ALMS, Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca Qualifying

Championship Contenders Claim Pole Positions

In qualifying at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, it was the championship leading teams that took pole positions in 3 of the 4 classes– Guy Smith in LMP1, Joey Hand in GT and Jeroen Bleekemolen in GTC, while the fast Kyle Marcelli set the quick time in LMPC.

For Smith, the qualifying session in the Dyson Lola Mazda was a big unknown.  “The 20 car has been running a stiffer set up and it seemed to work well with the harder Dunlops, so we changed our car too.  I never got to drive it in the afternoon session set up that way, so when I got into the car for qualifying, I didn’t really know what to expect.  Obviously it worked very well.  That is one of the advantages of have a 2-car team.  We’re able to try different things that we normally wouldn’t be able to do with only a single car.”

Second fastest in P1 was the 20 Oryx Dyson entry, with Steven Kane at the wheel, turning in yet another fine performance.  Klaus Graf in the Cytosport Aston martin had a very frustrating session as the car didn’t respond the way they’d hoped, and they ended up 4th overall, over a second and a half off the pace.  The factory Aston Martin had a slightly better session, but were still .9 seconds back, 3rd fastest.

In GT, Joey Hand continued the BMW fest here at Laguna, taking class pole in a masterful performance in his championship leading M3.  He was the only GT driver to get into the 22s.  The next fastest was Oliver Gavin, although he was almost .9 seconds back.

If you take the time Hand set out of the equation, the usual GT tight times were there – 2nd through 9th were within .63 seconds.  Nothing wrong with that tight bunch – any time in that range is a reasonable time.  This time though, Hand, his knowledge of Laguna Seca and his BMW were just too much.  Hand – “We’ve been together 3 years now.  The guys know my Joey language and make the changes I need to make the car go fast.  In this case, they freed the car up a bit – we’d been suffering with a bit of understeer.  They freed it up just enough, and I was able to really go for it.  I attacked in turns 1-9 and coasted through 10 and 11.  I then parked it.  If someone was going to beat that time, well good for them.  As far as the race, we need to keep attacking.  When you ease up, you make mistakes.  This is an attrition track.  You need to watch your back and your front.  You gotta be on your game here.  We need to get 5 points on the No. 4 guys in this race.  I told Bobby (Rahal) that I think we should go for it and clinch it here, then he could take my place in the car at Petit.”

For Corvette, second in class was a moral victory, after the way the morning session went for the team.  Gavin lead class early, then Hand got moving and the No. 4 Corvette fell down the list.  Then a call went out to Ollie, informing him that one last push could take him to second in class.  Gavin - "I knew that the car had it in it. I just needed to put a lap together without any traffic or sand on the track. It all seemed to come together on that last lap."

An encouraging 4th in class was Guy Cosmo, in the Extreme Speed Ferrari.  The team has really struggled all season long, and maybe, late in the season, things are starting to jell for the second year team.  Cosmo - "We had pretty good improvement from what we have been through the last couple of races. The team has worked very, very hard to sort out a lot of the small glitches we have had with the cars lately.  We have suffered a bit, but we seem to have nailed it down and the car ran well today.”

For the Lizards, Pat Long really thought he put together a great lap and should be well up the grid.  Unfortunately his time only accounted for 5th in class.  Long - “We made a setup change before the qualifying session, and the results were very good. My lap was perfect, and we have a great car for the six-hour race tomorrow. The fact that others could go faster when we made no mistakes speaks to regulations that are outside of our control.”

The frustrating day continued for Risi.  They made it out late in the afternoon session, and Melo got back in the car to sort it, because he is the one that knows the track – Toni Vilander has not driven here before.  Unfortunately this meant that Vilander was forced to take the car out in qualifying in order to set a time in the car.  Otherwise the team would be forced to start the race from the back of the grid.  He ended the session parked on track with fuel pressure issues.  All in all a day to forget for the Houston based team.  Best to forget it now and get ready for the race…  They will start the race 7th in class.

In LMPC, Kyle Marcelli continued to impress, setting the fastest time in the session, a 1:18.844 in the Intersport entry.  He was about .4 seconds faster than Gunnar Jeanette, who lost any chance to respond when he plowed up some kitty litter on the outside of turn 6, trying out what may be a prototype for a new Oreca tractor while on a fast lap.  He was ready to go out again and to try to improve his time, but a red flag for Anthony Nicolosi and his Performance Tech Oreca stopped on track.

Marcelli - “Everyone is jelling really well at Intersport. People really know how to make the ORECA work with the Michelin tires. There is a sweet spot that is tough to get back if you’re out of that window. It’s important to arrive at the track near that spot so you can make small changes.”   The No. 37 Intersport LMPC entry never made it on track at all today.

GTC is almost a broken record when it comes to qualifying.  Jeroen Bleekemolen earned his 8th class pole in the last 2 seasons, in what appeared to be easy fashion.  No loose wheels, no drama.  Just a dominant session.  Jeroen - “We were waiting for something to happen! It was a good session. I was struggling with the car in practice but the guys solved it and it was great in qualifying. I was able to get a nice gap to second place. We knew we were going to be strong here from last year.  We had a problem Thursday with the suspension and found out something wasn’t right. It wasn’t an easy fix and we had some under steer. We just in time found out that what the fixes were. For qualifying we actually had some over steer which was pretty fun. I had a couple of really nice laps.”

Second in the session was Damien Falkner for Green Hornet/Black Swan, while championship contending Spencer Pumpelly/Duncan Ende finished qualifying in 3rd.

By the time qualifying ended, the clouds had started rolling back in.  The temperature dropped also, setting the stage for what promises to be a very exciting, competitive and likely eventful race on Saturday.