FOR THE FIRST TIME WITH NEW LMP1 ACURAPatrón Highcroft Racing duo Scott Sharp and David Brabham kicked off the team's assault on the seventh round of the 2009 American Le Mans Series championship at Road America in today's official test session.
All classes enjoyed 90 minutes track time today prior to official practice and qualifying beginning tomorrow.Both Sharp and Brabham took the chance to try the LMP1 class Acrua ARX-02a prototype for the first time on the longest track on the ALMS schedule.
Patrón Highcroft Racing finished the day fourth fastest - stopping the clocks at 1 minute, 52.916 seconds.
The team's track action was interrupted by red flags and the Acura later suffered a hydraulic issue that curtailed the LMP1 championship leader's assault.
The #9 Acura will be back on track tomorrow morning from 10:30am for the first one-hour practice. An additional session is scheduled from 2:00-3:00pm before qualifying begins at 3:40pm.
The Elkhart Lake circuit is a happy hunting ground for the Danbury, CT-based squad. Sharp and Brabham won the LMP2 class here last year for Patrón Highcroft Racing. Clever pit strategy from the team put Sharp and Brabham into race-winning contention late in the event.
However, Brabham got baulked on a late restart and was passed for the LMP2 lead - only to regain it minutes later when the class leader clashed with a lapped car.
SCOTT SHARP"We had a few little issues during the session and we really didn't get optimum track time."I think out of the box the car was pretty good but we have a bunch more work to do."We certainly need to find a little bit of speed but I don't expect that to be too big of a problem."It is great to be back at Road America because it is my favorite track. I've been here all week also helping Ed Brown with his Porsche so it was great to finally get out with the Acura today."I'm really looking forward to the rest of the weekend. We're all buckling down and working hard and I think we are going to have a great battle in the race."
DAVID BRABHAM"Unfortunately, we didn't get the full running that we would have liked today."To be honest we really haven't had a proper go at it yet because of the red flag stoppages as well."At the moment we have a good feeling for the car and we know what changes we need to make, but we never really put in a representative lap time as yet."Where we are in terms of pace to the opposition is a little hard to gauge at this stage. I also out-braked myself at one stage in turn five so we're not quite sure where we are at."
ROAD AMERICA BY THE NUMBERS
Fastest Corner: Turn #11 / The KinkMaximum Corner Speed: 270 kph (168 mph) Maximum Lateral Gs: 3.0 G in Turn #10 / The CarouselSlowest Corner: Turn #5Minimum Corner Speed: 95 kph (59 mph) Fastest top speed: 295 kph (183 mph) Percentage of lap on full throttle: 75%Maximum Braking Gs: 3.25 GNumber of Brake Applications: 7Gear Changes per lap: 34Left Turns: 5Right Turns: 9
ROAD AMERICA TIMETABLE
(All times local): Saturday, August 15, 2009: Practice: 10:30 a.m. - 11:30 a.m. (All Classes) Practice: 2:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m. (All Classes) Qualifying: 3:40 p.m. - 4:00 p.m. (P1/P2)Sunday, August 16, 2009: Warm-Up: 8:55 a.m. - 9:25 a.m. (All Classes) Race: 2:05 p.m. - 4:50 p.m.
HIGHCROFT RACING AT ROAD AMERICA
2008 Acura ARX-01b Brabham/SharpQual: 6th 1:47.774Race: 3rd (1st in P2) 102 laps2007 Acura ARX-01a Brabham/JohanssonQual: 5th 1:49.767Race: 5th (3rd in P2) 94 laps 2006 Lola EX257/AER Dayton/WallaceQual: 5th 1:51.315Race: 6th (4th in P1) 76 laps
ROAD AMERICA ON TV
USASPEED TVSunday, August 16 3:00pm-6:00pm (eastern) - Time Warner Cable Road Race Showcase featuring the American Le Mans Series at Road America (Round 7)EUROPEMotors TVSunday, August 23 (tape delayed)5:00pm-8:00pm - Time Warner Cable Road Race Showcase featuring the American Le Mans Series at Road America (Round 7)UNITED KINGDOMMotors TVSunday, August 23 (tape delayed)5:00pm-8:00pm - Time Warner Cable Road Race Showcase featuring the American Le Mans Series at Road America (Round 7)
