Young Guns Grab Top Five As Accident Damage Takes Out Maxwell and Brabham at Laguna

Young Guns Grab Top Five As Accident Damage Takes Out Maxwell and Brabham at Laguna

Posted: October 22nd, 2006 in American Le Mans
Author: Multimatic Motorsports
Photo By: Joe Martin

Multimatic Motorsports Team Panoz suffered an unfortunate ending to its 2006 American Le Mans Series assault with the #50 Panoz forced out of the Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca event due to accident damage.

Scott Maxwell was in the middle of a pack of cars heading for turn 10 when the Horag Lista Lola of Fredy Lienhard spun in front of him. The Canadian went for a gap on the inside only for the Lola to roll back towards the apex.

The impact caused major damage to both cars and Maxwell quickly returned to pit lane. However the damage - which included broken left front suspension, radiator, power steering cooler and steering rack - was too severe to repair.

David Brabham started the race in the #50 car and handed over to Maxwell after 94 minutes in 4th position. Maxwell held that position until the two hour mark when the accident happened.

The #51 Panoz Esperante GTLM of Gunnar Jeannette and Tom Milner finished the race in fifth place, Jeannette dropping from fourth in the dying stages of the race after suffering power steering problems.

The pairing were unlucky to lose the best part of a lap early in the race when Milner was passed by the race leading Creation prototype at the start of a yellow flag safety car period. The leading GT2 cars were able to continue around the track to join the back of the pack – leaving Milner stuck behind the race leader.

“That was a pretty tough way to finish the year for us – it was certainly the biggest wreck of the year,” Multimatic Vice President and Motorsports Technical Director, Larry Holt said.

“I’m not sure whether the Lola got helped into the spin but there were cars everywhere and Scott was in a pack which included an Aston, a Ferrari and the Dyson car.

“Scotty went for a gap but the Lola guy must have got off the brakes and rolled towards him because that corner has a fair amount of camber on it. The Lola rolled right into Scotty’s path and he had nowhere to go – there was nothing he could really do.

“The damage ran pretty deep into the car, there was no way we could have got him back out during the race.”

While disappointed with the demise of the #50 car, Holt was full of praise for the #51 crew who had their share of misfortune in finishing fifth.

“All the drivers really did a fantastic job today – in fact they have been brilliant all year,” Holt said.

“Tom was passed by the leader under yellow which really put the #51 guys at a disadvantage. I protested pretty heavily to IMSA but without any luck.

“Gunnar was unlucky at the end because we had a slow leak in the power steering. That jerked the wheel out of his hands at one stage. Those guys did a really solid job and could have ended up on the podium with a bit of luck.

“The Ferrari was pretty untouchable but the speed of our cars on the weekend was very pleasing.

“I have to thank Sean Mason and our guys who did a brilliant job preparing the cars all year. In recent seasons the Esperante has had major reliability problems that kept forcing it out of races.

“Multimatic has turned that around significantly and our reliability has gone up by an order of magnitude. Getting both cars to finish major events like Petit Le Mans is an clear indication of that.”