Road America – Live Race Blog

August 22, 2010

Road America – Live Race Blog

August 22, 2010

Flying Lizard Porsche led GT after pit stops before being passed by Rahal Letterman BMW. Photo credit: Rick Dole for Michelin North America

It’s game on with less than an hour remaining at Road America. There have been two more yellow flags since the last race update. The most recent one happened just past the one hour, 30-minute mark, for separate accidents for the No. 40 Robertson Racing Doran Ford GT-R and the No. 48 GTC Porsche.

With less than an hour remaining, most of the field has been in for another round of pit stops.

At the restart, the Muscle Milk Team CytoSport Porsche RS Spyder led overall and in LMP ahead of fellow Michelin technical partner teams Highcroft HPD and Drayson Lola. That didn’t last long as immediately Jonny Cocker for Drayson swept past David Brabham (Highcroft) and Klaus Graf (CytoSport) for the lead!

In GT, a flurry of pit stops occurred with an hour and 3 minutes remaining, with 37 laps complete. Both Risi Ferraris, Flying Lizard Porsches, Corvettes and Extreme Speed Ferraris (plus the No. 90 BMW and No. 17 Porsche) all dove into the pits. Patrick Long in the No. 45 Lizard Porsche now leads Dirk Mueller in the BMW, Jan Magnussen in the No. 3 Corvette and Gianmaria Bruni in the No. 62 Ferrari. Mueller also passed Long into Turn 1 on the restart to take the class lead in GT.

Challenge class leaders are Luis Diaz (No. 52 PR1/Mathiasen car in LMPC) and Vic Rice (No. 88 Velox Porsche in GTC).

Leaders in the MICHELIN® GREEN X® Challenge after 1.5 hours are the No. 1 Highcroft HPD car in prototypes and No. 17 Porsche in GT. Both cars run on E10.

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The orange No. 12 Autocon Lola led overall early at Road America. Photo credit: Rick Dole for Michelin North America


We’re underway for the seventh round of the 2010 American Le Mans Series season at Road America, with 45 minutes in the books and two hours to go. Temperatures at the start of the race were 84 degrees Fahrenheit ambient and 105 degrees on track.

Johnny Mowlem, making his return to the ALMS for the first time since Monterey, made a rocket start in the orange No. 12 Autocon Lola AER, up to second place from fourth by Turn 1, and then past the polesitting No. 8 Drayson Racing Lola Judd Coupe into Turn 5 for the overall lead.

Another one making a fantastic flier from the green was Simon Pagenaud in the Patron Highcroft HPD ARX 01-c. From fifth, the Frenchman vaulted to second place behind Mowlem. The Dyson Lola Mazda Coupe (Chris Dyson driving) is next followed by the Michelin technical partner teams Muscle Milk Team CytoSport (Timo Bernhard driving) and Drayson Racing (Paul Drayson).

GT has also seen a change at the top, with Joey Hand in the No. 90 Rahal Letterman BMW passing Olivier Beretta in the No. 4 Corvette Racing Corvette ZR1 into Turn 1. Pierre Kaffer repeated the feat heading into Turn 5 in the No. 61 Risi Competizione Ferrari F430 GT, which demotes the Corvettes to positions 3 and 4.

Kyle Marcelli led early in LMPC for Intersport Racing in the No. 89 Oreca FLM09 before handing over to Chapman Ducote, new in the car this weekend. The No. 95 Level 5 car with Andy Wallace driving now leads the class.

Already there have been two yellow flags, the first for a GTC Porsche off at Canada Corner (Turn 12), and the second for a serious accident involving the No. 55 Level 5 Motorsports LMPC car and the No. 92 Rahal Letterman BMW. The No. 55 spun halfway down the backstraight, past the right-hand Kink entering Turn 12, with the BMW moving to the right of the circuit and then into the concrete barriers. Drivers at the time were Scott Tucker (No. 55) and Bill Auberlen (No. 92).

Most of the GT field pitted on either the first or second caution flag – so far all bar the No. 4 Corvette Racing Corvette ZR1, No. 40 Robertson Racing Doran Ford GT-R, and No. 44 Flying Lizard Porsche 911 GT3 RSR in the class have made at least one stop. None of the top four cars in LMP have been in yet.

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