Rolex 24 – Thursday Round Up
Mainly GTs
Reporting from Russell Wittenberg, Janos Wimpffen and Fiona Miller

Janos Wimpffen adds to yesterday’s qualifying report with the news that the #05 Sigalsport Riley BMW lost its qualifying time (sixth fastest) having been caught out with a ride height infringement.

The #29 Nissan has been withdrawn, so that makes 70 cars to start the race.

The night session was halted for a while after an incident (the second one of the day) for the lone Doran, the #77 entry. Michel Jourdain was at the wheel. The SunTrust Riley was fastest in the session, four-tenths clear of the #01 Ganassi Riley, which was two-tenths quicker than the #20 Howard Motorsports Crawford.

This report will be mainly based around the GT cars, but let’s bring the Dyson Racing Crawford Porsche story up to date first, with news from Ollie Gavin. He and Guy Smith didn’t get in the car until the night session, after electrical issues with the gearshift and gear cut, after the late change to the Porsche engine.

“This evening the circuit was dry and I started the session. The car was very driveable and user friendly which was a great start. The Pontiac engine, compared with the Porsche, is very different and the Pontiac has lots of torque and really pulls off the corners, whereas the Porsche is higher revving, doesn’t have as much torque but its power is far higher up in the rev range. You have to work the engine much harder to get the same performance.

“Balance wise the car hasn’t got any really nasty traits and we just spent the session tuning the car, trying to improve the traction, and going up and down on the aero balance to see how much wing we need to run to be both comfortable, but not too slow on the straight.

“As always traffic is a big issue here and for the race it’s going to be hugely important to have a clean run. During my time in the car I had a wake up call for this. I came through the kink at full racing speed and a Porsche GT3 had just come out of the pits and was in the middle of the track, going slow, and I had to use the grass, hit some cones and I skimmed down the side of his car. When I got back to the pits Rob, or the Governor as he’s known, came out and had a “bit of a chat” with me when he saw the marks down the side of the car! He just wanted to remind me that this was practice and not the last laps of the race.”

The #16 car was into the low 1:45s at night, eleventh fastest.

And so to the GTs.

Dominik Farnbacher, #74 Porsche GT-3, before Thursday’s qualifying session: "The crew is repairing a damaged sensor on the gearbox, so we missed the early session. We found some good things at the test for qualifying, so I think we will be very quick. Our goal is to be on pole and drive it from there to the finish. All the team has worked very hard to get ready for this race and I'm really looking forward to it."

Dominik Farnbacher on why he is not racing in one of his father's Farnbacher-Loles Porsches: "I like to do my own thing. I watched them race (Tafel) and saw what a great job they were doing. So I started talking to them and we reached an agreement. In this series I will just be doing this race with Tafel, and the rest of the season I will be in one of my father's cars. But I will race with Tafel in their RSR for the ALMS and hopefully will get a chance to go to Le Mans with them also."

The Tafel team had an interesting time in qualifying, with Wolf Henzler in #74 finishing up second fastest. Dominik Farnbacher then went even quicker in night practice, setting a lap just 0.002 slower than Patrick Huisman’s pole time.

The #74 car lost time during the day with the need to change a crank trigger sensor. Wolf Henzler had only minimal time to acclimatize himself with the car and track before qualifying session, so his second best 1:52.199 was particularly praiseworthy.

Henzler: “I had a good run and in the end qualified second. I am happy but would be happier if I qualified first! There was another Porsche a little bit faster but it’s a long way in a 24 hour race and it doesn’t matter if you qualifying 1st, 2nd, 10th or whatever. When I see the lap times of the other drivers it looks very good [for us]. We are very close and it seems to be a very competitive race.”

Qualifying did not go according to Robin Liddell’s plan in the North South Tafel Racing #72 car. He did just one timed lap before returning to the pits owing to a misunderstanding within the team. His time of 1:52.972 leaves the Scot 13th on the GT grid. Liddell: “There was more to come and the tires were getting better as it was quite cool. I was a bit annoyed when I got out of the car but have calmed down now. After all, it’s a 24 hour race, right?”

Jim Tafel, earlier in the day, commented that “I’m not too worried about qualifying, I'm sure we'll do fine. It's much more important to get a harmony between the crew and drivers. Historically it has always been a mistake free run that wins the race. It's not the fastest lap but the most laps completed in a set time."

That’s the dilemma with qualifying, for this race especially. Does it really matter? Some of the front-running DP drivers referred to the real race starting on Sunday morning: until then, it’s a matter of staying out of trouble, staying on the lead lap.

The Banner Racing Pontiacs qualified fifth and 14th. Johnny O'Connell was able to get a NASCAR style tow around the Daytona high-banks to qualify the #06 GXP.R in fifth position: "The car was a lot better in qualifying than in the morning. I was able to time my exit from the Bus Stop turn to get a tow from a faster car. I took it deep into one and that brought me from tenth up to fifth. Every time we go out the car gets better. The Banner and Pratt & Miller guys are really working hard on the car to make the small improvements which means tenths on the track."

Kelly Collins compares last year GTO.R to the new #07 Pontiac GXP.R: "It's a completely different body shell and the chassis is longer. The rule changes forces us to use a different cam, which basically detunes the motor, so we have less power and more drag. It won't be magical or as good as the GTO.R was at this track, but we'll continue to develop it and keep getting better. It handles very similar, but because of the longer wheelbase the turning radius is not as tight. Because of the body lines of the GXP.R, there is also less side and rear visibility. We can't match the speed of the top Porsches, but we'll just have to drive it as fast and hard as we can. It is what it is, sometimes your car just isn't the quickest one out there."

The #17 Doncaster Porsche was tenth fastest, Dave Lacey setting the time. "We're very happy with that qualifying time. I think a lot of guys in the GT class went to a qualifying setup, but that hasn't been our strategy for the weekend. We're trying to get a good race setup that's driveable for everybody on the team. We started the day with a fairly harsh front end and we softened that up quite a bit to make the car a bit more compliant. We're happy with the time, we've got a good race car, the new motor package is excellent and the team is coming together really well."

The Mazda crews seemed very happy too, especially at SpeedSource, where the #70 and #69 cars were third and seventh.

Randy Pobst, #70 Mazda RX-8: "The Rotary engine is much smaller than a conventional piston engine. It revs up really well and makes its best horsepower at high rpms. But it has very little low end to mid range torque. Because it a little engine, by rules the Mazda can run with less weight. Also the compact engine size allows you to position it in the engine compartment for optimum center of gravity and weight distribution. The car is built on a Riley chassis. Speedsource has done a brilliant job putting this car together and deserve a lot of credit. It’s a really great handling car and I think that is where our advantage is. We are down on top speed to the GT3s but the Mazda's light weight makes it easier to drive and easier on the tires. I think the Hoosier tires work better on this car than any of the other GTs. I predict the GT3s will pull away early in the stint and it will come back to us later. Sylvan Tremblay will qualify and go all out. He's very quick so you never now, but I don't think we have a shot at the pole." Third was a very good result for the #70.

Jeff Segal in #69 SpeedSource Mazda tells the whole story of Thursday.

“First practice began in damp conditions, although the rain had stopped before the session got underway. Many of the cars decided to stay in the garages, but both of our SpeedSource cars took to the track to complete a shakedown of the cars following the pre-race disassembly, and then to work on wet setup if time allowed. The combination of very cold weather, and Hoosier rain tires that are perhaps not as grippy as might be ideal, meant that the track was very slick, but the car was quite comfortable to drive nonetheless. We spent much of the time at the head of the sheets in GT, but slipped back a bit at the end when the track dried and we ran out of time to complete a lap. All in all a successful session, where the car ran flawlessly and everything went according to plan. Following the test days we had some minor issues with driver ergonomics (fitting a range of drivers from 5'8 to well over 6' is not so easy) and some last minute gremlins in the shifting, but these problems appear to have been fixed and everything looks good for the weekend.

”Second practice was spent just getting seat time in the car. Emil Assentato had arrived a bit late, so he spent most of the session getting reacquainted with the car. Unlike many of the other GT teams, we aren't very concerned about outright pace, so our time was spent making sure that the car is consistent over full fuel loads and on old tires. Having given Emil enough laps to get him comfortable, we went to the garage to prepare for Qualifying. Once again the car ran flawlessly-- this Mazda is amazing, it just keeps on going and going...

”Matt Plumb was selected to qualify the car. When he took to the track we had reasonable expectations, but everyone was aware that we might lack the straight-line speed and outright pace over a single flying lap to match the new 997 Porsches. However, both Mazdas delivered lap times that were over one second faster than we had previously run in practice or testing, so everyone was pleasantly surprised. Matt ended up less than 0.2 off of the #70 team car of Sylvain Tremblay, which was great for us considering our collective lack of time in the car relative to Sylvain and the guys in their car. Ultimately, and as expected, a few Porsches went even quicker than us, but having both cars firmly in the top-ten is an excellent start to the race for us.”

”We spent night practice fine tuning the car, experimenting with brake bias and sway bar positions as the fuel load drained down, and also driver changes. In particular, the driver changes are going to be more important than ever. With such a strong GT field with factory drivers and incredibly strong teams and cars throughout the grid, making up time lost in the pits is going to be tougher than ever. Our team is taking great efforts to make sure that we spend as little time with the wheels stopped as possible, and hopefully these efforts will pay off.

”Tomorrow (Friday) we have several major changes planned to the setup, in an effort to see if we can improve the car even more for the race. We know that we have a very good setup now, so we have the luxury of being able to gamble a bit and experiment, and if these changes don't work we can always return to what we have now. Having said that, the focus is still reliability and minimizing mistakes instead of outright speed. We know the cars are good over a stint, so we just need to be patient and wait for the race to come to us.

”All in all a very pleasing day, and everything looks positive for tomorrow. The SpeedSource team is doing a spectacular job of preparing the cars, and the Riley-built Mazda just continues to run flawlessly. All of us are thoroughly enjoying ourselves behind the wheel, and we can't wait for the race to get underway.”

Steve Goldin, with the #08 Mazda RX-8, was “excited. We had a good test and we just installed a new six speed sequential shift gearbox, so the car is great to drive. We just need to get 24 hours out of it." This one qualified in the 1:57s.

Owen Trinkler is not showing on the official entry list yet, but is driving the #89 Autometrics Porsche GT3. "The car is really pretty good. Barry Ellis is set to qualify so he will be doing the most of the practice. Then we will work on getting our three gentlemen drivers rotated through to try get everybody back in the groove. I was able to get into the 1:54s at the test. That was pretty reasonable I thought considering the little bit of track time I got, the car was brand new and we had done only minimal setup work at that time. We are a dark-horse but we'll see where we are on Sunday morning."

Craig Stanton, #88 Farnbacher Porsche GT3: "I'm really excited about this race and the season. I'll be with in this car for the whole season. This team has a lot of talent and depth. They already have big plans in place for the next few seasons, and I am happy to be a part of it. I am here obviously to compete and win races, but also to help coach and develop some of their younger drivers. They have a huge development program in the Koni Series and the IMSA GT3 Cup. I'll be doing the qualifying and I think we are looking pretty good for that. But it's all about being there at 9:00 Sunday morning and seeing what you got left. We're going to make the car fast and comfortable for everybody."

Marc Bunting, #57 Stevenson Corvette: "It's going okay I guess. We are having an oil pressure issue right now. The car was delivered just before the test and we only got a few laps in there. I only got ten laps in at the test, but the car has great mechanical grip and the handling is nice. It's similar to the GTO, it's easy to drive and well balanced. But the GTO had about nine months of testing before we ever set foot in it. Crawford built the chassis, it's a great platform, we're just a little frustrated right now. We need more miles, more laps on the car." Bunting will be competing the whole season in this car along with Dominic Cicero II.

Kevin Buckler: "I'm concentrating on getting these cars race ready. We are working on the long term, not just setting up for a quick lap. I'm not expecting to get the pole, just to win the race."

Andy Lally, #66 TRG Porsche: “Our car is awesome out there. All day today, we anticipated a bit of a handling issue with our car, and just prior to the start of qualifying, we dialed back some of the understeer, which had a great effect on the car. I got blocked a little bit on my flyer lap, and I feel that without that, we had a great shot at the pole. Regardless, I’ve got a good feeling about our car; we’ve got a great driver lineup and a fantastic group of guys preparing the car. I’m excited to go race!”

Lonnie Pechnik, #27 O’Connell Porsche: "This is the 2004 Flying Lizard car that we finished 2nd in class by only a few seconds and third overall. That was a great race. Well the car was fast in '04, but time marches on. We're actually pretty happy to only be about three seconds off the pace right now. But I think that's all this car has in it. It's a good race car, we'll see where we are come Sunday."

Porsche factory driver Richard Lietz, #81 Porsche GT3: "Patrick Huisman will qualify and has done most of the morning running. He is happy with the car and it seems very quick. The car has improved a lot from where we started at the beginning of the test. The test was my first time at this track. The only other track in the U.S. I've raced at is Indy with the Porsche Super Cup. The banking here is very fast and takes some to get used too. There are no tracks like this in Europe. The banking is a bit different but the track is not difficult and is fairly easy to learn. But with 80 cars and 24 hours it is going to be a long hard race. This is also the first time I have had a spotter. He is doing a very good job telling me if I have a DP behind me or closing in. The paddock here is very different from Europe. It's very open and relaxed, everyone is friendly."

The conversation led to Lietz's new job as a Porsche factory driver. Teammate Richard Westbrook, the 2006 Porsche Super Cup Champion and also a finalist in the Porsche factory driver search, joined the conversation. The pair went on to shed some light on how Porsche goes about filling the coveted position of 'factory driver'.

Lietz: "I was selected as was Richard (Westbrook), along with four or five others, to take part in the factory driver search. It's basically a one day driving test conducted at Porsche's test track at Weissach. There's a brand new 997 RSR with Michelin tires there to drive and a team of Porsche engineers there to watch your every move. It was the first time I had ever been in a RSR and of course I had never seen this track before either."

Westbrook: "The track is not easy either, it was probably built back in the 1950s."

Lietz: "The pressure is incredible, because you know what is at stake and the other drivers are all very good - all Super Cup Champions and Formula Champions from all over Europe. To make matters worse for me, the driver before me crashed the car so I had to wait for a new one to be brought out. I then had to wait again because it started raining and the other drivers all had tested in the dry. Once you get into the car you drive a full session, then report back to the engineers on how the car felt, what is was doing and what changes you thought needed to be made to improve. Then they put new tires on and you go again and again until they tell you to stop."

Westbrook: "They give you a badly setup car to begin with just to see how you handle it. You're graded on not only your times but wear on the tires and the feedback you provide to the engineers. And of course if you crash it you're done."

Lietz: "When I learned that I was chosen from the test, it was unbelievable, it's a dream job to drive for Porsche."

Westbrook: "He got lucky."

Lietz was especially pleased with his new company car, an all wheel drive Cayenne S, "the all wheel drive will be very nice for the Austrian winter." Westbrook then quickly reminded his mate of the one-off 911 that he had won as reward for his 2006 Super Cup title.

So there we are – lots of (mainly GT) news and comment. Friday should be a fairly uneventful day at the World Center of Racing.