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Le Mans / ALMS
ALMS: Flying Lizard Excluded, ESM Wins GT At Mosport
Flying Lizard Motorsports Porsche fails post-race stall test, hands GT win to Extreme Speed Motorsports...
Extreme Speed Motorsports inherited the GT class victory in Sunday's Grand Prix of Mosport, following the exclusion of the No. 45 Flying Lizard Motorsports Porsche. (Photo: John Dagys)
With Muscle Milk Pickett Racing cruising to its fourth consecutive overall American Le Mans Series victory, the story of Sunday's Grand Prix of Mosport at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park was in the hotly contested GT ranks, which saw a thrilling down-to-the-wire battle for the class win.
And there was even a bit of post-race drama.
While the No. 45 Flying Lizard Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 RSR of Joerg Bergmeister crossed the line in first, he and Patrick Long were excluded from the results after their car failed a post-race stall test.
It handed top honors to Extreme Speed Motorsports' Scott Sharp and Johannes van Overbeek celebrating his 100th ALMS start, who wound up as unexpected GT winners in one wild race.
“Although I feel for Pat and Joerg, I couldn't be happier for Scott, Ed [Brown], ESM and Patrón,” said van Overbeek. “After the podium the race just didn't feel over; and as it turned out it wasn't. Winning at Mosport caps a great weekend and it was a fine way to celebrate my 100th start in this dynamic and competitive series. I hope it's a sign of things to come.”
Bergmeister took over the class lead midway through the two-hour and 45-minute contest and appeared to be en route to their second consecutive victory of the season.
But a last lap pass by van Overbeek on the No. 3 Corvette Racing C6.R of Jan Magnussen for the runner-up position, ended up being the move of the race.
It marked the Scott Sharp-owned squad's maiden victory in its third year of ALMS competition and the first for Ferrari this season.
"Jan is a tough customer and I figured that was the only shot I had at him and I didn’t want to telegraph it earlier, so I saved it for last," van Overbeek said of the last-lap pass.
“There were three of us running in a train. Getting to them and getting around them was a whole different story. I had a bad aero push and I knew that was the only shot, in 5a and 5b, to get around the Corvette. I did the Hail Mary on the last lap and it worked out. I can’t wait for Mid-Ohio now.”
Flying Lizard filed an official protest of the decision, which was denied by the stewards.
Corvette Racing held control of the race early on, but a gearbox failure for the No. 4 entry of Tommy Milner dropped him out of contention.
Teammate Antonio Garcia held the lead until the first round of pit stops, when the Spaniard was held up by a Dyson Lola-Mazda while entering pit road. It dropped Garcia to ninth at the time before an impressive rebound by Magnussen.
The No. 56 BMW Team RLL BMW M3 GT of Joey Hand and Dirk Muller inherited a third place finish, with Wolf Henzler and Bryan Sellers being promoted to fourth in their Team Falken Tire Porsche.
While only featuring two cars, P2 produced a nearly equally entertaining battle that went in favor of Conquest Endurance, which broke through to claim its first ALMS victory in only its fifth start.
Martin Plowman and David Heinemeier Hansson drove their No. 37 Morgan-Nissan to a 19.713-second victory over the No. 055 Level 5 Motorsports HPD ARX-03b of Scott Tucker and Christophe Bouchut, which fought tooth-and-nail all day.
Both cars overcame stop and go penalties, Heinemeier Hansson's for passing under the the yellow early on and Bouchut for speeding in the pit lane, prior to the final restart with 12 minutes remaining, which had Plowman narrowly out front.
The final turning point came with less than five minutes left on the clock when Bouchut crossed over a yellow line while overtaking traffic, which resulted in the Frenchman receiving a stop-and-go penalty.
"When I went into Turn 5, I looked in my mirror and Bouchut was trying to pass me," Plowman explained. "I was scratching my head, "How on earth did he get onto my tail?' Afterwards, it became apparent that he crossed the yellow line in order to pass traffic. Once he served the penalty, it was plain sailing from there."
The class win for Conquest came on the heels of OAK Racing's overall victory in last weekend's European Le Mans Series race at Donington, which was also with a Nissan-powered Morgan.
It also broke Level 5's undefeated streak of class victories this year. And just as the case at Lime Rock, both cars led overall at one point.
"It was a wonderful race," Heinemeier Hansson said. "[Scott] Tucker drove really, really well. Multiple times, I was passing GT cars on the outside of Turn 2 and was thinking there was no way he was going to follow me there. But 'boom,' he would be right in my mirrors. It was a great, very closely fought battle."
PHOTOS: ALMS Grand Prix of Mosport
And there was even a bit of post-race drama.
While the No. 45 Flying Lizard Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 RSR of Joerg Bergmeister crossed the line in first, he and Patrick Long were excluded from the results after their car failed a post-race stall test.
It handed top honors to Extreme Speed Motorsports' Scott Sharp and Johannes van Overbeek celebrating his 100th ALMS start, who wound up as unexpected GT winners in one wild race.
“Although I feel for Pat and Joerg, I couldn't be happier for Scott, Ed [Brown], ESM and Patrón,” said van Overbeek. “After the podium the race just didn't feel over; and as it turned out it wasn't. Winning at Mosport caps a great weekend and it was a fine way to celebrate my 100th start in this dynamic and competitive series. I hope it's a sign of things to come.”
Bergmeister took over the class lead midway through the two-hour and 45-minute contest and appeared to be en route to their second consecutive victory of the season.
But a last lap pass by van Overbeek on the No. 3 Corvette Racing C6.R of Jan Magnussen for the runner-up position, ended up being the move of the race.
It marked the Scott Sharp-owned squad's maiden victory in its third year of ALMS competition and the first for Ferrari this season.
"Jan is a tough customer and I figured that was the only shot I had at him and I didn’t want to telegraph it earlier, so I saved it for last," van Overbeek said of the last-lap pass.
“There were three of us running in a train. Getting to them and getting around them was a whole different story. I had a bad aero push and I knew that was the only shot, in 5a and 5b, to get around the Corvette. I did the Hail Mary on the last lap and it worked out. I can’t wait for Mid-Ohio now.”
Flying Lizard filed an official protest of the decision, which was denied by the stewards.
Corvette Racing held control of the race early on, but a gearbox failure for the No. 4 entry of Tommy Milner dropped him out of contention.
Teammate Antonio Garcia held the lead until the first round of pit stops, when the Spaniard was held up by a Dyson Lola-Mazda while entering pit road. It dropped Garcia to ninth at the time before an impressive rebound by Magnussen.
The No. 56 BMW Team RLL BMW M3 GT of Joey Hand and Dirk Muller inherited a third place finish, with Wolf Henzler and Bryan Sellers being promoted to fourth in their Team Falken Tire Porsche.
While only featuring two cars, P2 produced a nearly equally entertaining battle that went in favor of Conquest Endurance, which broke through to claim its first ALMS victory in only its fifth start.
Martin Plowman and David Heinemeier Hansson drove their No. 37 Morgan-Nissan to a 19.713-second victory over the No. 055 Level 5 Motorsports HPD ARX-03b of Scott Tucker and Christophe Bouchut, which fought tooth-and-nail all day.
Both cars overcame stop and go penalties, Heinemeier Hansson's for passing under the the yellow early on and Bouchut for speeding in the pit lane, prior to the final restart with 12 minutes remaining, which had Plowman narrowly out front.
The final turning point came with less than five minutes left on the clock when Bouchut crossed over a yellow line while overtaking traffic, which resulted in the Frenchman receiving a stop-and-go penalty.
"When I went into Turn 5, I looked in my mirror and Bouchut was trying to pass me," Plowman explained. "I was scratching my head, "How on earth did he get onto my tail?' Afterwards, it became apparent that he crossed the yellow line in order to pass traffic. Once he served the penalty, it was plain sailing from there."
The class win for Conquest came on the heels of OAK Racing's overall victory in last weekend's European Le Mans Series race at Donington, which was also with a Nissan-powered Morgan.
It also broke Level 5's undefeated streak of class victories this year. And just as the case at Lime Rock, both cars led overall at one point.
"It was a wonderful race," Heinemeier Hansson said. "[Scott] Tucker drove really, really well. Multiple times, I was passing GT cars on the outside of Turn 2 and was thinking there was no way he was going to follow me there. But 'boom,' he would be right in my mirrors. It was a great, very closely fought battle."
PHOTOS: ALMS Grand Prix of Mosport
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