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 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. 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.
Calendar
The calendar was announced October 18, 2012. The race at the Circuit of the Americas near Austin, Texas, was previously announced in June 2012, and a combined event with the Rolex Sports Car Series at Road America was announced on September 28, 2012. The event at Mid-Ohio, a joint weekend with the IndyCar Series, was not renewed. The event at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca was initially scheduled on May 18. However, with this date conflicting with the 24 Hours Nürburgring, the series opted to move the event up one week to May 11. The event was also shortened from 6 hours to 4 hours.
On September 17, 2012, it was announced that the DeltaWing prototype had been cleared for entry into the ALMS for 2013.
On October 26, 2012, Porsche announced that it would cease development of the 911 GT3-RSR, which had competed in the series since 2005, to focus its efforts on developing its next generation 911 GT3-RSR 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.
On November 15, 2012, Flying Lizard Motorsports 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.
On December 2, 2012, BMW announced that they would stop racing with the M3 GT2 in favour of the Z4 model.
On December 5, 2012, Rebellion Racing announced that they would contest the full season with a single Lola B12/60Toyota P1 Prototype. The team will also enter a second car for at least the 12 Hours of Sebring.
On December 6, 2012, CORE Autosport confirmed their return to the PC category with drivers Colin Braun 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 is still pending.
On January 22, 2013, CORE Autosport announced that it would field a Porsche 997 GT3-RSR in GT, in addition to their PC effort. Patrick Long and Tom Kimber-Smith will drive it.
Points were awarded to the top ten cars and drivers which complete at least 70% of their class winner's distance. Teams with multiple entries only score the points of their highest finishing entry in each race. Drivers were required to drive a minimum of 45 minutes to earn points, except for the Long Beach event which required only 30 minutes. Drivers are required to complete a particular amount of the minimum number of laps in order to earn points. The number of laps vary depending on the course size.
Team championships
Teams with full season entries are awarded points in the team championships. Teams which participated in a partial season or on a race-by-race basis are not included in these championships.
P1 standings
P2 standings
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.
Drivers who participated in races but failed to score points over the course of the season are not listed.
P1 standings
Pos
Driver
Team
SEB
LBH
LGA
LRP
MOS
RAM
BGP
AUS
VIR
PLM
Total
1
Klaus Graf
Muscle Milk Pickett Racing
20
20
22
20
20
20
20
20
20
0
182
1
Lucas Luhr
Muscle Milk Pickett Racing
20
20
22
20
20
20
20
20
20
0
182
2
Nick Heidfeld
Rebellion Racing
24
16
18
24
82
2
Neel Jani
Rebellion Racing
24
16
18
24
82
3
Chris McMurry
Dyson Racing
16
16
16
20
68
3
Tony Burgess
Dyson Racing
16
16
16
20
68
4
Chris Dyson
Dyson Racing
0
0
0
16
16
20
52
5
Nicolas Prost
Rebellion Racing
24
24
48
6
Guy Smith
Dyson Racing
0
0
0
16
16
16
48
7
Andy Meyrick
DeltaWing Racing Cars
0
0
0
0
13
13
0
0
26
7
Katherine Legge
DeltaWing Racing Cars
0
0
0
13
13
0
0
26
8
Romain Dumas
Muscle Milk Pickett Racing
20
0
20
9
Johnny Mowlem
Dyson Racing
16
16
P2 standings
Pos
Driver
Team
SEB
LBH
LGA
LRP
MOS
RAM
BGP
AUS
VIR
PLM
Total
1
Scott Tucker
Level 5 Motorsports
24
13
22
10
20
20
0
20
20
24
173
2
Scott Sharp
Extreme Speed Motorsports
14
20
15
20
16
16
16
10
16
20
163
3
Guy Cosmo
Extreme Speed Motorsports
14
20
15
20
16
16
154
3
Guy Cosmo
Level 5 Motorsports
20
16
0
17
154
4
Marino Franchitti
Level 5 Motorsports
24
10
22
16
20
13
20
16
0
0
141
5
Ryan Briscoe
Level 5 Motorsports
24
13
18
10
0
20
20
24
129
6
Anthony Lazzaro
Extreme Speed Motorsports
17
16
10
16
20
79
7
Johannes van Overbeek
Extreme Speed Motorsports
17
16
0
13
10
0
0
13
0
0
69
7
Ed Brown
Extreme Speed Motorsports
17
16
0
13
10
0
0
13
0
0
69
8
Simon Pagenaud
Level 5 Motorsports
20
20
40
9
David Brabham
Extreme Speed Motorsports
0
20
20
10
Ryan Hunter-Reay
Level 5 Motorsports
20
20
11
Jonny Kane
Level 5 Motorsports
17
17
11
Peter Dumbreck
Level 5 Motorsports
17
17
12
Mike Conway
Level 5 Motorsports
13
13
13
Ricardo González
Level 5 Motorsports
13
13
14
Stefan Johansson
Level 5 Motorsports
13
13
PC standings
Drivers in the PC category are allowed to drive for more than one car during an event. If a driver is in each car for a minimum of two hours each, he is allowed to score the points from whichever car he chooses.
#1 Audi Sport Team Joest
#551 Level 5 Motorsports
Marcel Fässler
Benoît Tréluyer
Oliver Jarvis
Ryan Briscoe
David Ostella
Jeroen Bleekemolen
Maxime Martin
Luis Díaz
Jan Magnussen
Antonio García
Bruno Junqueira
Nelson Canache Jr.
Damien Faulkner
Olivier Beretta
Matteo Malucelli
Stefan Johansson
Richard Lietz