Grand Am - Miller Motorsports Park
Friday Notes The final event of the 2010 Grand Am series kicked off under pleasant conditions at Miller Motorsports Park, out side of Salt Lake City Utah. Being the finale, you’d think there are points chase considerations at stake, but not this time. DP is down as a Ganassi sweep, with the only requirement for it to take place is that both Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas get 30 minutes of racing in the car. It was a good start for the team, as they again qualified on pole, with Memo taking the top spot by less than .1 second over Jon Fogarty in the Gainsco Chevy Riley. In GT, Mazda has swept pretty much everything in class, and it’s simply down to this race to decide if it will be Emil Assentato and Jeff Segal or Sylvain Tremblay taking home the drivers titles. GT Qualifying saw Eric Curran (Corvette) top in class, leading Adam Christodoulou (Mazda), Andrew Davis (Camaro) and Johnny O’Connell (Camaro). GM appears to be upping their commitment, as evident by O’Connell and Corvette Racing teammate Jan Magnussen both being here for driving duties. There is evidence that GM may also further increase their involvement in the series in the future, now that some of their financial difficulties are somewhat a thing of the past. Dyson Racing made their re-debut in the Grand Am this weekend at Miller. So far, it’s been a rough road, but that’s why they’re here for the 2010 finale – they want to see what it takes to compete for next season. For Chris Dyson, this is a business opportunity for the team, but it’s also an opportunity for them to get back to Daytona. They have a lot of history there and would like to get back there. Chris driving? – not likely – a new child is due right around then, and he’d like to be able to return home sometime intact, but don’t rule out Rob getting back behind the wheel again. “I’ll be behind the wheel of a car again soon to see if it’s feasible. I’ve still kept on working out, but I’ll need to up that to get back to a level in which I can compete.” Again, Chris stressed that this is effort is not taking anything away from the ALMS effort. “We fully intend to continue racing there in the future. We don’t have all of the crew here now, simply because some are back at the shop getting our Mazda Lola ready for Petit.” As far as this weekend, the team is being realistic. They’re here to get a feel for the series, the car, tires… you name it. Plus raise some money to fight heart disease. So far, the learning curve has been steep. In the afternoon session, issues with the right side door kept it from being secured properly, and it came off in the opening moments of qualifying. As a new aero tweak, it wasn’t too successful. Maybe Lola needs to install a ‘your door is ajar, your door is ajar, your door is ajar…’ warning? Catching up with Robin Liddell is always pleasant. Last year he brought his father along, and this year it was his girlfriend Louise, who was making a rare appearance at the track. For Robin, its been a fraught season, one in which he has had to do the best he can with what he’s got. “I realized it was going to be a long season pretty early on. I’ve just concentrated on getting the most out of me, the team and the car.” Next up for Robin (besides baiting photographers) is the off season, where he will concentrate on building his rally car and helping Louise in her racing exploits back home. John Doonan was looking like a proud papa, as Mazda is on the verge of finalizing an impressive season in the GT class of the Grand Am. “I’m very proud of our teams. We set out with a plan to have all of our teams work together and they’ve done a wonderful job of it. If one of our Mazda’s is a lap back and needs help from another Mazda, they’ll get it. We’ve done it with team work and also with a contingency plan. I said at the beginning that if one of our teams wins a championship, we’ll share the funds with all of our teams, as it’s truly been a joint effort.” John is truly a fan of the sport, and fondly remembers the GTP days of IMSA quite vividly, but that’ll be the topic for another piece down the road… Talks with the competitors – open conversations and sharing information with those that are here and racing was a theme for today. Two sessions were held with the teams to share information and also to get feedback on proposed changes. For DP’s, it looks like minor changes for 2011, but 2012 will see major changes to the looks of the cars. Not just the greenhouse, but the entire package is up for discussion. These are still ongoing very much to be determined regulations. Among the changes for 2011 are larger wing end plates, paddle shifts for cars with true pro-am drivers and changes to the differential. It appears as if carbon clutches may be out for next season. For now, it looks like 2011 will be very similar, at least in the prototype classes. Schedule wise will also likely be very similar. Miller is penciled in for a late April/early May date, which will get away from the onset of US football season, especially helpful here in what is a very football crazy region. An earlier comment was made about the series returning to Infineon (Sears Point) but nothing is firm on that as of yet. It appears as if the series is in discussion with 2 California tracks (Sears and Laguna?), as competitors do want to have a presence in the state/region. Tomorrow will be the Rolex Series finale, followed by the finale of the Continental Tire Sportscar Challenge. This last race will likely run into darkness and is truly one of the best kept secrets in racing. Last years race was right down to the end between Bill Auberlen in a BMW and Billy Johnson in a Mustang, with the horse(power) winning out. This year, it appears as if it might be a BMW track, as BMW’s filled the top 4 spots in the 2 practice sessions so far. | 
