ALMS – Mobil 1 Grand Prix of Mosport – Friday Report
Rain Late, Usual Suspects Fastest 
© Gary Horrocks

The conditions were warm and muggy and the expected rain held off until the late minutes of the session at Mosport this afternoon. It was just before the rain that Romain Dumas (Timo Bernhard in the #7, below) turned in a couple of flying laps to turn the fastest of the Friday afternoon ALMS Test session. He got the Penske Porsche Spyder down to a 1:06.765, the only recorded time in the 1:06 range. In the GT2 class, it was #62 Risi Ferrari on top, but somewhat surprisingly Porsches (Lizards and Tafel) were the 2nd and 3rd quickest, and close.

Earlier in the session, it had been Allan McNish with the fastest time. In fact for most of the session, it was an Audi 1-2. But in the end, it was the typical late session Penske magic. There might have been more to come, but the session ended prematurely when the heavy rain hit, bringing everybody in.

Many teams that had tested earlier in the week had found the track to be frustratingly slow this afternoon. Sascha Maassen was quite frustrated, while David Brabham had commented that times were in the low 6s and 5s earlier this week. David also added that Duncan Dayton is progressing quite well. “It was bad, but it could have been so much worse. I think he is really taking it all in right now. He really misses being at the track, but is concentrating on fully healing before he comes back.”

The #2 Audi of Emanuele Pirro/Marco Werner ended second in the session, getting down to a 1:07.039. Werner, who hasn’t raced here in a while, found that “our car is very good in the first few turns. We don’t really have to brake, just lift. That keeps the weight transfer down. It’s when we really have to use the brakes that we lose time. The weight transfer in the slower turns really upsets the car. Personally, I’m having a tough time getting a rhythm. I guess that’s all part of staying in Germany last year.” Audi did not test here earlier – this was their first time here on track this week.

Chris Dyson had the Dyson Porsche running near the top of the charts early, before finishing the session 5th overall. Co-driver Guy Smith said, “we had a good test Tuesday between showers. We messed up at Road America, plus we ran the wrong compounds. I think we’ll be much better here. When we run higher downforce, we’re much closer to the Penske cars.”

Adrian Fernandez had a large off in the esses. He was OK and was able to get out and was walking around. The car looked bad, but was one of those cases where the damage was less than it appeared. According to the crew, the car appeared to be OK – mainly just body damage – and there should be no issues in getting the car back on track for Saturday’s sessions.

The Intersport team was on track, working on adjusting the car to the new Dunlop tires. Jon Field: “We parted with Kuhmo on amicable terms. It was difficult for them to develop a tire with only one team running.” The team was at the test earlier this week, but Jon had a rather large off, when a hub failed. “I was just a passenger at 155mph. I’m OK and the car was repairable, so we were lucky. At that time, we were running in the low 9s” (they turned a 1:11 today). Adapting the car to the Dunlops is going to take some time; even the diameters are different. The team is already looking towards next year and is keeping all options open. This includes options for either P1 or P2.

Tony Burgess returned to the ALMS here at his home track, Mosport, taking a seat in the Autocon Creation. “Our original plan was to look at bringing the Kruse Pescarolo over for this race, but the logistics of it would have very tough. I didn’t race the car at Spa, so I could concentrate on running here. We’ve had little problems with the car all year long, so I’m hoping things go better here with Autocon. I’ve been running in the LMS for a change. I had gone about as far as I could here in a GT2 Porsche, so I figured it was time for a change. Now, in the LMS, I get to run on tracks that I normally don’t get to, plus the races are longer.”

The GT1 class is once again Corvette only. Setting the fast time in the session was the #3 of Johnny O’Connell/Jan Magnussen, followed by the #4 of the two Ollies, and the #33 of Ron Fellows/Andy Pilgrim. All three cars were in the mid 15s. Doug Fehan said that the three cars were to be crewed by separate crews, with just minor overlaps. As always, there are no team orders, at least to the usual degree for the team.

The #62 Risi Ferrari was fastest in the session and the only GT2 car into the 1:18 range. In all, it was an uneventful session for the team. Mika Salo: “It’s my first time to Mosport here this week and first impressions are that it’s an incredible track. Very fast. It took a while to learn the track because of the blind corners and the high speed, most of them are 4th or 5th gear corners. The walls are very close so there’s no room for error; it’s challenging which is why I like it.” Team-mate Jaime Melo was not quite so comfortable yet, struggling to find a confidence like he had at Road America, or here earlier in the week.

The #61 Risi entry was not going quite as well. Both drivers (Bruni and Helary) like different set-ups and they were having a difficult time arriving at a compromise that suited each of them. Indications are that Tracy Krohn and his team will run the final two races of the season in the #61 car.

Joerg Bergmeister was second fastest in the session in the Flying Lizards Porsche, which he shares with Johannes van Overbeek. “We were in the 18s in the test, but here we are struggling in the 19s now. The understeer is greater that we had earlier too. We’ll just have to work on it.”

Robin Liddell and Wolf Henzler were 3rd quickest in the Tafel Racing Porsche. Robin Liddell:– “We tested both days earlier this week and made some progress. We still have a bit of understeer, but it’s improving.” Wolf added, “the track is about the same, only it’s much warmer. Other than the temperature, the problems are the same.” It appears as if understeer is a common theme for the 997s.

Petersen White Lightning was one of the teams that did not appear at the earlier test, so this was the first time on track for the team. Dirk Muler has driven here before, but not in the Ferrari. He was the first out, then he handed over the car to teammate Peter Dumbreck, who has never been here before. 4th quickest in the session is a good start for the team here.

PTG Panoz was a bit confusing for the day. Bryan Sellers was seen getting into the #21. He indicated that this was not to be seen as a sign that the car was to be raced. While he was not present at the track today, Scott Maxwell will be at the track on both Saturday and Sunday, in case Bill Auberlen has problems getting from Sears Point, where Grand-Am is racing on Saturday. As far as who turned what times in each car – that will have to be sorted out later.

Ralf Kelleners was anxious to get going again, after the strong second place finish at Road America. “But, without problems for the Ferraris, we will still have a difficult time keeping up with them. We did have a good race though. We had no screw ups in the car or in the pits. It was nice to get to the finish and second was even better. It would have been nice to test earlier this week, to build on the momentum, but we’ll do fine. We haven’t been doing any real development on the car; we’ve just been learning it and what it wants – improving it by the tenths of seconds.”

Seen in tech today was the Viper Competition Coupe of Prime Time Race Group, giving thought that they might be racing here. While there was some thought to entering the race, the initial indication is that this is to be seen as a initial inspection to prepare the team for Detroit. Joel Feinberg, who is down to be one of the drivers, indicated that the team intends to enter the remaining races of this season, as well as planning for the full season next year.

Rain continued into the night and the forecast for Saturday is not that promising. Hey, it’s Mosport. What else would you expect?

Friday Times
1 1 7 P2 Dumas/Bernhard 1:06.765 132.590 36 -.--- 38 Porsche / RS Spyder
2 1 2 P1 Pirro/Werner 1:07.039 132.049 35 0.227 37 Audi / R10 TDI
3 2 6 P2 Maassen/Briscoe 1:07.089 131.950 39 0.324 41 Porsche / RS Spyder
4 2 1 P1 Capello/McNish 1:07.160 131.811 13 0.395 38 Audi / R10 TDI
5 3 20 P2 Dyson/Smith 1:07.922 130.332 31 1.157 36 Porsche / RS Spyder
6 4 16 P2 Wallace/Leitzinger 1:07.968 130.244 35 1.203 40 Porsche / RS Spyder
7 5 26 P2 Herta/Franchitti 1:08.352 129.512 22 1.587 26 Acura / ARX-01a
8 6 9 P2 Brabham/Johansson 1:08.493 129.245 25 1.681 33 Acura / ARX-01a
9 7 8 P2 Bach/Devlin 1:08.674 128.905 20 1.909 32 Lola / B07-46 Mazda
10 8 15 P2 Fernandez/Diaz 1:11.114 124.482 3 3.353 3 Lola / B06-43
11 9 19 P2 van der Steur/Pecorari 1:11.547 123.728 31 4.782 34 Radical SR9
12 3 37 P1 J.Field/C.Field/Berry 1:11.594 123.647 32 4.829 40 Creation / CA06H
13 4 12 P1 Lewis/Burgess 1:14.409 118.969 30 7.370 35 Creation / CA06H
14 1 3 GT1 O'Connell/Magnussen 1:15.313 117.541 16 8.153 47 Corvette / C-6R
15 2 4 GT1 Beretta/Gavin 1:15.361 117.467 35 8.201 45 Corvette / C-6R
16 3 33 GT1 Fellows/Pilgrim 1:15.548 117.176 20 8.388 44 Corvette C-6R
17 1 62 GT2 Salo/Melo 1:18.820 112.312 30 11.660 42 Ferrari / 430 GT
18 2 45 GT2 van Overbeek/Bergmeister 1:19.191 111.785 19 12.031 44 Porsche / 911 GT3 RSR
19 3 71 GT2 Henzler/Liddell 1:19.299 111.633 11 12.139 38 Porsche / 911 GT3 RSR
20 4 31 GT2 Petersen/Mueller/Dumbreck 1:19.332 111.587 42 12.172 46 Ferrari / 430 GT
21 5 61 GT2 Helary/Bruni 1:19.382 111.516 10 12.222 43 Ferrari / 430 GT
22 6 22 GT2 Auberlen/Hand/Sellers 1:19.982 110.680 24 12.822 32 Panoz / Esperante GTLM
23 7 18 GT2 Kelleners/Milner 1:20.726 109.660 5 13.566 32 Porsche / 911 GT3 RSR
24 8 73 GT2 Tafel/Farnbacher 1:20.824 109.527 11 13.664 40 Porsche / 911 GT3 RSR
25 9 21 GT2 TBA/TBA 1:21.291 108.898 34 14.131 35 Panoz / Esperante GTLM
26 10 44 GT2 Neiman/Pechnik 1:21.949 108.023 34 14.789 38 Porsche / 911 GT3 RSR