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ALMS, Baltimore –
Race Report As someone with many more years of street races under his belt said, at the end of the weekend in Baltimore, “It was like an event which had been running for five years.” It certainly wasn’t perfect, but the inaugural Baltimore Grand Prix event, the ninth different street venue to be visited by the ALMS, was a resounding success for the organisers, the competitors and the fans, and it promises to be a great addition to the ALMS calendar.
Yes, there were a few problems with the 2.1 mile, 12-turn track which caused grumbles, and yes, the drivers would like to see a large section of it re-surfaced for the future, but no, there weren’t nearly as many incidents and problems as anticipated and the re-paved trolley tracks and temporary chicane on the main straight held up well to the pounding they took. Yes, there were massive (some people waited in line for as much as 45 minutes) queues to cross the walkover bridge between the interior of the track and the ALMS paddock and a lack of adequate signage – more bridges needed next year – and no, it probably wasn’t necessary to close the bridge for “safety reasons” for an hour because of a little rain and the threat of lightning but you can’t argue with public officials. There should also be a vehicle crossing point from one side of the track to the other (as at Long Beach) because the current system is too restrictive and complex for the teams who need to move equipment to and from the pits. But, all said and done, there were an estimated 150,000 people watching the ALMS race on Saturday and that has to be a record. In the eyes of some the series plays second fiddle to Indycar at these joint events, but Indycar likes having the ALMS there as it draws a much bigger crowd over the entire weekend and that surely can only be good for all concerned. Hospitality packages and pre-race ticket sales were a sell-out which is fantastic news for any first-time event.
The city of Baltimore has invested a lot of money into staging this new street race around the inner harbour area, a location which has obviously been the subject of much regeneration and renovation in recent years, and it had a good feel about it. It wasn’t always easy to get around – none of these temporary street tracks are particularly user-friendly for the ‘workers’ – and there are still pockets of resistance to the event around the city, but let’s hope the police conquer the appalling traffic jams and bottlenecks and that Baltimore’s residents feel differently in hindsight. And so onto the race itself. Oryx Dyson Racing have been threatening to pip their more experienced team mates to the finishing post since Lime Rock, and drivers Steven Kane and Humaid Al Masaood made good their intentions this weekend scoring their first wins in the series.
Starting from the pole, Chris Dyson led the field through Turn 1 in the No. 16 Dyson Racing Lola-Mazda and within three laps had put three seconds on Al Masaood. It wasn`t until the first set of pit stops, largely carried out under the first of the two full course caution periods, that the Dyson/Smith car’s lead came to an end. Unable to restart the car on the first attempt, the Dyson squad lost 28 seconds in the pits and the sister Lola-Mazda took the lead at just under the hour mark. The caution was to replace a loose manhole cover at Turn 9... "Chris had the first stint in front of me; there was some traffic, and then we had the pit stop," recalled Al Masaood. "We changed drivers and Steven got away quickly and we came out in front. We had to drive smart to keep the win which is definitely a challenge, and it`s easy to make a mistake at the start of a race like this, especially with cold tires. It`s easy to go off and be in the wall. You have to be very precise, take a little off and make good decisions. You really have no room for error."
Leading overall in only his fifth ALMS race, Kane kept his head and cool – despite the hot and very humid conditions – and crossed the finish line 6.961 seconds ahead of Smith.
"I want to start off thanking everyone in Baltimore for putting on such a great race," the Irishman said. "The crowd was great - to me it looks like a great success already. It might be because we won, but this might be my favourite race so far. It was great to come into this series, and in only five circuits - new ones - to win a race. This is the first street race for my co-driver, and it shows how much talent he really has and is a testament to his ability driving this car."
A second-place finish for Dyson and Smith made it a Lola-Mazda one-two finish at Baltimore, to the delight of the team, and stretched their championship lead further.
Tony Burgess and Chris McMurry finished the Autocon Lola-AER in third – despite several spins and off track excursions – but it was weekend to forget for Dyson Racing`s main championship rival Muscle Milk Aston Martin Racing, who finished fourth in class despite recurring brake problems throughout the two-hour race.
Following a completely wiped-out day on Friday, with not one lap completed in practice or qualifying, Pickett Racing’s data acquisition engineer had a long night fixing the wiring loom which was the cause of their electrical problems. Unfortunately they didn’t make it out for morning warm up on race day either, so the very first laps that Romain Dumas experienced in the Lola Aston Martin were in the heat of battle.
As said already, a weekend to forget for this popular team. While the first lap was surprisingly uneventful for the LMP field, the GT category experienced pandemonium in Turn 1 which caused a midfield pile up/traffic jam worthy of the M25 and New Jersey Turnpike combined. There’s no nice way to put this, but Olivier Beretta’s contact with Jan Magnussen in the two Corvettes set off a chain reaction which not only wiped out any chance the No. 4 car had of victory (and, therefore, closing the gap to the Muller/Hand BMW in the GT Championship stakes), but also affected the outcome for many others who were caught up in the mêlée. As one of the two drivers with the most street circuit victories to his name (Oliver Gavin being the other), it’s hard to explain...indeed, Beretta was at a loss to completely explain it himself but there were several who would have liked to be a fly on the wall to hear the Corvette Racing team’s post-race debrief! The largest benefactor of the incident was eventual GT class winner, the Team Falken Tire Porsche 911 GT3 RSR of Wolf Henzler, who sliced between the two Corvettes, going from fifth to second. "It was an amazing start," Henzler said. "I was a bit scared. I knew once we arrived in turn one we`d have such a great speed in a tight turn. Once everyone braked, I saw there was a bit of a spot on the right so I dived in, overtook a few cars." The German survived T-boning one of the Corvettes and set about reeling in Dirk Werner`s BMW Team RLL M3, passing him for the lead on the outside of Turn 1 some 25 minutes into the race. Both Werner and the BMW sister car, driven by Joey Hand, plus Beretta in the No. 3 Corvette, put Henzler under considerable pressure but the Porsche held steady until the first full-course caution presented the opportunity for pit stops. Bryan Sellers took the wheel of the Derrick Walker-managed Porsche and, as the field went green again after the second of the caution period (caused by one of the Autocon’s excursions) for the final 40 minutes of the race, the Falken car was lying third in the GT order behind Tommy Milner`s No. 3 Corvette and the No. 55 BMW of Bill Auberlen.
On the restart, an over-ambitious move by Milner caused the BMW to spin in Turn 1, while the Corvette proceeded through the run-off area. Milner was given a stop/go penalty plus 60 seconds for the action and incurred the considerable wrath of Auberlen after the event...it wasn’t the young American’s finest hour. This left just enough room for Sellers to sneak through and into the lead, and it was plain sailing from there on. Sellers and Henzler fully deserved their second victory of the year as they both drove superbly, and the Team Falken Tire was delighted with its first ‘dry’ win.
"I hope everyone notes how
unbelievable this race was with the fans," Sellers said of the capacity crowds.
"It was a crazy atmosphere to be up there with the crowds and the sounds.
At the beginning of the weekend we didn`t really know what kind of package we`d
have. It was a very smooth asphalt and concrete [track surface mix]. To be
honest we didn`t know we`d have a compound soft enough but the tire turned out
to be fantastic. Wolf at the beginning was able to run quicker than
anybody and get away from the BMW.” Road America’s GT winners,
the Risi Ferrari, had a difficult weekend in Baltimore and left feeling fairly
hard done by. Jaime Melo was penalised after qualifying for an incident
concerning contact on his Ferrari by Pat Long’s Flying Lizard Porsche but, even
though the Brazilian was subsequently cleared of blame by the Race Director, the
No. 62 still had to start from the back of the grid, alongside Long. Both
Vilander – who took the start in the Risi car – and Long managed to avoid the
first lap mash but weren’t able to profit from the jump up through the
field. The Ferrari lost second gear, a vital one on this street track
which had several very slow speed corners, and this ultimately led to them
dropping from fourth down to sixth at the finish, losing out to Maassen in the
Paul Miller Porsche and the second BMW of Auberlen and Werner on the last lap as
Melo struggled to hold the gears in place with the shift lever.
They, however, can feel a little happier than the two Jaguars who only managed a lap between them...the No. 98 of Jones and Moran getting hit and doing terminal damage to the radiator, and the No. 99 of Junqueira/Wilden not even starting because of engine issues. The LMPC race started with a shock for point leaders CORE autosport and Ricardo Gonzalez as their No. 06 ORECA FLM09 slowed to a crawl just 15 laps into the race. The team brought the car in for a lengthy pit stop to fix electronic gremlins, dropping Gonzalez and an extremely fed-up co-driver, Gunnar Jeannette, well down the order. The duo eventually recovered for a fourth-place finish. CORE`s misfortune was Intersport Racing`s gain, as Kyle Marcelli and Tomy Drissi navigated the streets of Baltimore with ease. The pair, who also won at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, ran unchallenged for their second victory of the season.
"The track was really, really difficult. With the risk you take for a second here, tenth there, another tenth there, you have to keep your ego in check," Drissi said afterwards. "I got it down to race pace during my stint after settling in. So then it was about delivering a good car to Kyle to let him drive it in." "I think going into a temporary circuit on a weekend like this, you have to come in with a well-prepared car," Marcelli said. "We unloaded off the trailer with a baseline. We sat in the board room and picked what we wanted to do. I knew my job was to bring the car home and maintain the lead that I knew Tommy would bring me…. I kept my nose clean and did what I could to get by trying to be as clean and lean as possible. Our pace was really close for overall finish, but we had our own issues getting out of the pits, it took me three times to get the starter working, otherwise we might have been able to get out in front of the Dysons." Crossing the line in second was Genoa Racing with drivers Eric Lux and Elton Julian, while CORE autosport`s sister car of Jon Bennett and Frankie Montecalvo finished third. Scoring the GTC pole in Friday`s qualifying, Jeroen Bleekemolen may have brought the Black Swan Racing Porsche 911 GT3 Cup home safely for the team`s fourth win of the season, but it was quick thinking on the part of co-driver and team owner Tim Pappas that put the team in position for the win.
"The Turn 1 carnage was sort of predicted as the turn is very tight," Pappas said. "I think everyone expected it to be crazy. I was a little bit back and I was holding off to see what would happen. I got a little lucky; I saw a little hole on the outside and I went through, and just as I got through, it closed behind me and everything came to a stop." Bleekemolen, who became an Internet sensation after retrieving and placing his own errant tyre in the passenger side of the car and driving back to pit lane in qualifying, also offered credit to his co-driver for the win. "The race was not as exciting for me really, everything was set up by Tim," Bleekemolen said. "I got to keep the pace up and keep the risks down. It was such a good day to have a car like we had. Before the race I was told the YouTube video of me in qualifying made the national news in Spain and I got a lot of text messages. They showed the movie and all over Europe people are talking about it. My dad is racing in Germany and my brother is racing in the Netherlands and they were talking about it there. It's great!” The real GTC battle on track was for second and third between Alex Job Racing and Magnus Racing. At the line it was Keen in the Porsche 911 GT3 Cup he shares with Bill Sweedler, by 0.301 seconds over Craig Stanton who teams with John Potter. The ALMS was proud to report that, in its quest to be the greenest grand prix ever, and bearing in mind it took place in front of many representatives from, and on the doorstep of, all the relevant authorities and organisations in Washington DC, The Baltimore Grand Prix saw a significant 42 percent of oil replaced by renewable fuels compared to traditional all-petroleum racing fuel on a well-to-wheels basis. That that was cancelled out by the carbon footprint of the 150,000 fans returning home afterwards was neither here nor there. A good day was had by all.
Now onto the ever-popular Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca in two weeks for what seems hard to believe is the penultimate race of the season. Where did it go? It is guaranteed to be a thrilling six-hours of racing into the night...don’t go away. Fiona Miller |
