ALMS, 12 Hours Of Sebring, Race Preview - Part Two - GTs

Sebring 2012 kicks off a new era in the GT category in the ALMS.  The wide body era kicks off with new cars from Porsche and Corvette ready to take on the already strong BMW and Ferrari entries.

The ALMS has been the home to what has been simply the most competitive production based racing in the world.  This year looks to be no exception to what we have seen in the past – here the ALMS entry will feature 10 strong cars, in what is probably the highest quality entry we have seen in quite some time, especially at Sebring.  None of the cars this time out can be called simply grid fillers; in fact of the ten entries, a full seven of them feature full pro line-ups.  Only the one of the entries from the Lizards, one from Extreme Speed and the Paul Miller Porsche feature what would be classified as a gentleman type driver.

While all of that is good news, the classification continues its rapid ascent in complexities, encroaching on or maybe even surpassing the levels of the GT1 category from just a few seasons ago.  Waivers continue to be granted, and pretty soon everybody jumps in – what started as a production-based class continues to move farther away from the intent of the class.  While the prototype classifications are continually slowed via power restrictions, the GT cars continue to show the capabilities to speed up, only to be hauled in with further restrictions, in an attempt to slow them down.  To steal a phrase from Monty Python, this is getting silly.

The rules makers drastically cut the power output of the P1 cars and still attempt to keep a balance between the various classes.  The GT cars come out with wide body configurations to improve the handling of the cars, at the cost of what will likely be a decrease in straightline speed somewhere down the way, as those in control try to keep lap times differences in check between the classes.  All the while, the GTC cars with less aero drag continue to be amongst the fastest cars down the straights.  This leads to the dive bombing attempts into the corners as the cars with superior grip in the corners don’t want to be held up by slower traffic.  These inevitable last-second pass attempts in corners, which often are considered as ill-advised at best, usually affect the race in a very negative factor.

Why not give the supposed-to-be-faster cars more power?  Why not give them an advantage in the straights?  At Daytona, Allan McNish stated that the Daytona Prototype he was in really didn’t have much if any deficit power-wise to his usual Audi prototype.  Aren’t the DPs cars that used to be looked down upon for being underpowered?  My, times have changed…

Anyway, back to the GT cars at Sebring.  Race winner?  Whoever keeps their nose clean throughout the race!  BMW had a dominant season last year and the others have been working hard in the offseason to catch up.  Both Porsche and Corvette have their new cars, taking full advantage of the 2012 regulations and should be the cars that will take the fight to the Rahal-led M3s.  That is, if the new cars are properly sorted…

Of the Porsches, the one considered most likely to succeed would as always be the #45 Lizards. 

The lineup of Bergmeister/Long/Holzer is very strong and, combined with a Porsche that has the promise to be faster than what they had least season, gives the team hope entering the 12 hours.  For the Lizards, 2011 was a season they’d like to forget, beset with ill fortune; but by the end of the season, the typical Lizard swagger was starting to reappear  (can a reptile actually exhibit a swagger?)

The 44 Lizard will include Andy Lally in the lineup with team boss Seth Neiman and long time co-driver Darren Law.

While 2011 was not all that successful for the Lizards, it was Team Falken that took up the slack for Porsche. 

Also in possession of a new 2012 spec Porsche, the Derrick Walker led team hopes to show similar improvement in 2012.  The team made great strides last year and 2012 should continue in that same vein for the team.  The usual crew of Wolf Henzler/Bryan Sellers/Martin Ragginger will carry the banner for Falken at Sebring.

The fourth Porsche entry is the Paul Miller Racing effort, with Bryce Miller and Sascha Maassen returning for the season; helped by Rob Bell here at Sebring. 

What’s interesting is that, of the three Porsche teams entering Sebring and the full season, there will also be three tire manufacturers – Lizards return with Michelin, Falken with Falken (what else?) and Miller with Dunlop.

Corvette Racing returns renewed for success. 

Besides the new spec car, the team also feature revised driving line ups for 2012.  This season, the #03 will feature Jan Magnussen and Antonio Garcia all season long, with Jordan Taylor helping out at the longer races.  The #4 will be anchored by Oliver Gavin, now partnered by Tom Milner for the season, and helped out by Richard Westbrook.  This team expected 2011 to be their season to shine, but were greatly frustrated by the superiority of the BMW cars all season long.  Based upon the work the team has done in the off-season, expect them to feature better this season.

It seems that this may be the last hurrah for the BMW in ALMS competition, as the manufacturer is shifting the emphasis of the M3 over to the US version of the DTM due to debut in 2013.  Whether they return to the ALMS in 2013 is still to be determined. 

If they do, it will likely be in an upgraded version of their Z4.  Knowing this, the Bobby Rahal led team will be anxious to defend their win at Sebring as well as in the championships one more (or maybe last) time.  One thing that may hurt them is that Joey Hand will only be a part-timer in the ALMS – he has been promoted to the new BMW DTM effort for 2012.  His abundance of talent will be missed by the team, but not here at Sebring, where he is down to share a car with Dirk Müller.

The Ferrari effort at Sebring is down to just the Extreme Speed team this season, as Giuseppe Risi has not made up his mind as to what he wants to do this season.  Thus far, all we know is that the usual Red Ferrari will sadly be missing at Sebring.  If and/or when they return is up to Mr Risi.

With that in mind, ESM has changed their driver line ups. 

The lead car of Scott Sharp and Johannes van Overbeek will also have Guy Cosmo, while Mr Patron, Ed Brown, will be joined by new signees Anthony Lazzaro and Jeff Segal.  There will be further pressure here for the team, as they are representing Ferrari in the ALMS at Sebring and they will have their hands full.  The team has matured and has shown to be capable, but compared to some of the WEC Ferrari teams, the driving talent might be a bit down.

Considered part timers for the ALMS, Aston Martin are registered for the WEC class for this race, but their pace will be watched as they have announced their intentions to enter later ALMS races, notably Long Beach and Laguna as of now…

For the race, if the Porsches are ready to shine, expect the #45 Reptile to be slugging it out with the BMWs and the Corvettes for ALMS supremacy here.  Also an ‘if’ for Porsche is the Falken effort – if the tires are improved enough, the Falken entry could also be right there.  ESM Ferrari?  Not quite there, but I wouldn’t be surprised by a strong showing by the team.  All of this will be dependent on how the balance of performance works out.  Expect that whining to start any day now.

For Sebring, nine Porsches are entered in the GTC spec class.  Due to the restrictions, only 64 race entrants are allowed to start the race, so it was mandated that only full-season entrants are allowed to enter, thus negating possible entries by teams such as Magnus.  As of the writing of this, there were only 63 cars on the entry list and with Black Swan on site, this takes it a full grid.  If no further entries materialize, everybody will make it into the race.  This will alleviate some of the off season concern about sending entries home – like Magnus had to do at Petit last season.

As a class, GTC will likely be a bit more open this season with the graduation of Black Swan to the P2 class.  Leading the entries are two car efforts from AJR and NGT. 

AJR will only field a single car in the class for the season, but as their GT spec Lotus is not ready, they will field a second GTC Porsche for the Lotus full season drivers, Bill Sweedler and Townsend Bell.  The GTC full season entry will have Leh Keen and Cooper McNeil driving.  Look for Leh to become the next dominant driver of the class, much like Jeroen Bleekemolen has been for the last two seasons.

NGT brings a high profile effort to the class, thanks to the support of MOMO. 

Their presence will be felt at Sebring with a two-car effort.  Surprisingly, TRG, who usually shows up to races with multiple entries, will only field a single car, led by Spencer Pumpelly, with Marc Bunting joining Emilio DiGuida at Sebring.

The remainder of the grid will be made up of entries by GMG, JDX (with Michael Valiante driving), Green Hornet and Competition Motorsports.

Gary Horrocks