American Le Mans 2009-Laguna Seca

MONTEREY SPORTS CAR CHAMPIONSHIPS | LAGUNA SECA | OCTOBER 10, 2009

 

ALMS: Laguna Seca Post-Race Notebook

David Brabham’s Dream Season

Despite achieving success in nearly every category of sportscar racing over the last decade, there were still two major accomplishments eluding David Brabham heading into the 2009 season: an overall victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans and an American Le Mans Series championship. Brabham has now achieved both, in what’s considered to have been a dream season for the veteran Australian driver.

“I’ve been very fortunate to have a lot of great years. But to win Le Mans and then to win the American Le Mans Series championship… I think overall, it’s the pinnacle of my career,” Brabham said. “This series means so much to me because I’ve been here from the start. It’s like a big family. But the racing is extraordinary. So for a driver to be part of that is pretty special.”

It’s been a long time coming for Brabham. His 19 Series victories, including wins in all four categories, ranked him as the most successful ALMS drivers without a championship. Brabs came close numerous times, but had them slip away on each occasion.

In 1999, he lost the inaugural LMP title after his co-driver collided with another car in the final race. Four years later, Brabham likely would have claimed the GTS championship if he’d competed in the two season-opening races. And just last year, he and co-driver Scott Sharp were eliminated from a strong chance at the LMP2 title after an accident in the penultimate round at Petit Le Mans.

“I’ve finished second a few times and it’s all gone down to the last race,” Brabham said. “And for whatever reasons, it didn’t happen.”

Four years ago, Brabham almost gave in the towel. With no prototype options in sight, he felt it could have been the beginning of the end of his career with a move to GT racing.

“Right about the 2006 season, there wasn’t a lot of options out there,” he said. “The Panoz [Esperante] opportunity was there.. and it was either do nothing or go out there in a GT2 car. At the time, you’d think, ‘Is this the end of my career?’ I couldn’t see a prototype opportunity coming up. But you’ve got to keep sticking at it. You never know when that next door opens.”

That chance came in 2007 when Acura launched its LMP2 program, and Highcroft Racing recruited Brabham as its lead development driver for its new prototype. And the rest was history.

“When the Acura door opened, it made me have a new life,” Brabham said. “All of a sudden I got back into a prototype. The last three years has been an amazing journey. It’s been a special time certainly in my life.

“Now when I look back at that GT2 time, it was actually a blessing because I can now read the [GT] traffic so well because I know exactly what the cars are capable of doing. You can only do that if you’ve driven all the different cars, and I’ve driven every one of them, and have won in every category too.”

On the heels of his long overdue first ALMS title, Brabham can’t imagine being elsewhere. Together with co-driver Sharp and team owner Duncan Dayton, Patron Highcroft Racing has grown from an occasional contender into a proven race winner and now to ALMS champions.

Life couldn’t be better for Brabham after this remarkable year.

Rubbings Racing?

Saturday’s down-to-the-wire battle for GT2 honors was without a doubt the most heated duel this season, but unfortunately ended in a way that nobody wanted to see.

With just a handful of minutes left on the clock, class leader, and newly crowned GT2 champion, Jorg Bergmeister, came under attack from a hard-charging Jan Magnussen. The speedy Dane in the No. 3 Corvette C6.R had closed to within seconds of the Flying Lizard Motorsports Porsche and was clearly the quickest car in the cool nighttime conditions.

Magnussen managed to take the lead with two minutes remaining, passing Bergmeister on the front straight in the pit exit lane. But officials deemed the move illegal and forced the Corvette to surrender its position. Magnussen obliged, however, quickly reeled the German back in on the last lap.

The two collided in the final corner and began banging fenders in the drag race to the checkered flag. Bergmeister dived to the inside, with Magnussen getting clipped by the Porsche, sending him hard into the concrete wall just shy of the start/finish line. Bergmeister wound up taking the win by a mere 1.037 seconds.

“Going into the last corner I was too far away to make a proper attack, but Jorg parked the car,” Magnussen said. “I didn’t see that, so I slid up and hit him a little – he went sideways and I managed to get on the inside. It was a drag race up the hill, and I managed to get ahead of him. Then he turned me into the wall, and he kept turning in. Then I spun around the nose of his car.”

Magnussen walked away unhurt, but was no doubt disappointed with the outcome. The nose-to-tail battle brought back memories of the 2007 Twelve Hours of Sebring, when Bergmeister battled Risi Competizione’s Jamie Melo to the checkered flag, but ending in a less spectacular fashion.

“I’m definitely sorry Jan went into the wall,” Bergmeister said. “I didn’t want that to happen. But it was a banging game. I’m glad he’s OK. It was tough racing. The Corvette passed me the first time at the hairpin but he went in way too deep and I was able to get back around him. He was a little quicker I have to say. I wasn’t trying to figure out where he was gaining time on me. I was trying to stay on track and in front.”

Corvette Racing program manager Doug Fehan commented: “Those last six laps were as exciting as I’ve seen in motor racing in a long time – two great teams, two great cars, two great drivers. It’s unfortunate it ended the way it did. I think we’re going to review the videotapes and see what we can do to ascertain what went wrong there. I’m sure we’ll be working with the sanctioning body to address it and put into place safeguards to make sure incidents like this won’t happen again.”

While Bergmeister and co-driver Patrick Long walked away with the victory and championship this time, they’ll no doubt come under attack from the Corvettes in the future, as GT2 could turn into an all-out war in 2010.

Ford To Give A Helping Hand To Robertson?

Robertson Racing’s GT2 pole at Petit Le Mans certainly gave the privateer squad a lot of exposure. It even caught the eye of Ford Racing officials, who came over to the Robertson’s tent after qualifying to discuss the possibility of providing future technical support for the team’s Doran-built Ford GT-R.

Team manager Andrew “H” Smith told me he’s never pursued working with the Blue Oval before, as he felt they needed to prove the car’s potential on the track before asking for support. With the Ford GT-R making significant gains all season, culminating with the popular Petit Le Mans pole, the team could be rewarded for its hard work and dedication.

“If there’s anything they can do to help us, we’ll take it,” Smith said. “It certainly won’t be, ‘Here’s a million dollars, let’s go racing.’ It would be, “How can we support you technically?’

“If they can help us with what they already have in place… wind tunnel, shaker rigs, information that may have been gathered when they were developing the [production] car. All of that stuff may be out there and that may be able to help us. It will be a big push going into the off-season to see what they can provide.”

Smith also discussed the possibility of adding a second car to the squad for next year, but it would be entirely dependent on funding.

Orbit’s Cosmo and Baker Inherit ALMS Challenge Win

While the battles for the overall win and GT2 class victory took center stage, an interesting development was unfolding in the ALMS Challenge category. Velox Motorsport’s Shane Lewis and Mitch Pagerey took the victory after only making two pit stops in the four-hour race.

Do the math and that adds up to averaging one hour and 20 minutes on a single 90-liter tank of fuel. I was left scratching my head trying to figure out how that was possible, especially with Lewis’ second stint lasting one hour and 45 minutes.

Sure enough, Velox’s Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car failed post-race tech and was excluded for exceeding the regulated fuel capacity. It handed the win to Orbit Racing’s Guy Cosmo and John Baker, who had an eventful race of their own.

“It was pretty wild,” Cosmo said. “I’m actually a little disappointed about inheriting the win as opposed to getting it on track. But I was amazed at what I was able to do on track. We were legitimately two laps down and I literally drove around everybody three times.”

Cosmo jumped in the Orbit Racing-prepared Porsche just after the one-hour mark, already one lap down. Baker was an innocent victim in a four-car pileup on the previous restart, with the car sustaining bodywork damage to the rear. To make matters worse, they were handed a one-minute penalty for entering a closed pit. Cosmo’s chances for victory looked to be over.

“On the restart, I passed three or four cars in my class in those first two laps, and they then made me pit and wait for a minute,” Cosmo explained. “At that point, we went down one more lap. Of course I’m thinking we’re down two laps, we might as well just plan on having me do a little bit and have John finish the race since it really didn’t matter what the pace was.”

Instead, Cosmo began reeling in the class leaders, setting fast lap after fast lap. He benefited from a few lucky cautions and gained even more ground thanks to the wave-bys and eventually moved into the lead. He appeared to be in prime position for he and Baker’s first Challenge win.

“After the last sequence of pit stops, I just assumed we were in the lead by quite a bit,” Cosmo said. “And then the guys are telling me I’m in second place and I’m down thirty-something seconds. I’m thinking, ‘Who in the world is in front of us? We passed every car like three times!’”

It was the Velox machine of Pagerey that was out front, thanks to only making two fuel stops compared to the No. 47 car’s three. Still with the faster car, Cosmo shaved the 35-second gap down to less than a half second by the checkered flag. Given a few more laps and Cosmo would have likely been able to get around Pagerey on the track, and not have been awarded the win after the fact.

“I don’t feel like my attitude has changed from yesterday,” Cosmo said. “It’s not like I’m bouncing up and down because we have the win. That’s not how I wanted it. It’s nice to say that at least John and I did finally win one of these races this year. We had a lot of things that went wrong here and there that kept us from winning.”

The No. 36 Gruppe Orange machine of Bob Faieta and Wesley Hoaglund, which initially placed third, was also excluded for failing to meet the minimum weight. All in all, it was an eventful conclusion to the inaugural ALMS Challenge championship.

What Could Have Been For Dyson No. 16

After an impressive debut with biobutanol at Petit Le Mans, Dyson Racing’s No. 16 Lola B09/86 Mazda looked to be en route for a top result Saturday, but an unlucky racing incident erased its chances.

Chris Dyson made a storming start from the rear of the field and put in two steady stints before handing over to Guy Smith near the halfway mark. Still on the lead lap, Smith began putting pressure on overall race leader Gil de Ferran. Prospects of an unclassified car potentially winning the race outright began flowing in the minds of some interested onlookers.

“Having the yellow and the restart enabled me to follow Gil,” Smith explained. “To be honest, I really expected him to take off as I thought he’d be much quicker. I stayed with him for a couple of laps and he never started to pull away, and I thought we may have a chance. A couple of times, I had a bit of a run on him in a few places, but I was conscious that it was Gil’s last race and I didn’t want to take him out.”

Smith’s cautious approach kept him in second overall until trouble struck at the two-hour and 30-minute mark. Olivier Beretta’s Corvette slammed into the BP Lola-Mazda in Turn 10, breaking two two-links. The Mazda MZR-R-powered prototype lost over 15 minutes in the pits undergoing repairs, relegating the car to a 14th place finish overall.

“Coming down the hill, the Corvette moved over to the left on the inside. I had one eye on the curb and one eye on him. I’m alongside him and I see him turn down on me, and I’m committed at that point; I couldn’t back out since I was already there. He just hit me square-on in the side. Unfortunately, the Corvettes are built a lot stronger than the prototypes.”

Considering Smith’s impressive mid-race pace, and the cooler nighttime temperatures that are better suited to turbocharged engines, the Dyson crew may have had a shot for the overall win, or at least a top three result overall. Yet, it wouldn’t have mattered in the official results, as points or prize money is not awarded to unclassified cars.

Mazda and BP are working with IMSA in hopes of making biobutanol as an approved fuel for next year. And given the encouraging progress made by Dyson in these last two races, expectations are ramping up for what could be a breakout 2010 season.

“All in all, even if we finished second, we wouldn’t have really finished second. So we’ll look at the positives,” Smith said. “The biobutanol ran very well again. It makes the engine run a lot cooler than under normal circumstances. In terms of performance, it’s virtually the same, but it helps with the reliability side of things. But I think we showed that it’s nice to be here and racing in the front. We’ve come a long way this year, and I think all the Mazda, BP and Dyson guys are excited for next year.”

Panoz Esperante Evo For 2010?

A quick post-race chat with fourth-place GT2 finisher Dominik Farnbacher revealed some interesting details on the future of Panoz Team PTG’s Esperante program. Farnbacher told me he believes the car will return again in 2010, but in an evolution what was seen on the track this year.

Team owner Tom Milner was unavailable for comment at the time, but the prospects of seeing the Esperante back in ALMS competition appear to be good. Farnbacher also said he and season long co-driver Ian James also expect to return next year. 

Souce: ALMS