ALMS, Mid Ohio - Preview

Half Way Point; Did You Hear About The Vipers?

We’ve reached the halfway point of the ALMS schedule, and we’ve also reached the point where we mostly know what to expect.  We pretty much know where the competitors stand in relationship to each other and even some of the championship chases are now becoming somewhat predictable.  That is not a knock on this series – every series goes through it.  We’re fortunate though in this case that at the half way point, we get a sneak preview of the future, which in this case the two car, Chrysler Factory backed and Bill Riley ran Vipers.  Welcome back boys…

More on the Viper effort later – what do we have going on with the regulars?  In P1, it is the usual characters – one Pickett racing HPD against two Dyson Mazda-Lolas.  On paper and pretty much in all honesty, it’s been an all Pickett season.  But there appear to be some issues – the mysterious electrical issue that almost cost them the win at Lime Rock almost did them the same at Mosport.  The good thing for the team is that they got it sorted rather quickly in Canada, but the bad thing is that it is still there.  With a 12 point over Dyson, they have a cushion, but a dnf/non points paying finish along the way could be disastrous for their championship intentions.

For Dyson, the pace still isn’t there, but they are still hanging in, digging for all that they can.  Reliability has not been a problem lately (knock on wood).  That piece of the puzzle seems to be solved – now if they can sort the handling issues, maybe we’ll have a legitimate race up front.  But given all that they’ve been through this season, it had to give the team a bit of a boost knowing that they crawled back into contention late in Canada, albeit aided by the control-alt-delete efforts of Klaus Graf.

This weekend will see Michael Marsal rejoining Eric Lux in the 20 Dyson effort.

Consider P2 a 3.5 car entry, as it’s a toss up whether Level 5 will actually race their second car this weekend.  Poor Luis Diaz – he deserves better than this.  Does he qualify for underemployment benefits?  Maybe low cost loans?

Now that Conquest has their maiden win, consider this game on.  Level 5 and Conquest will be going at it and this ought to be fun to watch.  As far as Dempsey – they’re back again, contrary to the rumormongers out there that were suggesting that they might give the rest of the season a miss.  It’s good to see the efforts continue.  Say what you want about this effort, but Patrick Dempsey is going about this all in the right way.  He is serious about his racing, and much like the late Paul Newman, Patrick is going about this in the right way.  He is trying to earn and learn his way in the sport – hopefully success will come their way eventually.

In GT, you can’t complain about what we’ve had.  While the championship chase appears to be heading towards Corvette Racing, there is still a lot of racing to go and at this point, the chase is still pretty wide open.  If it wasn't for the exclusion of the Lizards at Mosport, Bergmeister and Long may have been working their way back into the chase, but now they’ll likely be racing for pride and playing the spoilers role in the class.

Now that Extreme Speed finally has a win under their belts, look for more to be coming.  I’m sure they want to back up their win in Canada with a real live podium celebration real soon.  As far as the rest, remember last season, when the rains hit hard late in the race?  Remember Falken getting their first win?  Guess what – the forecast for Saturday includes a 40% chance of rain.  Not just rain, but thunderstorm type of rain.  Will we have another surprise winner this time?

PC has been a CORE show all year long, but finally Rocketsports broke the win streak.  Will the class return to what it has been, or are the others catching up?  The Core pairings are the same as at Mosport – they will be competitive.  Who will step up this time to challenge them this time?  Will it be PR1, which again has Marino Franchitti scheduled to drive for them.  An earlier entry had Butch Leitzinger back in the car, but that was old paper work.  It appears as if Leitzinger is out of the car permanently.

The last race had a thin 4-car entry in GTC, but this weekend 6 Porsches are entered, bolstered by the familiar pairing of Tim Pappas and Jeroen Bleekemolen, this time driving the vibrant JDX entry.  AJR driver Cooper MacNeil continues to lead the points chase, now leading Faulkner/LeSaffre by 21 points, aided by the non-points paying finish by the Green Hornet pair.

Now about the Vipers.  It was a few years ago (2007) at Mid Ohio when Dodge/Chrysler put a toe in the water, just to check things out, running a Woodhouse Viper, driven by Cindi Lux and Stan Wilson.  While this was a one off effort, based upon a World Challenge reg car, it surely had an influence on what we are seeing debut this weekend.  I’m sure if things had gone well for the Chrysler group, we’d have seen this effort earlier, but now is a good time.  It adds another sense of excitement to the race, some further variety, and just maybe, a glimpse into what future regulations may hold for the class.  Welcome to the fun, boys.

GH