The Le Mans Series wrapped up it’s 2007 racing season this past weekend at the Interlagos track in Sao Paulo Brazil, and the Peugeot team finished it’s clean sweep.The new Peugeot 908 HDi diesel powered prototypes took six victories in six races including a pair of one-two finishes. The No 8 car of Marc Gene and Nicolas Minassian led their teammates Pedro Lamy and Stéphane Sarrazin across the line after 1,000 miles of racing, although the latter pair had accumulated enough points over the course of the season to take the championship. Unfortunately the only time the French diesels got to face off against the Audi R10s was at Le Mans where one of the two Audis won.

[Source: AutoBlog]

When not watching racing buddy Helio Castroneves waltzing for his life on ABC’s hit show Dancing with the Stars, Sam Hornish Jr. can be found in all manner of racing cars. Considered one of the Indy Racing League’s star drivers, Hornish Jr. also carries around the accolade of being last year’s Indianapolis 500. After eight seasons of racing IndyCar, however, Hornish Jr. will be be jumping ship and joining fellow Indy-defects and former Indy 500 winners Dario Franchitti, Juan Pablo Montoya and Jacques Villeneuve in the 2008 season of the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series. He’ll be driving the No. 77 Mobil 1 Dodge for Penske Racing with Kurt Busch and Ryan Newman as teammates.

Hornish Jr. has actually already made his NASCAR debut. Last year he began racing in the NASCAR Busch Series, competing in nine races and finishing as high as 15th. He’s attempted to qualify for a Nextel Cup race six times in the past, but hasn’t been fast enough. Hornish Jr. will make one last attempt to qualify for a Nextel Cup race this weekend at Phoenix before officially being announced as Penske’s third driver.

[Source: Autosport.com, Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty]

For the last race of the ALMS season at Laguna Seca, the P1, P2, and GT1 championships had already been wrapped up since Petit Le Mans. Still, the Audi team was out to better the Penske camp for the second race in a row after a close victory at Petit Le Mans. GT2 was the most exciting class, with the driver, team, and manufacturer championships all up for grabs. Risi Competizione came in as a heavy favorite, needing only to finish 70 percent of the race to clinch the team title.

Spoiler Alert: Follow the jump to read what went down.

[Souce: AutoBlog]

We’re about a half an hour away from the driver’s meeting, with the action set to start around 2:30 PM PST. After calling or visiting over 10 different tire shops in the surrounding areas, we weren’t able to secure a new set of tires that were to our liking. Instead, we pilfered a set from the shop (thanks John!) and during the transponder check we were able to see how it feels. The verdict: better, but we weren’t at speed. Jay is the first man behind the wheel (and has more track and traffic experience than any of us here) so we’ll see what he says and then make a few corrections from there. We’ve got a little bit more weight in the rear with a full tank of gas, and if that doesn’t do us any good, there’s a bag of horse feed to my left that weighs 40 pounds. Some (duct tape) assembly required.

Source: AutoBlog

As the new 2008 Cadillac CTS hits the streets and the monster new CTS-V is still somewhere on the horizon, GM has decided to terminate the Cadillac Racing program with the close of the 2007 season. The current racing CTS-V will make its swan song appearance this weekend as the Speed World Challenge takes to the track at Laguna Seca. 2005 champion Andy Pilgrim is sitting in third place right now behind teammate Lawson Aschenbach in second and leader Randy Pobst. The team only needs to score one point to grab the manufacturer’s title. The racing program may be revived after the second generation CTS-V launches later in 2008.

[Source: AutoBlog]

You can make a car that accelerates. You can make a car that brakes. You can make one that handles. One that corners. One with a high top speed. But to make one that does it all is a different story entirely. That’s why automakers go to the Nürburgring. Its northern loop is twenty-two kilometers of twists, turns, dips, straights, chicanes…even a carousel. And it’s got a new champion.

The Pagani Zonda F recently lapped the track that claimed Lauda’s ears in a scant 7:27:82, edging out the previous ruler, the Porsche Carrera GT (which it also rivals for carbon-fiber content in its construction). The Zonda’s hot lap shaved a mere two milliseconds off the Carrera’s time, but those are two milliseconds the German supercar evidently couldn’t muster on its own home track. How embarrassing, ja?

The specific model that hit the high time was a Clubsport version, which itself will be trumped by the even more extreme Zonda R before designer Horacio Pagani goes back to the drawing board for the Zonda’s successor.

[Source: Motor Authority]

Want a cheap racing car? Using one of the cheapest cars on the market would be a good place to start. That’s the idea behind the Dacia Logan Cup, a series of racing mods available for the budget automobile.

The Logan Cup clearly draws on the expertise from its parent company’s in-house motorsports and tuning shop Renaultsport, applying the same formula used on hot versions of the Clio and Megane, but to a much smaller scale. The Dacia Cup is available in three different versions for track, road rally and off-road rally racing. The running gear remains stock to keep the ease and cost of acquisition and servicing down to a bare minimum. Depending on the version, the Logan Cup is then fitted with all manner of racing-spec equipment from roll cage to Bilstein shocks and from rear wing to racing harness.

The packages will be available from Renault and Dacia dealerships wherever Logans are sold – that counts out the American market, for one – and can be used in a variety of low-level racing series, and the manufacturer is organizing regional one-make racing series around the world. The idea is so simple, it just might work.

Check out logan-cup.com for more info and gallery below for more small pics of the small racing car.

Source [Auto Blog]