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Portland International Raceway

05/08/2001

Race Report

Stunning

Portland, Oregon, USA--Portland International Raceway was the site today of a stunning upset as Panoz Motor Sports used its resurrected LMP1 Roadster S to upset the previously invulnerable Audi R8. Under sunshine and blue skies, David Brabham and Jan Magnussen drove a nearly flawless race to out-handle and overpower the Audi Sport North America and Champion Racing Audis.

There was a real sense of anticipation for this race from the time qualifying ended on Saturday. There were no unusual circumstances or problems to account for the Panoz pole; it looked just like the straight-up beating it was. A fair weather race day would contribute to a "no excuses" result, unlike the last and only time the R8 failed to win, in the deluge at the Nurburgring over a year ago. After that one, BMW's Le Mans and Sebring-winning LMR couldn't do it, and neither could Panoz, though they did come closer than anyone else in the last few races of the 2000 season before they put the LMP1 away in favor of the now abandoned LMP07. From two weeks ago at Sears Point forward, there was a wholly different attitude around the Panoz team. Brabham said "there was a bounce in our step," and about this weekend, "from the get-go in practice we knew that we were competitive."

The green flag came at 1:02 and Tom Kristensen appeared to put the universe in its rightful order as he took the yellow-trimmed silver Audi into the festival curves ahead of the pole-sitting Brabham. "To get blown out at the start wasn't particularly great, but I didn't want to flat spot my tires either, so I settled in.” Settled in is hardly an apt description as both he and Kristensen set the fastest laps of the race on lap two. Klaus Graf had flat-spotted the #51 Panoz' tires in qualifying, and opted to change tires before the race. By rule, that put the car at the back of the grid. No concern, he had the second red car in fifth place overall before the end of the first lap.

At first Kristensen pulled away to a 4 second lead. It was an illusion, or just Brabham settling in. But not for long. The first indication of a different sort of race came when Johnny Herbert, driving the lead stint for the year-old Champion Audi, passed Frank Biela's #2 red-trimmed R8 into third place just 12 minutes after the start. A minute later, on lap 11, Brabham grabbed the lead from Kristensen, and, as they say "the crowd went wild." The large Portland crowd had already recognized that they were here for a race, and would stay mostly rooted in the grandstands throughout. The red Panoz eased away to a small lead, then a full course yellow was thrown for debris on the track. Soon after, the #15 Porsche GT3-R of Randy Wars, a leased ride supported by Barbour Racing, expired in a puff of smoke at turn 11. During the ensuing caution period, the #51 Panoz pitted for tires and fuel, perhaps saving the necessity for a splash and go late in the race. All the other prototypes stayed on the track.

At 1:33 the green flew and three minutes later, the Graf-driven #51 Panoz passed the #2 Audi, putting the latter in last place in the prototype field. The big cars then settled in two-by-two, with Brabham and Kristensen hooked up, and Graf and Herbert having a go at each other a hundred meters or so back. Biela's #2 Audi now began to drop back, losing touch with the leaders, but still within striking distance should something untoward happen up front. This continued to be the order of things until just past the first hour, when Brabham pitted from the lead for tires and fuel, then continued into a second driving stint. Herbert would pit the #38 Champion Audi next, take tires, with no driver change.

Kristensen took the lead Audi into the pits at 2:14 and decided to double-stint the tires along with the driver, as Klaus Graf, who had refueled on the early caution, took the overall lead. The number 2 Audi completed the first prototype pit stops just behind Graf, with Emanuele Pirro replacing Frank Biela. "There's lots of rubber on the racetrack, I couldn't go flat out." Perhaps he meant the "marbles"? Kristensen's shorter pit stop allowed him to come out of the pit round-robin with the lead, and nearly 25 seconds on Brabham's #50 Panoz, but now the red roadster started slowly reeling the Audi in. The gap dropped to 20, then 15, then 12 seconds, stayed there a while, then started dropping again. Everyone was aware of it, and watching.

It took a little more than a half hour, but at 2:46, Brabham had closed to just three seconds. As the Audi's tires were wearing, a Brabham pass seemed inevitable. It happened not on the track, but on the Audi's pit stop at 2:49. This time the #1 car changed tires and Rinaldo Capello replaced Tom Kristensen. Brabham assumed the lead but gave it up to pit six minutes later. Jan Magnussen took over and this time the Panoz foregoes a tire change, while Graf again took the #51 Panoz into the overall race lead.

The Champion Audi pitted next, for tires, fuel, a driver change, and a twenty-second penalty. Assistance to the driver getting out of the car can only be given by the other driver; others help Herbert and it costs the penalty time, served on the spot.

Only a few minutes later, the event that appeared at the time to all but clinch a Panoz victory. Capello, in second overall, slowed the #1 Audi on course, passed the pits on the front straight without getting above 90 miles per hour, then pitted with a stuck transmission on the next lap. A few minutes later, Pirro took the #2 Audi into the lead when the race-leading #51 Panoz stopped. Now both Panoz have pitted, but Pirro's Audi still needs to make one more stop, his last having been at 2:12, nearly an hour earlier. He finally came in 11 minutes later at 3:20, again putting Magnussen into the lead. The red roadster now has a substantial lead of about 25 seconds with only 25 minutes to race, and with no one else clearly fast enough to overtake on the track a Panoz victory seems assured.

But the race gods will not let this one end with a whimper. A full course yellow just as Pirro regains the track lets the Audi close up on the leading Panoz. As they approach the green, only four cars, all GTs, separate the two. When the flag flies at 3:28 the silver Audi is past the four GT cars and into the Festival Curves right behind Magnussen's Panoz. It looks like it will be hammer and tongs to the finish, but just seconds later, the Kyser Porsche GT3-R spins into the kitty litter at the Festival Curves, and another full course caution is called to retrieve it. Now the two leaders will circulate awaiting the green nose-to-tail. Less than ten minutes will remain then, and the Audi is on the fresher tires.

Circumstance has endangered a Panoz upset. At 3:38, they're off, and Magnussen holds off Pirro into the first turn. Five minutes later, with just five to go, Pirro is six-tenths in trail. Two laps later, it's less than that. Magnussen takes the white flag, Pirro on the chase, but the latter gets momentarily caught up in traffic on the back of the track, and all seems lost. Magnussen exits turn 11 into the final straight on his way to the checkered flag, then inexplicably slows, as Pirro's Audi quickly closes. There is not enough track left, though, as Magnussen gets back on the power to win by .374 seconds.

Was Magnussen worried about the chasing Audi when the yellows flew? "When the pace car came out he (Pirro) got up behind me, and blew by the four GTs on the restart. I held him off, but I noticed on that restart that there was a lot of pick-up (sand and gravel) on my tires, so on the second one I tried to scrub them best I could...they still weren't that good, but I guess Pirro had the same problem. I hit lapped traffic and thought, this is it, but I got through cleanly, and he did not so well." (About the sudden slowing on the last straight) "I misjudged where the finish was." It's good the race wasn't a couple hundred meters longer, Jan. David Brabham is asked if Panoz would have won if the #1 Audi had not hit trouble. His answer is a simple "yes." Told that Audi thinks they would, he answers an equally simple and Aussie-elegant "What Rot!"

There were two cars in the LMP 675 class in this race, but both were on outings independent of each other. The KnightHawk Racing Lola was getting the feel of its new Judd engine, and learning they are still far from challenging the similarly powered Barbour Racing Reynard. The latter was able to finish eight laps back of the leading LMP900s, but clear of all the GTS and GT cars. The only hitch was a penalty for "too many hands helping Milka Duno with her belts." Even the winning Barbour drivers felt no race pressure from the KnightHawk car. "You end up having to race against your target times," said John Graham. The last few races have been a struggle with one car lost and one not "just right." "This is the first time we had a good car, we wanted a good overall all finish, and we got that. We will be back with two cars at Mosport. It has been decided, but Dick (Barbour) will announce Didier's (de Radigues) partner later this week," he said.

With two wins this weekend (Most and Trios Rivieres) already in the books, the Saleen teams wanted a sweep. And they freely admitted that this would be the most important of the three. But it was not to be. It looked good for them, as after another extended battle with the Fellows Corvette, Franz Konrad pitted from the lead and handed over to Terry Borcheller at 2:16. Ron Fellows took the #3 Corvette into the lead until he pitted at 2:36 (both Corvettes had stopped on the race's first yellow), and was replaced by Johnny O'Connell. The Saleen S7R was now smoking rather heavily on downshifts, and gave up the lead on its own pit stop at 2:43. It was an oil leak, but the car retook the track after refueling. Corvette took the lead back, but the Saleen was closing when a black flag flies for the car at 2:57, leading to its retirement. Ron Fellows was happy to be here, and happy to have won. "The Saleen was a handful. They gave us a great race for a while. Fortunately for us they had mechanical problems. With the points lead in drivers and manufacturer's, we convinced the GM brass to finish the schedule, since we have a good shot at winning both." This was a big win, Ron, Saleen won't likely break every week.

In GT the Porsche-BMW war heated up. BMW again, and against prediction, swept the first four qualifying positions, but the three RS model GT3s had great starts and the filed out of the Festival Curves like a club sandwich. BMW-Porsche-BMW-Porsche-BMW-Porsche, and so on through seven cars, including the Petersen Motorsports' #30. They were literally nose to tail from the flag, and not without some bumping, between them and others in the field. Hans Stuck had started on the pole, but found himself at the tail of this train by the time they were through the Festival Curves the first time. "I got hit by the wiper in the front right hand tire. When I pitted they found the rim was badly bent. We were lucky we did not burst a tire." On the first yellow, just 20 minutes into the race, half of each of the top teams pitted, Alex Job Racing's #22, BMW Motorsport's #43, and PTG's #10. Both BMWs changed drivers; Pobst continued in the McKenna GT3-RS. Sascha Maassen took the GT lead for Porsche on the green flag and the order was now Porsche-BMW-BMW-BMW-BMW-Porsche, the two slices of bread being the McKenna AJR cars. The Petersen Racing Porsche now fell back. Nose to tail is almost not descriptive enough for the leading four cars. For most of the next hour the entire group was not a full second front to back. Although one of the cars that stopped, Dirk Müller took his #43 Motorsport M3 GTR into the lead past Sascha Maassen fifteen minutes after the restart. All six cars traded places on the track and through pit stops for most of the next two hours, but the BMWs slowly took control, in one-two-three (43, 6, 42) order with less than a half hour to race. Then at 3:21, Niclas Jönsson slowed his #10 PTG BMW GTR on course and came to a stop on the back straight racing line with a failed transmission. This precipitated the first of the two cautions in the last half-hour. None of the GTs pit, since all have enough fuel to go the distance.

The second of these yellows, coming at 3:29 is a different story. The first of the "gang of six" (now five, without Jönsson) to pit is the AJR #22 to change tires. Unfortunately, the pits are still closed at the time, and the Porsche incurs a one lap penalty. Now there are four. There is a report from the pit lane that Jörg Müller, driving the BMW Motorsport #42, is about to expire at the wheel with heat exhaustion. It is class-leading Fredrik Ekblom, however, driving the #43 GTR who is in first, taking on tires, but staying in the car. With tires going away, they perhaps hope to be able to overtake in a dash to the finish. Jörg follows him in, and as expected, JJ Lehto takes over, new tires also go on the sister car. In the shuffle, Boris Said moves into the lead, with about a twelve second lead on the last restart. Will his tires hold up? They do, and PTG comes away with a win, the second for brothers Hans and Boris, and the third in the ALMS for PTG. A large part of the credit for this win goes to PTG Team Engineer Ina Gastesi, who put considerable effort into designing for driver cooling throughout the history of the PTG M3 effort. He is responsible for the racing E46's NACA duct, now carried over onto the PTG GTR. Hans Stuck said before the race that his job "was to conserve tires and fuel, and turn a good car over to Boris. This race will be won in the second half." That is exactly what he did and he was right. According to Boris Said, "Hans gave me a geat car for the end. I thought any of six cars could win this race. The Yokohama tires won this race." Boris was asked if the Porsches had handled better than the characterization he made yesterday. "No, they still handle like turds compared to a BMW. BMW is the Ultimate Driving Machine." Loyalty is good, Boris, but I doubt AG will be calling to quote you in an ad any time soon.

Twenty one of the best sports cars and drivers in the world showed up at Portland International Raceway this weekend, and they left a lot of fans behind them. No other series anyplace has put on a show like this one this season, perhaps longer than that. And no one who saw this race will believe that you improve the racing by leaving the GT cars at home in favor of stretching the prototype field, perhaps to encompass participants not at this level.

The ALMS may well have taken a big step forward. Time will tell if they can keep it up. It looks to us as if they will. On to Mosport.