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Sebring

Exxon Superflo

17/03/2001

Full Thursday

Report

Sebring, Florida--Morning practice saw little change in the form of the field. Four Audis stayed up front, while Rob Dyson's R&S Mark IIIC supplanted the lead Panoz as best-of-the-rest, and the other Panoz LMP07 stayed badly adrift--of a good part of the GT field. Between these two were the Courage Peugeot and Jon Field's Intersport Lola Judd. Of the #72 Courage C60 / Peugeot it was said by the team that, “the car is two days behind due to engine trouble on Monday and Tuesday. This is especially bad because the team and drivers have never been at Sebring before. However, the car is going better and better and the progress is not too bad for the first time here. The bumpy track has presented a major suspension problem as the team is chasing the correct front end setup. Claudia Huertgen, KnightHawk Racing's top driver, put the only LMP675 entry, a Lola-Nissan, to within about a second of the trail GTS Corvette.

GT got a little more interesting, with the BMW M3 GTR of BMW Motorsports getting past its "small problems" long enough to get some lapping in, enough to put it in the fourth best time in the GT field.

The top four GT qualifiers in yesterday's first session qualifying session all opt to sit out the second. Neither Alex Job's Porsches or Tom Milner's BMWs see much chance of improving or dropping down the order. Not long after the end of the morning practice session, PTG mechanics have engines all over the lot, preparing the race engines for a shakedown in night practice this evening.

Second qualifying only validates the strengths (Audi) and weaknesses (everybody else, by comparison) of the field. Or should we say Jon Field, who surprised us all by making the Lola Judd the new best-of-the-rest.

Is this a big thing? Well, yes it is, in two respects--it is a fitting return for the hard work and persistence by the Ohio-based Intersport, and it highlights the struggles of the new Panoz LMP07. Actually, the Field Lola is coming off a solid run at Homestead, where the team stayed in the hunt with Dyson's Riley & Scott all the way. Of bigger concern is the failure of the Panoz to mount any kind of a credible challenge to the Audis. It appeared at Texas that the Georgia team had quickly gotten itself into that position, overcoming earlier testing problems. Now that momentum seems all but lost, baring an increasingly unlikely successful race here.

Actually the #51 car's brake problems may be the least of the difficulties for the "Aliens." Brakes can be relatively easily sorted out, regardless of the immediate effect on performance. Of much greater concern has to be reports of continuing vibration by the Zytec V8. Reportedly shaking loose headers a few weeks ago, the engine is said to now be merely shedding bits - like alternators.

The Dyson Riley & Scott slipped one place. "The car has good balance but a lack of grip. We need to schedule a long test so we can work on that. It's hard to figure it out on a slick track," said Butch Leitzinger.

On the other hand, Audi privateers Champion and Johansson not only win the 2001 sports car beauty show, they also have stayed on the heels of the factory cars all week. Each could easily be seen as a winner here based on performances that make it unlikely that they will ever be far adrift of the Audi Sport R8s. Audi Sport driver Emanuele Pirro said, ""We're in a good but difficult situation. I wish the Panoz team well, they'll be tough in the race. Our main competition is the two privateer Audis. If we win the race, we've done our job. In theory it should work. They'll be waiting for us to have a little problem, hopefully that won't happen." So, were you looking for a race? You've got one. Were you looking for an other-than-Audi winner? Not a chance.

Claudia Huertgen got even more speed out of the KnightHawk LMP675, certainly enough for the lone entry in the lightweight prototype field to capture some respect. Keep it running and there is a shot at a top ten finish.

Ron Fellows was forced to take the yellow Corvette back to the track this afternoon, yesterday's pole time being disallowed. At full weight the American sports car was unable to hold the momentary advantage established yesterday over the Konrad Saleen SR7. Fellows put it pretty succinctly, "The car is OK but we just didn't go fast enough." In terms of speed, there is no doubt any longer of the superiority of the SR7. It remains to be seen if the small pony car tuner and sports car builder has the reliability to match the GM factory effort. "It's not about getting the pole, it's about making the twelve hours. Corvette has a lot of endurance and experience, and (this) Saleen doesn't." said driver Oliver Gavin. The Corvettes regain their place behind the Saleen and significantly ahead of the American Viperacing Viper GTS-R. The latter's station at this point of the season is to build a team that can stay somewhat distantly in the hunt, more like a scavenging jackal than an attacking viper. The #45 car has a creditable team of drivers and the crew is clearly capable of keeping the car on the track. Sebring can beat up the best of machinery, and the Corvettes have yet to get safely through this race.

With the top two GT teams sitting out the session, there was some chance for others to move up. One obvious possibility was of course BMW's new V8 powered M3 GTR, this time in the hands of Jorg Muller, following yesterday's sitzkrieg by JJ Lehto. This is an almost entirely different machine than the other M3s in the field, and nothing like the V8 that ran so well at Daytona in February. This session was in fact the first hint of its potential, and that appears to be considerable. The car simply vaulted to third on the GT grid in the hands of a driver who had barely turned a wheel prior to today. It appeared on the course to effortlessly overhaul the Porsche GT3-RSs out of slow corners. Jorg Muller put it in the perspective of the season though: "BMW definitely built a car that is quicker than the old one. You can't expect a new car to be there immediately, but I'm pleased with the qualifying at the moment. I'm very happy to be with Team Schnitzer because they'll sort it out and we'll be competitive this season. That's what's important." The Schnitzer Team's #43 in-line six powered BMW M3 GT caused the session's black flag when the engine let go five minutes in. Fortuitous perhaps, as it was the race engine and would likely have meant an early end to Saturday's race for the car.

Time will tell how well the BMWs will do, and the Porsche 911 is certainly no easy mark, but great racing is likely in the offing. Even better, both the Callaway C12, and Corvette C5-R pulled themselves solidly into the top ten in class. In fact if you take away just numbers, the field looks pretty wide open--four of the top ten positions in the class are Porsches, but all six of the non-Porsche entrants are within that top ten. The other car to improve its position, landing ahead of the idle PTG M3s, was White Lightning Racing's GT3-RS.

Earlier today the Editor asked what the feeling here was. Was it anything like the lack of excitement, the resignation at Le Mans in anticipation of Audi's inevitable cruise to the win? The answer is very much yes, at least for the prototypes. However, in the rest of the classes we have interest, if not real drama, as new challengers are emerging to the accepted order of things.