TotalMotorSport All the latest Motorsport news, race reports and photographs from around the world. Alms, Touring Cars, Formula One & Le Mans 24 Hours

Mosport International Raceway

Gran Turismo 3 Grand Prix

19/08/2001

Round 5

Preview

© Tom Kjos

The ALMS moves on to its fifth round of the season, with three of the four classes hotly contested. For GTS and GT it has virtually been season long nose-to-tail racing at the front. For LMP900, the newly found contest came finally at Portland in round four, when Panoz won in a stunning upset of the previously unbeatable Audi Sport North America R8s.

Mosport International Raceway (its name a contraction of Motorsport) is a track that is the same and yet different from the site of the two previous years the series has raced here. The same in the way that Hans Stuck means when he comments in his "Lap of" article, "This is one of the very few tracks that we still race on that has not been destroyed by chicanes to bring the speed down." On the other hand it is a completely different track from the one that BMW's Schnitzer team drivers refused to race on in 1999, ultimately costing the series' drivers, team, and manufacturer's titles for the Le Mans champion LMR. Major renovations in 1999 and 2000 have regraded, resurfaced, and generally reworked just about every turn on the track. Yet the character of the circuit is much like it has always been over the forty years of its history, hosting Can Am, Formula 1, CART, IMSA, and now ALMS races. It's fast. Last year Frank Biela set a qualifying lap record on the 10-turn 2.459-mile circuit of 1:08.432, an average speed of 129.361 mph. The GT record, set by Randy Pobst in a Porsche GT3-R in 2000, is 109 miles per hour, about the same as the prototype speeds at Portland.

This track was also the scene last year of the closest ever ALMS finish, when Allan McNish and Rinaldo Capello's Audi R8 bested JJ Lehto and Jörg Müller's BMW LMP by a scant 0.143 seconds. Nor was that a "photo opportunity" faux finish like the one between Audi teammates this year to set a "record" at Sebring. To the delight of sports car racing fans, Ron Fellows' and Andy Pilgrim' Corvette C5-R was equally close to the Viper GTS-R of Olivier Beretta and Karl Wendlinger at the finish. Fast track or not, Hans Stuck and Boris Said put their PTG BMW M3 second behind the Porsche GT3-R of Randy Pobst and Bruno Lambert, the latter drivers giving Alex Job Racing its first win of that season. That AJR win was something of a turning point for the Florida team. They would go on to challenge the previously dominant Dick Barbour Racing cars for the rest of the season, then return this year to sweep the early races, a place they had become accustomed to in previous years and sorely missed.

The 2000 race was one of the wettest and one of the most entertaining in years. We can do without the rain; the entertainment will be welcome again.

Thankfully, an entertaining and hard fought race seems likely. Three new prototypes join the LMP900 ranks--well, perhaps "new" is not the right word, since we have seen the two Cadillac LMPs and the Dyson Racing Riley & Scott Mark IIIC before, the Lincoln-powered R&S at Sebring, and the Cadillacs more recently at Sears Point. That brings the "big proto" field up to eight, as many as have been recently seen in any series in North America, even the rival Grand American Road Racing Association, whose rules encourage inexpensive, veteran prototypes and might be expected to have significantly larger fields. They don't. Two races ago, Jon Field's Intersport Racing brought its Lola-Judd to Sears Point from GARRA, and was unable to dent the Panoz-Audi tandem at the head of the field. This time, the other top Grand Am team, Dyson Racing, comes to Mosport from a win in GARRA's support race to NASCAR Friday night at Watkins Glen (actually, the Grand Am billing on this weekend was below the "Busch North" feature that got the Saturday racing slot). We don't expect that the Riley & Scott will do any better than the Lola. With the Grand Am season nearing its end, and ALMS just past halfway, these additions to the field will become a regular fixture. As for the Cadillacs, they are really just race testing "bits" while awaiting the 2002 chassis. A challenge to the leaders from them would be a surprise - a welcome one - indeed.

The look of the front of the field changed at Portland, from Audi silver to Panoz red. All smiles at Panoz. Was the win by the Georgia team a fluke? No, of course not. They had the measure of the Joest juggernaut all weekend. Audi struggled to find a set-up that worked on the slippery track. How will all the new pavement at Mosport affect that track? Not by any means is it time to declare Audis' domination dead. Nor can we easily dismiss the possibility that the Panoz LMP1 Roadster S can make a fight of it for the rest of the way. Champion has had time to get its 2000 model R8 at least up to the times the car did last year, but so far no such luck - for various reasons. On balance, then, Audi will likely win its battle with Panoz up front, Champion will get amongst the second cars of the leading teams, and Dyson should make it a Lincoln-Cadillac battle further back.

LMP675 sees the return of the Dick Barbour Racing lead car, a Judd powered Reynard with Bruno Lambert recently announced to partner Didier de Radigues. Roock-KnightHawk Racing is again listed with its Lola-Nissan. We spent the entire Portland weekend putting Judd engine in the latter; it was not. That is a measure of two things: one, how much attention this class gets (and deserves), and two, the darn thing should have a Judd. As long as it remains Nissan powered, this entry is little more than a way to get some drivers a bit of track time. And podiums of course, in a three car field. If there are no untoward events, Canadian John Graham and Venezuelan Milka Duno will complete a two car sweep for the Barbour team, even though the addition of German driver Claudia Huertgen significantly improves the driver strength in the Roock-KnightHawk Lola.

When we turn to GTS we get back to serious racing. The Konrad Saleen and the two Corvettes continue their fight for season championship honors. While the Saleen S7R seems at times to have a bit more track speed, mechanical failures and tire woes of the single entry have left the Corvettes in control. The switch to Dunlops from Goodyear at Portland seems to have helped the Konrad cause. If the S7R can run through to the end, it is a likely winner at Mosport. That won't make Ron Fellows very happy at his home track.

Throughout this 2001 season there has been no better racing anywhere than the show put on by the ALMS GT cars. Porsche and BMW field three teams between them--six cars--that have consistently looked to grab the spotlight from the prototypes. If not for the wonderful Panoz-Audi battle at Portland, it might have been the same there. Certainly, the M3s and 911s deserved that prominence. For much of the race, the six cars of BMW Motorsport, Alex Job Racing, and PTG were covered by just seconds, all usually in view on the track at the same time. Tires and driver exhaustion determined the outcome, as Hans Stuck and Boris Said took the victory in the #6 M3 GTR for BMW, PTG, and Yokohama. As strong as the BMWs are, there is simply little to choose between them and the two McKenna Porsche GT3-RSs (Maassen and Luhr, below).

All we can say at this point of the season is that there are four competitive Bavarian GTRs and only two Weissach-born Porsches that have the speed and reliability to challenge for race wins--so advantage BMW.

Seikel Motorsport returns to the series, and this is home to Kyser Racing. Too bad the latter team continues to field an R model Porsche. That will make any kind of a run at the leaders quite improbable.