ALMS Petit Le Mans - Thursday Afternoon

More Rain

Rain really sucks.

30 minutes or so before the afternoon session, rain came back.  Heavy.  50 minutes into the 1-hour session, a grand total of nine cars made it out on track.  Nine.

The fastest was the GTH(ybrid) Porsche, appropriately numbered 911.  Well most of the session anyway.  With only minutes remaining, Rob Bell brought the wonderful sounding 04 Ford GT to the top time of the session.

Frustration was pretty obvious up and down the paddock.  The rain was not supposed to be here this afternoon and it’s not supposed to be here later either.  Nobody wants to go out in this, but the lingering question is “is this what we’re going to be in for the rest of the weekend?”  It's pretty unsettled around here right now.

This truly was one of those sessions where there really wasn’t much to gain, but a whole lot to lose.  Thankfully nobody lost.

As an engineering effort, the Porsche Hybrid is amazing.  As a marketing tool, it’s even better.  The car has been on the cover of most every major car publication and the hits on the website have gone through the roof.  That is definitely a good thing for Porsche and the sport.

Marc Goossens was among those that sat out the session – both Jags sat silently in their cage.  “We’re making progress, but it’s difficult to see.  We were 2 or so seconds off the pace, but what were we, around a second off the pace at the last race?  It doesn’t matter – we’re still down around 10th or so in class.  We’ve gotten faster, but we’ve really gained no places on our competitors.  Thankfully, most of the reliability issues appear to be behind us now, so we’ve been able to finally start developing the car.  After Le Mans, we brought in some new suspension pieces and that helped.  It appears as if many have been quick to blame the tires, but that is not a problem where we are.  We are not getting enough out of the tires right now.  We’ve got some new suspension pieces, but unfortunately we’re still learning about them.  We need track time and it doesn’t help with this weather.”

One of those that team that hadn’t planned on going out was Highcroft.  The team was working on some prep work and was not in any real hurry to get it done in time for the session.  “After our last few years here, we don’t want to have to pull an all-nighter again on a Thursday”, said Duncan Dayton.

Ian Dawson was anxious to get the Libra Racing Radical IES on track after a new engine was installed.  “The motor we are running is based upon the IRL motor.  It’s a flat crank, and as such, creates quite a bit of vibration.  It’s sort of like we’re reaffirming some of those issues, quite like I had in my earlier years.”  Ian ran the Lola T-600 back in 1981, the first true GTP car, and it was equipped with the large Cosworth motor, which in it’s day presented similar issues.  “I’m quite happy with the progress we’re making with the car – it’s quite a good car and actually quite affordable to run.  We’re planning on a full season next year in the ALMS, based out of our shop in North Carolina.”  That is assuming it isn’t flooded after the recent weather up there.  A report surfaced that some point in North Carolina has had 21 inches of rain since last Sunday.

Fittingly, just after the checkered flag, the skies brightened and the rain stopped.  Another front coming through in time for night practice?