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Road Atlanta Test

ALMS

18/02/2001

ALMS Spring Training

Saturday 17 February

Russell Wittenberg reports from the first day of the Road Atlanta test.

A very cold start.

Alex Job is here with his two brand new 911 GT3RSs; he has just received them from Porsche (last Saturday). Lucas Luhr is doing all the driving - the other drivers (Randy Pobst, Christian Menzel & Sascha Maassen) are all in Austria for training. All the drivers are Porsche factory men. They plan to do all the ALMS and the first two ELMS (Donington & Jarama).

Holly Job explained that the team was disappointed to miss their first Rolex 24 in 13 years. New livery for this year is just being finalized but yellow will be the color of choice. The team just moved into a new facility in central Florida in February and with just getting their cars, they have had a busy month. Holly Job was extremely helpful and a wonderful lady. Lucas’ best of morning was 1:23.84 - better than pole at PLM last year? Or just outside? - yes, a 1:23.587 last fall. Cold conditions must be having an effect here though.

I talked to Nic Jonsson of PTG, they are testing tires this morning. Bill Auberlen is in the car now and has done all the morning driving. No real times as they are working on set up. Also no V-8 as expected yet; they’ll run six cylinder engines until Sears Point. So will Schnitzer team, which will use one of Milner’s PTG cars at Texas and Sebring until the new V-8 ones are ready. Tom Milner to get two and Schnitzer to get two. Nic is very happy to be full time this year with BMW, also enjoyed Rolex with Dyson Racing and will do other GA with Dyson, possibly Watkins Glen and Daytona later in year. He expects Rob Dyson to split his schedule between the two series. They were in the hunt at the Rolex 24 with #20 until the input shaft broke at 3 am. BMW will not do Le Mans this year according to Nic. PTG will do all ALMS and Asia rounds and Schnitzer will do all ALMS and first two ELMS.

The new Panoz LMP 07 with Jan Magnussen driving was in and out of the pits with work to front suspension. Fastest times were in the 1:12s. Jan said he will talk with me after lunch. Klaus Graf and new driver Gualter Salles are in last year’s car, which was also in the 1:12s. Gualter has just got in a Panoz for the first time ever. His only other prototype experience came in short run with the Konrad Lola at the Rolex 24. Gualter is an open wheel 'veteran', with CART, F3000 and Indy Lights experience; he was runner up in '96 Indy Lights championship. Very happy to be with Panoz factory team.

Also ran into Rolex winner Johnny O’Connell, who said he "loves Totalmotorsport and checks it out all the time". Still on a high from Rolex victory, was the big one he wanted to win. Said he knew early Sunday morning that they were going to win, could feel it in the car, it was so strong he could tell it was going to last. Nice watch too!!

I talked to David Brabham: he says the handling of the LMP 07 is great, sticks in corners with no back end movement. The old car would jump around, this car is on a rail. Just this one new car for Texas, other car is being finished now and ready for Sebring. He and Jan will get the second car there and this one will go to Klaus & Gualter. The current motor is the first of the series and is (relatively) down on power. The drivers are hopeful that the new engine will have much increased power and a wider power band and it will be ready for Texas. It’s on the dyno now getting finishing touches. David thinks this motor improvement will make the difference. Expects car to be up to full speed by Le Mans. New paddle shifter is same unit as Audi is using, expect it to cut few tenths off lap times because of ability to keep rpm's up through corners. Car has enormous potential, but he expects a steep learning curve to continue.

Jan Magnussen confirms what David said about the new car and likes the improved driver visibilty from this design, which helps with a track like Road Atlanta (that has blind corners) and should help with traffic. Confirms that just the two drivers per car for all ALMS races, including Sebring and PLM. Jan thinks the new shifter will help with driver fatigue also. He looks forward to racing the car, but has yet to drive the car in any traffic. He says it drives like an open wheel race car. The 2nd chassis that they will get before Sebring will be in white with the #50 and a special livery clebrating Sebring’s upcoming 50th anniversary.

Back at BMW, Bill Auberlen confirms all that Nic Jonsson has told me, but expects the new car with the V-8 earlier than Sears Point. Today they have installed a new rear shock valve assembly, which improved the rear grip nicely but they can't seem to get the front end to settle down; it’s very loose, they are working on it. He is looking forward to a full year at PTG and a serious run at the GT drivers championship.

Gualter Salles just completed his first ever run at Road Atlanta and first ever in the Panoz. He got his times down to 1:14.7, only two seconds from Klaus. He is happy with the early progress but is still learning and expects to pick up speed very quickly. They are currently running in (Roadster S) chassis #005. He has driven at Sebring, Portland, Laguna and Donington before, but other ALMS tracks will all be new to him.

Didier Theys is here with the Crawford - working on the car, testing different set-ups and how the car reacts with each and different downforce configurations. Says they think they will do PLM; he would like to do other ALMS events but they are not in the budget yet. Gearbox problems at Daytona were caused by an axle that was found to be defective in manufacturing, and they are working on a replacement part now.