Winter Test, Sebring – Day Two
Morning Session Test Session 4 of the ALMS Winter Test started bright and early at 8:00am with beautiful blue skies and mild temperatures. This was the first of two practice sessions for the day and would be two hours in length. The first cars to take the track would be the #44 & #45 Lizard Porsches, #92 BMW and followed by the #40 Ford GT-R. David Murry was behind the wheel of the Ford GT-R and was able to keep time with the three German cars. Dick Barbour commented that the car was running beautifully and noted that Murry was keeping pace with the Porches and BMW on a set of fairly worn tires. The team has been happy with the performance of the Dunlop tires and praised their consistency. Barbour went on to say, “We have a real race car now.” David Robertson added his thoughts, “I’m just happy to be here in January! The car is really good. We are concentrating now on just getting more seat time for myself and Andrea. I think the Dunlop tires are improved over last year and I understand we might be able to try some of the FIA-spec tires soon, which may even better. We have made some improvement to the car, although we don’t have a boat load of money to throw at it to do wind tunnel tests; but we have run it through a shaker rig program to debug the suspension. Again, we are excited to be here and excited about this season.” Following the small group of GT2s into this session was the #15 Lowes Acura and the #66 de Ferran Acura. Both cars seemed to be running effortlessly, with the P2 Acura holding about a two second cushion over the P1 for several laps. Tom Anderson of Lowes Fernandez Racing; “Nothing exciting to report really. We are working a bit on balance and testing a few endurance pieces for Acura. The track conditions are great right now, probably better than we are going to see for the race, so we are generating a little more downforce than usual. Our goal is get as many laps in as possible.” The de Ferran Acura ran for nearly an hour pretty much nonstop, and not surprisingly was the quickest of the session with a 1:44.814. The only time spent in the pits was to replace Pagenaud with Dixon. Simon Pagenaud, “The car ran perfectly this morning. Although we were not really tracking lap times, I think I was able to put in some really quick laps. It is a physical car to drive, but still very nice. The one thing I have noticed is that it will go into the corner much faster than the P2 car. We are still learning it though, working on getting over the bumps better.” The Lizards were out in full force this morning, running both new 997s and last year’s car. Johannes van Overbeek got setup duties in the #44 before handing over to Seth Neiman. Bergmeister and Long in the #45 were the quickest GT2 of the session with a 2:01.866, which was far and away the quickest GT time of any session so far. Strategist Thomas Blam had these comments during the session, “We just got into the .01’s, so we’ll take that. Both new cars are pretty good, and the track is in good condition also. We are just trying to get as many laps on these new cars as we can. We brought the #44 back out to get Seth, and everyone, as much track time as possible.”
Across the board the GT2 times improved this session. Four Porsches were below 2:03, all three entries from the Lizards and also the Farnbacher Loles car, which was second fastest during this session with a 2:02.082. The Farnbacher car just took to the track for the first time ever in yesterday’s third session. Porsche factory man Wolf Henzler; “Yesterday we ran the car just as it came from Germany. This morning we will begin to work on the set up. I think the ‘09 car will be an improvement; especially the changes should improve the front down force. The GT2 class will be extremely tough this year with Ferrari, the other Porsche teams, and now adding BMW and Corvette. I think it will be a little strange fighting my former teammates on the Flying Lizards, but it should be a good fun battle.” 
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The Rahal BMW M3 continued its good work and trimmed over a full second on its previous best time. The team and drivers are ecstatic about the way this brand new car has been running flawlessly. The new M3 has completed 108 laps so far in the test and has not missed a beat. LG Motorsports were busy strengthening their case for a trip to Le Mans with consistent work and improving their lap times each session. Lou Gigliotti, who has done all of the driving so far, has squeezed another full second out of the Riley Corvette and finished just behind the Panoz and ahead of the BMW. Gigliotti, “We found a few things yesterday. We are still looking for some more grip, but considering we are running 38 lap old tires this morning, we are going around pretty well. It’s still a fairly new car, only five races last year, so the potential is definitely there.”  |
Ian James was able to trim a full two seconds off the Panoz’s previous best posted time. James did the first half of the session before handing the black beast off to Dominic Farnbacher. Farnbacher, “Our times are getting closer to the Porsche’s. We are still working on getting better over the bumps. Yokohama has a lot of different tire compounds and constructions for us to try. They have closed the gap between their tire and the Michelins substantially since I was last on Yokohama’s in 2005, so we are pretty happy with our progress.” 
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The tire wars in GT2 certainly seem to be heating up for this season. Dunlop has undoubtedly increased its presence and interest in this series with its partnership in the new BMW effort; and all indications have Yokohama showing renewed passion for their race program also. The PTG Panoz pit area looked like a tire shop with no less than eight full sets of tires stacked around ready to go on the car. There are more Dunlop and Yokohama tire technicians in the pit area than ever before. The Highcroft Acura was again a late arrival to the session. The team reports that some brake issues, which were lingering over from yesterday, were the culprit, but feel that they have that figured out now. Dario Franchitti drove the car from the paddock out to join the session and was able to get in 11 laps before the end. There were no incidents to report during the session, other than a lone red flag for some debris - looked like an air intake - over in Turn 17. News from the paddock includes the arrival of the Dyson transporter and Lola coupe, along with the arrival of Vici Racing. Vici was busy getting its Porsche 997 ready to go in this afternoon’s session. Richard Westbrook was in the paddock and commented, “They arrived late last night, and should be ready for the next practice session. This will be my first time running with Vici, and I don’t know what they have set for the season. I do know they had a few good runs last year, and they have got Michelins for this year so they should be competitive." Times for Test Session 4 1. 66 Acura 1:44.814
2. 15 Acura 1:46.540
3. 9 Acura 1:47.925
4. 45 Porsche 2:01.866
5. 87 Porsche 2:02.082
6. 44 Porsche 2:02.720
7. 46 Porsche 2:02.796
8. 21 Panoz 2:03.244
9. 28 Corvette 2:03.550
11. 40 Ford Gt 2:04.541
10. 92 BMW 2:03.654 RW & GH | 
