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Portland International Raceway

05/08/2001

Race

Morning

© Tom Kjos

Portland, Oregon, USA--Sunday in the Pacific Northwest dawns with bright blue skies. Dave Maraj will not get his wish for rain, but BMW Motorsports will get their's. The latter told our reporter that they wanted "Eighty degrees tomorrow to make the Michelins nice and sticky." Sounds like a Patrick Head comment to me.

Today has a different feel to it than any other race day in a long time. A car other than Audi on the pole will do that. There has always been the anticipation in the Grand Touring classes that there would be close inter-marque racing, not so for over a season among the top prototypes. It is not just the press, but the whole ALMS circus that seems energized by the Panoz show of yesterday. To have the challenge come without any excuses--no weather, crashes, penalties--makes it so much more meaningful. If Panoz can even make it a race through the entire two-hours forty-five minutes, say nothing of win, the series will move on to Mosport on a new high. And we might hope that this sign of Audi vulnerability has other potential competitors looking on with interest and evaluating closely their racing plans for the remainder of 2001, and particularly for the Petit Le Mans.

LMP 675 even holds some interest with the presence of the KnightHawk Lola. They have a ways to go to before they pose a realistic challenge to the Dick Barbour Racing Reynard, but with a new engine they would at least have the potential.

The Saleen-Corvette battle is not only a race-to-race thing anymore. Ron Fellows made it clear in the pole press conference yesterday, while thanking Program Manager Doug Fehan, who "Got it done for us," that the thing that swayed the GM brass was the importance of winning a season championship against a serious contender. It is another indication that the ALMS is coming of age as something other than a grouping of individual races.

There was an expectation that Porsche's GT3-RS would be closer to the BMW GTRs here, or even in front of them. The track is one that is widely believed suits the Weissach cars. Thus the BMW sweep is a 'disappointment'. The fact that only the Alex Job cars really are in any position to mount a challenge is no surprise at all. Porsche customer racing has always been a two-tiered affair, all the way back to the 962 days. We hope that the 911s have more fight in them today than they showed yesterday. Perhaps the view expressed by one of their drivers that the race will be closer than qualifying will turn out to be real.