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Mosport International Raceway

Gran Turismo 3 Grand Prix

19/08/2001

Saturday Free Practice

Report 2

© Tom Kjos

Mosport, Ontario, Canada--We'll start the story of the second practice session with a story from the end of the first. Although it did not bring out a flag, David Brabham closed session one with 'a moment' in turn one driving the #50 Panoz LMP 1 Roadster S. "I came in hot, and knew if I was even just a little off line it would be serious." He was, and it was, as he scattered tires but then limped around the track to the pits, then paddock. That, along with Bill Auberlen's turn nine incident in the #10 BMW GTR, set the stage for this session--missing cars. Neither of these would make an appearance in this second practice session. Panoz is sure they will be ready for qualifying later, and it appears that so will the BMW.

The other car that did not turn a wheel during the second practice was the #69 Porsche GT3-R of Kyser Racing, in this case for reasons unknown. Also a bit of a mystery was the late appearance--very late--of the Dyson Racing R&S. By the time Butch Leitzinger got the car on the track there was but time left in the session for two laps. The team appeared to be ready to roll just before the session, but then tore down the front suspension before Butch was able to head for the track.

Of those who got out there at the beginning, some weren't around long. Tom Weickardt slid across the turn two run-out and hit the tire wall hard on his third timed lap, ending the session for the #44 Viper.

So among the LMP 900 prototypes, the Audis pretty much had their way. It wasn't a case of coasting them home, however, as Capello and Kristensen got the #1 car within a tenth of Frank Biela's track record with a 1:08.533, and the #2 car of Biela and Emanuele Pirro was a scant one tenth back of that. Champion Racing also went faster, but only a half second, so found themselves in third. The rest of the six cars that set times were Cadillac-Panoz-Cadillac. Circumstance and error took away two of the cars that will likely be factors in qualifying and in the race. We learned very little, except of course, that the R8s are as fast as they were last year.

The Corvettes went faster in GTS. Their only problem was that the Saleen S7R went much faster. Terry Borcheller's 1:16.195 set an unofficial track record for the class by nearly a half second. Likewise Ron Fellows bettered his own 1:16.675 track record, with a 1:16.622.

The order in LMP 675 stayed the same way it has been this weekend; Barbour Racing #5, KnightHawk Racing #11, and Barbour Racing #57.

The BMW GTRs went a lot faster, just like the Saleen did, the Müller / Ekblom (left) #43 Schnitzer car remaining on top of the heap and lowering their unofficial record to 1:18.225, nearly three seconds faster than Randy Pobst's track record set last year in an Alex Job Racing GT3-R. The GTRs held the top three spots this time, followed by the two McKenna-sponsored AJR Porsches. The 'bookmark' between these five and the rest of the field was the American Viperacing Dodge Viper of David Donohue and Shane Lewis. A reason for the poor performance of this car and its sibling? According a source who should know, the AVR cars may well have been built and sold last year, but they are 1999 spec., substantially less developed than the cars run by ORECA last season. One has to wonder why Chrysler would do anything that silly. After that GTS car, the field is completed by Petersen, Seikel, and the Barbour Porsche, among those who ran a reasonable part of the session.