ALMS, Road America - Race Preview

Assuming everybody has dried out from the great monsoon of Mid Ohio, the American Le Mans Series will be returning to Wisconsin for their annual visit to Road America, this time for a late afternoon/early evening 4 hour race.  The fans at the track known for beer, brats and badgers asked for it and they got it – a longer than usual race format.

For the most part, the entry list for the very fast track in upper Wisconsin looks similar to the last few events.  Additions include Level 5 and their P2 Lola Honda, returning for their home event, as well as Porsche Napleton Racing and NGT Motorsports in GTC, bringing the entry total to a respectable 36 cars.

Recently the technical bulletins have been coming at a fast clip, as the IMSA staff work to create a level and balanced playing field for their competitors.  The Road America round is no exception, but this time the changes are limited to a single car, which is in this case the LMP1 Lola AER of Autocon.  It was clearly evident at the previous races that the off season adjustments intended to slow the P1 cars had hurt the Autocon entry more than the others.  At Mid Ohio, it was so bad that the team had a difficult time keeping the LMPC cars behind them on the straights.  So, effective for this next race, they’ll be given a bit of a boost power wise as IMSA tries to keep a good balance within classes and also between.

About the adjustments, Chris McMurry, who will be sharing the Lola again with Tony Burgess (as well as Michael Lewis according to the entry list) stated, “hey, we'll take what we can get! Trust me, we'll be finding a way to run next to the Dyson and Aston cars at Road America, to see whether the 5% (change) gives us equality. Also, it will be interesting to see the difference between P1, P2 and LMPC when a P2 shows up and whether further adjustments will be needed for the classes in order to keep them separate… All that said, we sure do miss the awesome power we had in prior years, and I'm guessing the fans wish the power for P1 hadn't been cut back to the degree that is has this year.”

Fall out from the race at Mid Ohio has a very interesting twist in the points chase in LMP1 which may very likely determine the outcome for the championship.  Because the race was shortened, neither Chris Dyson nor Klaus Graf had sufficient drive time to collect points.  The points entering Road America are as follows:

Guy Smith – 98
Chris Dyson – 82
Lucas Luhr - 76
Klaus Graf - 56 

This really messes things up, especially for Muscle Milk, as Luhr is scheduled to be missing the Baltimore round, effectively dropping him down to nearly the same level as Graf.  For Muscle Milk to have a chance in the points, they will need some help in a big way, like a couple non points scoring races for the 16 Dyson. (Edit – as of right now the points following Mid Ohio are described as “provisional”)

For the race here at Road America, it would appear that the Muscle Milk Aston would have the advantage again on track, however slight that might be.  But as we saw last year at this track, some amazing things can happen at the front of the field.

The GT points have tightened up.  The balance in the class from Mid Ohio appeared to be better, although the BMWs did show very good speed in qualifying.  Right now, the Hand/Mueller pairing have a 17 point cushion over Gavin/Magnussen in the No. 4 Corvette.  This one is too tight to call.  Corvette Racing appears to be getting stronger as the season goes on and they will especially be anxious to do well at their adopted home track, especially as they will be racing in front of a very large contingent of Corvette fans.  (Sunday will be a celebration of Corvettes at Road America – the Corvette World Tribute).

While the points chase is effectively a 2-car chase now, that doesn’t mean that there aren’t worthy challengers out there, anxious to take on the role of spoiler here at Road America.  Foremost of those teams would have to be 1a and 1b – Flying Lizards and Risi.  Until the rains came, it appeared as if the Lizards might be in a position challenge for the class wins.  Sometimes even mother nature is against you.  For Risi, this season has to be a nightmare.  The speed has been there, but like the Lizards, it appears as if the gods are not smiling upon them this season.  Is it time for an exorcism for these two teams?  Maybe a sacrifice or two?

The surprise win for Falken was a just reward for the team that has been improving drastically over the course of the season.  Derek Walker has done well to bring this team together as a competitive unit and for once everything came together for them.  The superiority of the Falken tires in the horrible conditions obviously contributed to the win – conditions that just aren’t normal.  Michelin has outstanding wet tires – Falken just has better monsoon tires I guess.

As far as the rest, everything is as it has been.  Extreme Speed is still searching for a return to last season’s form, the Jags are improving, but still slowish and the Robertson’s keep on trucking with their Ford GT’s, hoping for another podium finish.  The Paul Miller team shows some flashes occasionally, but they are basically out classed equipment wise in this ultra competitive class.  The older Porsche and Yokahama tires just aren’t to the level needed to compete.

In LMPC, the home track advantage came true for Intersport and actually they are on a roll now.  They very well could be placed as a spoiler in the class, which so far has been the hunting grounds of the CORE pairing of Gunnar Jeannette/Ricardo Gonzalez.  Thus far, entering the 6th race of the 9 race series, this pairing has a 15 point lead over Eric Lux, who will be sharing the Genoa entry with Christian Zugel this weekend.  Making a welcome return to the series will be Butch Leitzinger, who will be sharing the PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports Oreca with Rudy Junco.

Elsewhere there’s a thorough shake up of LMPC drivers, Marcelli moving over from Intersport to PR1, The Fields now split between the two Intersport entries (though one chassis was reportedly owned by Marcelli!)

Don’t look now, but Tim Pappas and Black Swan have some competition in GTC.  Even though Tim was paired with Jeroen Bleekemolen at Mid Ohio, they were beat to the checkered by the TRG combination of Duncan Ende and Spencer Pumpelly.  Thus far it is 2 in a row for this TRG combination and they have cut the points chase down to a tight 7 point gap.  If it wasn’t for a goose egg of points from Long Beach, Ende/Pumpelly could easily be leading in the points right now.  Look for this chase to go right down to the wire.  For here, in a 4-hour race, this one is wide open.  Supercup superstar Sean Edwards meanwhile joins the NGT Motorsports entry here – That could shake things up! 

Really not mentioned so far has been LMP2.  As previously stated, Level 5 is back for this race, as they are based about two hours away in Madison.  Luis Diaz though is back with the team here, joining the ever present Scott Tucker and Christophe Bouchut.  After this race, they’ll go back to Europe and then return here for the last 2 races of the season – Laguna and Petit.  It is a shame that this class has been such a failure here in the States.  In Europe, it has had a bit of a rough start, but here (nothing against Level 5) it might just be best if this class went away until others decided it made sense to join in.

Not to be a downer here, but as of the writing of this, the forecast looks pretty good for all but race day.  Temperatures are expected to be in the high 70’s - low 80’s, but let’s just say that Saturday looks like it might just be a Falken day at the track.