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American LeMans
ALMS: Petit Le Mans Testing Notebook
Marshall Pruett and John Dagys bring you inside a busy two days of pre-Petit Le Mans testing at Road Atlanta.
SPEED Staff  |  Posted September 21, 2009   Braselton, GA
Dindo Capello looked to be the fastest of all testers on Sunday in the constantly changing conditions. (Marshall Pruett)
By: Marshall Pruett

The testing weekend for the American Le Mans Series Petit Le Mans event has grown into a sub-event of its own, much like the early January test days for the Rolex 24 or the official test day at Le Mans. The scale of this year’s pre-Petit test was diminished by two days of steady rain that caused many teams to keep their cars safe and dry under their awnings.

For those that did venture out, Saturday served as little more than an opportunity to do systems checks or to gain circuit knowledge for those new to the 2.54-mile road course. With rain forecast through next Sunday, the wet weather running could provide the teams that tested with an advantage over the rest of the runners who will turn their first laps in practice on Wednesday.

Conditions improved on Sunday as the weather relented at times, allowing almost an hour of mostly dry running at one point, but representative lap times were impossible to capture due to changing track conditions.

Three of the four LMP1 manufacturers worked through portions of their testing program, with 2009 24 hours of Le Mans winners Peugeot serving as the only team to keep their cars off track. Audi, Acura and ORECA logged the most laps amongst the prototypes, followed by Drayson Racing with their new Lola-Judd and ECO Racing’s Radical-VW.

The LMP2 category was vacant for testing, and only a handful of GT2 cars lapped the 12-turn track.

With testing sessions scheduled from 8-10am and 12-6pm, most teams went out for the initial session. Audi presented both of its R15s, with Dino Capello driving the #2 entry and Marco Werner piloting the #1 car. Plans called for the #1 to run only in the morning, but that was extended slightly into the afternoon.
"H" Haynes, Ralf Juttner and Jo Hausner (with headset) look on as they discuss how to investigate the early suspension issue encountered Sunday morning. (Marshall Pruett)

Capello got to grips with the R15 right away as the team gathered comparative data for the car on the damp track as intermittent sprinkles fell. The #2 car’s morning was cut as the 10am cutoff neared. Audi Sport mechanics noticed undesired movement in the left rear suspension, which team director Ralf Juttner and race engineer Howden Haynes inspected the unchecked damper movement and ordered the car to their transporter for inspection.

The R15s were sent to Road Atlanta in nearly identical Le Mans specification, utilizing the same dive planes, louvers engine cover, rear structure, roll hoop fairings, turbo snorkels, the front ‘chimney’ in the nose section– all the items I detailed in France.

Audi’s stated goal of using PLM to test and prepare for the 2010 24 Hour race is clear, but the largely unchanged R15 configuration speaks to the major development curve left with the car, and that’s not with the car itself; it’s with the team.

It takes a bit of prodding to extract, but with the right questions asked, it becomes obvious that the car is still a bit of mystery to the men and women from Ingolstadt. It was thought that the R15 – a car that draws heavily on the powertrain lessons of the revolutionary R10 TDI – would make a greater impact early in its life, but that hasn’t been the case.

While the pundits called for a replacement for the R15 after Audi’s first loss at Le Mans since 2003, the engineers and designs behind the car didn’t panic. Two items that bit the team at Le Mans are believed to be cured for Petit Le Mans – a power steering pump deficiency and an improved rear suspension geometry.
Audi carries a different front aero packaged compared to Sebring in March (top), but everything seen at Petit Le Mans on Sunday (bottom) was identical to what the team ran at Le Mans in June. (Marshall Pruett)

Audi drivers found the power steering unable to keep up with the forces and hard input received over kerbing at La Sarthe, which was reportedly tested and addressed at the team’s recent running at Estoril. Audi engineers also spent a lot of time at Le Mans trying different suspension setups, and a few drivers weren’t satisfied with the compromise they were forced to race with. The altered rear geometry is expected to solve this niggling balance issue.

As mentioned, the two small updates to the R15 pale in comparison to the testing and development the team needs to gain with the car. While many have said Audi Sport simply needs to race the car more to help round it into shape, there are still many things that need to be properly understood about the car’s inspired aerodynamics. The R15 is said to put more forces through the chassis – suspension mounts, the aforementioned power steering pump, and the tires – than anyone within the operation has encountered.

More than simply needing to run more to figure out damper and springing solutions, the R15 continues to be a puzzle the team is progressively solving.

It’s said that Audi brought an R10 to its recent Estoril to compare it to the R15, and to the surprise of more than a few, the R10 was still markedly faster. With that in mind, don’t look for the team to try anything risky later in the week to find more speed for Saturday’s 10-hour race. Until they tame the animal they have in front of them, adding more parts and complexity to the machine would only confuse matters. I have no doubt the R15 will soon outpace the R10 and will bridge the gap to Peugeot; the potential is certainly within the car and the more they understand the car, they sooner it will be unlocked.

ORECA made the most of the available track time – just as they’d done on Saturday – to familiarize themselves and to get new recruit Romain Dumas (still wearing his Porsche-liveried helmet after flying in from Saturday’s Grand-am race in Utah) acclimated to the AIM V10-powered machine.
Romain Dumas -- complete with his Penske Porsche helmet -- sits waiting to go out in his ORECA 01-AIM. Team engineers captured photos of the airflow shown by mud and rain on the sidepods and wheel arches. (Marshall Pruett)

ORECA engineers snapped digital pictures of the each time it returned to the pits, capturing the airflow patterns on the bodywork created by a combination of rain and dirt. Carrying scalloped, elongated dive planes, the ORECA 01 is one of four high downforce P1 entries, along with the R15, the Peugeot 908 and the Acura ARX-02a.

Provided the rain stays for the race, the result could be a function of the most usable downforce to power ratio. Peugeot is reckoned to have the best traction control amongst the four cars, which could also play a major factor.

Jamie Campbell-Walter did the early running to shakedown Drayson Racing’s gorgeous new Lola-Judd before handing over to team owner Paul Drayson and Jonny Cocker. Gearshift actuator issues left the car on pit lane through the morning session, but the car ran flawlessly in the afternoon.

Gil de Ferran and Simon Pagenaud logged a number of miles on their ARX-02a, with de Ferran doing the majority of the driving. Ian Dawson’s Radical SR9 reappeared after last turning a wheel at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca in 2008. the team is still living off a budget that wouldn’t suit a 24 Hours of LeMons program, but unlike Laguna Seca, the diesel Touareg-powered car ran without any major issues to report, despite coming back to the pits on one occasion with the help of a tow from the safety truck.

In true privateer style, Dawson’s team worked on the car outside as rain drops fell, and had but a folding table and the bare necessities on pit lane, but Japanese veteran Hideki Noda pushed the car harder than anyone could remember.

Noda’s co-drivers, FIA GT driver Jose Manuel Balbiani and KONI standout Dion von Moltke turned slower laps as they tip-toed around the track.

The Ironman award on Sunday had go to the Autocon team, whose Lola-AER P1 car seemed to never leave the circuit. Bryan Willman handled the driving duties, and many commented that Willman obviously wasn’t afraid of the track or the car as he appeared to push hard all day long.

Taking trap speeds at the apex of Turn 12, the pace of the prototypes fluctuated with the rain, but on an almost dry track, Capello hit 155.8mph to Simon Pagenaud’s 149.9mph on the same lap, followed by Autocon’s Willman at Acura 145.3mph. Thirty minutes before, it was 151.9mph for Dindo to Nicolas Lapierre’s 144.9mph in the ORECA. Earlier in the day with light rainfall, it was Capello at 133.8mph to de Ferran’s 130.3mph and Dumas’ 125.3mph.

GT2 runners were represented by the #44 and #45 Flying Lizard Porsches, the Robertson Racing Ford GT-R, PTG’s Panoz, the LG Motorsports Corvette, both BMWs and at the end of the day, the Risi Ferrari F430.
If you thought the Acuras carried long, aggressive dive planes, ORECA has taken it to a whole new level with these Jai alai-inspired aero components. (Marshall Pruett)

Risi unveiled a new front bumper with a deeper splitter, the lower portion of the side exits gone, and one of the two dive planes fully recessed. I’m curious if this is a development we could see on the F430’s replacement I’ll have to look at the ducting when the bumper is off – the previous bumper used a carbon plate to block the lower half of the full height exit. With that exit now modified to flow from the top portion, I’d assume new ducting has been made to route air from the cooler through this aperture.

The #44 FLM entry, Robertson’s Ford, and the #90 BMW were the most active cars, with the #45 Porsche making an afternoon appearance along with the #92 BMW in its smart ‘Need For Speed: Shift’ livery. The car carried some extra coloring from the red Georgia dirt as it slid though the 10a/10b complex at a good clip when it locked its brakes when the rain started to fall just before the 6pm track closing.

Agricultural adventures aside, BMW looked to have the same speed its shown of late, leading the GT2 contingent with the fastest Turn-12 apex speed of 132.0mph to the 131.5mph set by the #44 Porsche on the same lap the P1 cars set the fastest speeds listed above.

Official practice gets underway Wednesday at 2pm ET.

MISC NOTES:

The ALMS can’t be happy after its sole hybrid entrant was forced to scratch its entry, but Corsa Racing’s last minute withdrawal wasn’t a surprise to some. A few vendors noted the team’s inability to commission some important, but not overly expensive work to ready the Zytek P1 car. It would have been the marquee car to help promote the one-year anniversary of the MICHELIN® GREEN X® Challenge, but the other competitors using diesel and E85 will have to carry the torch.
Ferrari's new front bumper (L) and its predecessor (R) as seen at Mosport last month. (Marshall Pruett/Martin Spetz)

ORECA needs to work on their front airjack release valving – whenever the mechanics release the airjack, the splitter smacked the ground excessively hard. I’d hate to be the guy with my foot under the splitter when the car is dropped…
Audi on same LM24 dive plane?

Target chip Ganassi IndyCar drivers Scott Dixon and Dario Franchitti will have to make the most of their track time on Wednesday and Thursday. In addition to the jet lag they suffered from the trip to and from Japan last weekend (where they finished 1-2), Dixie and Dario will fly down to Homestead for their final IndyCar test day prior to the season finale October 10th.

Its good to see Audi’s Jo Hausner back with the race team after leading Kolles R10s at Le Mans in June. He spends much of his team leading Audi’s DTM development, but now back with the R15’s trackside development, he’ll surely add to the car’s growth rate.

HPD engine guru Alan Miller had previously told me that with enough notice, his team had a Stage 2 and Stage 3 LMP1 engine that could be produced for the Acura for Petit Le Mans, but it appears both ARX-02a entries will race with the same Stage 1 they’ve used all year.

The camera crew setting up Gil de Ferran’s Wind Tunnel taping mentioned they were using the same video equipment that shot the MTV Video awards and Kanye West’s outburst…good to see no one from Audi or Peugeot broke in to grab the microphone whole he was mid-sentence.

ALMS CEO Scott Atherton noticed the two issues of On Track magazine from 1990 I’d brought with me (for this week’s Triple Stint column) and mentioned he still has drawers filled with them. Didn’t know Scott was an OT anorak like many of us…much respect.

Sunday was filled with pain and comedy by me and SPEEDtv.com’s John Dagys. First, Dagys appeared after shooting photos in the soggy bog at Turn 1. Beyond his flooded shoes and socks, his pants looked like he was standing knee-deep in water. To make matters worse, his walk through the rainforest to shoot the downhill section apparently didn’t agree with a huge swarm of mosquitoes. Soaked and thoroughly bitten, he vowed not to avoid Turn 1…
The #92 BMW crosses over the red mud it tracked onto the circuit at the same time I'm being attacked by fire ants. (Marshall Pruett)

I managed to find the world’s largest concentration of fire ants on the outside of Turn 10. hidden below the grass, I felt what seemed like fifty needles being stuck into my left ankle and calf, and on looking down, noticed my black shoe had turned red along with my lower leg – all in the span of thirty seconds.

Right, smack them away and move up the hill to the safety of the rocks and exposed dirt. Turns out red ants blend in rather well with red dirt, as proven by the new set of ants that also preferred my left leg.

Right, smack them away and walk back to the car – packing up and leaving. Turns out red ants like gravel roads, too. They also like my right leg, as it turns out. I thought I’d cleared all of them off as I got into the car, but that assumption was wrong. I’ll go ahead and apologize to anyone that saw me acting like a wild man while driving out of the track as I slapped my right leg to kill the few remaining b*stards as they stung me while I drove. Ahhh, the glamour of it all…

View The Petit Le Mans Testing Photo Gallery.

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