ALMS – Petit Le Mans – Qualifying Report
Maserati Surprise
© Gary Horrocks

So far, qualifying has been the highlight of what has ended up as, at least so far, a somewhat routine event. It is sessions like this that remind us why we continue to come to these races.

First of all, an intriguing battle in GT2 saw the top time improved five times in the 25 minute session. Then the unexpected occurred when Andrea Bertolini put the Lista Maserati on GT1 pole by over almost a full second on the Corvettes.

By the time we reached qualifying, the rains had stopped and the track had mostly dried. But it was not as fast as had been, so neither GT class had new records, set as was expected. If the series had run the usual hour long practice session before qualifying, it might have been a different story, but it wasn’t meant to be this time.

Right off the bat, Bertolini was going for it. His first real timed lap was a 1:18.082, which as the session played out, would have been good enough to secure the top spot. The Corvettes were not able to break out of the 1:18 barrier, which is the slowest they had been during all the sessions so far.

Johnny O’Connell, who was the fastest of the Corvettes in the session with a 1:18.415, said afterwards, "The track really changed since yesterday. There was very little grip and both Oliver and I struggled. He might have caught traffic that cost him a little time, but both cars were very even. That leaves us in a quandary about the setup because we're not even close to where we'd expect to be on sticker tires. The Maserati was able to back up its times, so they've got their car working well for these conditions. We've got to sit down with our engineers and decide whether to change the setup or leave it alone and hope the track rubbers up tomorrow."

Bertolini improved to 1 1:17.977, then a 1:17.428. The Corvettes conceded and pulled into the pits, while the Maserati was still circulating. "It was a little slippery,” said the Italian, “but we have a good balance with our car. At first we had too much oversteer, but we came in and made an adjustment and that allowed us to improve our lap time."

"It's a very important day for me and for the team, but especially for Maserati. I like the car, I like the team, I like Road Atlanta and I like our Michelin tires. Michelin is very strong, especially in the United States. The tires were very consistent. Kevin Doran and the whole team work very hard. It's a really good team; Kevin has a lot of experience in the United States. The atmosphere is very nice. I have to thank Fredy Lienhard and Didier Theys for giving me this opportunity. They race for fun, and our target is just to finish the race."

A disappointed Oliver Gavin was confident for the race, despite the outcome of qualifying. "The thing about this event is that qualifying has no effect on the outcome of a 10-hour race. "We'll be racing hard and within the first half-hour everyone will have forgotten about qualifying. We're confident in how our Corvette C6.R will perform. It may take a stint or two for us to get the car exactly where we want it, but we know where we're going."

Not unexpectedly, it was Jaime Melo planting the Risi Ferrari on pole for the 5th time this season. His lap of 1:21.660 was just good enough to keep fellow Ferrari driver Dirk Mueller and his Petersen White Lightning car just behind. But there was more to this story than what has become the usual Risi Pole.

Nathan Swartzbaugh was the first of the GT2 runners to set a time in his Tafel Porsche. It held through a red flag that was caused by Arie Luyendyk going off in the #53 Panoz at 10. After the red ended, Melo set a 1:22.232, which Mueller bettered twice, getting down to a 1:21.798. Then, almost immediately, Melo came around with a 1:21.761, then dropping down to his final time on his last lap of the session, after stopping for a pressure adjustment.

Melo: “I fought quite hard, and the #31 car was very close. I got a lot of traffic at the beginning so I couldn’t enjoy the new Michelin tires like I would like to do, but it’s okay because we are on pole! The race is very long and we have a good car so I’m looking forward to it. The track surface had less grip than yesterday because of the rain we’ve had, and it changed the car’s balance a little bit as well but it’s the same for everybody. The important thing is that we are happy with the car and that’s good for tomorrow.”

Mueller: "It wasn't the best conditions for everybody out there because of the rain in the last practice. The conditions were very slippery and way off the pace from yesterday. I had a very good run going nearly through all of qualifying on the pole. The track improved lap-by-lap and I just got the yellow flag in my last try at turn six and I had to slow down. I just missed the pole; very close. This is a good sign for the race tomorrow."

Third in class was Joerg Bergmeister in the #45 Flying Lizards Porsche. He turned a 1:21.938. Tom Millner was fourth in class in the Rahal Letterman Porsche with a 1:22.124, but was actually happy with how the session went, despite the conditions. “This is our pure race car. We didn’t try any qualifying tricks and we didn’t use anything that we aren’t going to do in the race tomorrow. The car felt comfortable right away and I was able to go through my laps just like we planned, and we feel pretty good about where we ended up.”

By the time the P cars came out, the track had sufficiently dried to allow the times to come closer to expected, but not as fast as they could have been or had hoped to have been.

The P1 and P2 overall battle was stunning. First, it was Dindo Capello and Marco Werner swapping fast laps, then Romain Dumas joined in, trading times with Werner, who eventually wheeled the Audi around at a 1:08.906, while Dumas had to settle for a 1:09.039.

Werner stated that they had to go with a different set up to compensate for the issues they have had with tires throughout the week. "We changed the setup completely and it was difficult for me during qualifying. It wasn't nice that we lost that time in the practice and did it (changed the setup) right in front of qualifying. Normally you don't do that but we have to do what we have to do."

For Dumas, "it was a strange qualifying. The track was a little green and the car was not so bad. I pushed really hard but lost some time on the track because I was too slow through one of the corners. I am glad we are nearly on the pace of the Audi."

The first two rows have a distinct symmetry to them, as the session ended up Audi – Penske Porshe – Audi – Penske Porsche.

5th overall and 3rd in P2 was the Highcroft Acura, which was a nice recovery for the team from the off that occurred in the previous session. David Brabham, who drove the car said, “I am pleased with our run in qualifying since we had an incident in the rain this morning. There was a lot of body work to replace before qualifying. Luckily, the gearbox and suspension were okay. The Highcroft team did a tremendous job getting the Acura back together for qualifying. The car was on the edge there in qualifying and I was hanging on for a long time. The car was very loose, but that might have been the case for everyone. I could see that the track was very dirty from the earlier rain, so, we waited in the pits to go out for qualifying. Once the track was pretty clean, we went out for a flying lap. We think we know what we need for the race. That is half the battle when you go into the Petit.”

Bryan Herta brought the Andretti Green Acura in 6th overall, and was satisfied with his effort. “The run was good. That was about as high as we have been up the time sheets this week. We have struggled to keep pace a little this week. We still have some work to do for the race and it has a potential to be a wild race. In the esses, it is difficult to pass a slower GT car with a faster prototype. You have to have patience throughout the race. Our plan is to get to the end. We want to run the same race we ran at Sebring with consistent laps, good pit stops and no real problems.”

For the first part of the session, Butch Leitzinger was the fastest car in the LMP2 class, but he was not able to keep pace with the cars that came on track later in the session. “The track was very green from all the rain we had since yesterday and there was virtually no rubber down. That changed the conditions enough that we had quite a bit more understeer than we had yesterday. But the track will rubber up throughout the race. We may make some small changes, but we will be careful not to chase the track because the track will come to us.”

Klaus Graf had the Cytosport Lola running well early, and was up to 4th overall early in the session. In what could be a preview to an interesting battle between ex-Dyson cars, a late out Jon Field recovered from an earlier spin and was able to slot one position in front of the Cytosport car, when he brought his Intersport Lola around with a 1:10.973 on the last lap of the session. This was good enough for 9th overall.

It was not a friendly session for the visitors from Europe in the Prototype classes. The fastest of the bunch was the P2 Zytek, which was 11th overall. One position back was the Arena P1 Zytek, with the Creation another two places back in 14th overall.

Jamie Campbell-Walter, who qualified the Creation said, “our qualifying position is unfortunately one of those things. We decided to change from a medium to a soft tyre just for qualifying, but unfortunately the tyre was different to what we’ve been running all week. The net result of that was basically running a lower front ride height at a circuit where there are lots of compressions and dips and it made the car very oversteery in the quick corners. It was very difficult to drive and not the car we’ve had in practice. It’s very disappointing but qualifying is just that and, whether you start 14th or where we realistically might have been, probably 8th, it’s a long race. The race is over nine hours and I think we’ve still got a good race car, a good driver line up and a good team. Creation could still get a result yet.”

Overall, the top six cars were all under the existing overall track record.

Saturday morning will see an early 25 minute warm-up, with the race scheduled to start at 11:15 local time. The forecast is spotty with rain in the forecast for overnight, and returning again early in the morning. Clearing skies are forecast, only to be replaced by the possibilities of thunderstorms in the late afternoon and into the evening.

The way the season has been, it’s fitting and should only add to the excitement of what promises (finally) to be a good race.