Grand-Am, Barber Motorsports Park – Race Report
Wayne Taylor Racing Back On The Top Step After the action-packed race at Austin, it was unlikely that the third round of the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series would be able to deliver the same level of drama (especially with dire warnings of penalties for contact ringing in the drivers’ ears) and so it proved. But the Birmingham, Alabama, circuit still delivered an intriguing race and some excellent individual performances. Qualifying saw Jon Fogarty take pole in the #99 Bob Stallings Racing Corvette DP in a new lap record time of 1:18.949, just ahead of Ricky Taylor in the #10 VelocityWW Corvette (1:19.141) and his brother Ricky in the #90 Spirit of Daytona Corvette (1:19.195). John Edwards also set a new lap record (1:26.610) en route to GT pole in the #57 Stevenson Motorsports Camaro GT.R , with Boris Said second in the #31 Marsh Racing Corvette on 1:26.677. Tom Long took the GX pole in the #70 SpeedSource Mazda 6 with a 1:32.036. Conditions on Saturday were very different to the practice and qualifying days and a large crowd was on hand to enjoy both the racing and the Alabama sun. But the rain on Thursday and Friday meant that opportunities to find a dry set-up had been limited for the teams on the newly-resurfaced track and this would through an extra variable into the two-hour race to come. Jon Fogarty held on to his pole position at the rolling start, with Ricky Taylor getting to the first corner ahead of brother Jordan and with Memo Rojas holding station in fourth in the #01 Ganassi Racing Riley BMW. The only casualty on the opening lap was Enzo Potolicchio, who had a coming together with a white DP (either the #2 Starworks or #5 Action Express) and spun to the side of the track, resuming in last place and behind the GTs. Despite front and rear damage, the #3 8Star Motorsports Corvette was able to continue without pitting, but it was a case of playing catch-up from here on in. The situation at the head of the GT pack was almost the same as the DP, except that Jeff Westphal had taken third in the #63 Scuderia Corse Ferrari 458 from the #73 Park Place Porsche of Patrick Lindsey. Aside from Potolicchio’s misfortune, the first ten minutes were relatively quiet, with the field settling in and getting used to the conditions; albeit with the top three in both the DP and GT fields beginning to break away. But while the DP leaders were separated by around three seconds, the fight for the GT lead was much closer, with Boris Said just a few car lengths adrift of John Edwards. Things started to heat up around the 15-minute mark as Rojas managed to find a way past Jordan Taylor’s VelocityWW Corvette, which had itself been pressurising the Spirit of Daytona Corvette; but before the Mexican could make any significant inroads into the #90’s territory, Michael Marsal exited the race with suspension failure on the #93 Turner Motorsport BMW following a tap from an unidentified DP that sent the yellow and blue M3 into the guardrail. A caution was called while the car was recovered, but by no means all the field took the opportunity to pit. Fogarty had pulled out a six second lead as the fight for second intensified, but took the decision to stop for fuel during the caution; as did Rojas and Jordan Taylor, with the #10 exiting ahead of the #01. The majority of the DPs decided to stay out and now Ricky Taylor led from Burt Frisselle in the #9 Action Express Corvette, Alex Popow in the #2 Starworks Riley Ford and Brian Frisselle in the #5 Action Express car. By contrast, the majority of the GT field took the opportunity to head to the pits, but Edwards – who had held back the #31 Marsh Corvette – lost several places during stop and Boris Said now led the class. Westphal was second and Max Papis third in the #61 AIM Ferrari. Paul Dalla Lana had done a good job in the #94 Turner BMW in defending fifth place from the Italian, but the M3 found itself some way behind after the stop. The race went green with 90 minutes to go and the field was quickly back up to full speed. Michael Shank Racing had pulled John Pew in right at the end of the caution – exactly at 30 minutes, in order for Pew to be eligible for points – and Michael Valiante had taken over. Brendon Hartley had taken over the #8 Starworks Riley after just ten minutes, but visited the pits twice more soon afterwards after complaining of a vibration. Practice hadn’t gone so well for the car, with Scott Mayer running wide and coming to a sudden and violent stop as the car found a patch of boggy earth nose-first. The front bodywork was torn off and the driver was taken to the medical centre for check-ups, but soon given the all-clear. This happened at the end of Practice 2 and resulted in the car being unable to qualify, meaning the next opportunity for track-time was in the race itself. After changing the front-left the car ran much better and the New Zealander was able to put in some very good times; even setting the fastest lap (1:20.044) along the way. With no more caution periods to come in the race, though, the two-lap deficit was not recoverable and the car would go on to finish 12th. Over the course of the next few laps, the gap between the DP leaders began to come down, but the Spirit of Daytona Corvette held on to its lead. Further back, Jordan Taylor took the #10 Corvette round the outside of the #99 through turns 5 and 6 to take back a place, while stops for Brian Frisselle (for Christian Fittipaldi) and Alex Popow (for Ryan Dalziel) promoted the VelocityWW car to third. In GT, the Stevenson Camaro fought its way back up to third by the 45 minute mark, while Said had extended his lead over Westphal to three seconds. The GX class had initially seen the #70 SpeedSource Mazda 6 of Tom Long leading strongly from the #00 sister car of Tristan Nunez. Alas, an electrical problem forced the leader into the pits at the 40-minute mark, allowing Nunez to capitalise on an eventful stint for Jim Norman – the #38 BGB Porsche being bounced between two passing DPs and sent into a huge spin – to lead by a lap at the halfway point. Joel Miller took over the #00 car, but a seven-minute stop to repair a fuel line would hand the lead to Spencer Pumpelly, resulting in victory for the Porsche by a margin of two laps. Both Mazdas finished the race, however, and things could be closer at Road Atlanta in a fortnight’s time. Just before the halfway point, the lead changed hands as Frisselle found a way past Taylor. Shortly afterwards, the new leader pitted and João Barbosa took the helm of the #9. As this was happening, Memo Rojas and Gustavo Yacaman were duelling over fifth place, with the #01 driver just holding on after almost outbraking himself during a passing attempt on the #6. The Colombian retook the place and went on to lead the race for two laps during the pitstop rotation before handing over to Antonio Pizzonia. And there was an on-track change of lead in GT, as Westphal finally found a way past Said just after the hour-mark. Jeff Curran took over the Corvette a couple of minutes later, while the #63 458 became the property of Alessandro Balzan five minutes after that. Stephane Sarrazin had taken over the #3 Corvette during the caution and briefly led before he made his final stop. This meant that, with just over 40 minutes remaining, Max Angelelli now led in #10, from Alex gurney in #99, Fittipaldi in #5, Richard Westbrook in #99, Barbosa in #9 and Scott Pruett in #01. GT was briefly in the hands of Dion von Moltke in the #18 Mühlner Porsche, but the South African’s stop meant that the Stevenson Camaro once again led, with Robin Liddell now at the wheel. Westbrook was quickly past Fittipaldi (who soon afterwards made his final stop) and was now eight seconds adrift of the second-placed Gurney and 12 seconds off the lead. The gaps from first to second and from second to third both halved in just a few minutes and it seemed that there would soon be a three-way fight for the lead; but things stabilised and the gaps began to widen once more. Pruett, meanwhile, found his way past Barbosa after the Portuguese racer lost momentum when momentarily boxed in behind a Ferrari. The #01 was alongside on the run down to Turn 5 and took the place in a replay of Jordan Taylor’s earlier pass on Fogarty. But while things were stabilising in DP, the fight for the GT lead was getting closer with every lap, with Balzan’s Ferrari looking to have the legs of Liddell’s Camaro. As the race approached its final 15 minutes, the gap between the two cars was just a couple of lengths, and the #57 was showing signs of tyre wear with some sliding being evident. But Liddell knew exactly where to place the big car and used the kerbs perfectly to deny the Italian an opportunity. With under ten minutes remaining, the DP battle also began to close up and the gap between Angelelli and Gurney shrank to around a second; and with six minutes to go the two class duels overlapped – both leaders able to gain a breathing space as their pursuers found themselves separated from their quarry by an interloping car. As the final minutes ran down, the #10 managed to regain the initiative and Angelelli hauled back a three second advantage by the time the flag fell. “For me, from my standpoint, it was pretty easy because all I had to do was maintain the gap and look after the tires. So I did that all along and it turned out great,” said Angelelli. “The Velocity Worldwide Corvette was great. Jordan allowed me to drive such a race. It was an easy stint. He put our car in such a good position, in front of the 99, and that’s really what made the difference. The team did a really good call by pitting early. I was the one trying to get us to do the race only on one stop but, as usual, they didn’t listen to me. But it turned out to be a good call by the team and we went on won the race.” “It was a pretty exciting day, I’d say,” said Taylor. “The first 10 or 15 minutes wasn’t great, for me. I caught up to some GT traffic and Rojas was able to get by me. But we were also saving fuel at that point, so I knew that if it came down to fuel, we’d be in a good position to jump them. Our guys did a great job and we were able to get out in front of them. We were able to maintain a decent pace the rest of the way and the car was super strong. So, it was exciting to win. Being out of the car for the last 50 minutes, that was pretty stressful. I’m used to finishing the races in GT. Max did a great job, and here we are.” “It wasn’t super eventful for me but we were pushing hard the whole way,” said Gurney. “It seemed like when I had clear traffic I could gain a little bit on Angelelli, and that kept happening back and forth. We would catch a little traffic, split up, and there would be a lot of give and take within about three seconds. That never changed the whole race.” “We had a good clean race,” added Fogarty. “The 10 car went around the outside of me for position, it was a good move, but I feel like that is what put us in second place. It would have been great to win, but we are conscious of the fact that we play for championships. Podium points are solid and this moves us closer to the championship.” Westbrook held on to third, with Pruett fourth, Pizzonia fifth and Dalziel sixth, while a very late splash ‘n dash for Barbosa dropped the #9 AE Corvette out of the top six. "We were pretty much out of fuel; but that’s car racing," said Westbrook. "Sometimes you’ve got to play the fuel-mileage game. It’s a real shame when you’re driving because you know how good the car is and you’ve got to save fuel. Even with saving fuel, we could race them up to a point and then there was no point and we’d get overtaken in fuel-saving mode. So, we backed-off and brought it home. Good points and I think when we wake up tomorrow we’ll all be happy.” “We are all obviously very disappointed with the result today; we were hoping for a top five finish at least," said Dalziel. "It was a difficult weekend for everyone; it’s always a tough race at this track and we made the most of the new shorter race format, which doesn’t give you much of an option to gamble. But we had a good strategy and were probably on for that P5 finish, but at least we have some good Championship points and the car is still in one piece. Here’s looking forward to Road Atlanta.” The battle for the GT crown continued all the way to the line with Balzan not allowing Liddell a moment’s rest; all that was needed was the slightest lapse in concentration from the Scot for the Ferrari to pounce. But that laps never came and Liddell completed a fantastic stint by taking the flag – and his 19th Grand-Am victory – by just 0.733 seconds.  |
“I think the testing that we did here in November helped us quite a lot,” said Liddell. “Or helped me at least just being able to go out and get into the groove straight away. The car felt good. The track has improved quite a lot from our point of view. Although there is some fall off in the tire degradation it’s not as bad as it used to be so it’s definitely a step forward. That is a credit to the team here at the track for dealing with that and the Continental Tire guys. Obviously, John as usual did a good job, got the car on pole, drove a really good stint and really I think it came down to the guys in the pits. All in all very happy, I must say I wasn’t expecting to come out of here with a win. I really thought we were going to have a tough time this weekend. Very happy for all the team and everybody else at Stevenson and Chevrolet.”  |
“My first five laps were quite difficult – never having driven a dry lap at Barber before today’s race," said Balzan. "To get to one second of the fast drivers is not that difficult – to cut down that last second is very hard. I spent a bit of time following behind Robin and learning his lines. Then I started learning lines that would work better with the Ferrari. I could really understand the track during the last 20 minutes. We have a fast car, and I’m very happy with the team. We’re going to go after the victory at Road Atlanta.” Curran finished third, Jeff Segal fourth in the #61 Ferrari and Bill Auberlen fifth in the Despite this being the Porsche 250 it wasn’t a good day for the German marque, with Andy Lally and John Potter’s #44 Magnus Racing car being the first of the five GT3 Cups home, in sixth. "We sputtered out of gas coming to the white flag," said Lally. "In the one second it took me to flip the switch to reserve we lost fifth position. We’re still leading the Championship and all the guys at Magnus Racing did a great job." The standings after three rounds are as follows: DP
1 Scott Pruett/Memo Rojas 93
2 Jon Fogarty/Alex Gurney 91
3 Max Angelelli/Jordan Taylor 88
4 Ryan Dalziel/Alex Popow 79
5 Ricky Taylor/Richard Westbrook 76
6 Enzo Potolicchio/Stephane Sarrazin 70 GT
1 Andy Lally/John Potter 83
2 Dion Von Moltke 81
3 Alessandro Balzan 80
4 Anthony Lazzaro/Emil Assentato 78
5 Bill Auberlen/Paul Dalla Lana 77
6 Andrew Davis/Leh Keen 69 GX
1 Jim Norman 105
2 Sylvain Tremblay/Tom Long 90
3 Spencer Pumpelly 70 The fourth round sees the Rolex Sports Car Series taking to the Road Atlanta circuit for the first time on April 18-20. MH | 
