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American LeMans
FEINBERG: For The Record
It's time for more candy and rainbows from the Agitator General of the American Le Mans Series.
Joel Feinberg  |  Posted August 25, 2009   Fort Lauderdale, FL
Feinberg's Primetime Racing Group Viper found a major leap in speed from 2008 to 2009 at Road America (PRG)
Let me start by saying, “when I address my team’s current issues as it relates competition, support, funding, and political circumstances, I am telling it how it is.” If the reader views this as complaining or whining, then that person doesn’t know JACK about racing or what it's like being a privateer team. On the flip side, I can’t tell you how many people at Road America shook my hand, patted me on the back, and welcomed my insight as “the real deal”…

It's also worth saying that there's a reason why I spend my money to race in the ALMS. Yeah, there are cheaper places to race, but I'm the kind of guy that wants to face the best. It's a struggle more often than not, but I'm a believer in the "if you want to be the best, you have to beat the best" saying. OK, enough of the warm fuzzies.

Now on to the racing action!

Last week was a one of my greatest weeks in racing as Road America hosted both the IMSA Lites Series and the American Le Mans Series which had me behind the wheel more than any other driver in the paddock. Having run the Viper here in 2008 we had some decent data to roll out of the trailer with a pretty good car for the track. However, we had never run our IMSA Lites cars on this track and had to take a shot in the dark on the balance between aero drag on the straights, and aero grip for the corners.

We were fortunate to be a part of a Thursday practice session with the Viper that was strictly limited to the drivers competing in the Founders Cup, which consists of “privateer drivers” who are measured in their success on a race by race basis based on their individual results as a driver, (I am currently leading this championship by 23 points over Jon Field in the LMP1 class).

The unfortunate part was that while we had this extra hour and thirty minute practice, we spent the entire session trying to locate the root on an engine misfire that after three days of searching turned out to be a faulty crank sensor that was out of alignment…

While the guys were scratching their heads on that issue, I was sorting out the balance issues on my Élan DP-02 trying to maximize our overall speed on the 4 mile track. It wasn’t until qualifying on Friday afternoon where I finally nailed it. I took the pole position by 1.1 seconds and had the competition doing the head scratching.

What I had found was that my car was so good in the corners that it allowed me to have my foot to the floor through turns 9-10 also known as the carousel which is a decreasing radius right hand section that looks like a horseshoe. While my competition was most likely breathing out of the throttle or left foot braking to control the balance, I was at wide open throttle. This ultimately gave me the fastest car from turn 8 all the way to turn 12 known as Canada Corner which accounts for nearly 25% of the entire track.

When the race came on Saturday afternoon I knew I had to apply the same strategy on lap one as I did in qualifying, doing so would most likely gap the cars behind while they were still waiting to get full heat to their tires. I won’t bore you with every detail of how the two races went, but I will sum it up with this. Fastest lap in race one, top step on the podium and pole position for race two, followed by another win on Sunday for a grand total of two pole positions, two wins, and the lead in the driver championship by 31 points…… Now THAT was fun!

On Saturday afternoon we finally got our GT2 Viper to fire on all cylinders and had a very fast car going into qualifying. My co-driver Chris Hall delivered a spectacular confirmation of our cars development over the past year and landed us only 1.87 seconds behind the pole sitter.

This was an improvement of over 3 seconds better than our best time here in 2008. We didn’t care where that put us on the grid, the fact that we found that much time compared to last year meant that this program is far from dead.

With the two IMSA Lites wins under our belt and a great car for the ALMS race, not much could spoil the team’s weekend. As luck would have it, our next door neighbors on pit lane where none other than Government Motors and the two-car Corvette team. Odd coincidence, or did someone strategically place our two polar opposite programs side by side?

Honestly, and all kidding aside, I have absolutely no problem at all with the Corvette team, they have a great program and do everything as they should be done. My only question, and then I will let the topic die, is are the managers of that program being paid big salaries? I read every day about a bailout CEO or manager having their salary scrutinized; shouldn't the same apply here? I’m not being a smart ass, I'm just a curious taxpayer…..

GREEN FLAG RACING!

Our strategy was to have Chris start the race since I had literally just come from the podium. He would run as long as it would take to either run out of fuel which would take about an hour, or if there was a full course caution anytime after the 45 minute mark (minimum drive time allowed). An early caution had come in the first 20 minute which allowed us an opportunity for a splash and go pit stop.
A win in GT2 wasn't in the cards, but Feinberg continues to dominate the IMSA Lites class. (PRG)

Chris stayed out for about another 45 minutes before causing his on caution with an off in turn 6 that took us from being in contention on the lead lap, to being 2 laps down. With another full course caution, he returned to the pits for our driver change and I would run the remaining hour and a half of the race. Once I got my rhythm down and was adjusted to the completely different driving style compared to the IMSA Lites car, I was able to really push on the car in the hopes of making a late in the race statement.

This is where my passion, determination, and ego got the best of me. I was in a position where I couldn’t catch the car ahead of me as it was a full lap up on me, and the car behind was the Panoz that was ten laps down. With twenty minutes remaining, I couldn’t get myself to just coast for the rest of the race. Instead I was running consistent times with the entire GT2 field and felt like I could out run the other guys just for bragging rights.

Unfortunately it proved to be the wrong decision because in an effort to set up a pass on a car that was ten laps behind, I had found myself buried in the sand trap at the end of a 165mph straight. As you can imagine, this wasn’t how I hoped to end the weekend. I later explained to the team that I was a “real team player” and was just trying to take some heat off of Chris for doing the same thing earlier…

The bottom line was that it was a successful week in many ways. End results are great but there is more to it than just being number one. We hit the track again this week in Mosport and I’ll be determined to duplicate my IMSA Lites success as well as taking another crack at my snake charming skills.

You stay classy San Diego…..

~Joel

The opinions reflected herein are solely those of the above commentator and are not necessarily those of SPEEDtv.com, SPEED, FOX, or NewsCorp.

Joel Feinberg is the owner of Primetime Race Group and races the #11 ALMS GT2 Dodge Viper. His professional career began at the age of 17 when he decided to play professional golf instead of going to college. At the age of 23, with six years under his belt competing in golf tours across the US against the country’s top players, Feinberg decided his time was better spent focusing on the South Florida real estate market.

He later moved into sports marketing and sports entertainment, launching 790 ESPN Radio as the South Florida affiliate of ESPN Radio, before turning his hobby of go karting into a formal business with the formation of Primetime Racing Group and undertaking his current challenge in the American Le Mans Series and the IMSA Lites series. Feinberg resides in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

To learn more about Joel and his team, visit www.primetimeracegroup.com
The opinions reflected herein are solely those of the above commentator and are not necessarily those of SPEED.com, FOX, NewsCorp, or SPEED
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