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Written by:
Marshall Pruett
05/15/2008 - 10:54 PM
Tooele, Utah
Dyson Racing team members tend to the final bits of car prep for the start of official practice on Friday. (Photo: Marshall Pruett) » More Photos
Engines were silent today at Miller Motorsports Park. With a packed schedule of activity Friday through Sunday, a day like today serves as the final opportunity for teams to enjoy a relaxed schedule and to finish last minute tasks.
And despite the lack of roaring American Le Mans motors, the paddock was alive with intrigue, technical insights, and nefarious rumors.
Newest ALMS Driver Joined the Grid on Monday.
Congratulations from SPEEDtv.com to Adrian and Catalina Fernandez, proud parents of son Nico born Monday. Let’s hope to see him join his dad in an Acura ARX-01Z in eighteen years.
The Hardest Working Title in Sportscar Racing?
Curious as to the official name of the ALMS race this weekend?
How about the: “American Le Mans Series Larry H. Miller Dealerships Utah Grand Prix presented by The Grand and Little America Hotels at Miller Motorsports Park.”
Yep, 23 words of race title goodness. What’s the over/under on it growing to 25 words in 2009?
LG’s Svelte ‘Vette Sports New Grip
LG Motorsports rolled their Corvette C6 off the trailer on Thursday, and while it looked no different from the outside, barring the new Dunlop-shod BBS wheel (replacing the Kuhmo tires they used in the first three rounds), the bellowing beast spent the last month enrolled at Jenny Craig.
Lightening the front end of the LG Motorsports Corvette C6 was the #1 priority for the team between races. a 25kg weight reduction by IMSA has also helped bring the car closer to its fighting weight. (Photo: Marshall Pruett) » More Photos
“It was delivered to us more than 200 lbs overweight,” LG owner/driver Lou Gigliotti shared. “Utah will be the first race for the car where the weight will match the restrictors. We took a ton of weight off [between Long Beach and Utah].
Absent from the car this weekend will be Lou’s teammate Doug Peterson, but his eventual return is something we’ll look forward to. A young driver named ‘TBD’ is listed as his stand-in.
Will Utah be the American Le Mans Series’ Fastest Track? Not So Much, According to Audi.
“We expect the much faster here on the short course, but our data tells us not to expect to have a higher average lap speed than we do at Road America,” Audi’s Technical Director Brad Kettler told me.
The Series is racing this weekend on Miller Motorsports Park’s outer course, just 3.08 miles long and 15 turns, compared to the 24 turn, 4.49 mile long configuration used in 2007. The ‘outer loop’ track layout has forced teams like Audi to alter their chassis setup to suit the shorter but more flowing track. “You’d think we’d be tuning for more top speed to maximize our performance on a circuit we know will have more high speed sections, but we know from running simulations that the fastest lap times will come from a car that more downforce than less downforce.
“Some teams choose to do it the other way—to go for low downforce to increase their terminal velocity, and that might be good for them for their cars, but as we’ve seen, we’d rather sacrifice some straight line speed to be faster in the corners.”
Although Audi’s R10’s will be carrying additional downforce, Kettler still expects a rise in top speeds. “I won’t be surprised to see LMP1 top speeds creep up by five to eight miles per hour. The cars
Why are the GT1 Corvette’s Left to Play by Themselves Again?
The answer to that question is simply too long for a trackside report. Look for a rather shocking interview with Aston Martin GT1 team owner Jim Bell in the next few days. It tells the real story as to why they’ve now missed two events in a row after their massive crash at St. Pete.
The new dash of blue on the Corvette's engine cover is the only change to the GT1 category this weekend. Absent again is the Bell Motorsport Aston Martin, but as we'll share on Saturday, it isn't their fault. (Photo: Marshall Pruett) » More Photos
The details behind their absence provides more twists and turns than a Guy Ritchie movie (except the one that his wife starred in. That was horrible and anything but predictable. No more directing your wife, Mr. Madonna's husband.)
22.5
I read the following track fact from Michelin’s ‘The Alley’ newspaper today:
22.5 is the difference in seconds of the lap pole times on the 24-turn, 4.486-mile Miller Motorsports Park track for the ALMS race versus the Grand-Am race in 2007. ALMS’s Timo Bernhard set the pole with a lap time of 2:18.128 (116.918mph) while Grand-Am’s Scott Pruett’s time was 2:40.584 (100.569mph).
Channeling my best Homer Simpson voice, all I can say is “DOH!”
Porsche to LMP1?
“No,” a Porsche official told me today. “In the past the politically correct answer was to say ‘no,’ but it was being evaluated as an option. It has changed to a definite, official ‘no’ recently. With our customer cars sales with the RS Spyder, we’re achieving everything we need to in terms of goals.”
Rumors and Scurrilous Scuttle:
Will White Lightning be striking again in 2009? I’ve heard a steady stream of rumors regarding Dale White and his White Lightning team returning in 2009. After securing numerous ALMS GT2 championships and Le Mans victories, a White Lightning entry in GT2 would only make sense. But a GT program isn’t what I’ve been hearing about, though. According to my sources, the focus has been on securing funding to run an LMP1 program.
White’s operations have been first class efforts in the past, and provided they do make the jump to P1 next year, I think they’d be exceptionally competitive.
"Let's see, wallet, car keys, glasses,...it seems like I'm still missing something." Did Gil de Ferran really actually to apply for a new racing license after a 5-year layoff? That's the rumor in the paddock today. (Photo: Marshall Pruett) » More Photos
Road America. That’s the event people in the know predict Forsythe Championship Racing will make their ALMS debut. Now as to whether they actually have a car and team in place to do this is an altogether different proposition.
Was Gil de Ferran without a racing license up until yesterday? This rumor was wholly unconfirmed, but I heard from a another man in the know that in Gil’s amazing thrash to assemble an ALMS team in such a short time span, less tangible details like applying for a new racing license would be an excusable omission…he hasn’t raced since 2003 after all…
Check back tomorrow for reports on Audi’s chemistry experiment, how the Farnbacher-Loles team has their personnel spread across two states and two tracks this weekend, how to tune a twin-turbo diesel to perform at high altitude tracks like Miller, and a look inside the relatively unknown Vici Racing team.
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