ALMS - Petit Le Mans – Round-Up Part 2
A Classic Event? Yes
© Gary Horrocks

As far as events go, yes, Petit Le Mans has, over the years, reached a status where it has become a classic.

Was the 2007 edition a classic? Not until about an hour and a half was left in the race. Until then, it was sort of a difficult event to get a feel for. Even in the practice sessions and qualifying, it was like it was missing something. There wasn’t the spark or excitement that usually surrounded this event.

But no matter what the feelings were about the earlier parts of the event, the happenings of the last hour and a half will become legendary in the future. Someday, those who were there (and there were many) will be able to say “I was there when Dindo Capello and Romain Dumas battled it out for the overall win”, and also state that they were there to witness the great battle between two future stars, Dominik Farnbacher and Tom Millner, for second in GT2.

During one of the many discussions that usually take place at a track, the subject of the lack of spark was discussed. It was like something was missing. Maybe it was simply a case of what was missing was something that is not wanted – controversy.

It seems like most any sport has it right now, and through the season, the ALMS has had plenty, but for once, there was no controversy heading into the race. There was the anticipation of the non-regulars running here, and there was also the anticipation of the announcements that surround the annual State of the Series Address.

Then we had the weather. To the locals – I’m glad we could be of service in helping end your drought. On the bright side, at least I didn’t have to worry about burning my head this time. But it was the weather that took away what could have been some intense runs for lap records in all of the classes. Instead, we drying GT class qualifying session and a Prototype session that was run under not quite ideal conditions: green track, no rubber down, not ideal for really fast laps.

But now it appears as if maybe a new controversy is brewing. When the track was repaved, it made for a faster track, but the run off areas are the same. Now, with what are effectively reduced runoff areas, it appears that any accidents become heavier. When you combine that with drivers who are either trying to win the race in the first hours or drivers who are still learning their craft, you are going to have issues.

Issues like what happened on race day, which took out a large number of competitors who could have had an influence on the eventual outcome. #3 Corvette. Out early. Very early. Petersen White Lightning Ferrari. Out after running a strong 2nd in class… The list can go on, but one thing that was apparent was that some of the behavior on track was crazy. Was it a full moon?

Oliver Gavin: "The traffic was suicidal at some points today. People were doing the craziest stuff. I'm not sure whether it was the track, the conditions, or just people having a bad day, but there just were so many people going off the road.”

You keep hearing the drivers state that this race is just a long sprint race – maybe they are listening to themselves too much? This is endurance racing. You can’t win it at the beginning, but you can sure lose it.

Because of the mayhem on track, the first half to ¾ of the race was really disjointed and almost difficult to watch. All told, there were nine cautions totaling 2 hours and 22 minutes. One observation compared the on track action to the classic television program, The Gong Show. You know the one. People trying to show their so-called talent, but if they were bad enough, someone would run up and bang the gong. Well, for a while, the action on track was gong-worthy. Honestly, I could think of a few teams that would like to add that option to the rules package.

But, even with all of that carnage and mayhem, a quick look at the standings indicated that it could come down to quite a battle at the end. At the four hour mark, there were four cars still on the lead lap. That’s pretty impressive. And the surprising fact of this was that one of them was the factory Zytek P2 car. But more on the Zytek later…

Despite what we started with, the race all came good at the end. Thankfully. And what a finish it was. There was even cheering in the media center, and that’s a tough crowd.

All eyes were glued to the monitors in the center, trying to watch timing and scoring, the action on the screen and the cars as they came past. In the case of the battle for the overall win, there actually were no losers.

Afterwards, the LMP2 winners were gracious. After all they won their class. You know part of them wanted the overall, but Dumas put it into perspective: “We won Mosport with luck and today the luck was on the other side. I tried to keep pressure on him. It was a great race and a good race." Teammate and co-LMP2 driving Champion Timo Bernhard stated, “it was an exciting race for the fans. They saw a race for 10 hours that was very close and it was a very good day for the sport."

But it was the LMP1 champions and overall race winners who had the most interesting expressions. Looking at them in the media center afterwards, their expressions were ones of relief, joy and fatigue. All rolled into one.

McNish: "I’m very proud of this race victory considering the fight we faced and obstacles put in front of us at times. Petit Le Mans is a long event not only for a car and its drivers but the entire team and everyone played a major part in this close victory. Audi are back on the very top step of the rostrum and there is no better way for Dindo and I to have won a second consecutive title."

Capello: “I can’t think of any other race that means as much to me as this one. To win this one the way we did was very special.”

This battle was indeed special.

Also special was what we witnessed in GT2. First of all, congratulations to the Lizards. They finally get their big victory at Petit. And what is it about Joerg Bergmeister? It’s five in a row here, as well as three in a row for his ex-teammate Pat Long, who was paired with Dumas and Bernhard for the P2 win.

Bergmeister: "It's just luck here I guess. It's a long race and all you need is luck. You need to keep it on track and have great teammates. The last two years it has been Patrick and he won here again.” Despite some early issues, the pairing of Bergmeister, Johannes van Overbeek and Marc Lieb stayed consistently near the top and won a big race for them. The win for the #45, combined with the sixth place finish of the Risi Ferrari, kept the class points battle open heading into the final round.

Unfortunately the Lizards’ two lap victory will need to be remembered alongside the efforts of the Tafel Racing team, as Wolf Henzler and Dominik Farnbacher combined to steal second place. You would think that a car that ran the last 2.5 hours on the same left rear tire would not be able to run competitive laps at the end, but that’s what they had to do, as the team was not able to remove the rim.

Farnbacher: “The tire had me a little worried. When I got in the car Tony assured me that we had some rubber left on the tire. So I pushed as hard I could, Milner got by me and I just wanted to try and pressure him. With two to go he went to the gas a little too early at the apex of seven and made a slight spin. That is all I needed. With the tire wear I really didn’t have anything for him.”

But while Farnbacher had to deal with tire wear, Milner in the Rahal Letterman Porsche had to deal with personal wear. He ran the last almost 2.5 hours himself in the car. But a third place finish for the first year team is still a great accomplishment.

Milner: “It wasn’t the best ending for us, but third place isn’t bad. I got a good run out of 10b and was able to get around Dominik and we went on to have a good battle. The spin at the end was my fault but we brought the car home and that’s what counts. Third isn’t bad, but we are looking to take the next step.”

The race was not a good one for the Ferraris. The #62 Risi entry ran well, but was dropped down the order due to (brake/rear) lighting issues, while the #61 Krohn-Risi entry had an assortment of issues, including an attraction to the gravel. As mentioned above, the Petersen White Lightning entry was taken out in an accident with slower traffic. Very slow traffic.

With GT1, you have to wonder at some point if we are getting towards the end of seeing Corvette Racing in the ALMS. Will they return for a full season, a partial season, or none at all? They say it’s all dependent on competition. Could the last minute substitution of Andrea Bertolini, the Maserati test driver, into the Lista entry indicate that there is some renewed interest by the Italian manufacturer in the series? Could they be interested in following the lead of Ferrari and also join the party?

The Lista Maserati had a strong run going and was near the goal of finishing, when Bertolini got into the start finish wall with less that an hour to go. Sad finish to a good effort.

Whatever the outcome for the future, Corvette Racing leaves Petit with mixed feelings. First, the #4 car took the race win (Gavin / Beretta / Papis) and also the Drivers Championship (Gavin / Beretta), but they also leave with a destroyed car and a shook up Jan Magnussen. Unfortunately, Johnny O’Connell, who had to be on such a high from hearing his daughter sing the national anthem, had to sink low as he did not even get into the car, stopping his streak of 58 consecutive starts. Also, Ron Fellows was not able to get in either, thus making Mosport possibly his last time in one of the Corvettes.

Dyson Racing earned a podium finish, second in P2, for the #20 of Chris Dyson and Guy Smith. A sure and steady run rewarded them with one of their most rewarding finishes of the season. The team car, #16 of Andy Wallace / Butch Leitzinger / Andy Lally was beset with ignition issues twice in the race, thus dropping them to sixth overall and fourth in class.

Dyson: “This is a great result for the team. Although we did not have the fastest car out there today, it was consistent and Guy and I could push hard for the entire race. We stuck to our game plan, which was to keep out of trouble and pick the other guys off. The crew executed flawlessly in the pit stops, and our strategy and pace put us in a position where we were able to capitalize. The race result speaks volumes for our strong teamwork today.”

It was not exactly the result that Acura was looking for. All three entries had troubled runs, with the only one truly featuring being the Highcroft car, which persevered through starting problems to finish eighth overall, sixth in the P2 class. Stefan Johansson: “We started out pretty well, but then we began having starter problems and we dropped in position. The car was difficult to drive in those conditions. Overall, the car was very ‘light’ – which we knew before we started. We did a long pit stop on a yellow to adjust the rear wing. It made some difference, but the car had very low grip in general. With the grip issues, you had to work a lot harder than normal with the steering. It was just tough out there.”

While it was also hard for Intersport to swallow their eventual crash out of the race, they had to be content with the way their new Lola performed. Even if was for a short time. Jon Field had that car moving in the early part of the race, reaching fourth overall on merit and actually leading the race for a few laps, when choosing not to pit at the first yellow.

Last but not least would have to be the three prototype entries from Europe. While practice and qualifying did not allow them to show their capabilities, their race craft allowed them to feature to greater heights than originally thought. Highest placed was the P2 class factory Zytek, driven by Danny Watts, Stefan Mucke and Jan Charouz, who drove a smart race, which allowed them to stay on the lead lap as late as the four hour mark and still be within two laps of the lead as late as six hours. They lost third overall and second in class late, owing to an electrical problem (alternator, as at Silverstone), but persevered to only lose one spot.

One position back overall was the Creation of Christophe Tinseau, Jamie Campbell-Walter and Harold Primat. The team came back from their problems in the earlier sessions, worked their way through them and were rewarded with a fine second in P1. Team Principal Ian Bickerton: “That’s all right isn’t it? Second place for the team is brilliant and for the car is superb. We’ve only done four races with it now, if you don’t count Le Mans, and we’ve come a long way – and there’s still more to come. We’ve still got to get qualifying right; that was a bit of a mess. But to come from dead last to fifth place overall with the few problems along the way…yes, we did all right.”

“There were a lot of on-track incidents just in front of me when I was in the car,” remarked Harold Primat. “I had to avoid a big crash between three prototypes (the one that ultimately took out Intersport and, eventually, Fernandez), going over the grass to avoid it, and I also came across the accident between the Corvette and the Audi. I then had a puncture on the straight, at full-speed just before the chicane, which wasn’t a nice experience! For me though, this is why endurance racing is so fascinating. You have to push as hard as you can to be competitive, but always make sure there is a margin for error, keeping your eyes open, in case anything happens around you.”

A switch of Dunlops after qualifying put Creation to the back of the grid, but as Lucas Luhr also showed, that wasn’t too bad a place to start from. And JC-W’s best lap was only four-tenths down on the Audi #2’s. How do you compare prototype pace in the ALMS with that in the LMS? Perhaps Peugeot will be at Sebring to help us with that puzzle.

Among the not so lucky was the Arena Motorsport team, which cruelly saw its race end with fuel pressure issues. They were in the top eight at the time, third in P1.

Also not among the lucky was the BK Mazda, which was also having a fine, steady run to fifth overall (showing many how it should be done), when with about 45 minutes left, it slowed and then stopped. Reason? Gearbox. Racing can be so cruel sometimes.

But even though racing can be cruel, people keep coming back. And for this race, it was in droves that they came back. Over 100,000 tickets were accounted for part way through the race. And among those seen walking around were Wayne Taylor and Max Angelelli, Dominic Cicero, and JLMC P1 Champion Shinsucke Yamazaki, as well as some individuals in Peugeot shirts. Bring them on.

It may not have been an artistic success or a classic through and through, but the final hour left everybody buzzed. Endurance racing does work. And it will have one last time this season to work. In less than two weeks time, the season will end at Laguna Seca, for another event that is closing in on classic status.