ALMS, Long Beach Grand Prix - Qualifying (sort of)

Guess What?  Rain

Nevermind.  That could pretty much be the summary for Friday here at Long Beach.  The day started wet and ended wet, totally appropriate for a Friday the 13th.  Just like earlier in the day, rain got to the qualifying session, as a shower came in, just as the GT cars started to look at getting serious.

GTC, which kicked off the session  was able to qualify, and it was a great tussle between Leh Keen (AJR) and Michael Valiante (JDX).  Keen led early on, laying down the fastest lap in the class.  With just minutes to go, Valiante set the fastest time, only to be eclipsed again by Keen.  At the end, it was Valiante on top, by a scant .064 seconds.  Only it didn’t matter when it was all over.

As the GT cars rolled out, clouds were rolling in and the Lizards came out with their wipers on.  As the cars started to get up to speed, the rains increased, finally reaching the point where wet tires were not doing the job.  A red flag killed the session, which at the start had been declared as a dry session.  The teams couldn’t change to the wets, and even if they could, their times would still likely be worse.  End of session for GT and end of the session completely.  Game, set, match for Mother Nature.  Ironically, as the session was called, the skies cleared and a rainbow came out.  Is Mother sorry, or just playing with us?

So where does this leave us for tomorrow.  No warm up.  Teams with new cars that haven’t raced here before.  Drivers that haven’t raced here before.  No set up time.  Basically nothing.  What a weird, weird day.

That said, Race Control had no option – they made the right call.

Thus ends a long and rather tedious day here at Long Beach.  At least we’re on the list now…