Qualifying: ALMS at Mid Ohio

Guy Smith and Chris Dyson will start from pole (Photo: John Dagys)

Guy Smith and Dyson Racing will start on the overall (LMP1) pole for Saturday’s Mid-Ohio Sports Car Challenge after narrowly beating out Klaus Graf’s Muscle Milk Aston Martin by one tenth of a second during qualifying with a 1:12.729 lap time. Things were far from easy for Smith though, as his car was far from compliant and he was visibly fighting the car through the corners.

“We struggled quite badly with the setup,” Smith stated, “and we pretty much threw everything at it but the kitchen sink. Qualifying was a wild ride with the car sideways a lot of the time. It was a god lap and I’m very happy with it.”

Steven Kane continued his excellent start to his ALMS career by slotting the second Dyson entry into third place with a very respectable 1:13.607. Dyson scored a dramatic win last year and will hope for a repeat of last year’s victory come race day.

read the rest of the article on motorsport.com http://www.motorsport.com/#/all/article/?id=409505

Race Preview: ALMS at Mosport 2011

Mosport 2010 (John Dagys)

After returning from the three month Le Mans break, the American Le Mans Series took to the track two weekends ago at the scenic bullring of Lime Rock Park. The tight confines of the small Connecticut track provided some good, but at times sloppy racing as the cars tried to navigate such a tiny track. The series now heads to Canada's high-speed and flowing Mosport International Raceway where the track could not be more different.

 Mosport is one of the fastest circuits in the world and features drastic elevation changes that make the track both difficult and extremely intimidating. Drivers will have to be especially careful with the infamous Turn 2, which goes up over a blind crest and quickly drops away to the left. Its blind nature makes finding the apex very difficult and it punishes mistakes. The off camber nature of the corner makes it easy to slide off after missing the apex and it has caught out some of the best driver's in the world. Turn 2 is bound to chew up somebody's car before the weekend is over.

Read the rest of the preview in its entirety at motorsport.com

2011 Mosport Spotters Guide

Andy Blackmore does some great work on these spotter's guides, if you're heading out to Mosport this weekend, be sure to download yours at http://www.spotterguides.com/

Le Mans 2011: GTE Pro Preview

The GT Battle will be fierce at Le Mans (Photo: John Dagys)

While the Audi vs Peugeot LMP1 battle at Le Mans this year will most likely steal the majority of the headlines, GTE, formerly GT2, could provide the best on track racing. With many of the world's best teams, drivers and seven different marques taking the grid this year, the field looks especially deep.With GT1 cars running the Le Mans for the final time last year, GTE takes over as the sole GT category, but the class has been split into two categories; GTE Pro for all pro driver lineups and new cars and GTE AM which features pro-am driver pairings and machinery that must be at least one year old.In our preview, we will focus on the GTE Pro.

GTE Pro

AF Corse

 Italian powerhouse, AF Corse enters Le Mans with a lot of momentum. The team beat out the world's best GT squads in qualifying at Sebring in a year-old Ferrari F430 GT and carried that momentum to a victory for Ferrari's new prancing horse, the F458 Italia, at the legendary Spa Franchorchamps circuit in Belgium.

AF Corse has a stellar lineup headlined by Ferrari F1 reserve driver Giancarlo Fisichella paired with fellow Ferrari aces, Gianmaria Bruni and Toni Vilander. Couple that trio with what is arguably the best GT car in the world in the F458 and you have a winning recipe. Look for AF Corse to run at or near the front for the majority of the race.

(Photo: John Dagys)

BMW Motorsports

 2011 marks the second year of the BMW M3 GT's at Le Mans and this time they come in expecting to fight for a win. Like AF Corse, the German manufacturer has started 2011 in impressive fashion, scoring a dominating win at the 12 Hours of Sebring and another impressive ALMS victory on the streets of Long Beach.

 Car #55 sees one of the most underrated GT driver, Dirk Werner, paired with former touring car drivers Jorg Muller and Augusto Farfus. While it is a solid lineup,Werner will likely have to carry the team a bit due to Farfus's and Muller's relative lack of experience in  GT car. Car #56 has ALMS standouts Dirk Mueller and Joey Hand joined by another touring car driver Andy Priaulx. Hand has been off to a career year with wins at the Rolex 24 at Daytona, the 12 Hours of Sebring and the ALMS round at Long Beach and has been supported by good stints by Mueller.

Look for the two BMW's to be at the front and keep an eye out for Joey Hand's famous out-braking maneuvers.

BMW M3 GT (Photo: John Dagys)

Luxury Racing

  While Houston based Risi Competizione chose not to contest Le Mans this year, the team will be there in a different capacity. According to SPEED.com's John Dagys "nearly the entire (Risi) crew" will be supporting Luxury Racing's #59 Ferrari F458 Italia at Le Mans. Risi's star driver, Jaime Melo, will also be driving for the team.

 With Risi's know-how and assistance and Jaime Melo's speed, Luxury Racing could be a dark-horse come Sunday afternoon.

With Risi's help, they could be at the front (photo: John Dagys)

Lotus JetAlliance

    As Jaguar demonstrated last year, it is not easy for a new manufacturer to jump into the highly competitive GT class. Even a marque as successful as BMW struggled to find pace when they debuted the M3 GT at Sebring in 2009. Lotus can expect a lot development work and testing before they can match the speed of the established teams from Ferrari, Corvette, BMW and Porsche.

   Lotus enters two cars into the fight at Le Mans this year with an all-pro driver lineup in the #65. While a top ten would be a great victory for the team, the main goal this year will be getting both cars to the finish.

The cars are now a lovely light blue opposed to the bare bones carbon look at the test days (Photo: John Dagys)

JMW Motorsport
JMW Motorsport have quietly put together a very solid start to the season in Europe securing a win in the LMS opener at Paul Ricard. Although their driver lineup may not be as impressive as what some other teams can boast, they should still be in for a solid top ten or even possibly a top five finish if frontrunners experience problems.

Photo: John Dagys

Corvette Racing
Corvette is not used to losing Le Mans and last year's circumstances were especially painful for the American squad. Jan Magnussen was leading the GT2 field rather comfortably and looked to be on pace for a class win. It all was going according to plan until Anthony Davidson in one of the Peugeot 908 P1 cars side swiped the Corvette while attempting a very aggressive and questionable overtaking maneuver in the high speed Porsche Curves. Magnussen was forced off track and took a very heavy hit into the armco fencing and Corvette's race was over.

Corvette returns for their second Le Mans in the GT category with drivers Olivier Beretta, Antonio Garcia and Corvette rookie, Tommy Milner in the #73. Car #74 will be shared between Magnussen, Oliver Gavin and Richard Westbrook. Corvette was the car to beat last year and combined with the chip they surely have on their shoulder, they should be counted among the favorites for a win.

Photo: John Dagys

ProSpeed Competition
Prospeed enters their distinctive white and flat-black Porsche GT3 RSR for Le Mans led by Jaguar RSR regular, Marc Goosens and Porsche factory driver Marco Holzer. ProSpeed has a good package and driver lineup, but will unlikely challenge the front runners too much.

Photo: John Dagys

IMSA Performance Matmut
The French team secured a GTE AM victory at Spa Francorchamps earlier in the year, but the talent they will face in GTE Pro is a huge step up. Porsche factory driver Patrick Pilet should be close to the front runner's speed, but it will be a tall order for the other drivers in the lineup.

Photo: John Dagys

Team Felbermayr Proton
Team Felbermayr took the GT win at Le Mans this year and returns with a strong driver lineup of Wolf Henzler, Marc Lieb and Richard Lietz in the #77 car. The #88 has Porsche Super Cup driver Nick Tandy, ALMS driver Bryce Miller and rookie Abdulaziz al Faisal. Time will tell how quick (or slow!) al Faisal is. The Porsche 911 GT3 RSR has always enjoyed good runs at Le Mans and the #77 has the lineup to run at the front, but time will tell just how competitive the car is against the might of BMW and Ferrari.

Photo: John Dagys

JOTA Aston Martin
The Aston Martin Vantage has never been much of a force in GT competition and against this year's deep field the chances of high finish are extremely unlikely. Making it to the finish line would be a victory in itself for the team.

Photo: John Dagys

Flying Lizard Motorsports
Flying Lizard Motorsports' sports car racing successes have been well documented. The energetic, youthful Californian team have taken class victories at Sebring, Petit Le Mans, a pole position at the Rolex 24, ALMS GT Driver's and Team's Championships and have been essential to Porsche's GT Manufacturer's Championships. Strangely enough, a 24 Hours of Le Mans victory has proved to be quite elusive.

2011 could be the Lizard's year, however. The team's singular Porsche has always run well at Le Mans, but were always hampered by team owner, Seth Neiman, electing to drive against the all-pro teams from Risi Competizione and Corvette. Seth is clean and consistent, but he simply can not match for the speed and aggression that pro drivers are capable of.

This year, Neiman has entered two Porsche 911 GT3 RSRs with one in GTE AM and the other in GTE Pro. The #80 GTE Pro car is definitely a favorite for a race win with the lanky German, Jorg Bergmeister paired with Porsche factory driver Patrick Long. The third piece of the puzzle is former Audi and Porsche factory driver Lucas Luhr. Luhr returns to his roots in GT Porsches after stints in the Audi and Porsche RS Spyder prototypes.

If Patrick Long can keep his aggression in check, Flying Lizard will undoubtedly be the fastest Porsche and possibly the quickest GT car.

The Lizard's incredible Le Man's livery (Photo: © Bob Chapman, Autosport Image)

Hankook Team Farnbacher
 If you are someone who likes to root for underdogs or are a looking for a dark horse to take the win then look no further. Hankook Team Farnbacher took a 2nd place last year in a Ferrari F430 and posted the fastest time at the April Le Mans Test Day in their new Ferrari 458 Italia.

Led by ALMS veteran Dominik Farnbacher, the blindingly quick American, Leh Keen and Allan Simonsen, Hankook Team Farnbacher could be in for a very solid result.

Will their test day speed carry over come raceday? (Photo: John Dagys)

2011 24 Hours of Le Mans Spotter's Guide

Thanks to Andy Blackmore for allowing us to feature his wonderful spotter's guides on our site. The two part guide features every car and lists every driver taking part in this year's French classic. Click on the images for a full-resolution download.

Video: Early Apex

 Very cool promotional video for EarlyApex.com made by our friend Antoine Furet. Nicely done!

Race Preview: ALMS at Long Beach

Photo: John Daygs

   The American Le Mans Series finds itself going west this weekend, where the driver's and teams will have to adapt from the wide open nature of Sebring to the tight confines of Long Beach. 2011 marks the fifth consecutive year for the series to race at the famous street circuit venue and provides many unique challenges to the participants. With the race only being two hours long and run on public roads with concrete barriers lining the circuit, one small mistake can derail a team's chances in a heartbeat.



   Last year a thrilling battle was fought at the end of the race in the LMP category with Simon Pagenaud grabbing the lead for Highcroft and HPD from Adrian Fernandez and Aston Martin Racing on the final lap. Sadly a prototype battle as exciting as last year is a bit unlikely due to new regulations and difficult economic times leaving the 2011 LMP classes with a total of four cars. Muscle Milk Racing should be the favorite for the win in their Aston Martin against Dyson's Lola B09/86. There is optimism in the paddock, however, that as many as five to six LMP1 cars will contest the next ALMS round in July at Lime Rock Park.

   With prototype numbers down, the GT battle will be the class to watch. BMW Team RLL looked unbeatable at Sebring as they came away with a 1-2 finish at the 12 hour classic. They'll certainly try to continue that domination, but nothing is easy with the level of competition GT has to offer.

(photo: John Dagys)

  Porsche's new 2011 spec GT3 RSR looked rather off the pace in Florida and IMSA has taken away 25kg of weight from the car in hopes of making it a bit more competitive in the class. With the weight break given to Porsche, picking a winner becomes a bit harder as the class is extremely deep. BMW will certainly be tough to beat and Flying Lizard and Corvette Racing will be in the mix, but Risi Competizione's new Ferrari F458 is our favorite for the win. Risi managed to run near the front in Sebring with only a week's time to prep their brand new car. Imagine the progress the Houston based squad has made in a month.

(Photo: John Dagys)

 Rounding out the grid will be the LMPC and GTC classes. It should not come as a surprise if an LMPC car runs near the front during the race and could possibly even take a surprise victory if mechanical troubles strike the LMP cars. In GTC its tough to bet against Black Swan Racing and their ace driver, Jeroen Bleekemolen.

 With the short race distance and the tight nature of street circuit racing, emphasis will be placed on qualifying which you can catch live Friday evening on ESPN3.com at 8pm Eastern and the race live Saturday at 7:15pm Eastern. A tape delayed broadcast of the race will air at 5pm Eastern on ESPN2 this Sunday.