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American LeMans
ALMS: Falken’s Rise
Team Falken Tire has been making steady progress in its first full American Le Mans Series season
John Dagys  |  Posted July 24, 2010   Lakeville, CT
Team Falken Tire led the opening laps at the Twelve Hours of Sebring in March. (John Dagys)
The American Le Mans Series is one of the few remaining championships in the world which promotes diversity. Despite a recent move towards spec-class cars in LMPC and GTC, the premier LMP ranks and the highly competitive GT division offer many technological freedoms that can’t be found elsewhere in motorsports.

With six different auto manufacturers represented in GT - Porsche, Ferrari, BMW, Chevrolet, Ford and Jaguar - and four different tire partners - Michelin, Dunlop, Yokohama and Falken - there’s no shortage of assortment in the production-car class.
The team recovered from a practice fire at Miller Motorsports Park two weeks ago. (John Dagys)

One of the more recent newcomers to GT racing has been Falken Tire. After getting its feet wet with partial season programs over the past two years with two different teams and cars, the Japanese manufacturer has stepped up its program for 2010 in a very serious way.

In what started as a three-race program last year has expanded into a full-on assault for the Rod Everett-led Team Falken Tire squad. The Lake Elsinore, Calif.-based organization took delivery of a 2010-spec Porsche 911 GT3 RSR, brought in Porsche factory driver Wolf Henzler, retained GT ace Bryan Sellers and hired other key personnel for its ramped up effort.

For team manager Rod Everett, it comes as a big, but welcome change.

“Generally it’s been myself that’s taken on a lot of roles as team manager, crew chief, engineer,” Everett says. “In a limited race schedule, that’s okay. With a lot of testing, it’s no problem. But with this program being full-season, the game has stepped up. So we’ve had to bring on an engineer and a car chief.”

Everett, whose Landmark Motorsport organization has served as the backbone of the team, not only had the luxury of adding a star driver and new car to Falken’s arsenal, but also add other key staff to its team.

Veteran open-wheel turned sportscar engineer John Ward has been one of the more higher-profile additions to the team this year. Ward, who came from a ten-year stint with Fernandez Racing, was the designer of many chassis for Dan Gurney’s All American Racers in the ‘90s, including the Eagle MK III IMSA GTP car.

“As a result, my role has changed,” Everett says. “It’s difficult to adjust to that because I’m finding that I’m having more time that I don’t know what to do with. Additions like John have been great. He’s adapted really well to this car. He comes from a different arena with prototypes and Indy cars and actually had a decision to make. He had a full-time program with an open-wheel car and he chose to discontinue that program to stay with us because he sees GT and ALMS as the future over open-wheel. That’s a great sign.”

The team has already made massive gains only four races into the season. Henzler and Sellers got off to a flying start at Sebring, with the German ace putting in an impressive opening stint to lead the opening laps. The duo recorded a season-best sixth place finish at Long Beach after again leading in the opening stint, only to get shuffled back after a chaotic pit stop.
Bryan Sellers (l), Wolf Henzler (m) and engineer John Ward (r) (John Dagys)

While Henzler and Sellers took home seventh-place honors in the six-hour enduro at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, they faced their toughest challenge yet at Miller Motorsports Park, when the car suffered a severe fire in practice. The crew managed to rebuild the entire rear-end of the Porsche in less than seven hours to have it back out for the race.

Apart from the setback at Miller, the team has been making continual progress with solid results on track, all things considered. With going up against the likes of full-factory squads such as Corvette Racing and BMW Rahal Letterman Racing, plus works-assisted efforts from Risi Competizione and Flying Lizard Motorsports, competition in GT is at an all-time high.

“Every little bit makes a difference right now,” Sellers says. “Being a tenth or a tenth and a half of a second off takes you from first to eighth pretty easily. So it’s tough because you’re up against teams that have been here for five years, eight years. And you’re here with teams that are full factory efforts and knowing they’re never sleeping. They’re always trying, pushing and having something else.

“It’s good because it causes us to push as well. It causes us to look for more. While we might lack in some places or be good in some places, if we can minimize our weaknesses and maximize our strengths, the day where it all starts to come together, we should really be a force in GT.”

One of the gains has come with the obvious, tire development. But with IMSA limiting the amount of testing teams can undertake each year, it provides challenges for newer organizations such as Falken to bridge the gap to veteran tire partners such as Michelin, which has been in the series since its inception.

Michelin also boasts advantages in numbers, with four to five technical partner teams each weekend in GT. Compare that to Falken’s single-car effort and it makes for a perfect David vs. Goliath situation.

While Everett sees Falken eventually expanding to additional teams, he’s happy right now having the development all under one roof, with the least amount of variables. That’s why the team has gone with Porsche, a car which already has a baseline in the ALMS.
Falken will start from second on the grid today at Lime Rock Park following a storming qualifying run by Wolf Henzler. (John Dagys)

“Certainly from a driver’s perspective, to be part of a tire development program... It adds a lot of credentials to your resume, because there’s not a lot of people that can say they’ve been part of a pure tire development program,” Sellers says. “You learn so much about what it actually takes to build a good tire and what’s involved in the tire manufacturing. It opens your eyes to a whole lot of things.”

Unlike other overseas tire brands, Falken has a relatively quick turnaround when producing new constructions and compounds. Everett says it generally takes three to four weeks to receive developments from Japan, which works out to their advantage when testing at tracks prior to race weekends.

While Falken is in its third year of its five-year ‘mid-term plan’ in the ALMS, the immediate focus is to continue making inroads on the competition. With some new developments to the car in the pipeline, Everett anticipates the team being regularly in contention for podiums, and a possible breakthrough win, by Road America next month.

And with Everett and other Falken reps making a visit to the 24 Hours of Le Mans last month, an entry in next year’s twice-around-the-clock classic can’t be ruled out. Everett, though, makes it very clear that conquering the competition Stateside is the primary objective.

“Falken Tire is definitely in this for the long run,” Everett says. “They made a big commitment and have no indication or signs of pulling out. All they want to do is continue and improve. They do the same thing with their Drift program. And it took them quite a while to be competitive [in drifting]. I think we’re probably a little further along than some might have expected. We know where we really fit and the key is to just keep improving.”

“You learn to never say die,” Sellers says. “I think for us, it’s still a goal to win. I think a lot of people would look at that and say that maybe it’s a little bit of a lofty goal or saying you’re being a little bit naive. Maybe we are, but we didn’t come to finish second. If you’re showing up to only finish on the podium, that’s all you’re ever going to get.”

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