Weekend Post

Well all of the major series I cover here have an off weekend.  This weekend however does mark the first of the tests for the 79th running of the 24 Hours of LeMans.  This endurance classic will be held on June 11th and 12th, over a month from now.  Right now the course, partially the closed Bugatti Circuit, and part public roads, will host 54 cars.   Teams and drivers who have never ran at Le Mans, including those who have been named alternates, must show up this weekend to retain their eligibility.  The massive turnout of 54 cars is due to a change of regulations in the prototypes, and re grouping of the classes in the GT cars.  The three top contenders from Audi, Peugeot, and Aston Martin will all be turning laps this weekend in new spec prototypes. Other cars of note are the Lotus Evora GTE, making it's Le Mans debut.  Both Oreca and Zytek will be fielding prototypes with hybrid engines, trying to maximize efficiency and gain a speed advantage on the 3.7 mile Mulsanne Straight.  Making a driver debut this weekend is retired Nascar driver Michael Waltrip, who is going to attempt the 24 hours in a Ferrari F430, after two years of racing Ferraris in other competitions, such as 24 hour races in Dubai and on the Nurburgring (Where he finished on podium in his class.

Robertson is hoping to field two Ford GTs this year at the 24

Audi's stunning R18 testing at Paul Ricard earlier this week

A lot of the comments I've gotten on the race weekend threads are Formula 1 related, so with the lack of a race this weekend, I'm posting the current series standings for you guys, all together in one place.
1     Red Bull     105    (P1 Vettel, P4 Weber)
2     McLaren       85    (P2 Hamilton, P3 Button)
3     Ferrari         50    (P5 Alonso, P6 Massa)
4     Renault       32    (P7 Petrov, P8 Heidfeld)
5     Mercedes     16    (P9 Rosberg, P11 Schumacher)
6     Sauber          7    (P10 Kobayashi, P21 Perez)
7     Torro Rosso   4    (P12 Buemi, P15 Alguersuari)
8     Force India    4    (P13 Sutil, P14 di Resta)
9     Lotus            0    (P16 Trulli, P19 Kovalainen)

10   Williams        0    (P17 Barrichello, P22 Maldonado)
11   Virgin            0    (P18 d'Ambrosio, P20 Glock)
12   HRT              0    (P23 Liuzzi, P24 Karthikeyan)

Next week we will have Indycar racing from the streets of Sao Paulo Brazil, which produced close competition on an unproven road surface.  There will also be an event from Rally America in Ocean Shores, Washington, aka. the Olympus Rally.  Until then Happy Easter.