Photo by John Thawley Detroit — As the 2007 American Le Mans Series Championship hits the home stretch, it appears that even a change in tires can’t change Intersport Racing’s tough luck, Following an announcement that Intersport Racing and Kumho Tires had suspended their LMP1 tire development program the team is using Dunlop tires for the rest of the season.

But the #37 Very Berry Exotics, Judd Powered Creation’s problem was not tires at the Grand Prix of Mosport. While enjoying a solid performance, a rear shaft gave way in the latter stages of the 2 hour and 45 minute race.

“We’re pretty frustrated,” commented crew chief, Brian Alder. “These mechanical failures rob us of the opportunity to work on positive changes to the car. We’re chasing reliability issues when we should be focused on performance issues. The change to Dunlop tires was the right choice, after all,  they have some history with this chassis. They supply the European Creation cars in the LMS and have had fairly good success. We had to do some fabricating to grow the rear wheel openings, but so far, the change appears to have us heading in the right direction. So, I think it’s a good change. Though that’s not to say we’re not still searching for the right combination. We’re determined to move this program further up the grid.”

Intersport had been running Kumho's new LMP1 tire for the past eight races on the team's Judd-powered Creation CA06-H. The team achieved five consecutive LMP1 podium finishes with the tires.

Compounding Alder’s workload is the daunting situation of this month’s back-to-back races as the team will move directly from Mosport International in Bowmanville, Ontario to Belle Isle in Detroit.

“We won’t have time to return to our home base in Dublin, Ohio,” noted Alder. “We’ll have to make repairs and go through the car once we arrive at Belle Isle. I’m fortunate to have a great crew working with me... they don’t quit. And, since Detroit is a new circuit for all the teams, it will level the playing field a little bit.”

Clint Field spoke about the challenges the team faces over the final three events.

“We’ve got our work cut out for us,” said Clint. “We still have hopes for that third spot in the LMP1 championship. We never had any fantasy of catching the Audis, but we do feel we’re the rightful owners of the top spot in the non-diesel segment of the class. Right now, we’re focused on getting on the podium in Detroit and then heading home. Once back at the shop, we’ll sit down as a team and review all of our options. The break between Detroit and Petit Le Mans will give us the necessary time to go over everything and make some decisions. Obviously, these recent reliability issues will be magnified in a 10 hour race like Peitit. We need to get it right.”

The next round of the American Le Mans Series is the Detroit Sports Car Challenge presented by Bosch from Belle Isle in Detroit. The race will begin at 3 p.m. ET on Saturday, September 1. The race will be televised on SPEED from 9:30 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. ET. American Le Mans Radio and IMSA's Live Timing & Scoring will be available at americanlemans.com.

The American Le Mans Series features 12 races in 2007, including the prestigious season-opening Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring (March 17) and the 1,000-mile/10-hour Petit Le Mans. All other races are sprint endurance formats, ranging from an hour, 40 minutes at Long Beach to four hours at both Road America and the Series finale at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. All events are televised by CBS, NBC or SPEED.

Very Berry Exotics specializes in buying and selling some of the world's more exotics and hard to find automobiles. Not only do they sell cars already in the inventory, Very Berry Exotics will search for automobiles that are their customer's dream cars. Company owner Richard Berry founded Very Berry Exotics in 2004 and is himself a racer.

Based in Chicago, Klein Tools is a family-owned and operated company which has been in business since 1857, designing, developing, producing and marketing worldwide quality tools and protective equipment to meet the demanding needs of trade professionals who earn a living with their tools. The company, which initially grew as the premier plier manufacturer for the telecommunications and electrical industries, offers hand tools used in construction, electronics, mining, electrical, communications, aviation, security, audio/video and other fields.

Klein Tools, which employs approximately 1,000 people nationwide, began its motorsports association to support the marketing efforts of the company and its distributorships in key markets. Klein Tools’ motorsports sponsorship has also led to the development of products specifically designed for the motor racing industry including spark plug pliers and protective wheel gun covers now used by sports car and open wheel racing teams.

The American Le Mans Series is the premium brand of motorsport in North America, featuring high-tech sports cars from the most prestigious automobile manufacturers in the world. Its unique four classes of competition showcase exotic, open-top prototypes and sophisticated production-based GT cars, all competing on the track at the same time. The American Le Mans Series competes at the premier road racing tracks across North America and at selected temporary street circuits in major urban markets. With a 2007 television package that includes five network broadcasts on CBS and NBC and seven telecasts on SPEED, plus live broadcasts across Europe, the Series delivers a global marketing platform that is unmatched in motorsports. The Series, founded in 1999 by Georgia entrepreneur Don Panoz, represents a mirror image to the prestigious 24 Hours of Le Mans, the world’s most famous and authentic automobile race. The American Le Mans Series features elite marques such as Audi, Porsche, Corvette, Aston Martin, Ferrari and Panoz, and premium brands such as Michelin, Yokohama, Kumho, Lowe’s, Shell and many others.