March 16, 2011
(Images courtesy of the ALMS)
Peugeot set the fastest overall time in Monday’s test session for the 59th Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring presented by Fresh from Florida. Franck Montagny, Stephane Sarrazin and Pedro Lamy shared one of two new 2011 factory Peugeot Sport Total 908s, recording a best lap of 1:47.678 (123.702 mph) during the first of two four-hour sessions on the run-up to Saturday's race, the opening round of the 2011 American Le Mans Series presented by Tequila Patrón. “The new rules make things quite different," Sarrazin said afterward. "We came to Sebring on Saturday to run the maximum number of laps to improve our car. There is a lot to do. Everything is different. We have less power with the rules so we are having to learn and try a lot of things.” The fastest of Audi Sport Team Joest’s Audi R15 prototypes sat second at 1:47.919 (123.426 mph), turning the best time of the afternoon session with 2009 Sebring winners Tom Kristensen, Dindo Capello and Allan McNish sharing driving duties. The Audi team car of reigning Le Mans champions Timo Bernhard, Romain Dumas and Mike Rockenfeller sat third, just 0.106 seconds back. Highcroft Racing, the defending ALMS prototype champions, turned the fourth-best lap with its new HPD ARX-01e driven by David Brabham, Simon Pagenaud and Marino Franchitti. It was the only non-diesel among the top four cars at 1:48.342 (122.486 mph) in the morning. In GT, the first three cars were within 0.267 seconds of each other. The BMW Motorsport BMW M3 GT driven by Bill Auberlen, Augusto Farfus and Dirk Werner set a lap of 2:01.562 (109.574 mph) in the morning for a 0.152-second gap over the Flying Lizard Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 RSR driven by Jörg Bergmeister, Patrick Long and Marc Lieb, which set its fast lap of 2:01.714 (109.437 mph) in the morning session. Next up was AF Corse’s Ferrari F430 GT of Gianmaria Bruni, Giancarlo Fisichella and Pierre Kaffer at 2:01.829 (109.334 mph) in the morning session. We will be updating this space all week with updates from Sebring.
Thank goodness BMW has removed the dreaded "Joy" from the side of its racing machines in favor of promoting the "M" high-performance brand instead. We're glad somebody was thinking, at least.
(ALMS)
Audi turned the quickest time on Tuesday in testing at Sebring. Audi Sport Team Joest’s R15 prototype driven by Timo Bernhard, Romain Dumas and Mike Rockenfeller posted a 1:48.450 (122.822 mph) lap in the morning session, more than a second better than the Peugeot. The Montagny/Lamy/Sarrazin Peugeot was second Tuesday at 1:49.506 (121.637 mph) with the sister car of defending race-winners Anthony Davidson, Marc Gene and Alexander Wurz 0.063 seconds back in third.
(Chris Jones/INDYCAR)
Seven different IndyCar teams were represented in the top 10 of the combined time sheet for the two sessions (five hours total track time) and the top 18 of the 24 cars participating were separated by just one second in the first of a two-day Open Test at Barber Motorsports Park. Will Power, who won five road/street races on the way to a runner-up finish in the 2010 championship, topped the field with a quick lap of 1 minute, 12.5056 seconds (114.198 mph) in the No. 12 Verizon Team Penske machine on the 2.38-mile natural-terrain course. Scott Dixon of Target Chip Ganassi Racing was second (1:12.5538) and Dreyer & Reinbold Racing's Justin Wilson was third (1:12.6791). Five more hours of track time are scheduled for Tuesday, March 15, in preparation for the season-opening Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg on March 27. Barber Motorsports Park will play host to the Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama on April 10.
(Chris Jones/INDYCAR)
Sebastien Bourdais was wheeling the No. 18 Dale Coyne Racing machine in the IndyCar Open Test in preparation for running a package of road races in 2011. "It was an interesting day," Bourdais said. "We started, really, from nowhere. The car was really bad and we had a bit of a tough time. But towards the end, we started to get a little closer. We still have a lot of work to do, but it's encouraging because we made some progress. We have a lot of things to try with the geometry of the car, and I'm still learning the car and what changes work for me. We still have a lot of things to investigate, but the boys worked really hard today, and we'll keep plugging away."
(Dan Helrigel/INDYCAR)
Helio Castroneves' (No. 3 Team Penske) best lap (his 48th of 52) of 1 minute, 11.943 seconds was the quickest of the 24 cars to participate in the two-day IZOD IndyCar Series Open Test on the 2.38-mile, 17-turn Barber Motorsports Park course. Will Power, who led Day 1 of the test, was second-quickest overall with a lap of 1:11.9636 in the No. 12 Verizon Team Penske car set during the first of the day's two practice sessions. Target Chip Ganassi Racing's Scott Dixon, Team Penske's Ryan Briscoe and Newman/Haas Racing's Oriol Servia rounded out the top five.
(Dan Helrigel/INDYCAR)
Scott Dixon (No. 9 Target Chip Ganassi Racing) was third quickest at the Barber IndyCar test: "Team Target had a good couple of days with lots of big and good changes," Dixon said. "The No. 9 Target Honda has been decent, remaining in the top-3 both days. We're just going through the motions and making necessary adjustments before we start the season in St. Pete."
(Sebring International Raceway/ALMS)
An early arrival at Sebring International Raceway for the 59th Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring presented by Fresh from Florida on March 19th. We assume that he does have a media credential.
(Michelin)
A view of the Michelin bridge at Turn 17, at Sebring International Raceway, at night.
(Yokohama)
This is the third year Yokohama is sponsoring the 16-race IMSA GT3 Cup Challenge series (two races at eight venues). The Yokohama ENV-R2 is the series’ spec tire and will be on a fleet of more than 30 Porsche 911 GT3 race cars vying for championships in two divisions: Platinum (for 2010-11 GT3 Porsches only) and Gold (2005½ – 2009 GT3 Porsches). The schedule: March 17-18 - Sebring International Raceway; Sebring, Florida; April 28-May 1 - Miller Motorsports Park; Tooele, Utah, June 10-12 - Circuit Gilles Villeneuve on the Île de Notre-Dame; Montreal, Quebec, Canada, July 9 - Lime Rock Park; Lakeview, Connecticut, July 23-24 - Mosport International Raceway; Bowmanville, Ontario, Canada, August 19-20 - Road America; Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, September 17-18 - Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca; Monterey, California, September 29-30 - Road Atlanta; Braselton, Georgia. For details visit http://www.imsachallenge.com/.
(Chris Jones/INDYCAR)
Sam Schmidt Motorsports kicked ass in the Firestone Indy Lights Open Test at Barber Motorsports Park. Josef Newgarden, who will drive the No. 11 car for Sam Schmidt Motorsports, led the test with a lap of 1:15.6711 on the 2.38-mile road course. Newgarden topped both sessions, while his teammates, Esteban Guerrieri (No. 7 car) and Victor Carbone (No. 3 car) were second and third on the time sheets, respectively, in the afternoon session. "It was a strong day for all of Sam Schmidt Motorsports," Newgarden said. "We've had a good form over all of testing, and this kind of reassured us that we are in good form and not sort of guessing. It's still early. We have a lot of work to do. We have a couple more test days to run before the first race at St. Pete, so we just need to keep it up." The 2011 Firestone Indy Lights season opens on the streets of St. Petersburg on March 27.
(Chris Jones/INDYCAR)
Jamie McMurray took the No. 9 Target Chip Ganassi Racing IndyCar for a 5-lap spin on the 2.38-mile, 17-turn Barber Motorsports Park circuit Wednesday. He had trouble adjusting to the the paddle shifting and there was one spin/stall in a slow-speed corner. But after gaining his bearings, McMurray's lap times significantly decreased to the point where he was tempted to run flat through a few of the corners and the backstraight chicane. His best time was 79.8 seconds. "I didn't want to come in," said McMurray, who drives for Earnhart Ganassi Racing in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. "It was way more fun that I thought it would be. It felt as if I never turned the wheel, it was that smooth. The Cup cars slide around a lot and I think that's probably where the speed is that I didn't have in this car, knowing the threshold that if it breaks loose how much you can hang onto it. The acceleration was way more than I expected because the horsepower is less than the Cup cars so I thought the acceleration would be a fair bit less. I couldn't believe how fast the car took off. I never pushed it very hard in the corners to feel how much grip it has for fear I'd lose my other job. When we run Watkins Glen and Sonoma, the whole race is about sliding around the corners. In this car, the sensation of speed was more in acceleration and braking. The cornering did not feel that much faster, even though it was. The car had so much grip and control that when you're going around the corner 30 miles an hour faster than a Cup car I didn't sense the speed. But the acceleration and braking (there was a) big-time difference. I was glad they called me in because I kept picking up two seconds a lap, and at some point that ends and you wind up dropping a wheel off the track and get into trouble. I would love to get to run a road course race."
(Chris Jones/INDYCAR)
A couple of hours east of Birmingham, McMurray reciprocated by coaching two-time IZOD IndyCar Series champion Scott Dixon and turning him loose in the Bass Pro Shops/Tracker Chevrolet on the 2.66-mile Talladega Superspeedway tri-oval. "Scott won't have nearly the fun that I did," said McMurray, who in 2010 became the third driver to win the Daytona 500 and Brickyard 500 in the same year. Dixon, who laid down a quick lap of 72.2815 seconds during a two-day Open Test at the natural-terrain Barber Motorsports Park, mentioned to McMurray that two cars on the racetrack would have been fun. "Jamie watches our sport and he's really gotten in depth with go-karting so for him to come and try the IndyCar is special," Dixon said. "He's the one who brought it up to Chip and then we came up with the idea of the whole swap because I wanted to try the other car, too. It all worked out perfectly here. For me, Talladega is a restrictor plate track, it's a massive track so I think my side of it is going to be a lot easier. It would have been cool to go to some short track like Bristol or Milwaukee."
Editor-in-Chief's Note: If you really must keep up on all of the latest F1 developments and the potential U.S. GP in Austin, Texas, go here. - PMD
Editor-in-Chief's Note: Check out Michelin's racing website - "Michelin Alley" - and get in on all of the behind-the-scenes buzz. Go here. - PMD
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