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Lime Rock Park

Dodge Dealers

28/05/2001

Hartwell's Preview

Grand Am’s Garden Blossoms Profusely?

© Andrew S. Hartwell.

It hadn’t rained in the Northeast section of the United States in quite some time. That is, until now. For the last several days the flowers in gardens throughout the region have been getting a healthy dose of the elixir of life. And it seems, judging from the results of the most recent Grand Am Rolex series races, a similar flood of stimulating ingredients have infused the series, with each race finding a new winner coming into full bloom.

At Daytona it was Downing’s Kudzu (actually a weed) that flowered first, but only after Dyson wilted. At the ever-humid Miami race, it was Dyson’s turn to bloom. In a harder rain than we are getting in the Northeast, Phoenix was the place for the first-ever blossoming of the Intersport Lola. And then, after a few weeks rest, the entire GA garden moved to Watkins Glen and the centerpiece bouquet was the Doran-Lista Ferrari.

So many flowers abloom in one garden. So many colors ablaze upon an asphalt row. The folks at Grand Am must really know how to spread fertilizer around to good use. They gave us white and green at Daytona, white and blue at Miami, blue and red at Phoenix and red and white at the Glen.

What color comes next, the red and orange of the 74 Ranch Robinson racing entry?

Ahh, to see such vibrant colors alight... at 150 miles per hour. Speeds no flower on earth could ever hope to achieve whilst lingering in a bed of manure.

Coming into the traditional Memorial Day race weekend at Lime Rock Park, all the flowers – in all the classes – will look to capture the center position on the podium. And the twin-sprints format, to be used in the SRP classes, will certainly make the chase(s) interesting.

Lime Rock is what drivers call a momentum track. That is, they say you don’t ever really brake hard into corners; you keep your car moving quickly at almost all points of the 1.53-mile circuit. Given the nature of a sprint race - to keep moving quickly ahead in the 45 minutes allotted to display your talents - it should be quite a show.

And Jon Field is one little flower who knows how to eliminate the weeds. Ask yourself, would you want to be in front of Jon Field’s Lola if you were ‘just a weed’ in the Grand Am garden? One particular ‘weed’, the Team Spencer Kudzu, found out at last years LRP event that the answer is most definitely “NO!” What to do then? Simply stay out of the garden. And that is what Team Spencer plans to do this year.

Dennis Spencer has decided he will not run his Kudzu-Mazda at Lime Rock. It isn’t that he is worried about the gardening ambitions of one Jon Field. It is because he prefers not to have to pay very talented drivers to run his car in order to claim his place of prominence in the garden. At the Glen, paid-professionals Barry Waddell, Rich Grupp and Ryan Hampton pooled their abilities and took not only first in the SRPII class, but third overall. Seems the ‘Miracle-Gro” the Kudzu needed wasn’t to be found in changing the size of the restrictor it runs with per the GA head groundskeepers. The growth ingredient instead has shown itself to be the feet and hands of talented - and costly - drivers.

Hmmm, so if you spend more money you can go faster? What a concept. (A disturbing one really, given the dearth of high profile – read: big buck – sponsors with an interest in promoting their goods and services to small sports car audiences.)

The Archangel Motorsports Nissan-Lola’s will be on track with Andy Lally / Paul Macey in the #21 car and Mike Durand / Howard Katz in the #22 car. Katz was a long-time driving partner with Jim Downing in the recently retired Kudzu, sharing the win at Daytona earlier this year. Katz will now be looking to “fit in” with Archangel and see if another win, this time in SRPII, isn’t possible.

The Porschaus Racing Nissan-Lola’s will also be flexing their chassis muscles with Peter Overing / Stephane Veilleux in the #88 car and Robert Julien / Bruno St. Jacques in the #89 entry.

Moving to the side garden for a moment we find the GT classes ready to spring to life in a race of their own. The SRP twin-sprints will run on Monday, the holiday. On Saturday, the GTS, GT and AGT classes will take to the track in search of the winners laurel wreath. They will go at in a one and a half hour feature race.

In GTS, the buds are few so don’t look for many blooms here. The Chris Bingham / Ron Johnson Saleen S7R will probably take center stage. The fight may not be a great one but the G&W Motorsports Jennifer Fund Porsche of Steve Marshall and Cort Wagner will be looking to take it to the Saleen crew. And the veteran Schumacher Racing Porsche GT1 is expected to make a move to keep the young upstart Saleen in its mirrors.

In GT, Darren Law currently is atop the point standings, helped tremendously by his victory with David Murry and Matt Drendel at Watkins Glen. Drendel and Law are expected to be in the #81 Porsche again this weekend. They will again have to contend with a pair of BMW M3s piloted by Marc Bunting / Phillip Shearer in the #9 Genesis Racing entry and Bill Auberlen / Rick Fairbanks in the sister #10 car.

Others to watch in GT include the #43 Orbit Porsche, the #50 Aasco-Boduck Porsche of Andy Hajducky / Craig Stanton, the # 67 Racer’s Group Porsche of Andy Petery / Craig Carter and of course, a personal favorite, the #34 Zip Pumpelly entry of Spencer Pumpelly / Steven Ivankovich.
A total of 18 cars will be 'zooming' round big bend in search of a win.

And the other class, AGT, is going to show a few stems and leaves in the Saturday feature race alongside the Saleen and the Porsches. The Conway / Goad X1-R Corvette will be looking to repeat their Glen win. There are just 7 cars in the class, but that is more than last year and, hopefully, not as many as next year. The competition will come primarily from the Hamilton Safe Motorsport Bupp / Leavy Camaro and the ACP Motorsports Kerry Hitt / Alex Tradd Corvette that finished second in class at the Glen.

OK, the rain continues to fall as I wrap this up. The weatherman says we could have this moving moisture with us right through the race event. I hope not. I’ll handle the flowers in my garden with a hose thank you. Will I see you at the prettiest little racetrack around? Why not come see what the fertile soil of Connecticut springs forth? No manure required!