ALMS, Mosport - Friday Practice Notes

Hot, scorching, searing, sweltering, stifling, oppressive...those have been the words of the week here at Mosport.  Together with much of the USA, the Eastern provinces of Canada are in the middle of a heat wave which peaked yesterday (Thursday) at temperatures approaching 40 degrees C/110 F.

Fortunately today’s promoters’ test was run under cooler conditions with the thermometer settling around the 25C/80F mark.  Overcast skies even yielded the odd drop of rain just before the green flag – a worrying turn of events for many as Mosport and rain together makes for a treacherous track.  It didn’t amount to much though so we had two hours of practice run pretty much trouble free.

Lucas Luhr celebrated his birthday in style by topping the time sheets, although it was Thursday’s birthday boy Klaus Graf who actually set the quickest time of 1:09.172 for the Muscle Milk Aston Martin Lola.

Next up in P1 – albeit over two seconds adrift - were the two Dyson Lolas; Chris Dyson and Guy Smith only managed 10 laps between them towards the end of the day as an oil pressure issue required investigation.  This was obviously resolved in time to get some running in before tomorrow’s official practice and qualifying sessions.

Level 5 continues to be absent so there’s no P2 entrants.  Intersport’s Kyle Marcelli led the way in LMPC at 1:13.367, ahead of team mate Jon Field’s Oreca FLM09.

It was Field who caused the session to be “pretty much trouble free” instead of “trouble free”.  A spin on the front straight and a stop up against the pit wall saw the red flags being waved (briefly) 54 minutes before the end, but he was soon righted and went on his way.

GT was once again headed by BMW Team RLL, Auberlen’s 1:17.933 just edging out teammate Dirk Muller and Pat Long’s Flying Lizard Motorsport Porsche 911 RSR.

It’s shaping up to be another tightly contested class battle as the Risi Ferrari 458 Italia – despite an indeterminate brake problem which saw Vilander make countless trips to the pits – set a time only four tenths off the Beemer.  Magnussen’s Corvette was close behind...tomorrow afternoon’s qualifying should be a corker.

In GTC, TRG owned the class.  Spencer Pumpelly posted a 1:23.815 ahead of Alex Job Racing’s Brian Wong and the gold JDX Racing entry of Nick Ham.

Finally it’s welcome back to the series for both Autocon and Panoz/PTG.

Tony Burgess is partnering Chris McMurry in the AER-engined Lola, and the unmistakable sounding Panoz Abruzzi is in the capable hands of Ian James and series’ newcomer Edward Sandstrom.

Fiona Miller