ALMS - Lime Rock Park – Northeast Grand Prix – Race Report
Beauty And The Beast
© Russell Wittenberg

I was looking for an analogy to describe this race and all I kept thinking of was the Disney movie Beauty and the Beast. The Penske cars ran a beautiful race. Either could have won and both deserved to. With all the scuffles, pushing and shoving going on at what seemed like every corner, never once were the yellow Spyders caught up in any of that. Every other car, except maybe the Corvettes, was involved in some kind of drama. As contact, penalties, punctures and mechanical failures dictated the outcome for the rest of the field, the Penske Porsches ran unscathed to another 1-2 finish. The Beasts of the day must be the #1 Audi and the #45 Flying Lizard. Both would take class honors but it was not pretty.

The story for this one is who stayed out of trouble and who didn’t. Chris Dyson and the #20 Porsche had been having a superb weekend and were hoping for a great start to the race. Unfortunately it began to unravel for them right at the drop of the green flag.

Dyson was judged by race officials to be out of line at the start and was handed a stop and go penalty - a ruling that drew the ire of the senior Dyson. Before serving his penalty, Chris Dyson made contact with Robin Liddell in the #71 Tafel Porsche, sending Liddell into the barriers. Oddly enough, Liddell had just been in the penalty box paying for jumping the start, with a stop and go. Dyson would return to the race after his penalty in sixth place, racing Marco Werner.

Allan McNish is another one who would find more bad luck than good in the first hour. After inheriting second position from Dyson, McNish got the door slammed shut on him, not once but twice, while trying to pass Jon Field going into turn one. McNish locked the rear wheels of the R10 and spun harmlessly, avoiding contact on his first attempt by. He quickly recovered and returned to the track but not before dropping to 5th overall. Shortly thereafter, while attempting to pass the Intersport Creation a second time, contact between the two sent them both spinning through turn one. The Creation Judd had been whistling down the front straight – and McNish was struggling to get close enough to pass Field Snr. in turn 1. Meanwhile, Jon Field was wondering why McNish wasn’t coming by.

The #1 Audi suffered front body damage and McNish had to pit to replace the front clip. When repairs were completed the #1 Audi was three laps down. The involved parties saw things differently. Jon Field: "It was the Audi's fault. I left him room but he just hit me. He couldn't control his car." Allan McNish: "He turned down on me as I tried to make the pass on the inside. He was fighting me like it was for position, when he was already a lap or more down." Dindo Capello suffered nearly the same fate later in the race when he locked the rear wheels and spun, again while trying to make a pass going into turn one. Capello would avoid contact and bring the #1 Audi home 1st in the P1 class and 5th overall – having got two laps back in the process. Capello ribbed his team-mate in the post race press conference with this comment: "During my stint I found myself in the same situation as Allan while trying to pass a slower car going into Turn one. The rear wheels locked just as his did, but luckily I have better car control and was able to save it!"

The troubles continued for Audi when Marco Werner lost control of the #2 (a puncture) coming down the hill into turn 8 and crashed hard into the tire wall. This would bring out the first full course caution, because the tow truck had to be called to retrieve the crumpled R10.

In typical Audi fashion the team made the repairs and got the #2 back in the race in time to complete just enough laps (123) to get the required 70% (122) of the class winner’s distance and be eligible for championship points.

Intersport and their slightly wounded Creation Judd would soldier on to finish 2nd in class and 11th overall. Clint Field was encouraged with improved Kumho pace – but frustrated at the same time. The younger Field collected a puncture after apparent contact from an Audi, which someone might have felt addressed the balance somewhat.

Autocon and van der Steur made it home with their (relatively) new cars, the former third in their class, vdS seventh in theirs.

The Penske Porsches, and the Acuras of AGR and Highcroft, ran quickly and cleanly and entered the last hour of the race on the lead lap and holding the top four positions. During the caution at the two-hour mark, caused by ‘the Ferrari incident’, the top five all on the same lap looked like this; #7, #6, #9, #26 & #20. Guy Smith did an excellent job during his stint staying with the leaders even though he was a lap down, which earned him the wave by during the caution to get back on the lead lap. Ultimately another stop and go penalty for the #20, this time for contact, would put them a lap down again and out of contention for good - but still in the mix on track.

“They nailed the wrong party on that one,” commented an aggrieved Chris Dyson. Pirro was unaware of Smith’s presence - therefore suggesting that it was the Italian who did the ‘turning in’?

On the restart, Brabham would get a great jump and split the Penske pair, but it wouldn’t take long for Briscoe to reclaim the second spot and start reeling in Bernard. The Highcroft team ran an excellent race and both drivers did a nice job of keeping their noses clean. Unknown to anyone else they had their own little dramas. Duncan Dayton informed us that shortly after the start, a nut came loose from the throttle assembly and their Acura V-8 was left with only about 85% throttle to work with . Not the end of the world on this track but it certainly hurt their chances to have a go at the ultra-quick Porsches in the final moments of the race.

Marino Franchitti had directed a very nice opening stint and mixed it up cleanly with Johansson and McNish for position – although the Scot was annoyed that the Swede had him on the grass twice. Herta would press the limits of the ARX-01a during the final green flag run trying to get at Brabham, but got pushed into the marbles in the Esses while attempting to get by slower cars, and would end up stuck in the grassy runoff area.

Different pit strategy between the Penske cars would pay big dividends for the #7 of Briscoe. The #7 team went for new right side tires at the last pit stop while the #6 opted for track position and did not change tires. The new tires clearly made a difference: as the stint wore on Bernard was unable to hold off Briscoe. Coming down the front straight with slower traffic ahead, Briscoe made his move to the inside, making it three wide for a moment, and won the drag race down into turn one. That pass would effectively be for the win. A late caution would bring Bernard back in contact with Briscoe but that's as close as he would get.

Sascha Maassen, "At the start I was stuck in the sh!t in 5th place because of qualifying. I told myself there is nothing you can do about it, just stay clean and let the race come to you. And that is exactly what happened. I watched everyone else have trouble all around me and I just ran my own race. Taking on two tires at the last stop was Roger's call and it was a great call. It won us the race. Because at the end Ryan could push the car and TImo couldn't."

While Maassen was ‘staying clean’ and being patient, Romain Dumas was building his lead in that first hour – and he was frustrated at the way the first caution negated all of that.

Just when the Flying Lizards thought this meeting couldn't get any worse - they win the race! They missed the set-up and were off the pace in the first practice. Qualifying was cancelled and they missed most of the second practice rebuilding the left side of the car after getting punted off track. When the green flag flew things didn't get any better. Barely past the start/finish line, the #45 Porsche punctures the left rear tire and Bergmeister has to nurse it back to the pits to complete the first lap of the race. That cost them two laps and dropped Bergmeister into dead last place. The climb back up the order was a slow process, but amazingly every other GT2 car would encounter some kind of troubles. With just a short time remaining, the Rahal Porsche was the only one left in their way. A puncture then forced Kelleners to make a green flag pit stop which put the #45 out in front for good. Just to keep it interesting, van Overbeek gets a punctured radiator with only 15 minutes to go and drives it home with water and steam spewing from under the car!

Johannes van Overbeek: "This just proves that you can never give up. We didn't think this was going to be our race but every body else in our class had some sort of trouble."

The ‘Ferrari Incident’. This was a bizarre situation. It almost looked as if it was an evil plot orchestrated by Porsche. How else do all three Ferraris get taken out in a single corner? Enge in the #31 P/WL 430 had been furiously chasing down the class leading #62 Risi Ferrari – and got by Mika Salo soon after the 90 minute mark.

The #61 Risi Ferrari with Helary behind the wheel was then almost a lap down – and Enge could not get past. Enge was getting noticeably frustrated as Helary was not going to let him by without a fight. The three entered West Bend nose to tail when Enge couldn't wait any longer and went for the unlapping move. The Frenchman suggested that he had been leaving gaps – and when he left this one, Enge used it, then moved across on him. Enge and Helary made contact which sent Helary into the barriers and Enge, struggling to control a big moment, careening off to the right into the left rear of Salo. Enge then lost control and ended up in the tire wall about fifty yards up from Helary. In the span of about three seconds all three Ferraris were effectively taken out of the race. At the time of the incident the #62 Risi Ferrari was in second place - and the two 430s had dominated all others for most of the day. Turner had started the race for the P/WL team and kept within striking distance of Melo until a quick spin, but the caution closed up the gap again, which set up the Enge vs. Salo scrap (plus Helary). Amazingly the #61 Ferrari was the least damaged and would return to finish third in class.

Salo suffered a broken upright (plus a penalty for crew over the wall too soon) – while Enge returned to the fray, and managed to collide with… er, well, several cars. He received a two minute penalty as the race approached its conclusion.

There seemed to be contact galore towards the end: The B-K Lola Mazda’s fine run was ruined by contact (result - stuck in the mud) from the #73 Tafel Porsche, the repaired Panoz was hit by Enge – who then had a go at Farnbacher’s #73... with what was left of #31.

Two other GT2 runners worth a mention were the #18 Rahal and the #54 Transport entries. Milner Jr. and Kelleners had run possibly the best race of the season so far for the Rahal Porsche, taking over the lead after the Ferrari Incident. They were set to battle the #45 Lizard Porsche for the win when a late puncture cost them a lap to the eventual winners.

In by far their best showing of the year, Terry Borcheller put a monster two hour stint in the Bell Motorsports run #54 Porsche. Borcheller was as quick as any of the other Porsches through traffic and was poised for a podium finished - until a flat tire, which happened just as they were getting a wave by during a caution period, forced an extra pit stop and dropped them to fifth place. Jim Bell: "We were a little more racey today, and that was fun. We are finally getting a data base built for this car on the Yokohama tires. All the pre-season testing done on the 997 was with Michelin tires. There was no data for our tires so we were basically starting from scratch. We've gone to a different bar, different shocks, different suspension system; it's getting better but there's still a ways to go."

The PTG Panoz ran third in class for most of the first stint but a broken upper A-arm on the left rear suspension would ruin their day. According to Tom Milner the revised suspension set-up which was the best this car has driven all year, was bottoming out under compression coming down the hill in to the last turn. Still a better day for the PTG crew as they are making gains with the Panoz. Joey Hands’ ‘save’ was a remarkable one.

The Corvette duo ran a clean race and had a fairly good battle amongst themselves. Magnussen was right on the bumper of Beretta at the checkered but didn't appear to be unnecessarily pressing the issue.

The 'Bull Ring' is what this track is referred to by Martin Spetz and many others - it certainly lived up to its nickname this weekend. A few of the drivers suggested that this track does not suit cars with the speed that these can carry: it is too narrow, too bumpy and too short, they say, while others praised the challenge, and the toughness it takes to be successful here.

Andy Wallace was not one of them, his frame of mind not being helped by a tap from the Diaz-driven Fernandez Lola, which damaged the diffuser and had him bouncing all over the track.

The ALMS cars certainly push the limits of this historic circuit and the race was more of a 'beast' than a thing of beauty. But the reward is great, because you can never really win without a fight – and this one was watched by a record crowd. Dull it wasn’t, as an Italian explains.

Dindo Capello: "Looking at the race positively, we at least somehow claimed maximum points again but for me, it was one of the most disappointing races in the American Le Mans Series I’ve ever had. Allan (McNish) and I had more incidents in today’s race than we’ve experienced in three full seasons of racing. The car unusually was very difficult to drive but we both decided that we should nevertheless push hard throughout the race despite these problems. We have managed to extend our championship lead but on this occasion, mainly due to the bad luck of our ‘sister’ car."

Last word to Rob Dyson (who had a lot to say about this one): “The inconsistency (in handing out penalties) emanates from a flagging rule at the start that makes no sense. ‘Nothing happens’ before the start / finish line is absurd.” His answer? To simply throw the green flag as late as possible, as the car are about to cross the line.

Last (last) word – it doesn’t get any more eventful than this. Well done John Hindhaugh and team for keeping up with it.