Optimism was prevalent Monday as American Le Mans Series race teams began their on-track preparations for Saturday’sseason-opening Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring.
Teams had four hours of unofficial testing time on the 3.7-mile SebringInternational Raceway as they began the process of dialing in new cars,shaking off rust from drivers and in some cases getting used to newteammates. Though there were some minor spins, there were no seriousincidents during the sessions. No official times were kept.
“Shaking it down,” said Cort Wagner, driver of a Porsche 911 GT3 RS for The Racer’s Group/New Century Mortgage team. “It’s a brand-new car and today was the first time it has been on the track. Everything went great.” Johnny Herbert, Sebring winner in 2002, traveled across the Atlantic fromEngland to join the Audi UK Team Veloqx squad for today’s testing session.
“Having just stepped off an aircraft from London, I was reasonably happywith my time especially as we’re still making details changes to the Audi,”said Herbert. “The Veloqx team have laid the foundations for a good eventhere at Sebring having tested since Friday.”
Danny Sullivan, the 1985 Indianapolis 500 winner who is making a racingcomeback in the Sebring event, is driving a never-raced Ferrari 575 GTC forBarron Connor Racing and was happy to be back on a race track. “Even though the car isn’t where we want it to be yet, it was great just tobe out there with other cars again,” he said. “Just thinking ‘should I tryto pass here?’ or ‘what if I do this?’ again is fun. “We have a lot of work to do on the cars before the race because they arenew,” he said. “A lot of sorting to do.”
Another driver who was happy just to be on the track was Bryan Willman, one of the drivers for Team Bucknum Racing’s Pilbeam MP91 Prototype. “I’m full of joy because we were out testing and not building the car inthe paddock,” he said. “The last two years here, that’s what we’ve had todo. Today, we were actually working on the mundane things like handling,gear combinations and the other things that you normally work on and shouldbe working on.”
Teams will have another two hours of testing Tuesday before officialpractice for the event begins on Wednesday. Forty-four American Le MansSeries cars are on hand for the event and most of them went on the trackMonday. Wagner and Bucknum, both former winners in ALMS competition, were full of optimism for the race and the season.
“It’s a great team and I have great co-drivers,” said Wagner, who was theGT class champion of the ALMS in 1999 and won the class at Sebring thatyear. He is co-driving with Kelly Collins and Patrick Long. “The parity inthe class is a lot better this year and it’s accurate to say this is thebest chance I’ve had to win here since ’99.”
Willman and co-drivers Chris McMurry and Jeff Bucknum are running the only Pilbeam in the LMP2 class, taking on a field of Lola B2K/40s. Like Wagner, he praised the parity in the class that is evident as the season begins. “The fastest drivers in these cars will be very equal,” he said. “The classlooks very good for racing this year.”
The 52nd annual Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring will get the green flag at10:30 a.m. on Saturday, March 20, and will be televised live fromflag-to-flag by the Speed Channel.
The American Le Mans Series Radio Webwill have live coverage online at americanlemans.com. Ticket information is available online at sebringraceway.com aamericanlemans.com or by calling (863) 655-1442 (toll-free
