Road
and Track 250 at Laguna Seca
April
30-May 1, 2005
We were optimistic for a strong finish at Grand
Am's first ever race at the famous Mazda Raceway, Laguna Seca.
Though we had never been there, we were more familiar with this track
than the last two races. The fourth round on Grand Am's schedule
is also the first legitimate road course. Daytona, Homestead and
California are all "rovals" with a slow, temporary infield
section.
In the Rolex series, the #94 GT3
Cup returned with Tom Soriano and Bransen Patch driving again, and the
#14 GT3 was repaired after the hard hit it took in Fontana. Cory
Friedman and Leh Keen stood 6th in the GT class driver's
championship. The driver line-up in the #45 Grand Am Cup GS 996
was Brian Bailey and Jay Brown.
Grand Am
rules in 2005 have been terribly inconsistent, and all of our cars
required changes. The 100 lbs weight penalty added to the Porsches
for California Speedway was lifted, but the BMW's were still allowed to
use their 3.4 ltr engine. The GS car also got a weight break for
this event, and that certainly helped out.
Both
cars ran pretty well out of the box with the 14 car in about the middle
of the huge 30 car GT field. Unfortunately, it became painfully
apparent that the rule changes left a terrible imbalance to the
Porsches, as the four BMW's in the field sat in the top four positions.
We
made significant progress tuning the cars and made it into the top 10 by
the second practice. An M3 topped the time sheet every session,
but fortunately for the rest of the field, the fastest BMW suffered a
race-ending crash after turning the fastest GT lap of the
weekend.
The Grand Am Cup race
on Saturday was heavy on yellows due to the short length of the track
combined with a huge number of cars. A car from each class ended
its race on the car's roof, and any car that finished without damage was
fortunate. Brian qualified the 45 car 33rd in the 71 car
field. He gradually made up ground and turned the car over to Jay
after a pleasantly uneventful stint. The GS field is fiercely
competitive and any mistake will likely cost multiple positions.
Jay was running an impressive 14th position overall when a slight
miscalculation in the corkscrew dropped him back to 19th. He
fought his way back up to 17th position when the race ended. Both
drivers managed to beat the qualifying time during the race in traffic,
so they probably could have done even better with increased track
time. The car was beat up pretty badly in Fontana, but we were one
of the few cars fortunate enough to leave the race without the car
looking worse than it did at the start.
When
Rolex GT qualifying rolled around, we had our cars sorted pretty
well. Leh turned a very fast lap that landed us 8th on the grid,
only a quarter of a second away from 3rd. We were quite happy to
be the 4th fastest Porsche, only 0.1 seconds behind David Murry and the
same amount faster than the always impressive Andrew Davis.
Qualifying also suggested that rule changes were not limited to the
German cars, as the Horizon GTO sounded very mean and amazingly started
in the 5th position. Two out of three M3's and a Ferrari also
started ahead of our 14 car. A last-minute qualifying driver
decision forced the 94 car to start at the back of the field.
The
first yellow in the race flew at the 0:13 mark, and by the time it went
green again, all 3 of the BMW's had found their way to the front of the
GT field. Keen held onto his qualifying position and Bransen moved
up from a 26th place start to 17th. We continued to maintain pace
with the other Porsches, but the BMW's pulled a consistent lead.
The second yellow came around 0:40, and we opted to bring Leh in for
fuel and let Bransen stay out to try to keep gaining positions.
The 14 car, with Leh still driving, was in 13th at the restart and
Bransen was up to 9th. Leh quickly picked up positions and was
back up to 10th in 5 laps, but the M3's had built a 34 second lead over
us.
The extensive yellows allowed cars to
get incredible range on fuel and it looked like a 1-stop strategy might
be possible, but still looked very risky. The cars that had not
stopped in an early caution all began to pit simultaneously under green,
and Keen moved up to 5th in class. The 94 car also ran out of fuel
and made a stop around the 1:30 mark for fuel and tires, and Tom Soriano
got in the car. About 5 laps later, we were comfortably in our
final-stop fuel window when a yellow came out. Being just in front
of the overall race leaders, we knew we should get a wave-by, so we held
off on making our stop. At this point in the race, two TPC cars
were just ahead of us for position and two BMW's were behind us, but
nearly a full lap ahead. A wave-by typically would have put us at
the back of the field, nearly a full lap ahead of the 6th place
car. Unfortunately, this wave-by did not work out that well for
us. The wave-by begins two laps prior to going green, so we should
have had enough time to circle the track, complete a full stop and
re-enter the circuit before the field comes around. In this case,
the wave-by came out ridiculously late and the two TPC cars and #14 came
in, but there simply was not enough time to complete a stop and still
make it out ahead of the field. As a result, all three of the GT
Porsches that stopped returned at the back of the grid. Not only
did the late wave-by cost us our advantage, but we also lost track
position. Rather than having nearly a full lap over 6th, we now
sat in 11th and were very disappointed. Further complicating
matters was the 94 got collected on the restart. He got spun
around and bumped a few more times, ultimately leaving him stuck in a
gravel trap. He was eventually freed, but many laps and positions
had been lost
With only 0:30 to go in the
race, Cory was still in 11th. The top BMW was a lap ahead, but 3rd
place was only 15 seconds ahead of us. The track went yellow
again, and many of the teams attempting 1-stop races thought better of
it and made splash-and-go stops, including the leading M3. Very
few, if any, of the leading Porsches were able to finish on 1
stop. This allowed Cory to move up to 7th in class with only 10
minutes to go. The track went green and the GT Porsches behind
Cory were desperate for position and driving very aggressively. To
avoid a repeat of last race, Friedman opted to not force the issue and
unfortunately dropped back into 9th position. The track was only
green for two laps, leaving us without opportunity to regain lost
positions. A mere 13 seconds separated the 3rd place BMW from our
14 car when the race-ending yellow came out.
Ultimately,
the 14 car was 9th in class and 31st overall, and 94 ended 22nd in class
and 44th overall. Fortunately, we were able to beat many of the
cars who lead us in the championship, so even with the BMW drivers now
among the points leaders, we maintained 6th position in the team and
driver standings going into the next race at Mont Tremblant. |
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