Sebring Exxon Superflo 17/03/2001   Wednesday Qualifying 1   © Tom Kjos Sebring, Florida--Qualifying is delayed, as usual, by various incidents, among them a blown Star Mazda engine and consequent oil on the track. When it finally kicks off at a few minutes past three PM for the GTS and GT cars the clouds have cleared, and some kind of a front has lowered the humidity. For those of you that will not be in the 100,000 plus at Sebring, there’s no reason at all to feel good. No rain, just a beautiful Florida winter day (that's like a beautiful summer day where you are). That includes the Editor, fighting off mad cow, hoof and mouth, crashed computers, and failed electrical power in Merry Ol' England. Those of us here wish we could say there was some drama, but there wasn't. Just the occasional mild surprise. The GTS and GT cars took the track; well that is a little too proactive a term for BMW Motorsports newly introduced M3 GTR (yes that is the new official designation--last year's E46 M3s are to be referred to a M3 GTs). Anyway, the new V8 got to the pits for qualifying via five "Schnitzer power" (mechanics pushing) and returned the same way. In between, JJ Lehto (who later disavowed to our own John Brooks that he had been in the car, blaming the aborted outing on poor partner Jorg Muller--we know better) turned less than a lap under power before the throttle cable parted. After that it was all BMW-Schnitzer guys with their heads in the engine compartment and rears in the air before JJ climbed out. Most pilots have been driving their tails off for three days now. JJ sat in the car for about 45 minutes and managed a warm (not hot) lap. Not bad work if you can get it. Said JJ (admitting his participation in this ignominious start, "We went out and we came in. We had a problem with the throttle, so we couldn't qualify. That's the first lap ever with that car for me, so I can't really say anything much about it yet." No kidding. Jorg Muller is upbeat: "Now we've done one timed lap. The sad thing is that it's just little things that are slowing us. The car came quite late and wasn't in the team's hands for very long. But I'm not scared because nothing major happened, so I still look forward to the race." A positive attitude is a great thing Jorg, but to finish first, you must first finish. And that would imply that you have to start. Meanwhile, Tom Milner was enjoying himself, probably believing he had fallen asleep, Rip Van Winkle style, woken up, and found he had gone back to 1998. There were his two M3 GTs, in the front, except for? Yup, good ol' Alex Job Racing. We have seen this before haven't we? Last year Dick Barbour broke the string of this rivalry by pretty much dominating GT, but both PTG and AJR were right there, winning a few, and barking at his heels. Now Dick is working on an LMP 675 with one of the many left over Reynards. He is upbeat (when isn't he?). "We are on schedule for Donington. We are here in support of a business car (the #15 Porsche GT3-R)”. If he bring nothing else to racing (and he does, of course), he brings a good attitude. Have you been taking lessons, Jorg? So there they were, AJR first and second in the first qualifying session, led by Sascha Maassen, and PTG right behind, third and fourth, led by Bill Auberlen, seemingly not about to lap less than best on this team--ever. "Every lap I was in traffic. I came in and we bled down the pressure in the Yokohamas and made an adjustment to the rear wing. It came down to one lap at the end of the session and that moved us from seventh to third. We've been one of the quickest all week and we got back there," said Bill, with his remark on traffic perhaps indicating he has more. We saw him immediately before qualifying, appearing to be in deep meditation, or perhaps with a terrific headache. (See TotalMotorSports report on Practice Session 1). Boris Said qualified the second PTG car: "The track is slower today in the heat, but we've been working on the M3 all week and that's the best the car has been. We tried a lot of things that we could then rule out and went back to things we knew worked - and they worked. I think we have a good race car." Maassen, who qualified the provisional pole Porsche GT3 RS commented, “There are no points awarded for the pole, and it’s a 12-hour event, so we will hope our time holds up, but spend the track time setting the car up for Saturday.” Tom Milner seemed to second the shift toward race set-ups: "I'm happy with our positions. We are where we should be and will now focus on the race." BMW Motorsport doesn't have that luxury. Meanwhile, elsewhere in the GT ranks, the "big two" teams were followed by White Lightning Racing's Porsche, and the PTG-built M3 GT in the hands of Dirk Muller. "This was my first qualifying in the BMW and it was quite fun. I did a little mistake when I shifted from second into fifth instead of third, so there are still a couple of tenths [of a second] there. But we have a really good car for the race, so I'm looking forward to it.," commented Dirk. So Dirk joins "Road & Track" in giving the M3 a high score on "fun to drive"? Owen Trinkler put the new Corvette eighth in a field of 25 GTs, nineteen of them the highly regarded Porsches of the GT3-R / RS. Yes, fans, the oil-cooled Porsches no longer exist here. Not bad, when you have a new car, and are scrambling for both drivers and sponsors. But this is a Pratt & Miller car, just like its GTS big brothers - and tenth in this gang is the Callaway C12-R of Aspen Knolls MCR. Again, a new challenger in what has been a Porsche-BMW show for too long. It seems that a lack of parts from Germany might endanger this entry, but they have to be happy with competitive speed early in the season. Are we anti-Porsche? No. Do we want to see successful new competitors in this class? Yes. We are seeing Phillip Peter in the RWS / Red Bull Porsche, but not Luca Riccitelli, injured at Monza last week. Up in GTS we have the same hope. This has been a thin class for the short two year history of the ALMS, and continues in that vein. Five cars grace the field, and like last year, one of Viper domination, we are faced with Corvette domination. But there is hope. American Viperacing has taken on the ORECA mantle, sort of. Lots of talent on this team, but still lots of sorting to do, especially with the #44 car which came from ORECA (probably distracted by their new LMP adventure) pretty much a wreck. Important, too is the need to put drivers in these cars that can realize their potential. Tom Weickardt, team owner, is working on that, but in the meantime, he got a pretty good performance out of Erik Messley in the lead #45 car. Yes, it was a few seconds back of the Saleen SR7 and both Corvettes, but it got up there and matched or bettered the front of the very professional and well-funded GT field. That is progress from Texas. Tom needs investment in both drivers and bits to get significantly better, but he needs performance to attract the investment. Clearly, the "catch 22" of racing in a professional series. Meanwhile, after near domination by the new Saleen SR7 through all the preceding session, it appeared as if Ron Fellows had let loose to reclaim the front of the grid. Asked if he had been holding back, Ron said, "No, we got a good lap. It was closer than we wanted (the gap to the Saleen). We were working on tire combinations and preparing for the race. We're not as fast as last year, but that's ok. The Saleen is quick. We have never finished this race, that's our goal. Then maybe we'll have a chance to win it." (what did you think of your chances of winning at Daytona) "It was the same as being hit by lightning twice. Dyson was a strong competitor, as they always are there, but the ALMS field, overall, is much stronger. This track is hard on the gearboxes, hard on the tires and its bumpy. It's as tough in twelve hours as it is in 24 at Daytona." Unfortunately, he will have to do it tomorrow, and do it with more weight, since the Corvette C5-R was disqualified for being too light. At that, the famous yellow sports car was only two tenths quicker than the Saleen entry. Right when Corvette thought it might inherit its rightful place at the head of the GTS pack after the retirement of the factory Vipers, it potentially finds itself again in second place--the GM Goodwrench crew only beat the Vipers once last year, and then added a Daytona win. It might be over almost before it started. Before he knew that he had the pole, Terry Borcheller (#26-GTS Saleen S7R) said, "We only missed it (the pole) by a tenth of a second. For a half second I know you can say it’s not in the car, but I know we had a tenth in the car, so it hurts. In a perfect situation, we'd have another half second, enough for the pole. I was going to go back out but we figured the Corvette had already run his fastest lap. We could have had an even better time. We've got a good set of tires for the race. We had to lean on that car pretty hard to get that lap. It feels real good (as a driver) to be that close after following them and the Vipers for so many year." But qualifying is one thing, racing is another. In LMP675, the Roock-KnightHawk Lola Nissan was the only car to take the track, in the capable and experienced hands of long-time Porsche FIA and Le Mans driver Claudia Huertgen. According to Claudia, they are still guessing at the set-up of this new car, "We made a change before the qualifying and I think we went the wrong way. So (Thursday) I'll be faster." The original plan was for a Judd V8--that may be the only real way forward. The "Top Secret" work continues at the Gunnar Racing paddock. As was observed in the media center, about this class so far "I used to say about my 1946 Chevy truck--it had 'nothing but potential'--nothing, no engine, no gears, nothing. It never did realize that unlimited potential." Finally, in the Audi class, it was Audi, Audi, Audi, Audi. One of our reporter / photographers, Jeannie, can't stand these cars. "Too fast, I keep missing them, then before I know it they are back around, and I miss them again." I imagine that is how the rest of the LMP900 field feels. Panoz had a disappointing qualifying. "We are struggling a little at the moment, but the team are working hard on trying to improve the car," Brabham said. "We had a great run at Texas, but we must have used up our quota of good luck. This weekend is a very tough race, particularly coping with the bumps and the traffic. We have a lot more improvements in the pipeline for the car, but Jan (Magnussen) and I will just have to keep working hard to try to get the best result we can.". The Panoz press release also termed the day's work "disappointing" after settling for 5th and 12th on the provisional grid (brake bothers for the second car). Not too bad for the Dyson team's new Riley & Scott Mark IIIC though, in sixth about a second behind the Panoz LMP07. A good shot for a class win--the LMP class, not the Audi class. Similarly, Intersport's Lola Judd stayed close with the non-Audi pack. So there you have it. Struggles with new cars in all four classes, but much unrealized potential. Like that 1946 Chevy truck, or something better? Copyright ©2000-©2023 TotalMotorSport