rrae

Race day morning

The calm before the storm: the Sebring pits at 7 am.

SEBRING, Fl — After a week of testing teams will get down to business when the green flag drops today at 11 am EDT.

One team that has had a reversal of fortunes is the No. 90 BMW that earned the pole in the GT2 class yesterday but was subsequently moved to the back of the grid when it failed the stall test. That moved the Flying Lizards No. 45 Porsche 911 GT3  into the pole position of the GT2 class, driver Jorg Bergmeister’s first at Sebring.

Adding insult to industry, the 90 BMW with Joey Hand at the wheel spun coming out of the last turn and impacted tire wall on the passenger side of the car. They will start from the pits as the team does not believe they can get the car repaired in time for the start.

On the weather front, the morning dawned clear and the prediction is for temperatures reaching the mid to high 70s, in contrast to a very cool week during testing.

SEBRING, Fl — Qualifying is complete and the now question is who is hiding what from whom. Did the top qualifiers go all out; did the second and third place finishers go all out or were they saving a little — playing their hands close the vest. Only tomorrow and the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring presented by fresh from Florida will tell.

The Peugeots were their efficient selves in qualifying, barely breaking a sweat as they qualified first and second in the LMP1 class. The No. 07 Peugeot (Gene/Wurtz/Davidson) toured the Sebring course at a 126.599mph pace, just a blink of the eye faster than last year’s top time. The No 8 Peugeot (Lamy/Bourdais/Minassian) was second .627 of a second behind.

The No 007 Aston Martin ((Mucke/Primat/Fernandez) was right on the heels of the Peugeots and was .865 of a second off the pace and a tick behind the number two Peugeot.

The Drayson Lola Judd was fourth — but it was close to the top three and condsidering that the team lost the tail feathers to the car in the morning testing session when the car spun coming out of the last turn and went into the tire barrier. Driver Paul Drayson was not injured in the shunt and restarted the car and drove back to pit row where the crew bandaged it up in time for qualifying.

The LMP2 class was a closely contested scrum with all three cars within three tenths of a second of each other. Earning the top place for the class was the  Patron sponsored Acura HPD ARX-01c (Brabham/Pagnaud/Franchitti) with a run of 1:47.684. Second in the class went Porsche RS Spyder (Pickett/Graf/Maassen) and third went to the Lola Mazda.

As expected, the GT2 class was a dogfight in qualifying (as it expect to be tomorrow in the race). Taking top honors and setting a new course qualifying record for the class was the No. 90 BMW E92 M3 (Mueller/Hand/Prialux). The time of 1:55.279 and 115.546 mph for the record.  Whil the No. 90 BMW was flying around the track the second place car was a little more than a half second behind, the next seven GT2 cars were with seven tenths of a second,

While qualifying sets the grid for tomorrow’s start, it means nothing when it comes to endurance, efficient pit stops, and consistent driving.

That will be ultimate challenge for teams: can they go fast and can last.