ALMS, Mosport – Race Report
Highcroft Takes The Win, GT2 The Plaudits (All Images Martin Spetz) Highcroft Racing’s David Brabham and Scott Sharp took a convincing win and clinched the P1 Manufacturers’ title for Acura in the American Le Mans Series’ 8th round at Mosport after a challenge by nearest rival, de Ferran Motorsports, fell by the wayside due to gearbox woes. In P2 Adrian Fernandez and Luis Diaz clinched the drivers’ title with a class win and third place overall, but it was the track battles in the GT class which really dominated everyone’s attention. Jan Magnussen and Johnny O’Connell’s Corvette C6.R made its first visit to the GT2 winner’s circle after an intense and riveting battle with the Risi Ferrari of Pierre Kaffer and Jaime Melo who took the chequered flag just 0.3 seconds behind.  |
After starting from pole aboard the Highcroft Acura ARX 02a, Scott Sharp initially lost two positions off the start to Gil de Ferran and a fast-starting Jon Field in the Intersport Lola B06/10 while bringing his Michelin tyres up to temperature. It was the coolest day of the week by far and those temperatures were going to catch out several people during the course of the afternoon. The ever-brave Field then turned his attention onto de Ferran, twice making a challenge for the lead during a frantic opening stint. His attack was short lived though as he was into the pits as early as the ninth lap to change the nose section on the #37 to try and cure a lack of front grip.
De Ferran enjoyed a comfortable lead for the next 18 laps over Sharp, who in turn had his mirrors full of a hard-charging Marino Franchitti in the P2 Dyson Lola-Mazda. It was then that the American-based Brazilian made the first of a series of unscheduled pit stops to attend to gearbox issues. A split in the gearbox casing meant that oil had to be replenished with increasing frequency – inconvenient for them, certainly, but also for the many competitors who suffered from oil on their windscreens and visors as a result. Radio problems in that first stop led to further confusion, with de Ferran thinking that he was due to hand over to Pagenaud and trying to get out of the car, before being summarily pushed back in by his crew. To make matters worse, he then had a brief ‘off’ on his out-lap due to cold tyres. Benefitting from a missing P1, the flying Scotsman – who had managed to overtake Sharp – claimed the race lead for a while before the combination of de Ferran’s oil and a brief sprinkle of rain meant that the pole-sitting P2 Dyson had to make a slightly earlier than planned first pit stop.
Despite some very quick laps from young French hot-shot, Pagenaud, and benefiting from getting a wave by and regaining a lap under the pace car during the race’s one and only full course caution period, de Ferran Motorsports’ gearbox left Sharp and Brabham free to take a comfortable and ultimately trouble-free victory. The win pushed the team's points advantage out to 17 points and assured Acura of the manufacturer's title in the P1 class.
"When you go racing, your job is to win,” said a delighted Brabham afterwards, “and we achieved that. Our rivals at de Ferran Motorsports had some issues today which obviously helped us, but it was a 100 percent faultless performance by the entire Patrón Highcroft team and that's what it takes to win championships. The boys did a fantastic job today and their focus has been spot on. We have grown as a team throughout the year as we have made the Acura better and better.”  |
De Ferran and Pagenaud came home in second place, a lap behind the winner, with Field Sr and Jr taking fourth overall and the final step on the LMP1 podium. The final P1 entry of Tony Burgess and Chris McMurry in the Autocon Lola retired after 63 laps with a smoking engine.
 The P2 class at one stage promised to be as exciting a battle as any seen today (more of that later!) thanks to the speed and increasing longevity of the two Dyson Lola Mazdas. But a heavy crash into Turn One’s wall (the same place that Melo put the Risi Ferrari off yesterday) for Chris Dyson in the #16 just before the one-hour mark reduced the challenge by 33.3%, and brought out the Safety Car for eight laps. A shaken but uninjured Dyson was fortunate to step away from the accident with nothing more than a headache, and the focus was then firmly on Franchitti and team-mate Butch Leitzinger in the #20 to challenge Fernandez’s grip on the class. It was a great battle between the two as they cut through the GT traffic, with the gap closing to as little as a second at times. Dyson were helped when the Mexican was penalised for pitlane speeding, but he recovered well and closed back onto Leitzinger's tail, inheriting the lead when the Lola-Mazda heartbreakingly expired in a plume of smoke with just 12 minutes of the race left to run. Gunnar van der Steur and Adam Pecorari in the P2 Radical SR9 had an unremarkable run to 10th overall.
Marino was characteristically philosophical at the turn of events and commented afterwards, “It’s disappointing obviously but I suppose it’s better to go out while in the lead than be further back in the field. We are showing our form more and more now and can really challenge for a win as we’ve shown over the last couple of races when we’ve been in just that position.”
Luis Diaz and Adrian Fernandez, winning for the seventh time in eight races in their Acura ARX-01b, are richly deserving of the Drivers’ title and still have the Team and Manufacturers’ titles to chase at Petit Le Mans. Fernandez generously not only paid tribute to his own team, but to his main rivals. “It has been a fantastic season. We always focused on what we needed to do and we never gave up. Even with the penalty today, I just focused on what I had to do. That was an example of what we have done the whole year. I have to thank Mazda and the Dyson team; they gave us tough competition. They had brand-new equipment this year and I am sure they will be even tougher next year. It was good to run with them.”  |
And so to the hugely competitive GT class and what must surely be have been one of the most hotly contested races of the year. While the #3 Corvette was the eventual winner, the #90 BMW, Risi Ferrari and the #4 Corvette all had their turn at the head of the field and the racing between the yellow and red cars – reminiscent of the great Corvette/Ferrari GT1 battles of a few years back – was hard but fair and hugely entertaining.
The two Corvettes made an early impact on the race, chased down by an on-form Jaime Melo in the Risi Ferrari. Having started from the back of the grid following his Saturday practice accident, Melo hustled the Ferrari into second place by the end of the first hour. Risi then got ahead of the #4 Corvette at the first pit stops thanks to some slick work by the Ferrari mechanics, and when the action resumed after the caution period there was a six-car train of GT2 cars racing nose-to-tail. The traffic was heavy and Beretta and Magnussen both re-passed the Ferrari in Turn 5, seizing the opportunity when the leader was baulked by a prototype, and so the see-saw battle continued.  |
Kaffer re-passed Magnussen for second, then reclaimed the lead when Olivier Beretta had a quick trip off the road, also because of a prototype. The decisive moment came at the 2 hours 15 minute mark during the final round of pit stops. Kaffer's class-leading Ferrari pitted for fuel and tyres, followed one lap later by Magnussen's Corvette C6.R in second. When Magnussen rejoined the race, the two cars went side-by-side into the fast downhill section following the pit exit. Magnussen held the inside line though Moss Corner and took the lead going into the Andretti Straight.
The Dane then withstood intense pressure from Kaffer in a battle which engaged the whole pit lane as well as the thousands of fans around the track for the remaining 30 minutes to the chequered flag. It was an emotional win for O'Connell and Magnussen, who shared their first ALMS victory at Mosport in 1999. The American recorded his record-setting seventh win at Mosport in his milestone 100th ALMS start.  |
Ollies Beretta and Gavin completed a great day for Corvette with third, just ahead of the Farnbacher Loles Porsche which did well to start let alone finish after a heavy accident for Dirk Werner in that infamous Turn One during morning warm up.
“The pit stop was fantastic and we managed to get out just ahead of the Ferrari," Magnussen said. “That out lap was really hard because my tyres were cold and he already had one lap on his tyres. There was a bit of banging going on into Turn 3, but not too bad. That was the key moment in the race for us.
“After that I was able to open up a little gap,” he continued. “When the tyres stabilized, it was a matter of not making any mistakes. Kaffer and I were fast in different points of the track, so I had to be really careful in some places and I could relax in other places.” Pierre Kaffer, who has noticeably grown in confidence in the Ferrari over the last few races, got fastest GT lap of the race and was equally glowing in praise for his team. “I’m really pleased for the team to have got this result because the guys did a great job to put everything on the car back together overnight. It was great to drive, and Jaime did a perfect first stint to get us in the right position to fight for the victory. It was a great race right until the finish with hard but fair racing, and the Corvette deserved to win in the end. But I must say that in Atlanta I think it should be the other way round!” There was to be no repeat of BMW’s Road America success and in fact it turned out to be a disastrous day for the German marque. Tommy Milner in the #90 suffered right rear contact from Pat Long’s #45 Flying Lizard Porsche – an incident caused when Long was wrong-footed by a slow-moving Autocon Lola – and lost five laps in the pits for repairs, while the #92 went out of the race after an hour and 49 minutes in a huge trail of engine smoke. GT2 Championship leaders, Flying Lizard, endured a tough race to finish fifth and seventh in class, the result narrowing their lead over Risi to 31 points with 55 available in the final two races of the season. Now it’s on to the 1000 mile Petit Le Mans classic and what, as noted in the qualifying report, looks likely to be a riveting race in all three classes. Stay tuned!
Fiona Miller |
