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ALMS: Sebring Tuesday Notebook
Intersport withdraws Lola following Monday’s horrific crash, Ferrari F430 ‘Evoluzione’, Joao Barbosa’s GT2 Adventure, Entry News & More!
John Dagys  |  Posted March 16, 2010   Sebring, FL
ALMS teams lined up Tuesday evening for the Series' annual group photo. (John Dagys)
Intersport Withdraws Lola P1 Entry

It came as no huge surprise to see Intersport Racing withdraw its entry for Saturday’s season-opener following Jon Field’s horrific testing crash on Monday. The team’s Lola B06/10 AER was destroyed in the single-car accident, which sent the veteran Ohio driver to the local hospital for observation. He was later released with no serious injuries.

The team has now determined the high-speed crash was caused by right-rear suspension failure, and wing failure as originally reported.

“First and foremost, we are relieved that Jon was able to walk away from the wreck without injury,” team manager Brian Alder said. “It is a tribute to IMSA safety regulations and the construction of the Lola to see our driver walk away from such a horrific crash.”
The remains of Intersport's Lola B06/10 AER from Monday's accident. (Rick Dole)

“With Jon on the mend, we will channel our focus for the Twelve Hours to the team’s LMPC car. We will also be busy with our Cooper Tires Prototype Lites entries. We’re very confident and enthusiastic about the team’s competitiveness in those programs.”

Intersport had a spare chassis available but it was back at their Dublin, Ohio shop. While there’s conceivably enough time to retrieve and prepare it in time for the race, it would have likely come at a sacrifice to its customer LMPC and Prototype Lites programs.

With neither Jon or son Clint Field starting Saturday’s race, it will mark the end of an era for the Series’ most successful privateer team. Jon had started every Sebring race since 1997. However, Intersport will still have its LMPC car for Mitch Pagerey, Brian Wong and David Ducote.

The team intends to return to full capacity at next month’s Grand Prix of Long Beach.

Check out SPEEDtv.com's Tuesday Sebring Photo Gallery Here.

F430 ‘Evoluzione’

After a hard-fought 2009 season which brought wins in the three endurance racing classics, Risi Competizione returns to the highly competitive GT2 category this year with its familiar Ferrari F430. While the Prancing Horse may appear relatively unchanged at first glance, it has received a significant makeover under the hood for 2010, enough so to now be called a F430 GTE.

Essentially four aspects of the car - weight, air restrictor, tires and aerodynamics - have evolved from last year’s model. The GTE now weighs in at 1245 kg, a 100 kg (or 220-pound) increase. In doing so, the car is now allowed to run a larger air restrictor, translating roughly to a 9 percent power increase. Larger tires, 3 cm wider in both the front and rear, subsequently required revised bodywork to accommodate the wider tires.

These wholesale changes bring the F430 in line with its competition. Not only does the Ferrari now fall into the same weight class as the Porsche 911 GT3 RSR, BMW M3 and Corvette C6.R, all four cars share the same sized tires, too.
Risi’s two pre-season tests at Sebring were the team’s first tests in nearly two years. The Houston-based squad did not spend a single day testing in 2009. (John Dagys)

“If you look at the percentages, it works out in our favor because you get bigger tires, bigger restrictor, more weight but the percentage gained in the weight is really less than the two factors combined,” said Risi Competizione Technical Director Rick Mayer. “So it’s definitely a better direction. But it took Ferrari quite a while to get there.”

After a season that saw the lighter, but less powerful F430 get blown away on the long straights of circuits such as Le Mans and Road America, Mayer knew measures had to be taken to improve the car’s top speed. Risi had been in fact lobbying for this evolution for quite some time, but Ferrari’s performance model indicated the lighter car would still be quicker.

Ferrari’s model indeed turned out to be flawed, as the first Michelotto-built F430 Evo won in its FIA GT debut last October at Paul Ricard and proved the added straight-line speed and increased tire contact patch compensated for the extra weight. Back Stateside, Risi meanwhile evaluated many of the 2010 developments, including the new aerodynamic package, on its own car and came to the same conclusion.

Now equipped on all 2010-spec Ferraris, including the two new Extreme Speed Motorsports examples, the GTE could turn out to be the most significant development in the car’s five-year history.

“It will be interesting to see how it works,” Mayer said. “I’d expect we could get 5-6 kph more on a long track. Our biggest issue last year was lack of power and the fact that we couldn’t pass anybody. I don’t know that we’ll be ahead of anybody in terms of speed, but we certainly won’t be getting walked on. We picked up some mid-corner grip with the bigger tires and some top-speed with the restrictor. So there really hasn’t been a downside to this change.”
Rear fender flares are among the aerodynamic changes to the 2010-spec Ferrari F430 GTE. (John Dagys)

While Risi has only had four days of testing with the new package, its pilots Jamie Melo and Gimmi Bruni, both factory development drivers, have racked up many more days of testing in Europe. For Melo, the changes were evident from the moment he stepped into the car for the first time.

“The car is pretty much the same as in 2009 with just more power and overall grip, which comes from the wider tires,” he said. “It’s a car we know so well so but we are finding ways to improve all the time. We have better balance now, using last year’s aerodynamic package, and maybe consistency of the tires, so there’s a bit more range to work with. Now we just need to enjoy the last year of the F430.”

This latest round of developments to the F430 will almost certainly be the car’s last, too, as the model is scheduled to be replaced by the all-new F458 Italia for next year. The newest-generation mid-engined Ferrari supercar will mark a new beginning in more ways than one.

“The 458 is basically the first new clean-sheet [design] since the 360,” Mayer said. “The 458 really doesn’t retain any of the components of the 430. The gearboxes are going to be different, all of the rims, the bodywork and all of our spares. This massive stock and database we’ve come to rely on will all change for next year. It’s going to be a huge financial undertaking.”

But for now, the focus is on 2010, and recapturing the GT2 title for the iconic Italian brand.

Marshall Pruett's Tuesday Paddock Notes:

• Butch Leitzinger spent Tuesday piloting his Alex Job Racing Porsche GTC car wearing "the only firesuit I have that meets the latest safety regulations." The suit, one he wore in January at a certain classic 24-hour race, might need a few pieces of strategically placed duct tape over some logos and series branding before official practice gets under way...

• I received calls from different members of the Audi camp today as the 2009 Sebring winners continue to conduct aero testing at the Homestead-Miami circuit. More than a few folks from the 4-rings are missing being at Sebring, and were also very curious to know how the various prototype teams were getting on.

While it's impossible to compare tack conditions, ambient temperatures, the exact specification of the cars, (and whether Peugeot is heavily sandbagging), but it's worth noting that the fast time set by Peugeot on Tuesday of 1:46.2 was well off the 1:43.8 set by Audi in private testing six weeks ago.
Burke Harrison, left, looks over some data with a member of the RSR crew. (Marshall Pruett)

• Burke Harrison, best known for engineering the likes of Jon Fogarty, AJ Allmendinger, Ryan Dalziel, and most recently, Simona De Silvestro in the Atlantic Championship, was a last minute call-up to join Paul Gentilozzi's RSR Jaguar engineering team. With Gentilozzi making no secret of his desire to add a second Jag to their program, Harrison is spending the weekend getting a feel for the car and its particular 'go fast' needs.

• The new 2011 Aston Martin LMP1 prototype is coming along nicely, I'm told, and is currently in the middle of its design process. While Aston Martin Racing (nee Prodrive) have added the ability to produce a complete chassis in-house, there is still some debate as to whether their first bespoke prototype will be fully produced by the George Howard-Chappell-led team, or if major components like the tub will be farmed out for production. The team brought their second AMR-Lola to Sebring, electing to leave the car Harold Primat crashed during the ALMS Winter Test back home to be prepared for the upcoming LMS opener at Paul Ricard.

• With just one American amongst Corvette Racing's two-car squad, the team is said to bee looking to get younger and more patriotic. While none of the team's current drivers are lacking anything in terms of pace or ability, possible candidates for the 24 Hours of Le Mans will be tested next week, with Pontiac GRAND-AM Rolex GT champion Paul Edwards, former Cadillac LMP driver Butch Leitzinger, and the biggest surprise of all, IndyCar star Graham Rahal, being invited to sample the awesome C6R.GTs at Sebring after Saturday's race.

• Level 5's Ryan Hunter-Reay is enjoying one of the busiest times of his career. Coming off of a storming drive at the Brazilian IndyCar season opener on Sunday, RHR heads into his third consecutive weekend of racing -- and all in different series. After driving with Scott Tucker at the Homestead-Miami Rolex Series race on March 7th, Hunter-Reay was on a flight to Sao Paulo three days later to make his debut with the Andretti Autosport team. Driving his IZOD-sponsored Dallara-Honda, RHR led convincingly, only to cede the lead to a Team Penske's will Power in the dying moments of the race. His return flight from Brazil led him on a journey straight to Sebring where he's now practicing for the 12 Hours of Sebring on Saturday in Level 5's LMPC machine.

For a driver pointed in so many directions, Hunter-Reay said it's a welcome change. "I don't mind being busy. It's not that way for a lot of [drivers] right now. Brazil was great -- I got to race hard and to do what I love. Finishing second was a tough pill to swallow, but it shows you the kind of competition the series has. And now it's time to go racing here at Sebring. It never lets up, and it never gets easy!"

Joao Barbosa’s GT2 Adventure

When Extreme Speed Motorsports announced its complete driver lineup for Sebring and Petit Le Mans, Joao Barbosa was a pleasant surprise to the Scott Sharp-owned Ferrari GT2 team. Fresh off the overall win in the Rolex 24 at Daytona in January, many people don’t remember the Portuguese driver during his early years in sportscar racing.

While he’s competed full-time in Daytona Prototypes for the last two seasons, Barbosa cut his teeth in the GT ranks, driving for a variety of manufacturers and teams. Following his stint in Atlantics, Barbosa began a long and fruitful partnership with Mosler, where he became the manufacturers’ lead driver for its MT900R program.
Joao Barbosa has been getting up to speed in ESM's Ferrari. (John Dagys)

His relationship with the small Florida-based constructor opened up new opportunities in Europe and America, with drives for Mosler customers Perspective Racing and Rollcentre Racing. A class win at the Rolex 24 in 2003 helped push Barbosa to the next level, with a move up to prototypes with Rollcentre, but still was a frequent competitor at the wheel of Moslers, Saleens and Maseratis.

Despite his new-found glory in prototype racing, it comes as no surprise Barbosa has returned to his GT roots this weekend, piloting the No. 02 ESM Ferrari F430 GTE. And as he quickly found out after the ALMS Sebring Winter Test last month, the mid-engined Ferrari has its own unique characteristics.

“These cars take some time to get used to, even compared to the Daytona Prototype,” Barbosa said. “I initially thought the Ferrari would be closer to a DP, but it’s really tough to make comparisons. It’s a true GT car that requires a very different driving style. I’m not as used to the GT experience, so the two days of testing came in handy for me and I’m confident of getting back up to speed for the race.”

Barbosa will be making his fourth start at Sebring this weekend, his first since 2005 when piloting Rollcentre’s Dallara-Judd. With it also being Extreme Speed’s race debut, Barbosa understands the challenges of a start-up team, especially fitting into an already competitive category.

“Everybody is working very nicely together,” he said. “It’s hard to set up a brand-new team, but they have some really experienced guys here. The biggest thing is taking time to get used to the car. It’s new for most of us. But I think we’ve already learned a lot with testing and we should be in good shape for the race.”

Entry List Updates

• Stefan Mucke was a late addition to Aston Martin Racing’s lineup, replacing Chris Buncombe, who has missed the last two scheduled tests for the factory British squad. The car has also been renumbered to No. 007 and sports a different chassis than it ran at the Sebring Winter Test last month.

• Primetime-Braille Battery Race Group has added Tom Weickardt to its driver lineup this weekend. Weickardt, who previously campaigned Dodge Vipers in the Series under the American Viper Racing and Carsport America banners, joins team owner Joel Feinberg and 20-year-old Kyle Marcelli in the team’s Oreca FLM09 LMPC car.

News & Notes


• The No. 36 Genoa Racing Oreca FLM09 was not on track Tuesday following a testing crash that occurred on Monday. Tom Sutherland was at the wheel of the red LMPC machine when the car hit the guardrail in Turn 7. Sutherland was uninjured, but the car sustained tub damage. The team expects the car to be ready, better than ever, by Wednesday morning’s practice. Sutherland will be joined by Andy Wallace and 2009 Indy Lights champion JR Hildebrand.

There was initial concern that the combination of Wallace and Hildebrand would not be accepted in the Challenge category per the Pro-Am rules, but IMSA’s VP of Operations, Scot Elkins, told me that Hildebrand is not classified as a ‘Pro’ driver. Despite winning the Indy Lights championship last year, he has yet to drive in a professional series. Elkins compared it to Joel Feinberg’s situation. Feinberg, the reigning IMSA Prototype Lights champion, is also considered a non-professional having achieved success in a development series.
While Dyson is the first team to use Isobutanol, Scot Elkins told me there's two other manufacturers taking a serious look at the cutting-edge fuel. (John Dagys)

• Following IMSA’s confirmation last week that biobutanol (now called ‘Isobutanol’) has become an approved fuel for LMP cars, Dyson Racing officially announced Tuesday that its Mazda-powered Lola B09/86 will run the advanced fuel for the entire nine-round season, beginning at Sebring this weekend. For those curious, Isobutanol is the same as biobutanol, having simply received a name change for identification purposes.

“Our alignment with BP and Castrol works well because they use racing as a platform for developing new technologies in a rapid and advancing atmosphere,” said Chris Dyson. “Technologies and fuels used in the ALMS are setting the stage for positive ecological developments for consumer cars in the future. It is very exciting for Dyson Racing and all of our partners to be at the cutting edge of this exciting and relevant technology.”

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