ALMS Round 8 Mosport Aug. 21-24, 08

[dxk1]

Pretty cheesey to penalize only #71 when those guys were both going at it pretty good. Why couldn't they just say: "that's racing!" The Lizards were blocking as they should have been and Mueller was trying to get by as he should have been. Just "good clean fun".

DK

[wills]

Understandable that they would have ran out of fuel had they not pitted after the safety car period, what isn't acceptable was that Dumas came in for some fuel in the last minutes of the race yet still run out(even with their direct injection engine which is supposed to get 10% more fuel mileage). I guess Penske not having a good week.

[HORNDAWG]

They went 1,2 in Sonoma with the back up cars.



L.P.

[mattcat]

Originally Posted by dxk1

Pretty cheesey to penalize only #71 when those guys were both going at it pretty good. Why couldn't they just say: "that's racing!" The Lizards were blocking as they should have been and Mueller was trying to get by as he should have been. Just "good clean fun".

ALMS is going to shoot themselves in the foot with this crap if they aren't careful. What I witnessed was a very exciting battle for position on the track between two hard competitors. I would like to see more racing like that in the future...

[Fogelhund]

Originally Posted by dxk1

Pretty cheesey to penalize only #71 when those guys were both going at it pretty good. Why couldn't they just say: "that's racing!" The Lizards were blocking as they should have been and Mueller was trying to get by as he should have been. Just "good clean fun".

DK

From Pit Notes.

At 5:47 pm (2h 42m running), Joerg Bergmeister (#45-GT2 Porsche 911 GT3 RSR) and Dirk Mueller (#71-GT2 Ferrari F430 GT) have been driving as if towing one another, barely a car length between them for the last several laps. This is a battle for 3rd in class. The "unsportsmanlike" flag has been shown to both drivers.

Three minutes later.

At 5:50 pm (2h 45m running), Dirk Mueller (#71-GT2 Ferrari F430 GT) has passed Joerg Bergmeister (#45-GT2 Porsche 911 GT3 RSR) for third in class at turn 5. There is an "incident under review".

Given there was a warning for rough driving just handed out, yes, it should have been penalized.

If no warning had been given out, then it shouldn't have been a penalty.

[wills]

Still great to see close fierce battles on a circuit which would be deemed too narrow and dangerous for anyone outside US. As for GT2 that was just real hard racing, some of the wheel banging is unnessecary but its good to see them really scraping it out. Formula 1 and V8 Supercars could only dream of such battles.

[dxk1]

Originally Posted by wills

Still great to see close fierce battles on a circuit which would be deemed too narrow and dangerous for anyone outside US. As for GT2 that was just real hard racing, some of the wheel banging is unnessecary but its good to see them really scraping it out. Formula 1 and V8 Supercars could only dream of such battles.

Well said! If Mueller was the only one doing the banging, then I could see a penalty. I don't think Bergmeister would have complained if no penalty was assessed. He knew he was blocking and he knew Mueller was faster and he made as hard as he could for him to pass. Both drivers were doing what was expected of them. It was just great driving by two pros and in the end Bergmeister knew it was a clean pass.

DK

[cmk]

Man, am I ever late to the party. First things first, I'm really sorry that I could only drop into the forum gathering for a few minutes and did not get to talk to anyone because I was busy badgering Ryan Miller about the radio service at the track, which of course he plead ignorance about! It would have been great to get to know a few of you but with the delayed track action on Friday and the fact that I had dinner waiting in Toronto, my schedule was rather constrained.

On to the weekend...after a rather interrupted first couple of days and a qualifying session that was exciting, but lacked the last-minute fight for pole, what an incredible race! The Radio Web team had apparently forgotten to turn on the transmitter for 90.7FM until about 75 minutes into the race, which made things rather challenging for those of us at Turn 5, but it came on exactly at the right moment. We had just been able to follow the action up til that point, my father and I signalling apparent gap changes between battling cars to each other constantly to keep our eyes and heads sharp, but we were on the verge of losing track. Having the radio makes a huge difference - I felt terrible for the rest of the hillside who were without radio and trying to figure out why the two guys with earphones were gesticulating wildly, laughing, cheering and all this other stuff while apparently mundane action occurred in front of them! There needs to be better promotion of the trackside radio, I think.

The race itself was action-packed, with the dice between Brabs and Dumas a highlight. They seemed, at least from where we were, to be racing each other very fairly, but it was so exciting to see the tiniest gap open up inside #7 out of 5A, just know that Brabs was going to go for it, and see him pull off a pass like that without incident. Luhr's charge back in #2 after the late pitstop was also exciting, as was trying to figure out what maps the leading cars were running on at any given time. Ordinarily Hindy would have been looking at those times more too, but there was so much going on!

Probably the most contentious spectacle of the weekend was Muller's pass on Bergmeister on the penultimate lap. We could not see the action at Turn 8, only hear about it, and I've still not watched the broadcast, but you were already sure something was going to happen with 5 to go way back when they exited the pits in that order. Watching Dirk's nose rubbing the Porsche's tail through 5 in the last few laps sure put that notion front and centre. When 45 drifted a bit wide and a barely Ferrari-sized gap opened up, it was obvious Muller was going for it. Interestingly, the pass setup was very similar to Brabs' move on #7 at that same point. The difference was that Jorg did not give an inch of space and side-to-side contact was inevitable. For the spectator, it was very exciting racing - lots of cheering and jeering from the T5 hillside. I take Fogelhund's point that the warning having been shown made it a marginal move, however. Tony Dowe mentioned something about contact at Road America - that was not caught on tape, but if it occurred I can only infer that it went the other way and the finishing order was the reverse of that when crossing the line at Mosport. It seems to me that there was a golden opportunity to leave it at a 2-race draw, take the teams aside after the race and say 'all's fair now, but if we see you rubbing again, we're coming down like a ton of bricks'. Something about non-appealabe penalties just irks me.

Still, it was a fantastic spectacle all around. We've had some great races in the last 8 years that I've attended Mosport, but this one was the best. Heartbreak for #66, jubilation for #9, foolishness from #7 (how rare is that!), a stupid call from #26 and almost there for #15...it had it all. Bring on Detroit...and I hope to actually get to talk to some of you at Mosport next year.

[Dutton]

Originally Posted by wills

Still great to see close fierce battles on a circuit which would be deemed too narrow and dangerous for anyone outside US.

There is at least one other country on Earth that considers Mosport an acceptable style of track for a series such as the ALMS to operate on.

[Fogelhund]

Not a high quality photo, but heck, www.lastturnclub.com used it on their review of Mosport.

http://lastturnclub.com/images/stori...e/5637-web.jpg

[Boro]

dang, didn't even know there was a forum meeting. Was swamped all week between shooting and then getting them up at the media center!

[Jonerz]

Originally Posted by Dutton

There is at least one other country on Earth that considers Mosport an acceptable style of track for a series such as the ALMS to operate on.

Is that the idea?

Chris

[mpme]

ALMS: In-Car Theater Mosport, Lowe's Acura LMP2

Adrian Fernandez and Luis Diaz send a message at Mosport with a solid 2nd place finish. Watch as they serve notice that a win is around the corner.

http://auto-racing.speedtv.com/artic...es-acura-lmp2/