, 2005 and 2007 GT1); Patrick Long (2006 GT2); Sascha Maassen (2001 and 2002 GT, 2006 overall and LMP2) and Jaime Melo (2007 GT2).

1. LMP1: Emanuele Pirro and Marco Werner, Audi R10 TDI. In

2008 they are paired with different teammates. Pirro is with Dindo Capello, a previous Mid-Ohio victor. Werner and seatmate Lucas Luhr lead the LMP1 driver point standings

2. LMP2: Timo Bernhard and Romain Dumas, Penske Porsche RS Spyder

3. GT1: Corvette Racing’s Olivier Beretta and Oliver Gavin

4. GT2: Flying Lizard Motorsports’ Jörg Bergmeister and Johannes van Overbeek. Bergmeister will drive with co-championship leader Wolf Henzler. Van Overbeek is paired with Patrick Pilet with same team.

• The Acura Sports Car Challenge marks a "home game" for Acura, which is coming off its first overall Series win at Lime Rock Park. Patrón Highcroft Racing’s David Brabham, the race’s overall polesitter, and Scott Sharp scored the overall victory in dramatic fashion when Brabham passed Penske Racing’s Timo Bernhard with three minutes left.

Patrón Highcroft also scored a class victory earlier this year at Long Beach. Today, Honda of America Manufacturing has grown to more than 12,500 associates at four manufacturing plants and their support facilities in Ohio. If you count other Honda companies in Ohio - Honda Transmission Mfg., Honda R&D - Ohio Center, Honda Trading, and an American Honda service parts and training center, and even a soybean processing plant - Honda's total Ohio employment is nearly 16,000.

That's two-thirds of Honda's total U.S. employment. Acura, the luxury brand of American Honda Motor Co., Inc., has four team entered in LMP2 for Mid-Ohio: Patrón Highcroft Racing, Andretti Green Racing, Lowe’s Fernandez Racing and de Ferran Motorsports. All four teams are running Acura ARX-01b cars built and powered by Honda Performance Development.

• Dublin, Ohio-based Intersport Racing will field two Lola B06/10-AER LMP1 entries starting at Mid-Ohio. Team owner Clint Field will team with father Jon and Richard Berry in one entry.

Series newcomers John Faulkner and Ryan Lewis will be in the other Lola. Both prototypes will be powered by cellulosic E85. The Fields and Berry have finished second in LMP1 at the last two Series rounds.

• LMP2 powerhouse Penske Racing seeks its third consecutive Mid-Ohio overall triumph in 2008, and Timo Bernhard and Romain Dumas also are going for three overall track wins in a row and fourth straight class victory.

They won for Alex Job Racing in 2005 (GT2) before joining Penske in 2006. The team has finished 1-2 overall and in class the last two years Penske Racing also seeks its third straight Mid-Ohio overall pole position start.

Sascha Maassen, paired with Patrick Long is second Penske Porsche Spyder LMP2 entry and third in driver points, is seeking his fourth Mid-Ohio pole after starting up front in 2001 and 2002 (GT) and overall/LMP2 in 2006.

• Corvette Racing is chasing its seventh straight Mid-Ohio GT1 triumph with wins in 2001, 2002, 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007.

Olivier Gavin and Oliver Gavin, who have won the last two races in a row at Mid-Ohio, go for number three and need a win to keep pace with teammates Johnny O’Connell and Jan Magnussen, who have won four of the first five GT1 races in 2008.

• Audi’s revolutionary R10 TDI will be making only its second appearance at Mid-Ohio. Audi won its class (LMP1) last year but is still seeking its first overall victory with the diesel-powered prototype.

Audi Sport North America has won four other times at Mid-Ohio including overall in 2002 and 2004 and 2006 and 2007 LMP1 class victories.

• In GT2, Porsche has reeled off five consecutive Mid-Ohio victories. Johannes van Overbeek seeks its third straight win and his Flying Lizard team hopes to become the first four-time Entrant victor there. Jörg Bergmeister, another Flying Lizard pilot now sharing the class points lead with Wolf Henzler, also boasts a Mid-Ohio victory.

Both Dyson Racing and Penske Racing and are returning to the scene of historic 1-2 overall finishes. Dyson did it first in 2005 in LMP1, a history-making first for the New York-based team and Penske delivered a stunning performance in 2006 when its pair of Porsche RS Spyder’s swept to overall and class (LMP2) victories, and then repeated that feat last year (2007).

• David Brabham returns to Mid-Ohio riding a string of impressive front-running performances. He drove to a GT1 victory at Le Mans for Aston Martin, and then last week at Lime Rock edged past Timo Bernard with less than two minutes remaining in the race on a daring Turn 1 pass to claim the first-ever overall and second LMP1 victory for Acura and his Patrón Highcroft team.

Earlier in the season at Long Beach, Brabham staged a stirring last-minute bump and pass for a Highcroft Acura victory over Penske Porsche’s Romain Dumas, and wrote another important new chapter in the Series record book by becoming the FIRST DRIVER in its history to win in all four classes.

 Brabham also became the first driver to win driving four different marques (Panoz, Ferrari, Aston Martin and Acura) and the first to win in five different race car models (Panoz LMP, Panoz Esperante, Ferrari 550 Maranello, Aston Martin DBR9 and Acura ARX-01b).

Last year at Houston, Brabham also became the only driver to win pole positions in four different classes.

Lucas Luhr is the only driver with wins in three different classes (GT2, LMP1, and LMP2).

• After their Long Beach win with with co-driver Scott Sharp, David Brabham also climbed into a tie with Oliver Gavin as the only two drivers in Series history to win with eight different co-drivers.

Brabham has now won at least one Series race in eight different seasons. Sharp delivered his first Series win.

• Lucas Luhr and Marco Werner, fourth at Le Mans in a 1-4-6 Audi R10 TDI finish, hold the Series LMP1 points lead over Intersport’s Jon/Clint Field, who are coming off a second place finish at Lime Rock Park and coming "home" to race.

The drivers for the second R10 TDI entry will continue to be Emanuele Pirro and two-time defending LMP1 champion Dindo Capello, a recent winner at Le Mans.

• Jon Field, Jan Magnussen, Sascha Maassen, Timo Bernhard and Emmanuel Collard are the only drivers in Series history to win with four different race cars or chassis/engine combinations. 

- Bob Dickinson