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Rolex 24 – Friday Wrap Up The Friday afternoon session ended with Graham Rahal taking the pole winning #60 Michael Shank Riley off track, into the grass coming out of the chicane. There was body damage, but nothing significant.
Also, the Goldin Brothers’ Mazda did make it back out on track, as the damage from the previous session was not as bad as was first reported. It was confirmed that Krohn Racing will race debut their new Lolas at the Miami / Homestead event. A parallel program of developing the Lola has been going on with the preparations for this one last race with the Rileys. The team has not qualified up as far as they expected, but they still feel confident for the race, as they had planned on taking the time to get the new drivers, Ricardo Zonta and Darren Turner, up to speed in the cars at a track that is different from any other that they are accustomed to. Plus, they are more concerned about a race set up than a qualifying set-up. Team Manager David Brown said, “we’ve spent the bulk of our time trying to get the unfamiliar drivers, who are Darren and Ricardo, seat time. In and amongst that, we’ve tried to tune the car for the race. Of course, we’ve done no winter development because we shelved the cars (Rileys) at the end of last season. We then came here to the test with two Lolas. We only had one after half-way through the first day, so we struggled a bit for laps for the drivers for familiarity and to get the car going quicker. We seem to be better and we think we’ve got a reasonable race set-up. The drivers now know their way around the track, even in the dark. They also know how the tires work. So we’ve done most of our homework and now it’s just down to doing a solid, reliable, conservative longevity-based job in the race on the part of all the drivers and the team. That’s exactly what we’re going to set out to do, starting at 1:30 tomorrow afternoon.” “I think the past couple of days have been very well ordered and planned,” added Tracy Krohn. “We had one incident with the car at the “bus stop”. We reviewed it on video and, unfortunately, I don’t know what I could have done differently at the time. But it taught us a couple of things. We all learned something as a result of that. – what not to do and what causes that incident. Other than that, the entire week has been to plan. We’re right on time. In fact, we’re actually a little ahead of schedule. The cars are prepped well. We’re very satisfied with the performance of the car. I think we’ve got an excellent race car and a really good chance for succeeding this year.”
Darren Turner, first time here in #76, comments that “I always enjoy racing in America because I find the circuits are more challenging than the majority of the ones back in Europe. They don’t have as much run-off, the concrete walls are very close and it makes you have to work that bit harder. There are more bumps, so they are not as refined, but I think that’s a good thing. If it’s all smooth and perfect, then there’s less of a challenge. I like the fact that you really have to think about it; you have to learn the circuit and understand where the bumps are and where the grip is and everything else. For me, I really enjoy learning another circuit and this one is certainly special.” “We might be lacking a little bit of ultimate pace,” added Ollie Gavin, “but, I think, as we found out in our briefing, you don’t need to be super, super fast here to have a great result. You just need to be smart. You need to stay out of trouble. You need to have a good team, have good teammates and everyone working on the same game plan. I think we’ve got a good strategy. I’m looking forward to it.”
The Krohn / van de Poele / Gavin car will start 25th, after missing qualifying. It will still be able to work through the DPs, but we won’t have a chance to see it work through the whole field, as in conventional forms of racing. Janos will take over here on Saturday, with starting drivers and then text throughout the race. The weather forecast is calling for sprinkles through most of Saturday, with sunny skies returning on Sunday. GT to be won in the pits? Because of tight space in pit lane, the Farnbacher Loles team has only 3.5 pit stalls – space that will allow four cars to pit easily at one time, five cars if necessary. The new Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series has altered the system of pitting under caution: only DP cars may pit on the first lap of a full-course caution, only GT cars on the second lap, any cars on the third, so coordinating pit stops for seven cars (at TRG too) will be a challenge. Team owner Gregory Loles heads a three-man team that will coordinate overall strategy for the seven cars. The team has prepared computer models and spreadsheets covering numerous "what-if" scenarios. With the talent-packed GT field this year, Loles noted, "This race will be won in the pits." By this car perhaps?
The Koni Cup race on Friday was won by Craig Stanton and Tim Traver in their BGB Motorsports Porsche 997 - which is just about the same color as the Krohn Rileys. Finishing second was the #55 Hyper Sport Mustang of Joe Foster, Jeff Courtney and Scott Maxwell. Strong races by Jack Roush Jr / Dean Martin (Rehagen Mustang), Spencer Pumpelly / Duncar Ende (TRG Porsche) and Tom Milner / Andrew Davis (Motorsport Technologies Porsche) came to naught, allowing Stanton to win, under caution, by 4.3 seconds over Maxwell. The Canadian was added to the Hyper Sport line up yesterday, as an opportunity for Maxwell to possibly gain some points for the season championship. Stanton led the final nine laps of the 76-lap race. While running third on Lap 68, he watched as Pumpelly took the lead from Milner at Turn 1 – but moments later, Pumpelly slowed, smoke bellowing out of his #39 TRG Porsche 997. Stanton made what would become the winning pass moments after that, passing Milner on the backstretch. Milner later pulled his car off the track, handing second place to Scott Maxwell, who had Stanton too far ahead for the Canadian to mount a serious challenge: with the final of five cautions waving five minutes from the scheduled checkered flag, Maxwell had to settle for runner-up position. The ST class was an Acura affair, finishing 1-4, with i-Moto team cars taking the top two spots. Post-race inspection revealed that the i-Moto cars ran with illegal fuel cells, costing the team and drivers points towards the season Championship. Each car was docked 10 team points and all four drivers lost five points – but they were allowed to keep the win. For the 3 hour (76 lap race) there were five caution periods, accounting for 18 laps. A total of 91 cars started the race. In other news, Skip Barber Racing and Grand-Am today announced an agreement that not only provides sanction of the BFGoodrich / Skip Barber National Presented by Mazda, but makes the Skip Barber organization the Official Racing & Driving School of Grand-Am. Now in its 10th year, the 2008 BFGoodrich / Skip Barber National Presented by Mazda is a 14-race championship that awards its annual champion one of the largest title bonuses in all of junior-formula racing: a paid season in the following year's Star Mazda Series, worth approximately $350,000. |
