ALMS, Mosport – Race Report
Canadian Classic

It doesn’t get much better than this - an incredible race, with an unbelievable finish, at a significant and historical venue, before a very large and enthusiastic crowd.

A look at the results does not tell the entire story here – an Audi 1-2, a race win in GT2 by a Risi Ferrari and a 1-2 finish in GT1 by Corvette Racing.  Not that out of the ordinary, in a historical sense.

Then you look deeper.  P2.  The class that used to fall apart is now THE class.  And THE class was won by what may be THE team of 2008, Highcroft.

But there was even more than that; differing strategies; multiple on track battles; and, other than in GT1, class victories that were not decided until sometimes even the last lap.

For the winning duo of Marco Werner/Lucas Luhr, it looked like it could have been all theirs early.  After starting second, Marco built up a 20 some second lead and was pulling away, when the VICI Porsche lost a wheel and went off hard between turns 3 and 4.

But then things started to unravel for them.  The yellow from the accident cut their lead, and then after the stop under the yellow, they came out in second.  First, it was a case of a slower refueling rate and a larger tank, which means a slower stop.  Slow enough that the #7 Penske Porsche was able to do a stop and change drivers, all in the same time, or maybe even less than it took for the Audi to complete its stop – without a driver change.  Then, in his haste to get out of the pits, Marco got sideways out of the last pit box and hit the pit wall.  This allowed Romain Dumas into the lead.

It was evident that the Audi had the speed to win, but concerns over the possible damage to the nose and the fact that the team had to make another stop and still change drivers, made the possibilities of winning questionable.  Well, in reality, no worries there.

At almost the two-hour mark, Lucas Luhr, who got in the car about 1.5 hours in, made his last stop, dropping back to eighth overall.  Then on out, it was a blast through the field, eventually winning by over 21 seconds over the other rivals, who were forced to stop for fuel, conserve fuel or run out of fuel.  Lucas, who, as did Marco, drove the wheels off of the car, commented, "That was a real challenge for me when I had to overtake almost all prototypes again at the end of the race. It worked out well. Our car was not in a perfect shape after our little mishap in the pits, and I really had to fight. Our engineer told me on the radio that I had to push like hell. I did, and fortunately it worked out."

After the race, Marco said, "I’ve not seen such a great race for quite a while. It was really exciting. It was nail-biting because we were not sure if we could bring the victory home. There were two different strategies for our two cars. It’s great that this gave us a 1-2 victory. It was really close in the end for Emanuele (Pirro) who opted for the ‘save fuel’ method. We went flat-out but had to pit under ‘green’. I dedicate this victory to our boys who worked a lot this week and put a great car on the wheels for us."

Emanuele Pirro and Dindo Capello drove well to finish second overall, despite having to conserve for fuel.  Emanuele, who was in the car at the end and was able to keep going when others stopped, said, "I really learned to save fuel during the stint. I was two steps of power down, but this was not enough and I had to roll the car into the corners. Despite that, my lap times were good enough to keep the LMP 2 cars behind. I’m not happy about the race result because we had a fast car but we gambled and didn’t make it. I’m happy on how we managed the situation and I’m happy about the way I drove. I literally ran out of fuel at start and finish. It was good to finish second in these conditions."

This result clinched the P1 Manufacturers Championship for Audi, as if that result was in doubt.

Unfortunately, John Faulkner was involved in a hard accident in the turn 2 area.  He was assisted out of the car and was taken to the medical center and later the local hospital, complaining of wrist and leg pain.  The initial word was that his condition was not serious. He will be OK, but it appears as if the #30 Intersport Lola may be a write off.

Third overall and first in P2 were Highcroft, who won class for the forth time this season.  Coupled with a sixth place finish for Dumas/Bernhard, this brought the Sharp/Brabham duo within ten points of the Penske pair.  Sharp started the race and drove a steady stint, running as high as second in class before handing of to Brabham for the last two hours of racing.

“The last two races have been about fuel; and our staff, led by Duncan [Dayton] and Rob Hill, did another great job of calling the right shot at the end.  Our car was fast all weekend, but I got caught in some bad traffic and that hurt us.  David did his usual great charge to get the Patrón Highcroft Acura to Victory Lane.  This place is like a throwback to older racing with such fast turns.  It’s great for a driver.”

For David, who had to drive hard and conserve fuel at the same time to achive this result, this was an incredible race. “What a phenomenal race today!  The wheel-to-wheel action was as good as it gets. There was really world-class competition out there today.  The racing with Romain [Dumas] was incredible as we passed back and forth.  I guess they ran out of fuel like Gil.  I feel bad for Gil’s team.  They were so close to winning.  But we’ll take this fourth win and close in on the point lead.  Very exciting for us!”

Gil deFerran’s team worked very had to overcome an early one lap deficit, moved into the lead late in the race.  Unfortunately, their strategy was messed up by a lap, when the timed race went one lap longer than expected.  As with with the #7 Penske, they came up short of fuel, stopping on track before taking the checkered flag.  They finished fifth in class.

Gil - “It was particularly cruel when you consider that we missed the checkered flag by just about a second.  That made us take another lap and we ran out of fuel.  It was always going to be tight for us on fuel.  But the team did a very good job working the numbers.  I tried to keep the proper fuel reading that they wanted, and we ran great laps and saved fuel.  We thought the race would end one lap sooner.  Unfortunately, that didn’t happen today.  Our guys did great in calling all the right moves, including getting us back on the lead lap in the early portion of the race.  We have been struggling all weekend with the car, but, in the race, it felt good.  And our lap times were very good.  I was feeling very comfortable in the lead and I had a good rhythm in the cockpit.  It felt good to run up front again and I think we can do more of that in the future.  It is a tough way to lose.”

Fernandez Lowes Racing finished second in the P2 class, after getting passed by Brabham with three minutes to go.  For Adrian, it was close and a good result, but still not yet the win.  “We had some problems with the battery and that hurt us a little.  But the Lowe’s Acura was fast today.  We play a fuel game and I felt Luis had a good momentum.  So he stayed in longer than some of the other Acura drivers, who switched  after 45 minutes.  I decided to save a little more fuel than Gil and David, or we might have had a shot for the win.  Without the suspension problem at Road America, we should have three straight podium finishes. Second feels good.”

Completing the podium in LMP2 was the #6 Penske Porsche of Sascha Maassen and Patrick Long, who benefited from the fuel issues of the others. 

Intersport had a generally miserable weekend.  Besides the Faulkner wreck, the #37 car had some long stops for overheating, but did persevere for a podium in P1.  Unfortunately neither Jon nor Clint realized they had completed enough of the race to be classified, so that left the last driver, Richard Berry to represent them on the podium.

Autocon was able to get their car into the race, repairing the suspension just in time for the start, but the hard work was not rewarded.  The team was forced to retire after 42 laps, with only Tony Burgess driving.

Dyson struggled through some issues with handling to finish ninth and tenth overall, two laps back.  One position, but four laps, further back was the B-K Mazda, which did not have the weekend they had hoped either.

GT1 was again all #3.  Johnny O’Connell started and Jan Magnussen finished, leading flag to flag for their seventh win in eight races this year.  But as usual, it was close.  For Doug Fehan, it was another 1-2 finish that he was happy with.  "I love watching this team operate in the pits, and the first pit stop was a consummate demonstration of how well prepared the Corvette Racing crews are. Both cars came in at the same time and left at the same time. It was awesome!

"When you look at today's result, it was a contest that either car could have won.  At any given time in the race, one car might have been a few tenths of a second faster than the other, and that's great racing. I think the fans enjoyed it, and I know the team did, too. Now we're ready to head to Detroit for our hometown event."

GT2 was a straight dog fight that was not decided until just before the podium celebration.  Given the right circumstances, the class win could have come from any of four or fve cars, but, as mentioned above, it was a Risi win; which was, surprisingly, their first win this season in LMS competition.  But it was not easy; far from it.  They had to fight off another strong race from the Farnbacher Loles team.

Giuseppe Risi said after the race, “I am very happy. We have finally broken the run of bad luck we’ve been having in the American Le Mans Series this season.  And what a race! I never gave up hope, even when we weren’t at the head of the field, because we had the pace to win.  We’ve been strong all week, so even when we were behind another car, having lost the lead through yellows, we were able to come back again.”

It was an unusual strategy for the team, as Jamie Melo started the race and finished it, with Mika Salo taking the middle stint.  Salo after the race said, “Our plan was originally to change drivers only once, but we went where the race went.  I’d been pushing hard all stint and Jaime was fresh in the pits, so we decided to put fresh meat into the car.  We were quickest every session we were out there and we really deserved this one.  The car was working fine all weekend, with absolutely no problems at all so we didn’t really change anything on it because it was so good from the beginning. The Michelin tires were also so consistent and were as good on lap one as they were at the end.  We just had to keep it on the track and keep looking in the mirrors so we didn’t hit anything.”

Melo added, “It’s an amazing result, after what’s happened to us this year.  We have shown we are very competitive at every race, but could not finish at the top.  Finally we have done it.  We knew we had a very balanced car and we just waited for things to come to us.  I can’t tell you how happy I am that it did.”

Farnbacher-Loles is now living up to the early season promise that the team had.  A win followed by a second is good reward for the team, especially knowing that this is their first season in the series.

For Dirk Werner, who finished the race, the result was something to be proud of.  "I'm very happy that we got another podium in our first ALMS season. I think it shows how amazingly the team works together and how good a package we have. With a little bit more luck in finding the right race setup, we could have had a chance to win the race, but today the Ferrari was just a little bit stronger. I had to fight very hard to go the speed I went; I couldn't do it over the whole stint. But we can be happy with the result because everything went right for us. Thanks to the team for a great race!"

The Farnbacher-Loles team will be giving Detroit a miss, as the team is heavily committed to the Grand Am race at New Jersey next week, which happens to be its home race.  They will return for Petit and Laguna.

Third and forth in class could very well decide the championship in the class.  On the track, it came down to an incredible and intense battle between Jörg Bergmeister in the 45 Lizard Porsche and Dirk Müller in the Tafel Ferrari.  Lap after lap, it was nose to tail, Jörg leading Dirk.  Many times Dirk looked for ways around, but could not find a clean way past.  Eventually Jörg went to making his car wide, protecting himself as the they headed into turn one.  It wasn’t blocking – it was just defensive driving, and there’s nothing wrong with that.

As the race went on, there were incidents of what appeared to be side to side contact, some of which was mentioned as being investigated by the officials.  Both drivers were issued warnings for their driving, but finally, in the waning moments of the race, Dirk made his way past.  The incident was brought to the attention of the officials, who after the race tagged the Tafel entry for a 30 second penalty.  This was deemed as an un-protestable penalty, leaving Tafel with no recourse.

Tony Dowe was clearly upset after the race, but realized there was nothing more he could do.  "I am incredibly disappointed for the team, the drivers and the fans for such a fantastic race being ended by the stewards in such a manner. Clearly for many, many laps the 45 Porsche blocked us continuously. There were many incidents where we had been taken off the course and I was really proud of the patience that Dirk showed and the race craft he used at the end to force the 45 into a mistake. The penalty is non-protestable. Clearly it leaves a very bad taste in everybody's mouth. We are racing those guys for a championship and it does seem that following the Elkhart Lake [Road America] incident nothing was done and now there is a decision made against us. Clearly, the obvious thing is to go home and fight again another day."

Obviously both teams saw the situation differently.  No surprise there.  There may have been more contact, but what I was able to see on the monitors appeared to be side to side contact.  If that is considered avoidable contact, by IMSA definition, so be it.  But there have been many times in the past, where contact worse than that was allowed.  If there was more contact than was seen, then the officials made the right call.  But if not, it was minor in comparison to the contact that Jaime made against Jörg at Sebring back at the end of the race in 2007 – and that contact was allowed and the results were allowed to stand.

Calls like these are tough, especially when the pressure and stakes are so high.  Let’s hope this has no bearing on the final tally in the Championships.

To make things worse for the Tafel team, Dominik Farnbacher was hit in his ankle by the splitter of the Bell Motorsports Aston Martin on a driver change.  He was in visible pain right after it happened, but later shook it off, stating it wasn’t the fault of the Aston driver and that he would have no problem being ready for Detroit.

Fifth in class was a strong run by the PTG Panoz.  Despite engine issues all weekend long, the team persevered for a fine finish. 

Also having a strong run, under similar circumstances, was the Drayson Barwell team.  Despite starting the race at the back of the grid, the team persevered through with its Road America engine to finish eighth in class; its second points finish of the season.

There is no time to rest.  In less than a week, the series will rejoin at Detroit for the Detroit Grand Prix.  It should be good, but it’s doubtful it could top what we were just treated to at Mosport.

Gary Horrocks