ALMS – Detroit – Belle Isle Grand Prix – Race Report
The Race in the City Along on the Straits – A Good One
© Janos Wimpffen& Gary Horrocks Gary Horrocks has already commented about the surprising juxtaposition of the words “beautiful” and “Detroit”, but it certainly does apply. The weather continued to be near perfect and Belle Isle is aptly named. Penske’s group has done a fine job of bringing major racing back to Motown. The event has been very well organized in every respect. The setting is an old-line urban park complete with several fine old buildings. One is being used as the media center and is being run by Detroit’s sister city across the river, Windsor. Indeed, the international border sits about 20 yards adjacent to the back of the stretch of the course. The island sits in the Detroit River, part of the great inland seas network of North America. It is part of the connection between Lake Huron and Lake Erie and carries a considerable volume of shipping traffic from the Great Lakes headwaters out to the Atlantic. Detroit often gets a bad rap—some of if well -deserved, as being crime-strewn and burnt out. It is quite true that the region’s glory years were decades ago, but there are still jewels to be found along some of the grand boulevards that grace the city. The city’s automotive heritage is taken quite seriously, nowhere more so than at the Ford Museum—Greenfield Village complex in nearby Dearborn. All this makes the locale a worthy place for an ALMS event. The only complaint is the usual problem—all the local media attention is focused on the IRL race with nary a mention of why we’re here. It is a double win thus far for the homeboy, Roger Penske. His cars sit on pole for both races as Helio Castroneves has taken top spot among the single seaters in that race. Practice and qualifying have indicated the following; it is a P2 track. It is a low grip, low tire wear track. The Audis are very ill at ease, bumping around the turns and not looking very competitive at all. The Acuras, which typically lack the handling of the Porsches, may nevertheless be the best hope against the Penske-mobiles here. Indeed, given that Road Atlanta and Laguna Seca are ahead on the schedule, this may be Acura’s last and best hope for that win that has come so tantalizingly close. GT2 looks to be a Ferrari affair, as the best placed Porsche, Lizard 44, is only fourth in class. The Viper adds some scenic variety but is mostly a moving chicane. The Michelin people have noted that it is conceivable that their teams could go the distance on one set of tires. However, that might prove unlikely as a more realistic scenario holds that there will be caution periods that will provide opportunities to swap out rubber. Starting Drivers, by grid order:
Protos & GT1
6, Penske Porsche, Briscoe
7, Penske Porsche, Bernhard
26, Andretti Green Acura, Franchitti [his bro’ is starting second in IRL]
20, Dyson Porsche, Smith
9, Highcroft Acura, Brabham
15, Fernandez Lola-Acura, Diaz
1, Audi, McNish
2, Audi, Werner
16, Dyson Porsche, Wallace
06, Cytosport Lola, Pickett
8, BK Mazda, Devlin
3, Corvette, Magnussen
4, Corvette, Beretta
37, Intersport Creation, C. Field GT2
61, Risi Ferrari, Helary
62, Risi Ferrari, Salo
31, White Petersen Ferrari, Müller
44, Law of the Lizard
73, Tafel Porsche, Farnbacher
45, Lizard Porsche, van Overbeek
18, Rahal Porsche, Kelleners
22, PTG Panoz, Auberlen
11, Somewhat Ready for Prime Time Viper, Feinberg [stopped on qual. out lap]
54, TransSport Porsche, Pappas [missed qual—gearbox]
71, Tafel Porsche, Liddell [missed qual—crash damage, and starting from pit lane—changing tires] Non-starters
53, Robertson Panoz, lost their lone engine
21, PTG Panoz, driving team of the famed TBA brothers refused to leave the transporter. There was a good crowd on hand with each of the many grandstands about 60 percent full. The grid took two pace laps and the race in a very, very tight formation. It was certainly a bit too tight as Guy Smith (No. 20 Dyson Porsche) slipped past Luis Diaz (No. 15 Acura) but was unable to do the same to David Brabham in the No. 9 Acura. Bits of blue bodywork from both bodies bounced onto the boulevard but cause no problems to anyone – but the Highcroft car was already suffering understeer. Brabham: “I got hit twice during my stint and those contacts took the dive planes off the front of our Acura which resulted in major push. We were really struggling for grip in the corners.” Ryan Briscoe (No. 6 Porsche) led strongly away from his pole spot while at the opposite end of the field there were problems. The Creation became the first retirement as Clint Field brought the No. 37 in with a smoky engine. Ralf Kelleners was also in the pits, the No. 18 Rahal-Letterman Porsche suffering from suspension problems in the rear. A short time later Bill Auberlen brought the lone Panoz in with problems at the left front wheel. Both of these GT2 cars were also slapped with penalties with various infractions during these stops. At the head of the small-production class, Mika Salo (No .62 Risi Ferrari) had bolted away from teammate Eric Helary, Mueller in #31, plus all the Porsches. Ahead of them came the first set of problems for the Acuras as there was a report of spray coming from the No. 26 car of Marino Franchitti. Lap 9 and Briscoe came up to lap the GT2 leader on the inside of Turn 3 and there was contact. The Ferrari continued unbothered but the overall leader spun and dropped helplessly to third place, watching both Timo Bernhard (No. 7 Porsche) and Allan McNish (No. 1 Audi) slip past. McNish was already proving that the Audi was a better race car than qualifying car, as was Werner. Briscoe returned with a sense of the red mist, becoming the fastest man on the course. The effort was short-lived as the officials assessed him a stop-and-go, declaring him guilty of engendering avoidable contact. The stop dropped No. 6 to 8th spot while further up the ladder Franchitti took the third spot overall. As noted, Salo suffered no ill consequences from the incident while behind him spots 2-3-4 in GT2 became ever closer. Helary was caught up by Dirk Müller, and the No. 31 yellow and white Ferrari slipped past the red one. Darren Law (No. 44 Lizard Porsche) remained close behind. The rarely raced No. 06 Cytosport Lola of Greg Pickett pulled off course on lap 17 with gearbox woes. The veteran was able to get the car going but it was not a factor for the remainder of the day. The battle for second in GT2 proved to be the hottest contest as the race neared the half-hour mark. Too hot once again. Helary tried to regain the spot but got plugged by Müller at Turn 9. The Ferraris stopped briefly and were able to get going, but not before both Lizard Porsches slithered past. The #71 Tafel Porsche had a tyre failure at this point, which caused the rear wheel arch to come off and Robin Liddell ran around on the rim behind the safety car until the pits opened. Dirk Mueller: “I was stuck behind Eric (above) and couldn’t get by. There were cars stacked up behind me. I finally got by, but later on in traffic, he came up on me and hit me. It took out the aero on the right front. I didn’t know why at the time, but the car had massive understeer. I realized why after I got out of the car and saw the damage. It was good to finally get a podium, especially after losing out on the last two.” Once the pits opened, Timo Bernhard, Marino Franchitti as well as the two Audis made stops. Guy Smith remained out on the course and incrementally inherited second and then the lead. Luis Diaz, also staying out, moved into second. Brabham was now fifth, having stopped once. The interruption was short and at the restart the order was Smith, Diaz, Briscoe (not stopped yet), Bernhard, Brabham, McNish, Marco Werner (No. 2 Audi), Ben Devlin (No. 8 Mazda), Franchitti, and Andy Wallace (No. 16 Dyson Porsche). The GT2 leaders all made their stops at the very end of the yellow period. Two separate prangs came within moments of the restart, both using the No. 18 Porsche of Ralf Kelleners as something of a pinball. He was first hit by David Brabham’s Acura (finishing off his dive planes) and then Werner’s Audi. The German had thus bumped his way to 5th only to be called in for a hand slap for the incident. Joel Feinberg went off at the escape road at Turn 11 but the No. 11 Viper stayed clear of obstacles and continued its role as the designated mobile chicane. Meanwhile the No. 26 Acura began its task of being the designated supplier of fluids as it steadily lost some sort of liquid from the rear. It appeared to be some sort of gearbox problem that caused Franchitti (and later co-driver Bryan Herta) to alternately speed up and slow down—indeed slow enough to be passed by GT2 cars now and then. It gradually dropped No. 26 off of the lead lap and the team spent much time fiddling with the car’s electrics. “It wasn’t in the paddle shifters, it was somewhere out back, explained Marino Franchitti. “They kept me out there circulating a while so that they could bring the components to pit lane. The first set of tires just weren’t right and they hurt us early. The team made the right call to stop and change them. The car was really good then. We were on pace with the Porsches and I figured we were in good shape.” Briscoe had spent the last 15 minutes recovering ground, briefly settling on second place after having eventually dispatched Diaz. Then on lap 33, at about the 50-minute mark we had a pass for the lead as the yellow Porsche sped past the occasionally twitchy blue and white Porsche. Briscoe, at times, was running some three seconds per lap faster than the others. At the one-hour mark here are the standings:
1) Briscoe, 40 laps
2) Smith, -12 seconds
3) McNish, -4 seconds
4) Diaz, -1 second
5) Bernhard, -1 second
6) Werner, -20 seconds
7) Devlin, -12 seconds
8) Wallace, -3 seconds In GT2:
1) Salo, 38 laps
2) van Overbeek, -10 seconds
3) Law,
4) Müller, tail of lead lap
5) Dominik Farnbacher (No. 73 Tafel Porsche) + 1 lap down As Gary put it, “If Corvette pits in the wood and nobody cares, has it really stopped?” For the record, the Olliemobile was first to stop, followed by the Dane / Redhead combo. The latter would go on to win the Detroit V8 intermural contest, by a lap, #4 losing a lap under one of the later cautions. While Briscoe maintained a strong lead over McNish, Diaz made a few fairly light challenges for second place. Salo stretched the GT2 class lead over van Overbeek while the overall leader, Briscoe, finally made his first bona fide pit stop, taking on fuel and 4 Michelins at the 1:17 mark, handing the No. 6 Porsche over to Sascha Maassen and the helm of the race back to Guy Smith. His hold on the front was brief as McNish breezed past about 3 laps later. Guy Smith finally made his scheduled stop, remaining out for nearly 90 minutes, probably enough for co-driver Chris Dyson to make it the rest of the way, especially if another caution period were to ensue. Diaz was the last of the leaders to stop, handing the Acura over to Adrian Fernandez, but also dropping the car out of the top six (a slow in-lap). McNish now led. Then we had the long yellow. van Overbeek tried to get under Robin Liddell (No. 71 Tafel Porsche) at Turn 1. It didn’t work. Both cars spun and stopped with No. 71 backed into the tire wall. They both managed to get going but there were enough parts scattered on the pavement to stock your average Detroit chop shop, and the pace car was called back into action. Once the pits opened McNish stopped (90 minutes) to hand over to Dindo Capello and the Audi relinquished the lead. The fellow R10 stopped at the same time, Werner handing the wheel to Emanuele Pirro. No. 2’s stop went smoothly while a momentarily bauble with one of the wheelnuts delayed No. 1. While the two Audis came into the pits separately, the delay set up a situation where they both left the pits simultaneously—almost too simultaneously, the pair touching at the pit exit. It all worked to the favor of the No. 7 Porsche. Romain Dumas had just taken over the wheel and snuck out of the pits ahead of the Audi kerfluffle. The cautions that followed meant that the Audis could get to the end on the current tankful – which must have been impossible without the cautions. Significantly, Liddell staggered back around to the pits and soon the decision was made to retire the car. Van Overbeek felt the damage to his car was light enough to keep going. Following cars and turn marshals reported flames licking up from behind but before the team could advise the driver, No. 45 became a Frying Lizard. Fully wreathed in smoke Van Overbeek calmly pulled off at Turn 13. By the time he made his untroubled exit it was a Gila Monster of a barbecue as the Porsche was completely engulfed in flames. The track was nearly blocked while the course workers turned in one of the most excellent and swift operations seen in a while. Almost before the completely unhurt driver walked sadly back to the pits, the scorched reptile was loaded onto a flatbed and the course was cleared by a friendly marshal with a leaf blower and a street sweeping truck. Johannes van Overbeek: “The team spoke with Tafel about letting me past. He took a different line and I interpreted it as him letting me by. So I went, then we hit. It was my fault and I went down and apologized for it. I just read it wrong. I kept going because we wanted to stop at a good point in the yellow, but we never made it that long. I saw some smoke, but I wasn’t sure if it was smoke or steam. Then I saw flames and looked for a place to pull over. When I stopped, it took off and I couldn’t see my hands in front of my face. It was black. I jumped out, not thinking about traffic; I just wanted out. Then I realized that nobody could see, so I ran to the front of the car, so in case anyone hit it, I wouldn’t be in the way. I’m Ok, but I wonder how much I took off my life by inhaling all of that smoke.” It was oil that was coming out and caused the fire, not fuel. Tony Dowe (Tafel Racing): “Rough one. I guess it was the wrong place at the wrong time. Our car is hurt pretty bad, but it’s not as bad as theirs.” He explained that the #71 car started from pit lane in order to stay out of the possible carnage at the start, as they were due to start at the back anyway. Plus, not doing the pace laps could make a difference in the end, fuel wise. "Johannes had been following me for several lap so he knew my lines and braking points. I did not change my line or braking point on the lap he hit me," comments Robin Liddell. "Coming down to the first turn he looked to the inside, but was clearly too far back although I suppose he went for the inside line anyway. At no point was there any communication between me and the team on the radio regarding letting him past, and to the best of my knowledge none either between Tafel Racing and Flying Lizard in pitlane. Of course I would not have prevented him from passing me once he was in a position to do so, but that was clearly not the moment. He was very gracious about the incident as he came over immediately to apologise, and I am sorry for him as it has affected their championship chances." As the race came back to green just before the 2-hour mark, there were still eight cars on the lead lap; Dumas, Dyson, Capello, Pirro (took on a late splash), Maassen, Butch Leitzinger (in for Wallace), Johansson, and even Jamie Bach. However, his Lola-Mazda would later be held in for some pit violations. He and Ben Devlin suffered “a bad push” throughout. Salo had handed over the GT2 leading Ferrari to Jaime Melo with nearly a lap in hand over the surviving gecko with Patrick Long now driving. Of course, the margin evaporated with the caution period. The restart brought some drama. Pirro vaulted the powerful but heavy Audi all the way from fourth to first (Dyson and Capello were pinned behind a slow-starting Dumas), while Johansson spun the Highcroft Acura (further round that lap), clipping the rear wing of a very innocent Maassen in the process. The Porsche’s wing loosened during the course of the lap and eventually fell off, nearly collecting a couple of following cars. This required another, but very brief, pace car interruption to retrieve the appendage. The two-hour mark passed under caution so that the margins were irrelevant, but here were the standings of the cars on the overall and GT lead laps: Overall:
# 2 Pirro
# 7 Dumas
#20 Dyson
# 1 Capello
#16, Leitzinger
#15, Fernandez GT2:
# 62, Melo
# 44, Long Johansson’s troubles were enough to allow Butch Leitzinger past. The No. 16 Dyson team Porsche would go on to a satisfying fourth place overall finish. Teammate Chris Dyson, would get stuck in third gear and drop a few spots in the heat of battle over the next 45 minutes. On the restart Pirro was able to pull away, seemingly at will from Dumas. However, on any given lap the Porsche could close the gap enough to stay well within range. The green flag only flew for a few minutes when we had another brief caution, necessitated when Tom Milner came to a stop in the oft-troubled No. 18 Porsche. On the last restart, Pirro and Dumas moved clear of the pack with two slower GT cars behind them. A then still healthy Dyson was next with Capello trying to pass him. However, the Audi was balked with a slight tag against the No. 54 Porsche of Terry Borcheller. The top two cars in GT2, Melo and Long, were now really close, while behind them, Jim Tafel (No. 73 Porsche) and Peter Dumbreck (No. 31 Ferrari) had a slight coming together. Patrick Long gradually began to reel in Jaime Melo for the GT2 contest, while in the overall lead Dumas was catching Pirro – but he was in trouble. “After the final restart I started to get a lot of pickup on my tires. I saw him pushing me more and more. I had to drive around a slow car and by then I signed my life sentence and got too much pickup.” At one point the battle for the overall lead actually lapped the production class battle, all without incident. The gaps waxed and waned for several minutes. Then Dumas dropped low and dipped under the Audi at Turn 7, the cars touching in the process. Long tried to do the same but the Ferrari would not be had. Indeed Melo’s margin actually increased slightly over the closing minutes, giving the No. 62 Risi entry the class win. Darren Law: “Good result. Two weeks in a row for me. My stint went well. I was in the top two or three and handed the car off to Pat. He tried real hard, but when he got separated from the #62 due to traffic, he backed off. The tires were shot so we figured a second is better than giving it away.” Pirro used the Audi’s torque to recapture the top spot, but the light and nimble Porsche closed back up and passed, all in the space of a single lap – and that was win number eight. “I knew I could turn faster laps, but it was hard to get past him because of traffic and his power out of the corners,” explained Dumas. Duncan Dayton was happy to be back (with beard) – and to secure third in P2: “It’s good to be here. I thought I’d surprise the guys. Dr Trammell said I could come out if I behaved. He is here, so I guess I have to. I’ve really missed things and was getting bored back at home. Another podium is good for us. It might have been better, but we lost the dive planes which slowed us. But it was a good result and makes us tied with Butch and Andy for 3rd in points.” Oh yeah, we know, Audi won their class, but so did Chevrolet—so what. Oh yeah, Audi, Porsche, and Corvette all clinched their respective class manufacturers championships. But who cares? This was all about one stinking great race at the front. That’s what mattered and that’s what we got. It more than made up for the big stink of Mosport. As we leave the Great Lakes country behind, we can’t wait to come back to Detroit next year—a great event. | 
