Round 3: American Le Mans Series Monterey

[TF110]

Aston got no love today. Sad, they were the fastest car for most of the race. Corvette put out a lower time in the closing stages, but I was hoping for an Aston Vette battle.

[FstrthnU]

I thought the race was MUCH better overall than Long Beach, P1 was runaway and P2 was rather silly but PC, GT, and GTC put on great shows. I think the visibility improvement of being on a proper track helped.

PC: some nice passes and driving, though some predictable FCY spinners. The PC sandwich pass at the end was golden

GT: Crazy as usual. The cars were a lot closer together even disregarding the cautions, which helped the action. Corvette vs. BMW very fun as always. I feel sorry for the Porsche teams, but they keep on shooting themselves in the foot (the #45 Flying Lizard had a good shot at a podium before the penalty and the Falken could have used a better strategy). AJR should have bought a 911 RSR instead of toughing out the sh*tty Lotus. The Aston was a very nice guest even if they screwed up that pitstop. Variety is always the key to GT's success!

GTC: Actually provided some good thrills, battle at the closing stages was excellent. Surprised that GMG made it to 2nd despite being hit like 3 times.

[Simmi]

I tapped out with 2:30 left to go. Look forward to catching up on what I missed soon.

[alexkiller8]

also the ESM did a good race with the 458, the #02 was third before the hit with the aston, and the #01 was just behind the bmw and corvette cars, doing better than porsche cars.
Maybe this team deserves some help by ferrari/michelotto.

[Creep89]

They could really get some factory support, since they are doing great in a crowd of factory teams.

[Pandamasque]

Originally Posted by FstrthnU

The PC sandwich pass at the end was golden

I can't care less about the LMPC but that was easily the pass of the race, IMO. It's a shame that the 'hard charger' award has been given for avoidable contact instead.

[alexkiller8]

well they could hire melo as third driver for endurance races (he isn't factory driver anymore and when he is driving the car has the 50% of chance to crash against something) or reiceve the help of michelotto if someone between vilander, fisichella, bertolini etc.... is sent there. Unfortunately the regoular line-up isn't much competitive and surely the owner (sharp) and the main sponsorhip man (brown) won't take a step behind to let drive better drivers.

[The Badger]

Originally Posted by alexkiller8

doing better than porsche cars

Hardly surprised , its almost a new chassis as the Porsche is yonks old now . They should be doing better really .

[alexkiller8]

Originally Posted by The Badger

Hardly surprised , its almost a new chassis as the Porsche is yonks old now . They should be doing better really .

if we want to talk about chassis, also the ones used by corvette and bmw are not the newest... then porsche from two years run constantly with bop waivers even if the 2012 997 spec uses a wider body and new a bodywork as the regulamentation let.

[FstrthnU]

For those of you who missed the race, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GuDdP...&feature=g-u-u

Highlights of these last laps include 4:11 (Corvette uses Level 5 as bumper to pass Bill Auberlen in #55) and 16:10 (PC sandwich pass of GTC car)

[KA]

Originally Posted by FstrthnU

AJR should have bought a 911 RSR instead of toughing out the sh*tty Lotus.

Aren't AJR being paid by whoever owns/funds the Lotus (Sweedler?) to run it? I suspect if it was a choice between doing this, and buying and running their own car, they'd still be running a GTC-only programme at best They could have bought an RSR any time in the last year or two, but didn't....

[wheelz22]

Originally Posted by FstrthnU

For those of you who missed the race, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GuDdP...&feature=g-u-u

Highlights of these last laps include 4:11 (Corvette uses Level 5 as bumper to pass Bill Auberlen in #55) and 16:10 (PC sandwich pass of GTC car)

Question for anyone...on this clip....is this what one would see if they are viewing live on the computer on ESPN3 ? Also, who would the announcers be ? Thanks

[kyoung]

Originally Posted by wheelz22

Question for anyone...on this clip....is this what one would see if they are viewing live on the computer on ESPN3 ? Also, who would the announcers be ? Thanks

Yes

Hindy and Shaw

[Simmi]

Originally Posted by wheelz22

Question for anyone...on this clip....is this what one would see if they are viewing live on the computer on ESPN3 ? Also, who would the announcers be ? Thanks

Can't speak about ESPN3 but that was the coverage from the race and looks MUCH better quality than the world feed.

Commentators are John Hindaugh and Jeremy Shaw.

[wheelz22]

Originally Posted by kyoung

Yes

Hindy and Shaw

Thanks....(and thanks Simmi also)....yeah I thought it was Hindy...and Jeremy


This was interesting for Simmi to have said...."Can't speak about ESPN3 but that was the coverage from the race and looks MUCH better quality than the world feed."

We hear frequently on here that the video quality is terrible....this particular video piece's quality is not bad at all. If this is what one gets on the computer on ESPN3, then I don't really thinks it so terrible.....

[joeb]

Originally Posted by Simmi

Can't speak about ESPN3 but that was the coverage from the race and looks MUCH better quality than the world feed.

Commentators are John Hindaugh and Jeremy Shaw.

I found the espn3 stream to be the best it has been. I connected labtop to tv and had great quality the entire time i watched.

[kyoung]

Originally Posted by joeb

I found the espn3 stream to be the best it has been. I connected labtop to tv and had great quality the entire time i watched.

Yep, same here, I have a fast connection and a dedicated home theater PC so far ESPN3 has been very good. That coupled with the Radio Lemans crew calling the race is a win-win for me. It’s also nice to be able to watch a replay of the race if you have other things going on that prevents you from watching it live.

[wheelz22]

Originally Posted by kyoung

Yep, same here, I have a fast connection and a dedicated home theater PC so far ESPN3 has been very good. That coupled with the Radio Lemans crew calling the race is a win-win for me. It’s also nice to be able to watch a replay of the race if you have other things going on that prevents you from watching it live.

That doesn't sound too bad. I'm not used to watching the races on television after several years of watching them all from the pit wall. So I'm searching for a live viewing 'solution' for the ones I won't be going to.

[FstrthnU]

ALMS also puts the full races on their website (in addition to ESPN3 stored broadcasts) http://www.alms.com/video/mazda-race...seca-race-2012
You can watch it anywhere in the world, including the US

[pederb]

As usual I had a great time at Laguna Seca and the GT battle was epic, but what I did not like was the almost empty paddock? During a long race like a 6 hrs you walk around and normally the paddock is full of cars from other classes like WC but not this time, over 60% of the paddock was empty and feels weird walking around in a very large almost empty paddock. Looks like all other races was during the week when normal people work, very strange I think.

Cheers

[Jonerz]

Yeah, would have been nice if World Challenge had scheduled a second race for Saturday morning so fans could see the cars and such as you said pederb.

There is three weeks until the WC cars are in Detroit, so I don't know why they didn't want to take the opportunity to interact with fans.

Chris

[FalkenALMS]

Hi Everyone!

After a long trip home and a couple days off, we're back at our shop in Indy.

Many of you noticed the changes to the Porsche. If you didn't see the release discussing the changes, here it is.

As for our race recap with driver quotes here you go. It was a crazy race for us, full of ups and downs. Bryan Sellers spent a significant amount of time in the car and MRLS certainly beats up the drivers, especially during endurance races. During Wolf's stint, we got one drive though penalty for passing under yellow, during pass-arounds, and the team wasn't too thrilled--naturally. We managed to come back after that to enter the pits in seventh, do a fuel-only pitstop and come out of the pits first in class. I've gotten a couple comments that it was possibly the wrong strategy to go with. In his post race interview, Wolf mentioned that if we had done a full pit stop with fuel and tires, we would have left the pits in seventh position and most likely would have finished exactly where we did anyway. At least this way, we put on a great show, had some epic battles and led some laps and got some great media coverage out of the deal. The crew was ecstatic to see the #17 Porsche lead the GT class for the first time this season. The final two laps were rough, as two cars in the GT class had contact with our Porsche in attempts to pass. However, Wolf kept his head up and brought the Porsche home in seventh. A fellow GT driver approached him after the race and said it was incredible to be racing behind him.

We've got some more stuff for our fans during this 6 week down time. As mentioned in the above press release, the team will be testing at Road Atlanta in a few days. I'll be sure to keep everyone in the loop

- Kelly

[porman]

I appreciate your posting here to give us the inside scoop.

Would you say that the new front splitter and taller rear wing made a noticeable difference? In regards to your new front tire, what are your thoughts about the benefits and did your data work out to on-track gains?

Thanks again!

[FalkenALMS]

Originally Posted by porman

I appreciate your posting here to give us the inside scoop.

Would you say that the new front splitter and taller rear wing made a noticeable difference? In regards to your new front tire, what are your thoughts about the benefits and did your data work out to on-track gains?

Thanks again!

All these changes have definitely made noticeable differences, for sure. The front splitter and the taller and wider rear wing have provided noticeable down force. (Wolf says you can really feel the changes with the wing in the high speed turns) The team was a little discouraged our first couple days there because even though the changes were great, the perfect balance of all these changes had yet to be found. As the weekend progressed, we got closer and closer. The drivers and team were MUCH happier with the car once we finished qualifying (which we used as another test basically). Now coming out of the weekend, we have a good idea of where we need to go.

Our Team Manager, Derrick Walker post race regarding the changes: "The taller tire by itself is only one component that is different about this car. We got a lot of new parts this weekend to go with the car. As always it’s a combination, so it’s getting the tires to match what this car is now. We had to start somewhere. With this taller tire, this is the first race. We managed to master it for this weekend but we’ve got to get the whole package working. We’ve probably got to make the rear tire as good as the front tire now...Looking ahead to testing, we’ve got a lot of new stuff on this car, and we’ve had very little time to try to get the tires to match this car. The car may look very similar to last year, but it’s quite a different car in terms of handling. We have to match the tires to what this car needs. There will be some work from our tire department, to find some different options to go with the way the car is now. Lots of set up changes to see if we can find the right combinations. Road Atlanta is very similar to Mazda Laguna, it’s a very challenging track for us. It’s a good one to go to next, so we can pick up from where we left off here. "

[porman]

Thanks again for your time. Glad to hear that you guys continue to test. I can completely understand how trying to chase the balance can be trying to say the least. When you are making many changes which also include working with a new tire it can make your job all that much more interesting. What I love to hear is that the team is pushing forward.

If you don't mind educating me, what was the initial idea behind the move to a taller front-tire?

Warm regards,

Ryan