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

Race Report

A New Challenger

Fort Worth, Texas--There is much to say about this first race of the 2001 ALMS season. Most of it is good. First, we'll just get the peripheral stuff out of the way. There were too few fans. There were too few cars. This was a whale of a race in two of four classes. If I could see the cars that were here race like they raced today week-in week-out, I would care little about those not here--fans or cars.

From the start, taken as a literal "flying lap" by skipping the chicane at the end of the tri-oval, this race was closely contested by the six prototypes--three each from Audi and Panoz. Truth be told, there has been much anticipation that Audi would easily sweep everything in sight and in so doing, make the season a crushing bore. They swept this race, but there was nothing easy about it. The main challenge came in the form of the unique new Panoz LMP 07, although the two LMP-1 Roadster Ss also stayed in the hunt. That first lap set a pattern that did not change for the duration of the race.

The Audi R8 of Frank Biela and Emanuele Pirro , which set the pole time yesterday but was banished to the rear for a rules infraction (diffuser dimensions), had passed eight GTs by halfway through NASCAR turn two, and would have no problem capturing the sixth spot among the six LM900 prototypes within five minutes of race start. Frank Biela: "Fighting through the field was fun". Had not the Klaus Graf / Gaulter Salles Panoz not encountered a cone and dragged it for the better part of a lap, there Biela would have stayed. He was able to move to 5th overall early, however, but there his progress stalled, as he made no real progress in overhauling the four in the leading train. A telling moment was in front of us as two Audis and two Panoz kept a constant and sizeable gap between them and the former pole holder. The four leading prototypes had separated themselves from the rest of the field but not each other. Rinaldo Capello's R8 led this train, seemingly easily after a few early challenges by Jan Magnussen's Panoz LMP 07.

Meanwhile, some of the rest of the field has early trouble. The Fabian Roock-prepared KnightHawk Racing #11 P675 Lola B2K40 Nissan pits a bare six minutes into the race with an overheating problem. The plan is to complete the minimum ten laps each of the drivers requires to score points. That may be more difficult than it seems. Steven Knight knows it, "Ever since the first day out, we've had problems with this motor. We knew we didn't have a chance. The only remedy for this problem is a complete redesign of the cooling system." Thereby highlighting the fact that an SR2 is not an LMP675.

Two other new car efforts likewise have problems. Trinkler Racing pits its GT version of the Corvette C5-R only six minutes into the race. The Pratt & Miller built car returns a scant 11 minutes later to replace the right rear tire, speeds in the pit late, and incurs a stop and go penalty. Within 20 minutes of the start, a promising new addition to the highly competitive GT ranks has racked up three pit stops. Former Trans Am Rookie of the Year Jeff Altenburg and co-driver Owen Trinkler won't be able to recover, but will drive competitively for the remainder of the race. Eight laps down at the one-hour mark, they will finish only ten laps behind the class winning Porsche GT3-RS. They appear to have a promising car.

Another GT newcomer, Aspen Knolls/MCR Callaway C12 sees its race end fourteen laps from the start with a broken axle. Whatever the reason--and it certainly is not drivers Vic Rice and Shane Lewis--the car showed little speed all weekend (tho' it did set a 1:22 best lap).

In GTS there is no contest early and none late. American Viperacing doesn't expect much in this race and they get even less. John Brzustowicz, Team Principle, says, "'We expect to finish. We recognize the fact that you can't expect to move up to the American Le Mans Series and espect to be on the podium. We're not out here to beat the Corvettes. A victory for us will be having both cars finish. Mr. Brzustowicz makes much of the fact that the team has lots of volunteers, but much talent. Whatever. In fact the winning Corvettes are challenged by the top of the GT field all day, so they have not suddenly gotten a lot faster than they were last year. The Viper is not a new car--these are 2000 ORECA chassis with little use on them. Perhaps the team needs more experience with this car, but they in fact fail to compete in the race with the bulk of the GT field, say nothing of "beating Corvettes." One of the team cars in fact hangs in there for a little less than an hour, but it is all downhill from there.

Just over 30 minutes into the race, the Panoz LMP07 has caught the race-leading #1 Audi R8, and they are side-by-side at the start-finish. Soon after, the Panoz is the first LMP to pit, a fact that gets a smile from the Audi folks. To be honest, they are surprised at the speed and resiliency of the Panoz. Short fuel mileage may be the advantage they need to stave off a monumental upset in this first race of a new season.
Shortly before an hour, the race sees its first yellow, as a result of lost bodywork by the KnightHawk Lola. That twenty laps must already seem excruciatingly difficult now. The car is finally retired at 23 total laps, but not before suffering the indignity of being high-centered on the chicane kerb, hung up there rocking until course workers run to push them off. It has to absolutely get better at Sebring, doesn't it?

We get the green flag at just past an hour into the race. At that hour mark, five of the six LMP 900s are on the lead lap, led by the #51 Graf / Salles Panoz LMP-1 and the Champion-entered Audi R8 of Wallace and Schroeder. Magnussen's Panoz LMP07 is fourth behind the Biela-driven Audi. The early pitstop may loom large for the Panoz. Alex Job Racing's GT3-RS #23 of Luhr and Maassen has a lap on the field, and will hold it for most of the race. There is a battle royal behind them, though. The Porsche is trailed by the GTS leader, the Andy Pilgrim / Kelly Collins Corvette C5-R.

Over the next half hour, little changes in the big picture, but that big picture includes a lot of little pictures--spin-outs, lead changes at the front as Panoz and Audi take advantage of every little mistake, and a continuing battle among the GT Porsches and BMWs running second through seventh in class.

The second full course yellow flies at 2:41. Kelly Collins has lost a rear tire, and it puts him into the wall at NASCAR turn four, then bounces the wreckage across the track and into the infield grass. Collins walks away from the total with a slight limp. Interviewed just a few minutes later, he discounts the limp. "I have a knee problem anyway." Hitting the wall can't have helped it much, Kelly! "The right rear tire blew and I hit the wall. I remember hitting the wall, then looking down at the ground and going backwards."

After returning to green, the race reaches the two hour mark. Now the Audis are racing 1-2, with the Capello / Kristensen R8 in the lead, followed closely by the Panoz LMP07. In fact five of the six prototypes are still on the same lead lap, with the Cochran / Dean Panoz LMP-1 momentarily two laps down.

Ron Fellows and Johnny O'Connell have the remaining Goodwrench Corvette C5-R solidly in the GTS lead. Ron: "After barely half an hour I had a puncture, so I had to go slow around the track and come in. Then when I exited the pits I stepped on it a bit too soon and violated the speed limit, which meant I had to come in again for a stop-and-go penalty. So we really had to work to stay in the lead. The last caution was very timely to give us a position to attack for the win. We got a pretty decent lead and we were able to hang on."

The Messley / Borcheller Viper is only two laps back, but seven GT racers separate the two GTS cars. The second Viper, the last remaining car in GTS, is also the last running car on the track, trailed only by the long-gone Corvette, Lola, and Callaway.

In the last three-quarters of any hour the GT fight continues, for a time in alternating style: Porsche-BMW-Porsche-BMW. But it sorts out finally with the factory-supported and richly experienced Alex Job racing grabbing the top two spots in an apparent "sweep." That no more tells the story of this race than the "sweep" in prototypes. As the BMW Motorsport M3 and the Auberlen / Jonsson PTG M3 hit small problems with tires and banging with other cars on the track, Hans Stuck and Boris Said, the well-known 'brothers' drive through to a podium finish behind the two AJR Porsches. "I decided to run a conservative race--lift early and try to go for one stop. To run the pace I did was easy. The M3 was 100 percent." Hans, the wily (old?) fox, admitted "At the end I could see the Porsche (Bob Wollek, another bit of a wily one driving the Petersen Motorsports GT3-RS) and I used a couple of tricks to keep him behind me. Nic (Jonsson, in the PTG sister car) was a big help because he jumped in between us and held my back." (We bet that made Bob real happy.)

At the front, David Brabham was driving the wheels off the white Panoz, and took the lead on Audi's pit stop just outside 25 minutes to run. He was able to hold 13 seconds lap after lap. The guys on Radio Le Mans Web got a little excited a little early. Told that only two minutes remained when over twelve in fact did, they yelled "He's not coming in! He's not coming in!" as Brabs went for lap after lap in the lead with the time running down. A defeat of the Audis in the maiden race of the new season? It was not to be, however, as Brabham finally had to dive into the pits with less than ten minutes remaining. The last pit stop (one more than the winner) dropped him 23 seconds back and handed Audi a 1-2 sweep. The implications of that term "sweep" are grossly misleading for this race, and quite possibly for this season. A car at the beginning of its development almost got the reigning champions. We have a new challenger for Le Mans 2001, and for the remainder of the ALMS season.