Mid-Ohio Race Day

(images to come)

It’s another hot and humid day. The cloud cover has increased but far from anything that looks threatening.

The morning warm-up went smoothly for all. This included the GT2 class Aston Martin. The team had replaced its engine overnight, missing qualifying in the process. The replacement motor already has ample time on it, having last been thrashed around by Tomas Enge and the Spa test day a few weeks ago, so it is potentially a bit of time bomb regarding its longevity.

Everyone has successful passed post-qualifying tech inspection. The only notable change is that the Panoz went back to Dunlops after what turned out to be a brief flirtation with Hankooks. Here are the starting drivers:

1, # 66, de Ferran Acura ARX-01b, Gil de Ferran, LM P2
2, # 9, Highcoft Acura ARX-01b, Scott Sharp, LM P2

3, # 7, Penske Porsche RS Spyder, Timo Bernhrd, LM P2
4, # 26, Andretti-Green Acura ARX-01b, Raphael Matos, LM P2

5, # 2, Audi R10, Marco Werner, LM P1
6, # 15, Fernandez Acura ARX-01b, Luis Diaz, LM P2

7, # 1, Audi R10, Dingo Capello, LM P1
8, # 6, Penske Porsche RS Spyder, Sascha Maassen , LM P2

9, # 16, Dyson Porsche RS Spyder, Chris Dyson, LM P2
10, # 20, Dyson Porsche RS Spyder, Butch Leitzinger, LM P2

11, # 37, Intersport Lola-Judd B06/10, Clint Field, LM P1
12, # 30, Intersport Lola-Judd B06/10, Ryan Lewis, LM P1

13, # 12, Autocon Creation-Judd CA06, Chris McMurry, LM P1
14, # 3, Chevrolet Corvette C6.R, Johnny O’Connell, GT1

15, # 4, Chevrolet Corvette C6.R, Olivier Beretta, GT1
16, # 62, Risi Competizione Ferrari F430 GT, Jaime Melo, GT2

17, # 87, Farnbacher-Loles Porsche 997 GT3 RSR, Richard Westbrook, GT2
18, # 45, Flying Buzzard Porsche 997 GT3 RSR, Wolf Henzler, GT2

19, # 71, Tafel Racing Ferrari F430 GT, Dominik Farnbacher, GT2
20, # 46, Flying Gizzard Porsche 997 GT3 RSR, Patrick Pilet, GT2

21, # 61, Risi Competizione, Porsche 997 GT3 RSR, Harrison Brix, GT2
22, # 44, Flying Lizard Motorsports, Porsche 997 GT3 RSR, Seth Neiman, GT2

23, # 21, PTG Panoz Esperante, Tom Milner, GT2
24, # 40, Robertston Racing Ford GT, David Murry, GT2

25, # 18, Vici Racing, Porsche 997 GT3 RSR, Nicky Pastorelli, GT2
26, # 54, Black Swan Racing Ford GT, Tim Pappas, GT2

27, # 73, Tafel Racing Ferrari F430 GT, Jim Tafel, GT2
28, # 11, Primetime Dodge Viper CC, Joel Feinberg, GT2

29, # 007, Drayson-Barwell Aston Martin Vantage, Paul Drayson, GT2
30, # 8, B-K Motorsports, Lola-Mazda B07/46, Ben Devlin, LM P2

There was a spot of bother on the grid as an ECU went bad on the #37 Lola during Clint Field’s reconnaissance lap. The crew fiddled with it on pit row and will join the field after the start.

Remember that at Mid-Ohio the field takes the start on the back straight. However, the field was so badly out of line coming out of the Keyhole that the start was waved off. The clock started, so that the race actually began under yellow. The next time around the field didn’t look much better but they were still given the green.

Sharp surged forward but Masssen even more so, taking second spot from Werner but some distance behind de Ferran in the lead from the pole and Werner in second. Capello is Maassen, followed by Bernhard.

The top three were tight indeed in GT2 with Westbrook nearly slipstreaming Melo and Henzler not much further back in third place. Farnbacher was only a tad further back in fourth with the No. 71 Tafel Ferrari.

By lap 3 the leaders were already lapping the slowest of the GT2 cars, the #007 Aston Martin of Paul Drayson. Meanwhile the next batch of three GT2 cars were closing up making that class a tight 6-car battle. However, that began to break up a bit during the initial lapping maneuvers.

On lap 5 Werner retook second place from Sharp while the two went side-by-side through Turn 4. Later that same lap Raphael Matos has contact with a yellow Spyder. The Porsche continued unharmed but the #26 Acura peeled off into the pits. Its suspension sustained considerable damage and the team lost some 8-9 laps.

It looked more like an Audi day as Marco Werner easily swept past Gil de Ferran for the lead on the next lap and the next time around Capello past Sharp. The four top cars, Werner (#2 Audi), de Ferran (#66 Acura), Capello (#1 Audi), and Sharp (#9 Acura) weaved together through the packs of GT2 cars. Similarly the top four in the production category remained close. There Westbrook made a deft moving going from fourth to second in class, slipping past while de Ferran was lapping the lead GT2 group.

The race began to settle a bit, but not without some interesting sights. Photographers missed a great opportunity when there was a moment of three abreast on the front straight. A yellow Penske Porsche was passing a yellow Corvette which was in turn passing the silver Robertson Ford.

The next move occurred when de Ferran moved up to third passing Werner. At 20 minutes the order was Werner five seconds over the other Audi, de Ferran another second back but not gaining, then Sharp another 4 seconds down followed by Bernhard at about the same margin. There was a long gap back to Diaz in fifth with the #15 Acura.

Chris McMurry had a lurid but brief spin at the last turn. The #12 Creation continued unabated—struggling to stay ahead of the Corvette pair. Westbrook was clearly the fastest of the GT2 runners and his #87 Farnbacher-Loles Porsche took the class lead at the 25-minute mark, passing Melo in the #62 Ferrari and Henzler in the #45 Lizard Porsche. In the overall battle Capello slowly closed on Werner. The two Acuras, de Ferran and Sharp, were still in touch but fading, as were the other Prototypes.

The gap was widening in GT2 with Westbrook pulling away in the lead while Henzler was catching Melo for second in class. Clint Field came back into the pits, the wheel cover came off and the car was pushed into the garage. It retired with a lack of oil pressure plus something rubbing the wrong way on the body.

By the 40-minute mark the field was quite strung out with one interesting surprise. That was seeing the “new” #30 Lola of Ryan Lewis ahead of the #20 Dyson Porsche of Butch Leitzinger. It would be a rather quiet day for the two blue Porsche Spyders. They never featured in the race but at least did not suffer the woes of Lime Rock.

Some after this came the first drama when Tim Pappas chose the most inopportune moment to cut across the racing line and try to enter the pits. Capello was just lapping by and the Ford slammed the Audi. Both kept going with Capello losing spot. He quickly regained his pace, proving that there was no damage, and within two laps re-passed de Ferran. The Ford pitted, Anthony Lazzaro took over. It came back around for a penalty, but Lazzaro had a problem and coasted to a stop within two turns of exiting the pits.

The #30 Lola was the first to make a scheduled stop, the handover to Faulkner losing the car its good position. GT2 remained close with Melo closing up on Westbrook and Henzler only about one second further back.

A snake appeared in the gravel as the #11 car became beached at the eponymous corner. This brought out the first full-course caution although both cars extricated themselves from their respective predicaments. The Ford Falken’s problems were electrical and after another stop it was retired.

As soon as the pits opened Capello peeled off of the queue behind the safety car. He was followed into the pits by Sharp, Bernhard, Maassen, Diaz, de Ferran, and—significantly, the second in GT2 #62 Ferrari of Melo. Next time around Werner pitted as did Westbrook from the GT2 lead. The Farnbacher-Loles stop went completely awry as the car was dropped off the jacks before a wheel was attached.

The #46 Porsche (Pilet to van Overbeek) had a penalty for running over the fuel hose. A lap later all the remaining GT2 contenders also stopped. Most steams took on their second driver. The bad day for reptiles continued as both Porsches #45 and #46 had vapor lock issues while #44 battled a bad transmission that would eventually prove terminal. This left it a Ferrari 1-2 in GT2 with the #71 Ferrari timing their stop perfectly and emerged with nearly a lap in hand over the #62 Risi F430.

On the restart Lucas Luhr (in for Werner) was able to pull away while second place man Emanuele Pirro (replacing Capello) was running a tad slow on a harder set of Michelins. He was reeled in for second place by the charging Porsche of Romain Dumas (relieving Bernhard). Simon Pagenaud was now fourth in the #66 Acura. In a rare moment of glory for the #8 Lola-Mazda, Ben Devlin was the second fastest car on the circuit for a few brief laps.

Dirk Werner was playing an excellent game of catch up in the #87 Porsche that he took over from Westbrook. He caught the #62 Ferrari, now driven by Mika Salo and after an artistic exchange of paint emerged second in class coming out of the Keyhole. Dirk Müller, now in the #71 Ferrari, was well and truly off to an unassailable lead in the usually very close class.

Faulkner spun and continued but the same was not true for the #11 Viper which stopped at the same spot as before. This time a lack of venom from a broken axle kept it from continuing. It stopped in a precarious place and another full-course caution was called. Almost simultaneously Dumas slowed a bit and both Brabham (replacing Scott in the #9 Acura) and Pageneaud slipped past the Porsche. However, it occurred under yellow and the previous positions were later restored. That was all besides the point considering what happened next.

The green came with just under 75 minutes to go, but the racing went on for only five minutes before there was another interruption. Faulkner spun again and this time the #30 Lola was well and truly beached.

There was another flurry of stops, one of them made by Simon Pagenaud. He stayed aboard in what was to be a fuel only stop. The car was released though before the re-fueler had removed the hose. Pagenaud, unaware of this immediately accelerated away. The hose came out and line of fuel instantly caught fire. It engulfed the back of the car and spread back toward the pit wall. The driver was out immediately and within 5-8 seconds the whole of the fire was contained by all those in attendance. However, the de Ferran team re-fueler, Keith Jones of Greenwood, Indiana, was caught in the midst of the inferno.

The pit notes and radio commentary made light of this but as it happened directly in front of the media center the scene was horrific. He remained conscious but clearly had bad burns to his hands and face. The first aid crews were on him immediately and he was taken away by the ambulance to a burns unit in Columbus.

The safety car period was extended and indeed the pits remained closed. The #8 Lola happened to be in the pits at the time, two stalls back, and was trapped for another 10 minutes before Jones was removed and the damage cleaned up. The incident happened one stall away from the de Ferran area, directly in front of the PTG Panoz area. Now we had the unfortunate scene of team owner Tom Milner complaining to IMSA officials that his car had no access to the pits.

Once the pits reopened we had more drama. First The GT1 Corvette pair stopped simultaneously. Johnny O’Connell hopped into #3 while Olivier Beretta was the new driver in #4. The two also left simultaneously—very simultaneously. They banged wheels at the pit exit, nearly collecting an IMSA official in the process. Then they continued this argy-bargy going around Keyhole. For their troubles they both received two very, very long penalty stops. Remember, all this happened under yellow and with a red light at the pit exit. Although they were the only two in the class of course, this left almost at the very back of the race runners at the end. Who said that GT1 is boring!

There was another near disaster in the pits when the #62 Ferrari left its stall a bit earlier, causing a crew member to go sprawling on the tarmac—although thankfully uninjured. The class leading #71 had a brief spin after the restart, but the Tafel team’s lead was such that it lost them very little time.

Once the field settled after the restart the order was Luhr by four seconds over Pirro, and another second back to Dumas. However, the two Audis had little trouble pulling away. Adrian Fernandez was in fourth, another seven seconds down, and being successfully reeled in by Patrick Long in the other Penske Porsche. David Brabham was next and very close. The lead lap was completed by the two Dyson Porsches. Although they were much further back, Guy Smith in #16 and Marino Franchitti in #20 salvaged some honor with a good 7th and 8th place finish, respectively.

Brabham caught Fernandez and set after Long. The Audi 1-2 was largely set in stone by now with #2 some 12 seconds clear of #1. Dumas was another 6 seconds down, followed by Long a second out. The two Porsches were battling for third, but it was the Acura breathing down their necks that was of greater concern.

Brabham finally caught Long and used the Robertson Ford to make the pass. Long went to the outside of the silver #40 as they all braked into Keyhole, while the Acura went inside—deep inside. Brabham accelerated away on the back stretch. He increased the hold on fourth place and now gave consideration to Dumas. There were less then 10 minutes left.

There was a mild intra-Lizard battle for second in GT2 with Jörg Bergmeister (#45) catching the #46 Porsche of Johannes van Overbeek. However, with about 3-4 minutes to go the margin between them stabilized. There was one last drama as the right rear wheel parted company on Andrea Robertson’s Ford at Turn 1. She intrepidly continued scraping along the entire lap, pitted, got a fresh tire and finished the race.

Brabham continued to close on Dumas but he made one slight mistake at the Esses after having lapped the #21 Panoz. The Acura slewed sideways for a split second before the Australian driver yanked it straight. Dumas was able to accelerate away just enough to stay ahead. Brabham made one last lunge at the final turn of the final lap and finished a half-second behind the Porsche.

It was not quite the thrills of Lime Rock, but still a worthy event. There were also dramas of a kind no one wants to see. All in a hot day of racing.