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Vanessa

ALMS, Road America - Friday Notes
Stormy Weather

A brief round-up from yesterday’s activities in Road America – with apologies for the slight delay.  A massive thunderstorm hit the track at around 5pm with torrential rain and 70 mph winds.  The place flooded rapidly and numerous teams up and down the paddock struggled to either hold on to, or keep in one piece, pit awnings and equipment. Level 5 Motorsports’ pit structure took off altogether, while bent supports/aluminium poles can be seen far and wide.  

There doesn’t seem to be any major damage anywhere, but the Tour de Road America cycle event which was due to take place at 6:15 pm had to be postponed until tonight.  That’s a blow for keen cyclist Doug Fehan, from GM, as the new time clashes with the annual ALMS Stake Holders’ Meeting.  That should be an interesting one – with the series looking for views and opinions from the team principals and manufacturer representatives about how things have been so far, and what they want to see for the future.  The 2011 schedule will also be shown for the first time at that meeting, and presented to the media tomorrow (Sunday) so more news then.

The rain was welcome in that it made a change from the very hot and sticky conditions which had been around all day, but it’s not so good as far as the track is concerned.  Engineers reckon that this is a track which needs to ‘rubber in’ before the best times can be achieved, and they’ve now got to start again today with a green track.  

The big talking point in the paddock is the restrictor changes that have been put in place for this weekend’s race.  As far as the GT runners are concerned, it’s great news that the LMPCs will have a 10mm bigger restrictor as it will separate them further and prevent any ‘hold ups’ as seen at Mid Ohio.  The LMP teams, however, feel that the speed differentials between they and the LMPCs will be minimal and they’re not too happy about that.  It’s a conundrum for IMSA – but you can’t please all the people all the time.

 In practice yesterday, Dyson carried on from the high experienced at Mid Ohio, topping the time sheets just ahead of the newly re-built Muscle Milk Team Cytosport Porsche Spyder.  Porsche came up with a new chassis after Greg Pickett’s huge shunt in Ohio, and have drafted in factory driver Timo Bernhard for this weekend to help boost Klaus Graf’s championship hopes.  Driving the Spyder for the first time since 2008, it took Bernhard just three laps to surpass Graf’s best time.

Level 5 Motorsport’s engine blew in the ORECA FLM09 mid practice which caused a few raised eyebrows.  All the other runners in the class are still using the same engine since the start of the season but Level 5 have had more than one new engine this year.  Win at all costs?  We’ll see.

It was a Corvette and BMW show in GT, with Gavin posting a time just one tenth of a second quicker than Auberlen.  Porsche and Ferrari had a pretty ordinary day, all seeking that perfect set up but not finding it yet. 

Miller and Hines led the way in their ORBIT Miller Racing GTC with Lally, Bleekemolen, Sofronas and Rodriguez all in close formation behind.  It’s as close there as it is in all the other classes.  It looks as though there’ll be another cracking race ahead.

Fiona Miller