ALMS - Mobil 1 Sebring 12 Hours – Wednesday Morning

Colours
Bright Florida Sunshine and a cooling breeze greeted the 2007 ALMS pack this morning as the cars growled into pitlane for the morning practice session.

First impressions? Well let’s start with the GT2 runners for a change – every time you turn round there seems to be another new Ferrari coming by, and astonishingly only one of them is red! That’s the lead Risi car (#62) with the remainder of the Prancing Horse pack composed of the (very) green Krohn machine, the pair of Petersen White Lightning / Corsa Motorsports cars looking very smart in reversed colours and the very pretty metallic blue of the #24 JMB car.

The Spyker is looking very smart too in a livery which is the epitome of how detail differences can make a very positive change for the better: the orange and silver theme is carried over from last year, but the silver is closer to a gunmetal grey and the orange is now a metallic burnt version of the hue, as opposed to the flat colour the car previously carried.

Panoz of course has three representatives here with visual confusion in abundant supply on first encounter, the two PTG run ‘factory’ cars carrying the Advan, perhaps more familiar aboard the team’s BMWs (of blessed memory) with the Robertson Racing car carrying a scheme which looks very close to the 2006 factory colours.

And so to Porsche – the biggest 997 GT3RSR pack so far seen anywhere. The Flying Lizards 2007 look has already featured here and very smart it is too. Tafel Racing also presents a very smart matched pair with their blue highlights, the epitome of a neat and efficient team profile. Beyond this though the 997 pack seem to have hit a wall in terms of creative inspiration. A trio of BWPs are in evidence from Rahal Letterman, Trans Sport and Farnbacher Loles. We have a pair of the ‘old firm’ 996s here too though with the #10 Konrad Motorsport car running this morning but no sign on track of the Autoracing Club Bratislava #77 car.

Neither of the team Corvette C6.Rs were in evidence for the morning session so we were treated to just a single GT1 car on track, the familiar Team Modena livery giving the DBR9 a very satisfying, sinister look.

LMP2 is of course a stellar line up and whilst the Penske Porsche RS Spyders cars look now very familiar there is still a ‘double take’ value to the Dyson colours aboard their new weapons of choice.

And of course it is a big welcome to the Acura boys: the corporate blue looks very good indeed on a race car, with the Fernandez Racing Lola and the Highcroft Acura (Courage) both looking particularly smart.

The B-K Motorsports Lola Mazda has seen some rapid attention since our first encounter with the car just two weeks ago, white and blue on the B07/40 looking very smart ,whilst the Horag Racing Lola was out and running well too.

And finally to LMP1 – the Audis looking very sharp in their 2007 livery (but they could badly do with looking less similar to each other!).

The Intersport Creation livery looks very neat indeed, an amazing example of how a colour scheme can make a very familiar car look very, very different. On a similar theme the Autocon MG Lola could barely look more different. Some love the new look, others don’t but its great to have them back.

Morning Practice
31 of the 34 runners were out on track for the 10.20 to 11.15 session, and whilst the Audis finished atop the timesheet, the session was far from dominated by the diesels.

Both of the R10s posted times in the 1:46s, Frank Biela top of the tree with a 1:46.759.

The remainder of the top ten was an interestingly mixed bag, Romain Dumas third fastest in the #7 Penske Porsche, six tenths ahead of Andy Wallace in the very similar #16 Dyson car.

Tony Kanaan was fastest of the Acura powered pack in the #26 Andretti Green Acura ARX-01a with the #20 Dyson Porsche pipping the Fernandez Lola Acura for sixth.

Thereafter it was a Highcroft, Intersport, Penske train all with times which were clearly not reflecting the cars’ potential pace.

GT1 was a one car show this morning with Team Modena busting under the 2 minute mark with Antonio Garcia, the Corvettes staying in the awning for the duration.

GT2 is looking finely poised ahead of what should be an epic Porsche / Ferrari / Spyker / Panoz battle this weekend. The two Risi cars finished the morning session 1-2 with the Jaime Melo pedalled #62 car posting a 2:03.296, ahead of the #61 Krohn Racing car.

The #71 Tafel Racing car was a welcome invader in the Ferrari ranks ahead of the two White Lightning run 430s, #31 ahead of #32 with the #45 Flying Lizards Porsche and the Spyker (all of these seven lapping within a second of each other).

The #18 Rahal Letterman Porsche and #22 and #21 team PTG Panoz rounded out the top ten GT2 times.

It’s warm, breezy and cloud cover is increasing as we head towards the afternoon session.

Notes and Quotes
The Penske Porsches are apparently sporting mufflers: their noise reading found them 1db over the 116db limit. The Dyson cars weren’t fitted with similar kit this morning but presumably one RS Spyder is as loud as another and we might well see that redressed later this week?

Steve Bunkhall was happy with the name check on dsc this morning and happier still that Pat Long was quickest Porsche 997 (3rd fastest in GT2). “The Virgo test went very well and this programme (Tafel Racing) is looking good too.”

Across the way at Robertson Racing ex-Team LNT man Lee Penn is engineering the #53 Panoz. “I’m looking after this car for their programme and I’ll be with Scuderia Ecosse for the FIA GT season. The Robertsons are very down to earth and very realistic about this race and Arie (Luyendyk Jr) is getting up to speed very quickly.”

John Macaluso is a very interested spectator here this week: the Miracle Motorsport Team Principal came awfully close to mounting an effort here (allegedly in an ex-Dyson Lola) but is now waiting to se how things pan out here before making a decision on an ALMS entry later this season.

Farnbacher Loles meanwhile will use the Pierre Ehret owned #85 Porsche 997 here before relocating their season’s efforts in the Le Mans Series. The Sebring car meanwhile will remain in the USA and could possibly see some mid season ALMS action, depending on whether the Farnbacher driving crew manage to secure drives at Le Mans. Either way the team looks set to return for PLM and Laguna Seca.

There seems a wide variety of opinion on offer in the paddock here, from both North American and European sources, that the standard of GT2 competitiveness and pace would be a revelation to the European series.

Finally for now Wolfgang Kaufmann is present at the track but his intended ride, a new Konrad Motorsport Porsche 997, is not, the car still requiring final vital components and the required Porsche shakedown.
GG