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Le Mans / ALMS
ALMS: Long Beach Notebook
News and notes from the second round of the American Le Mans Series season...
BMW Team RLL's Joey Hand will start from the GT pole following the cancellation of qualifying. (Photo: John Dagys)
FREAKY FRIDAY THE 13TH — Friday at the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach was undoubtedly one of the strangest and most challenging days for American Le Mans Series teams that I’ve seen in a long time. Heavy rain, uncharacteristic for Southern California, caused havoc right from the 7:15 a.m. start of practice through the eventual cancelation of qualifying in the evening.
With the street-sweeping and hydroplaning two-hour practice seeing most cars complete a minimum amount of laps, there was hope that qualifying would deliver some much-needed dry running time.
But as the skies opened up midway through the 15-minute GT session, IMSA made the call to abandon the remainder of qualifying, which would have been wet. It left teams and drivers with more questions than answers after a ‘freaky’ Friday the 13th.
“This is the biggest let down ever,” Extreme Speed Motorsports’ Guy Cosmo said. “We had no practice this morning, the rain was horrible. Qualifying was just shortened and now they are abandoning qualifying. We come here to drive and we haven’t really been able to drive. It is frustrating.”
With only the GTC cars having gotten dry running time today and no warmup scheduled in the morning, tomorrow’s race is shaping up to be one of the most unpredictable yet, especially with rain unlikely to have an impact in the two-hour street fight.
"Today's qualifying just adds to the uncertainty for tomorrow's race," Corvette Racing’s Jan Magnussen said. "Qualifying is not a good guide because the track was damp, it was sprinkling from the start. So we've really had one timed lap, on slicks, when it was wet. We'll go into the race like we haven't been here at all."
HAND OFF TO DTM — In two weeks’ time, Joey Hand will be on the starting grid at Hockenheim, beginning a new and exciting chapter of his racing career. The BMW factory driver will embark on the popular DTM championship, becoming the first American to do so since Danny Sullivan nearly 20 years ago.
Hand, who is fresh off a career-defining 2011 season, which included victories at the Rolex 24 at Daytona and Twelve Hours of Sebring, a podium at the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the American Le Mans Series GT drivers’ championship, credits his time with the Bobby Rahal-led RLL squad in the ALMS for helping him develop as a driver.
“When I came to this program in 2009, I had driven a lot of race cars and for a lot of people, but this program taught me a lot,” Hand told SPEED.com. “It's really been where I've made the biggest jumps as a driver. The engineers here have taught me so much about car setup and all of these things are turning into things I use in DTM.”
While Hand will take that knowledge into his new DTM program with BMW Team RMG, he’ll still be a familiar face in the ALMS paddock, sharing the wheel of the No. 56 BMW M3 GT with Dirk Muller this weekend and the next six rounds that don’t conflict with the new-look German touring car championship.
And with kicking off the 2012 ALMS season with another class win at Sebring, and searching for back-to-back victories on the streets of Long Beach this weekend, Hand could be carrying even more momentum into his European debut later this month.
“I told Dirk at the beginning of the year that it's not my favorite thing to miss three [ALMS] races at the end of the season but I'm here for the first seven, let's just get it sewed up right away,” Hand said.
“Dirk and I got to win [the championship] together last year but I would love to be part of winning this championship again for the guys at RLL, BMW and even for Dirk.”
PHOTOS: ALMS at Long Beach
With the street-sweeping and hydroplaning two-hour practice seeing most cars complete a minimum amount of laps, there was hope that qualifying would deliver some much-needed dry running time.
But as the skies opened up midway through the 15-minute GT session, IMSA made the call to abandon the remainder of qualifying, which would have been wet. It left teams and drivers with more questions than answers after a ‘freaky’ Friday the 13th.
“This is the biggest let down ever,” Extreme Speed Motorsports’ Guy Cosmo said. “We had no practice this morning, the rain was horrible. Qualifying was just shortened and now they are abandoning qualifying. We come here to drive and we haven’t really been able to drive. It is frustrating.”
With only the GTC cars having gotten dry running time today and no warmup scheduled in the morning, tomorrow’s race is shaping up to be one of the most unpredictable yet, especially with rain unlikely to have an impact in the two-hour street fight.
"Today's qualifying just adds to the uncertainty for tomorrow's race," Corvette Racing’s Jan Magnussen said. "Qualifying is not a good guide because the track was damp, it was sprinkling from the start. So we've really had one timed lap, on slicks, when it was wet. We'll go into the race like we haven't been here at all."
HAND OFF TO DTM — In two weeks’ time, Joey Hand will be on the starting grid at Hockenheim, beginning a new and exciting chapter of his racing career. The BMW factory driver will embark on the popular DTM championship, becoming the first American to do so since Danny Sullivan nearly 20 years ago.
Hand, who is fresh off a career-defining 2011 season, which included victories at the Rolex 24 at Daytona and Twelve Hours of Sebring, a podium at the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the American Le Mans Series GT drivers’ championship, credits his time with the Bobby Rahal-led RLL squad in the ALMS for helping him develop as a driver.
“When I came to this program in 2009, I had driven a lot of race cars and for a lot of people, but this program taught me a lot,” Hand told SPEED.com. “It's really been where I've made the biggest jumps as a driver. The engineers here have taught me so much about car setup and all of these things are turning into things I use in DTM.”
While Hand will take that knowledge into his new DTM program with BMW Team RMG, he’ll still be a familiar face in the ALMS paddock, sharing the wheel of the No. 56 BMW M3 GT with Dirk Muller this weekend and the next six rounds that don’t conflict with the new-look German touring car championship.
And with kicking off the 2012 ALMS season with another class win at Sebring, and searching for back-to-back victories on the streets of Long Beach this weekend, Hand could be carrying even more momentum into his European debut later this month.
“I told Dirk at the beginning of the year that it's not my favorite thing to miss three [ALMS] races at the end of the season but I'm here for the first seven, let's just get it sewed up right away,” Hand said.
“Dirk and I got to win [the championship] together last year but I would love to be part of winning this championship again for the guys at RLL, BMW and even for Dirk.”
PHOTOS: ALMS at Long Beach
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