Acura Sports Car Challenge of St. Petersburg
Acura's Sweep - Lizard's Cruise

(With apologies for the delayed posting of this report - caused by a very late return to the UK for the DSC crew. Images to come)

An Acura 1-2 finish is, I'm sure, what corporate Honda had hoped for at their signature event; and a sweep of both prototype classes makes it even sweeter.  The only sour note is the electrical trouble suffered by the de Ferran team which ultimately took them out of contention for the win.  So Patron Highcroft would go into the record books with the honor of getting Acura its first P1 class win in ALMS competition.  Fernandez repeated their flawless Sebring performance and made it two class wins in a row.  In GT2 the #45 Flying Lizard Porsche watched their competition one-by-one fall away leaving them with a cruise to the finish.

The first hour of the race was rather uneventful, no cautions, no retirements and only a few position changes.  Then it all unraveled very quickly for quite a few teams.  The catalyst seemed to be an unfortunate tire failure on the PrimeTime Dodge Viper which sent Joel Feinberg into the wall at turn 10.  That incident would bring out the first, and only, full course caution. 

The early stages of the race saw Gil de Ferran build a substantial lead over Scott Sharp.  But as the stint wore on, Sharp's car started to come to him and he was closing the gap rapidly.  de Ferran chose a softer compound more suited to the previous day's cloudy skies and Highcroft opted for a harder compound.  Scott Sharp, "We started the race on a harder compound than they did.  The car was very nervous early, it was super loose in turn one.  I almost lost it several times.  But we expected it to come in later and set the car up for that and we were much quicker than them at the end of my stint."

Just as Sharp had reached the tail of the #66 Acura, de Ferran ducked into the pits for its first scheduled pit stop.  Unfortunately for them, this car would be back in for several unscheduled stops very soon.  The Acura engine on the #66 kept shutting down and, although the team made several attempts to remedy the problem, including changing out the ECU, a solution was never found.  That left t Highcroft and Intersport to battle for the P1 trophy.  The Intersport Lola was running very smoothly, but they were already a couple laps down to the Acuras so it was now Highcroft's race to lose.  Intersport would continue running strong and earn a second place finish in P1.  Jon Field, 2The engine ran great.  It was exactly what we think of, and expect, from these AER motors.  I was very happy with power, and we'll take the 2nd place finish too."

In class Highcroft had it pretty well covered, but for overall, there was another Acura team that had ideas of their own.  During the caution, the Lowes-Fernandez boys beat the Highcroft team out of the pits and put their P2 Acura in the lead.  Fernandez took the green flag and held Brabham at bay for several laps.  Eventually, finesse gave way to brawn and the P1 Acura took back the overall lead.

Diaz and Fernandez led P2 from flag to flag, but it wasn't as easy as it may seem.  The Dyson Mazda/Lolas are getting closer, and, if it were not for a few bobbles, they would have finished on the same lap.  Regardless, Diaz put in a superb opening stint without one misstep.  Diaz, "I had a good start. John Ward made a very good call with the tires. We had a good strategy there and it really made my life a lot easier. After that, I was pushing but I took my time passing people and was being conservative because my biggest goal was to give the car to Adrian in front of the Mazdas and without a scratch."

Chris Dyson was able to keep within striking distance of the Lowes Acura for his entire stint, but a pit violation for a crew member's visor being up really cost that car precious time.  Guy Smith took over, set the #20's fast lap and brought in to finish in second place in class.  Franchitti spun early coming out of turn 13, but saved it and was able to continue.  He was the fastest of all P2 drivers and made up the time he lost from the spin before handing over to Leitzinger.  Franchitti, "We really struggled with traction early on.  Turn #1 was like ice.  I just lost it coming onto the front straight, it went really early, my mistake.  But I was able to come back and make up the time.  It's nice to be competitive again."  The #20 team had to settle for third place after a flat tire forced Leitzinger to make an unscheduled pit stop.

GT2 is not usually a battle of attrition - it's usually the most reliable class and the one with the closest racing.  Well it started out with some very close racing, but ended with the Lizards basically uncontested to the checkered flag.  Bergmeister, "We had such a big lead that I didn't have pressure to fight for position, but I certainly could not relax. The Lizard pit kept me focused by dictating the lap time pace for me to run, and telling me when to pass lapped traffic and when to let guys by."

Pierre Kaffer started the Risi Ferrari from the pole and held that lead for the early stages, but he was being dogged by Wolf Henzler.  He finally succumbed to the constant pressure put on him by Henzler in the #87 Farnbacher-Loles Porsche.  The Porsches appeared to have the legs on the others early in the race, although we did not get to see the Ferrari with Melo behind the wheel.  Henzler was being held up by Kaffer in the Ferrari and Long was working hard to get around Auberlen in the #90 BMW.  Auberlen was making his M3 very wide coming down the front stretch, blocking the inside line and forcing Long to check up going into turn one.  Finally, Long got a good run down the front straight, broke very late and leaned against Auberlen's door to slide past.  That unfortunately was about the end of any door-to-door racing in the class.

The Risi Ferrari was the first car to retire - broken front suspension - and Melo never got a chance to get into the car.  The #90 BMW was next to run into trouble, and a broken starter kept them parked on pit road for the remainder of the race.  Henzler was still running quick laps when a rear tire started to go down.  The tire finally blew, and came apart making a mess inside the left rear wheel well.  It took the team extended time to clean that up and Werner took the track several laps behind and out of contention.  Wolf Henzler, "I don't think I hit anything.  I kept my same line, but I must have run over some debris and cut the tire.  I noticed the car beginning to oversteer and it was slowly getting worse. Then the tire blew."

Update: Now that the post-race discoveries are done, Michelin reports that the #87 did not suffer a tire failure.  Here is what happened.  The #87 picked up a piece of carbon fiber debris which became trapped between the RR tire and suspension.  The edge of the piece was coming into contact with the tire and apple peeled an outer layer of the inside edge of the tire. The rubber then started wrapping around the brake and brake line until the line broke, prompting the pit stop.   The car arrived in the pits with the tire inflated and still on the rim. The rubber that was cut away by the carbon fiber was wrapped around the brake and line requiring a change of the brake. Bottom line, #87 picked up debris which indirectly resulted in damage to the brakes.

So just like that, Bergmeister found himself in front of the class.  His nearest competitor was Eric Curran in the Riley Corvette, two laps back.  Behind the Corvette and on the same lap was the #21 Panoz and the #92 BMW.  Lou Gigliotti was very happy with the current situation they found themselves in, but was afraid it might be short lived. Gigliotti, "The car is really good, but we went too soft on our choice of tires.  It was great at the beginning of the stint but they really went off quickly.  I'm afraid Eric is going to find that out here in a few more laps."  Gigliotti was right and both the Panoz and the BMW methodically tracked down the flame covered Corvette and dropped them back to fourth. 

Ian James suffered the same fate as the Corvette during his stint in the Panoz, too soft on the tire choice.  James started out pretty strong but faded fast as the tires gave away.  The team changed to a harder compound when Farnbacher took over and the car improved.  Two races and two podiums for the PTG Panoz.  The second Panoz retired due to gearbox problems.

Mueller salvaged the day for the Rahal-Letterman BMW team with a late pass to take second place away from #21 Panoz.  Another DNF for the team would have been devastating after having been so competitive at this track.

The last of the finishers, sixth in class, was the Robertson Ford GT.  Murray started the car and had a strong stint.  He was running as high as fourth and was keeping close to the front pack for much of his stint.

There's no question that the 2009 version of the Acura Sports Car Challenge of St. Petersburg was not up to the standard set in the previous years.  But, under the circumstances, I think the ALMS still delivered a quality show.  I also still think this is one of the better events on the schedule.  The promoters do a great job, the atmosphere is fun, the city really embraces the event and the fan turn out is outstanding.  The ALMS needs to ensure that this event becomes a fixture on the schedule for many years to come.  And hopefully next year they can add a little quantity to the quality.

Race prediction recap; I think we have a tie, we were both two out of three with our picks, but since Gary did get the overall winner correct I'll give him the nod.  I'll get him back in two weeks at Long Beach.

Russell Wittenberg