Sears Point Raceway X-Factor 22/07/2001   Friday Snippets and Rumors from Sonoma   © Tom Kjos Sonoma, California, USA--The X-Factor Grand Prix of Sonoma, third round of the American Le Mans Series, got underway today with mid-day testing sessions. It appears that 26 cars will now take the checkered on Sunday, the original entry list having been shortened by two withdrawals: the Roock-KnightHawk Lola-Nissan LMP 675, and MCR/Aspen Knoll's Callaway C12 in GT. The latter seems in part to have withdrawn as a result of a "philosophy of racing" dispute with Callaway, the former reportedly believing in the need to use "stock parts" in racing to support a street car marketing program. Huh? Good Grief, since when, where? There is some reason to believe that has long been the Callaway factory stance. Ah, now I get it. I used to be puzzled by the disappearing act pulled in previous Callaway efforts (remember the C7 at Daytona?). No more. "This marketing thing" may just be more spin of course. We do know that the MCR/Aspen Knolls team was promised certain elements of a "proper race car" that were never delivered, without which there were questions of not only cost, but also competitiveness and safety. In keeping with the spirit of Friday reporting (little "hard news," much rumor), the Roock-KnightHawk's withdrawal was accompanied by…nothing, not so much as a peep. Until we got here of course, when we picked up / heard that the withdrawal had been attributed to "engine problems." Given Texas and Sebring, that would hardly have been a surprise, but there was a little race in France since then at which the Nissan performed rather well, at least well enough to anticipate sprint-race reliability. Originally, the team told us the Nissan was an interim solution. A Judd V8 would eventually find its way into the Lola. Is it possible they are now on that course, and could not complete the work? Perhaps they will tell us. Local pre-race coverage seems to have been quite extensive, with articles and columns in numerous Bay Area publications large and small. This being one of two NASCAR road race venues, there is a tendency to describe this racing (well, all racing) in reference to the Winston Cup. Interestingly, most scribes are at least a bit complementary of the differences (multi-class high technology cars, internationally known drivers, and significantly higher road course speeds of the ALMS cars). For sheer column inches, though, the big story here is Hans Stuck. Huh? Yup, the 50-year-old Austrian is the feature or a prominent part of no less than five different stories. Jeff Lepper in the Independent Journal, Novato, who took a white-knuckle ride with Hans on the Sears Point track in a stock M3, wrote of Stuck's car control at speed, "He could have ferried me around while talking on a cell phone, knotting his tie, and looking up an address in his Palm Pilot-- and I still would have been safer than when I 'm driving myself on Highway 101." Headlines include, "Sideways Stuck ready to flow it at Sears Point," "Stuck has plenty of laughs while winning GT car races" and in the Chronicle, "Racing partners and best friends." (The last largely about Boris Said's hero-worship of the elderly Austrian.) Last year we called this "The McNish Invitational." But with Tony Sakkis' observation in his "Inside Motorsports" column in the Oakland Tribune that "Stuck with be the driver to beat in the GT class" being the tenor of coverage, if Hans doesn't yodel from the top step it will be seen here as an upset. While we're on the subject of press coverage, Tom Kristensen's appearance on the NASCAR-oriented "RPM Tonight" show on ESPN earlier in the week has to stand as something of a coup for sports car racing, at least since the heyday of IMSA. With PTG's BMW's racing on Yokohamas and BMW Motorsport on Michelin, it seems we have a kind of mini tire war on our hands, a la F1. In fact the PR folks with both teams are quick to suggest such an angle. Of course, nothing would be better for the two sponsor-manufacturers, but it is a good angle. During this afternoon's practice sessions, both PTG cars posted faster times. The first shot for Yokohama? In fact Tom Milner has long complemented Yokohama for working so closely with his team that their tires are tailored to the characteristics of his M3s. Among the LMP 900 cars, Champion, interestingly, decided to forego the PSCR transponder, so did not post a "public" time. Mind games here? The two Audi Sport North America cars topped the times, followed by Panoz, then Team Cadillac. Jon Field's Intersport racing Lola-Judd was at the back of those who took times in the session a little over four seconds slower than the fast time of 1:21.944 set by Audi. Dick Barbour Racing's LMP675, turning a 1:27.809 was comfortably ahead of the GTS field, but not close enough to the 900s to validate that this is anything but a separate class in the field. There is little indication anywhere to date that the 675 can really challenge their big brothers for overall wins. If testing day times are a useful predictor of form later in the weekend at all, the Saleen S7R will have its way on Sunday, and American Viperacing still has some ground to make up. So far the gaps between these cars, each of which put on nearly 100 miles today (the exception being the #3 Corvette) is in the 2-3 second range; too much to presage close racing. Equally problematical is the best of the Porsches (Alex Job Racing's #23 entry in the hands of Lucas Luhr and Sascha Maassen) a full second and a half adrift of the slowest of the four BMW M3s, but yet more than a full second up on the next fastest of the Porsches. Practices have a way of being misleading though, as teams work on set-up and drivers familiarize themselves with the track. Some (like a Corvette, the Champion Audi, and Peterson Motorsport's Porsche GT3-RS) did not take times for one reason or another. The Petersen Porsche was another that was without a transponder, unlike Champion, an oversight. We have been wondering why the HSR Historic GTP race was so little promoted for this meeting. It seemed a natural to bring back the formerly large IMSA crowds of the late 1980s. Now we know why. There is only one GTP here, the Jim Adams driven 1986 Wynns Porsche 962. There are ten other cars, but contrary to billing, not GTPs, but rather 1970s vintage Chevrons, plus a Sauber, an Osella, a couple of Lolas, and the obligatory Porsche 93Xs (can't keep those straight). It is nice to see the pretty Wynn's car though. Well, we're off to a champagne winery for PTG's introduction of its new GTRs. What a grind. Well, someone's got to do it. Until tomorrow then, from California wine country. The times are listed here link. Copyright ©2000-©2023 TotalMotorSport