ALMS, Detroit – Race Report
Acura Reigns Supreme On The Island

The Race on the Island in the City by the Straits in the River between the Great Lakes

It was sunny and warm for the start - more like hot for those who must remain outside for the duration - but far more pleasant than the sultry conditions of the previous day. There was a reasonable, although not large, crowd, and also a small armada of pleasure boats on the Canadian side of the island. Sorry, you anglophiles, they weren’t amassing to re-conquer the colonies.

The only droll side to the start was that the Dyson team’s fine qualifying effort was nullified when the team decided to swap tires after a late qualifying flat-spotting episode, which left the No. 16 Porsche to start from the back. Here is the full starting order with drivers:

1, No. 9, Acura ARX-01B, Highcroft Racing, SCOTT SHARP
2, No.66, Acura ARX-01B, de Ferran Motorsports, SIMON PAGENAUD
3, No. 15, Acura ARX-01B, Fernandez Racing, LUIS DIAZ
4, No. 26, Acura ARX-01B, Andretti-Green Racing, JAMES ROSSITER
5, No. 7, Porsche RS Spyder, Penske Motorsports, ROMAIN DUMAS
6, No. 6, Porsche RS Spyder, Penske Motorsports, PATRICK LONG
7, No. 2, Audi R10, Audi Sport North America, LUCAS LUHR
8, No. 1, Audi R10, Audi Sport North America, EMANUELE PIRRO
9, No. 20, Porsche RS Spyder, Dyson Racing, MARINO FRANCHITTI
10, No. 8, Lola-Mazda B07/46, B-K Motorsports, BEN DEVLIN
11, No. 37, Lola-AER B06/10, Intersport Racing, JON FIELD
12, No. 3, Chevrolet Corvette C6.R, Corvette Racing, JAN MAGNUSSEN
13, No. 45, Porsche 997 GT3 RSR, High Flying Lizard Motorsports, WOLF HENZLER
14, No. 62, Ferrari F430 GTC, Risi Competizione, JAIME MELO
15, No. 71, Ferrari F430 GTC, Tafel Racing, DOMINIK FARNBACHER
16, No. 4, Chevrolet Corvette C6.R, Corvette Racing, OLIVER GAVIN
17, No. 46, Porsche 997 GT3 RSR, Low Flying Lizard Motorsports, PATRICK PILET
18, No. 61, Ferrari F430 GTC, Risi Competizione, ROB BELL
19, No. 008, Aston Martin DBR9, Bell Motorsports, TERRY BORCHELLER
20, No. 21, Panoz Esperante, PTG, TOM MILNER, Jr
21, No. 44, Porsche 997 GT3 RSR, Burrowing Lizard Motorsports, LONNIE PECHNIK
22, No. 007, Aston Martin Vantage GT, Drayson-Barwell Motorsports, PAUL DRAYSON
23, No, 18, Porsche 997 GT3 RSR, Vici Racing, MARC BASSENG
24, No. 73, Ferrari F430 GTC, Tafel Racing, JIM TAFEL
25, No. 40, Ford GT-R, Robertson Racing, DAVID MURRY
26, No. 16, Porsche Spyder RS, Dyson Racing, GUY SMITH
27, No. 54, Ford GT-R, Black Swan Racing, TIM PAPPAS
28, No. 11, Dodge Viper Competition Coupe, Primetime Racing Group, JOEL FEINBERG

The Black Swan, Vici, and Drayson-Barwell teams were all parked in the short-bus area near the media center, well out away from the “serious” paddock. There was a huge crowd in and around the starting grid and the No. 54 Ford was blocked from reaching the grid on time. They were granted a reprieve from the usual rule in place—starting from pit lane, and instead took their rightful spot on the grid—second from the back.

It was one of the cleanest starts one is likely to see on a street course. The biggest move was made by Pagenaud, who closed the door tightly to an approach by Diaz. Both Audis tried to move in on the Porsches ahead of them, but the extra torque of the diesels was not enough and the yellow cars prevailed.

The rear grid start of Guy Smith made it an Acura 1-2-3-4, a fine showing for the relatively new marque. In the GT2 contest, Wolf Henzler helped the Porsche cause by slipping past Jan Magnussen’s Corvette. It took two laps for the GT1 class leader to clear the top car in GT2. It also took two laps before we had our first safety car intervention. Paul Drayson went hard into the tire wall at Turn 13, the right-hand bend that ends the run towards downtown Detroit . He’s ok, but the No. 007 is now the Aston Martin disadvantaged.

It took about 15 minutes to clean up matters, but as the interruption came early, few cars stopped. The No. 44 Lizard, No. 54 Ford Falken, the Viper and the Panoz were the principal callers.

On the restart, Rossiter mad a move on Long. He was unable to get past the Porsche but did take a spot from another Acura, that of Diaz. Pirro, meanwhile, put his Audi ahead of Long’s Spyder. He next tried to take Dumas, once on the outside, and then with success under braking, on the outside.

The top two Acuras, Sharp and Pagenaud, were off on their own - close with seven seconds back to Rossiter. The top four in GT2 were nose-to-tail, Henzler-Melo-Farnbacher-Pilet. They broke up a bit while the No. 4 Corvette and back-starting No. 16 Porsche weaved past. The GT2 cars came back close together again, with the two Ferraris feinting moves on the two Porsches. The order remained as was, although Melo nearly tapped Henzler.

Up front Pagenaud remained close to Sharp while the two Audis caught Diaz, leaving it as “only” an Acura 1-2-3. Almost unnoticed among all this, was a very good run by Ben Devlin. He had the Lola-Mazda up to eighth overall, two seconds behind the lead group of Porsches, Audis, and Acuras. He would soon move up another notch.

Lucas Luhr spun the No. 2 Audi at Turn 8 and managed to keep going, but then only five turns later, he went hard into the tire wall at Turn 13. Despite an obviously deranged wheel, he tried to talk the turn marshals into simply pushing the R10 away from the wall. After a minute or two a tow truck appeared and we had an official Audi retirement.

With admirable candour, Luhr took full responsibility for the accident; ""That was a very difficult weekend for us. We almost did no practice in dry conditions. Because I have never been here before, I first had to get to know a few bumps. In the race, I hit a bump when I had to avoid Emanuele (Pirro). I spun, but without further consequences. Five, six corners later I slipped of the brake pedal – again on a pump. It was a hard impact. This was clearly my mistake, I am sorry for the team and I hope that such a thing will not happen again.” Clearly, it happens to the best of us from time to time.

The yellow flag came at about the 40-minute mark. No driver can go more than two-hours in the race so the timing played havoc with pit stop strategies. Seeming oblivious to this, James Rossiter stopped and handed the Andretti-Green Acura over to Franck Montagny. Their mistake was realized and a few minutes later the car came back for a splash, with the pit entrance-to-pit exit time being deducted from Montagny’s overall stint behind the wheel.

The No. 7 Porsche also made an additional stop, but for them it was a matter of replacing the front nose piece as it contained a damaged dive plane. In GT2, Jörg Bergmeister mounted the saddle of the No. 45 Lizard, while Patrick Pilet remained aboard No. 46 -indeed it did not stop and took the class lead. There was trouble in Tafel land as the starter jammed on the No. 71 Ferrari. They had to saunter down the pit lane and borrow one from archrivals Risi, but the long delay knocked them out of the running. The Vici Porsche also made a long stop, replacing a driveshaft.

The restart came with 1:44 (hours) to go and featured Devlin crawling all over the Porsche of Guy Smith. It was enough to unnerve the No. 16 into a spin. There were other oddities, such as Tom Milner passing Patrick Pilet; a rare triumph for the Panoz. It didn’t last long, as the No. 46 regained the GT2 class lead from No. 21. There were also problems with the other Tafel Ferrari as the mirror was drilled out and replaced.

The first chink then appeared in the Japanese armor, when the left rear suspension collapsed under Luis Diaz. He brought the Fernandez entry back around after a lurid spin and stop, but its chance at the top had ended.

With now less than a Long Beach left the top four ran close, especially Sharp and Pagenaud. Indeed, about two laps later, Pagenaud took a shot of the Patron Tequila and passed into the lead at Turn 8. Behind them Romain Dumas was challenging Pirro.

Tim Pappas was getting lapped for the umpteenth time by the No. 6 Porsche when for some reason the Ford driver cut in too close. He was tapped into a spin, caught the tire wall and stopped with a cut tire. With 1:10 to go we had another yellow-flag period.

The intervening series of stops featured two quite quick ones. The lead Andretti-Green Acura skipped a tire chance while Timo Bernhard in the No. 7 Porsche moved into second place with a fast call. The GT2 contest continued to turn into a Porsche fest as the door kept opening on Mika Salo’s No. 62 Ferrari and insult was added with a pit lane speed penalty when he stopped to fix it. The No. 46 Porsche was at last handed over to Johannes van Overbeek, still in the class lead. At the very back of the field Pierre Kaffer still had not started but remained on the timing screen, hoping to race telepathically.

The next racing segment saw a spirited chase of Montagny by Bernhard. Further back, the No. 66 Acura slowed with a loose front cowling after Gil de Ferran spun. The No. 26 Acura grew wider each turn. At two stages Montagny cut waaaay to the left when Bernhard began to make a move. Blocking? We don’t see no stinking blocking. Meanwhile, David Brabham, now in the No. 9 Acura, was the fastest man on the track and closing from fourth place.

Bernhard came up to lap van Overbeek and it appeared that the GT2 driver moved over a bit too quick. The LM P2 version tapped No. 46 into a spin. This allowed the two leading GT2 Porsches to leaplizard each other, so that the No. 45’s drivers could score maximum points. It also resulted in a (to this observer) unwarranted “avoidable contact” penalty to No. 7, ending its shot with 40 minutes to go. Bernhard returned to sixth place, but stopped again a lap later for tires but, remarkably, no fuel.

In GT1, things were finally going the way of the no. 4, with the Ollies able to stay ahead of O’Connell and Magnussen. The Bell Motorsports Aston was still going, but several laps adrift of the yellow machines.

The pleasant oddities continued downfield with the Panoz holding on to third in class and Gerardo Bonilla now fighting Chris Dyson in the Lola-Mazda vs. Porsche fight for sixth place. However, the fine day at Panoz ended with 20 minutes to go when Tom Sutherland spun, damaged a tire, and left a trail of debris. This brought out the last caution of the day.

Just before the interruption Brabham had set the fastest lap of the day but was generally unable to close the gap because of bouts with traffic. The restart came with 11 minutes to go and six cars on the lead lap; Montagny, Brabham, Marcel Fässler in the surviving Audi, Ryan Briscoe in the un-penalized Penske Porsche, and, much further back, the crippled Acura of de Ferran and the delayed Porsche of Bernhard. Bonilla remained on Dyson’s tail but could never catch him. The Penske order also changed as No. 6 made a “much needed stop and if you believe that I have a bridge to sell you” in order to allow No. 7 ahead.

The restart became somewhat anti-climactic. There just wasn’t enough time for the pursuers to catch the prey and all the front-runners settled back a bit. Rossiter and Montagny’s win was much deserved, with the Sharp / Brabham pair more than happy to see the No. 7 Porsche pilots’ lead cut to just four points in the LM P2 drivers’ race. The Acura win gave them a commanding hold on the manufacturers’ title, while the Lizard victory gave them a largely insurmountable hold on the GT2 teams’ contest.

Although Marcel Fässler finished the race third overall and first in class, the #1 Audi was subsequently excluded for being 2.5kg underweight after having a replacement nose fitted in the morning that had not been tailored to either R10. As a result, we had the odd situation of the win going to a car that finished 21 laps down – the Intersport Lola – and the championship going to Lucas Luhr and Marco Werner, despite their race ending in the tire wall in the first hour.

A great race it was not—especially thanks to a late fizzle. But it was satisfying, made all the more so by a once again top-notch organization and venue, from the top through to the last workers on the circuit. Belle Island indeed.

Janos Wimpffen