ALMS, Long Beach – Friday Morning, Before Qualifying
Déjà Vu
© Gary Horrocks

It’s been a feeling of deja vu here at Long Beach. It’s So-Cal, the weather is just about perfect, and we have to be at the track at an ungodly hour to make sure we get parking. But, by the time the American Le Mans Series cars made it out on track, the crowd was already thick. It truly is an event here and that’s why we (DSC and the series) are here.

On track, the Friday morning session supported some of the voices in my head earlier in the week, as it was Acura 1-2 in the 40 minute session. Fastest was Luis Diaz, in the Lowes Fernandez Acura, who turned a 1:12.239 about half way through, bettering the efforts of Christian Fittipaldi in the AGR Acura by almost 0.3 seconds.

Diaz said afterwards, “the car was really good. Everything is easy when the car is good.”

Marco Werner and Lucas Luhr somewhat surprisingly had the #1 Audi 3rd fastest in the session, at a track that really doesn’t suit the R10. Werner in particular has been showing some impressive speed over the last few races.

But that said, where were the Porsches? Lurking. Lurking and ready. The seven top cars overall were within 0.707 seconds of each other. Qualifying here, later this afternoon should be very, very interesting.

Dyson was relatively slower in the session than they had shown yesterday, but Marino Franchitti indicated, that based upon what they had seen on Thursday, they were quite happy. “The car was quite good in the sessions on Thursday. I was in the top 3 or so when I was in it. I’m still acclimat(is)ing myself to the track though. I did get a few laps here when I was in the Grand-Am series race here in 2006, but not that many. Dario was giving me a few pointers too, as he ran really well here last year. I won’t be in the car at all today. With the short sessions, and with Butch qualifying, it’s important that he get as much time in the car as possible.”

“It’s really a joy to be working with the Dyson team. They’re really a team, but even beyond that, it’s like they are a family.”

In the session, the drivers commented that the Dyson Porsches were comfortable and easy to drive, but they just weren’t quite up to speed yet. They’re not out of the hunt and not concerned – they figure they’ll be right there come race time.

In GT2, it was Ferrari – Porsche – Ferrari – Porsche. Tafel was fastest, continuing to build off of their recent success at St Pete. Sometimes, it can be said that success builds success. Could this be happening here? For Tony Dowe, it’s been a while coming. “At St Pete, it was nice that our plan finally came together and worked out.”

This too is too early to tell to what extent, but it is evident that the Porsche has indeed closed the gap to the Ferrari. Joerg Bergmeister said, “I think we’ve made gains, but it is difficult to know by how much. We don’t know if they have anything in reserve, plus the gap will likely vary by track. I think we’ll be good on tracks like here, where our traction gives us an advantage, and the fast tracks like Road America, but I think when we get to the tracks like Mid Ohio, the transitional tracks, I think they’ll be faster”

The Drayson-Barwell Aston is indeed the new Vantage GT GT2 spec car. It is a spectacular piece, but is not really ready for race. In fact, if the car sees the checkered flag on Saturday, the team will be pleased.

The team took delivery of the car this week, and its shakedown consisted of running in an Aston Martin dealer’s lot in Santa Ana. They did get out on track Thursday, but the dash was not functional. The team is treating this as a time to learn the car, with proper testing and development taking place before the race in Utah.

Corsa is back on track with their Ferrari and Dunlop tires. According to Gunnar Jeannette, “there just has not been any time to test yet. We bolted on the Dunlops at St Pete and repeated the same here. We’ll be doing some testing before we race at Miller. There are some things we want to try and will try this weekend, but there just isn’t enough time here to do what we want. We’re headed in the right direction and our goal is to be consistently within a second of the Michelin runners here.”

The session went badly for Corsa, when coming out of the hairpin, Johnny Mowlem was accelerating, following Frank Biela in the Audi. “For some reason, as we were accelerating, Frank lifted, and cut across me to enter the pits. If he hadn’t lifted, he would have cleared me without any problem. I had nowhere to go – I was already accelerating and was into second gear when it happened.” The damage appeared to be confined to the nose of the Ferrari, but Mowlem was able to turn a 1:21.9 later, without the front downforce.

The short/long day continues in a few minutes here, with qualifying. So far, we have had the Gil de Ferran announcement, with Simon Pagenaud joining as the co-driver, as well as Panasonic coming on line as a sponsor. We also had the announcement that the Long Beach organizers and the American Le Mans Series have agreed on a 5 year extension, which will continue to see the series as a part of the Super Saturday line up.