After the deluge of Friday afternoon, the weather was somewhat more benevolent on Saturday morning as the ALMS field ventured out at 8am for their 25-minute Warm-Up session. It was still grey and very cloudy, but the rain stayed away, the air temperature was in the low 70s, and the humidity was also at reasonable levels.
But there were storm clouds over several team awnings after six cars were put to the back of the grid after failing to comply with the IMSA requirement that both drivers have to complete at least one lap within 107% of pole during practice or qualifying; those being both ESM HPDs in P2, the #5 Starworks, #9 RSR and #52 PR1 Oreca FLM09s in PC and the #62 Risi Ferrari in GT.
The early morning session saw a red flag almost as soon as it had started – reason unknown – but the peace was shattered after about six minutes as the lights went green and 30-odd engine roared into life.
The times immediately indicated that the day was starting off on a dry track, with Ryan Briscoe making up for lost time after missing qualifying by setting a 1:58.173 on his second lap in the #551 Level 5 HPD. Klaus Graf was second at this point in the #6 Muscle Milk P1 HPD, with Tony Burgess third in the #16 Dyson Lola. Both Graf and Briscoe improved their pace on the next lap, with the German going top by 0.587s with a 1:56.326.
PC was led by Chris Cumming in the #8 BAR1 Oreca -2:03.560 – while the BMWs were still at the top of the GT times, with the #55 of Bill Auberlen (2:04.941) ahead of the #56 of Dirk Müller by two tenths, with the #93 SRT Viper of Jonathan Bomarito third on 2:05.572. Joey Hand had indicated that the Z4 GTE’s dry-weather set-up wasn’t as strong as its wet settings, so was their supremacy about to be challenged?
Andy Lally led the way in GTC in the #27 Dempsey Racing Porsche, with a 2:15.366, but Damien Faulkner bettered that time by a tenth in the #66 TRG 911 as the session entered its final five minutes.
David Heinemeier-Hansson took the #9 Oreca to the top of the PC times with three minutes to go – 2:01.440 – before Kyle Marcelli took the #8 back to the top, while the #23 AJR Ferrari of Townsend Bell suffered a quick spin but was able to continue. Graf, meanwhile, had lowered the Muscle Milk time to 1:55.736 and was followed at the close by both Level 5 cars; Marino Franchitti having moved to second in P2 on 1:57.584. There was one further improvement in PC to come, as Renger van der Zande continued his impressive weekend with a 2:00.966 on his final lap to head that class’ times at the close in the #81 DragonSpeed car.
The top three in GT remained unchanged, but GTC saw Jeroen Bleekemolen quickest in the #22 AJR Porsche on 2:13.374 and Nelson Canache Jr second in the #45 Flying Lizard.
DragonSpeed owner Elton Julian was quietly happy with his team’s progress this weekend; “It’s going okay so far. We’ve been there or thereabouts all year, but this is the first ‘neutral’ track we’ve visited so far – nobody’s raced here before – and so it’s more of a level playing field.”
What makes the difference in a spec class like PC? “There’s very little you can change on these cars, so what you have to do is get the car into your ‘window’ as soon as possible, keep it there and then fine tune it to the track. I believe that every team has their own window, but in reality the smallest differences can have a big effect out on track. That, and having a good pro driver – and they’re all very good.”
Julian’s opinion on the announcement of a standalone race for PC at VIR in 2014 was nothing if not forthright; “It’s an absolute joke! I thought that this was sportscar racing, not spec sprint racing! We’ll start the year at Daytona with an absolute maximum of 14 cars – how many do you think will still be there by the time we get to VIR? The rest of the calendar is fantastic, although I wish [the PCs] were going to Long Beach.”
In addition to the PC programme for 2014, DragonSpeed will race an Audi R8 LMS ultra GT3 and a newly-acquired Ferrari 458 Italia GT3 in the Pirelli World Challenge next year (Julian having debuted the Audi at the Sonoma round in August) and have also lodged an entry for the Audi in this year’s Gulf 12 Hours in Abu Dhabi.
The ALMS race would follow at 15:45.
MH
