Lime Rock Park Dodge Dealers 28/05/2001   Saturday As Far As SRP Qualifying   ©Andrew S. Hartwell Saturday marks opening day of the Lime Rock Park Hydroplane-on-asphalt (AKA Grand Am) event. The races will not be held on a Connecticut lake but instead on the wet and slippery Lime Rock race circuit. The rain continues to pound the pavement and the weatherman is saying more is to come. Kevin Doran says the Crawford would be a better boat than a racecar right now, but he is launching the Ferrari anyway. When I asked him how they were able to reconstruct the car he said, “It’s no big deal, that’s our job. We had enough parts and worked all night. And we did it all for this nice rainy day. “ I then asked if the car was ready. “We run the car one way, and that is perfect or not at all. The set up might be a little off but what choice do we have? We don’t have anything else that is set up any better. The Crawford is dreadfully slow; it has no downforce and has a lot of drag. We haven’t run the car in the rain so maybe it would be OK but I wouldn’t think so.” Kim Hiskey’s crutches were seen leaning on the side of the transporter. They didn’t need her to hold them up and she didn’t want them to anyway. “I was glad to lose them!” she said, “And I feel fantastic. My body feels good and my foot is getting better. The crew has been fantastic and we are just getting ready for the race. No problem putting pressure on the pedals!” Randy Pobst will start the race and, if they can get him to come out of the car, Hiskey will take over to finish. “We are planning on making a change, but getting him out of the car is always a problem!” Andy Lally is from Long Island. A body of land surrounded by water. Right now, upstate Connecticut, a mountainous region covered by trees, must seem a lot like home. “Right now we are third overall and fastest in class. We simulated a qualifying run just now (in a downpour) and in one lap we put it third. The other SRP car that I am fighting with for the championship has closed up so it is going to be hard if the weather is wet or dry.” “I love driving in the rain. We had a dry session yesterday and we went under the lap record. Bruno St. Jacques is a good driver in the wet, but this is the first place I ever sat my butt in a racecar.” The Archangel team is running a brand new Nissan-Lola for Katz / Duran; having purchased a new car (from Kevin Jeannette) that was driven up overnight from Florida. Andy Wallace likes the wet. “It’s actually great fun really. There is no grip, you just slide all over the place! When you have 50 cars going down the straight and you are in the middle that is not so much fun. When you are totally blinded by the rain you just keep the throttle down just in case!” Butch Leitzinger: “I like the rain. You can be a bit of an animal with the car and you don’t have to worry about the tires going off.” Jack Lewis is running a Porsche GT3 in both the Speedvision Challenge and the Grand Am GT class. “We have to switch fuel, tires and transponders but that’s it. I think we are going to do well with GT. We qualified fifth in GT and we are concentrating on our set up for Grand Am.” Lewis thinks more people could run both series. “To tell you the truth, I’m surprised more people don’t run both. The car is eligible to run in both. It’s hard to get a decision out of the ALMS on what are the rules, but not in Grand Am. We would be interested in running Sebring and Petit Le Mans but we find the Grand Am and Speedvision people easier to work with. We really like both series. It is great that we have two professional and televised racing series, which helps with getting sponsors.” Lewis hates the rain and wishes Grand Am would take a page from NASCAR's book and postpone the race until the weather improves. “It is unfortunate. You spend all your time getting the car to go fast in the dry. I wish they did it like NASCAR and waited because it is just not as good a show. It is not fun for the spectators and for the participants. We could all come back Monday or Tuesday. But the rules are the rules, and I am sure there are many schedule problems to be worked out.” Spencer Pumpelly has the pole position in GT and he couldn’t feel more comfortable about this pleasant turn of events. “It feels absolutely wonderful. We came such a long way since last year when we were in the back of the pack. We always knew we had the talented personnel and it feels as though it legitimizes the team.” “I thought all we needed was to get a new car and then we would be the fastest ones out there, but we soon learned nothing is that easy. We struggled at Daytona and really struggled at Phoenix. At Watkins Glen we started to hit on some set up things that put the car in the range and ever since we have been getting faster and faster.” “We set a new track record in our class in the qualifying session. It came about because of all the hard work of the people on this team. And the scary things is, as Steve Ivankovich likes to say, ‘We don’t know what we are doing yet, so wait until we figure out what we are doing!' “The competition here is really good. We would love to get a win here. We are going to run the whole season and we want to get one this year.” Spencer will start the car and then hand off to Rick DiLorio. Chris Bingham had one word to say about the rain, “Phoenix.” Ron Johnson commented more extensively when he said, “This place is notoriously slippery in the wet. The concrete patches here have zero traction so you basically have to drive with two wheels off the asphalt, so there is no room for error. If you put anything off you are stuck in the swamps. We just need to stay in front of the Schumacher car and I think we can do that at the start.” Jon Leavy feels good about his chances in AGT. “We qualified second and the car is running great. We made some adjustments and we are running well. I think if it wasn’t for the rain we could have had the pole.” Jack Baldwin noted he was enjoying the rain. “I was kind of finding my way around to see what works and what doesn’t. The car was pretty good. It wasn’t until the last lap of practice that the water got real deep and the car started hydroplaning. That’s when it gets dangerous so that’s when I rolled out of there. It is not for the faint of heart!” One more note is that young Clint Field has been cleared to compete by track owner Skip Barber. He will run both heats of the twin-sprints getting some seat time but will therefore be ineligible for points. As I finish this, SRP qualifying has wrapped up and the positions are as follows: (Driver that qualified the car is listed first.) SRP #16 Weaver / Leitzinger Dyson R&S FORD 01:00.887 #20 Forbes-Robinson / Wallace Dyson R&S FORD 01:02.696 #27 Baldi / Theys Ferrari-Judd 01:04.083 #74 Robinson / Baldwin R&S Judd 01:06.296 #78 Roussel / Sezionale BMW Norma 01:08.249 #37 Field / Field Intersport Lola-Judd 01:10.100 #28 Clint Field (running alone) Intersport R&S 01:13.705 SRPII #89 Julien / St. Jacques Porschehaus Nissan-Lola 01:07.109 #21 Macey / Lally Archangel Nissan-Lola 01:07.929 #22 Katz / Durand Archangel Nissan-Lola 01:10.712 #88 Veilleux / Overing Porschaus Nissan-Lola No Time Copyright ©2000-©2023 TotalMotorSport