ANOTHER PODIUM - WITH A DASH
OF SALT !
The
fifth round of the American Le Mans Series took place on Ascension weekend.
After three races run on street circuits, the teams were back racing on a proper
track at Salt Lake City in Utah. A very fast track, which in theory should allow
the Audis to regain the upper hand over the LMP2 cars which had proved very
competitive since the start of the season. But the stopwatch will always have
the last say in distinguishing between theory and practice. In this respect,
the first two lap times set by the two Team Penske Porsche RS Spyders in free
practice sounded the first alarm bell for the opposition. The second was heard
when, on the eve of the race, the two yellow prototypes locked up the front
row of the grid in qualifying. The advantage of pole went to Timo Bernhard who,
to his great delight, set a new lap record at an average speed of more than
188kph. “We’ve gained more than
3 seconds since we were last here last year. The improvements we’ve made, notably
in the aerodynamics, didn’t show up much at the last three races, because they
were slow tracks, but here where the average speed is higher, we really notice
the difference” Romain Dumas explained, who
although he had not qualified the car, was nominated to start the race at the
wheel of the No 7 Spyder.
The
start was a huge disappointment for the driver whose origins are in Alès in
southern France. Although he was on pole, Romain was unable to lead the field
to the first corner due to the impatience of the drivers behind him. Keeping
strictly to the letter of the law, Romain maintained his pace, waiting for the
starter to drop the flag. But when he eventually did so, several cars behind
him were already accelerating hard. “To
the degree that some had overtaken me before we even got to the start-finish
line. It was complete anarchy! Audis, Acuras, Porsches everywhere! It meant
I was back in sixth place by the first corner! Some drivers took a very loose
interpretation of the rules” Romain explained
later. Having started badly, the race would soon take another turn for the worse,
this time caused by a sole driver: Ben Devlin. Although there was a variety
of cars (Audi, Acura and Dyson) in the leading group, the Lola-Mazda driven
by Devlin was holding up the rest of the field, except perhaps on the long main
straight where its turbocharged engine allowed it to pull away a bit. “Eventually
I got by, but it wasn’t easy. Then there was a full-course yellow period. He
retook me and so then I had a struggle for several more laps to get in front
of him again. As soon as I got by, he hit me in the rear, breaking my diffuser”.
The final straw came when a few moments later, the race officials judged
that Romain was to blame for the coming-together and awarded him a stop-and-go,
which of course cost him a lot of time. “That
put me right at the back of the field. I began to claw our way back up the leader
board, which Timo continued brilliantly when he took the wheel with just over
an hour to go to the finish. Heaven knows, this race was hard. In 35 laps, I
had about five which were completely trouble-free, five at the most! We set
fastest race lap again, I was four seconds quicker than the Werner in the Audi
during the race and the Acuras couldn’t keep up with us, so we really thought
we had a chance of an overall win. We finally finished third. Too bad! Protesting
wouldn’t change anything, even though I really do believe that it’s about time
that the rules are more strictly applied and for all competitors. When all’s
said and done, the chaotic start led to a whole chain of events which meant
we didn’t win today, even though ours second place in LMP2 is no poor performance
and we’ve consolidated our lead in the championship. And the No 6 car won its
first ever race overall, a good result for Sascha and Ryan and for the whole
Penske team. In addition, we’re still on track in our goal of winning the LMP2
title for Penske”. After five races,
Timo Bernhard and Romain have a 13 point lead over their team mates.
Before the next round at Lime Rock on 8 July,
Romain Dumas will compete in the Nürburgring 24 Hours (9 and 10 June) and at
Le Mans the following weekend.
romaindumas.com
The
fifth round of the American Le Mans Series took place on Ascension weekend.
After three races run on street circuits, the teams were back racing on a proper
track at Salt Lake City in Utah. A very fast track, which in theory should allow
the Audis to regain the upper hand over the LMP2 cars which had proved very
competitive since the start of the season. But the stopwatch will always have
the last say in distinguishing between theory and practice. In this respect,
the first two lap times set by the two Team Penske Porsche RS Spyders in free
practice sounded the first alarm bell for the opposition. The second was heard
when, on the eve of the race, the two yellow prototypes locked up the front
row of the grid in qualifying. The advantage of pole went to Timo Bernhard who,
to his great delight, set a new lap record at an average speed of more than
188kph. “We’ve gained more than
3 seconds since we were last here last year. The improvements we’ve made, notably
in the aerodynamics, didn’t show up much at the last three races, because they
were slow tracks, but here where the average speed is higher, we really notice
the difference” Romain Dumas explained, who
although he had not qualified the car, was nominated to start the race at the
wheel of the No 7 Spyder.