Lime Rock Race Day
And What A race

The mid-morning warm-up session was entirely uneventful. It was the only pre-race session that was not interrupted by at least one red flag. Only No. 8 B-K Motorsport team had a slight worry when the Mazda powered went smoke, smoke. However, it was only some unburnt fuel spilling around the turbocharger. The cars that missed yesterday’s qualifying all ran well; Intersport Lola with a new motor and the No. 73 Ferrari and No. 008 Aston Martin with repaired bodies. James Bell was particularly angry about their problems. “Franck Montagny’s hit on us cost $65,000. We replaced most of the suspension, both splitters and several panels. We would have replaced the front fenders had Prodrive been able to supply us any spares.”

Marco Andretti ran the warm-up in the No. 26 Acura and since he was at Nashville yesterday and did not partake in practice, the car has been relegated to the back of the grid. The new Ford Falken is having a good weekend, one that they consider nothing more than a test session as the car has not run before. Owner / driver Tim Pappas is very enthusiastic about Falken’s involvement. “To say that they are serious about this doesn’t begin to describe it. We’ve been working with their engineers for a year now, including a two day test with the RSR at Mid-Ohio.” While he said it would be a while before they are competitive with the 800-pound gorilla of sports car tires, they expect to be in contention by next season. The Falken has thus far shown none of the too hard and brittle problems often associated with tire manufacturers new to endurance racing. Thus far at Lime Rock it’s been the veteran Anthony Lazzaro who has been doing most of the driving.

Track owner and long-term personage in the sport, Skip Barber, has plans for even more extensive modifications in the future. He was being interviewed by Gary Watkins for a story in Autosport on the subject. He noted that the choice of asphalt is predicated on it being able to survive the brutal winters in the region. Barber also commented that it was the IMSA-installed curbs that have been problematic, not the track built ones.

Starting Drivers, by grid order

1, # 9, Highcroft Acura ARX-01b, Scott Sharp, LM P2
2, # 66, de Ferran Acura ARX-01b, Simon Pagenaud, LM P2

3, # 6, Penske Porsche RS Spyder, Patrick Long, LM P2
4, # 7, Penske Porsche RS Spyder, Romain Dumas, LM P2

5, # 15, Fernandez Acura ARX-01b, Luis Diaz, LM P2
6, # 20, Dyson Porsche RS Spyder, Marino Franchitti, LM P2

7, # 1, Audi R10, Emanuele Pirro, LM P1
8, # 2, Audi R10, Lucas Luhr, LM P1

9, # 16, Dyson Porsche RS Spyder, Chris Dyson, LM P2
10, # 8, B-K Motorsports, Lola-Mazda B07/46, Gerardo Bonilla, LM P2

11, # 4, Chevrolet Corvette C6.R, Oliver Gavin, GT1
12, # 3, Chevrolet Corvette C6.R, Jan Magnussen, GT1

13, # 87, Farnbacher-Loles Porsche 997 GT3 RSR, Dirk Werner, GT2
14, # 62, Risi Competizione Ferrari F430 GT, Mika Salo, GT2

15, # 71, Tafel Racing Ferrari F430 GT, Dominik Farnbacher, GT2
16, # 45, Flying Buzzard Porsche 997 GT3 RSR, Jörg Bergmeister, GT2

17, # 46, Flying Gizzard Porsche 997 GT3 RSR, Patrick Pilet, GT2
18, # 21, PTG Panoz Esperante, Tom Sutherland, GT2

19, # 61, Risi Competizione, Porsche 997 GT3 RSR, Patrick Freisacher, GT2
20, # 44, Flying Lizard Motorsports, Porsche 997 GT3 RSR, Seth Neiman, GT2

21, # 007, Drayson-Barwell Aston Martin Vantage, Paul Drayson, GT2
22, # 54, Black Swan Racing Ford GT, Tim Pappas, GT2

23, # 11, Primetime Dodge Viper CC, Joel Feinberg, GT2
24, # 26, Andretti-Green Acura ARX-01b, Marco Andretti, LM P2

25, # 37, Intersport Lola-Judd B06/10, Jon Field, LM P1
26, # 008, Bell Motorsports Aston Martin DBR9, Terry Borcheller, GT1

27, # 73, Tafel Racing Ferrari F430 GT, Jim Tafel, GT2

Track temperatures are soaring. Michelin estimates that with the new surface it could be as high as 150 F at two o’clock. While warm and muggy, it has been made palatable by a light overcast and a slight breeze. The temperatures are such that teams are all over the map on tire choices and strategies. Some are going with three soft, one medium; others, the other way around, etc. Of course, these choices were all made yesterday as they have to start on their qualies! The Falken shod ones are the only team that has changed their minds and will take the back of the pack start as a penalty.

The Race — What a Race.

The race began with some drama, which once you read ahead you will see was a theme today — but somewhat different than one might have expected yesterday. Scott Sharp had the lead for one, maybe two turns before Patrick Long went past. The Porsche was able to pull away steadily through that opening lap. Behind Long, Simon Pagenaud too tried to join the leader but instead nearly chopped the No. 2 Audi. The De Ferran entry spun into the dirt and stopped long enough to lose a few spots. One of the ones to gain dramatically was the Audi of Emanuele Pirro, into a strong second place. Down in GT2 Richard Westbrook opened up a half-second lead over Salo. Gavin led the Corvette battle.

Traffic comes up quickly at Lime Rock and about five minutes later Long came up to a particularly troublesome gaggle of GTs and Pirro went through for the lead. This situation would occur frequently as a Prototype arrived behind a group of slower cars and would have to wait a fair amount of time before being able to pass. Meanwhile, the pursuers come up hard on the tail. The problem is compounded by the slower cars having to shift from side-to-side in both finding a good line and avoiding the P-cars.

One of those slower cars, Jim Tafel’s Ferrari, had a bit of spin into the red dirt, but continued on after a brief delay. Out front it became an Audi 1-2 by lap 12. That was a bit of a surprise here at this P2-favored circuit. It was Pirro over Luhr with Long a few seconds back, followed by Franchitti. Pagenaud climbed up too, but had some contact with the No. 9 Acura at the chicane—the de Ferran entry getting a stop-and-go for this faux pas while Scott had a slight spin. Both cars continued although a loose splitter was noted on Scott Sharp’s car.

Both of the Dyson Porsches made good starts, with Chris Dyson doggedly holding off the charges of Marco Andretti. The first working pit stop was made by Mika Salo, flat-spotting a tire. Luhr dropped to fifth after having gone wide at the Big Bend and executing an otherwise harmless spin. Bergmeister pushed hard against the GT leader, Westbrook, and the Farnbacher-Loles Porsche was regularly locking up the front brakes at the end of the front straight. Westbrook did receive a furled black warning for some of his actions, although to me it looked to be proper tactics. Then Bergmeister made a mistake and had to go to the outside at the “Optional” but did not gain spots and thus received no penalty. Whereas this occurred regularly during practice, it would be thankfully rare in the race proper.

At 20 minutes, 22 laps, the order was Pirro by eight seconds over Long, the same gap to Dumas, and Franchitti three seconds further back with the quicker Dyson entry. Luhr was working back up about five seconds behind No. 20. Then came a trio of Acuras, Diaz just ahead of Sharp, with Pagenaud eight more seconds back. The remainder of the lead lap included Dyson and Andretti. The last named seemed to be in a very station-keeping mode. Westbrook rarely was more than a second clear of Bergmeister with Pilet following, the Lizards tongue to tail. Farnbacher was fourth, just slightly out of the fray.

Joel Feinberg backed into the tire wall and the Viper limped back around. It would continue after a long visit to the garage area. Freisacher had a much more benign off and kept going unperturbed, although at the handover to Brix there were some worried looks at the cooling system. The Ford Falken was an earlier and leisurely pit caller, Pappas handing over to Anthony Lazzaro. The lime green Ford put in an honorable debut, running trouble-free and staying out of people’s way.

The overall leaders came upon the scrapping GT2 pair and Westbrook dutifully allowed the Audi by. Bergmeister took the opportunity to say, “oh, I’m just a Prototype Coupe and would like to slip past,” and did just that. It seems that the Englishman was just a tad too polite.

Scott Sharp was given a stop-and-go for avoidable contact and he had to peel off of a fine scrap with Diaz for seventh place.

Pagenaud was the first to make a scheduled stop, but the handover to de Ferran was stymied by a balky shifter and a generally longish stop. Farnbacher was another to get a stop-and-go, this for sideswiping another Ferrari, No. 61. Westbrook had fallen off the pace in GT2, having flat-spotted a tire; but the team elected to keep him out long enough so that he could handover to Werner after the 45-minute minimum driving time. It was now a Lizard 1-2 in the class, Bergmeister four seconds ahead of Pilet.

Just before the hour mark Pirro handed for Capello and a set of Michelins, giving Patrick Long the lead. Behind them Luhr and Dumas were in a tight fight for third—then second. It ended when the No. 2 Audi made its stop with Marco Werner taking over.

Then came the Big One. As feared we have a problem at the run to the Optional. Capello and Borcheller tried to occupy the same place at the same time—simple as that. The mess that they created was a bit more complex and of course required a full-course caution. Both cars continued—sort of. The Aston Martin went a few more feet and retired although it didn’t look that bad, while the Audi was a mess and the crew consulted their manuals. There, on page 346, were the exact instructions for dealing with this particular combination of bent rear wheels, flailing body parts, missing panels, and damaged suspension pieces that would have retired mere mortal teams. I think that I may have won the press room pool, guessing 23 minutes, 56 seconds for the work—naturally the car finished the race. One of the Risi Ferraris just managed to slip through without getting caught in the vice.

It took about 20 minutes to clear away the carbon fiber and obviously there were plenty of stops. The No. 9 Acura replaced its lightly damaged wing and curiously did not take on any fuel. The Lola-Mazda was in trouble with gearbox issues. Several cars took the opportunity to make minor repairs from the various spins and scrapes such as the healthy Audi which had a nose job. The No. 45 Lizard kept the GT2 lead thanks to staying out long and then having a particularly quick handover to Johannes van Overbeek. There was a rare error in yellow Porsche land when the No. 6 missed a pit call and the Long to Maassen handover had something of a Keystone Kops air to it. The Captain was not amused.

Six cars were on the lead lap as the green was waved and Maassen (now in No. 6) got the jump on Brabham, who had replaced Sharp. The Porsche was up to fourth overall, but just as quickly fell back to sixth—perhaps a concern about jumping the start. The racing went for only another 8 minutes or so before we had another Big One-or is that Big Two, or second Big One—whatever.

Guy Smith, now in the orange & white No. 16 Porsche thought that he could put another lap on Darren Law’s No. 44 Porsche. He thought wrong. The left rear of the Spyder ate the nose of the Lizard—strange zoology maybe. Smith was turned at right angles into the rail and the front of the Dyson entry was destroyed. Smith climbed and buried his head in his hands in despair while Law clawed a few feet up the hill before stopping for good. The track was very nearly blocked with debris and the following cars came almost to a stop looking for a clean piece of pavement to traverse. Again, it would be a long clean-up.

The coming of the green saw five cars on the lead lap, all LM P2s. Timo Bernhard led with No. 7, followed by Butch Leitzinger (replacing Franchitti), then Brabham, Maassen, and Adrian Fernandez (relieving Diaz). The No. 2 Audi was just off the lead lap, having lost time with the nose replacement and a pit work violation penalty. Werner would later alternately regain and lose that lap, but could make no further progress on the P2 runners. Interestingly, the two leading Porsches did not stop under the second yellow. Only the two surviving Lizards were on the GT2 lead lap.

There was a brief steady-state period among the leaders during the restart. Then Brabham caught Leitzinger for second, while Fernandez, previously lagging, caught up with other leaders. There was another caution for some rather large chunks of wings and other debris dead center on the front straight. Unlike other series where even such routine cleans up can eat up 15-20 minutes, this was wrapped up in less then five.

At the run down to Turn 1 on the restart there was an altercation between Dirk Werner in the delayed Farnbacher Loles car and van Overbeek in the class leading Porsche. The Lizard paid a brief visit to its gravel abode while some bodywork departed the No. 87 RSR. Van Overbeek regained the racing line but was black flagged for the indiscretion while Wolf Henzler, now in the other Lizard, flew past into the lead and would not be headed henceforth. There was apparently damage done to the radiators of No. 46 as van Overbeek made a series of stops and eventually retired.

Going into the last 20 minutes or so the question remained as to whether Bernhard and Leitzinger could make it to the end, or even whether Brabham could—seeing that the Highcroft Acura had stopped earlier than most. Indeed, there were some frayed nerves in the No. 9 pits as they worked the sums. Brabs was told to throttle back, but chase at the same time—tough job.

Indeed he was equally to the task as he was quickly within striking distance of Leitzinger, but he was confronted by a common problem at the reconfigured track—two GT2 cars astride of each other, this a time a Porsche and Hall in the Viper. As that Acura had to back off, another was chasing from further back—Fernandez, but then No. 15 put in a series of slow laps through traffic and also had a slight spin. 

In the GT1 battle, Johnny O’Connell (replacing Jan Magnussen in No. 3) dropped after taking on a late splash. However, when he returned he inadvertently bumped Olivier Beretta into a spin with No. 4, leaving O’Connell to saunter off with the win.

Brabham finally found a clear run and stormed past Leitzinger. The gaps at the 2:30 mark were Bernhard with six seconds over Brabham, another nine to Leitzinger, and Maassen in fourth, four seconds down. The margins fluctuated considerably as the frequently encountered platoons of GT cars caused a constant accordion-like effect among the four leaders. It was clear though that Bernhard was on a conserve strategy—not just fuel but also tires. It was also clear that Brabham was charging hard, as was Maassen in his attack on Leitzinger. Indeed this fight for third became far too hot as Maassen gave the American driver a hard shove at, where else, The Optional, and the blue Dyson car was rammed into the tire wall. Leitzinger eventually resumed, but the cut tire let go soon afterwards and the Lola hit the barrier backwards at speed, causing significant damage. This was to have been an anniversary party for the Dyson team. It was certainly an expensive one.

Maassen’s car was undamaged but was black-flagged for the incident. This left it all up to the top two. The next time it was Brabham’s chance, probably his last chance. He went outside coming down the front straight and swept past Bernhard, cleanly take the turn first. Bernhard tried to leave his braking as late as possible but was impossibly late. The tires smoked and he went briefly into the gravel.

There was one lap left and David Brabham gave Acura its first overall victory. Indeed it was close, he stuttered around that last 1.51 miles of the cool-off lap, the tank running on fumes. It was an utterly glorious result for this hometown team, perhaps less so for the other locals—Dyson.

Johnny O’Connell was outspoken about how poorly done the changes have been to Lime Rock. “I grew up a few miles from here and came to races in the late 1960s. Perhaps then the track was safe for the cars of the time. However, if I wanted to design a modern race car I wouldn’t ask the designer of the 1963 split-window Corvette, but rather the person behind the C.6. Every year this track causes millions of dollars in car damage. Most drivers would not miss this track if it fell off the calendar. It’s too bad because the fans here are great.”

Lucas Luhr echoed some this, “Like Johnny said, the new pavement is nice but they took away one of the best turns in the ALMS, the West Bend, and replaced it with a stupid chicane. Also like Johnny said, they should have had an ALMS driver help with the design.”

Duncan Dayton, “We were choking David back those last few laps and he threaded it very well, especially given that he ran out of fuel on the cool-down lap.”

David didn’t know that the Porsche had spun so he kept looking behind him on that last lap. “I was leaning it out trying to save fuel, but kept pushing at the same time,” said the winner. “On the run down the straight I was helped by the No. 37 Lola. The Porsche had a bit further to go to get around on the right while I found a fast spot around to the left. I knew that the grip at Turn 1 had been good for several laps such I just lunged in as deep as I could. Like the other drivers, I too miss the great West Bend turn and have other criticisms, but I found that if I treated like a street circuit I cold overcome the problems.”

Scott Sharp noted that the team called the stop strategy very well to get the time back lost in the earlier repairs. “I like the hunger level of this team. That helped propel them to this victory.”

It was yet another ALMS triumph, despite what the diabolical circuit threw at it. After many dire predictions there was less carnage than expected. There is work to be done, but my, what a fine championship this is.

Janos Wimpffen