ALMS – Detroit – Belle Isle Grand Prix – Friday Morning Report
Eventful Stuff
© Gary Horrocks

Here we are in beautiful downtown Detroit, for the Detroit Belle Isle Grand Prix. Beautiful and Detroit typically don’t go together, but for the Isle that we are on, the description fits. And the weather is perfect. Couldn’t be much better than this.

First of all, old business. The single protest (filed by the Flying Lizards) will be heard at some point today. The reason for the wait was to insure that all of the required parties would be in place. Also, IMSA released a detailed explanation of the events that occurred at Mosport. Very thorough and detailed. This is indeed good to see, and a positive outcome from what had occurred last weekend.

Anyway, on to today’s events. With the track being “new”, it was quite dirty when the ALMS cars took to the circuit, especially with the series cars being the first to take to the track. In fact, for the early part of the session, the cars were called the world’s most expensive dust busters. The sessions saw lots of contact on track in the tight confines, but thankfully there was no major damage that should cause a car to miss a session.

The circuit is fast, but the conditions were quite difficult, especially at the beginning, as the conditions changed quickly. The racing line improved, but off line continued to be quite slick. Johannes van Overbeek, of the Flying Lizards, said, “it could be a very volatile situation out there. In some sections there is only one line and a faster car behind you will need to be patient. There is just nothing that can be done.” This will require some patience by the drivers.

Fastest in the session was Ryan Briscoe with a 1:15.166 in the home team Penske Porsche. Dyson Racing was rewarded for its efforts with the second fastest time, a 1:15.606. Guy Smith who set the time, said afterwards, “it’s a typical street course. Every time through, the car goes through the corners differently. Sometimes it’s oversteer, sometimes it’s understeer. Chris (who was in the car earlier) made some nice changes to the set-up and the car was quite good. We could write a book on what we’ve gone through this year; it’s been quite a journey.”

At various times, all three of the Acura entries were near the top of the sheets, with the time that David Brabham set early in the session holding on for 3rd fastest overall. All said, it was LMP2 class cars in the top seven postions. The Acura cars have been very racy at the street circuits thus far this season, and this race looks to be no different.

Fastest of the LMP1 cars was the #1 Audi of Allan McNish and Dindo Capello, with Allan setting the fastest lap of the session, a 1:17.318. “Time wise, it was worse than we expected, as we thought we’d be a bit faster, but looking the time charts, it is about where we expected to be. We’ve usually been 4th row at the street circuits, so it’s not unexpected.”

Late in the session, Allan was rear-ended by Peter Dumbreck in the Petersen White Lightning Ferrari, as Allan was on the brakes to avoid the Tafel Porsche of Robin Liddell. Robin went off, and made contact with the wall. Something grabbed the left/rear wheel. The car came to a halt in turn 5, and the wheel came off, hitting the #15 Acura Lola.

Before the accident, Robin had said that the car was “OK. We’re working on it trying to improve grip and braking, which is something that we always seem to be needing to improve. The circuit is quite nice though.”

Also having problems was the #73 Tafel Porsche. First, Dominick Farnbacher ran into the back of Terry Borcheller (Team Trans Sport Porsche) and then Jim Tafel hit the #45 Flying Lizards Porsche, when Joerg Bergmeister was in the car. Joerg was quite sore in the neck from the contact afterwards. Jim Tafel explained that he, “locked up trying to avoid Joerg. He turned into the corner and I hit him. I really hate it when things like this happen.” Both cars went behind the wall. The Lizards to repair the RR suspension, Tafel to repair the radiators.

The top of the GT2 class was again the Ferraris, 1-2-3. This time it was Gianmaria Bruni setting the pace, just eclipsing teammate Mika Salo. Third was Dirk Mueller in the P/WL Ferrari. Peter Dumbreck, who is also in the P/WL Ferrari commented about his time in the car so far. “Usually when I go out to a new circuit, I’m very cautious, but the #62 blew by me about 5 seconds faster, so I figured I’d better get moving. I’ve been watching Jaime Melo, checking out his technique on how he drives the car. I’m typically a smooth driver, but I’ve learned from watching him that I need to be more aggressive. It’s helped, and I’ve been taking chunks off of my time.”

“The track is pretty dirty and slower than we expected. We were expecting to be in the 18s, but maybe the track will come in, but I doubt it will be that much faster. We did miss the set-up though, on the gearing. As it is now, we haven’t been able to use 6th gear.”

Early on in the session, Adrian Fernandez made contact with Oliver Gavin in the #4 Corvette. The Corvette spun and was facing the wrong way on the track when it came to a stop. It appears as if Adrian did not see Ollie, or was just not patient on making a pass. The Corvette suffered damage to the rear of the car.

Team Trans Sport returned to the series after taking the Mosport race off. Terry Borcheller found the circuit to be much bumpier that he had expected. “I didn’t find these bumps yesterday on the cart. Plus we set the car up much too stiff.”

Making its series debut is the Prime Time Race Group Dodge Viper, painted a color nearer primer that Janos found appropriate. Joel Feinberg went off at turn one, causing damage to the rear of the car. The car is on Michelin tires, but they are not the usual Michelin Tires that are used in the series. These are instead a customer tire that is developed and available for the Vipers in club competition.

Just announced is the Autoweek “Insiders Dream Giveaway” Sweepstakes which will see the winner receive an all expenses paid trip for two to Le Mans in 2008. Partners in the contest are also Michelin and Lowes. See Autoweek.com or the ALMS website after midnight tonight for further information.