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Mosport International Raceway

Gran Turismo 3 Grand Prix

19/08/2001

Qualifying

Report

© Tom Kjos

Mosport, Ontario, Canada--The GTS and GT cars led off qualifying in a twenty minute session, still under mostly cloudy skies, but decidedly warmer.

PTG driver Bill Auberlen returned to the track shortly before qualifying, painfully tearing monitor leads off his skin, and although Nic Jönsson was suited and ready, Tom Milner has decided not to qualify the #10 BMW GTR, but rather to start from the back tomorrow. It seems prudent to take the time to carefully inspect the repair and shake it down in tomorrow's warm-up.

The two BMW Motorsports M3s are uncharacteristically out early, JJ Lehto in the #42 Schitzer Motorsport GTR, and Dirk Müller in the #43. Both cars put in six laps, and after trailing his teammate throughout practice, JJ takes the GT pole with a new track record 1:18.840 on his fourth tour of the circuit. Hans Stuck is the one who sits in pit lane and waits to see what he needs. There is no thought of overtaking the Motorsport cousins, rather PTG is watching the two Alex Job Racing Porsches before finally sending Hans out to nail down a third on the grid in a minimal three laps on the tires with a just-good-enough 1:19.428. The two McKenna AJR Porsche GT3-RSs get out early and put low 1:20s in the books for the fourth and fifth grid spots. Randy Pobst, who held the GT qualifying record here until this afternoon puts the #22 car in the lead position, after having spent much of the season at second fiddle to the #23 Luhr / Maassen Porsche.

Petersen Motorsports' Timo Bernard qualified behind the AJR cars, as the team has all season, followed by Magnus Wallinder's 1:22.042 effort in the Seikel Motorosports Porsche. Although the two 'R model' Porsches do their best of the weekend, the #69 Kyser and #15 Barbour Racing cars find themselves in a class of their own once again, ninth and tenth on the GT grid, heading only the Auberlen / Jonsson PTG BMW that chose not to qualify.

GTS qualifying was determined not so much on the track as in the pits, as Ron Fellows encountered a clutch problem pulling away from his pit, returned for an extended and failed repair effort, only to finally get in a 'slipping' 1:39. He will start just ahead of the BMW GTR. Those two will make a tandem working up the field in the early going, Terry Borcheller took the GTS pole for Saleen, wheeling the S7R around in 1:17.091. Terry admitted it was work getting up to speed. "Our first laps were not that great." Of Corvette, he commented, "I think that Ron will be to the front pretty quickly." Franz should be watching his mirrors, then? Andy Pilgrim qualified the #4 C5-R second on the GTS grid, followed by an effort of 1:19.514 by David Donohue in the #45 Viper, over two seconds adrift of the Pilgrim Corvette. At least the Dodge headed all the Porsche GT entrants; that may be a first. The sister #44 AVR Viper came back from its practice shunt to post a 1:23.304, ahead only of the 'R class' Porsches of the cars that had untroubled qualifying stints.

Didier de Radigues came back and set the LMP 675 prototype pole on a track at which he was badly injured in a shunt last year. About that incident he said, "I lost steering last year on the Lola and hit the wall very hard. I'm very glad to be walking. I was very scared last year (after the incident). It is very good for me (to get back here), and to set very good times now. I am just now starting to feel good again. Asked about rain tomorrow (a possibility, we understand) de Radigues said, "It will be very tricky." Didier's 1:13.501 is good for ninth overall on the grid and a commanding 2.5 second gap on Claudia Huertgen's second place in class KnightHawk Racing Lola Nissan. The Milka Duno-John Graham Barbour Judd is seven tenths back in 11th, so three LMP 675 cars start together for the first time.

In LMP 900 prototype, the Audis asserted their strength as competitors suffered various problems, niggling and otherwise. Rinaldo Capello stuck a 1:08.222 to take the track record away from teammate Frank Biela. Frank also broke his record of last year with a 1:08.408. Behind them, Jan Magnussen brought the #50 Panoz Roadster S back from repair in the paddock to post a third best 1:09.671. Said Jan, "Considering we lost a whole session, I am reasonably pleased by the time." Teammates Lagorce and Graf continued a weekend-long struggle with brake and balance problems, finishing the session last among the eight LMP 900 prototypes. Lagorce nearly lost it in qualifying "I had a big moment later in the session at nearly 250 kph and I was everywhere on the track but luckily managed to catch it before another big accident."

In between these, Andy Wallace went out for qualifying hopeful. "The car is getting a little bit better every race. We are now just a little behind." He came back a disappointed fourth on the grid and a second and a half back of the pole. "The car picked up a severe understeer and nothing we did made it better. We will just have to work on it tonight and find out what the problem is." Butch Leitzinger put the Dyson Racing Riley & Scott fifth on the grid with a pleasing 1:09.969, just 1.7 seconds off the new record pole. Given that they have also thrashed a bit this weekend getting the largely unsorted R&S IIIC right, that small gap has to be satisfying. The two Cadillacs follow closely behind.

So qualifying goes in the books. Panoz can get more out of their cars no doubt; so can Champion. Hans Stuck says strategy can win the race for PTG and to "watch the last half hour." Ron Fellows will quickly be up behind the Saleen, says Terry Borcheller. No doubt he is right. Tomorrow is set up for racing all over the track, from the green to the checker.