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Mid Ohio

25/08/2001

Full

Race Report

© Tom Kjos

Lexington, Ohio, USA--The esteemed Editor seems lately to have grown fond of the admonition "nothing is certain." After Le Mans this year, we had been lulled into the belief that if anything was, certainly Joest Audi Sport North America wins in ALMS were. Portland blew away that belief, but even after a close thing for the silver racers at Mosport, it had begun to creep back. Audi took the pole here at the Mid Ohio Sports Car Course, and even David Brabham's front row position put little damper on the assumption that Audi would run away with this Sixth Round of the American Le Mans Series. The race certainly started in that direction, with Emanuele Pirro quickly taking the #2 Audi R8 around Brabham's #50 Panoz into second place behind teammate Tom Kristensen. T.K. broke away from his pole position in the #1 Joest Audi to stretch out an ever growing gap to the rest of the field. It was soon one of those all-too-familiar sights. Audi, empty track, Audi, even more empty track, then the rest of the field. There are a few early incidents, beginning with a Didier de Radigues spin of the pole sitting Barbour Racing Reynard Judd LMP 675 at turn 4 of the first lap. That hands the class lead to Claudia Huertgen's #11 Lola Nissan. Franz Konrad makes an Audi-like fast break from his GTS pole position, while JJ Lehto takes the GT lead from AJR Porsche 911 GT3-RS pilot Sascha Maassen. JJ now begins to steadily build the lead for his #42 BMW M3 GTR.

Six minutes into the race, on lap five, the leaders start lapping the slower cars, including the R-class Porsches, the #44 GTS car and #48 LMP 675 car running with them. Didier de Radigues was bringing the #5 Barbour Reynard back through the field quickly after his spin. His comeback is made easier when the Barbour #57 sister car slows on the course and pulls off into a safe grassy place with a terminal electrical problem. Just nineteen minutes and fourteen laps after his spin, de Radigues overtakes the KnightHawk Nissan of Claudia Huertgen and resumes the class lead.

As the race approached a half-hour old all the hopes and expectations for good close racing seem to be going up in smoke(ing tires). The leader in each of the four classes has pulled out to a 5 - 6 second lead. About the same time Jon Field, who started the Banana Joe's Intersport Lola-Judd, reports that the engine is running hot, the first indication of what will turn out to be a tough day for the team from nearby Columbus, Ohio. As the Audis continued to pull away, so too did Franz Konrad's Saleen S7R, and JJ Lehto's BMW M3 GTR. JJ is doing a pretty good imitation of his storming drive at Mosport, leaving all the racing in this closely matched class to the half dozen cars back of him. Shortly before the half-hour mark, the Southern Comfort Pilbeam-Nissan stops in the pits, then it is off to the paddock for the #48 LMP 675.

At thirty-five minutes, Sascha Maassen keeps the #23 Porsche 911 in second place, ahead of three BMWs, but at that time already nine seconds adrift of Lehto. Fredrik Ekblom is close enough to Sascha to be cited for tailgating, and is followed closely himself by Hans Stuck, doing 'set-up' work again for partner Boris Said in the #6 PTG BMW, and Randy Pobst's second McKenna Alex Job GT3-RS. Meanwhile, Konrad (timing and scoring erroneously showed Terry Borcheller in the car) had seen his lead on the Andy Pilgrim #4 Corvette C5-R drop to a scant two seconds. Ron Fellows has the #3 Corvette another six seconds back. Jon Field stopped off the course at turn 7, to "let the car cool off" then pitted the Intersport Lola-Judd just after the half-hour mark, and headed for the paddock to try to do something about the overheating. The hometown team becomes the first casualty in the LMP 900 ranks.

A few minutes later, Andy Pilgrim has pulled within a half second of the Saleen S7R. This is now the only close racing for a class lead on the track, even though the GT cars in second through fifth in class keep trading places, if not paint. Pilgrim passed Konrad in the 40th minute of the race. Not long after the pass, Konrad's Saleen has contact with the #7 Cadillac of Christophe Tinseau, and loses several more seconds to the now class leading Pilgrim Corvette. The Pilbeam is back on the track at the 45 minute mark, then back to the paddock at an hour in. In different hands, this car has had a similar paddock-bound history in its two previous outings, at Daytona and Road America. At fifty minutes, the #44 AVR Dodge Vipers is the first to pit for routine service, ahead even of the fuel-thirsty LMP900s.

As the big prototypes complete green-flag stops, Konrad pits the Saleen for its service, putting him two laps down to the Corvettes at the hour mark.

At that hour, the lead Audi is the only 900 that has not pitted, and is now 1:19 seconds ahead of teammate Frank Biela, who replaced starting driver Emanuela Pirro in the #2 Audi Sport North America R8. David Brabham, who stayed in the #50 Panoz for a second stint, is on the next lap back, but now finally, keeping pace with Biela. David described his predicament like this, "From the start and halfway through my first stint I didn't have any grip at all, then the tires came in, and I was able to keep pace. We decided not to change them on the first pit stop, and I was able to put in my fastest laps right after that, consistently in the 1:16s." Klaus Graf has the #51 Panoz behind his teammate in fourth place, after "serving time" (10 seconds) for a "fire bottle" misdemeanor.

Johnny Herbert took over the #38 Champion Audi in fifth, and Butch Leitzinger has taken over the sixth place Dyson Racing R&S Mark IIIC from James Weaver (above). These four are all one lap down to the two Audis, while the Cadillacs are one and two laps back of that. The Intersport Lola remains sidelined. Jon Field has completed 22 laps to the leader's 47, but has not officially retired the car. The #5 Barbour Reynard has a 13 second lead on the lone chasing LMP 675, KnightHawk's Lola-Nissan, and JJ Lehto has fourteen seconds in hand over teammate Fredrik Ekblom. The two AJR cars and one of the PTG M3s are in a little clutch not far back of Ekblom.

The AVR Vipers are circulating back of the class leading Corvettes, but not without their problems. David Donohue has the lead #45 car behind the Corvettes - way behind, over a lap and trailing six of the GT cars (you don't have to ask which six, do you?). Tom Weickhardt got in the #45 car at its pit stop, but soon has it back in for a sticking throttle problem. That and other mishaps have that car ten laps behind Pilgrim's leading C5-R. All-in-all, nice cars, but not much racing at the front of any class.

The leaders seem to have it well in hand. Just past the two hours, the Champion Audi serves a stop and go for speeding in the pit lane. The referees are starting to throw the flags, for our US readers, or show the cards, for everybody else. That puts paid to the notion that the #38 car will challenge for a podium spot at Mid Ohio.

Over the next half-hour, leaders change on pit stops, but not otherwise. Jon Field brings the Banana Joe's Lola back to the race. Just short of the hour and a half mark, the #52 Seikel Motorsport Porsche creates the first full course yellow of the race with an on-track stop in an unsafe place. This starts the protoypes into the pits to take advantage of stops under caution. The #2 Audi takes the lead. The Corvettes similarly pit for fuel and tires, their first stop of the race. Neither car changes drivers.

The leading #1 Audi R8 pits during this yellow, Rinaldo Capello replaces Tom Kristensen, and there is a problem restarting the car--it doesn't take long, but it hands the lead to the #2 Joest Audi. Still Audi-Audi, but the pretenders are closer.

Soon after the green flies at 1:36 elapsed time, the #1 Audi passes his teammate for the lead. Just two minutes later, Intersport's Lola is an impact player in this race for the first time when Jon Field spins coming out of the Carousel (turn 13) into the front straight and hits the outside of the pit wall. That brings an immediate full course caution.

Jan Magnussen, having replaced Brabham in the #50 Panoz just minutes before, and Butch Leitzinger in the Dyson R&S are right ahead of the leader, on the verge of gong a lap down. When they find themselves ahead of the pace car, who picks up the leading Audi, off they go, hot footing it around the track under yellow to take their new found positions at the back of the bunched up pack. Now when the green flies, they will be closer than they have been since the start, just seconds (and a lot of traffic) behind.

The second place #2 Joest Audi pits under yellow with a misfire, and is forced to change spark plugs. Magnussen takes up second place behind Capello.

The first car to pit under yellow this time is the class leading Barbour Reynard. It will cost a lap; the pits were still closed. No matter, the lead is more than that. Now the GT cars pit for their only stop. Lehto still leads the class comfortably over teammate Ekblom as they hand off to Jörg Müller and Dirk Müller respectively. The two AJR Porsches are now down a lap. The two PTG cars trail the McKenna-sponsored Porsches closely.

The rest of the Porsches are out there somewhere, but no threat to anyone. There is a positive in that, as Corvette pilot Andy Pilgrim observes, "The traffic's not bad, people are being really nice. It's a slippery place; nobody wants to go off line and do anything wrong." Tom Kristensen almost concurs, "There is a lot of traffic. Most of the people are doing really well."

Finally, at the one hour and fifty-four minute mark we have green flag racing again. Now the final disaster strikes the silver Audis. The leading #1 car is assessed a stop and go penalty for passing the pace car. Capello brings the R8 in for his sentence two minutes later, putting Jan Magnussen's #50 Panoz Roadster S into the overall race lead. James Weaver, now in Dyson Racing's R&S lies in second.

It's not green for long, though. Minutes later, the Yokohama-Flextronics PTG M3 #6 slows and stops on the course. The yellow flies once again. Race control reports that "the driver is out of the car looking in the trunk." ALMS track announcer Jim Martyn, knowing PTG driver Boris Said, wryly observes, "Probably looking for his golf clubs." The real problem is lack of fuel pressure, and part-time mechanic Said is seeing what he can do about it. Not much, probably, but he soon does get it started, and returns to the pits. The problem does not re-occur, but the #6 car is relegated to the back of the normal six-car GT 'contender' pack plus the Petersen GT3-RS, the latter being the only one of the rest of the GT field not too far out of it to take advantage of even this major delay.

This race now restarts with thirty-two minutes to race. Jan Magnussen (Panoz) leads second place James Weaver (Dyson). Rinaldo Capello (Audi) is just a half-second back of Weaver in third. Hooo Haa! We Gotta Race!

Magnussen begins to pull away from Weaver, from 3 seconds at the green flag, to 5.2, then 6.5, then 7.7. Capello is trying to get around Weaver, and finally does with twenty-six minutes to race. Magnussen can still hold the gap on Capello, in fact is turning 1:17.5s to the latter's 1:18.8s The Audi is now on double stinted tires, the Panoz is not. No matter, now the last straw, the one that breaks the camel's back. The two leaders encounter Franck Lagorce's #51 Panoz, a lap down. Magnussen goes through, but Capello cannot. Is he blocking? Shades of Estoril? No, the line is straight and clean. Although the Audi pulls up in the corners, Franck's Panoz pulls away again on the straights. Capello clearly does not have the horses to make the pass, and no blue flags fly. Magnussen again pulls away, from 10.2 seconds to 12.9, back to 11, then 12 again as the two cars encounter traffic. With eleven minutes left on the clock, the gap is 14.3 seconds. James Weaver is not done yet, either. With only six minutes left, he has a go at the Audi for the second step on the podium. They make contact (very slight?), sending the R&S into a half-spin toward a trap, but Weaver just avoids getting in deep and continues on in third. At the white flag the Panoz Roadster has twelve seconds in hand, and carefully brings it home for the second team win of the season, Magnussen's fourth in ALMS, and Brabham's fifth. Lightning has struck again, the second Panoz win in three races. And Dyson has his ALMS podium, the first since 1999, when Elliott Forbes-Robinson was consistent enough with similar finishes to take the driver's crown without a race win - they didn't have Audis to beat (split) then.

Barbour's Reynard-Judd rather effortlessly won a fourth straight LMP 675 'race', the Corvettes pulled off a 1-2 sweep, and BMW took its own fourth straight class victory, that string shared between BMW Motorsport and PTG. But the big prototypes made it all worth it. It's time for you folks west of the Rocky Mountains to start planning that trip to Laguna Seca on September 9, if you haven't already. We got racin' goin' on here, ya'll.