American Le Mans Series Career
Sharp was under contract with Rahal Letterman Racing for 2008, but the two entities parted ways after each filed a breach of contract lawsuit against the other. Sharp and Patrón joined the American Le Mans Series with Highcroft Racing. He drives the #9 Patrón Highcroft Racing Acura ARX-01b with David Brabham during the 2008 season in the LMP2 class.
Sharp started seventh in his debut race at the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring and finished fourth in class (fifth overall) with teammates Brabham and Stefan Johansson. The team finished second at the Acura Sports Car Challenge of St. Petersburg, which was Highcroft’s best finish to date. Sharp earned his first ALMS win in the P2 class at the Tequila Patron American Le Mans Series at Long Beach. The win was also the first for Highcroft Racing. Sharp earned his first overall win in the American Le Mans Series at the 2008 Northeast Grand Prix at Lime Rock Park after starting from the pole position. A third class victory followed at the Generac 500 at Road America. When leader Gil de Ferran ran out of fuel on the last lap in Mosport awarded the team a fourth victory and second consecutive win.
Arguably, Sharp’s breakout ALMS performance came at the Detroit Sportscar Challenge presented by Bosch. He led for most of his stint, giving up the lead only when blocked in heavy traffic. His stellar driving won him SPEEDtv.com’s ‘Drive of the Race,’ though the team had to settle for second place in the event. Sharp and Brabham were joined by Dario Franchitti, one of Sharp’s former IndyCar competitors, for the 10-hour Petit Le Mans endurance race. Unfortunately, broken suspension took the car out of competition early on.
The combination of Sharp and Brabham proved a formidable and a combination of bad luck, and a triple-pronged effort from Penske Racing at the end of the season kept Sharp and Brabham from a championship. The duo finished second in the P2 point standings, forty one points behind the Penske Racing duo of Timo Bernhard and Romain Dumas, after being as close as four points away with two rounds to go.
Read more about this topic: Scott Sharp
Famous quotes containing the words american, mans, series and/or career:
“The compulsion to do good is an innate American trait. Only North Americans seem to believe that they always should, may, and actually can choose somebody with whom to share their blessings. Ultimately this attitude leads to bombing people into the acceptance of gifts.”
—Ivan Illich (b. 1926)
“Of Mans First Disobedience, and the Fruit
Of that Forbidden Tree, whose mortal taste
Brought Death into the World, and all our woe,
With loss of Eden, till one greater Man
Restore us, and regain the blissful Seat,
Sing Heav’nly Muse, that on the secret top
Of Oreb, or of Sinai, didst inspire
That Shepherd, who first taught the chosen Seed,
In the Beginning how the Heav’ns and Earth
Rose out of Chaos:”
—John Milton (1608–1674)
“History is nothing but a procession of false Absolutes, a series of temples raised to pretexts, a degradation of the mind before the Improbable.”
—E.M. Cioran (b. 1911)
“Whether lawyer, politician or executive, the American who knows what’s good for his career seeks an institutional rather than an individual identity. He becomes the man from NBC or IBM. The institutional imprint furnishes him with pension, meaning, proofs of existence. A man without a company name is a man without a country.”
—Lewis H. Lapham (b. 1935)