Penske, Porsche Quickest After First Day of Test

Penske, Porsche Quickest After First Day of Test

Posted: January 22nd, 2007 in American Le Mans
Author: American Le Mans Series
Photo By: Joe Martin

Penske Motorsports and Porsche finished atop the timing sheets after the first day of the American Le Mans Series Winter Test at Sebring International Raceway on Monday, besting last year’s qualifying pace by more than a half second.

The team’s No. 7 Porsche RS Spyder put in 39 laps during the afternoon’s four-hour session, the best time a 1:47.228 effort. Penske driver and two-time Indianapolis 500 champion Helio Castroneves got most of the work following the announcement that he will join Porsche factory drivers Romain Dumas and Timo Bernhard for the season-opening Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring on March 17.

“It’s a great car and a great team,” Castroneves said. “This really is a tremendous experience for me. This type of racing is not just about being fast; you have to be consistent as well. When Penske decided to give me this opportunity, I was very excited.”

A second Porsche RS Spyder, the No. 16 Dyson Racing entry of Chris Dyson and Andy Wallace, turned in the second-quickest time at 1:49.894. Monday was the first time the team put its new Porsche on the track. Dyson expects to contend with Penske, the three Acura-powered entries and past Series P2 champion Intersport Racing for class wins throughout the season.

“We are not going to concentrate on a lap time for now,” Dyson said. “The main thing is to get familiar with everything and how it all works together. The fundamentals of the car are quite good; aerodynamically it is very well balanced and the engine ran like a Swiss watch right out of the box. It is typical Porsche, stem to stern, no stone left unturned.”

Third on the day was the first of the new Acura cars, the Lowe’s Fernandez Racing Lola B05/40. In its first public outing, the car of Adrian Fernandez and Luis Diaz turned in a best lap of 1:50.461. That was less than 0.3 seconds ahead of the Acura-powered Courage of Andretti Green Racing and another second better than Intersport’s AER-powered Lola.

In GT2, the new Porsche Type 997 RSR from Flying Lizard Motorsports went fastest. The entry of Johannes van Overbeek and Jorg Bergmeister posted a fast lap of 2:04.924, the only car in the 2:04 bracket.

Next was the first of Panoz Team PTG Panoz Esperante GTLMs, the No. 21 of Bill Auberlen and Joey Hand. The twosome’s best time was 2:05.022, which was less than a half second better than Tafel Racing and its lead Porsche of Robin Liddell and Wolf Henzler. Farnbacher Loles’ Porsche and the second Panoz from PTG each were within a second of the lead Flying Lizard car.

Here are selected quotes following the first day:

Helio Castroneves, Penske Motorsports
Porsche RS Spyder (LMP2)
“What I like the most is the name of the car: Spyder! It’s a great car and a great team. This really is a tremendous experience for me. This type of racing is not just about being fast; you have to be consistent as well. When Penske decided to give me this opportunity, I was very excited. I’d love to do double-duty at St. Petersburg.

“It’s a different seating position. This car has features like carbon brakes and paddleshifting, and it is about 100 pounds heavier. It’s much nicer and easier to drive with this configuration (than an Indy car).”

David Brabham, Highcroft Racing
Courage LC75-Acura (LMP2)
“Since it’s a new program, there is still much we are having to learn. We can’t run all day like some others. Both of us (Brabham and Stefan Johansson) have a lot of experience in this type of car. Stefan drove the Zytek last year so he has a bit more feedback.”

Seth Neiman, Flying Lizard Motorsports
Porsche 911 GT3 RSR-997 (GT2)
“This is a really great race car. Everything is new to us. The car is new. The tires are new. But the first impression is that this is a tremendous improvement by Porsche. It’s hard to make a comparison (from 2006). If we were making a comparison, then these cars are plainly quicker. What that means in terms of race pace we don’t know.”

Chris Dyson, Dyson Racing
Porsche RS Spyder (LMP2)
“The car ran perfectly right out of the box. Today is a learning day for the whole team. There are new faces and new people that we are working with. For us it getting used to the systems on the car. We are not going to concentrate on a lap time for now. The main thing is to get familiar with everything and how it all works together. The fundamentals of the car are quite good; aerodynamically it is very well balanced and the engine ran like a Swiss watch right out of the box. It is typical Porsche, stem to stern, no stone left unturned.

“What I like most about it is the aero. It is excellent: very efficient, very effective. In terms of drivability, it is quite easy to drive. We will get used to mechanically how the car works and how it reacts to different setups.

“(The driving style) is a bit different. There are different nuances and different philosophies in terms of how the setup is arrived. We are showing up mid-program but in terms of collaborative working relationship the merging of the two efforts is going to push the whole program forward.”

Bryan Herta, Andretti Green Racing
Courage LC75-Acura (LMP2)
“I ran here in 2002 and I remember it being bumpy, and I can tell you it hasn’t gotten any smoother! This is a new challenge. Learning how to adapt the car to different circuits. We’re definitely in a learning mode.

“It’s a totally different animal completely. They are both unique and totally different from the Indy Car. The best thing I’m trying to do is not think about ‘Gee my Indy car did this’ or ‘The Panoz did that.’ We’re focusing on what our Acura car is doing and adapting to that. The more time I spend in it the more comfortable I feel.

“The biggest thing we’ve been focusing on is reliability. There aren’t a terrible amount of performance issues. We’re just working with the usual shocks and springs and adjusting the balance of the car.”

Bill Auberlen, Panoz Team PTG
Panoz Esperante GTLM (GT2)
“The team is new to the car and a lot of the drivers are new to the car. We’re running a new package on new tires so it’s difficult to make a comparison (to Esperante in 2005).

“Our tire compound with Yokohama was the hardest one we had and we’re already faster. As we keep going down and getting softer the Esperante should start to fly.”

Clint Field, Intersport Racing
Lola B05/40-AER (LMP2)
“The Kumho tires are doing pretty well. Once we get the right setup, shocks and dampers put in place we should be pretty good. Our baseline setup is good. We just don’t know how the tires will respond to changes in the track or with the weather.”

Robin Liddell, Tafel Racing
Porsche 911 GT3 RSR (GT2)
“We just getting used to the car. It has run pretty well on the first day and we haven’t had any issues. We have a little work to do overnight but hopefully tomorrow will be better. It’s quite a tough race track and the first round of the championship. It’s a place you want to come this time of year and find out if you have problems. The car is a bit heavier but has a bit more tire. I don’t think we’re at the point where we’re optimizing the car. We’ve only had it a day. But it’s still a Porsche and I think we’ll pick up something in braking with the tires.”

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SESSION 1*
1. Lowe’s Fernandez Racing (Fernandez/Diaz), Lola B05/40-Acura (LMP2), 1:50.156 (120.919 mph)
2. Intersport Racing (J. Field/C. Field/Berry), Lola B05/40-AER (LMP2), 1:52.231 (118.684 mph)
3. Autocon Motorsports (Lewis/McMurry/Willman), Lola EX257-AER (LMP1), 2:00.02 (110.998 mph)
4. Panoz Team PTG (Auberlen/Hand), Panoz Esperante GTLM (GT2), 2:04.423 (107.054 mph)
5. Flying Lizard Motorsports (van Overbeek), Porsche 911 GT3 RSR (GT2) 2:04.607 (106.896)
6. Flying Lizard Motorsports (Neiman, Law), Porsche 911 GT3 RSR (GT2), 2:05.960 (105.748)
7. Panoz Team PTG (Maxwell), Panoz Esperante GTLM (GT2), 2:07.014 (104.870 mph)
8. Tafel Racing (Liddell/Henzler), Porsche 911 GT3 RSR (GT2), 2:08.842 (103.382 mph)
9. Robertson Racing (D. Robertson/A. Robertson/Luyendyk Jr.), Panoz Esperante GTLM (GT2), 2:09.185 (103.108)
*Only nine cars logged times.
SESSION 2
1. Penske Motorsports (Castroneves/Dumas/Bernhard), Porsche RS Spyder (LMP2), 1:47:228 (124.221 mph)
2. Dyson Racing (Dyson/Wallace), Porsche RS Spyder (LMP2), 1:49:894 (121.208 mph)
3. Lowe’s Fernandez Racing (Fernandez/Diaz), Lola B05/40-Acura, 1:50:461 (120.586 mph)
4. Andretti Green Racing (Herta/Franchitti), Courage LC75-Acura (LMP2), 1:50:747 (120.274 mph)
5. Intersport Racing (J. Field/Berry/C. Field), Lola B05/40-AER (LMP2), 151.750 (119.195 mph)
6. Highcroft Racing (Brabham/Johansson/Dayton), Courage LC75-Acura (LMP2), 152.472 (118.429 mph)
7. Autocon Motorsports (Lewis/Willman/McMurry), Lola EX257-AER (LMP1), 1:55:614 (115.211 mph)
8. Flying Lizard Motorsports (van Overbeek/Bergmeister), Porsche 911 GT3 RSR, 2:04:924 (106.625 mph)
9. Panoz Team PTG (Auberlen/Hand), Panoz Esperante GTLM (GT2), 2.05.022 (106.541 mph)
10. Tafel Racing (Henzler/Liddell), Porsche 911 GT3 RSR (GT2), 2:05:474 (106.157 mph)
11. Farnbacher Loles (Werner/Zugel), Porsche 911 GT3 RSR (GT2), 2:05:524 (106.115 mph)
12. Panoz Team PTG (Maxwell), Panoz Esperante GTLM (GT2), 2:05:616 (106.037 mph)
13. Flying Lizard Motorsports (Neiman/Law), Porsche 911 GT3 RSR (GT2), 2:06:827 (105.025 mph)
14. Team Trans Sports (Pappas/Fitzgerald/Borcheller/Montoya), Porsche 911 GT3 RSR (GT2), 2:07:068 (104.826 mph)
15. Tafel Racing (Tafel/Farnbacher), Porsche 911 GT3 RSR (GT2), 4:26:848 (49.916 mph)