Home Team Heroes

In addition to Poughkeepsie, N.Y.’s Dyson Racing, which took top honors in LMP2, three other ‘home teams’ also provided strong showings Saturday at Lime Rock. Patron Highcroft Racing gambled on a two-tire pit stop to put David Brabham in the overall lead, but a late-race puncture relegated the Danbury, Conn.-based squad to a second place finish. Brabham and co-driver Scott Sharp are still in command of the LMP1 championship, with a 13-point lead over Gil de Ferran and Simon Pagenaud.

A late-race puncture cost Highcroft the win. (LAT)

While Hilliard, Ohio-based Rahal Letterman Racing will head to their home track at Mid-Ohio in three weeks’ time, Lime Rock Park has always been home to BMW of North America. After strong early runs by both BMW M3s, the No. 90 machine of Bill Auberlen and Joey Hand scored their first podium finish of the year, recovering nicely from Hand’s early spin to finish third in GT2.

Honorable mention goes to Farnbacher Loles, which has its home offices in Highcroft’s Danbury, Conn. facility. Bryce Miller suffered an early spin after his seat in the No. 87 Porsche slid backwards while driving. After a quick pit stop to put Wolf Henzler aboard, the Porsche factory driver recovered nicely to finish fourth in class, just shy of the podium.

"I don't think I locked down my seat properly on the pre-grid and it moved back on its track enough to make things challenging,” Miller said. “It is hard to be pleased with my race performance because I was struggling to reach the steering wheel. Wolf is a champion and [he] did a superb job restoring our car to a respectable position after my seating dilemma. I just can't help to wonder what the result would otherwise have been.”

Tough Day For Intersport

Judging by Jon Field’s first stint in the Intersport Racing Lola, it appeared everything was going to plan. But in fact, Field had a handful of a car all race.

A coil in the header broke on the very first lap, giving the AER-powered prototype 25 percent less power from the get-go. Then, Jon lost the power steering shortly into his stint, yet still ran solidly in the top-four overall.

Jon Field made the most of his wounded Intersport Lola in the early stages of the race. (John Dagys)

In fact, Jon had a spirited battle with the Corsa Motorsports Ginetta-Zytek Hybrid for third, and held the podium spot until handing over to son, Clint, late in the second hour.

But just 30 minutes later, Clint rolled into the pits with no drive, ending the day for the small Dublin, Ohio-based squad.

“For having no power, we were pretty good,” Jon Field said. “If we didn’t have that problem at the start, we could have been very competitive against the Acuras. We also had no power steering the whole race. I’ve got blisters all over my hands to prove it. So really, were up against the wall all day.”

A broken output flange on the axle put the father-and-son duo out of the race, but it was nonetheless a mighty drive for one of the Series’ most successful independent teams.

Random Observations

•Corsa Motorsport’s Ginetta-Zytek Hybrid made history once again by becoming the first car to use a combination of electric and gasoline power in an ALMS race. To top it off, Johnny Mowlem and Stefan Johansson enjoyed a trouble-free run, finishing third overall and in P1. However, the car didn’t place in the top-3 in the Michelin Green X Challenge, a surprise by some which expected the electric power to help offset the internal combustion engine’s energy consumption.

•Chapman Ductote did not race Intersport’s ALMS Lola this weekend, although being on the entry list. Instead, he took over reigns of the team’s IMSA Lites entry, finishing 9th and 17th in the two races.

•Saturday's ALMS race surprisingly was relatively clean, with the caution only coming out once. That didn’t exclude any drivers from some hairy moments with traffic, including overall race winners Gil de Ferran and Simon Pagenaud. The de Ferran Motorsports Acura had a number of close calls, including one when de Ferran accidentally engaged the pit lane speed limiter on track, forcing a Dyson Lola-Mazda to check-up and hit the rear of the Acura. Luckily, both cars continued with only minor damage.