Race of a Thousand Years

Like the 1999 Le Mans Fuji 1000 km, the Race of a Thousand Years was intended as a precursor to a planned Asia-Pacific Le Mans Series (APLMS) run by Don Panoz and the Professional Sports Car Racing body, just as the Silverstone and Nürburgring events earlier in the season were for the European Le Mans Series (ELMS). After a small number of entrants for the European series in 2001, as well as a lack of entrants for a third Asian-Pacific exhibition event at the Sepang Circuit, the APLMS plans were cancelled.

The race was the final of twelve endurance sports car racing rounds of the 2000 American Le Mans Series and took place at the Adelaide Street Circuit on 31 December 2000.^[1] The event was the first in a nine-year contract, but was abandoned after only one. Over 135,000 fans attended the race meeting, with almost 70,000 of them in attendance on race day. Organisers expected around 200,000 people in attendance during the race weekend.^[1]

By completing the first 25 laps (and in the lead after having passed teammate Frank Biela on lap 17), Allan McNish became the 2000 American Le Mans Series LMP Drivers' Champion. McNish and teammate Rinaldo Capello completed 225 laps in their Audi Sport North America R8. Australian driver Brad Jones had also qualified the R8 but did not drive in the race. Jones, the team owner and lead driver of Audi's factory backed Super Touring team in Australia, was on stand-by for Scotsman McNish who had injured his back a few days before the race while stepping out of his kilt after a photo shoot and had spent the day before the race flat on his back in bed in a successful effort to be fit to race. The Audi team suffered a setback on the morning of the race when Capello crashed the R8 (painted in crocodile livery in honour of the host country Australia) into the tyre barriers on the outside of turn six. However the team were able to repair the car to allow McNish to start.

The GTS class was won by Olivier Beretta, Karl Wendlinger and Dominique Dupuy who piloted their Team Oreca Dodge Viper GTS-R (known as a Chrysler Viper in Australia) to 3rd outright, while finishing 5th outright were the GT class winners Dirk Müller and Lucas Luhr in their Dick Barbour Racing Porsche 911 GT3-R.

McNish (Audi), Portuguese driver Ni Amorim (Viper) and German Luhr (Porsche) set the fastest laps in their respective classes, with McNish's time of 1:25.2189 being the fastest ever non-Formula One race lap of the Adelaide circuit (compared to the outright lap record of 1:15.381 set by Damon Hill in a Williams FW15C-Renault during the 1993 Australian Grand Prix).

 

Class winners in bold.

Pos	Class	No	Team	Drivers	Chassis	Tyre	Laps
					Engine
1	LMP	77	Audi Sport North America	Rinaldo Capello   Allan McNish   Brad Jones	Audi R8	M	225
					Audi 3.6L Turbo V8
2	LMP	28	Konrad Motorsport	Franz Konrad   Charles Slater   Alan Heath	Lola B2K/10	G	204
					Ford (Roush) 6.0L V8
3	GTS	91	Viper Team Oreca	Olivier Beretta   Karl Wendlinger   Dominique Dupuy	Dodge Viper GTS-R	M	202
					Chrysler 8.0L V10
4	GTS	92	Viper Team Oreca	Jean-Philippe Belloc   Ni Amorim	Dodge Viper GTS-R	M	202
					Dodge Chrysler 8.0L V10
5	GT	5	Dick Barbour Racing	Dirk Müller   Lucas Luhr	Porsche 911 GT3-R	M	199
					Porsche 3.6L Flat-6
6	GT	15	Dick Barbour Racing	Randy Wars   John Graham   Christian Menzel	Porsche 911 GT3-R	M	191
					Porsche 3.6L Flat-6
7	GT	6	Prototype Technology Group (PTG)	Terry Borcheller   Anthony Lazzaro	BMW M3	Y	190
					BMW 3.2L I6
8	GTS	61	Chamberlain Motorsport	Milka Duno   Stephen Watson   Ray Lintott	Chrysler Viper GTS-R	M	190
					Chrysler 8.0L V10
9	LMP	12	Panoz Motor Sports	David Brabham   Greg Murphy   Jason Bright	Panoz LMP-1 Roadster-S	M	190
					Élan 6L8 6.0L V8
10	GT	10	Prototype Technology Group (PTG)	Brian Cunningham   Bill Auberlen   Niclas Jönsson	BMW M3	Y	190
					BMW 3.2L I6
11	GT	66	The Racer's Group	Robert Orcutt   Darren Palmer   Christian D'Agostin	Porsche 911 GT3-R	P	188
					Porsche 3.6L Flat-6
12	GT	8	Haberthur Racing	Patrick Vuillaume   Manfred Jurasz   Francesc Gutiérrez	Porsche 911 GT3-R	D	187
					Porsche 3.6L Flat-6
13 DNF	LMP	0	Team Rafanelli SRL	Domenico Schiattarella   Didier de Radigues   Norman Simon	Lola B2K/10	M	183
					Judd GV4 (Rafanelli) 4.0L V10
14	GT	30	White Lightning Racing	Mike Fitzgerald   Randy Pobst	Porsche 911 GT3-R	M	178
					Porsche 3.6L Flat-6
15	LMP	78	Audi Sport North America	Frank Biela   Emanuele Pirro	Audi R8	M	170
					Audi 3.6L Turbo V8
16	GT	70	Skea Racing International	Johnny Mowlem   Richard Dean	Porsche 911 GT3-R	P	164
					Porsche 3.6L Flat-6
17	GT	51	Dick Barbour Racing	Sascha Maassen   Bob Wollek	Porsche 911 GT3-R	M	162
					Porsche 3.6L Flat-6
18 DNF	GT	69	Kyser Racing	Kye Wankum   Joe Foster   Jeff Pabst	Porsche 911 GT3-R	P	159
					Porsche 3.6L Flat-6
19 DNF	LMP	31	Motorola DAMS	Éric Bernard   Emmanuel Collard	Cadillac Northstar LMP	M	72
					Cadillac Northstar 4.0L Turbo V8
20 DNF	LMP	32	Motorola DAMS	Christophe Tinseau   Marc Goossens	Cadillac Northstar LMP	M	54
					Cadillac Northstar 4.0L Turbo V8
21 DNF	GT	71	Skea Racing International	Doc Bundy   Rohan Skea   Des Wall	Porsche 911 GT3-R	P	53
					Porsche 3.6L Flat-6
22 DNF	GT	7	Prototype Technology Group (PTG)	Hans-Joachim Stuck   Boris Said   Johannes van Overbeek	BMW M3	Y	30
					BMW 3.2L I6
23 DNF	GTS	37	Intersport Racing	Vic Rice   Kevin Buckler	Porsche 911 GT2	D	19
					Porsche 3.8L Turbo Flat-6
24 DNF	LMP	1	Panoz Motor Sports	Jan Magnussen   Klaus Graf	Panoz LMP07	M	2
					Élan (Zytek) 4.0L V8
DSQ†	LMP	2	Panoz Motor Sports	Hiroki Katoh   Johnny O'Connell   Klaus Graf	Panoz LMP-1 Roadster-S	M	187
					Élan 6L8 6.0L V8

† – No. 2 Panoz was disqualified for allowing an unassigned driver, Klaus Graf, to drive the car during the race.

• Pole Position – Rinaldo Capello – No. 77 Audi Sport North America – 1:23.804
• Fastest Lap – Allan McNish – No. 77 Audi Sport North America – 1:25.219
• Average Speed – 148.048 km/h

• Auto Action, 12–18 January 2001
• Official Program, Adelaide Race of a Thousand Years, 29–31 December 2000

• Official results, www.imsaracing.net, as archived at web.archive.org
• www.lemansadelaide.com.au, as archived at web.archive.org