Weaver Paces Field in Friday Morning Portland Practice

Weaver Paces Field in Friday Morning Portland Practice

Posted: July 21st, 2006 in American Le Mans
Author: American Le Mans Series
Photo By: Martin Spetz

On a track where he was headed for certain victory last year, James Weaver posted the fastest time at Friday morning’s practice time for the Portland Grand Prix. Weaver turned in a best lap of 1:03.762 and was nearly 0.2 seconds clear of the field.

In last year’s American Le Mans Series race, Weaver was leading with a lap to go when his AER-powered Lola EX257 lost fuel pressure. It robbed Dyson of what would have been their second victory of 2005 and put Champion Racing’s Emanuele Pirro and Frank Biela on the top step of the podium. This year Dyson Racing is back with two AER-powered Lola B06/10s, which will be allowed to race at 860 kilograms.

Second overall and first in LMP2 was Romain Dumas in Penske Racing’s No. 7 Porsche RS Spyder. Dumas, who won in GT2 last year with teammate Timo Bernhard, was a scant 0.187 seconds behind Weaver. Next was the No. 2 Audi R10 TDI of Allan McNish and Dindo Capello, the second of the LMP1s, at 1:04.173.

The other Penske Porsche of Sascha Maassen and Lucas Luhr was second in P2 and fourth overall at 1:04.316. Rounding out the top five was the other diesel-powered Audi entry of Pirro and Biela.

In GT1, Oliver Gavin turned the fastest lap for a rejuvenated Corvette Racing team. The No. 4 Corvette C6.R set a time of 1:09.205, good for a 0.4-second cushion of the No. 3 sister car of Ron Fellows and Johnny O’Connell. Third and fourth in class were the two Aston Martin Racing DBR9s, which have captured the last two class wins in the Series. The No. 007 entry of Tomas Enge, Darren Turner and Andrea Piccini was the quickest at 1:09.690.

The Corvettes will race in their Lime Rock Park configuration, meaning a larger diameter in its air restrictor and increased fuel capacity.

For the second straight day in GT2, Risi Competizione’s Ferrari F430GT set the fastest time in class. Friday, it was Mika Salo who did the honor with a 1:12.783. He was less than 0.1 seconds ahead of the BMW Team PTG No. 21 BMW M3 of Bill Auberlen and Joey Hand, which was third quickest Thursday.

Third in class during the morning session was the Petersen/White Lightning Porsche of Patrick Long and Jorg Bergmeister. The crew brought the car in when Long began to feel a vibration in the car and took just 21 minutes to change a broken left driveshaft in the pits.

“Teams are having a lot of problems with ‘pickup’ out there, and at first we thought it could be that,” Long said. “But it came so quick I told the team it was more than that, something in the rear of the car.”