Sunrise at Muscle Milk Team CytoSport for Saturday's Petit Le Mans. Photo credit: Rick Dole for Michelin North America

We’re underway at the ninth and final round of the 2010 American Le Mans Series season. A couple notes as the race is in its first hour.

• Temperatures at the start of the race are 69 degrees Fahrenheit ambient and 76 on track, Michelin tire engineers report.

• The race is 1,000 miles or 10 hours, whichever comes first. In the 12 prior runnings, it’s either made 1,000 miles or been rain-shortened.

• Several cars started from the back of the field. Drayson Racing, the Porsche Hybrid, the second Intersport LMPC car, and the second Jaguar did not set times. Green Earth Team Gunnar’s No. 99 car changed tires and moved to the back of the grid.

• The ACS Express Doran Ford GT-R crashed in practice and will not start. The No. 50 Panoz Abruzzi “Spirit of Le Mans” made its first appearance in pre-race, as it rolled onto pit lane, but did not start.

• Pit stops under yellow flag conditions are split when the pit lane opens. Prototypes (P1, P2, LMPC) pit on the first lap and GT cars (GT2, GTC, GTH) on the lap after, to create less chaos.