Appropriately, with only three races left in the season and in the history of the ALMS, we come to what is one of the three most anticipated races of the season – COTA. This will be the only appearance of the ALMS at the Austin circuit, as well as the solitary appearance of the FIA WEC series in North America, at least for this season.
Heading into this race, the entry list continued to make some interesting twists. Before Baltimore, we had Guy Cosmo jumping ship from ESM and joining their P2 rivals, Level 5. Now, we see a shuffle at CORE, with the PC points leader Colin Braun joining Pat Long in their “new” Porsche GT3 RSR. This will see Tom Kimber-Smith move to the PC car alongside team owner Jon Bennett. The odd thing about this is seeing Braun abandon the points lead to Michael Guasch, while Bennett lies in second place, four points back. Is this a move to give Bennett a shot at the championship, a chance he didn’t have with Braun in the car, or a chance for Braun to compete in a GT-spec car, or both?
Joining Guasch at COTA in the PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports effort is the ever quick Dane Cameron as the P2 battle continues to the wire.
LMP1? Yes, Muscle Milk formally captured the championship at Baltimore. Not surprising – it was theirs unofficially since after Laguna. They tested at COTA previously – count them as ready. Dyson Racing returns with Tony Burgess and Chris McMurry in the car, after skipping (somewhat wisely in hindsight) Baltimore.
The big news in P1 is the planned debut of the DeltaWing Coupe, which on paper appears to be a significantly improved car, if somewhat further visually challenged.
As always, GT is the class to watch, but now Corvette Racing has started to distance themselves from the crowd. Currently the team championship is 128–97 – Corvette over BMW, courtesy of strong efforts from both the #3 and the #4 cars. In the drivers’ chase, it is the #4 car (Gavin/Milner) over the #3 (Magnussen/Garcia) by only two points.
Dirk Muller is staying close for Rahal/BMW, eight points back. Still in the chase is the SRT Viper pair of Goossens/Farnbacher.
With only three races to go, this is crunch time for those in the championship hunt. The pressure is mounting, not just on those chasing a title, but also on those hoping to salvage a season. Thus far, the season has not been what was hoped for by many teams, chief among them being the Risi Ferrari and the Falken Tires Porsche efforts; both figured to be fighting for race wins during the season – now they’re fighting for pride and hopefully a strong finish to the season.
Maybe the wide open, European-styled, track will give the Ferrari of Risi a bit of an advantage, or maybe the simple addition of a restrictor-break courtesy of IMSA (now the same that ESM had last season when they ran Ferraris) will give the team a greatly needed break.
The season started strong for Risi, but has gone downhill steadily afterwards – they need to see a representative result in the last two races to reward the team for their efforts in coming back. With Austin being somewhat near their base at Houston – maybe some simple “home cooking” might be just what the team needs.
For Falken, they have just plain struggled to get a break. Period. If a good result looked to be coming their way, something always went wrong. Penalties, accidents; you name it, it has happened.
While Falken hoped for success at Baltimore, a race they’d won the previous two times, the result was likely the cruelest yet – they, like more than a few others didn’t even make the start.
Baltimore was a rough race for the entire GT Porsche brigade. Two of the GT-spec Porsches were destroyed – Falken and CORE – while the Paul Miller car too was nearly destroyed. Miller was able to salvage the tub and will return with the same basic car they’ve used since Sebring 2012. Or at least the tub is the same.
Falken will be running a different Porsche this weekend. Theirs will be their back up, a 2010 spec car, which has received its own special dispensations and regulations from IMSA in order to complete the season. CORE too had their car destroyed and also needed a new tub. Having no other option, they decided to order a new tub and build up a new car around it.
All three teams have had a very rough stretch since just before the aborted start at Baltimore – maybe a change to Texas will be what the teams need?
Thanks to the wreck at Baltimore, the points chase is becoming very jumbled in P2. Marino Franchitti now leads the class by a slim four points over new Level 5 teammate Guy Cosmo.
What is awkward is that Level 5 team owner, Scott Tucker is now 16 points back of Franchitti and even trails ESM team owner, Scott Sharp. The opportunity to add another championship to the record of Tucker is becoming more and more difficult. If the team chooses to hold the Scot back in the race, in the hope of elevating the boss, they run the risk of opening up an opportunity for Sharp to steal the championship.
Thanks to a second-place finish at Baltimore, Cooper MacNeil and Jeroen Bleekemolen have again claimed the top spot in the GTC case.
They now lead Nelson Canache Jr. and Spencer Pumpelly by six points in what has been an intriguing championship race between the former Porsche GT class champions, Alex Job Racing and Flying Lizard.
This weekend promises to be a dream weekend for the sportscar racing fan – a spectacular new circuit (without confining walls) and the shared weekend with the WEC. The ALMS races on Saturday, in what is scheduled to be a 2 hour, 45 minute race – I guess after Baltimore, you’ve always got to state what the race is scheduled to run to…
Gary Horrocks
