ILMC/ ALMS, Twelve Hours Of Sebring - GTE Class Round Up

This was a class that promised so much, from the size of the entry, through its quality, the first true fight to take place under the new regulations, one of the all time classic races and a brand new Ferrari race car, or rather three of them. It certainly delivered too.

It was clear that the BMWs and the Corvettes could most consistently deliver the best pace through most of the race, with the Ferraris of Risi and AF Corse keeping them more than honest most of the time. Ultimately the finishing order of BMW, BMW, Corvette, Corvette seemed natural enough, but to jump straight to that conclusion without delving into the detail of the race within a race would not do the introduction to GTE category racing justice.

GTE Am can be dispensed with relatively summarily.

The Aston never really got going, or rather it took an age to do 5 laps and then didn’t do any more, a badly broken starter ring gear causing major damage - twice!

The Larbre Corvette was sidelined by ‘electrical’ (photos would suggest piston through a wire is as accurate as that statement might be) problems after around 90 minutes, but had shown good pace, running in second.

CRS were steady and consistent for a large part of the race, second place seemed like a potential prize for that approach for the all amateur crew, but ultimately the pace of the Proton Porsche and Krohn Ferrari took them out of reach once they had got past their respective problems. CRS struggled with a lack of radio communication and sadly couldn’t get Roger Wills’ attention and he ran out of fuel after nine and a half hours.

Lietz was one of the classiest drivers in the GTE field, let alone the GTE-Am field and that quality shone through every time he was in the car. It seemed he could take the Porsche back to the lead or stretch it at will.

But the Krohn guys didn’t roll over, Jonsson would regularly get within a second or so of Lietz’s pace and although it appeared to be advantage Porsche through most of the race, these two were often running one behind the other in terms of overall position. It was only when the Porsche suffered clutch problems and dropped out of contention, coming home second, that there was any distance at all between them.

So round one to Krohn but this looks like it could be an LIMC-season long slug fest.

Krohn: "First of all, I have to thank our team. In our last 36 hours of racing, between Daytona and this race, we haven't had a single mechanical issue. We've raced trouble-free and never been behind the wall. That's a tribute to the drivers we have and the team prep. These guys are professionals and they just do it right.

“I want to dedicate this win to my friends in Afghanistan right now, the 101st Airborne Company of Lt. Colonel Vincent. You know who you are and where you are. They are moving around every day in dangerous conditions and I think about those guys all the time. We proudly displayed the Cav Club on the Ferrari and we plan to keep it there the whole season. To the 101st Airborne - this one's for you!”

And so to Pro, and it really did turn out to be Pro.

AF Corse had done wonderful things with their F430 through testing and qualifying and it seemed the ‘old girl’ was possibly the favourite for the race. Corvette certainly wanted to remind them that their Sebring test had been pretty productive too. Indeed Gavin got took the initial lead before Bruni gave us our first bit of doorhandle to doorhandle racing – there was plenty to come – and retook the lead, stretching away and dominating for the early part of the race. "The Ferrari went wide and I got by him," Gavin said. "Once the Ferrari's tires came in, he started to catch me - any amount of dust on the track and our performance started to suffer. Then with new Michelins after the first pit stop, we were back in the hunt and could race anybody."

BMW’s #55 was in the lead bunch when it was hit by the P2 Lola Coupe and had its front left tyre sliced, pitting under green just before the track went yellow for the expired (broken wheel) Lamborghini. Yet more bad luck for Müller when he was tagged into a spin by a Jaguar.

The pace of Risi’s 458 surprised many including, it is fair to say, Risi, and after the first round of stops Jaime Melo became the first driver to lead a race in a GTE-spec (or possibly any spec) 458 Italia. Jaime Melo: “After the start I was struggling a bit to keep the pace with the BMWs and Corvettes, but we were on qualifying tires so of course they weren’t as good as new tires. We are still missing some speed on the straight line, but the car isn’t too bad. At the first pit stop under yellow I asked for medium compound tires; we got some speed from them but with this heat it was maybe not a good choice so we’ve gone back to the hards for now.

“It wasn’t easy to keep the pace, especially with the Corvette behind me which was very quick – they were pushing a bit. I was maybe a little bit better on traffic I think which helped me to keep the gap but otherwise so far so good.”

AF Corse’s 430 went into stealth mode for a while as the Corvettes put pressure on the #55 BMW, chased by the #45 Porsche.

Jaguar, despite having two cars, were still nowhere near the pace, but did at least bring a car home, which was their ultimate aim. Gentilozzi takes some real positives from the race and they were quicker in the race than in qualifying, so progress is being made, but a lot more needs to come.

Likewise Panoz who were almost invisible (bar just 19 laps when they were circulating before the engine let go).

Luxury Racing simply had too many problems, but this is a big jump up from the GT Open series that they are used to.

The lead Doran Ford showed very strongly early on before a four minute whammy for overtaking under yellows and then starter motor woes, but made a recovery again towards the end before breaking down for good on Colin Braun. Ultimately it was the #040 car that would bring home the bacon with an excellent eighth place being the result of a sensible and steady drive that the team should be delighted with.

BMW’s pitwork was stellar, eclipsing even the traditional world masters Corvette this time. Werner’s consistent initial work was translated through a swift handover into a lead for the newly installed Auberlen. Vilander was keen to show what Risi’s 458 could do though and was soon back into the lead.

Porsche’s less-than-heady peak came when Long tried a move on #04 into the final turn but bounced wildly on a bump, landing way off its intended line, ploughing into Magnussen’s Corvette and turning both cars.

The unfortunate van Overbeek in the lead Extreme Speed 458 tried to take avoiding action around the outside but the gyrating Corvette just clipped it, pitching it uncontrollably into the air and just as uncontrollably back to earth and hard backwards into the tyres. He was OK but #001’s race was run and van Overbeek had just what he didn’t want, the accolade of being the first guy to wreck a 458 race car. At least it was in no way his fault.

Corvette suffered worst as a result of the two impacts to the Porsche’s one but the fight back by that crew from two laps lost with suspension repairs and another lap lost with a penalty for working on the car whilst the pits were closed was absolutely awesome stuff. "I got a better run going onto the straight, and Long moved to the right to block me," Magnussen said. "No big deal, I went around him on the outside. I think he was bouncing over the bumps, and bounced into the side of my car. I can't be upset with him, but I was upset at the situation."

With 2:20 gone Fisichella was back into third place and Hand was back into sixth in the recovering #56. Hand’s first stint was peerless, the closest thing to it all race was his second... “I have never felt so good in a GT car than during this race. The balance of the BMW M3 GT is just fantastic. The guys from BMW Motorsport and BMW Team RLL did a great job. Our Dunlop tyres work very well, too, so we can push all the time. The traffic is unbelievable, it’s very, very tough out there. You have to be careful and keep away from any trouble. I worked my way back up from outside the top-ten to the very top. This was good fun.”

At the restart after the remains of the first shortened 458 had been cleared, BMW were first and fifth, Hand passing Milner to take fourth and Fisichella for third at turn three, having had a few stabs in the preceding corners before he unsettled the ex-F1 man and pounced as the 430 jinked wide. The BMW looked extremely well planted at all stages of each stints and charged on like a dragster on the straights too. It looks like a truly formidable package.

Hand and Fisichella were catching Vilander again too, as was Milner (now a Corvette man) who traded places twice with Fisichella. Vilander admitted “We are finding it difficult to keep up with the BMWs, especially on the straights, but we just need to keep going without any issues or making any mistakes and we’ll see where we are in a few hours time.” Auberlen and Hand were established in a BMW 1-2 within the first three hours, but much was to happen before that would be fixed for the chequer to witness.

When it came round to #56’s stop, Priaulx took over and the driver change cost them the lead. Salo in Risi’s car was so hungry to take the lead he didn’t even want the tyres changed.

Westbrook was doing a great job on his Corvette debut, responsible for reversing the trend and bringing them back up from lows of a three lap deficit and tenth place with a third of the race gone after those early repairs and a penalty.

Due to many yellows, the BMWs couldn’t pull far away from the pack of #003 Corvette, AF Corse, Risi and Falken.

Bruni gave the F430 a good show in his second stint before handing to Fisi, repassing Priaulx but no longer able to show the dominance of his first stint, Priaulx could stay glued in behind, biding his time for the next pit sequence to take the lead again.

Fisichella then took an out of sequence stop with a penalty for having too many crew over the wall and AF Corse then became the odd one out as #56 decided to join with the regulars and pitted with #55 at the next yellow.

Great pitwork established them as a true 1-2 this time, with #55 leading and the BMWs now only challengeable on pace, not on strategy.

Werner’s halfway stint was a difficult one and with a slow puncture he succumbed to Vilander and came under real pressure from Milner. "Most of my teammates have driven Formula 1 cars, and it makes the race that much more fun when you have the best drivers in the world," said Milner. "I was able to settle into a rhythm, find the balance, and push from there. Maybe I was a little too racy for my first stint, but I wanted to settle in and get the nerves out."

Mueller was faring better and challenging Kaffer for the lead and taking it, but only for Kaffer to succeed in fighting back.

Magnussen’s charge in #04 was epic, running up with the lead bunch and trying to get himself back into the lead lap with some very menacing and extremely quick driving.

Auberlen was able to pass Salo leading up to the final third and despite fighting back to the lead Risi’s race would then deteriorate and wane apace with the passing of daylight.

Alternator problems led to the 24-hour lights draining the battery and tripping out the

headlights and power steering. Vilander couldn’t do another stint in those conditions and, whilst he tried, Melo had a back problem and couldn’t do a stint either, even after 3 or 4 minutes ‘rest’ as the car refused to fire up and a new battery was added. He brought it back in for Salo to try but the team had to pull the car on safety grounds. Flashes of brilliance from a brand new car and it earned the respect of the paddock, but just as anyone would expect, it isn’t quite there yet.

Vilander had experienced the initial onset of problems: “I was running well in third, with plenty of fuel, and fuel pressure and low battery lights appeared on the dash. After half a lap I lost the power steering so had no option but to come in and we lost two laps in the pits which was quite unfortunate. Before then, I think I did our car’s fastest lap time, 2:01.9, and a long sequence of quick laps on 2.02s and the car felt good. At that point in the race we were also in a good condition fuel wise – we had half a tank more than our closest rivals and we could have had a podium finish.”

Milner’s stint into the final third was a great one as he charged back from having to have the Corvette’s windscreen replaced and it saw him take the scalps of Bruni, Henzler and Salo, setting himself up for what seemed like a second place finish. "That was probably the hardest I've had to work in a race car to see out of the windshield," Milner reported. "The crew changed the entire window in nothing flat, and that was great because the car was really, really good. When the sun went down, it definitely picked up grip."

Priaulx looked unstoppable, running as high as ninth overall, ahead of all P2 and LMPC cars. These are massively impressive race cars.

Into the final quarter and Falken fell out of it with gearbox problems, they were almost always nearly in contention but only ever looked like picking up any pieces at best.

Farfus restored the BMW 1-2 outdragging Fisichella on the back straight just before he handed back over to Kaffer. A bizarre incident in the pits saw the rear right window dislodged on the F430 when it rejoined, acting like an airbrake and costing seconds a lap before Kaffer had to stop to have it fixed, and that was the end of their charge, replaced in the top four instead by Westbrook, and that, once the Risi car was parked for good, is how the final top four was formed.

Farfus could have challenged for the lead but it was his turn to lose an entire tyre when he caught the front of the #04 Corvette with the rear left. Werner’s recovery from fifth seemed to be destined for the final podium place until the pace the BMW was able to deploy, even against the might of Corvette, made it obvious second was his goal.

Into the last hour and Bruni was still fifth, just 13 seconds off Gavin. But ahead of that duo Milner took the fastest lap of the race in class with 45 minutes to go, taking nearly a quarter of a second out of Bruni’s earlier benchmark. That relentless pace and residual strength of the car saw BMW retake that 1-2 with as much as 38 minutes of the race left and Milner had no answer.

The final stops saw Kaffer and Magnussen take their duel to the end but it didn’t get closer than six seconds and the 430 dropped away towards the end, but was very much safe from a distant Long in sixth, and Law seventh.

Even without the clash and subsequent penalty the Lizards weren’t going to challenge for this one, especially as misfires had plagued the #45 car after fluid spilt from a cool suit had got into the electrics. Patrick Long: "it wasn't an easy day for us, but I'm proud of everyone for soldiering on. It is days like this that can help you win the championship; you have to keep your head down and just get it done. I had a tough opening stint and felt really badly about the incident with the Corvette. My last two stints were uneventful and in the end, we were able to bring both cars home. Now on to Long Beach."

Team principal Neiman said, "It wasn't the way we had hoped to start our season, but it was good to see the team fight back from some difficult circumstances and put some reasonable points up for the championship. Congratulations to BMW and Corvette - the teams and cars ran very strong. And clearly we have some work to do and some time to go after it between now and Long Beach."

Mario Theissen (BMW Motorsport Director): “This was a perfect start for us in the 2011 ALMS season. We won in a very hard-fought race against very strong competitors and celebrated a fantastic one-two with our BMW M3 GT cars. A big compliment not only goes to our drivers but also to the development team in Munich and BMW Team RLL. Everyone did a great job here in Sebring, from the first to the last pit stop.”

Bobby Rahal (Team Principal): “I have won this race as a driver and now also as a team owner. This certainly is a great honour. The drivers and the team worked exceptionally well, the Dunlop tyres were excellent and the cars really didn’t miss a beat. This is a great start to our season.”

Dirk Müller (#56): “I’m incredibly happy now. It’s never easy to win a 12-hour race, but today it was extra tough. Over the entire race we were among the front-runners and believed in our chance. This victory is the perfect for reward for all the hard work which was put in by BMW Motorsport and BMW Team RLL over the winter.”

Joey Hand (#56): “I came to Sebring with a really good feeling that we could win this – and now it really worked out. The victory belongs to everyone in BMW Team RLL. In the off-season the guys built two brand-new BMW M3 GT cars that worked well from the word go. I also want to say thank you to Dunlop. The tyres played an important part today and we had this advantage on our side.”

Andy Priaulx (#56): “What a great result. The team did a flawless job and didn’t make a single mistake over the 12 hours. Following our bad luck in the first stint, we managed to work our way up front. Our team-mates would have also deserved victory. But I think that we can all be very happy with this one-two.”

Paul Slinger