Risi took the GT2 pole
Flying Lizard
Vici
Farnbacher Loles
Tafel
Risi
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Flying Lizard
October 3, 2008 -- Braselton, Georgia -- Joerg Bergmeister brought the Flying Lizard No. 45 Porsche into fourth place in qualifying for Saturday's Petit Le Mans, the flagship, 1000-mile endurance race of the American Le Mans Series season. In the No. 44 Porsche, Seth Neiman will start 15th on the grid. The No. 46 Porsche of Johannes van Overbeek and Patrick Pilet, who are third in the hunt for the ALMS drivers' championship (behind Bergmeister and Wolf Henzler in the lead and Tafel Racing's Dominik Farnbacher and Dirk Mueller in second) did not qualify and will start from the rear of the grid. The No. 46 Porsche sustained heavy damage in this morning's practice session when a stuck throttle sent van Overbeek flying off track and head on into a concrete wall. van Overbeek was not injured but the car will require significant repair and will not be back on track until raceday warmup.
Bergmeister commented on the session, "I'm disappointed in our qualifying result today. It's been a tough to find our setup this week. We've been fighting a mid-corner understeer and can't shake it. This was our fastest lap of the week, and it's all we had for the session. We'll need every second of tomorrow's warmup to get things dialed in. The team has had some tough luck so far this week with both the No. 44 and the No. 46. Hopefully we've worked all of that out of our system and we can get through the rest of the weekend without any more problems."
van Overbeek added, "The good news is we can only go forward from here. It's unfortunate we had this problem but luckily it happened a day before the race, giving us the opportunity to repair it. Despite the setback, Patrick and I are optimistic for a good race tomorrow. I know the crew will work all night if need be to make the car raceworthy by race start."
Vici
Braselton, Georgia - The #18 VICI Racing Porsche 911 GT3 RSR will start the 11th Petit Le Mans tomorrow morning from the sixth row of the grid after a very solid qualifying session this afternoon when the team's focus was firmly on final preparations for the challenge of one of the world's most demanding endurance races. Marc Basseng, who will be joined in the cockpit of the #18 car tomorrow by Nicky and Francesco Pastorelli, was entrusted with qualifying duties this afternoon and his best lap of 1:21.876 (111.681 mph) was enough to put give the team a steady springboard into the tough 10- hour/1,000-mile race at the Road Atlanta when the green flag is waved at 11:15 AM tomorrow morning.
Today's (Friday, Oct 3rd) track action here was scheduled to start off with an hour long practice session (9:05-10:05 AM) well before the 25-minute qualifying session, reserved for the GT1 and GT2 entrants, got underway in the mid-afternoon (3:25-3:50 PM).
The air temperature was 55 degrees and the track temperature was 60 degrees as the ALMS cars from all four classes took the green flag at 9:14 AM for the start of the slightly delayed morning practice session, which would now be truncated in order to fit into its 10:05 AM finish time. Francesco was the first driver in the cockpit of the #18 car as the youngster bid to learn more about the track. With no further practice sessions before this afternoon's 25 minute qualifying session the morning session would be a vital final opportunity for all the teams to finalize their qualifying set- ups.
The morning session would, unfortunately, follow the pattern of yesterday morning's practice, and be blighted by a rash of waved red flags. In fact with just a minute on the clock the #48 Zytek prototype was involved in an accident and the red flags waved for the first, but not the last time, sending Francesco diving into the pits. At 9:17 AM the 2.54-mile, 12-turn permanent road course went to full green conditions again, and the 21-year- old Dutchman powered the #18 car back onto the track. At 9.22 AM the course went to red flag again, going back to green four minutes later. Barely had Francesco rejoined the track and at 9:29 AM the #15 P2 Acura went off into the gravel at Turn 10A and the red flags fluttered once more. At 9:32 AM the circuit returned to green, and finally Francesco managed to turn in back-to-back flying laps; both were impressive, especially so as Francesco hasn't been here before this week: a 1:25.059 (22 mins) and a 1:23:770, squeezed in before the reds came out again at 9:38 AM as several cars got mixed up in an incident. Francesco pitted and handed over to brother Nicky, and almost 10 minutes passed by before the stricken cars were cleared from the track and the Dutch former F1 test driver took the red, white and black car back onto the track. At 9:51 AM the track went to green again and that was to be the last caution period. Nicky got some steady laps in as the team checked it set-up ahead of this afternoon's qualifying run. The 25- year-old Dutchman posted a 1:24.168 (41 mins), 1:23.164 (42), 1:23.510 (44), 1:24.604 (45), 1:23.158 (46), 1:23.262 (48), 1:23.555 (49) and finally 1:25.520 (51) as the session drew to a close. Nicky's lap of 1:23.158 (109.959 mph), set on lap 11 of the 15 that the #18 car ran, was the best that the two brothers posted during the session.
Marc Basseng was handed the job of qualifying the #18 car during the 25- minute session which got underway on time at 3:25 PM. His first flying lap after 4 mins was a 1:29.234, and the experienced German followed this up with a 1:24.593 (5), 1:22.001 (6) and a 1:22.052 before he dived into the pits after 9 mins. A quick splash of fuel later and Marc was back out after 11 mins, turning in a 1:21.876 (14), 1:22.360 (15) and finally a 1:22.115 (17) before coming in on 18 mins to conclude our participation in the session. His best lap of 1:21.876 (111.681 mph) on the seventh of ten laps was good enough for 12th position in GT2 and a solid platform for the team to build upon.
Race day tomorrow (Saturday Oct 4th) will get underway away bright and early with a 25-minute warm up session (8:15-8:40 AM) before the 10 hour or 1,000 mile (whichever comes first) Petit Le Mans, the 11th round of the 2008 American Le Mans Series goes to green flag conditions at 11:15 AM.
Roland Wall, Technical Director VICI Racing: "I'm reasonably happy with where we are now. We can focus on the race and I think we have a good set- up. I'm pleased that we have no bumps on the car, no alien paint, and after some of our recent races it's good that we can look to routine preparations. I'm happy with efforts of the team this week, the crew have pulled very hard, and the drivers all look quick and comfortable on this circuit. Let's hope that we can demonstrate our full potential tomorrow and have a fast, safe race."
Jason Myers, Motorsports Development Director, Kumho Tires: "I can't wait for the race to get underway tomorrow, I think we are ready to go. The tires have performed well this week, although we have had less track time than we expected. The tires were good in the night practice where we got more running done and we were able to settle on a race compound yesterday as the direction we needed to go was very clear. Roland has got a good set- up in place, the drivers all seem to be quick on the track, so I think we are in a good position."
Marc Basseng (Germany): "We've got a pretty good car here, the car and the tires seem to suit this track. I would have liked to be a bit faster in qualifying and I don't think we fully unlocked the potential we had, but the focus was on getting a good setup for the race and I think we have this now. The RSR handles well here and Roland [Wall] has got a decent setup, it's quite stable and it's grippy out there. My team mates are both quick and I'm looking forward to the race, it's going to be tough out there so we have to be fast but we need to be careful. The biggest problem with this being a shorter circuit will be the speed the prototypes close at, I'ts hard to judge the closing distance, and this will be bigger as it goes dark, as we saw in night practice yesterday."
Francesco Pastorelli (Netherlands): "I'm excited to be here and I can't wait for the race to start tomorrow. To be racing at Petit Le Mans is great; the whole year in ALMS has been a good experience. This is one of the biggest sports car races in the world; it's an honour to be on the grid. Once again here I've been unlucky with red flags today and yesterday, it seems to be the story of my year, but I like this track a lot. It's quick, it's fun for the driver and reasonably easy to learn, it's mostly a case of a couple of laps to learn where the blind crests go. As usual it's great to be racing with my brother, we are very similar and his experience helps me; Marc too is quick and knows the RSR very well, so we have a strong combination. I now hope to help the team towards a decent result."
Farnbacher Loles
Farnbacher Loles Racing will start the 1000-mile / 10-hour Petit Le Mans race from second on the American Le Mans Series GT2 class grid. Dirk Werner of Kissenbruck, Germany, qualified the team's No. 87 Porsche 911 GT3 RSR in one minute 19.456 seconds (115.083 mph) on the 2.54-mile Road Atlanta road course in Braselton, Ga. His lap was only 57-thousandths of a second slower than the class pole-winning Ferrari (1:19.399). Both times were under the previous class qualifying record of 1:21.647.
The Farnbacher Loles crew worked through Thursday night, changing both the engine and gearbox in the race car. It's ready to race now, with Werner set to drive the first race stint on Saturday, followed by Bryce Miller of Summit, N.J., and Jorg Hardt of Bonn, Germany.
"Definitely, the team showed great performance today, as it did all week long when we were testing. To be beaten at the end by the Ferrari by six-hundredths of a second is not a shame. We've had close competition all year long and the battle between Ferrari and Porsche goes on," Werner said.
"The team worked really long yesterday to get the car in shape so we could go for the front row in GT2. That makes me optimistic that the car will be good for the race. Tactics now change a little bit for the race: It's not as fast as you can go, but as safe as you can. The car definitely has a good result in it and the team is able to do great work, so now I think it's the drivers' part to bring it home."
honorary crew
Steve Steelman will join the Farnbacher Loles crew in pit lane on Saturday. He was high bidder in the ALMS auction to raise funds for breast cancer research, winning the position of honorary crew member for the day.
Tafel
Tafel Racing to Start No. 71 Third, No. 73 14th in 1,000 Mile Petit Le Mans on Saturday
BRASELTON, Ga., October 3, 2008 - It was a tale of two missions for Cumming, Ga.-based Tafel Racing in qualifying here at Road Atlanta for tomorrow's 11th Annual Petit Le Mans. The championship-contending No. 71 Tafel/Bell Micro Racing Ferrari F430 GTC will start third in the American Le Mans Series' penultimate round with Dominik Farnbacher (Ansbach, Germany) and Dirk Muller (a native of Germany now living in Monaco) driving. The No. 71 put in a strong effort to win the pole position while the No. 73 Tafel Racing Ferrari F430 GTC, shared this weekend by Alpharetta, Georgia's Jim Tafel, Pierre Ehret (Santa Rosa, Calif./Germany) and Alex Figge (Denver), focused on additional seat time over outright speed and will start 14th in class.
Technical Director Tony Dowe (Cumming, Ga.) held Muller, the 1999 Petit Le Mans class winner, in pit lane for the opening moments of the 20-minute qualifying session to help clear the 2.54-mile, 12-turn facility. When released, Muller made an immediate impact on the time charts with the No. 71 Bell Micro Ferrari. The 2000 American Le Mans Series GT2 Champion turned the second quickest lap at that point in the session with a one minute, 19.510 second lap. Muller's hot lap would drop to third quickest as the No. 87 turned in a time 3/10ths of a second faster. The German made several attempts but was not able to drop below the 1:20 range. The decision was then made to bring the No. 71 in to refuel and balance the air pressures of the Michelin tires. However, the best efforts of Muller and the Tafel crew were not able to better the time. 2007 event runner-up Farnbacher and Muller will start the 1,000 miles or 10 hour race from the inside of the second row of the GT2 field.
The No. 73 Tafel Racing Ferrari chose a different approach for its qualifying effort. The yellow-accented Ferrari had missed much of the week's testing and practice first with a gearbox issue and then with a broken header on two different occasions. Due to the lack of seat time engineer David Fullerton opted to use the qualifying session as a practice for Ehret and Figge who had the least number of laps in the car. Open wheel standout Figge took to the track first in the No. 73. He turned a quick time of 1:23.096, 14th in class, before quickly handing the car over to 2005 24 At Daytona GT class winner Ehret. Ehret then closed the session to reacquaint himself with the V8- powered Italian exotic he last drove at the season- opening 12 Hours of Sebring. Ehret joined Jim Tafel and Allan Simonsen (Denmark) to a fourth-place finish, the car's best result of the year thus far, at Sebring.
The No. 71 Bell Micro Ferrari and the No. 73 will have a 25 minute warm-up session to fine-tune the cars prior to tomorrow's Road Atlanta endurance classic.
Tony Dowe, Technical Director: "This is the second-longest race we do and somebody's got to win it; I think it should be us. The team, drivers and everyone involved has put maximum effort into this race. It is a home race and a lot of the people that support us have already called by so we know there is that little extra pressure to this race. Like Dirk and Dom, I think we can perform to the maximum for the whole race. I look forward to celebrating with the team tomorrow night."
Dominik Farnbacher, Driver, No. 71 "For the race tomorrow we are going to have to watch behind us but we are going to try and win this race. It is the most important race for us. We have to earn maximum points and the [Flying] Lizards have to have some problems and then we are back in the game. We are going to try our best and if it doesn't work, we still did out best."
Dirk Muller, Driver, No. 71: "We are in good shape. We tried something in qualifying with the tire pressures which worked out. The car was very consistent and stable so it is a very good race car. Position three is a good start for the race. I am happy and luckily the Petit Le Mans is a long race. I am looking forward to tomorrow. I hope the boys in the LMP cars learned a lesson with all the red flags in practice and will behave in the race. I am looking to do my best like the whole team and I believe it is going to be a good race."
Alex Figge, Driver, No. 73: "For us it really wasn't qualifying. We switched drivers part way through. It is what it is. We have to get on to it tomorrow, stay clean and have a good result. We'll move on to tomorrow and just try and have a good race. You have to drive cautiously and just try and finish the race."
Jim Tafel, Driver, No. 73: "As long as we can keep making gains that will be fantastic. Every year I watch this race I realize that you just have to stay out of the pits and on the track to get a solid finish. We have both ends balanced on the car and really just want to have a sound race and get a good finish."
Risi
Risi Competizione's Brazilian driver Jaime Melo was at his brilliant best in today's 25-minute qualifying session, taking his Ferrari 430 GT to pole position in the GT2 class for tomorrow's 1000 Mile/10 Hour (whichever comes first) Petit Le Mans race.
Melo eclipsed his pole time of 2007 by over two seconds, setting a new qualifying lap record with a time of 1:19.399 on his last flying lap. It is his 12th career pole position in the American Le Mans Series.
Buford, Georgia-based Nic Jonsson qualified the #61 Krohn green Ferrari 430 in 6th place, making it an excellent result for the Prancing Horse; four of the top six GT2 cars are Ferraris.
With a full field of 38 cars, including 20 prototypes, there have been incidents aplenty in the four official practice sessions run in the lead up to Saturday's 1000 Mile (or 10 Hours, whichever comes first) race. Both Risi Competizione cars have been fortunate to escape unscathed, although the lack of track time due to red flag interruptions has caused some frustration.
Giuseppe Risi, Team Principal, commented after qualifying: "I'm pleased with what we've achieved so far, and everyone has performed very well. We've worked hard to get two race cars which are not only fast and well balanced but also comfortable for all our drivers. It will be an extremely interesting, and no doubt exciting, race tomorrow."
Jaime Melo, qualifying driver, #62: "I am really happy with pole position because Petit Le Mans is very important for us, especially after the season we've had. We missed out on a good result last year so we're working really hard to be on the top of the podium this time.
"In the qualifying I got traffic on the first three laps so I eased up and waited to get a clear space to do a quick lap. To be honest, I expected the gap between us and the Porsche to be a little bit more as yesterday we were ahead of everyone by a reasonably big margin on old tires. But, when I came into the pits, I thought it would be enough to be on pole. The track was more slippery compared with yesterday and this morning but the balance was the same.
"We worked hard to get the same balance and grip that we found in the test a few weeks ago and, as I've said before, we have a great team at Risi Competizione. Everyone has been really positive which is important and I want to say thank you very much to my race engineer, Rick, [Mayer]. I like him so much, and he works really well with me."
Nic Jonsson, qualifying driver, #61: "This is the first time I've qualified this car in a long time...since Le Mans. We haven't really had enough track time to get the car completely where we want. This morning, although it was an hour session, I think we got 8 or 9 laps in because of all the red flags so we're still a little behind as far as set-up goes. We didn't test last weekend like a lot of teams did and, from that point of view, I think we should be pretty pleased with 6th place.
"We just have to have a clean race tomorrow, be safe and not do anything stupid and make sure we use our heads. If there are people in the race who want to push it the first couple of hours, let them do it; with a ten hour race you need to be there at the end and play it smart, stay out of trouble. We plan to do that and I think we're going to have a very good finish tomorrow."