Um, well. That was an interesting afternoon. Requests to team PR people to talk to team principals have pretty much been greeted with a question about what do you want to talk about. When the response is, “well, I’d like to talk about plans” – I’m quickly met with a roll of the eyes and a comment that I can tell you exactly what they will. “We’re waiting on the regulations and schedule.” All together now – “we’re waiting on the regulations and schedule.”
Concerning the schedule, there was a plan in place to announce the schedule this weekend here at MRLS – that will not happen now. It seems that some contractual concerns needed to be addressed and sorted before the schedule could be finalized. Expect an announcement within the next few weeks. Until then, “we’re waiting on the regulations and schedule.”
Peter Barron of Starworks fame, always good for a quote stated; “I’ve got no idea what I’ll be doing. I may just go to work at Starbucks. It’s got to be less stressful than what I’m doing now. Might pay better too. As far as next season, I really don’t have any idea. Our BMW deal is a five-race deal. I don’t know if we’re back with them – we could maybe run a P2. I really don’t know, but Starbucks does sound rather appealing right now. Would you like a double?”
Earlier, Peter was seen in conversation with a series official concerning the usual. What was comical was that he said; “I’m not one to swear, but there were more than a few of them coming out of my mouth in that conversation.” Come on Peter – we know better. All one needs to see is the interview of him from Indy last season. Enough said.
As far as the failure of the BMW motor in the #01 Ganassi car earlier today, Peter said he really didn’t know much about it. Yes, Starworks is running the same motor in the #2, but as of the moment, Peter didn’t know what happened – all he knows is that he can’t be blamed for it.
Good news from the track is that ticket sales are actually up over last season. 13% up. Not huge, but a positive sign anyway. Gill Campbell, CEO/General Manager of Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca sees the USCR as a promising proposition, but cautions that it needs to be done right; “What we need is for this new series to kick off with a fresh start. Nothing like this is what the Grand Am or this is what the ALMS changed to. Make it a fresh start. I know the competitors have needs – it’s quite obvious if you walk the paddock – but us that host the events need to have info too. We need to know what the show will be like. Are we going to see a different look? We know what the Grand-Am has been and we know what the ALMS has been.”
“It is my job to promote our events – to get the dates and info out to the public. It is the series’ job to promote what they have – to get the word out about the sport in general. Personally I feel very strongly that sportscar racing has to be at our facility and it is important for this facility to host major sportscar events. Sportscar racing is what has built this facility; it is in our DNA.”
On track, local (San Francisco) resident Johannes van Overbeek (ESM) too was a bit taken back about the heat. “Yeah, the track is a bit slick, but it’s the same for everybody. As far as at ESM, yeah, Guy leaving the team was a bit of a shock. Anytime someone leaves a team mid-season is tough, but he had to do what he had to do. I still consider him a friend – it was strictly a business decision. We’ll be ok.” ESM is making their 4th start in the series this season and in the afternoon session they posted a time that was the fastest of the Ferraris, 6th fastest in class.
Jon Fogarty (Gainsco) was sporting his own personal tribute to the ‘70’s – a really nice set of Emerson Fittipaldi-esque sideburns. Really tasteful, if pre-disco era sideburns are your thing… He too found the track slick. As far as chasing the championship, he said, “we’ve got a pretty good car here so far. I think we’re where we need to be. We’ll need a bit of help from the others, but we’ll just have to run our won race here and at Lime Rock and see how it all works out.” As far as working out, the afternoon sessions weren’t as kind to them , as they were 6th fastest, just over a second back. Fastest in DP was the #8 Starworks car, running the “old” 5.0 liter BMW V8. The 30 minute session was a combined session with 34 cars taking the track and it was followed by a 30 minute session for the Trueman/Akin Award participants – namely those cars with “gentleman drivers” in them.
Again, fastest in GT was Turner, making it a sweep thus far of all of the sessions for the Auberlen/Dalla Lana pair, including the Continental Tire Challenge sessions.
As far as sad news, Multimatic’s Larry Holt’s father passed away last week. The long time Ferrari dealer in Toronto was responsible for taking Larry to his first race ever – the 1971 F1 race at Mosport. He retired when he was 55 and then moved to Portugal, where, according to Larry, “he enjoyed the good life, drinking more red wine than anyone could imagine. Thankfully he didn’t really struggle. He did have a very good life.” Sometimes that is all you can ask for.
Qualifying
Late in the afternoon/early evening, qualifying took place on what had been a very long and drawn out day here at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca.
First up was GT, and early success went to John Edwards in the Stevenson Camaro. He was the first of the drivers to dip into the 1:27s with a 1:27.529. Behind him, Boris Said in the Marsh Corvette.
With about six minutes to go in the session, John Potter (Magnus Porsche) had a trip to the kitty litter, but recovered and drove out. Almost immediately, Charles Espenlaub found the litter again and brought out the yellow. The car was pulled back on to the track with two minutes to go in the session, effectively ending the qualifying efforts for all. The track went green with 55 seconds to go in the session – not enough time to get in a fast lap.
Pole thus goes to Stevenson, a good step in their championship aspirations. Second was Said, followed by Leh Keen (Scuderia Corsa Ferrari) Alex Tagliani (Scuderia Corsa Ferrari again) and Patrick Lindsey (Park Place Porsche). All were in the 1:27s.
GX was a Mazda 1-2 Tristan Nunez over Tom Long.
After a short break, the 16-car DP field was released including the Ganassi #01, complete with a BMW motor. Christian Fittipaldi (Action Express) was the first across the line with a proper time, but it was Dane Cameron (Sahlen) who had the best time of the first laps.
Cameron and Fittipaldi continued to swap fast times, both getting into the 1:22s. Then the action came hot and heavy. Sebastien Bourdais vaulted 8Star to the top with a 1:21.931, but then came Richard Westbrook, followed by Max Angelelli; both into the 1:21.5 range.
Dario Franchitti got the Ganassi #02 BMW into the mix with a 1:21.83, which was good for fourth fastest.
With two minutes to go, it was time for moves to be made. First move was Franchitti pulling into the pits, their effort over. The session ended with no major changes – a Corvette 1-2 – Spirit of Daytona over Wayne Taylor Racing.
Thus ended a long and relatively uneventful day on track. Thankfully, the incidents were limited to minor offs. But that was practice day. Don’t expect that to stay the same on race day. Michael Shank expects the action to be hot and heavy with those fighting for the championship and also those fighting for pride. This is a track that can lead to a messy race – we’ll see on what should be an interesting race on Sunday afternoon.
Gary Horrocks
