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Adelaide

ALMS

31/12/2000

Raceday 1

Thunder Downunder

Track images from the www.americanlemans.com sitelink

Well the big day is finally here and I feel like a kid impatient for his Chrissie pressies to arrive! We all know that Don Panoz has friends in high places but maybe these connections go higher than we think - the day has dawned with high overcast conditions. The maximum temperature has now been down-graded to 31C. To those of you who think this sounds hot enough, the forecast for the next three days is 38, 39 & 39!

Let me say at the outset a big thank you to Jack Cunningham and the Chamberlain Viper team who will be emailing in my reports. My modem is dead as John Cleese's parrot. Fortunately the generosity of Jack and his team has allowed me (to plagiarise Tennesee Williams) to rely on the kindness of strangers. Thanks, guys! If there was an award for nice guys, Chamberlain Racing would be spraying the champagne.

It will have been a long night for the Panoz and Barbour teams, repairing the damage to the new Panoz and Muller / Luhr Porsches after they kissed the unforgiving concrete during final practice yesterday. Late call up Brad Jones made a steady debut at the wheel of the 77 Audi, posting 6th fastest time yesterday. Jones was out again this morning again taking it steady and building up to a respectable speed. Despite the McNish back then, Audi are still looking strong for a 1-2 - doubtless David Brabham & co will have something to say about this. David Price has said that he hopes his cars will be closer to the Audis in race trim. [Oops! In the dying seconds of the warm-up a wheel comes off the 77 Audi, crashing Dindo into the barriers. It will be a battle to get the car on the grid, but they made it.]

If Chamberlain had 3 Stephen Watsons then ORECA might find themselves with a battle on their hands. Ray Lintott is an enormously experienced driver with knowledge of racing on the circuit, but has not enough seat-time in the big, powerful Viper. While Milka Duno has attracted enormous publicity here (for reasons not always reated to her driving!), it should be remembered she is at the very beginning of her driving career. The race should see a privateers battle between Chamberlain and the Cirtek GT2.

"This is the closest we have been to the Oreca factory cars all season. I honestly believe I could have pipped Belloc to 2nd on my last lap but I made a mistake into the last corner. Jack Cunningham awarded me an aviation license after my 'flying' exhibition over the kerbs. This circuit is mega," said the lead driver in #61.

While Barbour must start slight favourites in GT, the battle between them, Skea (in their home race) and the PTG BMWs should be epic. In truth, almost every car in this class has a shot at victory. Where would sports car racing be without Porsche?

The race was underway at 4.15, but for the Alien Panoz, it was a difficult first race. It had to pit for not running with lights, and the crew reported an engine problem which was being worked on. But it retired within 30 minutes of the start with alternator failure.

#37 Porsche had a suspension breakage, but that was soon fixed. Then it was a driveshaft that broke. Up front, McNish followed Biela into the first corner, tracked the sister car, then took the lead at 35 minutes into the race, immediately pulling away. What back trouble? Pain goes away when adrenalin takes over. GTS was predictably Oreca / Oreca / Chamberlain, and GT was Barbour (#5), Barbour (#51) and the first PTG BMW (#10).

35 minutes gone and McNish completed his 25th lap and clinched the 2000 American Le Mans Series Driving Championship.

Pit-stops began at 40 minutes into the race. The front running Audis took on fuel only, so McNish started a double stint. Brabham changed tyres, not wishing to risk a double stint. Audi were gone.