POST RACE RECAP // CAMDEN THRASHER @ ALMS FINALE

The cars lined up on the grid, with the #66 Acura of de Ferran Motorsports on pole. Gil de Ferran topped the qualifying session the day before. The car features a new white livery in honor of Jim Hall and his Chapparal race cars of the ‘60s. Jim Hall gave de Ferran his first professional motorsports drive many years ago. Gil is retiring from active driving duty after this race... [read more]

The Falken girls stand by the Porsche 997 RSR.

An overhead view of the #3 Corvette which took pole in GT2.

A layer of fog had been covering the track all morning but with about 5 minutes to go before race start, the sun broke through. At 2:45 the green flag dropped and the race was on. Simon Pagenaud made a perfect start, holding on to his lead over the other P1 Acura into the first corner.

By the time the GT field rumbled down the straight and into the Andretti hairpin, the two Corvette’s had jumped into the lead. In this photo, both yellow cars have already escaped out of view. 

The large 8 car entry in the Challenge class follows behind the GT2 cars. In the very back can be seen the #16 Dyson Lola which is running without classification in order to test their experimental Bio-Butinol fuel.

Almost as soon as the race had started, it was over for Drayson Racing. On lap 2, less than 5 minutes into the race, their Lola came into contact with the #6 Cytosport car in turn 9. Both cars skidded off track into the tire wall and while the Porsche was able to continue, the Lola suffered broken rear suspension.  This brought out the first of many full course caution periods.

On the restart, Jon Field turned up the boost on the turbocharged AER V8 engine fly past David Brabham in the #9 Acura to move up to second place overall.

Corsa Motorsports seemed to have their Ginetta-Zytek hybrid car dialed in fairly well. Johnny Mowlem was able to hang on to the top P1 cars and even mount occasional challenges on the Acuras.

The #20 Lola-Mazda of B. Leitzinger and M. Franchitti  suffered a premature race finish. With less than an hour of elapsed race time, Butch Leitzinger had to pull the Lola-Mazda off the track with mechanical  troubles and a small fire. This brought out the second yellow flag.  
 
Pit stops shuffled up the running order a bit but the Corvettes retained their lead in class. Here the #45 Porsche of Flying Lizard Motorsports follows behind the sister car.  
 
As the green flag dropped again for the restart, what was once a Corvette stronghold on the GT2 class lead fell apart rather quickly.  Oliver Gavin made a bit of a mistake under braking into the Andretti hairpin, knocking out Tommy Milner in the BMW and James Sofronas in a GT3 Cup.  This brought out yet another caution period as the BMW and Porsche were extracted from the gravel traps. 

The BMW force was suddenly down to just one (damaged) E92 M3 GTR. The sister car retired very early in the race with mechanical issues.

These incidents allowed the #62 Risi Ferrari in the hands of Pierre Kaffer to take over the GT2 class lead. However this would be short lived as contact with the new Jaguar GT2 car would cause damage to the Ferrari’s radiator. The team had to push the car behind the wall to fix the damage, handing the GT2 lead back to Jan Magnussen in the #3 Corvette.
 
Meanwhile, Simon Pagenaud still held onto the P1 lead. At one point he had opened up a gap of over a minute to the second place car.
 
The sole remaining BMW soldiered on, albeit far behind the leaders due to lengthy repairs in the pits.
 
The GT2 championship leading #45 car of the Lizard boys raced on, trying to catch the lead Corvette. They only needed to finish the race in order to claim the GT2 championship but the team was keen on getting the 100th victory for Porsche in the American Le Mans Series.

A pack of GT2 cars at the top of the hill just before they dive downward through the “Corkscrew”. About halfway through the race, the fog rolled back in, blocking out the usually spectacular sunset.

The #48 Ginetta-Zytek, now in the hands of Stefan Johansson, continued to put in a solid performance, occasionally mixing it up with the Patron Highcroft Acura for second in the P1 class.

The white liveried Acura, in honor of Jim Hall, was able to retain the lead after its pitstop for tires, fuel, and driver change to put Gil de Ferran in the car. Gil announced his retirement from active driving earlier this year and this would be his last race. It was obvious that Gil was determined to win this one and go out in style.

The #4 Corvette at the apex of turn 6.

Running a clean race a bit further back in the GT2 field was the Falken Porsche RSR of Dominic Cicero and Brian Sellers. The team ran a limited schedule this year, with this race being their third of the year. Next year the team plans to run a full season with the new 2010 Porsche 997 RSR.

With 146 laps complete, the #66 De Ferran Acura holds on to the lead but only slightly to the P2 class Acura of Adrian Fernandez. Fernandez was putting in some blistering laps to keep up with, and even pass the P1 Acura for the lead. The P1 car had the advantage on the straights, with Fernandez in the smaller P2 making up time in the corners.
 
 
The battle continued into full darkness. The excitement continued to build as both cars had to navigate through slower traffic. But in the end, Gil de Ferran held on to take the win in his last race of his driving career.

To add to the close battle for the overall victory, the GT2 class developed a fantastic fight of its own. Jan Magnussen in the #3 Vette  and the #45 Porsche of Jorg Bergmeister ran nose to tail, swapping places at every corner. On the last lap, both cars drag raced side by side to the finish line. The Porsche squeezed the Vette over towards the pit wall. The push and shove game ended dramatically with the Corvette spinning hard across the track and into the opposite wall and the Porsche crossing the line first. With this win, Jorg Bergmeister and Patrick Long took the GT2 Championship.

Gil de Ferran and Simon Pagenaud celebrate an emotional victory to end the season. Due to a few bad finishes earlier in the season, the De Ferran team was not able to clinch the P1 Championship. This honor went to David Brabham and Scott Sharp of Patron Highcroft Acura. 

Here the winning Acura goes through post race technical inspection.

The weekend turned out to be tough one for BMW. With one car finishing sixth in class and the other not finishing the race, this was not exactly the kind of result that BMW would have been hoping for. However, their season overall was very solid and they were able to take their first win at Road America. The team can be expected to come back even stronger next year.

The Corvette team’s weekend did not end very well either. Although they qualified on pole, both cars were involved in accidents that prevented them from finishing on top. Here, the #3 car sits on the tow truck, heavily damged from the spectatucalr last lap battle and crash.

The Falken Porsche sits alone next to the team trailer. The team gained lots of experience this year and can be expected to come back stronger next year.

Overall, the race was a fantastic end to the 2009 season. The battle between the P1 and P2 car for the overall lead gives good impressions for next year and the combination of both prototype classes into a single class.

For a look at more photos from the ALMS finale at the Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, click here

Photo/Editorial: Camden Thrasher