TotalMotorSport All the latest Motorsport news, race reports and photographs from around the world. Alms, Touring Cars, Formula One & Le Mans 24 Hours

Texas Motor Speedway

Leather Center

04/03/2001

Preview

Act 3, Scene 1

A nine race American Le Mans Series will open at Texas Motor Speedway north of Dallas-Fort Worth. This road-course-in-an-oval became somewhat infamous last season for an early September race in which Corvette driver Ron Fellows suffered the indignity of being hosed down to stave off heat exhaustion. The blistering heat led to the change of scheduled date that makes the venue this year's opener - that and to move away from having to compete head-to-head with high school football. Our European readers will just have to accept the reality of that cultural oddity.

In 2000, the late summer race came after a Mosport round in which two of the three class leaders were severely challenged--Audi by the BMW LMR, and Oreca's Vipers by the steadily improving Corvettes. At Texas, Corvette took the next step, beating the red cars for the first time. Audi's sweep to victory at Texas finally and for good put an end to BMW's attempt to get one more season at the top of the sport from its 1999 Le Mans champion LMR. Although BMW drivers Muller and Lehto remained technically in the points chase, Audi had already established its supremacy over the white prototypes. With the Oreca team about to turn its attention to the Chrysler LMP program for 2001, the Texas win was emblematic of the passing of the crown to a new GTS powerhouse. When the yellow cars matched the Viper's 2000 overall win in the Rolex 24 a few weeks ago, they spectacularly validated their new status as the new GTS powerhouse.

That brings us to this race, and a new season.

Road courses in oval tracks (rovals, for short) are not generally the road racing fan's favorite kind of venue. Nor, with their sometimes-problematic transitions between road course and oval, chicanes, and affect on tires, are they very high on the list of drivers and teams. However, the United States is a nation of ovals, and two sports car series use a lot of tracks. In some areas of the country, the choice is between a roval and a street course. The southwest is one of those areas, and it seems that ALMS is intent on keeping a presence for the series there. This race was not going to be run again in the heat of late summer, so it landed in early March, opening the new season before Sebring. It looked like that could lead to a disastrously small field, but although 24 entrants is not large, neither is it significantly out of line in the sports car racing world of the past decade or so. Plus, the quality is exceptionally high.

There is also enough that is new to make it a very interesting field. In prototype, there is still somethingl to learn about Audi Sport North America's R8s. We expect that the Joest team has not been sitting on its hands since last season, but development of the R8 has reportedly been evolutionary, not revolutionary. There is an opportunity here to see this dominant racer in the hands of a top-notch privateer, Champion Racing, largely famous for its Porsche-based efforts, and recently for some success with the Audi S4 in the Speedvision Cup. Privateers in 962s beat Holbert Racing, the "factory team" exactly half the time in the GTP era. Can privateers have similar success with the Audi? This will be the first shot.

Meanwhile, Panoz recognized in 2000 that its continued evolution of what was originally a GT1 design wasn’t going far enough. Although the team stayed nominally competitive, results show that it was dominated in consecutive years by BMW, then Audi. If they were going to play, it would have to be with a "modern" LMP. The LMP07 was debuted at Adelaide last year, but that was clearly a hurried job; most of the serious testing has occurred since then. This is a radical new Andrew Thorby design, as revolutionary in its own way as the LMR was in 1999, perhaps more so since it fields an entirely new V8 engine of near-F1 dimensions, while retaining is rear-mid-engine layout. How close to the pace can the Panoz LM07 be in its first serious outing? Creighton Motorsports' Ford-powered R&S rounds out the field. They'll give it a "good go" for sure, but a podium finish is likely to require attrition among the other five.

Texas also brings us the introduction of the first "serious" LMP675s in the North American series. Volkswagen gave this formula a pretty good shot at Le Mans last year, but interest in the "lightweights" did not carry over in any significant way to the ALMS. That is not to say that the teams that ran minimally converted SR2s in this class were not "serious racers," only that there were no cars available to really run to the rule as written. We aren't quite there yet, but Gunnar and KnightHawk will field cars that represent significant work in the right direction. It will be interesting to see where they have gotten to, and we expect that they will get a lot further before the season ends.
I know this will seem tiresome, but I have to say that while we will see the Corvettes here where they had their first triumph, they have again announced a "partial" racing schedule. Why in the world would they not race in one or both of the Canadian rounds? I think they owe that to Ron Fellows; he has been much more than "just a driver" in this program. He is its face. They might also consider their Canadian market and their many fans there. A new Viper team will try to pick up the Oreca mantle. One would think it would be a long shot for them to defeat the Corvette juggernaut at this race, or even during the season when they share the track. However, given Corvette's partial schedule, American Viper Racing could well win the ALMS GTS Championship. In the best of all possible worlds, they will knock off the yellow cars at least once this season.

We saw great racing in all three classes last year, none more than in GT, be it all too often between two or more Porsche GT3-Rs. The Texas race will pick that up right where it left off, but better. BMW continues its drive to get back to the pinnacle it held into the first half of 1999. The V8s will not yet be available, so the BMW Motorsports team will field one of the PTG-developed E46s, with the rightfully famous in-line six. The advantage for a fan is the chance to see Lehto and Muller in this class without the benefit of new hardware. How fast can they wheel that car? The demise of the prototype program also brings Bill Auberlen back to PTG to join Hans Stuck, Boris Said, and Nic Jonsson. What a driver line-up that is! Drivers…that is the theme in GT this year. It has not been uncommon over the years to see the GT ranks populated with good drivers, but drivers with much less experience than is found in the "bigger" cars. But look at the TMS line-up: the above, plus Lewis, Pobst, Menzel, Luhr, Mowlem, Maassen, Wagner, Murry, Wollek. We hope that drivers in the other classes don't expect this to be a meek bunch that eagerly gives up the racing line.

The addition of the Trinkler Corvette C5-R to the GT class further adds to the racing, as does the Aspen Knolls / MCR Callaway C-12 R. For Texas, I expect Alex Job Racing to take the win. Although they will be sorting an upgrade from the GT3-R to the RS, the learning curve will be less than for the Corvette and Callaway. The Porsches will hold last season's advantage over the M3s until the V8 is ready, and possibly for a few races after that while the new car gets sorted. BMW will nevertheless be close to the pace at Texas, and even more so at Sebring, a track more suited to the M3's characteristics, even without the V8. The new Kelly-Moss Porsche team will likely be strong "out-of-the-box," and Petersen Motorsports’ Porsche, with Wollek and Mowlem on board (with Michael Petersen) is not to be counted out. Barbour Racing appears to be the team least likely to challenge for the win. Dick has entered a single example of last year's GT3-R, and his top drivers are elsewhere.

Texas Motor Speedway appears to be doing its part to make this race a success, with live music and "extreme" carnival rides in the infield. If that is accompanied by strong local promotion, then ALMS' intent on keeping and building this market should be realized. Race day will be the proof of progress. It’s going to be quite a contrast to the Rolex 24 – and Homestead.