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American LeMans
ALMS: Utah Post-Race Notebook
News and notes following the conclusion of Sunday's Utah Grand Prix at Miller Motorsports Park.
John Dagys  |  Posted May 18, 2009   Tooele, UT
Dyson Racing overcame mechanical problems in practice to put on a good showing in the race, despite not having the fuel mileage of the Lowe's Fernandez Acura. (John Dagys)
Early 'Challenge' Impressions

Sunday’s Utah Grand Prix marked the debut of the ‘ALMS Challenge’ class, a category open for eligible competitors from the Patron GT3 Challenge. Introduced to give accomplished amateurs a chance in the big leagues, the Challenge class initially proved to be a concern among veteran ALMS drivers and teams. But in fact, the race ran without any major incidents, to the surprise of some.

“I was a bit skeptical coming into this weekend about how that might play out,” said GT2 winner Patrick Long. “I remember my first endurance race when a prototype went by me, I literally had a manual reset of my mental side of things. But these guys did a great job and were running with us with closer closing speeds compared to the prototypes. It was easy and a welcome competition equalizer as we now had a class to overtake. I think it was all positive.”

Five Porsche 911 GT3 Cup cars pulled double-duty this weekend, with local squad Snow Racing reigning supreme. Husband and wife pairing Martin and Melanie Snow not only took the inaugural ‘ALMS Challenge’ class victory, but Martin also swept both Patron GT3 Challenge races over the weekend - all with the same car.

Martin and Melanie, though, were no strangers to multi-class competition and the presence high-speed prototypes, as they were also class winners in the very first ALMS race in 1999. The duo competed in the inaugural season and a handful of events in 2000, but none others up until this weekend.

The Snow’s extensive experience at the wide-open and fast-flowing course played a deciding factor in entering this weekend’s event. But Miller also proved to be a good starting race in the five-round championship, especially for others without past ALMS experience.

“That was one of the things we took into consideration when we decided to jump into this new class,” Melanie said. “This track is amazing; we had a spotter sitting up in the Attitudes [corner complex] to see the entire track from there. He was [giving us pointers], so that way we didn’t bother anyone else’s race and we could still have our race. Although there was a lot of traffic, if you went to other [tracks], there’d be even more traffic. We’re so happy it was our home track and we were able to win it.”

With a 26 second margin between the pole-sitting LMP1 car and the fastest Challenge competitor’s lap time in qualifying, prototype drivers had their work cut out for them on race day. Cars like the race-winning de Ferran Motorsports Acura lapped the GT3 Cup Porsches approximately every five laps.

“I was quite concerned going into the race, not only because of the speed differential being very large, but I think those guys were not used to dealing with faster cars in traffic,” overall race winner Gil de Ferran said. “I had a couple of hairy situations in the race, but it wasn’t as bad as I was anticipating. I think the fact that this is a long circuit, being quite wide and good to overtake contributed to this benign phenomena. It will be a lot harder at a place like Lime Rock.”

The 'ALMS Challenge' Porsche GT3 Cup cars kept up to the GT2 machines in straight-line speed, but the more advanced and high-dollar GT2 entries had a clear advantage in cornering. (John Dagys)
Fellow Challenge competitors even had good words to say about their prototype counterparts. With the first caution-free race since Mid-Ohio in 2007, there was plenty to cheer about for all parties.

“It was a very clean race,” said former ALMS prototype driver turned driver coach and Challenge racer Guy Cosmo. “[The prototypes] got by as soon as they could, which I’m accustomed to. I’m sure for some of the newcomers in this class, it’s probably a little surprising of how aggressive they would be. Everybody was really nice to each other out there. It shows the level of professionalism in this Series.”

However, the Cosmo and John Baker-driven Porsche GT3 Cup car as well as the sister Orbit Racing machine of Ed Brown and Bill Sweedler were later excluded from the race for ride height infringements found during post-race inspection. Both cars had originally finished second and third, respectively.

Overall, though, high marks were given to the Challenge category’s debut. But as de Ferran eluded to, the real test will come at the next round at the narrow and unforgiving Lime Rock Park in July.

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