ALMS, Miller Motorsports Park – Wrap-Up
Highs And Lows In Utah

This last race at Miller Motorsports Park could pretty much be looked at as highs for many and lows for many.

On the high side, it is fitting to look at Highcroft - they won this race not just on their pace, but also by their efficiency. 

At the end, the race was setting up to be a shootout between the Drayson and Highcroft teams.  Drayson pitted first, on lap 64 (two hours, three minutes run), losing their 20 or so second lead.  Their stop for fuel only appeared to take forever, but that was likely due to the anticipation of where their competitors were on track.  The actual time of the stop was 54 seconds.

When Highcroft opted to pit, on lap 72 (two hours, 16 minutes), they had a target; they knew the gap and they knew that their closest competitors had opted not to take on tires.  They too went with a calculated amount of fuel and were on their way, coming back on track with a lead.  The time of their stop?  36 seconds.  Drayson had to add more fuel than Highcroft because they had further to go in the race, plus E85 also has a lower energy level, so it takes more E85 to cover the same distance.  Pretty much a double whammy there.

Over the remaining laps, the gap ranged between 12-20 seconds but the differential in the time of the stops was 18 seconds.  Final margin of victory for Highcroft?  19 seconds.

Was economy on the side of Highcroft?  Quite likely.  The HPD motor has shown itself to be quite economical and while the car, even trimmed out, did not have the speed down the straight, the team had enough other advantages to overcome that. Likely most important, they were able to stretch their second fuel load for about one hour, 16 minutes; 13 minutes of which were under yellow.

Until the end, it was looking like this could have been the race for Drayson. They led about a full third of the race, but just not when it ultimately mattered.  They appeared to have what it took to bring it home first, but economy was just not on their side as well as it was with Highcroft.  They had run roughly an hour each stint, but they had 42 minutes to run at the end, which was at least shorter than a normal stop.  Unfortunately for them, it just wasn’t a short enough stop.  Advantage Highcroft.

Lurking back in third and finishing on the lead lap was Cytosport.  Greg Pickett started, relishing his time back in the car, but as soon as his minimum track time was up, Klaus Graf was in.  His drive through the field was impressive again; yet another typical Graf effort.

For Intersport, this was a mostly issue free race with a solid early.  A cut tire dropped them back a bit, but, nevertheless, a fourth place finish was a fine result for the team, and they had led a total of 19 laps.

In GT, it was looking like a Risi race from the moment the cars rolled of the trucks.  The combo of Melo/Bruni may be the best out there right now, the Ferrari appears to be at the very least the equal of (if not better than) any of the others out there in the class and the team is obviously good.  They never appeared to make a misstep all event long and the result was what looked to be an uneventful Sunday afternoon drive in the desert.

The only thing that might have been better for the team was if the No 61 hadn’t been forced to start from the back of the grid.  Toni Vilander had the car up as high as fourth in class, but in the end he and Giancarlo Fisichella had to settle for sixth.  A higher finish could have prevented other competitors from gaining some valuable points towards the championship.

BMW had a very competitive race, coming home second and fourth in class.  These finishes vaulted the Bavarian make to the top of the very tight manufacturers’ points.

LMPC as a class was impressive.  Only one of the cars failed to finish and the remaining four took spots five to eight in the final results.  Level 5 won again, this time by over a lap, but drives by Gunnar Jeannette and Andy Wallace were impressive.  AWOL led early, only to have to jump back in the car late and stage a fight back up the overall field, while Jeannette inherited a car from way back in the pack and drove hard to get back to the runner up spot in class.

GTC saw impressive runs from Black Swan and the No. 81 AJR car.  Jeroen Bleekemolen is a stud in a Porsche and his drive here to the class win just further reinforced that. 

The drive by Butch Leitzinger was almost as impressive, but ended up for naught.  Post race inspection found them running below the minimum ride height and they were disqualified as a result.

As far as the lows go – well, was it AJR or Dyson that had the worst out of the weekend?  Unfortunately, both teams (Alex Job and Guy Smith) were subjects of DSC interviews over the weekend.  Sorry guys – I hope it wasn’t something I did.

For AJR, qualifying was just the start.  In the session leading up to qualifying, Leitzinger had a shock go bad and there wasn’t enough time in which to make the proper repairs, so the team decided to send him out and do the best he could.  The result was a start from near the back, which ended with a drive through the pack to a second place finish – or so was thought.  Wrong.  They were excluded.  All for naught.

One of the questions that I asked Alex was concerning team orders.  Alex said there are none – just don’t take each other out.  Oops, on lap Gonzalez and Sweedler came together, with the help of traffic.  Bang – two AJR cars delayed, one permanently.

Then there is Guy Smith.  For the second race in a row, a mechanical issue has prevented him from showing his stuff.  On the 73rd lap, pfffftttt.  No warning.  Engine gone, it’s assumed.  A small tell tail bit of smoke trailing the car and he parked it again, just like at Laguna.  What looked to be at the least a podium was gone yet again.  No points either it appears for Guy.

Bryce Miller and Luke Hines were willing, but for this race, the car wasn’t – at least it wasn’t willing on a consistent basis.  Bryce set the fastest lap of the race in class and was at or near the top of the class early, but fuel pick-up issues and pit lane penalties relegated them well back in the pack.

Usually the Lizards don’t find themselves struggling, but circumstances or just plain bad luck caught them this time.  Two incidents with cut tires dropped the No.45 down to fifth in class.  It also dropped them and Porsche in the points chases.  To make a dent in the Championships, Porsche may need another competitive car or two in the class to help the Lizards.

Now we’re running the gauntlet.  This race kicked the start of a brutal stretch of races.  Five races in eight weekends will be tough.  Next up – Lime Rock on July 18th.

Oh, Martin Spetz became a grumpier, older man last weekend.  He missed the race and In–N-Out, but that might be just as well – maybe he just needed to watch his figure…  At least Dr. Mitchell is no longer an In–N-Out virgin.  (Man, that sounds bad doesn’t it???)

Gary Horrocks