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Texas Motor Speedway

Leather Center

04/03/2001

Saturday

Qualifying Report

Fort Worth, Texas--At the start of GT qualifying, the track is dry, though the day remains drearily overcast and cool. GT and GTS will take the track first in a twenty-minute session. The GM Goodwrench Corvette C5-Rs quickly take control of the session and in GTS. The North Dallas Corvette Club (I saw a jacket) will be thrilled. The closest thing to a challenge comes from GT Porsches, not from the GTS Vipers. The latter finally land in 12th and 15th overall in this session, nearly five seconds adrift at best, with star driver Terry Borcheller in Florida winning GARRA's GT class in the JET Motorsports BMW M3. The biggest question of the day for Corvette is why the team has not scheduled a Canadian race. Ron Fellows says, "We'll be there," pauses, and amends, "Well, I'll be there, and I hope to drag the team along!"

In GT it was more competitive. In fact, it begins to look like a really good, really hammer-and-tongs season in the class. At the halfway mark of the session, JJ Lehto had the BMW Motorsport (but PTG-built) M3 second in class, just two-tenths back of Lucas Luhr's McKenna Porsche of the Alex Job racing team. In the end, the second of the Porsche factory team cars grabs second, six-tenths back, followed by the M3 in third eight-tenths off the class pole. Bill Auberlen's effort put the first of the PTG team cars in 5th, following the Kelly-Moss Porsche of Christophe Bouchut. White Lightning racing captures a sixth place on the grid here in the first ALMS qualifier of the season.

At least a mild surprise comes in the performance of the Trinkler Racing Corvette C5-R, grabbing the seventh position on the GT grid ahead of such favorites as the Boris Said / Hans Stuck PTG M3, Rick Polk / Cort Wagner Porsche GT3-RS, and the Lewis / Rice Callaway C12. Seikel Motorsports, an FIA GT regular, brings up the rear. Hans Stuck will use a HANS device in tomorrow's race. "This will be the first race I will use the ‘Head And Neck Safety’ device. I bought it at Daytona, because I think it's a necessary safety feature. So I'll try it for the first time tomorrow.”

Only six prototypes turn up for qualifying, but that is perfect attendance, because that's the entry here now. Three Audi, three Panoz (is it really necessary to add an "s" to make "Audi" plural?). The #2 AudiSport of Frank Biela is first out, followed closely by the Panoz LMP07 in the hands of Jan Magnussen. From the start these two go hard, Magnussen even pulling up close on the warm-up out-lap. The Audi sets fast time, then faster, but then it is the Panoz that lowers the time.

Audi pits, then Panoz, but Magnussen returns to the track first, but is unable to better his time as the Audi returns to grab it back. Magnussen runs his fastest time of the session in response on his twelfth lap. It is not only not enough, but both Audis hammer out laps on their last hot-laps of the session, the thirteenth timed laps for each of them, that finally place them 1-2 on the grid.

In the end, the new Panoz validates its looks and sound by a very credible third spot, just .747 seconds adrift of the pole. Champion only brings its own Audi R8 into 5th place, sandwiched between two "old" Panoz LMP-1 Roadster Ss. Not a surprise since Andy Wallace and Dorsey Schroeder are so new to the car they are still looking for the air conditioning and CD controls.

Thanks to the sleuthing of a certain BMW PR maven (OK, the redoubtable Sylvia), a sports bar in which to watch the Formula 1 race from Australia has been found nearby. The regulars are going to wonder where all these "furiners" and "yankees" came from.