It's a busy weekend for motorsport in the good ole U-S of A. The American Le Mans boys are up one of the shortest and fastest tracks in the country, Lime Rock Park. We were there last year and it was blazing hot, much to my wife's chagrin at the time, but not many spouses are crazy enough to let you take them to a race track on THEIR birthday. Unfortunately with the upcoming Waterfest show and upcoming move from NYC to Baltimore taking all my time and energy, we won't be attending this year.
Still, it should be a great battle. Dyson brings a second car so at the very least there will be a full podium in LMP1, but of course, the real battle is in GT. It's anybody's guess as to what team will take honors - the Ferraris are always fast, Corvette and BMW have been the two to beat here and abroad, and Flying Lizard is overdue for a win for Porsche. As always my underdog favorite is the Porsche RSR of Team Falken Tire. In GTC look for it to be Black Swan's race to lose - not that the other teams are of lesser quality or ability, it's just that Black Swan have been that good. It is impossible to count them out.
Practice and qualifying all take place tomorrow, and the race is at 2:05pm Eastern Time. As usual those with ESPN3 will be able to stream the race live in its entirety, but it will be rebroadcast the following day I believe, should you miss it. You can also check www.americanlemans.com as international viewers don't have to worry about being "allowed" to view the ESPN3 feed.
All the way across the country and on a similarly historic track, the Grand Am Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge (sheesh) is running at Laguna Seca. APR Motorsport is going strong, after a fantastic 2nd place finish at Road America a couple of weeks back. APR Motorsport is 3rd in ST team standings (just one point behind Compass360), drivers Ian Baas and Ryan Ellis are tied for 3rd in the driver's championship, and Volkswagen lies 1st in the manufacturers championship. Mazda is nipping at their heels just 3 points back, so Laguna could be the make-or-break race of the year.
With just three races remaining, it's imperative that APR Motorsport put in consistent performances in all of them. A DNF or finishing out of the points would be devastating to drivers, team and manufacturer alike.
Practice kicks off tomorrow at multiple times before qualifying in ST goes down at 3:55pm PST. Check out live timing and scoring at Grand-am.com - and then the race, a 2.5 hour run, begins at 10:45 am.
Hopefully after the silly season dies down I'll have some more time on my hands, and naturally our IMSA GTI will begin to make strides towards track worthiness in no-time.
Look for Waterfest coverage as well, at least a bit from my little dark corner of the vendor row...
_WRS
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