The Tudor United Sportscar championship moves on to Road America this weekend with IMSA Radio again on the case and DSC fielding the second of our 2015 newcomers in the press room – Paul Marquardt is under strict instructions to keep his personal excitement levels down to around the 102% mark – Has he made it so far? You be the judges! Pics to follow
The Tudor United Sports Car Championship arrives to historic Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin this weekend. The venue is of course storied racing circuit Road America, nestled in the gorgeous Kettle Moraine area of Eastern Wisconsin. The venue is chock full of racing heritage, with the original open road course being placed in the National Register of Historic Places in February of 2006.
The teams were greeted this morning with trying conditions. With weather forecasts being heavily changeable throughout the day, teams were struggling with how to best make use of their time.
Walking through the paddock Friday morning was very informative. Much conversation about tomorrow evening’s State of the Union Presentation which will highlight changes to the championship next year and also the release of the 2016 Tudor United Sports Car Championships race calendar.
While walking through the paddock, I never cease to be amazed at how task oriented everybody is. Team personnel can be seen carting stacks of tires around, large industrial sized bottles of compressed air, food, even bodywork!
The paddock is surely a buzz this rainy and drizzly Friday morning. Something of note is how lovely it is to see that even despite the countless varied commitments drivers have, they still find time to huddle in the middle of the paddock outside various team quarters, driving suits tied around their waists, sharing stories and laughing loudly.
The first track session started under a steady and heavy rain condition with IMSA Radio’s voices filling the atmosphere. The first session went green at 12:00 o’clock Noon. Much of the 36 car field was ready to do their rain dance, all lined up for the green light at the end of the pit lane.
As the cars made it out onto the track, the rain spray was thick and hung in the air. The first car by to trip the timing beam was the TRG-AMR #007 Aston Martin Vantage V12 GTD car with Kumo Wittmer at the wheel. Wittmer also had news to break this weekend that he has been signed up by the TRG-AMR for the remainder of the 2015 season.
The first car to post a competitive lap in the heavy rain was Mikhail Goikhberg in the #85 JDC/Miller Motorsports LMPC machine at 2:40.981. For GTD, the first posted time in the early minutes of the session was in the very steady hands of Andy Lally, with his #44 Magnus Racing Porsche 911 GT America car, with a time of 2:46.960. With the raceday forecast calling for rain, nearly all the competitors took to the track to get as much full wet running and data collection as they could.
The first posted competitive GTLM time was posted by 2015 Le Mans Overall winner Nick Tandy in his #911 Porsche 911 RSR machine, at 2:41.329.
Near moments after this time was posted however, the Red Flag was thrown on the session, for early session time leader Goikhberg spinning at the outside of Turn 6.
The session went green again with 42 minutes remaining. Teams again went straight back out onto the 4 mile long track to continue collecting as much wet running data.
Ciaro/TracFone DeltaWing Racing announced they “would not be running in this session.” Disappointing surely for many fans who still swoon over the highly experimental design of the DeltaWing.
The first Prototype class session time set was nearly almost halfway into the session, by Oswaldo Negri, with a 2:34.244. Despite the session continuing, the racing line was not drying much with the rain still falling heavily.
Conor Daly, who stole many conversation pieces after his shunt during the Lime Rock round of the championship, set a time of 2:29.753 in his #38 Performance Tech Motorsports Oreca FLM-09 machine.
With the session half gone and half to go, the fastest time posted is by Conor Daly, in the LMPC class, with a 2:28.882.
Kumo Wittmer, in the absolutely wailing Vantage V12, had a very lucky moment when he was flying down into Turn 5 and had a spin off the track and managed to miss all the tire walls at the exit of the turn. He rejoined to the track with not a single piece of damage to the Aston Martin racing machine.
The GTLM runners were a bit more conservative in running the session with the heavy rain. With over halfway gone, only 4 of the 8 GTLM runners have posted times, with the fastest time being set by Porsche expert Patrick Pilet at a 2:31.866.
With the rain not letting up at all, the session had less runners turning competitive times as the minutes ticked by. The conditions were also providing very interesting times between classes. Turner Motorsport, last race’s GTD class winners, found themselves 4th overall at one point, and only 1 second off LMP2!
Conor Daly, interviewed in the pit lane by Jeremy Shaw for IMSA Radio, said, “I haven’t been here since 2010, and I am having so much fun out there. I always have so much fun racing at this track. It provides really great racing.” With Conor Daly being a great rain driver and his teammate this weekend being a native of this track, the Performance Tech Motorsports entry should be an entry to watch for the weekend.
The top class in the TUSCC championship saw very little laps turned in the opening session. Of the 10 cars entered in the top Prototype class, only 3 had set a time with less than 15 minutes remaining in the session. Wayne Taylor Racing however have run off and on throughout the session. Jordan Taylor saying, “the wet running will be valuable for the team if it remains full wet throughout the session.”
P class has been led by the #60 LMP2 Michael Shank Racing machine in the hands of Oswaldo Negri since the early moments of the session.
More drama unfolded towards the end of the session with the #73 Porsche of Park Place Motorsports spinning in the hands of Patrick Lindsey. Then, only moments later, the Red Flag was thrown over the soaking wet session once again, for the #16 LMPC car of Daniel Burkett spinning down the back straight heading into the braking zone for Turn 5. The car made contact with the wall, knocking the front bodywork off the nose, but no other damage appeared to have been inflicted.
With the rain falling seemingly heavier as less the session closed, the fastest time by class were: Prototype class setting the pace with a 2:31.611 by Negri in the #60 Michael Shank Racing LMP2 car. LMPC set the fastest time overall for the session with Conor Daly’s 2:27.182 in his #38 Performance Tech Motorsports car, despite not being top class here at the Tudor United Sports Car Championship. The fastest of the GTLM runners was Bryan Sellers in his gorgeously liveried Team Falken Tire #17 Porsche 911 RSR, posting a 2:30.669. GTD, a class that saw nearly the entire field post times in this opening session, had a fastest time set by Audi R8 ace Dion Von Moltke of 2:39.270.
The racing action continues this afternoon with Practice Session 2.
Paul Marquardt
