Sebring Exxon Superflo 17/03/2001   Raceday Race Morning   © Janos Wimpffen Race morning begins with a horrible pall. Bob Wollek was killed in a road accident with his bicycle. Florida is noted for its poor roads, poor drivers, and has the nation's highest bike / pedestrian fatality rate. He died along Highway 98, a particularly bad stretch heading SE from Sebring towards the Palm Beach area. After a 33 year career in sports cars from which he emerged unscathed, we've lost not only a great in our branch of the sport, but also an avid all-around sportsman. As Fabrice of the ACO noted, he was a fine ambassador for sports car racing. Understandably, the no. 30 Petersen team Porsche has withdrawn. The early morning warm-up has taken place under cloudy and humid skies, with an imminent chance of rain diminishing as the sky lightens. The Callaway team has been busy with c.v. and suspension problems. Their issue has been one of ample power, but an inability for the chassis to deal with it. Meanwhile, Tom Kjos has been finding out the detail behind the Gunnar Lola and its Tech problems. From a talk with Tristan Lewis, Newman-Haas, Lola importer: "The engine installation is not itself the problem. In fact, that is stronger than our design, though it adds quite a bit more weight. There are two fairly major issues, one being the mounting of the oil tank, by rule, has to be inside a crash structure and was not, and the second being the rear deck of the car. In the case of the rear deck, there is normally about six inches of airflow clearance back of the cockpit to the wing. Gunnar raised the entire deck so that there is little more than one inch clearance, to accomodate the turbo/intercooler, rather than just "blistering" over the tall parts. We advised that is not a good solution, as it probably reduces the airflow 50%, rather than the 10% or so of the alternative. That will affect the aerodynamic balance of the car. "The team had the parts that they need to build the oil tank crash structure, but one of the characteristics of the ACO is that they don't say, "well, ok, run a while, then bring it back later and show us." Gunnar planned to do some of the work during the week here. Although the rear chassis work for the engine was undoubtedly strong, it was not "finished." Not neat and coated, so you could just see the French go "oh, oh, what is this" when car came in to tech. "There are a number of other compliance issues that also need resolution, but that can be done. The ACO have asked Lola to now first certify the homolgation of the BK2/10 for the Porsche installation and issue an amendment to that effect to our ACO homolgation papers. We will do that when the team is ready, then ACO will accept the car for tech. That won't happen this weekend, of course." A feature on some of the fun and games in Green Park will not be posted pre-race, for obvious reasons. Copyright ©2000-©2023 TotalMotorSport