Lime Rock Park May 26-29 2006 :

Hot off of our flag-to-flag win at Phoenix just a few weeks prior, Autometrics and Marcus Motorsports rolled into Lime Rock Park looking for a similar performance.  This race marks the first time Grand Am has been to Lime Rock since the rainy race in 2001.  The biggest challenge of this weekend was not the conditions or even the competitors, but our own success and the resulting scrutinizing on all Porsche 997's. Before the weekend even started, all 997's were required to add 50lbs to their minimum weight.  This is a typical and fairly mild penalty, but considering the way Boris Said was chasing down Andy Lally at the end of the Phoenix race, we do not think it was necessary.  LRP is a very short track with lap times under 1 minute, so the entire field was very close.  Our cars were quite good from the start and in the final practice before qualifying, Spencer Pumpelly turned what would be the fastest lap of the weekend.  After this session, the issues began and conflict over a flimsy rubber duct under the nose of the 997 made us have to raise both cars significantly.  We have gone through tech no less than 10 times with the 49 car since we have been working with this program, and there has never been an issue with these pieces or the ride height of the cars, but it was certainly an issue now, so we decided to comply with the new ruling for now and try to get it worked out prior to the race.  Because time was short, we were not able to align the cars with the precision we would like, and both cars rolled out for qualifying less than ideal.

Traffic was more of an issue this race than in Phoenix, which was also GS-only, and that only compounded our problems in qualifying.  Brain Cunningham would start 11th on the grid, and the 49 car, which has been on pole in every qualifying we have run with it, would break its streak starting on the second row.  This was disappointing because we expect both cars would have easily been in the top 5 had we qualified them at the practice ride height.Sunday at Lime Rock is a quiet day with no race engines allowed to run.  We planned to use this day to get the cars prepped for the race with whatever the final ruling was on the rubber ducts.  Grand Am settled on what we believe is the most reasonable solution.  The ducts were allowed to be removed, and we could set our ride height back to where we started.  This was truly the ideal scenario, as the ducts provide no positive effects.  In the warm-up on Monday morning, the cars were in good shape for the race, much better than in qualifying, but not quite as good as prior to the changes.We expected only a few yellows during the race, and planned our strategy around that.  The objective for the 50 car was to hopefully reverse the misfortune that car has had all year and earn its first podium of the season.  The 49 car currently leads in points, and with that car, we were more concerned with the championship contenders than the overall finish.  On the first lap, Andy was pushed off the track and lost a few places, but 5 minutes into the race, both cars were running very well and picking up positions.  Cunningham moved up to 9th and Lally was nearly back in his starting position.

The first yellow came out just past the 15 minute mark.  The last few races easily went to the 2:30 time limit, but this track is much faster, so we expected that the 130 lap limit would come prior to time.  A few teams made stops under this caution, but it did not work with our strategy, so we stayed out.  Back under green and both drivers continued to slice through the field and at 30 minutes, both cars had moved into the top 3.  It was around this point in the race that the cloud cover moved and track temp started to climb, and with it both cars developed nasty ABS problems that slowed them down and made passing lap traffic under braking a challenge.  The lead car at this point was the #38 BGB Porsche, but Andy quickly caught and passed him taking the lead.  Lally checked-out on the field, taking advantage of the fight for 2nd between 38 and Brian.At about 45 minutes into the race, the potential of the Turner M3's became apparent.  Bill Auberlen, who finished 3rd at PIR, was absolutely ripping through the field.  He drove right by the Porsches battling for second and caught 49 at an alarming rate.  Luckily Auberlen is lagging slightly in the points, so we were not too concerned with him.  Shortly after losing position to the BMW, Cunningham finally overtook the 38 Porsche and moved back into 3rd.  We maintained 1st and 3rd until just before the 1-hour mark when the 96 BMW finally passed Lally.  Two laps later, on lap 54 the second caution came out.

This was just outside our final stop fuel window, but considering we had seen 2 yellows in the first hour, we decided to make our stops for fuel, tires and driver change, knowing that only one more probable yellow would be needed to make it to the end.  Stopping early under yellow gives you the best possible track position, so we planned to stop immediately when the yellow flew.  The problem was that they tossed the yellow as 96 and 49 were coming out of the last turn, well after pit exit.  The 97 Turner can and our 50 car, in 3rd and 4th, were able to dive into the pits, though.  The 50 car was delayed slightly due to a wheel stud issue, and the 2 leaders came in the following lap.  When all of the top cars re-entered the track, one car had not pitted and was temporarily leading, and he was followed by the 96 and 97 BMWs then our 49 and 50 cars with a few lap cars mixing things up.  The green came out just before half of the laps were completed.  The 50 car had the ABS issue at an incredibly inopportune moment making a pass into turn 1.  The result was contact with the other car and severe damage to both the front and rear suspension on the 997.  Darren Law limped the car in, but a quick evaluation showed that the car could not be repaired.

Spencer Pumpelly was running 3rd behind the two Turner M3s, and for a while it looked like he might challenge Said for 2nd, but as the race progressed it became clear that we could not consistently match the pace of the BMW's.  The 81 car of Martini and Long, currently 2nd in Championship points, was trailing back a little bit and was called in for a penalty to take a little pressure off Spencer.  With about 40 laps remaining, Spencer got pushed into the dirt, but still had a comfortable margin over the 4th place Mustang of Borcheller, who is also in the run for the championship.  Another caution came out, and we were partly happy to see it because we needed it for fuel mileage, but it also closed up the field a bit.  A few laps of green flag racing resulted in no change in the front runners, and a long final caution came out leaving only a 16 lap sprint for the top 5 championship contenders to fight it out in the top 5 positions of the race.

There was not much battling going on in the last laps of the race, as the M3's ran nose-to-tail ahead of the field, and Pumpelly maintained a consistent gap around 2 seconds to the Mustang behind him.  This is how it finished with the top teams taking the top spots and not really stirring up the championship much.

Marcus Motorsports car 49 continues to lead the Team Points Championship at the half-way mark of the 2006 season, and its drivers Andy Lally and Spencer Pumpelly maintain a slim lead in Driver Points.  Our streak of poles might be broken, but things have gone incredibly well for the 49 team, with 2 out of 3 poles and 3 podiums out of 4 races including a win.  The crew and drivers have done an excellent job this race and this season, and we hope that things continue to progress as they have so far.  The 50 car has not found the good fortune that 49 has despite easily running in the top 3 in the last 2 races.  We still expect to see Brian and Darren on the podium very soon, hopefully alongside Andy and Spencer.