Sebring Test Days, January 22-24 – Preview
Form About To Become Clear?
Let The LMP2 And GT2 Battles Commence

The top stories at the Sebring test days a year ago were the debut of the first of the Dyson Racing Lola B01/60s, and the public debut of the Audi R10s. That set the scene for the LMP1 story of 2006 – and here we are a year later, looking ahead to the top stories at the Sebring test days, and how they’ll be markers for the season ahead.

No Audis at Sebring this week (they’ve already visited Sebring for their winter work), so Autocon is the only P1 representative due, and no GT1 cars at all this week, because Corvette Racing typically tests alone, rather than get mixed up with the rest of the runners.

So that neatly leaves LMP2 and GT2, and seven of the former and ten of the latter. This is where the bulk of the racing is going to take place in the 2007 version of the ALMS, and Monday to Wednesday should reveal how furiously competitive these two classes are going to be. Rather than two main stories, as there were 12 months ago, this time we’re expecting several.

What about the track debut of the first of the Dyson Racing Porsche RS Spyders? The drivers have been itching to sample one, and this week it’s Chris Dyson and Andy Wallace who get the first chance. The cars will be identical to the Penske Spyders – but the yellow and red cars have the advantage of considerable testing (of the 2007 chassis) under their belt already, plus over a season’s racing with the 2006 versions. Dyson Racing therefore starts from a step or two behind the Penske versions, but in less than two months’ time, at the 12 Hours, expect an all-out head to head between the four Porsches.

Roger Penske’s team makes use of Sascha Maassen, Timo Bernhard and Romain Dumas from last year, with Ryan Briscoe stepping into Lucas Luhr’s seat (the tall German having jumped ship to Audi, and mainly DTM work). Briscoe is sure to be as quick as anyone in a Spyder, and it will be interesting to discover the complete reasoning behind his new role in sportscar racing.

So that’s the Porsche part of the equation – but what we don’t yet know is how quickly the three Acura-powered cars are going to be this year. The new V8 sounds the business, and apparently is the business – but we don’t know exactly how good it is, or how well the Courage and Lolas chassis so powered will compare with the Porsches and their 18 months worth of development.

Stefan Johansson is partnered by David Brabham in the Highcroft Courage Acura (we just can’t bring ourselves to call them Acura Courages, or Acura Lola), and it’s great to have Brabs back in a prototype. The Andretti Green Courage sees Bryan Herta and Dario Franchitti suddenly joined by Danica Patrick this week, while the Lowe’s Fernandez Lola Acura has Adrian Fernandez running with former DP man (at Ganassi) Luis Diaz.

We’re hoping that the three Acura teams will be a little more (actually a lot more) revealing about their testing progress than they have been so far…. Private testing, fair enough: but this is a public test, and we know that you are very keen to know what is really going on. Gary Horrocks and Russell Wittenberg will be doing their level best to persuade the right people to say interesting things.

And that leaves Intersport Racing: it’s not hard to work out why this team has become the fans’ favourite – so the joy generated by last year’s Sebring victory was a highlight of the whole 2006 sportscar racing season. Jon and Clint are doing it together this time, with Richard Berry joining in for the longer races: as ever, they’ll tell it like it is, they’ll have their highs and their lows, and we’ll be able to follow it with all the enthusiasm that this bunch generates. Kumho tyres is a change for ’07: be prepared to admire the privateers gunning for the big boys again. More big boys makes their challenge a much tougher one this season, but have the Fields ever shirked a challenge?

Presumably the LMP2 runners are required to run ACO-size restrictors this year? That subject has been a little perplexing in recent weeks.

The sole LMP1 runner this week, Autocon Motorsports, has the same devil-may-care approach as Intersport: they’re here because they love being here – and that’s fine by us. A new JEANRICHARD livery, the potential to run two cars (one confirmed so far) – and the challenge of grabbing podium spots in LMP1. Go for it boys.

And so to the ten GT2 runners, and the first question has to be – how will the new, heavyweight Porsche 997s compare against the lithe Ferraris? We may have our own ideas, but until the track opens on Monday, we don’t actually know. The Porsches were quick over a lap on their debut at Spa last year, but less so over a stint, and there were reliability issues. Porsche has had time to address matters before the teams took delivery: how successful have the engineers been?

The numbers are skewed towards the Porsches this week, with six 997s against one 430, but that will be more even come March. These seven have three Panoz Esperantes completing the GT2 ten this week.

The lone Ferrari is one of the Risi cars, and the regular pair in this one will be Mika Salo and Jaime Melo. Johnny Mowlem joins the Brazilian this week, with the 430 expected to arrive at the track on Monday afternoon. Mowlem’s 2007 role at Risi will be announced before the test days are over. He raced for the team in 2006 of course – to the Mospot win.

There are two Flying Lizard Porsches due this week, two Tafel Porsches and single cars from Farnbacher Loles and the new team – Team Trans Sport. Mike Fitzgerald and Terry Borcheller find a new home partnering Tim Pappas, and the dsc team will delve into this new outfit for us this week.

The Lizards are Porsche runners again in 2007, and have 2006 (Petersen / White Lightning) Champion Jorg Bergmeister on board, partnering Johannes van Overbeek. Seth Neiman and Lonnie Pechnik are accompanied by Darren Law again, in #44.

Tafel Racing has its 2006 Grand-Am pair in #71, Wolf Henzler and Robin Liddell, backed up by Jim Tafel and Dominik Farnbacher in #73, with the two 997s prepared and tweaked with the benefit of all the guile and experience of Tony Dowe. Tafel Racing hits the ALMS – and the prospects are fascinating.

Dirk Werner and Christian Zugel are relatively unfamiliar names in the #85 Farnbacher Porsche (but they’re unlikely to be for long), while Tim Pappas is even less well known in the Team Trans Sport 997, although he has chosen his partners well.

The three Panoz Esperantes are the wild cards: Panoz Team PTG takes over from Panoz Motor Sports (2005) and Multimatic Motorsports Team Panoz (2006) as the official Panoz entrant, the cars to be overseen by Tom Milner and driven by Bill Auberlen / Joey Hand and Scott Maxwell / TBA. Yokohama rubber will be a novelty on a Panoz, but the likes of Auberlen and Maxwell won’t be.

And finally, David and Andrea Robertson make their public debut in a Panoz, this one managed by Dick Barbour and co-driven by Arie Luyendyk Jnr. We wish them well, up against this level of GT2 competition.

For some of the drivers, it’s going to be a very busy week – getting their ALMS cars dialled in on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, then trying to win a Rolex watch on Saturday and Sunday.