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ALMS, Miller
Motorsports Park - Saturday Morning Flying in last night, the Salt Lake City area looked like a movie back drop for a Steven Speilberg movie. Dark ominous clouds with flashes of lightning in the distance – I half expected to see the mother ship come drifting down through the clouds as we made a late night run to In-N-Out. (Cue Close Encounters music…)
Saturday morning dawned bright and warm with just a few very small clouds floating about. All in all not that bad for a race weekend. As usual, the times for the first sessions here can be a bit misleading. Many teams have tested here recently and hit the track ready to go, while some are still getting themselves acclimated to the desert race track. On track, results from the session were not all that surprising. Jon Field had the Intersport Lola into the 1:35 range, the only car to do so.
Second fastest was Guy Smith in the Dyson Lola Mazda. Guy was mostly satisfied with the car, but wanted a bit more changes made to the set-up – the team has confidence heading into this race.
Highcroft, 4th fastest in the session, has reverted back to their original –B configuration here, after running to –C spec at Le Mans. The reason is the IMSA regs dictate that once a team switches to an aero package that incorporates the narrower rear wing, they are not allowed to change back. Expect the team to change to –C for Road America.
Gunnar (Porn Star) Jeannette headed up the LMPC class, not unexpectedly, as this is his home track now. He was almost 0.6 seconds faster than Andy Wallace around the 3 mile long perimeter circuit.
GT was again Risi at the top, Bruni turning the fastest lap. Fisichella and the car No 61 was 7th fastest in class, with both drivers still getting acclimated to the circuit. After getting his first experience on the track, Fisi had this to say - “The first few laps of the circuit, it was difficult to find the right line and braking points. But lap after lap, I was getting better and feeling more comfortable. By the end, I was closer to the laps of the other competitors. I’m very glad to be racing here although it is not easy to find braking and reference points because it is so wide-open. It’s also quite hot, but that’s part of the job! “When Ferrari proposed to do this championship with me, I was very pleased. Our main target for the season is to do the Le Mans Series in Europe but I was surprised and happy to do this race.
“The races here are very close, everyone finishes very close to each other; it’s more competitive I think than in Europe because there are more manufacturers. Our goal is to have a good qualifying session and to do well, hopefully to go on the podium and help Jaime and Gianmaria in the Championship because they are alone [a single car entry] and there are 2 Corvettes, 2 BMWs and 2 factory Porsches. “I’ve had a very good day today. The car feels very positive and consistent and the atmosphere and all the guys in the team are very nice. Everyone is very friendly, in the team and in the paddock. It feels like I have been here in the team for many years but it’s my first day actually.” The BMW of Mueller/Hand was second fastest, followed by the 45 Lizard, which is re-acclimating itself to the desert. BWM is running the usual body work here, but expects to debut their newly developed body work at Lime Rock. Falken only got in 3 laps in the session because of the fire, but they expect to get the car back out in time to at least use qualifying as a shake down. Bryce Miller was fastest in the GTC class, taking advantage of some earlier running here at Miller. Gary Horrocks |
