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American LeMans
ALMS: Pruett’s Sebring Pre-Race Notebook
Pacey Pugs, Meyrick's Meteoric Rise, Qualifying Radars, J.R.'s Leap of Faith Pays Off and Bring RSRJaguar a Cold One.
Marshall Pruett  |  Posted March 19, 2010   Sebring, FL
Andy Meyrick is all smiles at Dyson Racing. (Marshall Pruett)
Pacey Pugs

If you were expecting to see impressive displays of speed from the Peugeot camp this week, like many of us at the track, you'll remain disappointed.

More than one of the team's drivers has admitted their goal for the event is to shadow the times set by Aston Martin and the Drayson Lola-Judd, effectively driving to produce lap times based on what they see their competition is posting on the timing and scoring monitors.
As we saw in qualifying, Peugeot still has the legs on the competition in a straight line, but when it comes to overall lap times, the French team is carefully managing the gap to the non-diesels. (Marshall Pruett)

Despite sharing the same nationality with the French ACO organization, Peugeot has never enjoyed an advantageous relationship with the Le Mans rules makers. With the ACO coming up with what they hope will be the strongest step yet to create parity between the diesels and the petrol brigade, Peugeot Sport does not want to tip their hands by setting lap times at Sebring that would reveal the existence of the still sizeable performance advantage the oil-burners possess.

With Audi setting sub-1:44 lap times in private testing using 2010-spec air restrictors, the German team watched SPEEDtv.com's Live Streaming Qualifying today from their compound in the Homestead-Miami paddock, and noted that the 908s looked to be dragging rather large anchors behind them. The general feeling was that in head-to-head competition, the Peugeot's would have produced their own laps in the 1:43 range if they had R15s to compete with.

The proper diesel duel at Le Mans can't get here soon enough.

Meyrick's Meteoric Rise

Following the list of famous Britons who have driven for Dyson Racing -- James Weaver...1988 Le Mans winner Andy Wallace...2003 Le Mans winner Guy Smith...and Petit Le Mans winner Marino Franchitti -- would be a daunting task for any young driver, but spend a few minutes with the team's newest recruit, England's Andy Meyrick, and it's hard not to imagine the 24-year-old making a name for himself with the Poughkeepsie, NY-based team.
Andy Meyrick is all smiles at Dyson Racing. (Marshall Pruett)

After downsizing from one car to two for 2010, Dyson Racing's LMP2-class Lola-Mazda program underwent a thorough reshuffling over winter, switching from Michelin tires to Dunlops, reverting back to its 2008 engineering structure, and making a change in its third driver position -- one previously held by the likes of Andy Lally and Ben Devlin.

With Meyrick now slotted into that third seat for the long race in 2010, starting with tomorrow's 12 hours of Sebring, the Welshman will add another chapter to a career that's been on the fast track since he came to prominence in the British F3 series.

As a member of the Kolles Audi R10 LMS program in 2009, Meyrick's education in sportscars grew quickly as he learned to tame the brutal torque offered by the twin-turbo V12 diesel engine. In a study of wild contrasts, Meyrick has traded in the biggest, heaviest and most powerful engine in the series for Dyson's 4-cylinder turbo Mazda powerplant, the small, light, yet incredibly stout mill built by AER.

With a unique insight into the driving requirements of both cars, Meyrick says adapting to the nimble Lola-Mazda combo came easily.

"I don't think it's too difficult to adjust. I've only been racing for five years, actually, but I've actually driven lots and lots of different types of cars. Last week I went from driving the Oreca AIM-engined LMP1 car on Sunday and Monday to driving on Wednesday a 1982 F1 car, an Arrows A5, the only one in the world, which has got a an H-pattern gearbox, then flying here to drive the Mazda. So, of course, there's the little finite differences that you make. But it kind of comes naturally, to be honest, you don't have to really concentrate. It depends on the conditions, what grip level you've got that day and what chassis settings you got, obviously, so it's not something I consciously have to think about before I get into car. It usually just happens naturally."

Comparing the driving sensations between the hefty Audi R10 and the svelte Lola-Mazda, Meyrick says the two have very little in common from the driver's seat.
After wielding the brute power and heft of the Audi R10 with great skill in the LMS, Meyrick is bringing his talents to the lighter and more nimble Lola-Mazda LMP2 car. (LAT)

"There are indeed a lot of differences in both in the engine in the chassis of the LMP1 R10 when it comes to the driving. With the R10 you tend to go into a corner, turn it, stop it and go and really make use of that torque. You've got to be in a straight line before you put the power down, basically, otherwise you’re ripping up rear tires in no time. But obviously with the little Lola with the little Mazda engine, still kicking out a lot of power, you really carry the minimum speeds through the corners. you don't have to park it like the R10, and that's beautiful. The chassis is fantastic. The first time I drove it was December last year and I was just amazed at how much minimum corner speeds you could carry in the slow speed stuff. The Mazda, for the size of it, is a fantastic engine."

Joining Dyson Racing has been a highly positive experience for Meyrick so far, and his appreciation for the team's tenure and success in the sport made joining the family-run outfit an easy one. Sharing the car with one of his closest friends, Guy Smith, sealed the deal, he says.

"I was certainly aware of [Dyson Racing's] heritage. The first time I met Chris and Rob was at Atlanta last year. I went there to watch, was looking around to see what drivers were available and by chance we met them at the back of the awning and I felt really comfortable. I love the way they go racing. I love the way the racing is so important to them and the family atmosphere that they bring, obviously, it's a family team, that sort of filters down towards the mechanics that work here. It's a privilege to drive for the team. It really is a privilege. Fitting in has been really good because obviously we've got a lot of English faces around here. We’ve done a lot. Me and Smithy get on like a house on fire. We live very close to each other back in the UK, we try to get together, we train together, we travel together all the time. So it's a really good atmosphere. We’ve obviously got an English engineer so they’ve welcomed me with open arms and it's been really nice. It feels like I’m part of the family already."

If Meyrick's transition to driving an LMP2 Lola-Mazda has gone smoothly, adjusting to the physical demands of the bumpy 3.7-mile Sebring track has inspired him to ramp up his training regimen even more. As Meyrick soon found out, the smooth tracks he's raced on in Europe couldn't prepare him for the demands of twelve hours of racing this Saturday.

"I don't know if my young body can keep up with this!" he said with a smile. "Obviously, physically, you've got to be in top shape. I feel like I’m in the best shape of my life. It's such a draining event both mentally because you're here for so long obviously, and physically because the race is tough. But from the car's point of view, the cars under go a complete rebuild prior to this week and then during the week you’re changing things because you want to start the car as fresh as you can because it's not the longest race. I mean, obviously, you've got Le Mans which is much longer, but I think man and machine, it’s probably tougher; hence, why people come here to test things for Le Mans, because you can't race at Le Mans circuit or test at the Le Mans circuit. This place is so, so tough. You really do have to ensure that all your package, the motor, chassis and the gearbox is fresh for the race. and the drivers, too!"
For Meyrick, the sky's the limit with the ALMS opportunity in front of him. (Marshall Pruett)

Looking back at an amazingly short career -- one that has seen him move from racing in junior formula car series to driving as a member of a factory sport scar program in just five years -- Meyrick is clearly appreciative of the opportunities his been given to further his career.

"It has been pretty quick. I think I’ve still done less than 60 total races and now I'm racing in both LMP1 and LMP2. I've been fortunate. I love to drive. I mean, I got to as far as I could from budget constraints in single-seaters as I did in F3. I was leading the championship before I got ill and had to finish the season in that. So as I moved across to sportscars, and I love the challenge they present to me. Technically, you’ve got to be switched on, you’ve got to be a team player, which as a young guy you've got to be mature to work with other team members. You've got to be happy that sometimes you don't have to be the quickest so you don't go out there with the mentality to be the quickest. It is a team. Your mentality changes and switches: when you're in single-seaters, it's all about being the quickest. You want to be as quick as you can.

"But now the approach changes to: I don’t want to be the weakest link on this team, I've got fantastic teammates and a fantastic team around me. I want to contribute as much as anyone else on this team. As far as my career progression, as anyone will tell you up and down the pit lane, I'm just enjoying what I'm doing. It's such an opportunity for me to be here in America racing with this team. I just hope I can keep going forward and keep pushing and hopefully we can have a long future together.

Qualifying Radars
BMW topped the GT2 speeds during qualifying, but a failed stall test saw the loss of their pole position. (Marshall Pruett)

Marc Gene, polesitter for Peugeot tomorrow, attempted to launch a comedy career during the post-qualifying press conference when he stated that with the new 2010 LMP1 equivalency rules, his Peugeot was no faster than the Aston Martin or the Lola-Judd on the straights, and would be unable to overtake them.

Our radar gun, aimed at the turn 1 bridge during qualifying, delivered data that doesn't exactly mesh with Marc's read on the situation.

It's interesting to note that P2 pole qualifier Marino Franchitti's HPD car was the slowest of the three cars in its class into turn 1, yet grabbed the pole. A low downforce setup at Sebring isn't the quick way around. Conversely, Genoa's big top speed in LMPC left them third.

For all of the problems the RSRJaguar team has been having this week, and despite all of the extra weight the car is currently carrying, the Jag's rumbling V8 engine is producing plenty of ponies.

Team, Car No., Speed (MPH), Class

Peugeot 07 154.2 P1
Peugeot 08 153 P1
Aston Martin 007 148.8 P1
Autocon 12 148 P1
Drayson 8 147.4 P1
Mazda 16 139.9 P2
Cytosport 6 138.6 P2
Genoa 36 137.8 PC
Highcroft 1 137.2 P2
Level 5 95 136.4 PC
BMW 90 136 GT2
RSRJaguar 75 135.9 GT2
Level 5 55 135.7 PC
ESM 01 135.4 GT2
BMW 92 135.2 GT2
Risi 62 134.7 GT2
Corvette 3 134.1 GT2
Gunnar 99 134 PC
Intersport 89 133.1 PC
Flying Lizard 45 133.1 GT2
Corvette 4 132.7 GT2
Robertson 40 131.9 GT2
Falken 17 131.4 GT2
Risi 62 129.7 GT2
Flying Lizard 44 129.5 GT2

J.R.'s Leap of Faith Pays Off

You're sitting home on a Friday night. Next, you get a call telling you to book a flight and head to Sebring for the upcoming 12-hour race, so you check your bank account, see that you have just enough to afford it, book the flight, and then hop on a plane.
J.R. Hildebrand chats with fellow open-wheel ladder graduate, Simon Pagenaud. (John Dagys)

Granted, during that call, you were never promised an opportunity to drive, much less race in the event. That part of the invite never materialized, but on faith, and to the detriment of your ATM card, you head to Sebring and hope you'll do more than stand around and watch as everyone puts on a helmet and suit and gets to race.

If you're 2009 Indy Lights champion J.R. Hildebrand, taking that leap of faith paid off nicely.

Hildebrand, who logged all of 15 laps in the #36 Genoa Racing LMPC machine during the ALMS Winter Test last month, was initially slated to join 1988 Le Mans winner Andy Wallace and a third driver for the 12 Hours of Sebring, but those plans soon went completely awry.

With some grey areas in exactly how a driver is classified as a professional or as a gentleman, the LMPC rules stating that two pros are not allowed to drive the same car initially found Hildebrand on the outside looking in for Sebring.

Scot Elkins, head of IMSA, the governance and technical arm of the ALMS, changed his stance in regards to Hildebrand after it was noted that while J.R. had won the Indy Lights championship, it was a top-tier training series -- the equivalent to winning a title in college sports -- and one that was still an amateur environment. Elkins agreed and changed his stance on categorizing Hildebrand as a pro.

As soon as Genoa Racing team manager Thomas Knapp learned Hildebrand was back in play, he reached out to the 22-year-old late last week and got him moving from California towards Florida. Knapp had seen Hildebrand's talent firsthand in open-wheel racing and saw how quickly he adapted to the LMPC car during the Winter Test, figuring the budding open-wheel star would fit nicely into his team's 12-hour driving rotation.

"Well, I've known Thomas [Knapp] now for a long time. I tested in Atlantics with him a couple years back, driven some vintage cars for him and Larry Connor who was also part of the program here. So we've just been keeping in touch. It was kind of on and off and on and off and on and off, and I got a call a couple days ago to come back out. I'm really excited to be here, it's an awesome group of guys. Running with Tom Sutherland and Andy Wallace is a treat as well."

After being thrown into the car at the end of the Wednesday test session, Hildebrand jumped to the top of the LMPC time sheets. He posted the third fastest lap in qualifying on Friday, .3 behind IndyCar driver Ryan Hunter-Reay, but the #36 car was sent to the back of the grid after coming in slightly underweight in post-qualifying technical inspection. Despite the setback, Hildebrand kidded that he is now more confident the team will keep him around on Saturday...

"I feel like I'm still waiting around for somebody to come in and replace me because I haven't really gotten the official word that I'm actually going to drive the car in the race! But I'm still here and they keep putting me in the car...so I figure that's a good sign!"

Hildebrand says working with sportscar legend Andy Wallace, also a former junior open-wheel series champion (1986 British F3), has given him a great resource to draw from for his maiden ALMS race.

"Running with Andy is really cool. He’s a great guy, really easy to get along with, great sense of humor. He’ll be the first guy to try to help us younger folk to figure out our way around the track. Anytime that I've got any questions or things come up on the data he's the first one to poke fun at you but then he’ll also be the first one to help you out. He’s just a really great guy to be around, he makes the atmosphere within the team really good as well. Tom Sutherland's like me, he's a couple years younger than me, I've been racing against him for the last two years before we kind of went our separate ways but we've always gotten along really well. The whole chemistry within the team is really good. The program should run well on Saturday."
Hildebrand has made the most of his time with Genoa Racing, leading the time sheets on Wednesday and featuring towards the top in the subsequent sessions. (Marshall Pruett)

Although Hildebrand has built his reputation in open-wheel racing, his background includes driving a wide variety of machinery -- from vintage cars to testing for the Force India F1 team late last year. If his pace in Genoa's LMPC car has surprised anyone, he hopes to prove his versatility by helping Genoa to achieve their goals of a top finish in the race.

"Until the test here I had never really run on the full circuit at Sebring so there’s still some places on the track that I'm kind of getting a handle on. The other thing I think that’s different about this race and this week going into the weekend is that because the cars are on track so much, the track changes a lot more than it would on your basic race weekend. The track is rubbering a lot and that's what’s definitely affecting what we're doing with the car and kind of our approach of how to get around that. But finding speed is something that I'm used to having to do. So I think, probably for me, a big part of being successful this weekend is to be prepared for my first endurance race. I don't really think about it that much but this will be, by far, the longest I'll be in a race car at one time and pit stops and all that stuff. I would say that's a big a part of my focus at this point."

While he still has his eye on IndyCars, Hildebrand says he isn't fixed on staying in open-wheel. With his first taste of endurance racing this week, a career in sportscars is something he wouldn't turn down.

"I think it's great. I grew up around vintage racing because my dad had a vintage Trans Am car so I was always out there watching the Can Am races and the IMSA GTP races, all that kind of stuff. Even as a little kid, I always thought that the 12 Hours of Sebring, Petit Le Mans, running the Daytona 24, running Le Mans, those kinds of races were just as cool as anything else. It's definitely something I’d like to be able to stay involved in. And I think the thing that's cool about even just being in practice out here, but for sure in the race, is that in most series these days, any Formula, whether it be even stock cars to open wheel, you get on a road course and once you get out of go-karts there’s not really much racing that goes on. Oval racing for us, obviously, is a little bit of a different thing but there's not a lot of passing that happens. The cars are very sensitive to running close to other cars and stuff like that. Then you get out here and you can't help but have five passes a lap. As a driver, it just makes you smile and you can't wait for the next turn. doing it with teammates, an entire crew, with driver changes, pit stops, racing at night...this is everything I thought it would be."

Bring RSRJaguar a Cold One
The RSRJaguar crew haven't given up, despite a laundry list of issues needing to be overcome. A finish on Saturday would be well deserved, along with a few days of uninterrupted sleep. (Marshall Pruett)

The poor guys at Paul Gentilozzi's RSR Jaguar team have had a hellish week so far, with a full compliment of leaks, shortened sessions and a major engine detonation on Thursday.

The Jag's V8 motor expired so violently, the team was unable to remove the engine from under the hood by simply unbolting it. The driveshaft, I'm told, married the engine, and the RSR crew were forced to use Sawz-alls to cut through the bellhousing to sever the driveshaft and free the ventilated V8 from the engine bay.

The RSRJaguar crew members are some the hardest working mechanics in the paddock, and if you happen to be in Sebring and can spare a few cold ones, they could certianly use a drink right about now...

MISC

• Lucas Luhr spent time visiting friends at Porsche and at Flying Lizards today. Would somebody please hire that man to drive in the ALMS?

• Buddy Fey, author of the definitive racing data acquisition book, is back engineering once again, working with the good folks at Velox Motorsports.

• Toni Calderon, former PR man for the Jerry Forsythe's ChampCar team, is looking after the Spanish-speaking media aspects of the #80 Alex Job GTC entry driven by 2009 LMP2 co-champion Luis Diaz and Ricardo Gonzalez.

• David Empringham, former Atlantic Series and Indy Lights champion, is also at Sebring. Emp, one of the great talents never to get the IndyCar drive he deserved, would be a brilliant addition to any team's entry in the various ALMS classes. A winner in the Continental Tire Series, the Canadian is well versed in endurance racing. He's also been driving one of the fastest and wildest GT cars in North America of late, a zillion-horsepower all-wheel drive Mitsubishi Evo built and run by Sierra Sierra, the former Atlantic Series team. Emp and Sierra Sierra run the car in the Redline Time Attack series under the 'Unlimited AWD' rules set, which, in essence, means there are no rules. With its weight somewhere below 2500 pounds, everything that attaches to the shell made out of carbon fiber, a flat bottom and crazy aerodynamics, and with a Cosworth-built engine churning out 700-horsepower, anything else he drives will likely feel tame. Am I the only one who thinks he'd be a perfect driver to fill Ron Fellows' shoes at Corvette Racing?

• Dale Coyne appeared on Sebring's pit lane during qualifying. He seems to be everywhere these days.

• Tom Kristensen, Mr. Le Mans, emailed to say he was hoping to come up to Sebring to watch the race, but as he's still on crutches after tearing his Achilles tendon, he wasn't sure how well he'd get around. I offered him the use of a golf cart...keep an eye out for the Great Dane whizzing by at breakneck speeds...

• 1999 Indy Racing League champion, Greg Ray, could possibly make his return to racing if a new sponsor delivers as promised. With his longtime former engineer Thomas Knapp running Genoa Racing's LMPC program, it wouldn't take much to imagine where GRay would end up.

• Sarah Durose, the ace PR rep for Aston Martin Lagonda/Aston Martin Racing, will be handing her post over to Kim Palmer in April when she moves from the UK to California to head AML's road car public relations efforts. Palmer has been learning to adapt to Durose's frenetic pace since landing on Wednesday. He'll do a fine job in the new role, and Sarah will certainly be missed by everyone in the ALMS paddock.

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