Road racers

There are essentially two sports car racing series in America: The Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series and the American Le Mans Series. With the number of manufacturers in each series, it makes both fun to follow. But each series has as many as four classes of cars that race together, and actually watching a race can be painful.
The American Le Mans Series races in Long Beach. It made its first appearance in the Grand Prix of Long Beach in 2007 and will be back in 2008. The closest the Grand Am Series comes to L.A. is Laguna Seca in Monterey and Infineon Raceway in Sonoma.
Here are the nominees.

Max Angelelli won two races in a Pontiac-Riley in the Daytona Prototype class of the Grand-Am Series and was third in the series standings. He teamed with Jan Magnussen to win the race in Montreal, Canada. His teammates this year included Jeff Gordon and Memo Gidley.

Olivier Beretta and Oliver Gavin won nine races driving for Corvette Racing in the GT1 class of the American Le Mans Series. They won the season opening 12 Hours of Sebring, seven poles and finished on the podium (top-three) in all 12 races. Beretta became the first driver to win five ALMS championships. It was the third straight ALMS championship for Beretta and Gavin and the seventh straight manufacturer's championship for Chevrolet in the ALMS.

Timo Bernhard and Romain Dumas won eight races in Porsche Spyder for Penske Racing the LMP2 class of the American Le Mans Series. They beat the more powerful LMP1 class cars in six of those races. Prior to this year, an LMP2 class car has won only two races. They had five poles and 11 podium finishes in 12 races.

Rinaldo Capello and Allan McNish, driving for Audi Sport North America, won their second straight LMP1 class championship in the American Le Mans Series. They won nine races and set the ALMS record for most wins in a season. It was the third championship for McNish and the second for Capello.

Jon Fogarty and Alex Gurney, racing a Pontiac-Riley, were the Daytona Prototype champions in the Grand-Am Series. They won seven races, including Infineon Raceway, and 10 poles.

Scott Pruett in a Lexus-Riley for Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates won two Daytona Prototype races in the Grand-Am Series. He teamed with Juan Pablo Montoya and Salvador Duran to win the 24 Hours of Daytona. He also had eight podiums and was second in the Grand Am Series Daytona Prototype standings.

Tomorrow: Drag racers