Mid-Ohio ALMS, 25th August 2001

Race

Johnny's own story of the race

By email from Johnny, 30th August:

Well another race and another unlucky day.

After qualifing 4th again, the team decided that Andy would start the race and I would do the last leg as they hoped that I could repeat my storming race in Mosport. Andy unfortunately had a car that was lacking grip and so dropped back to 6th.

As normal I took over under a full course yellow but, as I left the pits, the speed button had turned its self off and so my speed was over the limit. So a stop and go penalty was given to me. Three or so laps later, I then had to stop with another stop and go because Andy had a coming together with the Saleen car and the officials thought that the pass and eventual contact was a driving error and so another stop and go was given.

To add to this we also had a misfire and the power was extremely bad and we had to change the ECU plus the injectors because it was not known which was causing the problem. This was very strange as it happened during the driver change and only seemed to stop working when the ignition was switched off and but did not work when I switched it back on.

So, during all this, we went a lap and half down but I was not just going drive round slowly - I gave it my all. After I rejoined the track that was under a yellow, I started my race with the engine working again and off I went. Although not racing for a podium position, what was good for me was that I passed Audi no:2, then late in the race I passed Audi no:1, and on the last but one lap I passed the no:2 Panoz, also taking the 3rd placed Dyson car. So again I raced to another strong finish, ending up 5th with the 2nd fastest lap of the race.

Next time!!!

Johnny

Problems lead to disappointing fifth place

Audi UK Sport Press Release, 26th August: Andy Wallace and Johnny Herbert lie seventh and eighth respectively in the American Le Mans Series after finishing a disappointing fifth in the latest race last Saturday (25 Aug).

Wallace (40), from Oxford, started his re-built Champion Racing Audi from the second row of the grid but slipped back to sixth place with a handling problem before co-driver Herbert took over after an hour in the 165-minute sportscar race at Mid-Ohio. The 37-year-old former Grand Prix ace from Brentwood was forced to make two unscheduled pit stops with an electronics problem while they also lost valuable time when organisers issued two, separate stop-go penalties.

Herbert, who crashed heavily out of the previous race, confirmed:

"We had some bad luck - we just need things to go our way. The engine lost power so I pitted and they changed the electronics unit but then had to come in again to change the plug rail. After that the car was very competitive."

[The car's increased competitiveness led to an exciting duel for 5th place with the Panoz of Frank Lagorce over the last few laps. Johnny harried the Panoz until he finally manged to grab 5th spot on the last lap.]

Wallace added:

"During my opening stint I had no grip. We started with very high tyre pressures but this did not work. I was adjudged to have unfairly bumped in to a backmarker I was overtaking so picked up a penalty.

"When I pitted and handed over to Johnny, the tyre pressures were reduced but the pit-lane speed limited in the cockpit was accidentally knocked off so the engine wasn’t governed as he left the pits which caused him to exceed the speed limit driving down the pitlane."

In a nerve-racking race at Mid-Ohio, the "factory" Audis learned that it is not always the fastest car that takes the chequered flag first. For almost two hours, the two Infineon Audi R8 sportscars of pole-sitter Rinaldo Capello/Tom Kristensen plus Frank Biela/Emanuele Pirro were dominant.

At half distance, the third place Panoz of Jan Magnussen/David Brabham was already a full lap behind but various caution periods allowed the Panoz to make up lost time. When Capello had to come in for a stop-go penalty because he had mistakenly passed the safety car, his Infineon Audi R8 had dropped to third although the Italian ultimately regained second place with the Biela/Pirro Audi claiming fourth after an unscheduled pit-stop to change the plug rail.

The penultimate round of the eight-race series is staged at Laguna Seca, California, on 9 September where the British pair will be looking to improve on their best third place finish.

Qualifying

Johnny 4th on the grid again for Saturday's race

Audi UK Sport Press Release, 21st August: Johnny Herbert and Andy Wallace begin the latest round of the American Le Mans Series at Mid-Ohio today (SAT) from fourth place on the grid.

Herbert stopped the clock at 1min 15.921secs around the 2.26-mile circuit at the wheel of his re-built Champion Racing Audi R8.

"We had a good feeling with the car in the wet during tests on Thursday," commented the former Grand Prix ace who crashed out of the previous race last Sunday handing his mechanics a race against time to re-build the damaged car. "Qualifying was held in the dry and I’m very happy with the balance of the R8 we have for the race. Now we have to be consistent."

Co-driver Wallace added:

"The lads had to completely rebuild the Audi after the last race but everything is fine on the car."

Qualifying times, 24th August:

1. Capello/Kristensen (Infineon Audi R8) 1m 14.537s
2. Magnussen/Brabham (Panoz) 1m 14.910s
3. Biela/Pirro (Infineon Audi R8) 1m 15.150s
4. Herbert/Wallace (Audi R8) 1m 15.921s
5. Graf/Lagorce (Panoz) 1m 16.116s
6. Tinseau/Collard (Cadillac) 1m 16.419s
7. Weaver/Leitzinger (Riley&Scott-Lincoln) 1m 16.551s
8. Field/Field/Field (Lola-Judd) 1m 17.119s
9. Taylor/Angelelli (Cadillac) 1m 17.403s
10. de Radigues/Lambert (Reynard-Judd) 1m 19.403s

Preview

Johnny seeks a win

"The team are staying on at Mosport until Wednesday to make repairs," commented Herbert. "We'll use our 'show car' as a 'donor' for parts to replace damaged ones so we'll be okay. They won't get much sleep though but Andy and I will repay them!

"It's a six hour drive from Mosport to Mid-Ohio and we'll arrive in time for the test on Thursday. I could have waited behind the backmarkers until after the corner and then overtaken them but I couldn't afford to lose time to Pirro and needed to get past. I don't have any regrets - we'll bounce back - hopefully with a win at Mid-Ohio."

"It was no good Johnny cruising in to second place - we had to have a go at winning the race but unfortunately on this occasion it didn't come off for us," confirmed Wallace (40), from Oxford. "We aim to be heroes at the end in Mid-Ohio".

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