ALMS at Lime Rock Park July 4th Weekend

[dalyduo]

Stopped by LRP yesterday, which was media day for the American LeMans New England Grand Prix.

The 1st and 3rd place LeMans winning Audi R8's were uncrated, still covered with the dirt and brake dust from the 24 hours of LeMans. I missed their bodywork patina but did see the cars stripped down to their carbon fiber tubs being entirely rebuilt for duty this weekend at LRP. (See pics) They looked more like hybrid Star Wars skimobiles with mechanicals exposed than exotic prototype racecars.

Spoke with Keith Bransford who hails from Springfield Mass. and has been an Audi race mechanic for 12 years, with four team trips to LeMans under his belt. (Keith has the goatee & shaved head)

Seeing the cars broken down like that was amazing. The engineering and execution is exquisite. You could take almost any inner part or section of those cars and display them as art in a museum.

Audi shocked the endurance racing world when they changed out the entire rear transaxle/suspension in only 5 minutes after an on track mishap during one of their early LeMans appearances. (You can see Keith working over one of the assemblies sitting on its wheeled box base.) It was such an unfair advantage that the organizers outlawed the exchanging of gearboxes. Keith explained that Audi responded by re-engineering the entire gearbox. Now during races he has a heated holding box (At 75c) with replacement gears and if one or more fails, the entire gearbox can be rebuilt without removal in 9 minutes.

Check out all the sensor and control wiring around the plug wires.

Keith says the entire mechanical tear down, rebuild process takes about 2 days and every part on both cars is completely interchangeable and fits perfectly. I have no doubt, as this was the most organized cleanest race shop pit area I've ever seen. Not a spot of oil anywhere and everyone going about their job in methodical good humor.

The R8's will be retired at the end of this season so development of these incredible cars will soon come to an end. Over time they will become the next generation of the worlds coolest vintage racers for those with very deep pockets! Keith wasn't melancholy about the end of their run because he'll soon have his hands full learning and servicing the R8's replacement.

After visiting the R8's I wandered into Driving Impressions where Nile informed me he’ll be leaving Lime Rock on July 11th to manage the service department at Hunting Ridge Motors in Port Chester NY. They are located on the border of Greenwich Ct and are Lotus distributors who also sell and service other high-end exotics. We'll certainly miss Nile's racing stories of sharing track time with Sterling Moss and Jimmy Clark!

While talking with Nile, I also had the unexpected high honor of meeting James Weaver who strolled in and chatted for a while. The Dyson team had purchased part of the track day to sort out their Lola's for the ALMS weekend. James expressed some concern with having enough power in the car and given his formidable R8 competition, I'm sure it feels like he never has enough. It's hard to imagine the experience of dodging back markers while pushing those cars to the limit around Lime Rock where they are reportedly traveling through the downhill at 140 mph and recording 48 second lap times!
James mentioned that he turned 50 this year and I asked him what sort of race prep he does. He said being relaxed both physically and mentally was key for him. He does some light upper body weight work but prefers flexibility and relaxation to bulking up. Before qualifying he takes a message and runs laps in his head. (The team has a masseuse at all race events.) He said staying ahead in his breathing was very important but claimed not to do much aerobic training. I suspect that testing and racing the car on a regular basis keeps his heart rate elevated enough. Whatever he's doing must be working, as he's as competitive as ever and clearly enjoying himself.

At trackside, media members were given opportunities to hot lap with Will Turner in his race prepared stock BMW M3 and Robin Liddel in the Porsche 911 GT3 RSR that he beat Max Angelleli with by .038 seconds this past Sunday, in Cleveland.

I managed to snag a ride in both cars and was impressed by the stock performance of the BMW and Turner's knowledge of the rain line around LRP. We were then further impressed with the brutal acceleration and braking of Liddel's Porsche, while he used the demonstration laps to explore wet grip around the dry line with his high powered Porsche still in completely dry set up. Lots of exciting tail out wheel spin! Yee Ha! It occurred to me that a quick "rain line" discussion with Bruce MacInnes would have shortened the learning curve considerably for Robin, who was quite brilliant, none the less, at wrestling his misbehaving bronco around a track he'd never seen before.

It was a neat day to be around the paddock at LRP!

Practice and testing on Friday, July 1st

Speed World Challenge racing, pit stop competition, and ALMS Qualifying on Saturday. (Rotary Fireworks display Saturday night) Saturday July 2nd.

On Monday, July 4th, the SCCA spec racer and improved touring cars are under card to the 3pm ALMS 2 hour 45 main event. The big P1 & P2 prototypes will mix it up with the likes of GT1 racer Ron Fellows in the new Corvette C6R, Terry Borcheller in the Saleen S7R and Andrea Bertolini in the Maserati MC12. GT2 will be populated by a nice assortment of Porsche GT3 RSR's and Panoz Esperante GTLM's.

I'll be there Saturday and Monday. Adios. Pat

[jcraige]

Excellent pics.

Would give a portion of my right nut to do those hot laps. Well, ok, I would give a portion of Nestor's right nut, but you get the idea.

Great write up by the way. I look forward to the Speed TV replay on Sunday.

[sydude]

Originally Posted by jcraige

Well, ok, I would give a portion of Nestor's right nut, but you get the idea.

I reckon any portion of Nestor's right nut is equivalent to a whole buncha nuts..

Great stuff, DD!

[OLDMAN]

Hey Pat:
I'll be on the outside of turn 1 on Monday. Look for the red baseball hat (or maybe green sun hat) and my special Lime Rock chair..


OLDMAN

[rhpearson]

Nice post and pics Pat! Thanks!

I haven't been out to an ALMS weekend since Mosport 2003... kinda miss it. Those R8s are always super impressive. The first time I saw them in 2000, I was just in awe. BMWs gave them a run at Mosport that year...

Still, my favorite is the Corvette. I love the thunder of that big V8

Robert

[dalyduo]

Thanks guys, it should be a great weekend of racing as the weather looks to be cooperating as well.

Bob, I'll look for you in your usual spot.

Robert, yes the V8 rumble of the Corvettes is always impressive. (The V8 motor roar at the start of the Busch Series race in October is probably the earth shaking loudest of the entire season at LRP.)

But when you add the R8's, Lola's, Vipers, Panoz, Saleen's, Maserati's, Porsche's & BMW's to the Corvette thunder, you get a cacophonous symphony in LRP's natural setting that is wonderfully deafening.

Good stuff.

[John Greist]

Pat,

Great photos but best exposition going. Your words are worth a thousand pictures.

John