ALMS Round 10 - Laguna Seca - Results

Overall: What a wonderful race. The first one in a while I have been able to listen to and follow the live timing of (despite an intense BSU vs. UI game in the background). The safety officials were spot on, doing a great job with the yellows when needed, and holding off when not needed. Only four or five cars retired - the #21 being the fifth, driving behind the wall with under 15 minutes left but not officially retired. I don't even want to guess how many lead changes we had. Creation, Zytek, Penske, Audi, and Dyson were all leading at one point or another, but at the end Audi pulled it out. After some serious troubles, they were very fast through the middle of the race, getting both cars in the top five on a different pit strategy from everybody else, which gave them the 1-2. Stunning accomplishment for the still unbeaten car. Good work by the ADT Champion Racing team, Audi Sport North America, and Team Joest to bring the undefeated underdog car home in first place. Perfect. A great accomplishment for a great team.


LMP1: Audi, Audi, Creation, Dyson, Zytek. A great race, every single car here lead at one point, except maybe Pirro's #2 Audi. Great racing, and I loved seeing more than one car challenging the Audi's. Autocon was the only other LMP1 on the track, but they had problems and were in and out of the pits most of the race. Highcroft didn't show.


LMP2: Porsche, Porsche, Intersport, B-K Mazda, Radical, Radical, Horag Lola. The Van Der Steur Radical and the Horag Lola both retired with a mechanical problem and an accident respectively. Intersport played it safe and capitalized on problems with the Radicals to take the third podium spot. B-K, the only team on Kuhmo tyres, had a great finish in fourth after slow pace throughout the race. The Bruichaddich team had a water pump blow on them, which put them second to last overall. Very unfortunate for the two Radicals, great cars, just unlucky today. Porsche, after saying all year that they are not gunning for a win and are only in ALMS for the LMP2 Championship, changed their mind right before the race when one of their drivers said, "I am a racer, I will try to win LMP2, but if I have a shot at winning overall, I will try." Their new car comes out in March, and they will be at Le Mans next year.


GT1: Wow! Wonderful racing as always in this close field. For almost the entire race, all four cars were on the same lap and within sight of each other. Stunning. In the last hour, Tomas Enge (007) and Johnny O'Connell (#3) each had a problem and dropped a lap from the leading 009 and the second place #4. The two top cars came across the line 5 seconds apart, while the two cars down a lap came across .5 seconds apart. Corvette got enough points to secure the manufacturers, team, drivers, and tyre championship.


GT2: Awesome race as always. Alex Job led, and finished third, but the race for the lead was really between Mike Salo (above) and Jorg Bergemeister (below) all day. The #62 Ferrari of Salo had about a second per lap over Bergemeister's #31 Peterson/White Lightning Porsche, but starting from pit lane set them back immediately. In the last ten minutes, Salo got the lead back after a great comeback, and finished almost 13 seconds up on the Porsche. Alex Job finished a lap back - a great podium for their beautiful car, but some bad luck put them off the top spot. Then came Flying Lizard, Panoz, Flying Lizard, BMW, and the other Ferrari. The second Panoz and BMW both retired. So, at the end of the season, the team championships go to Peterson/White Lightning, and the driver championship goes to Bergemeister. Johannes van Overbeek and Wolf Henzler's #45 Flying Lizard, which was a major contender, broke a radiator, giving bergemeister the championship.