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The American Le Mans Series presented by Tequila Patrón (ALMS) was a sports car racing series based in the United States and Canada. It consisted of a series of endurance and sprint races, and was created in the spirit of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The American Le Mans' headquarters was in Braselton, Georgia, adjacent to Road Atlanta. In 2014, the series merged with the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.alms.com/articles/welcome-future-sports-car-racing )〕〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.alms.com/articles/reveal-save-date )〕 to form the United SportsCar Championship. ==History== The series was created by Braselton, Georgia-based businessman Don Panoz and ran its first season in 1999.〔 〕 Panoz created a partnership with the Automobile Club de L'Ouest (ACO), the organizers of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, to begin a 10-hour race in the spirit of Le Mans, dubbed the Petit Le Mans. The inaugural Petit Le Mans took place in 1998 as a part of the Professional SportsCar Racing series, in which Panoz was an investor. For 1999, the series changed its name to the American Le Mans Series, and adopted the ACO's rulebook. The partnership with the ACO allowed ALMS teams to earn automatic entries in the Le Mans 24 Hours. This was a practice that began with the inaugural Petit Le Mans, a practice that continues today, where 1st and 2nd place teams in each class earn entries to the next year's 24 Hours. The ALMS race at Adelaide in 2000 also received automatic entries.〔(Motorsport.com: News channel )〕 Invitations were extended to the series champions beginning in 2003, for the 2004 race.〔(Motorsport.com: News channel )〕 The ACO has always given high consideration to teams competing in ALMS races, and many ALMS teams have seen success in the 24 Hours. The series began with eight races in 1999, beginning with the 12 Hours of Sebring, and ending at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The schedule expanded to 12 races in 2000, including two races in Europe, and one in Australia. In subsequent years, the European races disappeared, with the creation of the short-lived European Le Mans Series, and later the Le Mans Series. The series also began to move away from the rovals, road courses in the infield of large superspeedways, at Charlotte Motor Speedway, Las Vegas, and Texas Motor Speedway. Lately, the series has visited more temporary street courses, many in conjunction with the Indy Racing League, at cities such as St. Petersburg, Florida and Long Beach, California. The series has raced at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, Mosport, Road Atlanta and Sebring in every year of its existence. Since 2011, Labor Day weekend, they've visited Baltimore, Maryland for a street circuit race. The series was the first motorsport racing series in North America to be recognized by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (the EPA), the United States Department of Energy and the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE International) as a "Green Racing Series", and is planned to hold an all-new series implemented on series races dedicated to the environment by holding their first-ever ''Green Challenge'' during the 2008 Petit Le Mans and would continue at least up to the entire 2009 season.〔 〕 In 2010 the American Le Mans Series signed its first title sponsorship agreement, with Tequila Patrón becoming a presenting sponsor for three seasons.〔 〕 On September 5, 2012, the series announced that they would fully merge in 2014 with Grand-Am Road Racing under the banner of the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship, with the International Motor Sports Association. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「American Le Mans Series」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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