Laguna Seca ALMS Weekend Thread

[Bentley03]

Originally Posted by jhansen

The Zytek was amazing! This car also sounds great, especially under breaking when it crackles and pops.

This is indeed one of the great sounds in sportscar racing. I spent ages sitting under the trees at the esses before Tertre Rouge at Le Mans this year, just to listen to the Jota car as it slowed towards the bottom of the hill!

Off topic I know, but related to the above: Just imagine what 25 A1 Grand Prix cars (with an almost identical engine note, crackle and pop) sounded like at Brands Hatch. Let's just say it had an effect on the hairs on my arms and the back of neck..........

[awegrzyn]

P2 gone. TV coverage does not even mention it.

[JAG]

Originally Posted by awegrzyn

P2 gone. TV coverage does not even mention it.

Which TV coverage?

Motors TV, which relayed the Speed coverage, talked nothing but P2 for the first hour!

Shame the Intersport car never had the opportunity to show what its capable of.

I did notice during the race that the Lola was stuck to the tail of the Audis when the car went back on track, and the commentators mentioned that a new tyre would have knocked upto two seconds off the cars best time of the weekend.

[billnchristy]

That was a great race all around...we missed the first hour (which appeared to be mostly FCY) but the last 3 were something else...

Great job, hope it continues just as hot and heavy next year!

[JAG]

Originally Posted by billnchristy

Great job, hope it continues just as hot and heavy next year!

Yeh, but what did you think of the race?

[SALEEN S7R]

What a race! Great to see Zytek doing what they have always threatened to do this year, win in the ALMS! Nice result too for the Penske Porsche, shame Intersport qualifed badly and had a patchy race, had Intersport qualifed like we all know they can they may have had a better race. Looking at the best times of the weekend though between the Porsche and Intersport Lola there isnt as much of a gap as I thought there would be, Intersport set a fastest lap of 1:18.329 in friday practise, might it have gone faster in qualifying if it wasnt for problems? Porsche's fastest lap over the weekend was a 1:15.606 - Yeah the Porsche is faster, but by how much exactly? We wont know for sure until Sebring IMO, but anything from 1.0 - 1.5 a lap id guess. Is the car too fast for LMP 2? I dont think so, sure they will be mixing things with the LMP 1 cars but is that really so bad? Also when the new Audi comes along as well as the LMP 1 Lola they will surely be signifcantly faster than the P2 cars once again.

Nice battle in GT1, shame Aston Martin didnt seem to have the pace though. Best race of the ALMS in 2005? I think so.

[cmk]

For once in my time on this board, I'm gonna have to agree with Bill! That race, judging from the Radio Web coverage, was an absolute cracker. I was trying to transcribe notes onto the computer and make dinner while I listened, and both of those other ideas got totally canned for four hours.

Sensational stuff in all 4 classes, a wonderful job by Penske/Porsche, the Zytek crew got the result they so dearly deserved, Dyson and Champion were (still, in Champion's case) letter-perfect. Petersen showed why they are the champions, BAM, Panoz and the Lizards all ran as strong a race as they have this year. In GT1, one team is for me the moral victor: ACEMCO. Never has a team struggled against such competition and horrid luck, and come away looking as good as they have. A herculean effort from the drivers, from Jeff and Jim Bell, and hats off to you guys! I hope you'll be back next year, Saleen or something else.

Finally, many thanks to Globecast for providing the Radio Web for us since its official cessation. John, Graham, Graham, Chuck Dressing, Fiona Miller, and the Pass's all contributed greatly to my enjoyment of the race, here at my desk at school. GG, you should stay in America and commentate!

[JAG]

Originally Posted by SALEEN S7R

What a race! Great to see Zytek doing what they have always threatened to do this year, win in the ALMS! Nice result too for the Penske Porsche, shame Intersport qualifed badly and had a patchy race, had Intersport qualifed like we all know they can they may have had a better race. Looking at the best times of the weekend though between the Porsche and Intersport Lola there isnt as much of a gap as I thought there would be, Intersport set a fastest lap of 1:18.329 in friday practise, might it have gone faster in qualifying if it wasnt for problems? Porsche's fastest lap over the weekend was a 1:15.606 - Yeah the Porsche is faster, but by how much exactly? We wont know for sure until Sebring IMO, but anything from 1.0 - 1.5 a lap id guess. Is the car too fast for LMP 2? I dont think so, sure they will be mixing things with the LMP 1 cars but is that really so bad? Also when the new Audi comes along as well as the LMP 1 Lola they will surely be signifcantly faster than the P2 cars once again.

Nice battle in GT1, shame Aston Martin didnt seem to have the pace though. Best race of the ALMS in 2005? I think so.

Intersport set a comfortable 1.17.730 in Friday morning practice.

This was before the new Goodyears arrived which, according to the Speed TV commentators, were worth 2 seconds.

[The Badger]

That was in my mind , "the race of the year" !!!

Im gutted for Saleen and Panoz but things look good anyway .

2 good prototypes and 2 good GT1 cars was all it took to make this a blinding race . That Porsche was excellant , but then again , it was always going to be . The goal posts have certainly been moved for next year !!!

[The Badger]

Originally Posted by JAG

Yeh, but what did you think of the race?

A cracker !!!

[Graham Goodwin]

Originally Posted by cmk

For once in my time on this board, I'm gonna have to agree with Bill! That race, judging from the Radio Web coverage, was an absolute cracker. I was trying to transcribe notes onto the computer and make dinner while I listened, and both of those other ideas got totally canned for four hours.

Sensational stuff in all 4 classes, a wonderful job by Penske/Porsche, the Zytek crew got the result they so dearly deserved, Dyson and Champion were (still, in Champion's case) letter-perfect. Petersen showed why they are the champions, BAM, Panoz and the Lizards all ran as strong a race as they have this year. In GT1, one team is for me the moral victor: ACEMCO. Never has a team struggled against such competition and horrid luck, and come away looking as good as they have. A herculean effort from the drivers, from Jeff and Jim Bell, and hats off to you guys! I hope you'll be back next year, Saleen or something else.

Finally, many thanks to Globecast for providing the Radio Web for us since its official cessation. John, Graham, Graham, Chuck Dressing, Fiona Miller, and the Pass's all contributed greatly to my enjoyment of the race, here at my desk at school. GG, you should stay in America and commentate!

Why thank you sir - That was, I have to say, a real pleasure to watch and talk about for four hours, one of the very best races I have seen.

John and Graham T are, in my opinion, one of the things that make sportscar racing very special. I've thoroughly enjoyed the privilege of joining John in the booth for the last two ALMS races. It's been a real eye opener into yet another side of this wonderfully multi-facetted sport of ours.

[richmini99]

Laguna Seca was a great race. One of the best ALMS events I've seen in a long time. I hope it carries over to 2006. It was nice to see some on-track battles throughout the distance of the race.

[jhansen]

Originally Posted by I love 04s

I still cannot understand one thing though. The Porsche and the Zytek are the same weight roughly, have the same powerplants (3.4l V8) yet the Zytek is 2.0 seconds quicker. Now some might say that the new regulation aero of the Porsche is slowing it down but then again wasn't this meant to be compensated by the old cars having restrictors and weight penalties (or are these not run in the states???????????????)

Either way for a first time effort this is very encouraging for Porsche.

I think the simple answer is that this was Porsche's first race and the Zytek 04S has been around for two years testing, racing and being developed. If you count the DBA, then this design has been around since 2002. In two to three years I think you'll see the Porsche gain a lot of ground, just as the Zytek has.

[JAG]

http://www.dailysportscar.com/dailys...er=asc&start=0

Theres a great explanation by mulsannemike about the Porsche's UNSUPRISING pace.

Hope you don't mind me reposting it, as its very enlightening

..........................................................................................


I think everyone has lost sight of the fact that this proper LMP2 is racing against restricted (albeit nothing like the LMES restrictions) LMP900s (hell, the Zytek isn't running to full potential as it has its 1.8 m rear wing, not the full 2.0 meter--granted no one else is...but they aren't running to the same restrictor diameters as the LMP1/2s even if they aren't running to LMES standards for LMP900). Couple with that they are generating higher downforce levels and for what must now be meerly equal drag (harldy the 10% increase that initially dogged the first cars dealing with the increased frontal area from the double roll hoops--by the Porsche RS that 10% has been designed away), so overall aero you can say with some confidence they have much better efficiency, equal overalls (downforce and drag) and more power. This is hardly surprising. How many people recall way back to Sebring when Jon Fields showed up with his new Lola B05/40 and was almost instantly withing 2 seconds of the Audis and B01/60s (at a track that the big guys had 5 years of set up data)? That wasn't a fluke. Then we headed to Road Atlanta, and viola, same thing, the Field Lola was again only 1.4 seconds off pole (only 1.1 seconds off the Audi at Petit, 2 seconds off the Zytek). Mid-Ohio saw a falter, being 3.3 off the Zytek (but only 2.4 off the 2nd qualified Audi)...regardless though, the Lola isn't a slouch and has shown us all year long it had tremendous speed. We've chosen to ignore that and now the Porsche shows up and everyone acts as though its from another planet...no...it is just another proper LMP2 and this time run by the team of teams. Its speed should be no surprise...and shame on you Malcolm, you know better!

[jhansen]

Except that I Love 04S was saying that the Porsche wasn't that fast at all in comparison to the Zytek. All I'm saying is that the Porsche will only get better along with the new Lola.

But yes, that is a great response from mulsannemike. Although, I have come to find out that the smaller wing is not a big detriment. There is a great interview with Brad Kettler on DSC from Le Mans this year. Audi Sport found that they were able to maintain a good ballance in the car with the 1.8-meter rear wing after a few changes were made to compensate. I'm sure Zytek found something similar.

[jhansen]

After watching the race on TV yesterday I had an additional comment. Penske left Massen in the car for almost three hours (close to the limit). Luhr entered the car with something like 1 hour and six minutes remaining. I'm not quite sure why they used this strategy, as Luhr was lapping very quickly in the closing stages of the race on a much dirtier track. In fact, he set the fastest lap for that car.

[JAG]

The Zytek, Dyson Lolas and Audis were also running with 2003 10% smaller restricters, which meant the Porsche would have had more power than the 'LMP675' Zytek and Dyson Lolas.

[jhansen]

I'm not disputing that JAG. I Love 04S was asking why the Porsche was not as quick as the Zytek, as the two cars are comparable (not the same, but comparable) in terms of weight, engine and power.

All I'm saying is that it's not quite fair to judge Porsche's pace after one race.

[paul-collins]

The Zytek was running 2003-level restrictors (41.7mm) whereas the Porsche was running 2002-level (44.0mm); however, the Zytek was running to LMP675 minimum weight (the last weight info I have is from Mike's site, which has the 2004 Zytek weighing in at a hefty 708kg), while the Porsche is running to 750kg. If the Zytek is still that heavy, that's 5.6% less weight than the Porsche.

So that should balance out the restrictor issues.

[Danske]

I repeat, stupid old/hybrid/new mess. :P

[sceptic]

For those of you who want to relive the radiolemans commentary of Laguna Seca, and for those of you who missed it first time around, it is all available to listen to on demand at www.radiolemans.com

[jhansen]

That would be cool, except I can't get it to work.

[yamato]

Saaaaaaweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet

[jhansen]

Welcome to Ten Tenths yamato!

[enemy-ace]

That was a truly great race!
Super competition throughout the field in truly beautiful cars. Highlight had to have been Ron Fellows superb passing maneuvres. The guy was really lighting it up.
Really impressed with this Shimoda guy as well. What's his CV like?
Like the look of that new Porsche, and with that initial good showing I imagine they will have some very interested customers. When will they start selling it to interested teamsl?
I haven't been able to go to the Mosport race for the last couple of seasons and have really missed it. After watching the Laguna race I am really starting to feel the pangs of withdrawel. I am reserving a block of time around the Mosport date right now though. I hope this race is a sign of things to come for the ALMS.