Patrón Highcroft Racing enters next week's opening round of the 2010 American Le Mans Series presented by Tequila Patrón with one eye on defending its championship crown and the other on writing a new page in the history books of America's oldest and most challenging endurance race.
The Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring presented by Fresh from Florida provides a unique challenge for the ALMS teams - starting the season with a venue and race distance which is regarded the biggest test of man and machine in international sportscar racing.
The Sebring circuit uses the runways of a former WWII bomber base - the bumps providing the Highcroft crew with a tremendous challenge of ensuring reliability. Taking victory is one thing, but simply finishing 75 percent of the race is imperative. Teams can only score championship points after completeing three-quarters of the race distance.
The team's dedication to reliability was critical last year at Sebring for the team - Highcroft recording a points scoring finish and collecting enough points to maintain its lead in the championship to the very end.
The Honda Performance Development factory team will be armed with the HPD ARX-01c - a development version of the machine with which David Brabham recorded Highcroft's first ever overall victory in 2008.
Brabham is now paired with chief 2009 rival Simon Pagenaud in the #1 entry with Marino Franchitti joining the team for the endurance races.
Sebring has been kind to the Brabham family in the past. David's father Sir Jack clinched his first Formula 1 World Championship at Sebring in 1959, his brothers Geoff and Gary are both overall race winners here and David himself has both GT1 and GT2 victories at Sebring.
For the Sebring and Petit Le Mans endurance classics, the American Le Mans Series will maintain the traditional separate classes for the more powerful and heaver LMP1 cars, and the lighter and more nimble LMP2 entries.
For the remainder of the season, these two classes will be combined. Only full-season entrants are available to score points.
The Sebring honor roll reads like a "who's who" of international motorsport with American legends including Phil Hill, Dan Gurney, Jim Hall, Lloyd Ruby, Mario Andretti and AJ Foyt among the winners. International winners have included Juan Manuel Fangio, Stirling Moss, John Surtees, Bruce McLaren and Jacky Ickx.
Three days of testing kick off Sebring preparations for Highcroft from Monday (March 15) before official practice begins on Thursday (March 18). Qualifying is staged on Friday (March 19) with the 12-hour endurance classic getting the green flag at 10:30am on Saturday (March 20).
DAVID BRABHAM
"The team already knew the ARX-01 car very well and after the testing we have done I feel our preparations have gone extremely well.
"If we look at where we were compared to last year, I think we are in very good shape
"We don't really know what our opposition will be like until we get out on track but we can't be worried too much about anybody else - we have to focus 100% on just doing our job to the best of our abilities.
"Sebring is one of the most important races of the year and we have seen in the past if you don't get the points at Sebring, it makes it very difficult to take the championship.
"Getting to the finish as strongly as we can is our #1 focus. We can't really worry about anybody else."
SIMON PAGENAUD
"Everybody at the shop is really looking forward to getting to the track next week for the first race of the year.
"I'm really looking forward to my first race with Highcroft because I have had such a warm welcome. David and Duncan have done everything they can to make me feel comfortable as part of the team.
"I've had some great battles with Highcroft over the past two years but it is now great to join forces and try and raise the performance even higher.
"Sebring can be very tough mechanically but a victory in LMP2 is certainly our goal, but firstly we have to get to the finish.
"Victory in LMP2 is a realistic goal for us but we know with racing at Sebring anything could happen.
MARINO FRANCHITTI
"I don't think we could be any better prepared. We've made the most out of the testing time we had available and all of it has been at Sebring. We couldn't be going to a better place for the first race.
"The team know the car so well and all the drivers are very comfortable so everyone has that feeling of 'we're ready to go racing' - I can't wait to get started.
"I felt at home here at Highcroft from the moment I walked in the door. Everyone has been so welcoming - that has been very nice.
"I have been up at the shop three or four times and done a couple of tests so it has been nice to really feel part of the team, both on the track and socially as well.
"I've felt like part of the Highcroft family from the very beginning."
SEBRING BY THE NUMBERS
Track Distance: 5.95 km / 3.697 miles
Pole Time: 105.28 seconds
Average Speed: 204 km/h / 127 mph
Fastest Corner: Turn 1
Max Corner Speed: 225 km/h / 140 mph
Max Lat G's: 3.2 G
Max Lat G's: Corner: Turn 1
Slowest Corner: Turn 7
Min Corner Speed: 75 km/h / 47 mph
Top Speed (ARX-02a): 265 km/h / 165 mph
Top Speed (ARX-01c Est): 255 km/h / 158 mph
Full Throttle: 70%
Max Braking G's: 3.0 G
No. of Braking Zones: 9
Gear Changes: 34
Left Turns: 6
Right Turns: 11
No. of Turns: 17
- Second longest circuit in the ALMS
- Fourth highest average speed
- Largest number of turns of all ALMS tracks including most turns right
- Has the equal slowest corner speed for a road course
- Tied with Long Beach and Miller Motorsports Park for the most number of braking zones
- With Road America has the most gear changes per lap
- Rated fourth for maximum number of G's
