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Homestead

Nextel

04/03/2001

Race Report

Some Questions Answered, Some Unanswered

© Janos Wimpffen

The run-up to first sprint race of the Grand-Am season left open some of the usual mysteries following the big Daytona enduro. The quantity of the entry would of course be lowered. But will the quality of the intra-class racing rival, or perhaps even surpass, the 24 Hours?

Most of the key SportsRacing Prototypes were back, the retired Risi Ferrari being the notable exception. The familiar Dyson Riley & Scott of Weaver / Leitzinger started on pole, with challenges expected from the Jon Field / Gavin Lola, the Baldwin / Robinson Riley & Scott, and perhaps the Theys / Baldi Crawford—all but the Dyson car using Judd power. Less promising were the others in class; the Intersport Riley & Scott of the other Field family members, Joel and Clint, the TRV Riley & Scott-Chevrolet of Schroeder / Volk, and the Konrad Lola with Paul, Jr. joining the team owner. Decided backmarkers were the Norma and the late-entered Jacobs Riley & Scott.

SRPII was a close-run thing during qualifying between three of the four cars which made the start. They were all Lola-Nissans, two from Archangel Motorsports and one from the incongruously named Porsche Haus Racing from Quebec. The old Kudzu-Mazda of Spencer / Grupp rounded out the class.

As has become the norm in both ALMS and GARRA, the GTS class was nearly non-existent with a bare three starters. However, one was the first true customer Saleen SR7R, entered by the Seattle based dealer of the supercar, David Bingham, for his son, Chris, and the works’ most experienced driver, Ron Johnson. Others in the class were the turbo Porsches from G & W and Schumacher Racing.

GT also had two unique entries, both of which has shown great potential at Daytona, and then again in qualifying in Miami. One was the Mosler of Barbosa / Heinricy, and the other the V-8 BMW of Jennings / Borcheller. The performance of the Tom Milner entered M3 had so perturbed GARRA that they handicapped it even though it never finished the 24 Hours. Key Porsches in the class included the two Orbit entries (Byrne / Millman and Hindery / Baron), the defending GARRA GT champion G & W team with Drendel / Law driving, and the Gunnar Racing customer car of the Policastros, father and son. Two other 911s, a trio of Genesis Racing BMWs, and a fairly standard Mazda RX-7 rounded out the class.

The five cars in AGT boiled down to a two-way fight between the very well-prepared and pristine looking newly built Corvette for the X1-R team of Craig Conway / Doug Goad against their arch-rivals of 2000, the Ken Bupp / Dick Greer Camaro. The other three were either too new or too lately arrived to be expected to feature.

James Weaver shot away from the start on a very hot and especially humid afternoon. Jack Baldwin was caught off-guard and quickly passed by Jon Field’s Lola. Didier Theys maintained fourth with the Crawford, while Jeret Schroeder was happy with a strong fifth in the old Chevy powered Riley & Scott. Another off to a quick start was Andy Lally in the no. 21 Archangel entry. Soon he and the other SRPII Lolas were well ahead of all but the quickest upper class cars. However, Lally would soon become a temporary laggard in the SRPII contest as his handling went sour. Joe Policastro, Jr. was in trouble almost from the start with a duff ignition in the Gunnar Porsche.

Baldwin soon hounded Field for second place and the Lola went wide on one of the infield bends, locked up the wheels, flat-spotted a tire, and the friendly giant of a Texan went calmly by on the inside. Barbosa’s fine start in GT came to naught as the Mosler began to overheat and he came in for a more ventilated nose piece to be installed. A couple of more early stops left the Chevrolet powered car out of further contention.

Jon Leavy’s engine blew on the no. 18 AGT Camaro and as he half-spun off the course a fire erupted under the hood and spread to the ultra-dry grass. This brought out a full-course yellow while the pall of smoke was dealt with. Several cars made stops at this very early stage, most notably the Saleen and the large-engined BMW. This left the old reliable Porsches of Larry Schumacher and Matt Drendel in charge of their respective classes, with Tommy Byrne also having a turn at the front of GT with the no. 42 Orbit entered 911 GT3RS.

At the bunched up restart, Baldwin made a great surge towards Weaver, but the English veteran was able to hold him and began to deftly use traffic to build the lead back up again. A second yellow flag period came when Dennis Spencer buried the Kudzu into the kitty litter at a bad spot. This came as the regular stops were due among the leaders.

Most starting drivers stayed behind the wheel, except for the Field family cars where nephew Clint took over the Riley & Scott and house guest Oliver Gavin in the Lola. Schroeder was the odd one out as the TRV team elected to stop moments before the yellow came out, and he lost contact with the others. This was unfortunate as at one point he had been as high as third overall.

Tom Volk described the incident(s):

“What an incredible out lap! Our driver change and our pit stop went very well. I'm trying to get back on the track and the Jacobs car hit me twice and then the pace car almost hit me. The left rear rim was bent; I'm lucky that it held up. Then I heard the guy in the pace car say over the radio, 'I almost took out that yellow car,' and later they moved the pace car. I thought, 'Gee; what an exciting out lap; I got hit twice and I almost got taken out by the pace car, and I haven't even done anything yet; I'm still trying to get out on the race track!”

The Norma was another SRP showing a surprisingly good performance, actually lasting to the end, and not at the tail of the field. The Doran group timed the yellow flag session best and Theys emerged the leader at the restart. Weaver, Baldwin, and Gavin soon devoured him. However, all things considered, the Crawford was going well, if a bit slowly.

Doug Goad in the no. 09 Corvette (replacing Conway) was well clear of the few remaining AGT runners. While Robert Julien took over from a very quick Bruno St. Jacques in the SRPII class leading Lola. The Lally / Macey Archangel Lola was back in contention in this class and would soon take the SRPII lead. Toney Jennings had regained a strong lead in with the delayed BMW in GT, as had the Saleen in GTS, once Ron Johnson took over the wheel.

While Weaver continued to pull away into the lead, Gavin and Baldwin engaged in a thrilling dice for second. For several laps they exchanged the position with the Lola finally getting the edge. Baldwin soon handed over to Robinson. The difference in size between the two drivers has often been a problem in adjusting the belts and it proved so again, resulting in some delay. When the team owner finally brought the Riley & Scott back out, he inadvertently blocked the race leader for a moment. However, it was of little help to Gavin, who was back several seconds.

Another yellow flag situation occurred when Chuck Goldsborough in the no. 10 Genesis Racing BMW spun into the gravel. Several other GT cars had been having trouble staying pointed in the right direction, most notably the no. 50 Porsche car of Stanton / Hajducky.

At about the two-thirds distance, Weaver handed over the handsome lead to Leitzinger. A little while later he was rudely cut off by the no. 43 Orbit team Porsche, but with no contact. Traffic was becoming a factor as Leitzinger got held up on several other occasions, allowing Gavin to move within ten car lengths. The Riley & Scott finally pulled free and Butch Leitzinger promptly set the race’s fastest lap. Meanwhile, it was Oliver Gavin’s turn to be bottled up, this time by the Saleen which Ron Johnson was taking to the GTS victory. After a long lead by the Canadian entered Lola, SRPII had turned back to Archangel, the no. 22 car of Nigel Greensall eventually winning by a lap. In GT, Terry Borcheller was well clear of the Drendel / Law 911 GT3R.

Over the last twenty-five laps of the race, Butch Leitzinger gradually pulled away from the Lola. However, the gap closed again with one more full-course caution. This occurred when John Paul, Jr. stopped on course with the backmarker Konrad Lola. A few more laps of slow circulating evaporated one of the hopes of the Intersport team, which was that the V-8 Ford powered leader may need to take on a late splash. James Weaver had been apprised that Jon Field was expecting this and the Englishman said, “sure, tell Gavin to take it easy, we have to stop yet.”

Two cars that had featured earlier experienced trouble near the end, with the Schumacher Porsche slowing and the no. 21 SRPII Lola stopping. The final green flag came with a handful of laps left. The Saleen was boxed in between Leitzinger and Gavin. The Lola driver, unfamiliar with American race procedures, was a little unsure as to when he could go past the lapped driver and Leitzinger got enough of a jump on the front straight to open up a comfortable margin that held to the finish.

On paper, the Dyson enjoyed a nearly flag-to-flag lead, but there is much to interpret from the handwriting on the wall for the principal class. All the Judd powered cars ran well and should be a threat at longer races and course with higher top ends. Unfortunately, the Grand-Am schedule has only two such venues, Elkhart Lake and Watkins Glen.

SRPII had considerably grown in size between the 2000 season and the 2001 Daytona opener. However, accidents at the endurance round had decimated the candidates. Nevertheless, the remaining Lolas put on perhaps the best race at Homestead. Now it remains to bring the numbers back up as well as the quality. GTS is caught in a series of Catch-22s. To engender interest in the disappearing class, nearly one-off supercars have been allowed in. This creates spectacles such as the Saleen S7R, but how many will step forward with their like?

GT remains the most competitive class, although being in the hunt may come to mean stuffing a V-8 into your BMW sports sedan. The Mosler is proving to be much like its predecessors, blindingly fast and fragile.

In AGT it seems no matter how long or short the race, how many or few the entrants, that only one team will remain in good standing at the end. On this occasion, it was the brand new Flis Motorsports car. Craig Conway took it onto the track for the first time during qualifying, setting the fastest time and, appropriately, won the X1-R Pole Award. Doug Goad had only recorded half a lap in the car when he started his stint in the race. But the new car was reliable, despite having run a total of only six laps before the race – in total, ever.