ALMS – Mosport & Detroit Previews
Very Different Circuits….And A Blues Brother The Mosport – Detroit back to back weekends mark the start of the end of the season for the American Le Mans Series.
These two events, which couldn’t be much more different from each other, are the last two of the ‘normal’ races for the series. The remainder of the schedule - Petit Le Mans and Laguna Seca - comprises events that are beyond the usual scope, as far as the usual entries of the series are concerned. These are longer, more traditional endurance race lengths; plus, the addition of teams from Europe adds to the speculation and excitement for these two season-ending events.
But for Mosport and Detroit, it is pretty much what we have come to know and enjoy all season long – the usual cast of characters at two venues that are at almost polar opposites of each other.
First we have Mosport – rural, remote, green and fast; a throwback to times past. If there is any track that conjures up visions of the glory days of the Can Am, it is here. It must have really been something to have seen the Can Am and F1 race here back in the ‘60’s.  |
Some people bemoan the fact that the circuit has not kept up with the times. But that is much of the character that makes Mosport what it is. So what if cloud cover can bring the internet connection to non-usable levels? Live with it and enjoy the atmosphere.
Mosport will have, what on the surface is, an unusual choice of a Grand Marshall for the event; but it was announced that none other than Dan Ackroyd will have the honors. Yes, Elwood Blues. Born a Canadian, who was raised around racing as a child, Dan spends his summers in the Toronto area, where he has a winery and has business interests as the Canadian distributor for Patron. Now it all makes sense, doesn’t it? Anyway, this will be the opportunity for another celebrity to be shown that there is much more to racing than “stock cars”. Maybe he’ll be shown something proper, like a Corvette on track…
The venue for the Detroit Grand Prix is Belle Isle, an island park just out of downtown Detroit. The track is laid out on the island and was the site of racing for the now gone CART series back in the 90’s. The island has had quite an interesting history through the ages. First settled by the French in the 18th century, it was named Île aux Cochons, or Hog Island. It became the estate of General Alexander Macomb, Jr and eventually became a city park. In WWII, the island was used as a staging area for the military and was also the subject of many practice invasions, earning the name Belle Jima. I wonder if the French were still present and were throwing insults, as well as farm animals, at the invaders?
Currently the Island has multiple uses, as is typical with a park. Nature trails are present, as is a Nature Center/Conservatory/Botanical Garden and the island is also home to the Detroit Yacht club and other various boating/water activities.
To get to Belle Isle, one must drive through, well, some not quite as pleasant areas; parts that show that things are still not well in the Motor City. Quite a contrast. But the view from the Island of the Detroit Skyline is quite nice, as long as you look in the proper direction.
 |
But for this one weekend a year, Belle Isle will be home to racing again, as part of the island is transformed into a narrow, mostly wall lined, street-like circuit, consisting of 14 turns over 2.096 miles. After being at two of the fastest circuits on the series (Road America and Mosport), the series will be at one of, if not the, slowest.
Being the headliner at Mosport, the ALMS will have a Sunday race, one of the things that have become increasingly rare on its schedule. Detroit will see the ALMS run on the more typical Saturday afternoon, sandwiched all weekend long between the various IRL activities, with “our” race scheduled to end in time for the Speed GT cars to practice and then for Sugar Ray to rock Belle Isle.
While there are races going on, there are also some interesting points races going on in the “2” categories – LMP2 and GT2, as well as an intramural Corvette battle in GT1. LMP1 is a foregone conclusion, with Marco Werner and Lucas Luhr holding an imposing 62 point lead over Audi teammate Emanuele Pirro. The revolving door continues, in regards to Pirro’s teammate. At Mosport, it will be “Dingo” Capello, while at Detroit, it will be Marcel Fässler.  |
But in LMP2, we see quite a good battle for the championship between the #7 Penske Porsche and the Highcroft Acura. Currently the gap is 24 points, but if Highcroft was not involved in an early accident at Miller, restricting them to only two points in that race, the gap would be significantly closer. David Brabham and Scott Sharp have some momentum going their way, but gaining 24 points in four races against Romain Dumas, Timo Bernhard and the Penske organization will be difficult. These next two races could be critical to the eventual outcome.The same holds true in the production classes. Especially in GT2, where the #45 Lizard Porsche, with Jörg Bergmeister and Wolf Henzler, holds a seven point lead over the Tafel Ferrari pair of Dirk Mueller and Dominik Farnbacher. In this big and ultra competitive class, seven points isn’t much.
GT1 sees Johnny O’Connell and Jan Magnussen hold a 23 point margin over the “Ollies”, as Gavin/Beretta have not had the typical #4 year and the #3 has found the fountain of youth, or something of that like. Last year, it was Penske winning overall at both of these races - in rather controversial fashion at Mosport - but Audi had their chances at both. In fact, Mosport should have been an Audi victory, but late race issues dropped the Capello/Allan McNish car back. Look for Audi to be strong enough to win at both, as Luhr/Werner appear to have found the touch required.
But it may not be Penske that Audi will be primarily concerned about. It’s not official, but it appears as if the tide may be turning in the LMP2 wars, with Acura quite possibly having the upper hand right now over Porsche. Penske has had the direct injection engine, which has helped their cause, but it appears as if Acura maybe has a slight edge, courtesy of Highcroft and the stellar efforts of Brabham. Andretti Green has shown the pace, but has managed little out of it for all of their changes. In fact, all of the Acura teams have been showing great pace, but problems have prevented de Ferran from cashing in on the earlier promise they had; and Fernandez has just had dreadful luck. Any of them could break through for their initial win, which could be rather important as the teams work to impress the Honda/Acura officials. Dyson will have the direct injection engines heading their way over the next two races and it will be interesting to see how close they can get to Penske. If this is indeed the last season for Penske running these cars, Porsche has got to get Dyson ready to fill their shoes. They have had some good recent progress – hopefully for them it will continue. Ben Devlin led last year in the BK Mazda, quite possibly the high point of the season for the team; but with improved competition, it may be difficult for them to compete in the tough P2 class. But, their efforts could be setting themselves up for some quite good results in what may be a drastically changed P2 class next season.  |
GT2 has continued to be a Ferrari-Porsche war and it is difficult to say which car may have an advantage at either track. The common thought was that the Porsche is, maybe, a slightly better street fighter and the Ferrari is, maybe, better at the faster tracks. But for now, the differences between the cars are so slight that it doesn’t really matter. Either race could go to any of three Porsches (Lizards #45 & 46 and Farnbacher-Loles) or two of the Ferraris (#71 Tafel and #62 Risi). The remaining contenders are on the outside looking in, but throw in PTG as the wild card at these races; especially with the unknown element of some recent class regulation changes. For PTG, it is good to see the greatly under-utilized Bryan Sellers added to the entry list.  |
There is testing taking place at Mosport as this is being typed, in preparation for the race. The forecast is for better conditions than last year, but there is still the “r” word being mentioned – not surprising, as it is Mosport after all. Coverage kicks off Friday afternoon from Canada. Gary Horrocks |
