ALMS, Mosport – Qualifying Report
Simply Amazing Wow. Earlier I said the cars were still going fast here. I don’t think that was quite accurate. They go ridiculously fast. The speed progress in the series is almost reaching stupid levels. In one year, ten cars can better the existing track record. And the Audi can go 1.7 seconds faster? Where will it end? Last year was similar. Capello was 1.4 seconds faster that the previous track record. An average of 138 mph here is incredible, especially on, what appears to be, crumbling asphalt. And that is a concern for tomorrow. Today (Saturday) started off somewhat cooler, but the warmth returned in the afternoon. And when it did, so did the track concerns in turn 4. Again today, in the afternoon session, there was first a quick red for debris on the track, followed by yet another stoppage in order to make repairs to the track. When questioned about the track conditions, Tim Mayer responded, “We have to admit that we are concerned. But the fixes that we have done so far were quick fixes. Today, after the activities on track are over, we plan on patching the hole in a more permanent and stronger manner. What we used earlier today and yesterday was a quick setting mix that isn’t the strongest, but it was what we had to do. We’ll make the fixes tonight and hope they work.” Let’s hope it does work – it would be a shame to have another situation here mess with what should be an outstanding race. But what did happen on track was simply amazing. First off, it was the GT classes, where it was Jaime Melo keeping the Risi entry on the top, as it has been in every session this weekend, with a 1:16.863. “We’ve been working so hard to improve the lap times from last year. Earlier this week we tested and improved, especially in the high-speed corners. I’m happy with everything. The tires and car worked well together. I didn’t do a perfect lap time but it was enough for pole. For the race, the car should be good and consistent so we will see how things go.” Second was Dirk Werner in the Farnbacher-Loles Porsche, coming off of their initial win in the series last race at Road America. Even though he hadn’t run before at the track or tested earlier in the week, Werner seemed to be confident in what the team is doing. "It seems it didn't hurt us too much that we didn't test here. It took us a long time to get adapted to the track because it's so difficult and so special with all the blind turns, but we improved the car every practice session. We developed the car in the right direction and the qualifying result shows that we are able to put a fast car on every track. It seems we're on a high right now." Dominik Farnbacher in the #71 Tafel Ferrari was third, just in front of their points rivals in the #45 Flying Lizards Porsche, with Wolf Henzler driving. The top four cars all broke the track record, which was a 1:17.841, set last year by Melo.  |
As has been the case all weekend long, the Tafel team is concentrating on the long term goal, the drivers championship, and because of that, they are content to let someone else win – they just want to stay clear of incidents and keep ahead of the #45 Lizards in the race and pick away at the already small cushion. Dirk Mueller - "We are well prepared to start from the second row. Our nearest competitor is behind us. The race will be decided by who gets the least damage from incidents with the prototypes. We need to be really conscious that the prototypes are racing hard and we are racing hard. There is the high risk of getting contact because of that. I believe this track gives the best chance of an incident because the speed difference in the corners is maximum. The prototypes are lighter, with more downforce, so they are much quicker in the corners and these are all really high downforce corners. I think in the end it will be like the last race at Road America where it was really tight. We don't need to win we just need to make the points' gap smaller. So, that is our main goal for tomorrow." For Wolf, the session was not what he had hoped. "I had the same car during qualifying that I did in the last practice session, but suddenly I no longer had the same grip - it was very frustrating and a disappointing result." Tom Milner was able to bring the Panoz up to sixth in class, bringing a better feeling to a team that has been struggling with engine issues all weekend long. On the flip side, we had Drayson Barwell. Before the afternoon session everything was working well, and Jonny Cocker was expecting to turn a 1:18.9. Instead, four laps into the session, the engine went, for at least the 10th time this season. The Robertson Ford that was a no-show. Early in the day, no one was around their paddock space, but later, just before the afternoon session, some crew members were seen around the car, verifying that it was withdrawn. The reason – mechanical. No elaboration. Just mechanical. Johnny O’Connell took the GT1 class pole, with a 1:18.878, heading teammate Olivier Beretta. Beretta gained the top spot, taking it away from Johnny, only for Johnny to take it away late in their run. Johnny - "We had the pole for two or three laps, and then Olivier nailed one and put a quicker time up there. I heard the excitement in Dan Binks' voice, 'You're minus three, minus three!' Then on my last lap I got a good run through Turns 1 and 2, but at the exit of Turn 2 a Viper had spun. Binks said, 'He's out of the way!' so I stayed with it and ran really hard into Turn 3. I could tell I was pulling some time on Olivier, and knew I had to carry some serious speed into Turn 8. I took some chances there, and it paid off."  |
In the prototype session, it was an Audi 1-2, P1 1-2 as the preparations in previous sessions paid off. “Dingo” Capello almost broke into the 1:03 range with a 1:04.094. "After the terrible weekend Allan and I had at the Nürburgring it is so nice to be back in a top position. For me this pole is really special because I could not run in the session before qualifying. I was a little bit afraid, but on my first flying lap I understood that the car was good. I had just to push. I had a big power slide out of the last corner and I was afraid that this could have cost me the pole, but at the end it was good enough."
Marco Werner was close with a 1:04.188. Werner was on track to best Capello by about 0.2 seconds, but was blocked on course by Franck Montagny. "Of course we are satisfied to have both cars on the front row. Personally I’ve a fairly thick neck because of Mister Montagny who cost me two tenths of a second. This would have been pole, but the most important thing is we have both Audis in front."
A lot of the success to Audi this season was based upon development that took place last year with technical partner Michelin. Tire testing at Road Atlanta in September, later at Jerez and then Sebring, saw the development of a new tire, which greatly helped the front grip of the Audi. Thanks to input from Allan McNish, the street soft tire was also developed from this test.Werner and Capello traded the fastest lap, back and forth, with Romain Dumas, but eventually Dumas had to settle for third overall, first in P2. “The RS Spyder was very quick this afternoon, and I was pushing to the maximum to get the LMP2 pole. I made no mistakes, and was not slowed by any traffic, so the results were good.” And the track record? “Our new DFI engine has to get the credit for that, as the power over a bigger range and the increased horsepower gave us greater speed.” David Brabham (Highcroft Acura) and Montagny (AGR Acura) were second and third in the P2 class, both breaking into the 1:04 range. Brabham - “We knew we probably only had one shot in qualifying due to the traffic on this track. It is so fast here that it is easy to get caught up with other cars. Overall, I think we have a very good race car. Scott and I are pleased with the balance of the Acura chassis. We have good solid baseline and we just need to make little changes at each track now. We have the right pace for the race. I have logged a lot of miles at Mosport and the race will be much different than qualifying. Slower cars can hold you up here more than at any other track. You can lose as much as five or six seconds in a turn and maybe ten seconds a lap. We’ll have to adjust for those kind of conditions in the race.” Unfortunately the Autocon Creation did not make it out as the team was awaiting arrival of suspension components. It’s still difficult to think that 10 cars broke the overall track record. Maybe the weather contributed, as it has been rather un-Mosport like, but so far, this has been an amazing exhibition of speed, skill and balls. Amazing… Gary Horrocks | 
