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Mid Ohio

25/08/2001

Qualifying

Report

© Tom Kjos

Lexington, Ohio, USA--Porsche grabbed its first ALMS / ELMS pole in which BMW GTRs participated since Sebring here at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. Randy Pobst had the Alex Job Racing #22 GT3-RS out early, along with BMW Motorsport's #43 M3 GTR in the hands of Fredrik Ekblom, and Boris Said's #6 PTG M3. Pobst went quickest first, posting a time of 1:25.155, only to be bettered by Said's 1:24.507, a time that would stand for much of the session. A few minutes later PTG brought out its #10 car, in which Nic Jönsson is partnered this weekend by Peter (PD) Cunningham in relief of Bill Auberlen, recuperating from his Mosport shunt. Nic was able to put in a 1:25.124, while McKenna Alex Job Racing and Schnitzer's BMW Motorsport parked their second cars on pit lane until late in the session. JJ Lehto's GTR was the first to post a fast lap, topping the time sheets in 1:24.459 on his second lap, then calling it a day. Sascha Maassen had the #23 AJR 911 GT3-R out late, but a bit longer, as he kept working his time down to set a pole winning 1:24.451 on his fifth timed lap. JJ Lehto, who has been consistent since Sears Point in publicly hoping for more from the Porsches, finally got his wish. "It's nice to see that Porsche is back in business. They were very fast. I was pushing a few little things, but I'm sure they didn't have a perfect lap either. Everyone was so limited with time on the track, so it shows everybody has prepared well for this race."

Porsche reports that the major change to the car is stiffer shock absorbers in response to Randy Pobst's report at Mosport that the Porsche was slipping in the middle of the turn. So GT will start with a Porsche on the pole in North America for the first time since Sebring, followed by three BMWs, the sister AJR Porsche, and the #10 PTG BMW GTR.

"I put two good laps in, but the track was more slippery than this morning," said Boris Said. "I'm happy to start third - we tried one more run at it, but the edge was off the tires - you have to get the quick one on your second or third lap," he explained. Tom Milner, always a racer (even if never a driver, and quite happy with that), observed that, "six cars within six-tenths of a second and the top three within a half-a-hundredth is a tight qualifying session, and will make for a very good race. We are happy with third and sixth as we went out with our race set-up. I think our competition may pay a little more attention to qualifying than we do." Not AJR, Tom, at least according to pole-sitter Sascha Maassen: "We do not approach the race weekend looking for the fastest qualifying time,” said Maassen, who almost won the ALMS driver’s title a year ago. “We usually spend our pre-race track time setting the car up for the race. But some new shock settings and a nice, clean lap produced the fastest time today. I am especially pleased for the Alex Job Racing McKenna Porsche crew who worked so hard to prepare the car after a tough race last week at Mosport.”

The gap from this sixth place car is a full second back to Johnny Mowlem's Petersen Racing Porsche, followed by Joe Foster's excellent effort in Kyser Racing's R model GT3, getting inside the Seikel Racing RS by three-tenths of a second. Mark Neuhaus qualified the #15 Barbour Racing Porsche 911 GT3-R in 1:33.340, over three seconds slower than the Seikel car, and nearly nine seconds slower than the class pole. For those that are keeping score, that is over 110% of the class pole time and 125% of the overall pole.

There was excitement early as Andy Pilgrim, then Ron Fellows put the Corvettes out front in GTS with a Fellow's best of 1:23.429 about halfway through the session. Terry Borcheller had taken the Saleen S7R out for a warm-up lap then returned to pit lane to "await events." Unfortunately, the wait was almost too long, as the car's steering locked, necessitating from frantic mechanical work. In previous weeks, that might have been it for the Konrad car, but of course this is not race day yet, and their luck may be turning. We are pretty sure that this is the weekend that the S7R 'puts it all together.' The reason? This track is close to GM territory, and there are large contingents of guests here from General Motors, Chevrolet, and car builder Pratt & Miller. When else would a string like Corvette's end, but under those circumstances? Anyway, the steering was fixed, and Borcheller was quickly into the 1:22s, then the 1:21s, finally putting up a pole time of 1:21.401. It was too much for Fellows, who came back to lower his times twice against the charging Saleen, but was only able to post a 1:22.812, one and three-tenths second back in second place. Teamate Andy Pilgrim took the third GTS grid spot, followed by Shane Lewis, who posted a 1:24.706 in the #45 American Viperacing Dodge Viper GTS-R just before collecting a tire barrier. The right-front damage looks extensive, but repairable. Tom Weickhardt toured the course with the other AVR Viper in 1:29.963, over eight and half seconds adrift of the pole. Again, for those of you scoring at home, that is over 110% of the class pole.

Surprise, the LMP 675 pole was captured by Didier de Radigues (are you awake out there)? Actually Dick Barbour Racing is the only game in LMP 675, a situation that Dick is not in the least happy with. "Our prep is the same as it has always been, and we think that is excellent; the car is 350 pounds overweight, and we are still running away. If you believed the promises, there should have been a dozen 675s by now, but we are the only ones who have kept our commitment. I want to race, not just cruise around. I am not waiting around (for LMP 675 to turn into something). We're going to field a 900 car next year."

Didier's 1:19.403 was just two seconds (exactly) back of the #8 Angelelli Cadillac that marks the back of the LMP 900 grid. Not too bad for a car 350 pounds overweight. Claudia Huertgen qualified the KnightHawk Lola Nissan second on the grid, over two seconds behind the Barbour Reynard Judd. The second Barbour Racing car, #57 was third in 1:22.146, and the Southern Comfort Pilbeam MP84 / Nissan marked the back of the LMP675 grid, buried well back in the bottom half of the GT cars, with a 1:26.215. That is a somewhat more creditable 108.5% of the class pole.

The "big" prototypes came out in reverse order; the Intersport Lola and the Cadillacs leading the way early. Jon Field kept putting up faster and faster times, though, and stayed ahead of the practice-starved Dyson Racing R&S Mark IIIC for most of the session. In the end, however, the Lola was only able to avoid the back of the LMP 900 grid by pipping the Angelelli Cadillac by three-tenths of a second. In the meantime, James Weaver worked the R&S through twelve laps before setting the 1:16.551 that would land the Lincoln V8 powered car in seventh on the grid.

Johnny Herbert kept flailing the Champion Audi around the course through nine hot laps, finally grabbing fourth on the grid with a 1:15.921, after topping the charts for most of the session.

As usual, the real show came late in the 20-minute session. David Brabham brought out the #50 Panoz Roadster S about halfway through, and started hammering down the times, until the Audi Sport North America cars hit the track to take that chore over from him. After Tom Kristensen put up a 1:14.537, less than nine seconds slower than the CART-held track record on just his fourth lap, and Frank Biela recorded a 1:15.150 right behind him it looked like an all-Audi front row. But Brabham wasn't done yet. He stayed out a bit longer, and nailed a 1:14.910 to join TK on the front row of the grid. "It's great to be on the front row - particularly for the team. I would have liked to have had pole but we had a small problem with the balance into the corners so knew it would be hard to achieve. The last lap was tidy and the best I could do but I'm happy."

Audi Sport is on top, but some other folks in red cars and white cars with splashes are now right there with them. Tom Kristensen called this a "great racing track," and gave some credit to "driving instructor / tour guide" Calvin Fish, who provided coaching on the track. "I would have had to guess on some corners without his help. Traffic is going to be a nightmare from turn 6 through turn 13, but it will be the same for everybody," said Kristensen.

Commenting on the fact that the Audi was seriously wrecked at Mosport, causing a replacement of the monocoque tub: "The team has done a fantastic job with the car," said Kristensen. "Unfortunately, they didn't get to see Niagara Falls on the way here from Toronto as everyone else did, but we're here with a good pole and it's very satisfying."

Dyson's effort with zero practice in this car, this weekend, on this track may well be misleadingly slow. We are set up for a good one, even if a far cry, it seems, from some fool's attempt to entertain himself by calling for major upsets up front (what did you expect Tom K to do, Tom K. Ed). Hey, anything can happen tomorrow, and probably will. (Thunderstorms?)