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Le Mans / ALMS
ALMS: Mid-Ohio Preview
John Dagys previews this weekend’s Mid-Ohio Sports Car Challenge, the sixth round of the American Le Mans Series...
Extreme Speed Motorsports will be looking for its second victory of the season after inheriting the GT win at Mosport. (Photo: John Dagys)
With new and returning entries along with an unforgettable finish last time out in GT, there are plenty of storylines heading into this weekend’s Mid-Ohio Sports Car Challenge, the sixth round of the American Le Mans Series season.
While it’s status quo up front in P1, with Muscle Milk Pickett Racing looking for an unprecedented fifth consecutive victory of the year for championship leaders Klaus Graf and Lucas Luhr, most of the attention will be on the production-based ranks and the return of a venomous snake after a 12-year hiatus.
Following the unveil at the New York International Auto Show in April, SRT Motorsports will debut its brand-new Viper GTS-R for the highly competitive GT category. The factory effort, led by Riley Technologies, will field two of the fire-breathing V10 beasts, featuring the professional racing return of Trans-Am legend Tommy Kendall, who will join Marc Goossens, Domimink Farnbacher and Kuno Wittmer at the wheel.
It’s unclear where the Vipers will stack up to the likes of Porsche, BMW, Ferrari and championship leaders Corvette, especially at such an early stage of the car’s development, but will still no doubt make an impression in its highly anticipated first outing.
“The decision to make our debut at Mid-Ohio is a result of the progress made with our testing program,” said Gary Johnson, Road Racing Manager, SRT Motorsports. “The car has shown steady performance. Each test has met and more often exceeded our expectations, so we’ll see how things go at Mid-Ohio and then make a decision about the rest of the 2012 season.”
The pair of Vipers will do battle with 11 other GT machines on Saturday, including Corvette Racing’s Jan Magnussen and Antonio Garcia, who took over the championship lead following their runner-up finish at Mosport.
The duo, still searching for their first class win of the season, hold a seven-point lead over teammates Oliver Gavin and Tommy Milner, who suffered transmission failure last time out. It has now put them into a tie for second in the title race with BMW Team RLL’s Joey Hand and Dirk Muller.
However, the big story from Mosport came after the race, as the No. 45 Flying Lizard Motorsports Porsche of Joerg Bergmeister and Patrick Long, which had crossed the line in first, was excluded after failing a post-race stall test. It handed the win to the Extreme Speed Motorsports Ferrari F458 Italia of Scott Sharp and Johannes van Overbeek, marking the team’s first-ever class victory.
As a result, Sharp and van Overbeek have jumped to fourth in the championship chase, but sit a considerable 21 points behind the leading Corvette duo. The exclusion for the Lizards, meanwhile, ended up being costly in their title quest, with Bergmeister and Long dropping to sixth in the standings with five races to go.
Just four points behind the Lizard duo are Team Falken Tire’s Wolf Henzler and Bryan Sellers, who return to the site of the team’s first victory in what was a rain-shortened race here last year. The Derrick Walker-led organization will be debuting its latest development tire in the hopes of making it back-to-back wins at Mid-Ohio.
Another Porsche team looking for continued success is Paul Miller Racing, which finished a season-high fifth at Mosport, thanks to the the No. 45 car’s exclusion. Sascha Maassen and Bryce Miller remain at the wheel of the Dunlop-shod entry.
While GT continues to boast the most diverse grid, with six manufacturers represented, the Prototype Challenge category has the tightest points race, along with an intriguing intra-team rivalry developing.
CORE autosport’s Jon Bennett and Colin Braun are now on equal footing to teammate Alex Popow, thanks to the duo’s runner-up finish at Mosport, which coincidentally was the team’s first loss of the season.
Popow, fresh off victory in last weekend’s Brickyard Grand Prix at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, will again team with Ryan Dalziel in their No. 06 Oreca FLM09 entry in quest for his third class win of the ALMS season.
“The points battle between my car and the No. 05 car is going to be pretty big, as Jon is always improving and Colin is quite a good driver,” Popow said. “I have a great co-driver in Ryan and the two of us will be working as hard as possible to beat the No. 05 car and the rest of the PC field.”
With a 30-point lead over Mosport winner Bruno Junqueira, and considerable 44-point advantage in the teams championship, CORE could be on the brink of back-to-back PC titles if it keeps up its streak of podium results.
Up to 8 PC cars are expected this weekend, including entries from RSR Racing, Dempsey Racing, Merchant Services Racing and PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports, which has reverted to its backup car following a heavy early race accident at Mosport by Ken Dobson, who suffered a concussion and bruising from the shunt.
Marino Franchitti returns to the wheel, hoping to make his first PC class start and is joined by Rudy Junco Jr. in the No. 52 machine.
While it’s status quo up front in P1, with Muscle Milk Pickett Racing looking for an unprecedented fifth consecutive victory of the year for championship leaders Klaus Graf and Lucas Luhr, most of the attention will be on the production-based ranks and the return of a venomous snake after a 12-year hiatus.
Following the unveil at the New York International Auto Show in April, SRT Motorsports will debut its brand-new Viper GTS-R for the highly competitive GT category. The factory effort, led by Riley Technologies, will field two of the fire-breathing V10 beasts, featuring the professional racing return of Trans-Am legend Tommy Kendall, who will join Marc Goossens, Domimink Farnbacher and Kuno Wittmer at the wheel.
It’s unclear where the Vipers will stack up to the likes of Porsche, BMW, Ferrari and championship leaders Corvette, especially at such an early stage of the car’s development, but will still no doubt make an impression in its highly anticipated first outing.
“The decision to make our debut at Mid-Ohio is a result of the progress made with our testing program,” said Gary Johnson, Road Racing Manager, SRT Motorsports. “The car has shown steady performance. Each test has met and more often exceeded our expectations, so we’ll see how things go at Mid-Ohio and then make a decision about the rest of the 2012 season.”
The pair of Vipers will do battle with 11 other GT machines on Saturday, including Corvette Racing’s Jan Magnussen and Antonio Garcia, who took over the championship lead following their runner-up finish at Mosport.
The duo, still searching for their first class win of the season, hold a seven-point lead over teammates Oliver Gavin and Tommy Milner, who suffered transmission failure last time out. It has now put them into a tie for second in the title race with BMW Team RLL’s Joey Hand and Dirk Muller.
However, the big story from Mosport came after the race, as the No. 45 Flying Lizard Motorsports Porsche of Joerg Bergmeister and Patrick Long, which had crossed the line in first, was excluded after failing a post-race stall test. It handed the win to the Extreme Speed Motorsports Ferrari F458 Italia of Scott Sharp and Johannes van Overbeek, marking the team’s first-ever class victory.
As a result, Sharp and van Overbeek have jumped to fourth in the championship chase, but sit a considerable 21 points behind the leading Corvette duo. The exclusion for the Lizards, meanwhile, ended up being costly in their title quest, with Bergmeister and Long dropping to sixth in the standings with five races to go.
Just four points behind the Lizard duo are Team Falken Tire’s Wolf Henzler and Bryan Sellers, who return to the site of the team’s first victory in what was a rain-shortened race here last year. The Derrick Walker-led organization will be debuting its latest development tire in the hopes of making it back-to-back wins at Mid-Ohio.
Another Porsche team looking for continued success is Paul Miller Racing, which finished a season-high fifth at Mosport, thanks to the the No. 45 car’s exclusion. Sascha Maassen and Bryce Miller remain at the wheel of the Dunlop-shod entry.
While GT continues to boast the most diverse grid, with six manufacturers represented, the Prototype Challenge category has the tightest points race, along with an intriguing intra-team rivalry developing.
CORE autosport’s Jon Bennett and Colin Braun are now on equal footing to teammate Alex Popow, thanks to the duo’s runner-up finish at Mosport, which coincidentally was the team’s first loss of the season.
Popow, fresh off victory in last weekend’s Brickyard Grand Prix at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, will again team with Ryan Dalziel in their No. 06 Oreca FLM09 entry in quest for his third class win of the ALMS season.
“The points battle between my car and the No. 05 car is going to be pretty big, as Jon is always improving and Colin is quite a good driver,” Popow said. “I have a great co-driver in Ryan and the two of us will be working as hard as possible to beat the No. 05 car and the rest of the PC field.”
With a 30-point lead over Mosport winner Bruno Junqueira, and considerable 44-point advantage in the teams championship, CORE could be on the brink of back-to-back PC titles if it keeps up its streak of podium results.
Up to 8 PC cars are expected this weekend, including entries from RSR Racing, Dempsey Racing, Merchant Services Racing and PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports, which has reverted to its backup car following a heavy early race accident at Mosport by Ken Dobson, who suffered a concussion and bruising from the shunt.
Marino Franchitti returns to the wheel, hoping to make his first PC class start and is joined by Rudy Junco Jr. in the No. 52 machine.
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