ALMS
McNish, Beretta, Muller crowned champions
ADELAIDE, Australia (January 1, 2001) -- The American Le Mans Series celebrated the end of its second year by crowning Allan McNish, Olivier Beretta and Dirk Muller as driving champions for the 2000 season at an awards ceremony Monday ...
Edited: Apr 15, 2002, 11:45 PM
Copy link
Share on Viber
ADELAIDE, Australia (January 1, 2001) -- The American Le Mans Series celebrated the end of its second year by crowning Allan McNish, Olivier Beretta and Dirk Muller as driving champions for the 2000 season at an awards ceremony Monday night.
The driving championship awards were the highlight of a lavish ceremony held at the Adelaide Oval cricket facility one day after the season-ending race on the Adelaide street circuit.
McNish, dressed in formal Scottish attire complete with kilt, accepted the Prototype driving title from ALMS founder Don Panoz. The Audi R8 driver was a six-time race winner in the 2000 season with co-driver Rinaldo Capello.
Capello, from Italy, finished second in the Prototype class standings, followed by Audi driver Emanuele Pirro.
Audi was honored as the Prototype Manufacturer's Champion, with Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich, Head of Audi Sport, accepting the award. Team Joest, which fielded the winning Audis, received the Team Championship award, represented by Reinhold Joest. Lead mechanic Uwe Zenker received the Mechanic of the Year trophy.
In the GTS category, Beretta was honored with his second consecutive driving title. The French driver, who resides in Monaco, co-drove with Karl Wendlinger in the powerful Dodge Viper GTS-R for Team ORECA. The duo won all but three of the 12 ALMS events in 2000.
Wendlinger, from Austria, finished second in the standings, followed by American Tommy Archer.
DaimlerChrysler won the Manufacturer's Award, with Team ORECA winning the Team Championship. ORECA also received a $425,000 bonus for winning Sebring, Le Mans and Adelaide in the "3 out of 4" bonus. All awards were accepted by Pierre Dieudonne, Sporting Director for DaimlerChrysler. ORECA's Sebestian Poupard was the top mechanic.
Muller, a German residing in Monaco, emerged as driving champion from a very tight GT class battle. His win with teammate Lucas Luhr in the Adelaide finale sealed the title.
Luhr finished second, while teammates Bob Wollek and Sascha Maassen tied for third. All drove for Dick Barbour Racing, which received the Team Championship. Porsche was the Manufacturer's Champion, with Alvin Springer, President of Porsche Motorsports North America, accepting. Barbour's Tim Mundy was the Mechanic of the Year.
Capello, Beretta and GT driver Randy Pobst were announced as winners of the "Personality of the Year" awards in each class. The awards were presented by "Le Mans and Sportscar Racing Magazine."
Panoz presented the "From The Fans" award to Audi's Dr. Ullrich. The award was voted on by ALMS fans through the ALMS Radio Web for an individual making significant contributions to the series during the previous year.
NBC Sports motorsports announcer Allen Bestwick served as Master of Ceremonies for the ceremony, which was attended by 600.
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article Lola ends 2000 season on high note
Next article Eurosport to telecast 2001 races
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Reinhold Joest
Facts on the 13th Le Mans victory of Audi
WEC
WEC
Facts on the 13th Le Mans victory of Audi
Triumph at Le Mans: Audi defeats Porsche and Toyota
WEC
WEC
24 Hours of Le Mans
Triumph at Le Mans: Audi defeats Porsche and Toyota
Audi aims to continue winning streak in Brazil
WEC
WEC
Audi aims to continue winning streak in Brazil
Latest news
IndyCar 2026 season review: ECR
IndyCar
Indy IndyCar 12 h
IndyCar 2026 season review: ECR
Toto Wolff reflects on Mercedes’ non-title years: ‘We weren’t complete losers’
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1
Sao Paulo GP
12 h
Toto Wolff reflects on Mercedes’ non-title years: ‘We weren’t complete losers’
Renger van der Zande moves to IMSA’s LMP2 class full-time with Tower Motorsports
IMSA
IMSA IMSA 13 h
Renger van der Zande moves to IMSA’s LMP2 class full-time with Tower Motorsports
Nick Sanchez will compete for 2027 NASCAR Truck title with McAnally-Hilgemann
NASCAR Truck
NSTR NASCAR Truck
Homestead
13 h
Nick Sanchez will compete for 2027 NASCAR Truck title with McAnally-Hilgemann
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe