American Le Mans Series (ALMS) Race 2, Sears Point Raceway, Sonoma, California. Story and images by Mike Veglia.
A surprisingly strong field assembled at Sears Point for round two of the 2002 ALMS championship considering the date was scheduled so close to Le Mans. In the LMP900 class Panoz showed up with three cars, plus another two Panoz LMP07 Mugen powered privateer entries. Audi Sport North America rented the services of a 2000 specification Audi R8 from their customer team Champion. Champion entered their 2001 specification Audi R8. A Panoz/Audi battle was the order of the weekend for LMP900. The LMP675 field featured two new MG Lolas, which had flashes of great speed throughout the weekend. The GTS class featured the expected battle between the factory Corvette team and the Konrad Racing Saleen S7R, along with ALMS GTS class newcomer; the beautiful green Olive Garden sponsored Ferrari 550 Maranello. A pair of Dodge Vipers rounded out the GTS field. The GT class was an all Porsche 911 GT3 RS affair.
After beautiful weather on Friday for practice and Saturday for qualifying, race day dawned with a surprise rainstorm that continued throughout the morning and started to clear shortly after the start of the race. A mechanical problem sent Gunner Jeanette off course in morning practice causing damage serious enough to cause the Panoz team to pull the #49 Panoz LMP01 from the race. The race was officially a "wet race" and was started under caution with a single-file start in the interest of safety.
In LMP900 David Brabham jumped out to an early lead in the #50 Michelin/Panoz LMP01 with Tom Kristensen close behind in the #38 ADT/Champion Audi R8. An early lap spin caused Dindo Capello to fall to the back of the field in the #1 Audi R8. Meanwhile Tom Kristensen in the #38 Audi R8 pushed hard in a close battle for the lead with the Panoz driven by David Brabham, eventually taking the lead by mid-race before turning the car over to Johnny Herbert. Frank Biela charged back through the field in his mid-race stint in the #1 Audi R8 to bring the car back to third spot before turning over to Emanuele Pirro. An incident with a lapped car resulted in a cut tire dropping Johnny Herbert in the #38 Audi R8 from the race lead to second spot.
With the track drying and time running out both Audi R8 cars were charging hard in second (#38 Champion Audi R8) and third (#1 factory car). A cut tire from debris launched Emanuele Pirro backward into a tire wall with a very hard impact in the fastest corner of the track. The rear suspension looked to be destroyed, the bodywork gone, the car looked done for the day. Not for the Audi Sport North America team though. After being checked on by course safety workers, Pirro drove the car around the course on three wheels into the garage area. There the Audi team performed one of their legendary 6 minute rear end changes to put the #1 car back on course to collect valuable points by coming home in eighth spot.
With laps winding down the Panoz driven by Jan Magnussen appeared to have an insurmountable lead. Johnny Herbert and the Champion Audi team had other ideas. On the last lap of the race Herbert made up a 9 second deficit to nearly steal the victory. Contact with a lapped car just before the finish line caused Herbert to spin and slide across the line in second spot only 0.487 of a second behind Magnussen in the race winning Panoz.
In the LMP675 class, Ben Devlin and Dave McEntee took the win in a Lola B2k/Ford over a pair of EX257/AER MG cars that came home second and third.
In GTS, the Corvettes took first and second with strong 5th and 7th overall placements with Ron Fellows and Johnny O'Connell taking the class win in the #3 Corvette. A close battle waged on for the entire day between the Olive Garden Ferrari 550 Maranello and the Konrad Saleen. The Ferrari took third place, but later failed technical inspection over a leaking airbox handing the third place finish to the Konrad Saleen S7R driven by Franz Konrad and Terry Borcheller.
In the GT class, Sascha Maassen and Lucas Luhr in the McKenna Porsche/Xybernaut/Mobil 1/Michelin/ Porsche 911 GT3 RS took first and class and an impressive 6th overall, splitting the GTS Corvettes!
Notable quotes include:
David Brabham (#50-P900 Panoz LMP01) "At the beginning of the race the car was setup ideally for those conditions. As soon as the track dried up a bit it started to behave strangely. I wanted to come in and change, but the team told me to stay out as long as possible for the fuel. I knew when Jan got in he was going to have to try really hard in a not very good car. Maybe we went too much toward a wet setup. Tom (K) was catching me, but I managed to stay ahead. When I was out there at the start I could feel quite a bit of grip coming from the tire and I felt confident. As it dried, the rears were getting worse and worse, and I just tried to stay (on the track)." (About waking up to a rainy day) "I woke up surprised. I didn't have a big problem about it. It was wet for everyone. We learned a lot this weekend. I knew I just had to push as hard as I could."
Jan Magnussen (#50-P900 Panoz LMP01) "I was pushing, pushing, pushing hard, but the car was not nice in the dry. Johnny got closer and closer, but I was driving as hard as I could, it wasn't nice. (After the morning times a clue to the car's speed) "Yes, that's why we set it up for the wet." (Did he know that Herbert was closing) "Yes, obviously I was informed about the gap the whole time, it kept coming down, which wasn't very nice. He came closer and close and closer, and they told me to drive harder. I drove flat out, as hard as I could. But it was nice to win."
Dave McEntee (#13-P675 Lola B2K40/Millington) (about local knowledge of the track and car) "I think consistency is a good word for it. We had the car set up for the wet, so in the dry I just stayed with it. I think Ben did most of the hard work. The setup was fantastic. Archangel Motorsports has put together a great car - it worked great.
We had high hopes for this race and it turned out well." (About racing with the turbo) "The turbo is definitely the most significant part of the car to get used to for me. It seems like just a 2-litre engine for a second or two, but then it starts to pick up."
Ben Devlin (#13-P675 Lola B2K40/Millington) (about staying out of trouble in the rain) "It was close to impossible to stay out of trouble, but it was the first time out with the car and you can't ask for more than this. We plan to carry on for the whole year, and it should be a great season." (Any close calls during the race) "The whole race was a close call, but I didn't have any major instances. It was great. Everyone moved out of the way and Sears Point Raceway did a great job."
Ron Fellows (#3-GTS Corvette C5-R) "The race went real well. It was a dilemma at the start trying to decide whether to go with the new or old Goodyear tire, we went with the old. It took a couple of laps to get the heat in the tires. We thought the Saleen was going to be a real threat, but they weren't, so it worked out. Johnny brought it home." (About the inside of the car) "The temperature was perfect today, I wish we had air temperature like that all the time."
Johnny O'Connell (#3-GTS Corvette C5-R) "This was easy. I had a moment where I wanted to pull away, and I did, a little. Ron had made it easier with the gap he gave me." (About the new car) "I'm liking her a lot!" (About his co-drive) "Since we hooked up, we work well together. If he keeps handing it to me on a platter, I won't complain". (About the burnout) "I don't own the stuff I was burning up, but I got in trouble for it. When I was in the pits, I lit up the tires again, and I got yelled at. I told the manager it was bad luck if you put the mojo on me, so now I'm allowed to do it every time we win."
Lucas Luhr (#23-GT Porsche 911 GT3 RS) "I pushed as hard as I possibly could to get in the lead because of the visibility problems. It was hard to get by my teammates. Our car was great in the weather (rain), but there was a lot of standing water on the track and a lot of puddles." (How did you get the lead on the first lap). "I don't remember (smiling). Jorg (Bergmeister) went by him (Buckler) and I tried to move in as well. I tried again on the next corner, and by the back stretch my windscreen was full of water and dirt, but I out braked them and pulled away."
Sascha Maassen (#23-GT Porsche 911 GT3 RS) "Lucas started and finished (the race). Our first goal was to win the race. The second goal was to give Lucas the most laps, since I had the most laps at Sebring. On our first stop, Lucas came in for dry tires, I came in, did two laps, and like at Sebring, we got lucky with the pace car, which put us a lap up. " (For the second stop, were you afraid of putting the win in jeopardy) "We felt we were far enough ahead, and the stop was under yellow)."
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