ALMS, Baltimore – Preview
Close Battles Expected In All Classes

From the farmlands of rural Wisconsin to the streets of the inner harbor of Baltimore, the ALMS rolls on through its non-stop summer schedule.  It’s just a two-hour long street fight this weekend, quite a contrast from the four-hour event at the high speed natural road course that is Road America. 

After several months of inconsistency, P1 came alive at Road America. What a great battle it was between Lucas Luhr and Guy Smith; the photofinish reminded me of a similar great finish many years ago between Audi and BMW at Mosport.  P1 needed a race like that; Dyson needed a finish like that; and the ALMS needs that momentum to carry into Baltimore, and beyond, to make the P1 battle relevant again.  Regardless of the outcome, it was still pretty obvious that the Muscle Milk HPD remains the quicker car.  But catching and passing are two very different things as Luhr and Smith demonstrated at Road America.  Street courses are known for making passing difficult, this fact along with progression of the Lola Mazda should dull any speed advantage the HPD may still hold.  It’s still just a two-car race in P1, but it should be a good one.  Dyson needs another win to keep their championship hopes alive.

Up to this point, P2 has also been just a two-car battle - Level 5 vs Conquest.  Scott Tucker’s well equipped team came into the year the clear favorites. They had a year of experience under their belts, and drivers that had ALMS credentials and proven equipment.  It’s really no surprise that they opened the season with a string of class wins, and now hold the lead in the championship race.  Their competition has been first-year-of-endurance racers Conquest Racing.  Conquest has gotten the most out of their Morgan/Nissan and has really come on as of late.  Class wins at Mosport and Road America proved these guys are for real.  The question now is, do we have a third car to challenge? Is Dempsey Racing ready to be part of this conversation?  They had a solid race two weeks ago finishing with a legitimate second place.  Unfortunately that question will have to wait as their ‘partial’ schedule for this season does not include this Baltimore event. 

In the last of the prototype classes, it’s been pretty much all Jon Bennett’s Core Autosport.  At the winter test they spoke of their aspirations to use this season as a stepping stone to move up the ladder into P1 or P2.  Five class wins and the team championship already wrapped up; I think they are ready.  That being said, this class will be ultra-competitive throughout the remainder of the season as the rest of the teams will have nothing to lose.  Everyone should be going all out for race wins as the championship has been decided.

This event last year produced some very heated GT battles.  Patrick Long and Jamie Melo were explaining their qualifying skirmish well before the race began. It was a forgettable weekend for the Flying Lizard Porsche team, who have been possibly the hottest GT runner this year since the Le Mans break. 

Take away the tech failure at Mosport and they would have chalked up two wins and two seconds in the last four races.  A Porsche won here last year, but it was Sellers and Henzler in the Falken car with smart driving that stole the win.  Corvette and BMW have been the most consistent all year; the #4 of Gavin and Milner and the #55 of Auberlen and Müller showing the best as of late.  The ESM Ferraris have kept themselves in the conversation every week, but the point and shoot street circuits generally do not favor the nimble 458GT.  

In GTC, two of the ‘old school’ GT racers are leading the championship race.  Alex Job Racing is in front with a fairly comfortable lead over Kevin Buckler’s TRG squad.  These two guys know Porsches, and have been ALMS competitors since the series began.  TRG needs a win here to put any real pressure on the AJR crew. 
 
For the second year of this event they have made some very positive changes in the track layout.  Anyone who's ever read any of my previews knows how much I despise chicanes, especially the ‘artificial’ variety such that graced the front straight at last year’s race.  It was awful, and that’s all there is to say.  Thankfully the organizers realized how awful it was and designed it out of the track layout this year. Good job!

Last year’s event got rave reviews from fans and drivers alike.  This will be my first time covering this race and I am looking forward to it. I always enjoyed the races at St. Petersburg and I expect this to be much the same. The series needs a couple of big city street races in its schedule; they are a nice change of pace and a downtown atmosphere provides a buzz around the race that is different from the countryside road courses. 

Baltimore is a great city with a lot of history, and hopefully the ALMS will continue racing here into the future.  Plus it’s a ‘home’ race for our man Regis; what could be better than that?

RW