At the end, only two or three days were missing: Benjamin Leuenberger (28) had to abandon his planed start with the brand new Panoz Abruzzi “Spirit of Le Mans” at the “Petit Le Mans” at Road Atlanta. Despite great efforts of the Panoz Team, the all-new Abruzzi GT2 was not ready in time for the 1000-mile race, the final race of the “American Le Mans Series”. “The guys of the Panoz team did a hell of job to finish the car in time, but unfortunately time worked against us”, Leuenberger said.
“Some parts which were delivered from suppliers just didn’t came in time. So in the final stages, the whole schedule came to a halt.” One day before the race, the Panoz Abruzzi GT2 was finished and transported to Road Atlanta. The Panoz arrived early Saturday morning at the track, two days too late to take part in the race. But before the race, the Panoz took part in a parade lap, to show the fans for what they can look forward in the next season. “The car didn’t drove a meter before we fired it up at Road Atlanta. But as soon as we pressed the starter button, the car ran flawless”, Leuenberger was happy with the brand new car.
Leuenberger will now test with the new Panoz Abruzzi. „I just extended my stay in the US for some couple of days“, Leuenberger says. „We will test the new Panoz this week. It’s too bad that we couldn’t race with the Panoz on home turf at Road Atlanta, especially as there was a record crowd this year of more then 120.000 spectators. But now I’m really looking forward to a first test with the new car.“