Audi Presents Petit Le Mans - 06/10/2001   Day Two Morning in Atlanta   © Janos Wimpffen Thursday Morning Sunny skies again and the weather pattern should hold through tomorrow. A front is moving in from the north that leaves race day weather questionable. The Panozes topped the charts in Thursday’s first practice session. That’s all the more impressive given that Klaus Graf did significant damage when he stuffed no. 50 into the wall on the back side of the circuit. Klaus Graf: "I came up on an LMP 675 car which was about to overtake a GT. I slowed to let that happen but as I followed the 675 through the driver suddenly braked hard. I had the choice of going into the back of him or going into the wall. I've got a sore neck but otherwise feel fine. The driver came and apologised to me afterwards but I'm pretty mad that we've lost so much track time because of it." The Champion Audi is also now up to speed, all of which provides some useful threats to the Joest team cars. While the Barbour Reynards are still quickest in 675, the visiting ROC car is well within tolerances. GTS is also looking to be extremely competitive. The Bingham / Johnson / Gavin Saleen is finding ALMS much to their liking. Their driving skills seem to be on a par with this definitely more professional league. Although their Yokohamas are harder than the Konrad team’s Dunlops, the Greg Fordahl managed group is within a second of the front of the class, which is being led by the two Corvettes. Also moving up to the front is the Prodrive Ferrari. Miscellanous team notes: Brookspeed Viper: The car had been crashed during private testing at Sebring over the weekend and was only readied for action this morning. Konrad Saleen: This may be the last race with the original Saleen built motor as the team hopes to debut their own construction next year. The no. 25 car here is almost a brand new tub, having only raced at Vallelunga. No. 45 American Viperacing: The Carsport Holland team headed up by Toine Hezemans is making inroads into helping to improve the US-based car’s fortunes. The front-end sway bar system has been completely updated from previous rounds. Park Place Saleen: The team is impressed by the seriousness of all things ALMS versus the Grand-Am. Scrutineering here is altogether more demanding. No. 15 Barbour Porsche: Lots of bondo on the front fender and a new bumper were required after yesterday. Job Porsches: Other than a deficiency in speed, reliability, torque, and handling, the BMWs don’t hold a candle to old 996s! BMW even has a 'road' version of the M3 GTR in the paddock so Porsche has little more to complain about. About the only hope the no. 22 & 23 Porsches have is to be able to go the 10 hours on one set of brake pads. Sebah Porsche. Sebah is Arabic for the numeral seven, which is a tribute to Bart Haden’s long love affair with Caterham and Lotus 7 variants, for which he is an agent. The team has commented about the wonderful compactness of Road Atlanta relative to European circuits. Haden noted that there are more changes in characteristics, let alone more blind bends, than one finds at much longer tracks on the other side of the Atlantic. The team deliberately went with the ELMS this year as opposed to the more established FIA GT in order to not get in too deep before assessing their plans for 2002. Orbit Porsche #32; This car has had limited time on the circuit as car owner Gary Schultheis has yet to arrive. Broadfoot Porsche: The car arrived late last night and has completed a few desultory laps. Second Practice, Thursday Lots of surprises here with Wayne Taylor second fastest overall for a long period. This is one of the better showings of the Cadillac in a while. Taylor is not your typical American sporting a red, white, and blue helmet. The South African native recently took his citizenship oath, making for a host of new emotions at a time like this for the rugged little man. Only one Panoz is running in this session, but Magnussen quickly brought it up to third, displacing Biela’s Audi. The other Joest entry of Kristensen remains fastest. Cadillac’s good day continues with Collard being next in line. The biggest surprise of the session has been the excellent showing of the 05 Saleen, running quickest in GTS! The no. 26 Saleen tapped the wall at Turn 5, doing some left side damage. The end plate fell off and the wing was tweaked. Magnussen pipped the Audi toward the end of the session. The Panoz had built up a good head of steam during the last few minutes, which featured a restart after the second of two interruptions to pick stranded cars. So the #50 Panoz has topped the practice sheets for both sessions, ahead of all four Audis. Both Brabham and Magnussen felt that there was not as much grip in the track as they had experienced in testing, but were progressively happier as the day went on. David Brabham: "I think part of it is that there is so much traffic, you spend quite a lot of time overtaking and are therefore not on the racing line. Off line you pick up all sorts of dust and rubbish on the tires and that obviously affects your grip levels. However, we know that traffic is going to be an issue so you just have to grit your teeth and work round it. We've made lots of moves in the right direction today and so far, so good." More misc team notes: The McLoughlin team Ferrari is an attempt to move the 360 into ACO-land. It is not based on the Challenge car, as are the Michelotto creations. They have instead endeavored to closely follow GTS regulations by, among other things, using a standard floor shift rather than the paddle changer used on both the road cars and the FIA GT versions. Night practice to come - report on Friday morning BST. Copyright ©2000-©2023 TotalMotorSport