ALMS, Wheels Down Winter Test – Wednesday Morning
A Positive Start

A cool, grey, and breezy morning to kick off the 2012 ALMS Wheels Down Winter Test.  We almost had a perfect score in the morning session with 24 of 25 entered cars posting times. Unfortunately the star of the show, Muscle Milk Racing’s new HPD ARX-03a was not quite ready to race; it’s here, and the team has all hands on deck to get her ready, but as Lucas Luhr put it, “There’s lots of little bits and pieces they are trying to finish up.”  The drivers were suited up and anxious to go, but an exact ‘go’ time had not been established.  Greg Pickett was hopeful for this afternoon.

The other HPD cars, of Level 5 Motorsports, were ready to go and both were on track by midmorning. Bouchut in the #055 car was quickest, posting times at 2011 qualifying pace.

Soheil Ayari was quickest in the Pecom Racing Oreca Nissan.  Former Risi Ferrari pilot Pierre Kaffer tells us that the team plans to contend Sebring and other selected WEC rounds, along with races in the ELMS. He wishes there were more American dates on their schedule, but as of now their only ALMS round will be next month here at Sebring.

All five LMPC competitors took part in the morning session.  Class newcomer Muscle Milk Racing, with Memo Gidley, was quickest.  Gidley’s time of 1:57.4 was a few seconds off class qualifying speed of last year, and just 0.2 of a second in front of Cameron in the Dempsey Racing #25 and the Core Autosport #05 entry of Bennett, Braun, and Martinez.

Mike Guasch, Muscle Milk Racing: “This is our first test here at Sebring, but we have run the car some before in California. I won class here last year, so using that car as comparison I feel like we are really close with our set-up. We’re good over the bumps and are able to get the power down.  We’re a little off with our brakes, not sure what’s going on there. I’m really excited for this season with Muscle Milk; their company is just 15 minutes away from where I live, its fantastic.  Greg has made the decision step down as a driver and really take charge as team owner. We’re a two prototype team now and we’re looking to move up to P2 with this program.  Right now though PC is the biggest and most competitive prototype class and we’re happy to be here.  Memo and I have been good friends for a long time and we have been training hard together.  I’m really looking forward to the season.”  Roger Wills is also here and has taken a turn behind the wheel of the MMR car.

Dempsey Racing had their track time limited with a steering rack issue, then a problem with the paddle shift.  As soon as all repairs were made the track was red flagged. Dane Cameron did get up to speed quickly though, second quickest after only nine timed laps.

Butch Leitzinger reported the PR1 Mathiasen entry was sidelined for most of the morning with a power steering belt failure.

The GT class highlight this morning was the public debut of new race cars from both Chevrolet and Porsche.  Both Corvettes are brand new cars built from ground up.  Taking advantage of the current rules the new Corvette now has a wider body and wider tires. The Corvettes are also sporting a new aggressive livery which prominently features ‘Jake’, Corvette’s unofficial evil looking mascot. 

The ‘new’ Porsche 911 GT3 RSRs are not in their team liveries yet, but the updates for the 2012 season are visually obvious. Like the Corvette, the 911 has a much wider stance now and has been extensively modified over the 2011 model.  The fender flares are exaggerated to cover the wider & taller tires, and the front & rear bodywork has been revised to improve airflow through the car.  Judging strictly from the facial expressions of Patrick Long, the work by Porsche has been a positive step.

Patrick Long: “So far, so good. We are just now getting the car’s suspension settled down, but the balance is already very good.  It just feels really connected.  We are struggling a little bit with straight line speed, but otherwise the first impression is encouraging.”

Falken spent some time in the paddock this morning sorting out their new Porsche - typical teething problems, and getting tolerances set correctly we were informed.  Wolf Henzler got a few laps in during the session and was equally impressed with the potential of the 911.

For whoever is interested, the 2012 Porsche GT3 RSR can be yours race ready for a mere $533,000.00.  Porsche’s rep Andy Schupack suggests you call ahead as they are made to order, and remember that shipping is not included.

The one-year old Ferrari 458 was not impressed with the new cars and showed its indifference by posting the quickest time of the session.  We have three Ferrari 458’s here, all entered under the ESM banner.  The #29, which held P1 for the majority of the session, is actually a Michelotto test car that ESM is helping run for them this weekend. 

The factory Ferrari drivers, Bruni, Vilander and Beretta are doing the work in that car.  They are testing a revised intake restrictor and new aero packages.  Depending on the results (pretty good so far) we may see these new bits on the all the 458’s at the race. 

The #01 & #02 Ferraris are the cars that ESM will be campaigning for the full ALMS season.  Scott Sharp’s ESM is now entering its third year of ALMS GT competition and more consistent results are expected. 

Johannes van Overbeek: “No one is putting more pressure on more consistent and bigger results for this season than ourselves. Scott has been massaging this team and we have been getting better and more efficient each year.  We have a year under our belt with this car - this will be the first year we are not starting the season with a brand new car - and that should help our consistency. The car was not good here last year so we carried over our race set up from Petit Le Mans to start this test.  I think ultimately that setup is going to be a little too stiff, with the bumps and everything here, but it was a good place to start.”

We had two brief red flags during the session.  The first one brought out as the Larbre Corvette got into the Turn 11 wall with some force.  The second for the Pecom P2 car, which stopped on course with possibly a gear box problem.

Russell Wittenberg