Grand-Am – Miller Motorsports Park – The Race
All Sorts Of Drama Before Titles Decided
© Janos Wimpffen Race day begins with an early (7:50) warm-up session, which makes sense given that the race starts at 11:00. There were streaks of rain and lightning visible at various locations around the majestic mountainscape last night. The day has broken a bit cool and cloudy but is expected to warm soon. It is a reminder though that this area will soon become a beautiful winter wonderland. It’s only a few miles east of here in the Wasatch Range where all the Alpine and Nordic events were held in the very well-regarded 2002 Olympics. We mentioned that state of uncertainty about 2008 that many teams have expressed. This was confirmed again last night. Alex Job was holding court in the team trailer with his entire crew for a very long meeting. A very serious Mike Evans (team manager) and Greg Fordahl (engineer) commented afterwards that nothing has been decided and all options are on the table. I suggested several scenarios and they repeated the mantra, “all options are on the table.” Job’s relationship with principal sponsor, Ruby Tuesday restaurants [good food by the way, check one out] is on a very sound footing and he wants to make sure that the company is well represented next year. Job and Evans did meet earlier with Crawford personnel to review the outlook for their new style Daytona Prototype. AJR doesn’t expect the new version to be available before the January Daytona test day at the earliest, leading to some consternation in that regard. Similar grumbly undercurrents can be heard elsewhere. But as one team owner noted, “there are no optimal choices now as to which series to run, which platform to use, or how to set up a good privateer team. Neither major series has a good business model.” The short warm-up produces the usual plethora of dust clouds and strands two DPs somewhere out in the desert. The drivers are calmly sucking on their drinks bottles while waiting for the cavalry to come to the rescue. Race morning warm-up sessions often produce odd results and this one was no exception. Doug Goad spiced up proceedings by putting the Cayenne on top, followed by Roger Schrammm in the often ignored No. 12 RVO Riley-Pontiac. Cort Wagner, No. 81 Synergy Racing Porsche, headed GT with perhaps the biggest surprise being the 3rd placed car in the class, the fresh-engined No. 21 Pontiac of Vesko Kozarov. In Brumos news, Hurley Haywood is set to take over the management reins. He’s already done so ever since the passing of Bob Snodgrass, but will do so more formally in 2008. He expects to drive only in the endurance rounds. Haywood is following in the footsteps of Wayne Taylor, another sometime driver, mostly team owner. Indeed the South African native has become something of a role model for not only Haywood but also Tracy Krohn as to how to wean oneself from the driver’s cockpit to the office. Both the Brumos and Krohn have noted that although SunTrust is their rival, the friendships are deep. Don Kitch is meeting with the Farnbacher Loles group and has confirmed the Team Seattle linkup. Kitch has invited ACO officials over to observe their Daytona effort in hopes that they can wrangle an invite for 2009. For 2008, Kitch hopes to raise $1000 per lap, see www.teamseattle.com. Their drivers, besides Kitch, will be an all-veteran group of Dave Gaylord, Bill Cotter, Chris Bingham, Don Pickering, Ross Bentley, Chris Pallis, and Steve Miller. Signs of aging: Had a nice chat with Bill Wood, Speed TV.com’s webmaster. While not a youngster himself, Bill pointed how important it is to pay attention to the drifter-turner crowd. He points out that it is a prime source of driving talent and that indeed many of those in the scene aspire to sports car racing. Bill had an ALMS team manager as a guest at a Southern California drifting event and the sports car man said that there were easily 5-6 drivers out there that would slot into a P2 car instantly. Cindi Lux is buzzing about the facility here. She is an instructor at the circuit’s school and reports that she plans another season of a factory baked Speed Challenge entry. The Race – The Discount Sun Tirechaser 1000
The race starts smoothly, almost sedately, after the long, long pace lap. Alex Gurney lopes ahead of Scott Pruett while Paul Edwards does much the same in GT. The calm lasts for 3/4 of a lap and then utter mayhem occurs. Seth Ingram (backmarking No. 31 Chase) spins by himself into the dust at Turn 18, aka, Bad Attitude—the second part of an S-bend. He comes blindly back onto the racing surface just as the GT field approaches. Nick Ham is the first one on the scene and unavoidably clips the black DP. The orange and white No. 70 Mazda RX-8 is launched into a barrel roll and lands on the other side of the course. Both drivers are out of their cars and fine. Meanwhile, the No. 65 TRG Porsche of Ross Smith stops with some damage from the incident but is later able to restart. There are pieces everywhere and we’ve obviously gone full-course yellow. The course does not stay yellow long. The clean-up crew is efficient and the track is long. The restart is almost a carbon copy of the original—thankfully minus the kerfluffle of Lap 1. Lope isn’t exactly the right description of what’s going on at the front. Pruett is all over Gurney, who is not the least bit fazed. These two have opened up a sizable gap to the third place lone Doran of Memo Gidley. GT is not nearly as close with Edwards well ahead of the Porsches of Leh Keen (No. 85) and Bryce Miller (No. 87). Darren Law was the first to make an unscheduled stop. It was a very quick halt to download telemetry and use the info to diagnose an engine problem. The No. 66 Porsche made its usual early call, R.J. Valentine handing over to Andy Lally. Mike Speakman did much the same with the No. 27 O’Connell Racing Porsche—Kevin Roush taking the wheel. We have two non-starters. The No. 03 Georgian Bay Corvette suffered a broken differential after warm-up and has packed up shop. The No. 12 RVO DP has a fuel leak. They still hope to get out there later. We have the type of incident that could only happen here in the desert. A car goes off at the appropriately titled “Fast”—the slight bend Turn 10 in the inner infield. He travels a good quarter of a mile trailing a huge dust cloud. The scene looks like something out of a Road Runner cartoon. It is only when it finally comes to a stop that the red and black No. 42 Corvette of Will Nonnamaker becomes visible. Other than two very flat front tires there appeared to be no damage and “Wile E.” Nonnamaker continued only to have the car stop a half lap later. The Tirechaser 1000 operates under slightly different driving rules than other GARRA events. Cars are allowed a maximum of four drivers. No driver can drive more than three hours at a stretch of five hours total. The driver must rest for one hour between stints. Besides Gidley’s fine third place, at least two other DP drivers have made fine starts, Max Angelelli in the SunTrust Riley-Pontiac and Colin Braun in the No. 75 Krohn entry. Perhaps the best start of all has been made by Rui Aguas in the lone Ferrari, up to 7th in GT. Long opening stints seem to be the order of the day for nearly every team, with the surprising exception of two GT squads. Bryce Miller pulls in just past the hour mark and hands the No. 87 Porsche over to Wolf Henzler, while J-F Dumoulin brings the No. 22 Alegra Motorsports Porsche in, the wheel going to Craig Stanton. The other Farnbacher Loles Porsche also stops, Leh Keen being relieved by Ian Baas. The Matthews Riley, Jim Matthews aboard, also halts. Marc the Tall Belgian Goossens now driving. Then, importantly, Scott Pruett drops out of the hunt for the lead. A fresh set of Hoosiers are fitted and Memo Rojas speeds away. Alex Gurney drops out of the lead for a service stop and remains aboard for another stint. The lead passed briefly to Bill Auberlen (No. 05 Riley-BMW) before he pits to give the car to Joey Hand and Gurney moves back into the lead, some 8 seconds ahead of Rojas. We have a seemingly minor albeit lurid incident when Nick DiMeo in the No. 36 Pontiac clips the No. 23 Crawford-Porsche of Patrick Long at one of the slow corners. The DP spins, the GT takes to the sand, and both continue. At about 120 minutes, here are the standings and the current drivers; 1st), #99, Gurney, Riley-Pontiac
2nd) #01, Rojas, Riley-Lexus, -11 seconds
3rd), #10, Jan Magnussen, Riley-Pontiac, -5 seconds
4th), #76, Braun, Riley-Pontiac, -1 seconds
5th), #05, Hand, Riley-BMW, -6 seconds Top non-Riley is 9th place Doran (Brad Jaeger)—but then it spins and stalls. GT; 1st), #07, Kelly Collins, Pontiac
2nd) #87, Henzler, Porsche, -29 seconds
3rd) #85, Baas, Porsche, -19 seconds
4th) #67, Peter Ludwig, Porsche, -29 seconds
5th) #06, Pontiac, -21 seconds Two potential front-runners are in trouble. The No. 39 Fabcar-Pontiac spun, got going, and then stopped again. Very significantly for the GT battle, the No. 66 Porsche has gone behind the wall. Hours 3-6
The race now features a ding-dong battle for third between Jan Magnussen in the SunTrust entry and Colin Braun in the No. 75 Krohn Riley. They are regularly trading paint and fender parts with Braun then gradually pulling away. Out front Gurney holds a steady lead over Rojas in the 8 to 10 second range. The No. 12 RVO entry began the race some 30 laps late. The GT class continues to become a bit depleted. Lally has retired with a blown engine and apparently blown title chances. The No. 22 Porsche of Carlos DeQuesada slows with a smoking motor while the No. 21 Pontiac has a tire go down. The door is flopping open on the No. 36 Pontiac of Peter Doane. The No. 57 Corvette is even slower than usual. Marc Bunting is now driving. Kelly Collins has over a one-minute lead in the class with Ian Baas still in second. Among the DPs, Tomas Enge czechs into the No. 11 Riley-Pontiac. The Samax is doing well if not spectacularly. Johannes van Overbeek and Lonnie Pechnik have visited the press room. After about a half-hour of the close fight for third, Braun drops into the pits and hands the car to Nic Jonsson. Gurney stops out of the lead on lap 60 and relinquishes the wheel to Jon Fogarty. Burt Frisselle in the No. 61 AIM Riley-Lexus inherits the lead and very nearly squanders it by putting a pair of wheels onto the edge. Two laps later the black and gold No. 61 stops, Scott Pruett jumps back in, and once again the red No. 99 assume its rightful spot at the top. This exchange comes at either side of the three-hour mark. Talk about going to plan—that long period where the No. 01 was unable to close on No. 99?—Gurney wasn’t even trying to stretch the lead. He was on a fuel conserve mode, trying (successfully) to eke out an extra lap. Score one for the Gainsco guys. Indeed, the handoff to Mark Wilkins has gone poorly and No. 61 has dropped well off the pace. Andy Pilgrim is now in the GT-leading Pontiac, the No. 07 Banner team in complete control of that class. We have a tad of drama during the latter half of the third hour. The gaps in both classes have come down. Most dramatically, Pruett has closed up on Fogarty and makes several stabs at the Pontiac powered Riley but Fogarty very expertly widens the red car. It’s a nice clean battle that goes on several laps. Meanwhile, Werner has also narrowed the margin to Pilgrim but the Pontiac is still well in the lead. Then we have two incidents. Joey Hand stops on track with the No. 05 Riley-BMW. He’s far enough off line to be attended with only a local yellow. Then Marco DiLeo appears to have become the second TRG Porsche to lunch an engine. This happens at Turn 15, with yet another appropriate name, “Agony.” Another GT car takes to the gravel behind, indicating there is ample oil on course. This brings out the second full-course caution. Pruett dips into the pits just as the caution is shown, ending the 1-2 fight for now. Duran steps aboard for his first stint in the Ganassi entry. Of course the field bunches up under the yellow but the green immediately separates the men from the boys. Fogarty opens up a gap, Duran is about one second back and under pressure from Angelelli. Wilkins jumps immediately past Rockenfeller while Jonsson and Ryan Hunter-Reay (No. 91 works Riley) is at the rear of lead pack. There is effectively no change in GT as Paul Edwards immediately opens up a 4 second and growing gap on Bryce Miller. Max the Ax uses a GT car as a pick and grinds past Duran for second. Whether it is Doran or the Riley-Lexus, the No. 01 was most certainly running quicker before. The Mexican backed car is now under pressure from both the Canadian (Wilkins) and the Swede (Jonsson). This transpires at just past the halfway point. At about 4-1/2 hours we appear to have lost a top ten runner (or at least he will drop well down the order). Michael Valiante has gone off and stalled past Turn 8—“Indecision.” While the No. 07 Pontiac is going great guns, their teammate, No. 06 has made a series of long stops and suffered big spin at Turn 1 by Johnny O’Connell. The No. 58 Brumos entry on the DP side has also been the victim of several delays. On lap 92, about the 4-3/4 hour mark, Fogarty makes the No.99’s third stop—it’s smooth if a bit long—he double stints, and returns about 1 minute down on the batch of leaders, but is once again the fastest car on the track. Angelelli inherits the lead but the SunTrust Riley pits a lap later. Magnussen takes over. This puts Duran in #01 in front. Fogarty drops immediately to ninth, but this soon becomes fifth after a series of stops ahead of him. The No. 07 Pontiac continues to lead GT and the No. 85 Farnbacher Loles car is now second in class (87 had stopped recently), but the tenacity of No. 87 means that Werner retains the points lead—for the moment at least. The No. 91 Riley (aren’t they all?) loses its spot among the top five with a stop. Duran remains first and with Jonsson now some 20 seconds back. A similar gap follows with Ryan Dalziel (No. 11 Samax entry) next. Then comes the battle of the moment. Jan Magnussen, never an easy man to pass, holds fourth, just ahead of Fogarty. Jonsson is the first of the leaders to make the next stop, handing over to Braun and the Samax entry also makes a pit call. Edwards hands over to Collins and perhaps for the first time today a Porsche takes the GT class lead, Ian Baas in No. 85. The retirement of No. 66 has effectively taken the air out of that class conflict. Duran, nearly a minute in front, stops at almost exactly the 5-hour mark, 103 laps, handing back to Pruett. Magnussen is now in the lead and Pruett (in for Duran) manages to exit the pits just ahead of Fogarty. At 5-1/2 hours Magnussen pits. It’s a bit early and there were reports of smoke from the back of the SunTrust machine. Pruett is now in first and has a mirror full of Fogarty. We have an amazing sequence of DRAMA at about 5-3/4 hours, lap 115. First Fogarty makes a move on Pruett and the door is closed on him. The Gainsco car jinks momentarily of course. A few turns later Fogarty makes another move, Pruett cuts in, the two touch wheels, Fogarty’s front right to Pruett’s left rear. The No. 01 goes wide and off, but onto a paved escape section and is able to continue, having lost the lead. Both cars are wounded. The tires go down at the damaged corners on both. They continue around while Colin Braun sweeps past into the lead. The two former leaders continue to slow. The damage is less to Fogarty than to Pruett and the Lexus powered car starts to completely shred its wheel, taking heaps of bodywork with it. Fogarty pits and little more is done than change the wheel, slap in fuel and send him, now in third behind Braun and Goossens (No. 11). Fogarty is definitely not up to proper speed and is complaining of an alignment problem. The crew tells him to keep going. Pruett goes back out but the stop was a long one. The Gainsco team now needs only to finish ahead of Ganassi to secure the championship. But wait, there’s more! Max Angelelli, No. 10 SunTrust Riley-Pontiac, comes upon some of the carbon fiber shred by Pruett and suffers a puncture. He goes ever more slower, trying to make it back. But just as he nears the pit entrance the right rear of the car goes up in flames. He manages to make it just to the beginning of the pit lane before stopping and the fire tenders are on him immediately. Angelelli exits unharmed, which can’t be said for one toasted Riley. The course goes yellow for the third time with the pits obviously closed until the hulk is removed. Almost unnoticed during the three puncture parade, Goossens passed Braun for the lead. Indeed once the pits are opened, Braun makes a stop and Fogarty takes over second place. Pruett also comes back—the No. 01 car looks really, really bad. Elsewhere, Darren Law has moved in as a relief driver on the No. 17 Doncaster Porsche GT. Lead driver Dave Lacey somehow got a does of carbon monoxide into his helmet and took ill. He’s recovered but not enough to drive. Law’s former car, the No. 58 Brumos Riley-Porsche, is still in the race but has suffered innumerable delays. Finish
At the restart Braun passes Gurney (back in No. 99—Vasser won’t drive). Gurney basically lets him go as Pruett is well back in 9th. Tomas Enge, now in No. 11 also goes past No. 99, while Goossens continues in the lead. The problems continue for Pruett as his car continues to shed pieces of its blue and white bodywork. The green comes with 16 laps to go and Fogarty drops to fifth. Jörg Bergmeister spins the No. 23 Crawford at Turn 1, trying to avoid Richard Antinucci’s spin in the No. 39 Cheever Fabcar. The one car in the field with bona fide sponsorship (Ruby Tuesday) stalls and causes yet another full-course caution. It’s a brief one as he’s pushed back into the fray. The 07-85-87 order holds in GT, or does it? Dominik Farnbacher (No. 85 Porsche) is not satisfied with 2nd in GT and is chasing and gaining on Edwards (No. 07 Pontiac). Another one not satisfied with his plight is Scott Pruett, and he passes Bergmeister for 7th, now two spots behind Fogarty. Pruett continue to drag a piece of shrapnel behind the car—don’t look for a black flag though. The fat lady has not yet sung. Ten laps to go and here’s where we are: 1) #91 (Goossens)
2) # 11 (Enge), -2 seconds
3) # 75 (Braun), -1 second
4) # 3 (Lewis), -5 seconds
5) # 99 (Gurney), -3 seconds
6) # 60 (Negri), -2 seconds
7) #01 (Pruett), -1 second GT
1) #07 (Edwards),
2) # 85 (Farnbacher), -1 second !
3) # 87 (Werner), -22 seconds Seven laps to go and MORE DRAMA. First yet another TRG Porsche lunches an engine. Then Pruett moves up another spot and closes on Gurney. He taps No. 99 not once but twice. While Pruett forces his way past, Bergmeister slips past both of them. But now Pruett is back atop the championship. Frisselle is also in between them so that Gurney may need to move up at least a spot. Then comes word that Pruett will receive a stop-and-go penalty for the avoidable contact. For once GA seems to have called it correct. There is also a tight battle for second overall between Enge and Braun. The GT situation remains stable with Farnbacher unable to gain further on the Pontiac. Pruett serves his payback penalty and drops four spots down. He’s in 10th, Gurney in 8th. Ian James, No. 6 MSR Riley-Lexus is between them. Meanwhile, Marc Goossens continues in the lead, but only two seconds clear of Enge—who in turn has moved slightly clear of Braun as the field takes the one lap to go flag. Burt Frisselle nearly doesn’t make it as the No. 61 gets pinched by a GT car and takes briefly to the dust. The rest of the final lap is uneventful for the DPs as Goossens takes the win and Gurney the title. But there is still drama in GT. Edwards seemed slow prematurely and Farnbacher caught him at Turn 22, “Wind-Up,” the penultimate bend. The Porsche pulls away but up ahead is the slow-moving No. 36 Pontiac. There is nowhere to go and No. 36 and No. 85 collide. The Pontiac goes off into the barriers at the pit entrance while the Porsche continues to the finish, its rear wheels scraping and smoking. But the No. 07 Banner Pontiac slips past unscathed, regains the lead and takes the class win. Another GA season comes to an end. How many will return in ’08 ? Stay tuned. Result
1 91 DP Lowe's Riley-Matthews Motorsports Jim Matthews / Marc Goossens / Ryan Hunter – Reay Riley Pontiac 139 laps
2 11 DP SAMAX Tomas Enge / Kris Szekeres Riley Pontiac 139
3 75 DP Krohn Racing Colin Braun / Nic Jonsson Riley Pontiac 139
4 3 DP Southard Motorsports Shane Lewis / Randy Ruhlman / Eric Lux Riley Lexus 139
5 23 DP Alex Job Racing Patrick Long / Jorg Bergmeister / Mike Rockenfeller Crawford Porsche 139
6 59 DP Brumos Porsche/ Kendall Hurley Haywood / JC France / Terry Borcheller Riley Porsche 139
7 6 DP Michael Shank Racing John Pew / Ian James / Henri Zogaib Riley Lexus 139
8 99 DP Gainsco/ Bob Stallings Racing Alex Gurney / Jon Fogarty / Jimmy Vasser Riley Pontiac 139 CHAMPIONS
9 01 DP TELMEX Chip Ganassi with Felix Sabates Scott Pruett / Memo Rojas / Salvador Duran Riley Lexus 139
10 60 DP Michael Shank Racing Mark Patterson / Oswaldo Negri / Justin Wilson Riley Lexus 139
11 61 DP AIM Autosport Mark Wilkins / Burt Frisselle / Brian Frisselle Riley Lexus 139
12 76 DP Krohn Racing Tracy Krohn / Max Papis Riley Pontiac 138
13 39 DP Cheever Racing Christian Fittipaldi / Harrison Brix / Richard Antinucci Fabcar Pontiac 136
14 77 DP Feeds The Need / Doran Racing Memo Gidley / Brad Jaeger Doran Ford 136
15 09 DP Spirit of Daytona Racing Guy Cosmo / Marc-Antoine Camirand Fabcar Porsche V8 135
16 05 DP Sigalsport BMW Bill Auberlen / Matthew Alhadeff / Joey Hand Riley BMW 134
17 19 DP Chip Ganassi with Felix Sabates Dane Cameron / Michael Valiante Riley Lexus 131
18 07 GT Banner Racing Pontiac Paul Edwards / Kelly Collins / Andy Pilgrim GXP.R 131
19 85 GT Farnbacher Loles Motorsports Ian Baas / Leh Keen / Dominik Farnbacher Porsche GT3 Cup 131
20 87 GT Farnbacher Loles Motorsports Bryce Miller / Dirk Werner / Wolf Henzler Porsche GT3 Cup 130 WERNER CHAMPION 33 06 GT Banner Racing Leighton Reese / Tim Lewis Jr. / Johnny O’Connell Pontiac GXP.R 119
34 10 DP SunTrust Racing Max Angelelli / Wayne Taylor / Jan Magnussen Riley Pontiac 116 39 58 DP Red Bull/ Brumos Porsche David Donohue / Darren Law / Buddy Rice Riley Porsche 97 43 66 GT TRG Andy Lally / RJ Valentine / Spencer Pumpelly Porsche GT3 Cup 27 45 70 GT SpeedSource Sylvain Tremblay / Nick Ham / David Haskell Mazda RX-8 0 | 
