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Written by:
Marshall Pruett
08/08/2008 - 11:01 PM
Elkhart Lake, WI
No one will catch Audi at Elkhart in the top speed game, but a few LMP2 cars are nipping at their heels. (Photo: Marshall Pruett) » More Photos
Trap Speeds du Jour
Radar speeds on the ALMS’ fastest track are a fascinating performance figure to explore. The last time we fired up the ole’ gun was at Le Mans, but with straights and corners that rival anything La Sarthe has to offer, I figured it was time to report back with what I found through the first two days of running at the mighty high speed Wisconsin circuit.
Before we get started, you might be interested to learn that the (un)official top speed on the 4.048mi track belongs to Audi at 190.1mph prior to braking for turn 12! Peugeot owned to top speed title at Le Mans on our radar gun at 212.4mph—a 22.3mph difference, but we must keep in mind that the aerodynamic setup for Le Mans is all about low downforce and minimal drag. At Elkhart Lake, teams do trim the cars out, but nowhere near the point of what Le Mans calls for.
In a direct comparison, Audi’s top speed at Le Mans was 207.7 according to our gun—a 17.7mph difference.
Another interesting area of how speed is earned comes from how certain teams prefer to go about striking a balance between reducing downforce to make their cars fast on the straights, but not to the point where the cars are impossible to control in the corners.
Some teams prefer to start a race meeting like this one with an excess of downforce, and as their drivers provide feedback and report where the cars feels sluggish, the race engineer will begin reducing downforce until the car is manageable to drive in the turns and capable of hanging with their rivals on the straights. That’s the most common process, and the safest.
Romain Dumas is making the most of the extra power his direct-injection Porsche engine has to offer. Expect he and teammate Timo Bernhard to feature in the race. (Photo: Marshall Pruett) » More Photos
But some prefer to go the opposite route. Ex-F1 driver Jacques Villeneuve was known for wanting his car to start an event with an extreme lack of downforce—almost an unsafe amount as he once said, and relying on his own driving skill, he’d try to hustle the car around the track and keep it on the pavement until he started to get a feel for where the car would perform better when more downforce was added. Let’s just say that drivers like Jacques are far and few between.
The majority of the American Le Mans teams started practice on Thursday with what they thought was a good compromise between top speed and cornering speed, and on average, everyone started to reduce downforce after their first two or three outings. Top speeds began to creep up at the end of the front straight throughout the two hour session, but some teams ventured a little bit too far into the comfort zones of their drivers in a quest for fast lap times. More than one Acura driver mentioned that while the low downforce package they had did indeed serve its purpose, it also made for a white-knuckle ride around the track. Holding on for dear life for one lap in qualifying might be possible, but a four hour race would be out of the question.
Friday found top speeds down overall as everyone focused on race setups. If pole position for the Generac 500 carried the same importance as the pole for Le Mans, I’m sure the paddock would have continued to evolve their cars in a direction of setting scary trap speed figures, but thankfully, sanity prevailed.
Acura migrated from low downforce/almost undriveable on Thursday to higher downforce, happier drivers, and higher cornering speeds in qualifying on Friday--on Thursday, Adrian Fernandez clocked 173.1mph into turn 1. On Friday, the best he managed was 170.8. That’s not to say they went for high downforce—they didn’t, as Frank Montagny proved by setting the 2nd fastest LMP2 top speed in qualifying (just 0.1mph behind Pat Long’s Penske Porsche).
The Penske Porsche team also went through the same setup evolution, transforming their dragster-like top speeds on Thursday into something that would be more driver-friendly in Saturday’s four hour race.
But here's the sneaky part about what Penske's keeping tucked away in their pocket. With their new direct-injection engines in both Penske cars, the extra 30+ horsepower they enjoy has been turned into extra downforce without any penalty on top speed. Rather than use the extra power
Penske tipped their hand in this area on Thursday: In a battle of low drag setups, it was astonishing to capture Fernandez’s top speed on Thursday while getting a big tow from Acura stable mate David Brabham. With the #15 Lowe’s car tucked right in behind the Patron Highcroft ARX-01b, Adrian pulled out to slingshot past Brabs just seconds before having to brake for turn 1; the radar gun displayed a stunning ‘175.4’ on the screen! Adrian got the mother of all tows—it couldn’t have been executed more perfectly to help boost his top speed.
But then the next car to come past—Penske’s Romain Dumas, decided to spoil the party by setting a staggering top speed of 175.7mph.
By himself.
The disparity in speeds between the Porsches of Dyson and Penske must be maddening for the drivers of the #16 and #20. Penske are the only team to have the direct-injection engines, and the time sheets speak volumes. The Dyson team is forced to run less downforce than Penske to have any hopes of keeping up with the field. Just 1.4mph separates Pat Long from Marino Franchitti at the end of the front straight, but in equal downforce levels, Long would be much faster. It’s almost unfair. Expect fireworks from the yellow cars in the race.
Seven liters of Corvette engine help Oliver Gavin to challenge LMP2 cars for top speeds at Elkhart Lake. (Photo: Marshall Pruett) » More Photos
The closeness of the P2 field’s top speeds is impressive. 1.6 mph separates the fastest seven cars! Other speeds that stand out belong to Jon field—anyone that doubts the strength of AER’s products needs to look no further than the #37 Intersport car.
AER’s other team, the B-K Motorsports Mazda, suffered a few issues today that kept it from logging a proper flying lap, but in the morning practice session, Ben Devlin was the second fastest car I captured at the apex of turn 13, 1.7mph up on the next fastest P2 car of Romain Dumas.
Other standouts were the #4 Corvette of Oliver Gavin whose GT1 car was 0.6mph faster than Chris Dyson’s Porsche RS Spyder, as was the Panoz and the Ford GT-R of Black Swan. While those two entries are still far from ready to displace Ferrari or Porsche, both are making steady progress.
Here’s the breakdown of speeds from today—I’ll try to capture apex speeds at ‘The Kink’ tomorrow if the opportunity presents itself. Email me if there are any other sections of the track you’re curious to see numbers on.
Turn 1 Entry, Qualifying (top speed before braking)
Audi #2 (Luhr): 181.5 mph/292 kph
Audi #1 (Fassler): 176.2 mph/283.6 kph
Intersport Lola #37 (J. Field): 175.9 mph/283.1 kph
Penske Porsche #6 (Long): 171.3 mph/275.6 kph
AGR Acura #26 (Montagny): 171.2 mph/275.5 kph
Highcroft Acura # (Brabham): 170.9 mph/275 kph
Fernandez Acura #15 (Fernandez): 170.8 mph/274.8 kph
Penske Porsche #7 (Dumas): 170.7 mph/274.7 kph
Dyson Porsche #20 (Franchitti): 169.9 mph/273.4 kph
de Ferran Acura #66 (Pagenaud): 169.7 mph/273.1 kph
Autocon Creation #12 (N/A): 168.7 mph/271.5 kph
Corvette #4 (Gavin): 167.9 mph/270.2 kph
Dyson Porsche #16 (Dyson): 167.3 mph/269.2 kph
Bell Aston Martin #008 (N/A): 162.3 mph/261.2 kph
Risi Ferrari #62 (Melo): 160.1 mph/257.7 kph
Tafel Ferrari #71 (Mueller): 159.5 mph/257.7 kph
Flying Lizard Porsche #45 (N/A): 158.7 mph/255.4 kph
Panoz #21 (N/A): 157.4 mph/253.3 kph
Farnbacher Porsche #87 (N/A): 157.4 mph/ kph
Black Swan Ford # 54 (N/A): 156.4 mph/251.7 kph
Turn 13, pre-Qualifying Practice Session (corner apex):
Audi #1 (Fassler): 124.2 mph/199.8 kph
Mazda #8 (Devlin): 120.4 mph/193.7 kph
Penske Porsche #7 (Dumas): 118.7 mph/191 kph
Penske Porsche #6 (Maassen): 118.0 mph/189.9 kph
Dyson Porsche #16 (Smith): 117.2 mph/188.6 kph
AGR Acura #26 (Rossiter): 116.2 mph/187 kph
Corvette #4 (Gavin): 97.7 mph/156.4 kph
Panoz #21 (N/A): 92.4 mph/147.7 kph
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