ALMS, Long Beach Grand Prix – Race Preview

Opposites.  East coast to West coast.  Permanent circuit to street circuit.  Twelve hours to two hours.  Bright, beautiful skies to…?

Welcome to the Long Beach Grand Prix, round 2 of the 2011 American Le Mans Series.  It’s become routine – if it’s mid-April, it must be Long Beach.   After a nearly week long stay in central Florida, it’s now effectively an in-n-out experience (literally and figuratively) in Southern California where, as usual, track time is limited.  The cars are on track very early  for two hours Friday morning, followed by qualifying late in the day, which will be 15 minute sessions, separated by classes – GT first, followed by GTC, LMP1/LMP2 and then LMPC.  Friday is an ALMS bookend day – first on track and the last off.

After the fiasco of race day warm-up a few years ago, it’s still gone, which leaves Saturday to re-con laps at 4:00, followed by a 4:30 race start time.  That’s not to say it will be a short day at the track – for photographers, there are mandatory 6:15am photo meetings both days.  Oh joy!  

The track limit is for 35 cars max – we’re close this year with 31 entered as of the writing of this.  The break down is 2 LMP1, 2 LMP2, 14 GT, 5 LMPC and 8 GTC. 

As expected, the top part of the field is pretty thin, count wise, but at least we’ve got two cars to battle.  Based on Sebring pace, the Muscle Milk Aston Martin ought to be the one that comes out on top, but as we saw at the 12 hours  – well that’s why we race.  Dyson responded with a clean run to finish first among the full season competitors, bringing home valuable points while Greg Pickett’s team left Sebring empty handed. 

Last season, the Aston was on its way to victory, only to be hunted down in the waning moments of the race.  For Long Beach, two additional parts of the equation have changed – IMSA is allowing the Mazda motor to breathe easier, with a larger restrictor opening.  Consider this the IMSA balancing for their regular season, when they are not tied to complete adherence to the ACO regs.

The other part of the equation is race distance and how this will affect not just the LMP1 battle but the rest of the classes.  Is it possible to one stop this race at this race distance?  Not likely, but depending on how many yellows – well you never know.  Is the range of the Aston less or greater than the Mazda?

LMP2 is Level 5 vs. Level 5.  Scott Tucker is listed for both cars – will a timing and scoring hiccough again list him in both cars simultaneously?   At Sebring, the P2 cars had a difficult time keeping with, let alone ahead of the LMPC cars – don’t expect much different here again.

The GT class will be, as it will be all season long, the highlight of the race.  I’d expect the Porsches to be a bit more competitive than they were at Sebring, especially as IMSA has granted them a small weight break, post Sebring.  Patrick Long always seems to shine in front of his “home” crowd – I’d expect the 45 Lizards to be right there at the end, in the hunt for the win.

Again, expect the usual suspects to be right there with them, although if you listen to the voices of the paddock, expect BMW to dominate.  Up and down the pit lane at Sebring, the feeling was that the Bobby Rahal led team was expecting a flood soon and were stocking up on sandbags.  Corvette Racing seems to be back on track after a rough beginning to the 2010 season – can they use their torque to break through here on the streets of Long Beach?

The Ferraris?  Is the 458 up to the task on a street course?  Speed wise likely, but are they ready to break through yet?

IMSA also announced restrictor breaks for the Doran built, Robertson racing Ford GTs, but they are instead concentrating on the Le Mans test, as well as the West Racing Lamborghini.  Don’t expect that to be enough for them to challenge, but at least they are putting forth a good effort so far.

Just to muddy the picture from here on out – IMSA also announced that the E10 runners in GT will be required to add 10 kg to their cars.  At Sebring, most of the competitors had switched to E10, but according to the current entry list, that balance has again swapped back to the majority running E85.

LMPC is down to 5 cars, with the TBD brothers still listed for PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports.  I’d expect the Core Autosport team to be towards the front as they continue to sort out their cars.  After some initial negative barbs thrown at this class, it appears to have firmly established itself as a viable part of the Series, especially as it gives some much needed support to the prototype numbers.

GTC as a class is fine and offers some good racing, but think what it could be like with the addition of other cars than Porsches…  Oh well – whatever pays the bills.  At Long Beach, Jeroen Bleekemolen is back with Black Swan and they are the likely favorites, but Leh Keen is a very fast and accomplished driver and he should move the AJR entry up front without much trouble.  TRG and Magnus will also be in the hunt – this could be a fun battle to watch, but because it is a “spec” class, it will likely be overshadowed by other battles, especially what we will be seeing in GT.

Much like it was at Sebring, the action on the track at Long Beach should be good.  It’s a classic setting with a large crowd, on a track that, despite tight confines, does allow for good racing.  I just hope I leave Long Beach feeling better about things than I did when I left Sebring.  These next two plus months without racing could be very important to the health of the ALMS.

Gary Horrocks