American Le Mans Series
Petit Le Mans – Race red flagged for bad weather
© Audi Motorsport
With rain coming down early in the morning in the Braselton, Georgia area many expected Petit Le Mans 2009 to be a race to remember. For just under five hours things went well, but then the rain returned bringing the race to a premature end.
Just before the start of the race the weather improved, less rain came down, but the race still started on a very wet track. Allan McNish had a superb start and within a couple of corners he had caught both Peugeots and was leading the race. The Scot immediately pulled away from the rest of the field.
Somewhat further behind the Audi Klaus Graf Team Cytosport Porsche RS Spyder was also flying, reeling in the other LMP2 cars and soon leading the class after having started from the pit. One of the first casualties of the treacherous track was the LG Corvette C6, going off through the gravel twice. Tom Sutherland damaged the splitter on the car and lots of gravel. Team Oreca Matmut AIM also stopped early after opting for the wrong tyre compounds on the #7 Oreca 01.
In the first round of pit stops most teams went out on wet weather tyres again, except for Klaus Graf. The German soon regretted his decision when he spun off the track and nearly hit the wall. The wet grass provided no grip but after some attempts the Porsche was back on track, only to stop on the side of the track again with what seemed like a firing problem.
At the end of the first hour most teams came in for slicks. That those slicks only work on a dry track was shown by two incidents at Turn 10. Bryan Sellers (Team Falken Tire) hit Seth Neiman, resulting in a damaged tyre and bodywork for the Flying Lizard driver. But of more importance was the collision between Jon Field and LMP1 championship leader Gil de Ferran. Intersport got away with a two minute stop&go penalty, while the de Ferran Motorsport Acura lost around half an hour being repaired ‘behind the wall’.
The first full-course caution was caused by the Robertson Racing Doran Ford GT-R, which lost its rear bodywork on the centre of the track. At the restart the Audi’s had a clear start, but it was soon back to a full-course caution when the de Ferran Motorsport Acura went into the wall.
Lowe’s Fernandez Racing’s run of bad luck at Road Atlanta continued when the Acura ARX-01b came into its garage with a steering problem, losing the lead to the Dyson Racing Team. Drayson Racing’s Rob Bell had hoped his racing debut in the LMP1 Lola-Judd would have been better, as the Brit lost a wheel and hit the wall on his out lap. Bell got back on the track and returned to the pit on three wheels. Quick repairs meant the car was able to return later on.
On the restart Butch Leitzinger in the Dyson Racing Lola Mazda went off into the gravel trap, resulting in yet another full-course caution.
Sarrazin unlapped himself from the lead Audi in the fourth hour, with teammate Minassian closing in on Capello. Despite its off the #20 Dyson Lola still led the race, just when the Primetime Race Group Dodge Viper lost a wheel and hit the wall.
Chris McMurry slammed his Autocon Lola into the wall quite hard at the end of the fourth hour, with skies getting darker and darker.
As the weather started to deteriorate Allan McNish made a rare error and spun his Audi R15 TDI while being behind the safety car. As a result the Scot dropped from the lead to third place.
And then it all went fast. Rain was reported and soon after the spray started to kick up, making it very hard for the drivers to keep sight on the track. While the track went green the rain started to get harder and while several cars went in for monsoon tyres the two Peugeot 908 HDi FAP racecars stayed out for one more lap. Pedro Lamy went straight at Turn 10 in the rain and on the next possibility the two French cars ducked into the pit.
In the heavy rain the race went on, if it could still be called a race. Marco Werner aquaplaned off the track, then Rob Bell spun off, fortunately staying clear of the wall. As a result another full-course caution was thrown. With the rain getting heavier and heavier it was Johnny O’Connell going off at Turn 12 – despite being slow and under yellow. McNish spun again and with standing water on some places on the track, huge streams of water and lightning reported on other places the race director could do nothing than to red flag the race and bring all the cars into the pit lane.
With rain continuing to fall it was unknown for a long time what would happen with the remainder of the race. Two hours after the red flag was shown it was raining heavily again. At 6.50pm local time the race director told the teams to stand by and prepare to get their cars ready at 7.30pm. But by 7.30 the track and weather condition had not improved enough and the deadline was pushed back to 8.00pm.
Just after 8.00 pm the decision not to restart the race was taken and the checkered flag was shown to the teams, still waiting in the pit lane.
As a result of the race not being restarted and Allan McNish spinning just prior to the red flag Peugeot secured a one-two victory. Franck Montagny and Stephane Sarrazin took the win ahead of Nicolas Minassian and Pedro Lamy. For Audi the third place finish meant its first ever defeat at Road Atlanta since racing there for the first time in 2000.
Despite all bad luck in the race the #20 Dyson Racing Lola Mazda of Butch Leitzinger, Marino Franchitti and Ben Devlin won the LMP2 class while a brilliant tactical move by the Risi Competizione team handed the GT2 victory to the Ferrari F430 GT of Jaime Melo, Pierre Kaffer and Mika Salo. Just before the downpour started and still under yellow the team changed to wets where its rivals then had to pit under green.
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BAD NEWS THE RACE WAS DECLARED JUST NOW AND PEUGEOT WON AUDIS 9 YEAR STREAK AT PETIT IS OVER
Dear Peugeot and Audi… Please consider bringing all your stuff to Laguna Seca so you can “finish” the race. There are thousands of race fans on the west coast who would come to watch!
The director of ALMS out to hang himself…. that was the worst idea in motorsports History!!
Dan what’s wrong with you? Go to the 10 Tenths forum and you’ll see from eye witnesses and McNish all agreed it was too wet and too late to continue the event.
It wasn’t a light drizzle or something, unless you have HD you can’t really tell and there was plenty of standing water, especially in T10.
Stop complaining, 12 years of the race and all went to the finish well before 10 hours and this one didn’t, big deal.
Next race is tape delayed, how do you like them apples?
I dont care about the next race. I just feel that they are all chickens for not racing. I would have kept going around. Screw the Red Flag. Plus Audi lost there 9 year win steak because if some idiot in the booth who said “oh maybe it is a little to wet”!!!
Dan i think its hard to call le mans drivers chicken i would like to see you drive them cars half as fast as they do, its not a walk in the park thats why theres only a few guys that do it. but when your hitting speeds of 150 and 200 mph and then through some rain in with cars that weigh 15 hundred pounds and nice wide tires ya thats a recipe for alot of wrecks unless they just drive realy slow wich would be worse then just canceling the race. so if you were in there spot i doubt u would have the balls to actualy drive them cars around the track
Are you serious Dan?
anybody know the entry list for Laguna, i wasnt sure because it isnt here or at ALMS Homepage yet… do you think Oreca and Peugote and Audi will be back… how about Eco and van de Steur
i was at the petit and i wanted to see the race go on but at some points it was raining so hard u couldnt see from the bottom of the esses to the top up in turn 3 and it rained about 6 inches just yesturday
Had a discussion on 10tenths about this allready,but I too think this has been a very bad call from the ALMS directors.
However bad the weather,continue the race! So what,the cars have to go slow,it’s not the Indy racing league…
If it rains very hard,adjust your car to suit. If your car can’t handle the circumstances,withdraw it. Just don’t start whining about aquaplaning and stuff for all cars can be tuned to withstand heavy rain.(Le mans ‘70,’95,’01,etc)
For the series,this is just as bad as a deathstroke!
Race conclusion: Audi still lacks a lot in outright speed and power. They’ll be safe for Le Mans 2010(if Audi doesn’t change that)
I agree. If they feel that it is too dangerous you can park your car. thats your choice. but they should not ruin everyones day.
i have to agree with GTfour and dan beacause teams like oreca and Peugeot and audi didnt ship there cars over here to run in the 4 hour petit, petit lemans oreca said that they would gain alot of data in a 10 hour race in america rather then the lemans series 6 hours and then the get over here and only run 4 if i was those teams i would be pissed i mean puegeot even won and they wanted to keep racing but the end result in running in that rain would have been alot of torn up race cars so i guess it could have gone either way
I agree with GTfour / Dan. Back in the 60’s they continued to race at Sebring in 65? when little Austin Healeys were passing the large Ferrari prototypes on the straight ! due to extreme flooding of the track ! Would have been fun to see the Gt cars going faster than the expensive LMP cars and maybe win overall ! If the cars today can’t run in heavy rain, maybe they should change regulations to raise ride height etc… so they can, maybe that would slow them down too. There also too sophisticated today, time for back to simple hand tools instead of laptop computers ! But real racing died in the 60-70’s anyway, completley at the end of the century.
I agree, they should of kept it going. Just go real easy on throttle, and adjust your driving style.
Yes the state of Georgia has been getting rain for like 2 weeks stright. I feel bad for all the people who lost there homes, business, etc….
But this is world class sports car racing, NOT no damn Nascrap. We keep racing in the heavy rain. The cars are alot safer than in the old days, ans alot more expensive. lol
The worst petit ever. This is th emost anticipated race and it doesn’t come close to the billing. It’s been a while since we had 3 manufacturers in P1 and I can’t believe they do this.
And for real this is no the Indy league (they can’t race on wet ovals).
But Audi does need some practice big time. They should stay for Laguna seca.
Acura has never had a good Petit LeMans race. They need results here.
What are the rules about a race distance in the ALMS?
Here in Europe you have to race 75% of the distance before the declare it a tru race an than the can red flag it. Petit was in think 45%.
I disagree completely with those of you who said the race should have gone on. I was there. Trust me when I tell you that it was way too dangerous to be driving ANY race car on that or any other track. It was a complete ‘white-out’, tropical rain condition. The prototypes WITH monsoon tires were hydro-planeing. When someone like Alan McNish says this is just too dangerous to be driving in – then I suggest you you believe him.
I was at PLM and this was the only sensible decision. You guys who are flaming them for red flagging didn’t see the monsoon conditions. Unless you are someone who actually enjoys collisions, you have no clue. “Deathstroke” for the series? Please.
Plus they could have just ran the rest of the race on Sunday if it was really that bad…
Yeah, well fed up. Stayed up until 1 am waiting for a restart that never happened. I was at Le Mans in 2001 and the conditions there were awful but they kept the race running.
You guys were definitely sitting on your sofas watching the race, hoping that Mcnish came back to life. Hundreds including ALMS director do understand what torrential rain means, cause we were there and it was like hell. None of those cars would have survived turn #1 nonetheless #10.
..what I don’t understand is why the race was not postpone from the beginning when Georgia was under heavy water.
Ironically… the sun came out on Sunday.
Thanks to the new entries like team Oreca, Dryson, Muscle Milk, Jaguar, and Radical… hope they all stay for next season.
The race was a fight.
It was awesome.. It think more will come to compete…
I don’t want to see Acura doing what Audi accomplished either and when you a car like the Porsche RS Spyder… LMP1 needs to clean out the rear view mirrors.
Sorry for you Audi fans but on slick tires and dry track the chances are zero.When you competitor comes from almost two laps down to bump draft you…you sucks
Dr. Panoz it look like you want the fans walking all the way to S. Carolina to buy tickets, please bring the ticket booth closer.
@ Dan.
Sorry but your comments are unqualified. Silverstone 05 LMS was similar and my P2 car was third overall (!) First in class. The organisation made a meeting during the race and it has to be a 100% decision. 99% said we should stop. One said we should carry on what we had to do. It was lucky because he was right due the wheater went better. Here the wheater didn´t. You can take the job of the driver or a teammanager and take the responsibility to “swim” a 500k USD car with 160MpH steered by a Human being where Human beeings (like you maybe) are siting 3 feet behind the fence.. And when you call the ALMS stupid for their decisions that they may have no “balls” than you should recognise that they find out that there are more important things like racing.. Normaly I would also say not to stop but sometimes you have to take the decision and when you think twice you will find out they were right and you are probably thankfull for that… Every series (like the Audi one) comes to an end at some point. That is also part of history..
Think about.. and if not create a similar series where Oreca and Peugeot will race with you than in Monsun areas or maybe with Spikes at Alaska.. That should be for real man like you than
Bests
yes, however, They could have easily raced on Sunday, and at least i would have kept driving. And i do not mean that the drivers dont have balls, infact quite the opposite, however, the series directors need to make a decision. All the fans that payed money to see the 10 hours race but got a 4hr30min race should be kicken’ down some doors… or atleast i would. Plus i would rather be hit by a crashing car watching a 10 hours race than go home drenched after a 4hr race. Personally…And I dont mean to piss anybody off, this is just my opinion.
The conditions were atrocious and heavy rain on a circuit w/ drainage is MUCH different than one w/ water pooling in apexes, etc. I’ve seen events red flagged at Sears before due to similar circumstances. The concern I have is that ALMS might find it difficult to sell the idea of flag to flag TV coverage for this event in the future…too bad as previous years coverage has been chopped up for NASCRAP and the flow of the race was lost. Oh well, nature!
Sadly, sometimes the weather turns round and bites you- almost every major race series I can think, from F1 downhas had this happen to them at some point.
Yes,you can drive slower, yes you can adjust your car to take account of the conditions, but sometimes there comes a point when it’s just simply too wet to race safely. Sure the teams could have taken that decision for themselves, but the spectacle of half the field parking their cars because of the weather wouldn’t have looked any better
Would the fans who paid money to see a 10 hour race be happy if the decision to keep racing had led to someone- a driver, a trackside marshal or even a spectator getting killed?
@kai,
Stop the drama. As said,nobody orders the teams to drive their cars in heavy rain,but we all know that cars are very well capable of doing so anyhow. All’s just a matter of set up.
If the drainage system couldn’t live up to the circumstances,there’s a lot of work for Don Panoz and his guys,I guess!
Any which way you turn it,this dicision is gonna draw a heavy negative line over an allready shaking ALMS…
Oh well, im shore next years Petit will be better….
@Dan and GTfour:
Most drivers and team owners agreed this was the best thing to do, so Kai is quite right in what he is telling you.
To quote some of the drivers/team owners:
Doug Fehan: Safety is always paramount at GM Racing, and we applaud the officials in making the decision to call the race. Safety must always prevail.”
Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich: “The fact that the race was not re-started was a shame for us but absolutely right for safety reasons.”
Allan McNish: “It was sad for everybody but the track conditions made it impossible to continue.”
Lucas Luhr: “It really would have been too risky to re-start the race. Therefore, the decision was entirely reasonable.”
Olivier Panis: “If the race hadn’t been stopped, all of the cars would have ended up in the gravel trap on the next lap! It’s too bad for everyone, but it was a logical decision for safety.”
Enough with apologies to this Audi fans.
To bring you more sad news… I believe Audi will have to change the front aerodynamics of the car.
The regulations are to change and ACO is making clear about the subject. Endurance-info.com can tell you more.
I would like to see an r10 nose on the r15!!!!