Trois Riveres - Audi - Audi - Panoz - Corvette?

[vandijk]

Well job done by the GM guys last weekend! They finished 4th (#9) and 5th (#11) just behind both Audi's and Beretta's Panoz! Two 900's finished behind them...

/s.

[Kurt Maxwell]

It was once again a typical ALMS event. Edge of your seat excitment as you try to guess whicn Audi would win.

Maybe they should just have the Audi,Corvette and Job Porsche teams do demonstration laps and not even have a race as it would save so much money.

[Jay]

Just got back from the track...exhausted. The ALMS race was pretty dull after the first hour and most of the crowd left as they'd come to see the Atlantic race anyway. But, hopefully that'll be different in the future as the series grows.

Still, as someone new to the ALMS series I enjoyed it a lot and will look at attending other races in the future. Everyone I dealt with in the teams was very friendly too, in particular Alex Job Racing who are much better organised than many of the Cart teams I've dealt with. It's a great concept, just needs to be a bit more competitive..which will hopefully happen over time.

[vandijk]

Originally posted by Kurt Maxwell
It was once again a typical ALMS event. Edge of your seat excitment as you try to guess whicn Audi would win.

LOL.

I guess same situation here with the FIA sportscar championship. Racing for Holland (and Pescarolo?) have no real competitors in the serries and are looking into ALMS as well. Maybe all will change with the new European 1000KM Le Mans endurance races next year.

/s.

[SALEEN S7R]

Dont forget DBA. They did dominate the last round of the FIA SCC after all..

[vandijk]

You're right Saleen S7R. Almost forgot them.

I wonder if certain teams will compete in both series, in e.g. ALMS and in the European LM endurance series, or will teams choose to compete in one serie only (budget -transport?- or overlapping dates). How will that effect ALMS?

/s.

[danhx]

I was pretty dissappointed when both Dyson cars went out considering what happened at Sonoma...but oh well. I was glad to see Panoz up on the podium again. As for the corvettes, they said at the broadcast that the new cars had incredible cornering speed, and if you were watching the race you would have seen that shown true. I don't know what happened to the Ferraris since they seemed quick for a while and then just fell back.

Where was Doran/Lista? I was looking forward to another good showing from them after last week but i couldn't find any info as to why they didn't show. Money? That wouldn't surprise me....

[Chevyguy]

The Dallara wouldn't have been good on that track, nothing lost with me.

Kelly Collins said the Vettes ran like a freight train. Best I've ever heard that said. They just pushed the 550s so hard and constant. I'm still waiting for that Corvette overall podium. Just one rain soaked Petit...

Kurt, you mean those weren't demonstration laps?

[Liz]

The Alex Job car (23) admitted that the last few laps were just that.

I enjoy the race weekends and the race is a nice added attraction. I particularly enjoyed the three Racers Group cars taking turns hitting things. Kevin Buckler is very agile as I had considered exiting the tract at that point once and vetoed it as impossible, and I had not just crashed my car into the tires at the time.

I think there are several Gunnar Jeanettes. We saw him in many places every day ...

[Jay]

yeah, it was a shame about the 24 car of Alex Job too... it doesn't matter how good you are, things like that happen in racing.

I ran into Gunnar so many times this weekend around Trois Rivieres, that I was almost surprised not to see him in Ottawa this weekend. He must get around...

[Liz]

Are you sure he's not in Ottawa? Did you look at Subway? (Gunnar isn't into health foods apparently, although he certainly does a lot of road work.)

[danhx]

Originally posted by Chevyguy
The Dallara wouldn't have been good on that track, nothing lost with me.

Kelly Collins said the Vettes ran like a freight train. Best I've ever heard that said. They just pushed the 550s so hard and constant. I'm still waiting for that Corvette overall podium. Just one rain soaked Petit...

I still would have liked to see the Dallara there; they probably could have fought it out with Panoz (although i was surprised by the old girls pace considering how badly they ran there last years).

Corvette overall podium? That would certainly take some special circumstances: rain, wrecks, cautions, crafty strategy, etc. Plus those Ferraris aren't exactly slow around Road Atlanta. I think we all remember the amazing battle between Enge and Fellows last year...But with these massively impressive new 'vettes out i guess they could really surprise us. If it does happen it better be at PLM so i can see it in person!!

[Carousel]

Oliver Gavin allowed as how Gary Pratt made a call early in the race to just stay behind Enge and press him, betting that the Ferrari would find some reason to give up the first position. Patience was a virtue. As the Corvettes were running traction control, they could go harder in and out of the corners than Enge and Kox. Conserving the brakes then became a priority. Both Gavin and Ron Fellows remarked, a little bitterly, that Enge seemed to be driving an abnormally wide car at Trois Rivieres and were relieved when he finally got out of their way.

[Chevyguy]

Yeah, they just ran those Ferraris into the pavement. Not a Ferrari track.

Danhx, damn right about Road Atlanta. I'm very surprised the Vettes ran so well against them this year. Those 550s haven't been wet yet, the Vettes never fail in the rain.