VICI's race was ruined by tyre failures
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3 Hours
With three hours of the 2008 Petit Le Mans now completed the #18 VICI Racing Porsche 911 GT3 RSR has steered safely clear of the many incidents that have been a feature ever since the lights went green at 11:16 AM and the car is knocking on the door of the GT2 top-ten. Marc Basseng, Nicky and Francesco Pastorelli have now completed a full hour-long stint each and the car has completed 102 laps in the opening three hours. It's been an incident-packed race, and just like Thursday and Friday, with fluttering caution flags a constant feature.
Race day was set to get underway away bright and early with an 25-minute warm up session (8:15-8:40 AM) before the 10 hour or 1,000 mile Petit Le Mans, the 11th round of the 2008 American Le Mans Series went to green flag conditions at 11:15 AM.
After a routine engine change last night, along with the corner suspension units, the warm-up session would provide an opportunity to bed in all the new parts ahead of the race. Nicky drove the car early this morning and he turned in 9 consistent laps in the 1:23 to 1:25 bracket posting a best of 1:23.450 (109.575 mph) on lap 8 of the 9 that the #18 car ran. Pleasingly this was the 8th fastest GT2 time, giving the team optimism that a good race set-up was in place.
By the time the pre race festivities, which included the traditional parachutists and playing of the national anthem, were completed, the temperatures were climbing fast and it was 78 degrees (air) and 95 degrees (track) under the sunny, clear sky. The race start, at 11:16 AM was clean for the entire field and Nicky posted a first flying lap in 1:26.514. However the meeting-long flag interruptions continued to bite hard and at 11:18 AM the first full course caution flag was waved. Several more cautions followed, with the #18 car unfortunately losing a lap under the yellow flags, before at the end of the first hour we are in a solid 13th place in GT2. Seconds after the one hour mark passed, the Dutch driver brought the #18 car into the pits at 12:17 PM (1 hr 1 min running) for fuel and four new tires and driver change to Marc. "The track is busy," reported Nicky, "the car feels good, and the tires are ok, so we can run an ok pace for sure."
Out on the track Marc quickly slotted into a consistent pace, until the next full course yellows were waved at 12:39 PM after the #66 Acura went off at Turn 10. It went green again at 12:54 PM. The next yellows fluttered at 1:07 PM as the #48 Zytek hit the tires hard at Turn 12. The pits opened at 1:11 PM and at 1:13 Marc arrived in the pits to hand over to Francesco.
With fuel added, along with four new tires, the 21-year-old Dutch driver left the pits to rejoin the race and was soon circulating in the train behind the safety car until the race went to green conditions again at 1:37 PM. As the clock ticked round to the three hour mark the #18 car picked up a stop-go penalty for pitlane speeding.
All three drivers have been ultra-consistent in their times so far and as the 3 hour mark arrived Nicky turned in a 1:25.012 lap. The fastest lap posted by the #18 car so far is a 1:22.319 (111.080 mph) set on lap 38 by Marc.
6 Hours
With six hours of the Petit Le Mans now completed the #18 VICI Racing Porsche 911 GT3 RSR is running a consistent pace, having popped in and out of the lower reaches of the top-10 during the last three hours. The car, being driven by Marc Basseng, Nicky and Francesco Pastorelli, has now completed 215 laps. In fact the race has come to us somewhat as we pass the half distance mark, and our pace has improved over the last couple of hours. The #18 car is running well with no reported problems and Technical Director Roland Wall is pleased with the performance so far.
The fourth hour for VICI Racing at hot and sunny Road Atlanta this afternoon saw Nicky behind the wheel of the #18 car, having taken over from his brother at 2:02 PM (2 hr 46 min running) with fresh tires and a full fuel load. Nicky is the first of the trio to begin a second stint this afternoon. More yellows were furiously waved at 2:21 PM after the #888 Creation hit the tire wall at Turn 1, an incident that continued the theme of full course yellow flag periods that have served to break up the flow of the race this afternoon. The course went back to green at 2:39 PM, but just 2 mins later the #12 Lola went into the wall at Turn 3 and everything slowed to a crawl again. Green conditions again at 2:56 PM and Nicky was able to turn in consistent 1:23-bracket laps until the end of his stint at 3:11 PM (3 hr 55 mins).
Marc took over for his second stint after the crew fitted four new tires and fuelled up the #18 car. On the pitwall Nicky was satisfied with the progress. "The track has improved for the car during my second stint, I'm happier than I was during the first stint for sure. We can run pretty good lap times which have come down now."
The next caution arrived at 3:28 PM and the yellows fluttered around the 2.54-mile, 12-turn permanent road course until 3:44 PM. At 3:58 PM (4 hr 42 mins) Marc, who drove here last year to a podium finish, pitted for fuel and tires but remained in the car to double stint as Roland moved to a strategy that will see the drivers double-stinting.
Statistically, the #18 car completed the fourth hour in 13th place in GT2 having completed 135 laps, and at the end of hour five it was in 11th place with 173 laps of Road Atlanta under its belt. Hour six ended in 10th place with 215 laps having been completed.
Technical Director Roland Wall says that at this stage of the race, caution is the key. "I don't want to take any unnecessary risks at this point; we need to keep it all together. I must say I'm pleased with the team's performance all afternoon; the pitstops have been superb, very quick, all the drivers have run very similar, quick and consistent times. I am taking care now with the car and the tires; I hope that it will be pretty uneventful to the finish."
As the first shadows start to make an appearance at Road Atlanta, the team now enters the final four hour stretch with Francesco behind the wheel of the red, white and black #18 car. The 10-hour/1,000-mile race will end in the darkness, with the yellow headlights that denote the GT2 cars will soon be piercing the gloom.
Race finish
Braselton, Georgia, Oct 4 - A highly promising performance at Petit Le Mans ended prematurely tonight in the darkness enveloping the Road Atlanta circuit as the #18 VICI Racing Porsche 911 GT3 RSR suffered a tire failure that resulted in the car making contact with the tire barriers at the final turn, just as the race went into the ninth hour, and after 291 laps of tough racing.
The first half of the race had gone exactly according to the strategy that the team had decided upon, and the #18 car was positioned comfortably in the GT2 class top-10 as the shadows lengthened over the 2.54-mile, 12-turn permanent course at Braselton in Georgia. Marc Basseng, who finished on the podium here last year, and the Pastorelli brothers, Nicky and Francesco, who hadn't seen the track prior to Thursday morning, all lapped quickly and consistently to keep the car in with a shout of a respectable result.
The driver's reported that the car was handling well and the set-up was suiting the track, while and the technical staff were happy with progress. And while the Dutch pilots hadn't driven here before, VICI Racing also hasn't competed at 10-hour/1,000-mile Petit Le Mans so it was another exciting challenge for the team in its inaugural ALMS year, and one that everybody had been relishing.
The final hours of the race were interrupted however by an unexpected spare of tire failures that were outside the team's control, and resulted in each driver, at this point running double stints, having to make unscheduled pit visits to change tires. However on lap 291 just as the clock ticked past eight hours, and with Marc behind the wheel, a tire failure at Turn 12 pitched the experienced German sports car racer into the barriers, damaging the #18 car, and abruptly ending our participation in the proceedings of the 11th annual Petit Le Mans. Marc, fortunately, emerged unscathed.
It was a bitter blow for the Miami, Florida-based team after a long week of hard work, and leaves the crew with a damaged car to be repaired. For the record, the #18 car's fastest race lap was set by Marc on lap 290, in 1:21.838 (111.733 mph).
Roland Wall, Technical Director VICI Racing: "I'm very disappointed with what occurred this evening. The team had worked very hard all week to put us in the best possible position for the race, and we were showing an excellent pace. All the drivers performed very well, lapping consistently, with quick times and the RSR was nice on the track too. The crew were superb, very efficiently getting the engine and other parts changed last night and all the pitstops today were fast and without problem. The chance of a decent finish was lost by four tire failures which was an unacceptable event to occur. We now have to go away and a lot of hard questions have to be asked."