ALMS – Petit Le Mans - Hours 2-3
Yellows - Racing – Then More Yellows
© Janos Wimpffen

The restart comes at the 1:10-hour mark. During the interval, Luhr moved all the way to the fore. Jon Field dropped to 12th thanks to a hit with Ralf Kelleners (No. 18 Rahal-Letterman Porsche). Field receives a stop-and-go for his troubles. Meanwhile, Jörg Bergmeister slips the No. 45 Lizard Porsche to the GT2 lead.

The woes continue for the Andretti-Green Acura. Bodywork is flapping loose from the accident with the Porsche, and it is generally slowing. Herta later retired the car with a duff engine. Although that car is gone the No. 20 Dyson has received a penalty for contact with it.

The No. 88 Creation moves over and causes a bit of clanging between a pair of Porsches. Campbell-Walter receives a stern warning as a result.

Tracy Krohn gets stuck in the gravel at T5, and this brings out another full course caution. Prior to that there was a good Porsche vs. Porsche battle for fourth overall and first in LM P2. Ahead them there is an LM P1 1-2-3 overall, unusual this year. Darren Manning in the No. 10 Zytek is trailing the pair of Audis. Indeed the English visitor inherits first place during the pit stop exchange.

The pit stop exchange during this caution period is particularly scenic as there are two distinct scrums of cars, one for Prototypes and one for the GTs. Müller takes on fuel only and grabs the GT2 lead.

On the restart Manning is swallowed up by Luis Diaz and Clint Field. However, as the pack crests the track at the slow Turn 7, Ryan Briscoe (No. 6 Porsche) taps the Zytek into a spin, Diaz ramming Manning Field then hitting the back of the other Lola. The No. 15 Acura gets the worst of it. All the cars continue, sort of, with Mexican entry badly damaged.

We have another yellow and also a 30-second penalty to No. 6. On the restart the No. 5 Zytek enjoys its best run of the week with Danny Watts bringing it up to 4th place. The Henzler / Farnbacher Porsche is also running well, up to 2nd in class.

Two Hours – just after the re-start (McNish and Werner pass Bernhard on the first racing lap)
1 1 P1 1 Allan McNish 67 0.000 0.000 1:09.798 2
2 2 P1 2 Marco Werner 67 1.825 1.825 1:09.886 2
3 7 P2 1 Timo Bernhard 67 2.714 0.889 1:10.603 2
4 5 P2 2 Danny Watts 67 5.975 3.261 1:12.162 2
5 9 P2 3 Stefan Johansson 67 6.437 0.462 1:12.087 2
6 8 P2 4 Ben Devlin 67 6.707 0.270 1:12.970 3
7 88 P1 3 Harold Primat 67 10.710 4.003 1:12.380 2
8 06 P1 4 Greg Pickett 66 1 Lap 1 Lap 1:11.781 2
9 6 P2 5 Ryan Briscoe 66 6.648 6.648 1:10.910 3
10 20 P2 6 Guy Smith 66 7.537 0.889 1:11.992 3
11 10 P1 5 Darren Manning 65 2 Laps 1 Lap 1:10.928 3
12 4 GT1 1 Max Papis 64 3 Laps 1 Lap 1:17.241 2
13 31 GT2 1 Dirk Mueller 63 4 Laps 1 Lap 1:22.224 2
14 62 GT2 2 Jaime Melo 63 0.200 0.200 1:22.032 2
15 71 GT2 3 Dominik Farnbacher 63 1.472 1.272 1:22.208 2
16 44 GT2 4 Darren Law 63 1.787 0.315 1:23.420 2
17 45 GT2 5 Johannes van Overbeek 63 2.013 0.226 1:22.031 2
18 54 GT2 6 Marc Basseng 63 2.112 0.099 1:23.579 2
19 21 GT2 7 Bill Auberlen 63 7.690 5.578 1:22.617 3
20 12 P1 6 Bryan Willman 63 9.176 1.486 1:16.688 3
21 18 GT2 8 Tom Milner 62 5 Laps 1 Lap 1:22.564 3
22 15 P2 7 Luis Diaz 61 6 Laps 1 Lap 1:11.994 2
23 27 GT1 2 Andrea Bertolini 61 12:30.291 12:30.291 1:19.267 2
24 53 GT2 9 Andrea Robertson 61 12:38.323 8.032 1:25.341 5
25 37 P1 7 Clint Field 60 7 Laps 1 Lap 1:11.545 3
26 61 GT2 10 Tracy Krohn 58 9 Laps 2 Laps 1:23.303 4
27 16 P2 8 Butch Leitzinger 57 10 Laps 1 Lap 1:11.695 2
28 26 P2 9 Bryan Herta 50 17 Laps 7 Laps 1:11.845 4
29 73 GT2 11 Nathan Swartzbaugh 28 39 Laps 22 Laps 1:22.843 1
30 3 GT1 3 Jan Magnussen 15 52 Laps 13 Laps 1:17.351 0

The race now entered a fairly long clean period and became somewhat “Audi-ized” with Time Bernhard some 20 seconds behind in 3rd. Suddenly the R10s have the speed and advantage missing for most of the season – McNish pulling away from Werner, the pair pulling 25 seconds ahead of Bernhard. Also unusual for this race, there is a long period of yellow-free, although not incident-free racing.

The green Ferrari suffers more delay, being hit by the No. 20 Dyson Porsche. At the same spot as the earlier Corvette incident, the other Chevrolet of Max Papis and the No. 2 Audi touch. Marco Werner goes into the tire wall. He managed to extract it on his own and return to the pits. Then in a significant matter for GT2, the class leading Ferrari of Melo is hit by Bill Auberlen’s Panoz. The other Ferrari, Dirk Müller, goes into the lead.

We have a cycle of stops under green. McNish stops from the lead and Bernhard takes over the top spot – and runs 6-7 laps longer. Cars 5 (Zytek), 8 (Mazda—good solid if unspectacular run), 88, 06, 9, 31, and 45 all make routine stops. The GT2 leader’s switch to Peter Dumbreck takes a while and Darren Law takes over the top spot with the No. 44 Lizorsche.

The green billiard ball, aka the Krohn Ferrari, is tapped by Tim Pappas and a call is placed to black flag No. 54, wherever he may be.

The hour ends with the No. 15 Acura re-emerging from the paddock and the next hour (te fourth) begins with a significant incident at Turn 1. The No. 62 Ferrari ducks into his proper line and was tapped in the rear by Memo Gidley, now aboard the Cytosport Lola. The No. 62 is pushed directly into the path of the leading Audi of Allan McNish. All the cars continued with McNish making a long stop for repairs. Romain Dumas thus took over the top spot.

Three Hours
1 1 P1 1 Allan McNish 113 0.000 1:09.781 3
2 7 P2 1 Romain Dumas 113 34.440 1:10.603 3
3 6 P2 2 Ryan Briscoe 112 1 Lap 1:10.273 4
4 5 P2 3 Danny Watts 112 3.549 1:12.019 3
5 9 P2 4 Stefan Johansson 112 26.096 1:11.996 3
6 8 P2 5 Ben Devlin 112 37.709 1:12.660 4
7 20 P2 6 Guy Smith 112 43.721 1:11.663 4
8 88 P1 2 Harold Primat 111 2 Laps 1:12.380 3
9 06 P1 3 Memo Gidley 109 4 Laps 1:11.781 3
10 4 GT1 1 Oliver Gavin 106 7 Laps 1:17.241 3
11 12 P1 4 Bryan Willman 104 9 Laps 1:16.688 4
12 44 GT2 1 Darren Law 104 0.047 1:22.881 2
13 10 P1 5 Tom Chilton 104 34.117 1:10.928 5
14 62 GT2 2 Mika Salo 104 44.670 1:21.901 3
15 21 GT2 3 Bill Auberlen 103 10 Laps 1:22.617 4
16 45 GT2 4 Marc Lieb 103 6.018 1:22.031 3
17 18 GT2 5 Graham Rahal 103 6.462 1:22.378 4
18 31 GT2 6 Peter Dumbreck 103 6.832 1:21.941 3
19 27 GT1 2 Andrea Bertolini 103 28.847 1:18.344 3
20 71 GT2 7 Dominik Farnbacher 103 1:24.582 1:22.023 3
21 54 GT2 8 Tim Pappas 101 12 Laps 1:23.579 4
22 16 P2 7 Andy Wallace 101 54.086 1:11.695 3
23 53 GT2 9 David Robertson 97 16 Laps 1:25.341 6
24 61 GT2 10 Darren Turner 94 19 Laps 1:23.059 6
25 2 P1 6 Marco Werner 92 21 Laps 1:09.886 2
26 15 P2 8 Luis Diaz 61 52 Laps 1:11.994 2
27 37 P1 7 Clint Field 60 53 Laps 1:11.545 3
28 26 P2 9 Bryan Herta 50 63 Laps 1:11.845 4
29 73 GT2 11 Nathan Swartzbaugh 28 85 Laps 1:22.843 1
30 3 GT1 3 Jan Magnussen 15 98 Laps 1:17.351 0

While that is handled by a local yellow, the next incident (3 hours 10) definitely required a full-course caution. The GT2 leading White Lightning comes into last turn minding his own business just as David Robertson moves over with the No. 53 Panoz. The two collide with the Panoz coming to rest along the front straight and the Ferrari continuing back around for repairs.

The yellow allowed the No. 1 Audi to reduce the gap, as it never lost the lead lap. But there are other woes for Audi as the No. 2 car is given an 80-second penalty for the most un-Teutonic mistake of having too many men over the wall. It has lost 30 plus laps anyway for repairs after its crash.

Notes & Quotes 
Chris Dyson – “The car is quite good in traffic and the tires are holding up quite well. There is lots of lunacy out there. As long as we can keep in touch, I think we’ll be OK.” Darren Law – That was a good stint, bringing the car up from last. It felt really good, but it was a long hot stint and a half in the car.”

Wolf Henzler – “The car was quite good early, but developed a miss. We fixed that but it cost us some time. Then Dominik had to take to the gravel to avoid an accident out there. Because of that sh!t, we just lost two laps. The car is fine but we’re just down some now.”

Chris McMurry – “It’s gone quite well out there for us. The car just keeps going. Now we’ll just have to stay out of trouble.”

Greg Pickett – “Not sure what’s wrong with the car. We got tangled up in somebody else’s mess.”

Fernandez Racing Acura had to replace the rear wing, the underfloor, the right rear suspension, the nose and the front crash box. The car was reported to be good after it went out – a bit of a push, but was OK. The crew said the repair would take an hour and that’s what it did. Then the car lost a right rear wheel out of course and the team was forced to retire the car.

The Petersen White Lightning Ferrari got tangled up with the slow moving Robertson Panoz. Peter Dumbreck thought he was being allowed through, when the door was slammed. Took out the left front radiator. The team made another stop to repair the loose front splitter, then retired later. The team was in second at the time of the accident and ended up losing at least 18 laps before retiring.

Jamie Campbell-Walter – “The weekend started quite well. We were into the 1:10s and1:11s easily over the weekend. It’s been downhill since then. We just hadn’t been able to get the car back to where it was. The changing track conditions really caught us out. We made some changes before the warm up and now in the race, we’ve got a good race car. It’s comfortable and consistent. We’re in P2 in P1, so hopefully we can hang on for a good result.”

Jamie Bach – “No problems. The car is doing pretty well and I hope we can keep it up.”

Highcroft reported that their car was a little loose but not too bad. They had to stop at the end of a yellow which dropped them down the standings a bit.

Butch Leitzinger reported that the track has come to him and that the car is fine after having the wiring replaced.