Elkhart Lake Rolex 08/07/2001   Friday Developments   The first half of the first practice session indicates that the Intersport Lola will again be the car to be beat. They are about two seconds clear of the lead Dyson Riley & Scott and another two ticks ahead of the no. 20 R & S. The Robinson car is languishin and the Doran "Fudd" has only completed one slow lap. The no. 22 Archangel is well clear of the now enlarged SRPII class. The Saleen is effectively alone in GTS, while the no. 66 Buckler entry is surprisingly ahead of the Pobst / Hiskey Porsche for best among the GTs. Perennial AGT winners, the 09 Corvette, are at the head of that class. I've been critical of AGTs in the past but I've come around to a degree. Dick Greer has built a particularly attractive Corvette onto his tube frame and the newest version of the Orion Motorsports Mustang sports an impressive rear wing. Also with an interesting rear aerodynamic device is the Team Tambourine Mazda Miata, a GT class runner which premiered at Ohio. By my count there are eight drivers here fresh from the 24 hour grind in France (although not all saw the checkered flag there): Rick Fairbanks, from Reynard to BMW Butch Leitzinger, from Bentley to Riley & Scott Dider Theys, from Audi to Ferrari-Judd Terry Borcheller, from Saleen to BMW M3 V-8 Eric van de Poele, from Bentley to Riley & Scott David Murry, from Reynard to Porsche Cort Wagner, from Callaway to Porsche Andy Pilgrim, from Corvette to AGT Corvette The first session ended with the order unchanged. However, the Dyson car greatly reduced the gap to the quicker Intersport entry. The Doran Ferrari-Judd did return to the circuit, but its times remained slow. In GT the Buckler Porsche led the field with Hiskey entry only slightly slower. 1 37 SRP Jon Field/Gavin/C Field Intersport Racing Judd Lola 01:57.411 2 16 SRP Weaver/Leitzinger Dyson Racing Team Ford R&S 01:57.672 3 20 SRP EFR/Schroeder/Dyson Dyson Racing Team Ford R&S 01:59.842 4 74 SRP Baldwin/Robinson/van de Poele Robinson Racing Judd R&S 02:01.701 5 63 SRP Downing/ Downing Atlanta Mazda Kudzu 02:03.110 6 27 SRP Theys/Baldi/Lienhard Lista Doran Racing Judd Ferrari 02:04.505 Your correspondent is well fed, thanks to the fine dining at Steve Hartley's Hospitality Express. He can be visited at Hospitality-Express.com or through Cyberspeedmedia.com. Steve always has an array of fresh salads and supplements them with main courses featuring local specialties. The German heritage of mid-Wisconsin makes for great Bratwurst sausages, and Steve picks the best of the lot. Fuel pressure problems slowed the Doran Ferrari during the first session, but it is the first to take to the track for the afternoon period. A broken axle on the Norma was being worked on throughout the lunch break. Team manager John-Sebastain Sauriol is still working on the Ford engined project that Norma hopes to launch soon. Eric van de Poele is enjoying the dry conditions (although it's clouded up a bit). He relates Le Mans as being a terrifying experience. He said that conditions never really improved. It was quite common to pass a dry location one lap, only to have the storm dump water at the same spot a few seconds later. The next time around he would find the spot completely awash, even though the rain had already moved on. For much of the race, his line down the Mulsanne and through the chicanes only had to be guessed upon. Visibility was simply nil. van de Poele praised the officiating, saying that the safety car periods were called at precisely the correct moments. He said the criticism of the officiating was uncalled for and that they can be credited with the lack of any injuries. Back here in Elkhart Lake, the no. 16 Dyson machine and the Doran entry have been trading fast times. The gap between all the main SRP runners is now neglible. The Miracle R & S is also running well. In SRPII, the other championship contender, the no. 89 PorscheHaus entry is now the quickest. GT remains as it was this morning, with the no. 66 Buckler car ahead of the Fordahl Motorsports Porsche. As to Buckler, he is planning to run the no. 66 at Sears Point and still looking to find drivers for no. 67. Rick Fairbanks is doing double duty this weekend. He will qualify and start in the no. 10 M3 and go from straight-six to V-8 BMW power when he takes a stint in the Norma. One of the few no-shows in the field is the no. 32 GT class Corvette of Joe Aquilante. With a few minutes remaining in the afternoon session, Richard Millman tagged the wall rather hard with the no. 42 Orbit Racing Porsche at Turn 11A. He's being taken to the infield hospital and the session has been stopped. The area has definitely clouded up and the wind has increased. It looks like the chance of passing thunderstorms is increasing. The Orbit Porsche will definitely not be taking and further part this weekend. It looks like it went in rear first and then continued to ride the guard rail on its left side. Millman is reported ok after his checkup. The balance of the session ended without incident. The Weaver / Leitzinger R & S ended the day on top and the only car this afternoon able to crack the two-minute barrier. The no. 22 Lola is atop the SRPII class, but barely edging the PorscheHaus entry. 1 16 SRP Weaver/Leitzinger Dyson Racing Team Ford R&S 01:58.848 2 27 SRP Theys/Baldi/Lienhard Lista Doran Racing Judd Ferrari 02:00.360 3 20 SRP EFR/Schroeder/Dyson Dyson Racing Team Ford R&S 02:00.421 4 74 SRP Baldwin/Robinson/van de Poele Robinson Racing Judd R&S 02:01.815 5 37 SRP Jon Field/Gavin/C Field Intersport Racing Judd Lola 02:02.995 6 63 SRP Downing/ Downing Atlanta Mazda Kudzu 02:04.776 Janos Wimpffen Copyright ©2000-©2023 TotalMotorSport