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ALMS, Lime Rock -
Race Report Qualifying It was an all-Dyson front row as Chris Dyson and newcomer Steven Kane swept the top spots in LMP qualifying for the Northeast Grand Prix. Dyson controlled the session, posting four of the five quickest laps, the quickest being 45.708. The Muscle Milk Aston Martin was close but couldn’t break the 46.000 mark. Klaus Graf pressed the Aston Martin to its limits, and beyond, trying to break the Dyson coup, but after several laps just shy of 46 seconds Graf found the limits of the Aston going slightly off course trying to navigate the chicane. Many, including Graf himself, questioned whether Luhr would’ve been the better choice for qualifying, as Graf had done no dry laps previous to the qualifying session.
Dyson, "I'm so happy. It's great to be here at our home race. It wasn't a one-lap wonder. In qualifying you're by yourself and you have to man up around here. For the race it's different; there's a lot more stop and go traffic."
LMPC was a good battle as time continued to drop lap after lap throughout the qualifying session. Elton Julian of Genoa Racing landed his first career ALMS pole by out-dueling former teammate Gunnar Jeannette. Intersport Racing’s Kyle Marcelli and Jon Field both pushed for the top spot, but neither were able to keep pace with Julian. Jeannette appeared to be on a mission as he kept cutting the gap with every lap. But Julian showed some mettle as he matched Jeannette’s charge by continually improving on his own time and setting the pole winning time on the last timed lap of the session. Jeannette, “We’re still learning as a team. We tried a couple of things this morning, which went well, but we didn’t sort out all the issues. The car is pretty good through the high speed stuff, but we’re still struggling with direction changes right now, and because of that I was late to throttle in a couple of areas. Overall I’m not as happy as I’d like to be but starting in second position isn’t too bad.
“The car kept getting faster during the session because of the Michelin tires. The tires are so damn durable, which is awesome for this racing, but it means that the longer you run on them the better they get. So it’s really important to be very precise with your tire pressures because your fastest lap will be the last one that you do when the fuel burns off. " Joey Hand picked up right where he left off nine weeks ago – at the front of the American Le Mans Series GT field after qualifying the #56 BMW M3 GT on the class pole for Saturday’s Northeast Grand Prix.
With a 50.925 second lap of the 1.5-mile, 7-turn Lime Rock Park circuit Hand set a new qualifying record and would lead the 15-car GT class to the green flag. The non-BMW pilots all concur that there is no keeping pace with the M3’s under the current regulations, but you must recognize RLL and Hand for making the most of the opportunity under the rules as they are now. Dirk Werner qualified the #55 BMW in second position, followed by Patrick Long in the #45 Porsche. The Flying Lizards celebrated Long’s effort as ‘our best qualifying run this year’. Long, “I’m pretty happy with that. To me it’s and unofficial P1 as the BMW’s are on another level right now. Considering this car is a 2007 chassis it makes our time even more impressive. We like Lime Rock and our car is usually pretty good here. But to be a full second off their time, how far off are we going to be at a place like Road America? For the race we will have to be clean, fast and force them into a mistake.” The Ferrari from Risi was not able to qualify as some extensive chassis and suspension repairs were still ongoing after the morning’s accident. GTC pole honors went to ALMS first-timer Jaap van Lagen. ‘Who’s Jaap van Lagen?’ you may ask - I know I did. van Lagen is a very pleasant young man from Holland with his most recent racing background being in the Porsche Carrera Cup and FIA WTCC. He’s having quite a summer this year as he celebrated his first Porsche Carrera Cup win June 5th in Austria. The Lime Rock circuit obviously suited van Lagen’s style as he was quick here all day.
An excited van Lagen commented; ”For my very first time in America, first time at this circuit, first time in the ALMS, to win the pole position is fantastic! In the first practice the car had quite a bit of understeer. But the crew worked on it and made some nice adjustments and it was so much better for qualifying. I don’t know why I felt so comfortable here but when the working and the set up is good, I feel I can be quick at any circuit.” Race
Could it have been a better race meeting for the Dyson team? It was to be a big weekend for Dyson anyway, as Lime Rock Park is the team’s unofficial home track, and it marked the return of the #20 car in partnership with Oryx Racing. But to take the pole straight on to a race win made for the perfect ending.
The race win wasn’t without contest though. Luhr and Graf in the Muscle Milk Aston Martin hounded the Dyson Mazda right from the green flag. The lead exchanged hands several times and both cars narrowly avoided several on-track incidents involving other cars that could’ve ended their day.
Contact while overtaking the GMG Porsche, which earned the Porsche a penalty, spun Graf allowing Smith to take the lead for the final time. Pre race electrical issues caused the #20 Oryx-Dyson Mazda to miss the grid and they had to start the race from pit lane.
The GT battle was shaken fairly early with an incident on the back straight involving several of the favorites. Oliver Gavin explains the pileup; “Today I think we were in with a shout for a podium result. I don’t think anybody can race the BMW equally and evenly as it’s so fast, but Jan’s misfortune after 20 laps in the race was just that – misfortune.
"An LMPC car turned Ed Brown around in the Patron Ferrari, the BMW #55 was the next on the scene, checked up and hit Ed Brown, and Jan was right behind the BMW and hit him while Olivier ran into the back of him. It was a chain reaction, a racing incident, and there was nothing that anyone could have done differently. When everyone’s that close together on a circuit like Lime Rock – where you’re all arriving on the scene pretty quickly – there’s not much space and you can’t take avoiding action.” That single incident would change the face of the GT battle by effectively removing the #55 BMW, both Corvettes, and one of the Extreme Speed Ferraris from contention. The Risi Ferrari made a nice charge up through the field recovering from their practice accident that caused them to start the race from the back of the grid. Melo had the red F458 up to third and was pushing the leaders before an electrical misfire forced retirement.
It was a great three-way battle to the end for the last podium spot, led by the Falken Porsche of Henzler, followed by Lazzaro in the GT40 and van Overbeek in the ESM Ferrari. Henzler had built a sizable gap, but a fuel pick up problem developed in the closing minutes, sapping his Porsche engine of power. Lazzaro overtook van Overbeek and was charging on Henzler in the last corner of the last lap. Henzler drifted to the right - slight contact was made between the two - and then back to his left to keep Lazzaro at bay as they took the checkered flag. It appeared Falken would score their first ALMS podium of their career.
Minutes later a ruling by IMSA penalized Henzler for blocking and added 90 seconds to their time. That knocked them back down to the fifth spot in class behind van Overbeek and handed the last podium spot to the #04 Robertson Ford. Both Falken and Robertson ran a race worthy of a podium spot.
It’s always unfortunate when a penalty so directly affects the outcome of a race, but it appeared to be a fair ruling. Patrick Long in the #45 Flying Lizard Porsche split the BMWs right at the start and, along with Jörg Bergmeister, they were the only ones to put any pressure on the #56 BMW. During the final stint Bergmeister was turning qualifying type laps and was able to cut what was a sizable gap down to less then five seconds. But with about ten minutes to go a tire puncture on the #45 ended any chance to challenge the BMW. The second place finish was still the best result of the year for the former championship-winning team.
Similar to Dyson in LMP, Joey Hand and Dirk Müller went from pole position straight to victory lane in the GT class. They were even more dominating though, as they led every lap start to finish. It was the third win in a row for the dynamic duo of #56 RLL BMW.
Genoa Racing earned its second LMPC victory of the season, though it was the first for the Eric Lux/Elton Julian combination.
The duo exchanged fast race laps with CORE Autosport`s Gunnar Jeannette and Ricardo Gonzalez throughout the race, but the Genoa`s ORECA FLM09 won out by 2.246 seconds over CORE`s #06 ORECA FLM09. Intersport Racing`s Kyle Marcelli and Tomy Drissi completed the LMPC podium in the #89 ORECA. GTC was unique as it was the only class not won by the pole sitter. Jaap van Lagen did not get the chance to compete for his second win of the summer after shining in his first day at Lime Rock. Early in the race, co-driver Peter LeSaffre made contact with the Jaguar of PJ Jones coming into Turn 1 and the Green Hornet Porsche suffered suspension damage.
The class lead changed hands only a few times throughout the race, but ultimately the battle came down a pair of TRG Porsches and the final corner of the final lap. TRG`s Dion von Moltke and Mike Piera scored the dramatic victory - their first in ALMS - over Spencer Pumpelly and Duncan Ende. Black Swan Racing maintained the class lead for the majority of the race, but a late-race pitstop to close the rear deck lid on the #54 Porsche 911 GT3 Cup promoted TRG`s Pumpelly into the lead. On the final lap, Pumpelly was held up by Henzler`s slowing GT Porsche; Von Moltke seized the opportunity to take the lead and the win. Bill Sweedler and Butch Leitzinger completed the GTC podium in the #23 Alex Job Racing Porsche.
The ALMS now moves on to Canada for Round 4, the Grand Prix of Mosport, on July 23/24.
Russell Wittenberg |
