ALMS, Mid-Ohio - Qualifying Report
A Great Day For Jonny Cocker

I’m British, okay, so it’s important that we start with a weather report!  Actually, that’s not as daft as it sounds as the weather here at Mid Ohio is known to be both changeable and critical in terms of how the track surface behaves.  While it rained earlier in the week, it’s fortunately been dry since running started, and today’s mid 80 degrees F temperatures, breeze and reduced humidity were a welcome change to yesterday’s sweltering heat.  The grip levels attained between warm and hot weather are crucial to both drivers and engineers. 

So it was a good day for some, and a great day for others...one of whom was young Jonny Cocker.  The Yorkshireman grabbed his first pole position in the ALMS, comprehensively taking his Drayson Racing Lola B09 60/Judd to the top of the time sheets and a new qualifying lap record with a flying lap of 1:10.034.

Lap records, in fact, tumbled in all four classes.  The nine tenths of a second gap he pulled out over Chris Dyson’s Mazda-powered Lola and 1.3 seconds advantage he had over Simon Pagenaud in the Highcroft HPD ARX-01c was enough to put a huge grin on the faces of all at the popular British squad, and cause some slightly furrowed brows further down the pit lane.

 “It’s been plain to see that Drayson Racing has been making big improvements every time out,” said Jonny.  “We’ve had our issues throughout the year but have been consistently fast. We were fastest in both practices and quickest in qualifying and that is a fantastic result.  I’d like to take a little bit of credit myself - just kidding! -but I think we have made some adjustments and it’s showing.

“I was amazed by the time we set.  At the start of the qualifying session there was an awful lot of rubber down. Maybe that’s why things happened how they did. Sometimes you expect there to be a lot of yellows and it doesn’t work out that way.” 

Highcroft feel they are just lacking that edge on straight line power, but aren’t too despondent.  David Brabham says:  “This is the first time we have been off the front row but we knew this weekend was going to be a challenge.  Simon got every little last drop out of the car in qualifying – that was really a great lap.  I suppose it doesn’t really matter where we qualify because by the time we get to the first corner all those cars have gone by due to the power disadvantage that we have.  The weight disadvantage doesn’t help as well.  We just have to make sure we outrace them as best we can.”

The Intersport Lola had rather publicly lost an engine in the morning session so missed the second one-hour practice completely while it was being changed. 

Bryan Willman’s Autocon Lola B06 10/AER also sat that session out, as well as qualifying, while the gearbox was being changed.  Maybe his side-swiping of Giancarlo Fisichella’s Risi Ferrari in the morning had something to do with that failing transmission as the Italian F1 star said that he’d been crawling along the track before suddenly swerving into the Ferrari.

Ian Dawson’s Radical with the Nissan/IES engine is having a few new car blues but there doesn’t appear to be anything major and Chris Buncombe and Andrew Prendeville are finding their way round without any issues.

Christophe Bouchut in the Level 5 Motorsports LMPC Oreca took his third pole position of the season, ahead of Luis Diaz and Kyle Marcelli.  Gunnar Jeanette, who is usually right up there in the times, was only two hundredths of a second off Marcelli’s time so there’s all to play for in that class tomorrow.

GT was an all red affair in the end, although at the end of the hour-long practice session just prior to qualifying it looked as though the yellow Corvettes and white BMWs might be stealing the Risi Ferraris’ thunder.  With Guy Cosmo pulling out a great lap for 6th place, that makes three Ferraris in the top six.  A good day for the Prancing Horse then.

Risi new(ish) boy, Toni Vilander, just outpaced Gimmi Bruni to take his second ALMS pole position with a stunning time of 1:19.682.  Bruni was ready to do another lap but returned to the pits in order to preserve tyres for tomorrow’s race.   The Finn’s team mate was the first to congratulate him on his achievement; Fisichella is really enjoying racing here in the USA and he’ll be back as often as his LMS and Ferrari commitments allow.  Both the Ferrari times were under the old lap record.

“First of all I’m really happy to be here in Mid Ohio and back in the ALMS,” said Vilander, who is still recovering from a nasty gastric bug which laid him low mid week.  “I really enjoy this Championship and I don’t get pole positions in Europe like I do here!  I didn’t really know what to expect today because the race track is new for both me and Giancarlo.  But we knew we could rely on Risi Competizione, who have so much experience here, and our really quick team mates, Jaime and Gimmi, so we had the maximum information available.  We usually start the weekend with a similar set up to our sister car and then we personalise the car to our liking.

“I think the race will be very interesting.  They’ve never had this many cars for this race and it’s quite a tight track.  I think we need to be careful with the prototypes because there is only one racing line and either side of that is grass or the wall.  You will need to be able to see things happening almost before they are happening.  You can lose a lot of time over half a lap, so it will be a question of patience, taking calculated risks and being smart to be successful.” 

Enjoying something of a resurgence here at Mid Ohio are the two Corvettes, with Olly Gavin edging Jan Magnussen for 3rd and 4th respectively.  The two days of testing the team did here at the beginning of the week has obviously paid off, with significant steps forward being made, and their hopes for the race are high. 

Gavin was at the head of the time sheets for the first half of qualifying and commented, “I thought that my time might be good enough for the pole, but the Ferraris kind of suckered us and then landed a big right hook!”  Joey Hand was just a tenth behind Magnussen in the #90 BMW, followed by Guy Cosmo in the Extreme Sports Ferrari to round out the top six.

In GTC it was once again a Jeroen Bleekemolen show – the Porsche Supercup driver taking his Black Swan Racing Porsche to a fourth successive class pole position.  The amiable Dutchman was told that Mid Ohio was one of the best tracks visited by the ALMS, and is in full agreement now that he’s had some track time.  

“This is a very nice track, and when people said it was going to be one of the very best road courses we have, I agree.  There are some fast corners which is nice and then the Esses. They are all challenging. Once you get one wrong, it’s difficult to get the rest of them right.”

Bryce Miller was a close second in the GTC class followed by James Sofronas and Shane Lewis.

The withdrawal of the Muscle Milk Porsche of Klaus Graf and Greg Pickett has huge championship implications for tomorrow as Graf had closed to within seven points of LMP leaders David Brabham and Simon Pagenaud with his win two weeks ago at Lime Rock. 

Despite some paddock negotiations, it hasn’t been possible to secure him a drive with anyone else so he’s going to have to frustratingly sit this one out.  

Just as a final round up to today’s news, the ALMS has announced that Roush Yates, one of racing’s premier designers and constructors of high-performance engines, will be joining the American Le Mans Series as an engine supplier in LMP2 starting in 2011.

 Its initial offering is the Ford V6 EcoBoost Turbo for installation in a variety of prototype chassis.  Already, renowned chassis constructor Lola has announced that it will offer the Roush-prepared EcoBoost as a standard installation in its open-top and coupe prototypes.  A toe in the water for Ford to enter as a manufacturer?  That may be some way off, but it would be nice to think it’s a possibility, wouldn’t it?

Fiona Miller