The OTHER race this weekend...

My article from today's races and other activity is here:
http://motorsport.com/news/article.asp?ID=346677

Elsewhere, a world away at Road Atlanta, it is the eve of Petit Le Mans - a race many have eagerly awaited with incredible anticipation for what could potentially be one of the greatest sports car races, EVER.

Okay, that might be a bit hyperbolic. Nonetheless, with Peugeot, Audi, Oreca and the new Drayson Racing Lola Judd joining the P1 field, facing the factory Acuras, the stage is set for an amazing battle for supremacy and an absolute barnburner of a race. I can only imagine what it is like to be there.

The stories so far have been Scott Sharp's devastating crash in the Patron Highcroft Acura on Thursday, completely writing off the team's primary ARX-02a, and the stunning grid in GT2. David Murry scored a shock pole for Robertson Racing in their Doran Ford GT-R, over the returning LG Motorsports Corvette C6 piloted in qualifying by youngster Tom Sutherland.

It's a case of history repeating itself for Sharp, who had a similar practice accident at that event last year, and missed the start. On this occasion the team has brought in a backup chassis from HPD and spent all of today preparing it, the aim to make it on track for morning warmup tomorrow.

GT2 sees two privateer entries beating out all the highly-backed factory efforts from Corvette, BMW/Rahal Letterman, Flying Lizard Porsche, Risi Ferrari, etc. Although a 1000-mile/10-hr race doesn't penalize those who botched qualifying as much as a usual ALMS race, it's still a highly noteworthy achievement.

I feel like I know everything about what's going on there thanks to the incredibly comprehensive coverage SPEEDTV.com has provided thanks to Marshall Pruett and John Dagys, both friends and colleagues. From reading their reports, I can tell those two have worked their asses off and Dagys especially has done a bang-up job, even going as an embedded tire data analyst with Lord Drayson's team.

I should get back to plugging my own outlets now, so check motorsport.com for more from this weekend's SCCA Runoffs, my Twitter page (twitter.com/tonydizinno) and The Marquette Tribune for school stories. The Tribune isn't racing-related but naturally I'll recommend it since for most days as a current student, that occupies a bulk of time.

Should get some sleep, and more to come tomorrow. Out for now, cheers.