ALMS, Lime Rock - Friday Morning
A Hot Start To The Northeast Grand Prix

It’s a glorious morning here is the hills of Connecticut.  This is beautiful country and a beautiful spot for a race track, but it is out in the middle of nowhere.  It always amazes me that there is actually a bona-fide race track out here. There’s not even a four lane road anywhere nearby.  Daytona is my home track and I’m used to a HUGE speedway set right on an 8-lane highway, between Interstate 95, the mall, and the airport.  The main entrance to Lime Rock is on an unmarked two lane road, and right across the street is a lovely 19th century style white clapboard house.  Strange for sure, but I do like it. 

There have been a few small performance adjustments made by IMSA prior to this race. Both P1 runners got a 20kg weight reduction, allowing them to run at 880kg.  The Mazda Lola was allowed to increase its air restrictor by 2.1mm, while the HPD was only allowed a 1.1mm enlargement.   P2 remains unchanged for all present, but if you want to enter a Radical you can enlarge your restrictor by 1.7mm, but you need to also gain 25kg.  I’m not sure what was accomplished there.  In GT, for the ‘ESM team only’ the Ferrari is allowed to enlarge its restrictors by 0.6mm.  The Lotus gained the most by being allowed a 1.8mm larger restrictor.  The Lotus already is allowed to run the lowest weight at 1120kg.  For comparison BMW, Corvette and Ferrari are all at 1245kg.

Today’s ALMS practice starts with just the GT and GTC cars for 30 minutes.  The “P” cars join in for the next 30 minutes then the GTs leave and allow the prototypes the track to themselves for an additional 30 minutes.  The ALMS is the only series running here this weekend.  There are no support races from GT3 Cup or the IMSA Lites.  That gave the ALMS/IMSA poetic license to extend the session as they saw fit to make up for any down time during red flags.   Several red flags came out as expected, nothing serious, but the practice did get extended by nearly 30 minutes.

The GTs took the track right on schedule, and Magnussen in the # 4 Corvette was quickest straight away.  Along with Garcia they were able to hold the top spot in GT for the entire session.  Both BMWs came close and rounded out the top three in class, but no one had the measure of the #4 this morning.

Surprisingly enough, this is the first time for BMW veteran Jörg Müller at Lime Rock.  He was able to acclimate himself quickly enough with this ‘new’ track to finish with the second quickest GT lap. Müller, “I’ve never raced at this circuit before, but it is very nice. It’s short for sure, but the ups and downs and tight corners make it very fun to drive.  Actually the elevations changes and blind corners remind some of the Nordschleife.  Maybe that is why I was able to get comfortable with the circuit so quickly.  The car is very good.  The grip seems a little low right now but that may come in as more rubber is laid down.”

The Porsche RSR of the Flying Lizards placed fourth in class just ahead of the #3 Corvette to complete the top five.  Bergmeister was optimistic about their performance so far but was wary about their ability to hang with the BMWs and Corvettes. Bergmeister, “We’re pretty okay so far.  The Porsche is good through the fast corner but is a little too pitch-sensitive in the slower sections. I took it easy, stayed off the curbs, tried to be easy on the car. Some of the others are already cutting the corners and hitting the curbs hard.  I’ll save that for tomorrow.”

The ESM Ferrari was a beneficiary of a slight restrictor break, although Johannes van Overbeek does not think it will make much of a difference at this short track.  Regardless, he was quick enough early in the session to post that car’s best time to finish sixth in class.  Ed Brown in the other ESM Ferrari had the scariest moment of the session when he went for a high speed spin down the front straight.  As one of the BMWs and Brown raced side by side toward turn one, the Ferrari on the outside, the BMW moved to driver’s left making contact with Brown.  Brown’s Ferrari immediately went into the grass and did a complete 360’ spin with the nose just grazing the Armco barrier.  Luckily no damage was done, and after a quick pit stop to clean the grass out a new set of tires was installed, Cosmo took over and was back up to speed directly.

The overall top spot in the session was actually a nice little battle between the Muscle Milk HPD and the lead Dyson Mazda.  Klaus Graf and Chris Dyson drove first with Graf   posting the best time which he held for about the first 30 minutes of running.  Graf had whittled his was down into the 46’s with 46.38 being his best so far.  Dyson was only able to dip into the 48s.  It appeared that there was still going to be quite a gap between the two cars.  Then seemingly out of nowhere Dyson posts a 46.4 and then follows that with a 46.34 to knock Graf down to P2.

Chris Dyson; “It was really just a matter of traffic.  I was pushing hard the whole time, trying to get the tires up to temperature, and then I finally got a few clear laps.  The track is pretty good, it’s not that green.  There hasn’t been much rain here lately so there is still a decent amount of rubber down.  We’ve really improved the whole package.  Dunlop has been working hard on the tires and we’ve found some nice improvements in the suspension, and in the shocks specifically.  You know Muscle Milk going to race us hard; I think the championship will be a battle.”

After a series of red flags, the battle for the top spot continued on with Guy Smith and Lucas Luhr.  Luhr quickly posted a 46 flat, then followed that with a 45.92.  Just minutes later Smith has come up to speed in the Dyson Lola and bests Luhr by only 0.1 of a second.  Back and forth it goes and Smith drops the number to beat down to a 45.7.  Luhr won’t be outdone and on what turns out to be the last hot lap of the session (red flag was thrown with less than four minute to go and IMSA went ahead and threw the checkered flag) post a 45.689, the best time of the morning. For reference, Dyson’s pole winning time last year was a 45.708.

With all the troubles at Lola, and the fact that Dyson only got this brand new chassis one week before Sebring, it’s looking like forgoing Le Mans this year and concentrating on improving this Lola-Mazda package was a wise move.

The P2 class was also a tight run between the #055 Level 5 HPD and the #37 Morgan of Conquest racing.  Both cars ran well and posted times in the 47s.  Bouchut and Heinemeier-Hansson traded the top position between themselves for the majority of the session. Conquest put Plowman in to finish the session and on the next to last lap he turns the quickest time of the session to lead the P2 class.

Tucker, who did most of the driving in #95, was third quickest followed by the newly liveried Dempsey Racing Lola.   The Dempsey entry is still not quite on pace but they have improved and were able to turn in 59 trouble-free laps.  So that in itself is good progress. 

Tucker; “Our car is really good.  The HPD is such a good platform.  I think we are at a slight disadvantage here with the turbo powered engine.  The normally-aspirated Nissan probably gets back in the power band a little quicker, and at this shorter track that is noticeable.”

Tom Kimber-Smith.  Is he not everywhere right now?  And he’s fast in everything.  This morning he was in the # 06 Core Autosport entry and he was fast in that too.  Fast enough to finish the session first in class and sixth overall. 

Tomy Drissi in the #9 challenge prototype held the best time through the middle part of the session, but as the GT cars exited and the track was just prototypes the times dropped quickly pushing the #9 down to 4th in class. Leitzinger went back in the PR1 entry and drove that car up to third in class. 

Kyle Marcelli did the same for Merchant Services Racing with a lap good enough for second in class.  Brain Alder of Merchant Services; “We have only one car this weekend so we will really be focusing on bringing it home with a good finish.  We’ve had moments of good in the past two races, but no good finishes.  We are really looking for that break through podium finish.”

But it was Kimber-Smith who was nearly 0.4 seconds ahead taking the top spot in PC.   

GTC was led by Valiante in the #11 JDX Porsche.  That was a nice recovery for the team as they were the cause of the session’s first red flag and had to be towed back to the paddock. 

A quick recap of practice session #2 will be included in the qualifying report next.

Russell Wittenberg