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2013 American Le Mans Series

The 2013 American Le Mans Series was the fifteenth and final season of the International Motor Sports Association GT Championship being labeled as the American Le Mans Series, before merging up with the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series in 2014.

As the IMSA and Grand-Am merger was announced on September 5, 2012, between NASCAR Holdings (Grand-Am's owner) and Panoz Motorsports, the 2013 season was the transition season as both series were now held under the NASCAR Holdings banner. As such, this is the 43rd season of the series dating back to the 1971 IMSA GT Championship.[1]


It began on March 16 with the 61st running of the 12 Hours of Sebring and ended with the 16th running of the Petit Le Mans on October 19. At the seventh round in Baltimore, Muscle Milk Pickett Racing successfully defended their 2012 Prototype One championship.

On September 17, 2012, it was announced that the prototype had been cleared for entry into the ALMS for 2013.[8]

DeltaWing

On October 26, 2012, announced that it would cease development of the 911 GT3-RSR (Type 997), which had competed in the series since 2005, to focus its efforts on developing its next generation 911 GT3-RSR (Type 991) race car set to debut in 2014. As a result, the development partnership with Flying Lizard Motorsports was discontinued. Porsche will, however, continue to provide support for customer teams continuing to compete with the 911 GT3-RSR (Type 997).[9]

Porsche

On November 15, 2012, announced that they would transition to competing in the GT Challenge category. On that date they confirmed a full-season campaign for their #44 Porsche 911 GT3 Cup entry to be piloted by team principal Seth Neiman and 2-time 24 Hours of Daytona GT class champion Spencer Pumpelly.[10]

Flying Lizard Motorsports

On December 2, 2012, announced that they would stop racing with the M3 GT2 in favour of the BMW Z4 GTE model.[11]

BMW

On December 5, 2012, announced that they would contest the full season with a single Lola B12/60 Toyota P1 Prototype. The team will also enter a second car for at least the 12 Hours of Sebring.[12]

Rebellion Racing

On December 6, 2012, CORE Autosport confirmed their return to the PC category with drivers and Jon Bennett piloting their No. 05 entry. Braun and Bennett will be joined by Mark Wilkins for the 12 Hours of Sebring and Petit Le Mans. The driver lineup for the team's second entry (No. 06) is still pending.[13]

Colin Braun

On December 19, 2012 Paul Miller Racing announced that works driver, Marco Holzer, would join Bryce Miller in competing for the GT championship in the team's 911 GT3-RSR (Type 997). The team also announced the switch to Michelin tires, having previously competed on Dunlop tires.[14]

Porsche

On January 18, 2013, announced their return to the GT class. They will field one Ferrari 458 Italia, with drivers yet to be announced.[15]

Risi Competizione

On January 22, 2013, CORE Autosport announced that it would field a -RSR in GT, in addition to their PC effort. Patrick Long and Tom Kimber-Smith will drive it.[16]

Porsche 997 GT3

will switch to P2 fielding two HPD ARX-03b prototypes, retaining drivers Scott Sharp and Johannes van Overbeek in the No. 01 and Ed Brown and Guy Cosmo in the No. 02.[17]

Extreme Speed Motorsports

1: Car was scored in 1st place in the race results, but was subsequently penalized for a late-race avoidable contact incident, resulting in the team being awarded points and winnings as the 3rd-place finisher. The points and earnings for the 2nd and 3rd place cars were elevated to 1st and 2nd, respectively.