Lowe's Fernandez Racing Abandons Old Chassis

By Evander Klum

What is underneath that Acura car cover? Perhaps, a race car with a brand new chassis…

Fernandez Racing officially announced that it will abandon its present Lola chassis in favor of Acura's ARX-01b chassis in the American Le Mans Series' LMP2 class. The shift will start next year.

According to reports, Adrian Fernandez and Luis Diaz will drive the No. 15 Acura ARX-01b. The drivers recorded three podiums and six top-five results this season. The Acura ARX is HPD's first effort in race car design and development.

"What Acura has accomplished in their first season of the American Le Mans Series is remarkable," said Fernandez. "They were strong out of the box with not only a brand new engine but the chassis as well. Expectations are even higher for next year with the amount of development work planned for the off-season. To become a full Acura effort is something that everyone at Lowe's Fernandez Racing is really excited about because this will definitely help to take our program up to the next level."

Acura's chassis is the most recent version of the ARX-01a. The chassis was developed by Honda Performance Development through a technical partnership with Wirth Research in England. This year, the ARX-01a was touted by Andretti Green Racing and Highcroft Racing, with the two teams combining for one win and seven podiums, as well as an additional three top-five finishes in 12 events, reported the Auto Week. All three Acura teams used the Acura LM V8, a 3.4-liter, normally-aspirated engine designed and developed by HPD.

“The opportunity to run an ARX chassis next season greatly adds to our resource base,” noted Tom Anderson, the team co-owner and managing director. “Not only will we benefit from the substantial development work by HPD, Wirth and the AGR and Highcroft teams to date, we will be able to contribute to that database as we begin to operate as part of a three-car effort on all fronts. ”

The chassis made its debut in a 12-hour simulation run at Sebring International Raceway in February of this year.

“We are very pleased to have Lowe’s Fernandez Racing compete with our latest version of the Acura P2 chassis, the ARX-01b, in 2008,” said Robert Clarke, President of HPD. “As the assigned engine development team within Acura’s ALMS program, the Lowe’s Fernandez team worked well with our HPD engineers and contributed significantly to the development of the Acura LM V8 engine, our win in the Twelve Hours of Sebring and our perfect reliability record in our inaugural season in the series.”

Clarke added: “Now, with our on-going Acura chassis development program with Wirth Research and the HPD staff, the Lowe’s Fernandez team will have the opportunity to work together with our other Acura teams on the new chassis as we prepare for a very competitive 2008 ALMS road racing campaign. We believe the combined communication and cooperation of all of our Acura teams will assist us in our quest for race victories and the 2008 P2 class championship. ”

Lowe’s Fernandez Racing will start testing the #15 Lowe’s Acura ARX-01b in January, said Auto Racing Daily. The 2008 ALMS season opens March 15 with the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring.