ALMS, Detroit - Friday Afternoon
Duck Soup In The Detroit River

OK, Marx Brothers moment – trial scene in the movie Duck Soup.  "What has a trunk but no key, weighs 2000 pounds, and lives in a circus?" The prosecutor yells, "That's irrelevant!" to which Chico responds, "Irrelevant! Hey, that's the correct answer!"

That’s the magic word to the second session of the day, irrelevant.

The weather was scheduled to improve this afternoon; but it didn’t, and that pretty much told the story of afternoon practice. Romain Dumas set a 1:20.485 with the No. 7 Porsche, but within seconds the track was partially blocked; first by a slow-moving Intersport Lola and then a stall and spin by Patrick Long in the other LM P2 Porsche, at the back straight ending Turn 8 right-hander.

That all took place during the first two laps; after which a sudden shower drenched the circuit. The No. 11 Primetime Viper was the first to fall victim, Joel Feinberg tagging the wall and crabbing back to the pits. Andrea Robertson had a harder time of it, scraping into the wall. The No. 40 Ford GT came to a halt and the session was stopped while her car was retrieved.

The session was restarted after about a 10-minute interruption, but very few cars were circulating and all the times were much slower than those first two dry laps. As with the morning, there were some weird standings, such as the Panoz fastest in GT2 and for that matter Ben Devlin second quickest overall with the No. 8 Lola-Mazda.

Tom Milner is happy with the progress now with the Panoz.  “I think we are a genuine top five on pace.  We’ve been let down by inconsistency, both the car and the tires; but we’re working on that and making progress.  We have a set up that pretty much works right now.  We make some changes and usually come back to something close to our basic set-up.”

Ben Devlin was among those that were frustrated with the conditions.  “Just as we get out there, the rain hits.  I guess it was good for us though, as we were the fastest on the out lap.  I’m looking forward to the new car, but we’ve got a lot of work in front of us with it.  It’s just good to know that Mazda is putting forth the effort.”

Scott Sharp, on the other hand, was quite relaxed, “"I got one lap in and the rains hit.  Not much to say - it's quite wet!  I'm really enjoying this.  The Acura is the best car I've ever driven and the competition is intense.  It's not a follow the leader type of racing.  I keep telling those other guys (the Indy drivers) that they have to come over and try this.  It's really been good for me."

During much of the middle period only seven cars were on track, with the No. 62 Risi and No. 71 Tafel Ferraris the only ones putting in a particularly long continuous run. It was also Martin Ragginger’s first run in ALMS. The works Carrera Cup driver is in a Lizard RSR.

Finally, during the last 10 minutes most of the cars did emerge. Indeed, the timing screen showed all but the Farnbacher Loles Porsche setting a time, and it would be difficult for them to set a competitive lap given that the whole of the team is in New Jersey this weekend.

The track continued to dry and, indeed, the sky lightened considerably by the end of the session. However, very few improved times—many didn’t risk it. Among those that did go faster at the end were Adrian Fernandez and Dirk Müller. The former edged the No. 15 Acura up the standings a few matches, while the latter recorded the best time of the afternoon with his No. 71 Tafel Racing Ferrari.

The track was far from completely dry as GT qualifying began, but there was certainly enough of a racing-line present to generate some competitive efforts.

As the session ended, Marco Werner was seen relaxing.  “Lucas will qualify, but I’ll likely get in too.  I haven’t had much time out on track in the dry, so I’ll probably get in for a few laps.  I figure we’ll be down in sixth or so, but I think we’ll have a good shot in the race.  We were close last year and I think we should be close again.”  About Mosport, Marco commented, “I really like that track.  You really have to do it right there.  At Nurburgring, if you miss the first corner, you jump a curb and have quite a bit of tarmac for a run off area.  Not so at Mosport.  You have to get it right there.  I really prefer driving here in the ALMS.  It’s a proper schedule.  Five races is just not enough for a season.”

Further Intersport info – according to Clint Field, it is unlikely that they will go with a new chassis for the last two races.  It will be a Lola, so you can do the math, concerning what chassis are or might be available on the used market.  “Our plan is to be out there with a second car by Petit.  We’ll be spending quite a bit of time on the phone, sorting things out.”

On to qualifying, with a much dryer track.

Gary Horrocks