Audi Presents Petit Le Mans - 06/10/2001   The Race Part 8   © Tom Kjos We are well into the eighth hour at Road Atlanta, and the #2 Audi Sport North America has stretched out to a two-lap lead owning to problems with the customer Audis behind. The most recent of those was the loss (looseness) of the left rear wheel on the Champion Racing R8. The Konrad Saleen seems to have recovered from its gearbox problem, but now trails the #4 Corvette of Pilgrim / Collins / Freon by two laps. With Boris Said, in the PTG M3, within twenty one seconds of GT class-leading Jörg Müller's BMW Motorsport M3 GTR and closing, that is currently the hottest race on the track. Hans Stuck just commented that teaming with Said and Bill Auberlen "is a dream," and that a "good strategy of fuel consumption and tire care has put us where we want to be. With Boris in the car now, I can relax. I don't have a care in the world." The #6 PTG BMW pits just past the half-hour, falling a bit further back. With the race estimated now to end at 9:30 PM with the reaching of 1,000 miles, there should be one more stop. Just minutes later, the leading BMW Motorsport M3 pits, then goes out, the gap falling back to the previous 25 seconds. Soon after is the announcement that the latter will serve a one-minute penalty for Jörg Müller cleaning the windshield after Dirk Müller was in the car, in effect an additional crew member working on the car. That will reverse the order at the front, and makes a PTG win suddenly very much more likely. The Radio Le Mans guys have just declared it to be officially dark. Petersen Motorsports #30 Porsche has a problem with the left front suspension. Charly Lamm, Manager of BMW Motorsport is on his way to the stewards to argue the team's case, while the #43 delays coming in. The gap back to Bill Auberlen holding at approximately 25 seconds. Meanwhile, Emanuele Pirro continues to motor along on his two lap lead over Champion's Johnny Herbert, who in turn has 43 seconds in hand on Johansson Motorsport's Patrick Lamarie. Cadillac stays in contention for a podium step if something would happen to any of the three Audis ahead. Barbour's #57 Reynard continues to hold a confortable lead over Archangel Motorsports. Shortly before 8:00 PM, the fourth place #8 Cadillac is in the pits on a long stop, with some messing around in the rear of the car with the engine cover off. Compressed air is being used, presumably to dislodge something. The cover goes on, then off again. With a 15 lap lead on his #7 teammate, anything short of terminal will likely hold the fourth place, but will begin to reduce the likelihood of getting on the podium. Wayne Taylor now has the #8 out on the track. Dirk Müller has still not served the one-minute penalty. We are waiting for the ruling, while Jörg explains that "I brought my teammate some towels to clean the windshield from inside. I bring him his water bottle, I help strap him in, we didn't know that a towel is against the rules. It looks like we will have to serve a one-minute penalty." Although Dyson Racing has long since retired the Riley & Scott, Andy Hartwell had an opportunity earlier in the race to corner veteran Team Manager and Rob Dyson pal Pat Smith on a number of subjects. Pat Smith: “We didn’t do well in qualifying. We have changed some stuff on the car and it wasn’t successful so we are back to where we started. Hopefully the Panoz will beat each other to death and we can finish fourth!" “The drivers do complain that the car is very uncomfortable to drive. It is very hot. It beats them up. They couldn’t do a double stint in this car if they wanted to. It needs a lot of work and we are going to be very busy over the winter straightening it out. That is really the biggest problem we have." New car comparison - R&SMKlll Vs. MKlllC “The MKlll came in more quickly. But it had less competition back then (the Ferrari 333SP). This new car would have been a killer then! We were able to beat them at the third race with the original car. It was also easier to sort. But there was a lot less stuff, I mean even the diffuser in the back requires some finesse. It only has a certain range that it works in. If you get above or below that range it doesn’t work properly. So it’s a steep learning curve. ”The new car is harder to work on and the guys don’t like that. But they will get over it. They don’t remember the water-cooled twin-turbo Porsches. The most evil thing to work on ever. “Compared to the Reynard, this car is better now than when the Reynard came out of the box. It did exhibit some of the same symptoms at Mid-Ohio but it has been repaired." Next year? “We don’t know what is going on next year. There is talk of a spec tire in Grand Am and if it isn’t Goodyear, we are gone. Rob (Dyson) has an allegiance to Goodyear so, if that happens, we will be running here (in ALMS)." IMSA? “I wonder why they made the change. There is also no room in the schedule for Le Mans. You have to wonder what goes on behind the scenes. It is nice to have the last part of Andy Evans gone for good.” At 8:00 PM, Dirk Müller is sitting stationary on pit lane serving his one minute penalty. Bill Auberlen comes down the hill into the straight and sweeps into the lead. At the end of the lap, Auberlen has a 1 minute 11 second lead. At 8:06 the leading Joest Audi R8 pits for fuel, tires and a change of the 'fly screen'. Race end now estimated between 9:20 and 9:30, without a caution. So we are now headed into the last hour of the race. As of now, Audi Sport has a comfortable win in hand, as does Barbour Racing in LMP675. Regardless of the early loss of the #3 Fellows car, it appears that Corvette, with two laps in hand, will win its third major enduro of the season against the one loss to Saleen at Sebring. PTG is on course for its second upset of the factory BMW Motorsports team, the first having come at Portland. And if that is true, Bill Auberlen will not add to his ALMS record of 25 starts without a win. Hour Eight Standings 1 #2 337 laps LMP 900, 1 Joest Audi 2 #18 335 LMP 900, 2 Gulf Audi 3 #38 335, -17s LMP 900, 3 Champion Audi 4 #8 326 LMP 900, 4 Cadillac 5 #7 312 LMP 900, 5 Cadillac 6 #57 312 LMP 675, 1 Barbour Reynard-Judd 7 #4 309 GTS, 1 Corvette 8 #43 308 GT, 1 Schnitzer BMW 9 #6 308, -23 sec GT, 2 PTG BMW 10 #26 307 GTS, 2 Konrad Saleen 11 #42 304 GT, 3 Schnitzer BMW 12 #23 304, -33 sec GT, 4 Job Porsche 13 #22 302 GT, 5 Job Porsche 14 #50 301 LMP 900, 6 Panoz 15 #45 298 GTS, 3 American Viper 16 #21 295 LMP 675, 2 Archangel Lola-Nissan 17 #30 294 GT, 6 Petersen Porsche 18 #52 293 GT, 7 Seikel Porsche 19 #69 282 GT, 8 Kyser Porsche 20 #29 278 GT, 9 Sebah Porsche 21 #32 277 GT, 10 Orbit Porsche 22 #05 267 GTS, 4 Park Place Saleen 23 #12 221, NR GT Callaway 24 #11 209, NR LMP 675 Knight/Hawk Lola-Nissan 25 #75 208 GT Gunnar Porsche 26 #34 183, NR GT Orbit Porsche 27 #44 171 GTS American Viper 28 #5 159 LMP 675 Barbour Reynard-Judd Copyright ©2000-©2023 TotalMotorSport