American Le Mans Series

ALMS Road America – Race Report – Third Hour

© American Le Mans Series

The start of the third hour saw the two Audi R10s still on fire and lapping some seconds a lap quicker than its opponents. Another car on fire was the Drayson-Barwell Aston Martin Vantage GT2. A small fire appeared on the driver’s left side, but it did not seem to harm the lap times, Cocker was warned and went into the pit lane to have it checked.

As the Drayson-Barwell Aston was in the pits to have its problem sorted, there were more problems in the pit. Joey Hand in the Panoz Team PTG Panoz Esperante GTLM came into the pit lane and slowly climbed up the hill. It immediately disappeared behind the pit wall. At the same moment the Primetime Race Group Dodge Viper did not even make it to the box as Chris Hall came to a halt on the pit entry, partially blocking the pit entry.

Meanwhile fifteen minutes into the third hour Romain Dumas came into the pit lane for a stop. While Dumas got out of the car and Timo Bernhard came in several Acura’s passed it out on the track. Bernhard quickly went out again, but problems seemed to appear soon. Puffs of smoke and dust were seen on several corners and the car did not get upto the speed it had before its pit stop on the first lap out.

More stop-and-go’s were handed out. Intersport Racing was given one for having too many people working on the #30 car of John Faulkner. Adrian Fernandez came in, rather out of synch with the rest but rather similar to the #7 Porsche. Franck Montagny in the Andretti Green Racing Acura was in second place.

Just before the two and a half hour mark it was Marcel Fässler coming in for a pit stop. The Swiss driver got back behind three LMP2 cars. Marco Werner was the next one to stop and this handed the race lead to the Andretti Green Racing Acura ARX-01B. The leading LMP2 cars still had to made their pit stops though.

Half way the field the lead for GT2 continued with the Risi Ferrari of Mika Salo just a few seconds ahead of Wolf Henzler. In GT1 Jan Magnussen came in after complaining about problems with the handling of the car. Being second in the race and having a huge lead over the third placed Aston Martin DBR9 the team had all the time to check and fix the problem.

Montagny pitted after having completed 72 laps, handing over the race lead to Scott Sharp in the Patron Highcroft Racing Acura. Werner was very close. At almost the same moment another full course yellow came out. Into turn 12, Canada Corner, the #73 Tafel Racing Ferrari 430 GT2 went off, after a possible collision with another car. The #30 Intersport Lola also went off, but it looked to go off by itself.

A rather damaged #73 Tafel Racing Ferrari came in with the pit lane still being closed, lots of damage at the back with the rear wheel not looking good, possible suspension problem. The moment the pit lane was opened several other cars came in, the #30 Intersport Lola also got in to have some rear damage fixed.

Behind the safety car it was the Audi R10 of Marco Werner in the lead, having completed 75 laps. The German was followed by the Andretti Green Racing Acura and the second Audi R10 of Marcel Fässler with only ten minutes remaining in the third hour. Gavin was still leading GT1 while the Risi Competizione Ferrari in the hands of Mika Salo was back in the lead in GT2 as Wolf Henzler in the Lizards Porsche went in for a pit stop.

7:13pm and the green flag was shown again. The fights for the overall lead and the GT2 class were still very interesting at the restart there were seven prototypes within a few seconds, while five GT2cars were within about ten seconds of each other! Franck Montagny looked like being glued to the tail of Marco Werner’s Audi R10.

As the race passed the three hour mark the top four overall was still within 4 seconds of each other and the top seven within 13 seconds. The GT2 top five was also still within nine seconds of each other. Perfect positions as the race went into its final hour.