ALMS, Long Beach Grand Prix - Race Preview

Apologies readers - this one got lost in the internet ether

It’s April – it must be Long Beach time.

For the 6th time, the ALMS returns to the classic southern California street circuit – the grand-daddy of all street circuits in North America. Since 1975, the track has been home for Formula 5000, F-1, CART/ChampCar and now the Indy Car series.  During the years, the support races have featured many support series, such as the Trans-Am, Grand Am, and now for the last few years, the ALMS.

As has been the norm, the ALMS gets rather spread out time on track.  Practice on Friday will be at oh-my-God early, followed by a late afternoon qualifying session.  On Saturday, a lunchtime autograph session will allow the drivers an opportunity to kick back a bit and watch a few Saturday morning cartoons before heading to the track.  Also as usual, the race will be late on Saturday and again it will be a 2-hour long event.

Immediately following the ALMS race will be the traditional Saturday Night concert, this time featuring Joan Jett and the Blackhearts.  Forget about those post race interviews this time – Joan is in the house!!!

For 2012, the grid is full.  The ALMS has reached their allowed limit of entries for the race, which apparently is due to paddock space, not pit lane or track space.  In fact the paddock space is so tight that IMSA has been forced to devise an elaborate and complex schedule and arrangement to fill both the paddock and pit lane.  Speaking of pit lane – this is one scary place to be when the cars are on track and the area behind the wall is full of people.  I just can’t see how it can be judged as a safe atmosphere in which to work.  Anytime you can walk away from that area unscathed is something in which to be thankful for.

As far as the action on track, expect it to be the typical street course frantic.  As at Sebring, the entry is a bit light at the top end, this time featuring three P1 entries and four P2 entries.  The usual P1 entry of Muscle Milk and Dyson is supplemented by a second Dyson P1 entry, this one being last year’s championship winning car, entered for Michael Marsal and Eric Lux.

Muscle Milk and their HPD was very fast at Sebring and it should be no different here at Long Beach.  They won here last year in the Aston Martin, as they attempted to dig themselves out of a points hole after leaving Sebring empty handed.  This year, they left Sebring with second place points, putting them in a better place than they were coming here last year, points wise.  This will be a tough combo to beat at Long Beach.

Dyson, now with two cars at this race has had some time to come to grips with their new B12/60 Lola, but still may be behind the 8-ball when it comes to knowing what their new car likes and wants.  (Update - They were testing the week before Long Beach)  They will get there with the new Lola – it may just take a little longer.  The entry of the second car is positive news for not just the team, but the series, as they are in desperate need of good news for their top class.

While the news about P2 had been promising lately, there are now storm clouds a-brewing.  The US Federal Trade commission has filed a complaint against Scott Tucker, his brother and has also named Level 5 as a defendant, stating that the team has been “sponsored” by funds that have been transferred from the payday loan business.  These same complaints had started to surface around the time of Petit last season.  Now they appear to be much more serious.  Rumors indicated that it was the end of the road for the team and that the Feds had stepped in and locked up the facility.  As of Saturday, that was not true.  Their compound was a hive of activity as the team was making preparations, presumably for Long Beach.

Where this leaves the series and the P2 class is difficult to say.  Time will tell, but in the meantime, at least Black Swan and Conquest are signed up and ready to compete.  In the case of Black Swan, Tim Pappas will once again be paired with his driving partner from the last few seasons, Jeroen Bleekemolen.  Whether their season will be affected by the Level 5 controversy is unknown at this time, as supposedly their car is leased for Level 5.

As for Conquest, it is unconfirmed, but a photo indicates that the team has switched from the Judd motor to Nissan.  This will be the first appearance for the Nissan motor, one that has been very strong elsewhere, in the ALMS.

GT was tremendous at Sebring, but should be even better at Long Beach.  The usual suspects will be strong as usual, but expect Falken to be right there as their tires and the Porsche seem to like street courses.  Look for a strong fight between the Rahal BMWs, the Corvettes and the 45 Flying Lizard Porsche, with maybe the 01 ESM Ferrari stepping in.  A welcome visitor will be Aston Martin Racing and their Bond numbered Vantage.  As at Sebring, this class is loaded and will likely be worth the price of admittance all by themselves.

Adding to the competitiveness of the class will be recent reg changes.  Porsche cars will be allowed to compete 20kg lighter than the ‘Vettes, BMWs and Ferraris, while Corvette has been given a fuel flow restrictor break of +6mm over the rest of the competitors.

New cars are always good to see and this will be the debut race for the Alex Job Racing Lotus Evora.  Will it be competitive out of the box?  Not likely.  Even Alex Job knows this is a long term project – hopefully the patience of Job will be rewarded.  As an aside, the appearance of the Lotus, expected to be in traditional JPS like Lotus black/gold, will complete the necessary color schemes of 2012 – black and gold and Gulf Blue/orange.

LMPC appears to be wide open.  CORE was the dominant team in the results at Sebring, but that was more based on consistency and reliability.  They were not the fastest in track, but they were there at the end. The addition of Ryan Dalziel to partner Alex Popow will do the team’s efforts no harm at all here at Long Beach.  A nice second place finish for Junco/Leitzinger and the PR1 Mathiasen entry shows they are serious and should be there also.  The others featured well also at Sebring, but faltered for various reasons. To be honest, spec racing is understandably not something that is usually looked forward to, but this class could be very special this season.

GTC?  At this point, it’s pretty much run it’s course.  In a large field, this class has really become nothing more than a field filler.  That is a shame, as the competitors are giving it all they’ve got.  Unfortunately that’s just not cutting it anymore.  At Sebring, the GTC class was absolutely ignored.  At Long Beach, it may get a bit of a notice, but not likely.  It’s time for some fresh blood into this class.  A variety of cars would help, but the way it currently sits, sorry – it’s just not interesting.

A Long Beach preview wouldn’t be right without the mention of the unofficial diet of DSC USA – In-n-Out, here we come…