ALMS, Petit Le Mans - Hour 1-2

Big Petit Start

We’ve had a few issues before the start. Two of the GTC cars missed the call to the grid. The Magnus Racing car of Doug Baron had a minor issue while the No. 48 car of Luke Hines only made a ceremonial appearance as the team has decided to withdraw. The chassis has some flexing issues following its Mosport kerfluffle. Emanuele Pirro won’t be aboard the No. 8 Lola as he’s still a little woozy from banging his head against the wall.

Not surprisingly, the Libra Radical reported late and Andrew Prendeville will start late (and finish early with a lack of oil pressure). Equally unsurprisingly, the Panoz will not take part. Ian James completed a parade lap, putting to rest the debate as to whether an engine had even been mounted. The No. 73 PC-FLM thing has non-started with a tub issue from a pervious accident.

It was not all Peugeot at the start as Allan McNish split the lions on the opening lap. Jon Field led the ALMS regulars in fourth overall while Chris Dyson headed LM P2, split off from LM P1 for this race. After about five laps, Montagny set the order back right with the 908s ahead.

Dirk Müller inserted the No. 90 BMW into the starting Ferrari quartet. Jaime Melo (No. 61 Risi) leads the GT class by a good bit after an early skirmish with teammate Toni Vilander. Kyle Marcelli has a strong lead in the all-Oreca class.

Romain Dumas had some sort of incident and brought the Stuttgart Hybrid in for an early pit call. Bill Sweedler did quite a Job of a spin at Turn 12 and put the No. 23 GTC Porsche into the wall, necessitating the first safety car intervention after 20 minutes of green.

Just before that happened, McNish again moved into second place but that spot was relinquished once the pit stop sequence started under yellow.  Montagny kept the lead, thanks to remaining out throughout the relatively short interruption. Simon Pagenaud took the LM P2 lead but in this case because of a long delay for the Porsche of Klaus Graf. They’ve been chasing a misfire that first appeared during warm-up  - now they’re fighting a down on power Porsche V8.

Gunnar Jeannette had a couple of stints at the PC lead, trading it with championship contending No. 89 (driven by Kyle Marcelli). The No. 90 BMW has had a long penalty and the an equally long pit stop (starter issue), denting BMW’s challenge against the Ferraris, perhaps boosting Porsche’s chances with Jörg Bergmeister briefly to fourth in class with the No. 45 Lizardo 997. The No. 92 Ferrari of Toni Vilander also was held in the penalty box for bumping and grinding at Turn 6 with the No 04 Ford GT.

Montagny’s double stinting of himself and tires has left him in the lead while Marc Gene has handed the No. 07 Peugeot over to Alexander Wurz. The Hybrid Porsche seems to have gone through about 911 tires during the opening two hours. Nevertheless, they continue to lead the GTH class. The Drayson (Jonny Cocker driving) Lola is doing very well and now best of the ALMS regulars. It’s also leading the Green Challenge for the two people who care.

The Jaguar challenge has largely dissolved. One has had engine problems and the other is on a bad sounding set of Yoko Onos.  GTC is one of the most competitive classes here today with a star opening performance by Andy Lally putting the No. 63 TRG Porsche into the lead. The No. 54 car dropped a tad when Jeroen swapped over to brother Sebastian Bleekemolen.

As well as not getting much from the Jaguars, we’re not getting much chase from the Ford’s either. No. 40 had a spark plug issue while David Murry has been off the course. Robert Rodriguez was another to kick sods of red Georgia clay into the air, the No. 69 Porsche losing a chunk of bodywork in the left rear.

As has been the case at many ALMS rounds this year, the GT contest (GT2 here) is developing into being the standout race. Both Corvettes have been pressuring the lead Ferrari for the past half hour.  It pays off with Ollie Gavin taking the class lead at almost exactly the two-hour mark

At the back of the Prototypes the Autocon Lola has been running well while the Oak Pescarolo is just slow. The Dyson Lola is doing well after an earlier slow lap with low fuel pressure. The hour ends with Marcel Fässler nearly getting his Audi punted into the wall by a not so PC Oreca.

Chris Dyson after his first stint – “The car is really good.  The tires have been fantastic and double stinting them will be no problem at all.  We’re going to be pushing hard all race long – we have to in order to make up for our fuel consumption.  We have our advantages and the others have their own.  We’re working hard to take advantage of our advantages.

Andy Wallace, about the troubles on the 33 Jag – “It’s a shame, as the crew has been working so hard.  I guess it just wasn’t meant to be this time.”

Chris McMurry – “This was fun.  It was odd – the tires seemed better after the yellow.  Or maybe it was all just in my head.  We’re not pushing all the way, so we should have no issue double stinting, or maybe even triple stinting them.”