Elkhart Lake Rolex 08/07/2001   Road America Raceday 2, Laps 65 - The Flag   Oliver Gavin has been 'on a tear' and has reeled in EFR. The lead changes once more on course as the Intersport Lola leads. However, the Lola is expected to make its third routing stop soon. The Baldwin / Robinson / vdP Riley & Scott has regained its pace from their early race leak and are now up to fourth overall, ahead of the Kudzu. Both are laps down. Gavin pits and hands back to Jon Field. They return to the circuit about a minute down to EFR's Dyson entry. Kim Hiskey takes over the no. 15 Porsche for the first time. She has a sore wrist. Jon Field takes to the gravel at Canada Corner and returns to the race. The Multimatic Lola has retired from the SRPII competition. Lap 70 standings: 20, R & S 37, Lola, -64 seconds 27, Ferrari, -84 seconds 74, R & S, -3 laps 63, Kudzu, -4 laps 22, Lola SRPII 89, Lola SRPII, -35 sec 5, Saleen, -5 laps 21, Lola SRPII 54, BMW GT, -7 laps 15, Porsche GT, -62 sec 66, Porsche - 8 laps 81, Porsche GT 57, Porsche GT 39, Porsche GT, -9 laps 78, Norma [crawls into the pits a lap later with a broken right front wheel] 43, Porsche GT, -10 laps The no. 98 Mazda RX-7 encountered a slight pit fire. Apparent retirements thus far are the 07 Porsche, 16 R &S, 58 Mazda, 00 Mustang, 48 Pilbeam, 9 BMW. The 6 R & S, 02 Mosler, 61 Porsche have all been among the walking wounded. Lienhard pits from third place on lap 74 and hands over to Mauro Baldi. The 98 Mazda that earlier had the pit fire re-ignited itself at Turn 12. The AGT battle has heated up a bit. The Greer / Patton Corvette took the lead and then was challenged by the Bupp / Leavy Camaro. The no. 10 BMW is circulating with damage to the left front area. The yellow no. 98 Mazda returns to the pits with a flame licking out of the right rear corner, making it look like an Olympic torch carrier. Lap 80 of 125 standings: 20 37, -79 sec 27 63 74 22, SRPII 89, SRPII, -55 sec 5, GTS 21, SRPII 54, GT 15, GT, -100 sec 81, GT 66, GT 57, GT 39, GT 43, GT 75, GT 34, GT 10, GT 11, AGT 82, AGT, -6 sec The no. 43 Orbit Porsche comes in slowly with a flat tire. The V-8 BMW spins and continues. The Mosler has been plagued by gearbox problems. The Norma returns to the track after a long visit to the paddock. Schroeder is back in the Dyson car and their stop has dropped their lead down to only 20 seconds over the Lola of Jon Field. Baldi is languishing the better part of a lap down. The Norma spews body parts onto the circuit on its one and only lap back in the race. The GT leading BMW is balked by the no. 75 Porsche, but is able to stay on course. Change again, Gunnar Jeannette did take a stint in the no. 75 Porsche. GT leading BMW into the gravel at Turn 1 !!! (lap 89). The car extricates itself with help from the marshals and drops about three spots. Lap 90 summary: 20, 37 (-92 seconds), 74, (-3 laps), 63, 22 (SRPII leader), 89 (SRPII, -77 sec), 21 (SRPII), 5 (GTS), 15 (GT), 66 (GT, -46 sec), 57, 81, 39, 43, 75, 50, 34 (all GT), 09 (AGT), 11 (AGT, -39 sec), 82 (AGT) The no. 09 loses the AGT lead again with some work to the rear axle. The no. 82 Corvette slowly trundles behind the barriers at Turn 5, its strong run in AGT apparently over. Kim Hiskey completes her only stint and Randy Pobst takes the Porsche back out into second in class behind the Buckler / McGlynn car (no. 66). There is a strong battle for third in class between the BMW and the no. 57 and 81 Porsches. There is little else going on as the race passes the 3/4 mark. The no. 82 Corvette makes it back into the race. Baldi pits the Ferrari for probably the last time and takes on four tires while handing over to Theys. Schroeder hands over EFR for the run to the flag. The SRPII leading Archangel Lola has spun and stalled (no. 22, Lally / Durand / Katz). On lap 106 the first full-course caution flies as a result of this. Re-Start will come at the end of Lap 109. It's Gavin back in the Lola, but he was stuck behind several cars in the queue and is about 15 seconds back of EFR in the lead Dyson car. Theys is some 5 seconds further back. He catches up to Gavin and the two cars touch. The Ferrari has lose bodywork. EFR extends his lead while the GT fight is tight. Pobst, McGlynn (no. 66), Law (no. 81 Porsche), the Seikel car, and the 54 BMW are all on the same lap. The SRPII and AGT contests are done. The 21 Archangel car is 4 laps up on the 89 PorscheHaus car that had alternator problems. The 11 Camaro is a lap up on the 09 Corvette in AGT. By the way, it was Clint Field who completed the previous stint in the Intersport Lola. The overall lead has shrunk dramatically as EFR is conserving fuel with Theys chopping the lead down to five seconds, the Ferrari gaining on the corners. EFR is balked by traffic and Theys is about five car lengths down. Gavin is several seconds back. A lap later and Theys takes the lead at Canada Corner. Nine laps remain in the race. van de Poele is flying in the Robinson R & S, although they are several laps down. In the GT contest, Pobst is four seconds up on a very quick Stefano Buttiero in the Seikel car. Law is third another four seconds down, with the 81 Porsche, McGlynn is a few car lengths further back, but the big engined BMW powers past the Racers' Group car on the uphill straight. Some dramatic late race dicing for GT positions. The Ferrari is now some four seconds clear of the Riley & Scott, while Pobst moves some seven seconds up on Buttiero. The BMW vs. 81 battle is very tight. Law tried to use the Dyson car's wake to draft around on the front straight but it didn't work. The BMW holds onto the lead. A local yellow is being shown at Turn 6 thanks to the no. 89 Lola being in the gravel. EFR is fighting some bad handling from a wayward front suspension. The bodywork had taken on some cracks from an earlier run-in with lapped traffic and this has hindered their late race effort. Borcheller spins the GT BMW at Canada Corner! Several cars get by and the 81 G & W Porsche moves into the class' last podium spot. The 43 Porsche is in with a flat left rear and some bodywork damage. EFR takes back 2-3 seconds from Theys with three laps remaining. Pobst + 20 seconds to Buttiero, +10s to Law, +2 sec to McGlynn. Theys seems to be holding back a bit but EFR is unable to close to more than about 3 seconds. Gavin is about 37 seconds further back. The 09 Corvette very nearly expires after having regained the lap to the no. 11 AGT leader. Theys begins the last lap about 2.5 seconds up on EFR. The gap holds and the defending champion Doran team with the same chassis-engine combination as last year takes the win. The Archangel team wins SRPII, the Saleen goes all the way as the lone GTS car. Pobst / Hiskey win GT (Seikel car second, G & W no. 81 third, and Racers' Group 4th). The Bupp / Leavy Camaro wins AGT. In the end it was interesting, although it took the luck of a late yellow to make it so. The GT contest was a race long battle and very much the highlight. It was reasonably good quality racing, far from a classic. That has been the theme across all the sports car series this season, good but not quite good nough. Perhaps Stephen Gliddon put it best that somewhere between ALMS and Gand-Am there is a happy medium--and some truly perfect racing. Maybe next year. A few epilogues: Jon Leavy, co-winner of AGT, complimented the field. He stated that all the drivers did a fine job of either staying out of the way or passing in polite fashion. The no. 20 Dyson car was hit by an AGT car while coming out of the pits, and this is what deranged the front nose. The damage looked to be mostly aerodynamic in nature. The 00 Mustang retired when its engine exploded, putting a few bits of shrapnel into the driver's leg. The no. 58 Miata went out with differential problems. The Mosler succumbed to gearbox woes. Janos Wimpffen Copyright ©2000-©2023 TotalMotorSport