Motors revved up for competition in Tooele

By Daniel Souza

TOOELE – Porsche’s Sascha Maassen and Ryan Briscoe claimed an almost predictable career-first overall win at the fifth race in the American Le Mans Series at Miller Motorsports Park this past Saturday.

A gamble on fuel strategy paid off and gave the team and Porsche its third straight overall victory in the American Le Mans Series with a 10-second victory over Audi's Allan McNish.

"The gas was a bit of concern, but the engineers in the box told me what number to conserve to and they were working with me on that," said Australian native Briscoe, who scored his second career class win.

The Penske team lengthened its final fuel load while Briscoe took the lead in the No. 6 LMP2 Porsche RS Spyder with 40 minutes to go when McNish pitted his diesel-powered No. 1 LMP1 Audi R10 TDI for a final splash.

"On my second lap of the stint I was saving a lot of fuel. They kept me updated as we were going. We knew we at least had the second-place buffer. After the first yellow flag Roger called the best strategy, which put us in the right place," said Briscoe.

The Aussie drove the final 75 minutes relying on a single set of tires and tank of fuel. The sister Penske Porsche of Timo Bernhard and Romain Dumas won overall at Long Beach and Houston. Maassen was one of six cars to pit at the 18-minute mark following an early caution period when a GT2 car became stranded on the track.

But with four different races within the same race, it was Tomas Enge and Darren Turner’s GT2 Ferrari F430 GT that snapped a four-race winning streak for Risi Competizione and its No. 62 Ferrari—also a F430.

The championship-leading car of Jaime Melo and Mika Salo broke a driveshaft with a little more than an hour to go. It was an ill-fated result as the car failed to complete 70 percent of the overall winner's laps to receive points.

And Vegas-based Petersen Motorsports seemed to have a winning plan, besides adversity. Switching from their traditional Porsche entries to the Ferrari F430 GT, the team relied on its driver duo to bring the win home.

“I knew I couldn’t go more than an hour because of my physical condition, but what a nice car to drive,” exclaimed a grinning Enge who two months earlier had smacked the outside wall in St. Petersburg, FLA, suffering a concussion, injuring his ribs, partially collapsing his lungs and fracturing an elbow.

“My worry was on how well I would do. I have to thank everybody for this result,” said Enge who raced with a protective brace on his left forearm.

“When you see a team do what these guys go, it gives you a tremendous lift,” said Enge.

Many of the ALMS teams that competed at Miller Motorsports Park will race next in the legendary 24 Hours of Le Mans on June 16-17. The next ALMS race will be the American Le Mans Northeast Grand Prix on Saturday, July 7 at Connecticut’s Lime Rock Park.

*Photos by Jeremy Henrie

Porsche aims to continue success streak with Utah Grand Prix

Successful start for the Porsche RS Spyder into the 2007 American Le Mans Series: After claiming overall victories in Long Beach and Houston as well as three class wins from the first four races this season, the Penske Motorsports and Dyson Racing teams are keen to continue this success streak in Salt Lake City, in the state of Utah, where the Winter Olympics took place in 2002. The fifth round of the American Le Mans Series, the series with the world's fastest sportscars, takes off here on Saturday.

Located in Miller Motorsport Park, the 7.240 kilometre circuit is not only the longest on the American Le Mans Series calendar but with its 24 corners is one of the most demanding. “A great challenge,“ enthuses title defender Sascha Maassen (Germany), who celebrated class victory and fastest race lap here one year ago at the premiere on the brand new circuit. “It's easy to lose one or two tenths of seconds over the long laps here, so it's very important to concentrate over the entire race distance and avoid making the slightest mistake."

At the second American Le Mans Series race here in Salt Lake City, four RS Spyders roll to the start. The Porsche-supported Penske Motorsports team runs two of the Weissach built sports prototypes: Sascha Maassen and Ryan Briscoe (Australia) man the RS Spyder with starting number 6. Sharing driving duties in the #7 RS Spyder are Timo Bernhard (Germany) and Romain Dumas (France). The duo celebrated two consecutive overall victories within one week at the street races in Long Beach and Houston and with these sensational results took over the drivers championship lead in the LMP2 category.

The US-based Dyson Racing team runs two RS Spyders with assistance from Porsche. Manning the #16 vehicle are Andy Wallace (Great Britain) and Butch Leitzinger (USA), who finished third behind Sascha Maassen and Ryan Briscoe in Long Beach, making the historic triple victory complete for Porsche. Taking up the race in the #20 RS Spyder are Chris Dyson (USA) and Guy Smith (Great Britain).For Hartmut Kristen the race in Salt Lake City holds very special challenges: “After contesting the last three races on very narrow and bumpy city circuits we're now back on a real race track. The cards will be reshuffled,” says the head of motorsport at Porsche. For Kristen, the key to success on this flowing circuit, which from it's characteristics is more comparable to European tracks, is not the pure engine output but the aerodynamic efficiency and stability in the many fast corners. The heat as well can not be underestimated, albeit with the race taking place earlier compared to last year temperatures are expected to be less extreme. He concludes: “This race puts extreme stresses on man and machine, particularly in the fiercely-contested LMP2 category. Spectators can expect a gripping and dramatic race.”

In the equally tough GT2 class for slightly modified near-standard sportscars, Porsche is strongly represented. In Salt Lake City, reigning ALMS GT2 champion Joerg Bergmeister (Germany) together with team mate Johannes van Overbeek (USA) are keen to secure their first class victory of the 2007 season at the wheel of their 911 GT3 RSR fielded by Flying Lizard Motorsports. Recently in Houston the duo finished second ahead of Wolf Henzler (Germany) and Robin Liddell (Great Britain), who will team up in a Tafel Racing 911 GT3 RSR for the Salt Lake City round. Amongst the circle of favourites are also Ralf Kelleners (Germany) and Tom Milner (USA) sharing the cockpit of a 911 GT3 RSR fielded by the famed Rahal Letterman Racing team.The race in Salt Lake City gets underway on Saturday, 19 May at 5pm and runs over 2:45 hours. For ticket information, please visit Miller Motorsports Park. See you there!