Petit Le Mans – First Practice Report
Red Is The Colour

The first of the three practice sessions at Road Atlanta began and ended with red flags and saw two more in between. In between, however, Alan McNish found time to remind the rest that if they wanted to win, they would have to get past the #1 Audi first.

The session began on time, but was almost immediately stopped as Gunnar Jeannette hit the pit exit wall on acceleration and was thrown across the road. The damage incurred meant that the Corsa Zytek would see no further action for the session.

The session restarted several minutes later, but no significant times would be posted before the second red was flown – this time, just a brief stoppage while errant bodywork was recovered from Turn 12.

After this, several drivers decided that it was time to get serious and with just over 20 minutes having elapsed, it was a P2 that topped the times – Timo Bernhard in the #7 Penske Porsche, on 1:07.941. At this point, the fastest P1 was Dindo Capello in the #1 R10 on 1:08.539; Johnny O’Connell led GT1 on 1:17.113 in the #3 Corvette; and Stephane Daoudi led GT2 with 1:20.439 in the JMB Racing Ferrari.

At 25 minutes, Nic Minassian went to the top with 1:07.695 and Olivier Pla was an impressive third overall on 1:08.047. A couple of minutes later, Oliver Gavin set what would remain the fastest GT1 lap of the hour, with 1:16.377; and then Capello went to the top with 1:07.492, followed by Bernhard on 1:07.682.

Stephane Daoudi remained at the top of the times in GT2 for 33 minutes, by which time he had handed over to Ben Aucott. There then followed the Dirk and Dirk show, wherein messers Werner and Müller traded fastest times, before the #87 Farnbacher Loles Porsche driver settled things with 1:19.849; Müller in the #71 Tafel Racing 430 finishing with 1:19.992.

On the 45 minute mark, Scott Sharp got Turn 1 badly wrong and hit the tyre wall, although by then the #9 Highcroft Racing Acura had scrubbed off most of its speed. The recovery took ten minutes and then the entire (surviving) field took to the track for the final four minutes.

Alas, just two minutes later the session was ended when the fourth red was shown; this time caused by Brian Willman spinning the Autocon Lola on track and stopping. The #44 Flying Lizard Porsche was caught out by the cars ahead suddenly slowing, went on to the grass and had the misfortune to hit the stationary car. The Porsche drove back unaided, but minus a headlamp that was lodged in the Lola’s bodywork.

So, a very disjointed session and one that didn’t get chance to come alive – but we’ve only just begun.   

Morning Quotes:

Lou Gigliotti – “We feel pretty good about the car.  Not counting that Porsche that was way ahead, we were in the midst of a pack and only half a second back of that pack yesterday.  We’re right there.  We got a new nose on the car that seems to be working pretty well on the track.  Not sure about in the tunnel though.  GM wouldn’t get us in – it’s inconsistent with future GM GT2 plans.  I don’t expect us to be at Laguna, but we plan on being at Sebring next year.”

Allan McNish – “we had some electrical issues yesterday which prevented us from getting too much time on track.”

Gerardo Bonilla (about the new Lola B08 86 Coupe) – “it feels very similar, other than the roof, but it’s sharper, crisper on turn in and on transitions.  It’s got better downforce at the front which just makes the transitions better.  Ultimately we don’t know how much better, because we haven’t even started to explore the limits yet.”

Tom Milner – “We’re right there with the pack so far.  The car is feeling pretty good around here and I’m hoping for a good run here.”  The car is featuring some graphics to dress it up for the race at “home”.

Drayson-Barwell – Chris Needell – “We swapped motors out on Tuesday and should be good for the rest of the weekend.  We’re still missing the low end grunt, which is hurting us here, but we knew we’d be in that situation here.  The motor program is nothing that will improve for this year – it’ll be better for next year.  We want to finish this race – that will be a good race for us, but we’d be heading into uncharted territory, as one of our GT2 Astons has not run to this race distance yet.  We really want to do well in the Green Challenge, but going against the Corvettes for the GT class win makes it really tough.”

Autocon – Bryan Willman – “This Lola feels so good.  I’m over 5 seconds a lap faster here than I’ve ever been.  I did feel sort of odd getting into a car with the Mansell name on it though.”

Chris McMurry – “I feel that we can now actually be racing now.  This car is just better suited to racing here.  You push it and it continues to want to go faster.  I’ve gone in deeper on braking than I’ve ever gone in, and there is still more to be had.  We’re just scratching the surface so far on this car.”

Mike Lewis indicated that next year will be more of the same for the team, except that they will be more competitive.  The team is looking at Le Mans again, and will adjust the ALMS schedule accordingly, possibly skipping out on some of the street courses.

Dyson is running the older spec motor for practice and qualifying, but will be using the direct injection motor for the race.  There appears to be a shortage of the direct injection motors right now.

MH & GH