United
States Grand Prix
Porsche
Michelin Supercup at Indianapolis
June
19-20, 2004
The Indianapolis Supercup race was very
different than a typical club race or even Grand-Am or ALMS event.
The primary difference is an effect of being a support race for Formula
1. F1 teams and equipment dominate the track's pit lane and this
area has very restricted access. The entire event for Supercup
included only 5 times on track, 1 practice, a qualifying session for
each race, and the 2 races. For each session, the cars would be
lined up outside the garages, run through scrutineering where ride
height and rear camber were checked, then lined up by the gate to be
ready to head onto the course. This whole process took 30-45
minutes, after which teams were allowed access to the pit lane.
It became apparent very quickly that
there would be a distinct separation in the field. The series
regulars all ran in close proximity time-wise, and the guest drivers and
series back-markers were all very close to each other, but not on par
with the series drivers. This should be no surprise as the
Supercup is essentially an All-Star series. There are multiple
Carrera Cup national series in Europe, and the best teams from each
compete in the international Supercup. The series competitors are
professional drivers hired by highly sponsored teams. For the
guest drivers to compete in the same league as the professionals is
quite an accomplishment in itself.
For political reasons, we were operating
as Kelly Moss Autometrics. We had 3 drivers competing this
weekend, Steve Johnson, Gary Pennington, and Tim Rosengrant. All
other guest drivers ran under the Racer's Group Team.
Tim
Rosengrant led the guest drivers in the first qualifying session, with
the others close behind. The overall leader was Wolf Henzler, who
would go on to take both poles and race wins, continuing to dominate the
series this season. The second qualifying session was quite
similar to the first. Johnson was on pace for an excellent lap
which could have landed him ahead of the guest drivers, but made contact
with a tire wall in the last turn. The damage was not too severe
and we were able to make the first race later that afternoon.
Supercup
racing is a legitimate spec series, and the drivers are evenly matched
making very few mistakes. Consequently, most of the racing is done
single-file, and any attempted move is very risky. A number of
moves were made with very limited results. The first race saw 5
cars retire due to crashes, and even more sustained some sort of body
damage. The safety car came out 3 times, and only 7 of the 16 laps
were held under a green flag. Rosengrant was ultimately 2nd of the
guest drivers, with Johnson only a few spots back. Pennington
picked up a good number of positions as well, starting in 26th and
finishing in the top 20. Porsche Works driver Patrick Long, fresh
off a Le Mans win, drove the Porsche VIP car to a 2nd place finish the
first race and 4th in the second.
The
second race was much cleaner, as the safety car never left pit
lane. The US drivers improved every session, and were much quicker
during the final race. This time Rosengrant came out ahead of the
guest cars and Johnson was running on the bumper of Collier, who lead
the guests in the first race.
This
event, from the facilities to the spectators was truly an
experience. There are rumors that this race might be part of a US
Carrera Cup series rather than the international Supercup next
year. This would be very exciting, but regardless, we hope to run
the '05 event. Hopefully with a car of our own. |
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