Race of a Thousand Years

File:Adelaide (long route).svg

Adelaide Street Circuit

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. 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.

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. Only being a guest driver who'd never even driven the car until practice (nor had he driven a race car as expensive), Jones admitted that despite knowing the circuit well, he was some 4 seconds slower than both McNish and Capello so it was probably a good thing he didn't get to drive. 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 powered by a Renault V10 engine during the 1993 Australian Grand Prix).

File:2000 Thousand Years winning Audi R8.jpg

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	Template:Flagicon Audi Sport North America	Template:Flagicon Rinaldo Capello	Audi R8	1:23.8038	—
2	78	Template:Flagicon Audi Sport North America	Template:Flagicon Frank Biela	Audi R8	1:23.9783	0.1745
3	12	Template:Flagicon Panoz Motor Sports	Template:Flagicon David Brabham	Panoz LMP-1 Roadster-S	1:24.9890	1.1852
4	2	Template:Flagicon Panoz Motor Sports	Template:Flagicon Johnny O'Connell	Panoz LMP-1 Roadster-S	1:25.1683	1.3645
5	1	Template:Flagicon Panoz Motor Sports	Template:Flagicon Jan Magnussen	Panoz LMP07	1:26.8596	3.0558
6	31	Template:Flagicon Motorola DAMS	Template:Flagicon Éric Bernard	Cadillac Northstar LMP	1:27.5513	3.7475
7	32	Template:Flagicon Motorola DAMS	Template:Flagicon Christophe Tinseau	Cadillac Northstar LMP	1:27.7513	3.9475
8	0	Template:Flagicon Team Rafanelli SRL	Template:Flagicon Domenico Schiattarella	Lola B2K/10	1:28.8167	5.0129
9	28	Template:Flagicon Konrad Motorsport	Template:Flagicon Franz Konrad	Lola B2K/10	1:32.9607	9.1569
10	91	Template:Flagicon Viper Team Oreca	Template:Flagicon 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	Template:Flagicon Audi Sport North America	Template:Flagicon Rinaldo Capello Template:Flagicon Allan McNish Template:Flagicon Brad Jones	Audi R8	M	225
					Audi 3.6L Turbo V8
2	LMP	28	Template:Flagicon Konrad Motorsport	Template:Flagicon Franz Konrad Template:Flagicon Charles Slater Template:Flagicon Alan Heath	Lola B2K/10	G	204
					Ford (Roush) 6.0L V8
3	GTS	91	Template:Flagicon Viper Team Oreca	Template:Flagicon Olivier Beretta Template:Flagicon Karl Wendlinger Template:Flagicon Dominique Dupuy	Dodge Viper GTS-R	M	202
					Chrysler 8.0L V10
4	GTS	92	Template:Flagicon Viper Team Oreca	Template:Flagicon Jean-Philippe Belloc Template:Flagicon Ni Amorim	Dodge Viper GTS-R	M	202
					Dodge Chrysler 8.0L V10
5	GT	5	Template:Flagicon Dick Barbour Racing	Template:Flagicon Dirk Müller Template:Flagicon Lucas Luhr	Porsche 911 GT3-R	M	199
					Porsche 3.6L Flat-6
6	GT	15	Template:Flagicon Dick Barbour Racing	Template:Flagicon Randy Wars Template:Flagicon John Graham Template:Flagicon Christian Menzel	Porsche 911 GT3-R	M	191
					Porsche 3.6L Flat-6
7	GT	6	Template:Flagicon Prototype Technology Group (PTG)	Template:Flagicon Terry Borcheller Template:Flagicon Anthony Lazzaro	BMW M3	Y	190
					BMW 3.2L I6
8	GTS	61	Template:Flagicon Chamberlain Motorsport	Template:Flagicon Milka Duno Template:Flagicon Stephen Watson Template:Flagicon Ray Lintott	Chrysler Viper GTS-R	M	190
					Chrysler 8.0L V10
9	LMP	12	Template:Flagicon Panoz Motor Sports	Template:Flagicon David Brabham Template:Flagicon Greg Murphy Template:Flagicon Jason Bright	Panoz LMP-1 Roadster-S	M	190
					Élan 6L8 6.0L V8
10	GT	10	Template:Flagicon Prototype Technology Group (PTG)	Template:Flagicon Brian Cunningham Template:Flagicon Bill Auberlen Template:Flagicon Niclas Jönsson	BMW M3	Y	190
					BMW 3.2L I6
11	GT	66	Template:Flagicon The Racer's Group	Template:Flagicon Robert Orcutt Template:Flagicon Darren Palmer Template:Flagicon Christian D'Agostin	Porsche 911 GT3-R	P	188
					Porsche 3.6L Flat-6
12	GT	8	Template:Flagicon Haberthur Racing	Template:Flagicon Patrick Vuillaume Template:Flagicon Manfred Jurasz Template:Flagicon Francesc Gutiérrez	Porsche 911 GT3-R	D	187
					Porsche 3.6L Flat-6
13 DNF	LMP	0	Template:Flagicon Team Rafanelli SRL	Template:Flagicon Domenico Schiattarella Template:Flagicon Didier de Radigues Template:Flagicon Norman Simon	Lola B2K/10	M	183
					Judd GV4 (Rafanelli) 4.0L V10
14	GT	30	Template:Flagicon White Lightning Racing	Template:Flagicon Mike Fitzgerald Template:Flagicon Randy Pobst	Porsche 911 GT3-R	M	178
					Porsche 3.6L Flat-6
15	LMP	78	Template:Flagicon Audi Sport North America	Template:Flagicon Frank Biela Template:Flagicon Emanuele Pirro	Audi R8	M	170
					Audi 3.6L Turbo V8
16	GT	70	Template:Flagicon Skea Racing International	Template:Flagicon Johnny Mowlem Template:Flagicon Richard Dean	Porsche 911 GT3-R	P	164
					Porsche 3.6L Flat-6
17	GT	51	Template:Flagicon Dick Barbour Racing	Template:Flagicon Sascha Maassen Template:Flagicon Bob Wollek	Porsche 911 GT3-R	M	162
					Porsche 3.6L Flat-6
18 DNF	GT	69	Template:Flagicon Kyser Racing	Template:Flagicon Kye Wankum Template:Flagicon Joe Foster Template:Flagicon Jeff Pabst	Porsche 911 GT3-R	P	159
					Porsche 3.6L Flat-6
19 DNF	LMP	31	Template:Flagicon Motorola DAMS	Template:Flagicon Éric Bernard Template:Flagicon Emmanuel Collard	Cadillac Northstar LMP	M	72
					Cadillac Northstar 4.0L Turbo V8
20 DNF	LMP	32	Template:Flagicon Motorola DAMS	Template:Flagicon Christophe Tinseau Template:Flagicon Marc Goossens	Cadillac Northstar LMP	M	54
					Cadillac Northstar 4.0L Turbo V8
21 DNF	GT	71	Template:Flagicon Skea Racing International	Template:Flagicon Doc Bundy Template:Flagicon Rohan Skea Template:Flagicon Des Wall	Porsche 911 GT3-R	P	53
					Porsche 3.6L Flat-6
22 DNF	GT	7	Template:Flagicon Prototype Technology Group (PTG)	Template:Flagicon Hans-Joachim Stuck Template:Flagicon Boris Said Template:Flagicon Johannes van Overbeek	BMW M3	Y	30
					BMW 3.2L I6
23 DNF	GTS	37	Template:Flagicon Intersport Racing	Template:Flagicon Vic Rice Template:Flagicon Kevin Buckler	Porsche 911 GT2	D	19
					Porsche 3.8L Turbo Flat-6
24 DNF	LMP	1	Template:Flagicon Panoz Motor Sports	Template:Flagicon Jan Magnussen Template:Flagicon Klaus Graf	Panoz LMP07	M	2
					Élan (Zytek) 4.0L V8
DSQ†	LMP	2	Template:Flagicon Panoz Motor Sports	Template:Flagicon Hiroki Katoh Template:Flagicon Johnny O'Connell Template:Flagicon 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

• Auto Action, 12–18 January 2001
• Official Program, Adelaide Race of a Thousand Years, 29–31 December 2000

External links

• Official results, www.imsaracing.net, as archived at web.archive.org
• www.lemansadelaide.com.au, as archived at web.archive.org