ALMS, Petit Le Mans - GT Before the Storm

Sometimes, well actually most times, the GT class gets buried or lost in the frantic pace of covering these races.  It isn’t the so-called premiere class of the series, but in many ways it should be viewed as such.  I’d hate to think where the ALMS as a series would be without the excitement that the GT class has offered through the seasons.

Even though Corvette Racing has already clinched the Manufacturers', Team and Drivers' titles with one race to go, it has been a very competitive season yet again.  What we’ve seen in the sessions here so far reinforce just how competitive and interesting this class is.  Take the Thursday afternoon practice session – to have nine entries turn best laps within .56 seconds of each other is pretty amazing.  To have that list of nine cars composed of 5 different makes is astonishing.  Think about the variety of the cars out there.  V8 front engined (BMW and Corvette), V8 rear/mid engined (Ferrari), flat 6 rear engined (Porsche) and V10 front engined (Viper) just from the basic configuration/layout of the powertrain. 

Thus far this season, we have had winners from Corvette, Porsche, BMW and Ferrari, which shows that there has been a pretty nice balance achieved.  According to Doug Fehan of Corvette Racing, “much of the success of the class must be to the efforts of the ALMS, ACO and the manufacturers working together and we can’t forget how we got there.”  That is through the cooperation of all three organizations, sometimes setting aside their own interests working towards what is best for the sport in general.  It is not by accident that GT racing has thrived here in the ALMS.

Entering into the race, in some ways the pressure is off – the titles are decided.  Olly Gavin – “The pressure is off, as far as the championship, but there is still pressure.  In the ALMS, there are two races that you really, really want to win – Sebring and Petit Le Mans.  These are the classic races and ones that you really want to have on your record.  You want to win all of the races, but these two are really special.”

“As far as the race this weekend, it will be a wheel banger.  It always is.  The circuit is narrow and undulating and in many places of only one line.  You never come out of here unscathed – you always have some damage to the car.  The key is minimizing that damage.  Plus you must never give up.  How many times has this race been won on the last lap?  We did it in 2010 when the Risi Ferrari ran out of fuel on the last lap.  You just never know.  You just have to keep pushing.”

Olly’s teammate, Tommy Milner agreed that this should be quite the fight.  “Yes, the championships are decided, but that doesn’t mean that this race is meaningless.  This is one of the races that everybody wants to win.  The way it looks, this race should be nose to tail for the entire 10 hours or so.”

“Qualifying is important here, but not critical.  You want to be in the top 5 or so.  If you’re much lower than that, you run the risk of falling behind or being held up.  It can be difficult to pass here and you just don’t want to fall behind here.  With how competitive things are here, you don’t want to fall behind a lap.”

BMW, the reigning champion has had a good season, but just not the season that they’d hoped.  Because they’re out of the championship running, they too are here to race for pride.  Dirk Muller, driving the No. 56 M3 GT, likes their chances here, but is also realistic.  “It’s tough out there.  The class is crazy.  I’m out in the car in a session, running in P6 and I get a call on the radio that they need .1 second from me.  That’d move me up like 4 spots.  It is just amazing that we’ve got such a tight and competitive class and have had it that way for so long now.  In the race, we’re not quite flat out; maybe 95%.” 

“It’s a very fine line.  You’ve gotta bring the car home, but you’ve got to bring the car home as fast as possible in order to have a chance to win.  I think this race will be one that the fans should really be able to enjoy.”

This is likely the last race for the M3 GT here.  As the car will still be for sale in the States through next August, technically the car still could be raced by BMW, but that is unlikely.  As has been rumored, a new car, based upon the Z4 is being developed, which both Rahal and BMW North America are anxious to run, so that they can stay involved in this incredible class.

For Porsche, and the Lizards in particular, the 2012 season started off in a disappointing fashion.  Thomas Blam, who upon looking back at the start of the season, said, “Sebring was a tough start for us.  We were slow in qualifying, but we thought we’d be much closer on race pace - we just never got a chance to find out.  We got bashed about in the race and just couldn’t recover.  It wasn’t until Lime Rock that things came along for us.”  It was after Le Mans when the team came to grips with their new mount, likely aided at least some by some regulation changes.

“We’ve had a good run in the last half of the season, but not scoring points at Mosport really hurt us.  Otherwise we’d still be racing here for the class championship.  Instead we’re here just trying to win the race.  We’ve got a good car here and I think we’ve got a good chance, but the class is just so deep.  It’s always been deep, but it’s even deeper and tighter now.  This should be a very good race for the fans to watch.”

Extreme Speed Motorsports returns with two cars again, this time running in a new “chrome” look.  They’ve been there all season long, but in such a deep and competitive class, they’ve only managed to get the one win thus far.  Guy Cosmo, driver of their 02 Ferrari, is ready to go.  “We’ll be flat out the entire time here in the race.  The only time you’ll see the times change much is due to strategy moves on the fuel settings – otherwise us drivers will be flat out.  You can’t afford to let up at any point in a race like this.  It’s a long and tough race, but I wouldn’t be anywhere else in the world.”

New to the bunch are the SRT Viper team.  They’ve only had 4 races thus far, but here at Petit, they find themselves right in the midst of the GT class action, with both cars slotting in around half a second back of the class leaders on a consistent basis.  Quite the progress for the team that first debuted at Mid Ohio, and was by their own admission really not ready to race quite yet.  The rapid progress of the team can be laid upon their hard and diligent work, as well as some further regulation adjustments for the team.  Marc Goossens said the biggest difference is, “that we’ve come up with a platform upon which we can base our set ups on.  We’re still learning the car and what it wants, but at least we are getting a feel for what we can and can’t do.  I really doubt we’ll be that close in qualifying, but it is a major step forward for the team.  By team, I mean team.  We’ve become a true 2 car team.  Not 2 separate cars under one team by a true 2 car team.  That is very important for us as we try to continue our progress.  Right now, all we’ve concentrated on is developing the car – we haven’t even looked at race strategy thus far.  I’m looking forward to the off season, when we can really work on getting this Viper effort up to the top of this very tough class.”  Perhaps the ultimate compliment to the Viper effort is that there have already been comments about the pace of the Vipers by class competitors – you know you’re competitive when people start complaining about your pace.

Petit is always special, but this 2012 edition of the GT class should be very special indeed.  We’ll be watching – we hope you will be doing the same.

GH