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Laguna Seca

09/09/2001

Saturday

First & Second Practice Reports

© Tom Kjos

Monterey, California, USA—The not-unusual morning overcast of the Monterey Peninsula saw the ALMS classes take the track for the first combined, and official, practice of the weekend.

We were looking for a few answers; some we got, some we didn’t. Some just raise new questions.

In LMP900, would the Joest Audis continue to lag Johansson’s 2000 model Gulf R8 and the Panoz of Magnussen and Brabham? The answer there was no. The silver Audi Sport North America R8s are right there at the top of the sheet, with Tom Kristensen and Rinaldo Capello’s #1 car leading the pack. Allowing for track conditions, there is none-the-less some interest in the fact that yesterday’s time set by the #18 Gulf car is still the fastest of the weekend. Further, the #50 Panoz is just three hundredths behind the #2 Audi of Frank Biela and Emanuele Pirro. Champion Racing is right where they were in yesterday’s testing, a few clicks ahead of the Cadillacs.

In LMP675, the #5 Barbour Racing remains in control, three seconds ahead of sister car #57, and four seconds up on the KnightHawk Racing Lola Nissan.

There is no way as yet to evaluate the work done by American Viperacing. The #45 car did not post a time. This is the Viper that is getting the more radical “make-over.” The #44 car did a few laps. It appears that the work continues. We’ll hopefully get a better idea this afternoon.

In GT, would the newly restricted BMW GTR be relegated to an also-ran? Hardly. Running with the new 29 mm restrictors, they just went faster. The stand-up comics are coming out of the woodwork. “Restrict them any further and Audi will be complaining,” and, “Get us mad and we’ll connect the eighth spark plug wire.”

Bill Auberlen and Boris Said led the pack again, a full second faster than yesterday, at 1:25.829, over one and a half seconds quicker than the track record. Also coming out of the woodwork are the conspiracy nuts; they may not be so nuts, after all. Can the M3 drivers go just as fast as they want to? Do they just go as fast as they have to? Can Porsche get its new Carrera V10 in the back of a 911?

The skies are clear now, portending quite different track conditions for this afternoon’s second practice session. And it was just announced that Nissan’s Skyline coupe will be a Speedvision Cup participant next season.

Jan Magnussen blasted to a nearly eight tenths second margin over his nearest competitor in the waning moments of the day’s second practice session. His 1:16.064 bested Tom Kristensen’s 1:16.814 on a track that had even less grip than this morning. Champion owner Dave Maraj said this morning that the “track has very little grip, and we (Champion Racing Audi R8) are having problems with set-up.” By this afternoon, the track was no better, but it seems the car was, as the #38 of Herbert and Wallace moved up the stack to fourth, putting the Graf / Lagorce Panoz and the Biela / Pirro Audi behind them. The Gulf / Brocade sponsored Audi R8 of Stephan Johansson grabbed the third fastest time, a half second behind the second placed Audi and a full 1.2 seconds slower than the Magnussen lap.

The Cadillac-Cadillac-Lola / Judd order at the back of the LMP900 field stayed the same. The Intersport Lola is back out there with a new chassis, the old one having been abandoned after this morning’s first lap engine blow up. What we are not certain is whether the new chassis is actually the “old” chassis (the B2K / 10), since we believe that the old chassis was the “new” chassis (the B2K / 10B). Maybe Janos will be able to sort that out for us—with numbers.

In GTS, after trailing in this morning’s session, the Konrad Saleen S7R took back the top time with a 1:23.998. Naturally, the two Corvettes followed right behind, this not being race day. They kept their more or less traditional number 3-4 order. American Viperacing got the Shane Lewis / Darren Law #45 Viper track-ready just moments before the start of the session, and the pairing shook down to car to a 1:28.716. This is the only entry on the official timing and scoring sheet that is not identified. Perhaps the changes are so radical that PSCR is not sure what to call it anymore. Such wholesale changes as the two Vipers have undergone is certainly rare in the midst of a season. We anticipate it will take quite a lot of track time to sort everything out.

JJ Lehto and Jörg Müller replaced Bill Auberlen and Boris Said at the head of the class in GT. After these two, BMW Motorsports #43 car nailed down third, follow by three GT3-RS Porsches, the #30 Petersen Motorsports entry sandwiched between the two AJR cars (#23 and #22). The times from there drop off in rather dramatic fashion, as they have all season.

Qualifying will get underway about two hours from now. The most unsettled-appearing class now? LMP900. What a change from the beginning of the season.

Stay tuned - 'til Sunday morning BST, for Qualifying.