Laguna
Seca, 7th September 2003
Race
Fight
back to fourth
Champion Racing, 7th September 2003: Team ADT Champion
Racing’s American Le Mans Series title aspirations suffered
a setback in the seventh round of the series at Laguna Seca,
CA, today (07 Sep). The Florida-based team’s Audi R8 sportscar
driven by Johnny Herbert and JJ Lehto recovered to claim fourth
place overall and third in the LMP900 class having lost eight
minutes changing the car’s rear end.
Herbert
started the 165-minute race in hot Californian sunshine from
third place on the 34-car grid behind the pole-sitting Joest
Audi of Frank Biela/Marco Werner and the LMP675 Lola-MG of James
Weaver/Butch Leitzinger. The ADT Champion Audi, which had sections
of its wiring loom replaced after an electrical “short” caused
a brief fire during the morning warm-up, moved up to second
place when Johnny went around the outside of Weaver at Turn
2 following the start.
Biela
led Herbert by just 2.9secs after 15mins (9 laps completed)
but moments later a circuit breaker that regulates the turbo
boost popped out, causing the Team ADT Champion Racing Audi
R8 to lose power. Johnny reached down inside the cockpit to
push the offending item back into place but dropped to third
place and 10secs behind leader Biela.
With
30 minutes run (21 laps), Biela led Weaver by 9.9secs with Herbert
a further 1.6secs adrift as Johnny, now back up to full speed,
desperately tried to reclaim second place. But any hopes of
victory were dashed when Herbert reported a strange noise from
the gearbox shortly before the hour mark. Johnny pitted on 54mins,
re-fuelled and took on a new set of tires before driving through
the paddock and into the pit garage where the crew changed the
complete rear section which includes the gearbox.
Lehto
re-entered the race on 63mins in 24th position overall (fifth
in LMP900), seven laps down on leader Biela. A determined drive
saw Lehto enter the final hour placed eighth overall, fifth
in class as the “Flying Finn” made up ground to keep alive his
and Champion Racing’s championship title hopes. JJ pitted from
fourth place overall (third in class) for fuel and front tires
with 38mins remaining.
Despite
being far and away the fastest on the track in the closing stages,
Lehto was unable to reduce the over two-lap deficit to the third-placed
Panoz of Olivier Beretta/David Saelens after a fantastic recovery.
Johnny
commented: “I lost second place when a circuit breaker popped
out - a problem connected to our electrical warm-up problem
earlier in the day. I couldn’t see the breaker box and had
to reach down inside the cockpit and push it back in to place
by feel but I’d dropped to third place by then. Shortly before
the hour mark the gearbox started making a very odd noise.
It wasn’t affecting the performance but the team felt it wise
to change the gearbox.”
JJ
added: “We could have done without this today obviously as
it does us no favors in terms of the championship. We really
needed to beat the Joest Audi today but while they had a faultless
race, we lost over eight minutes changing the rear section.
Now we must win in Miami and Road Atlanta and hope that Frank
[Biela] and Marco [Werner] have problems to have a chance
of championship honors.”
Driver’s
Standings (after 7 races)
1=
Frank Biela/Marco Werner, 135
3 JJ Lehto, 117
4 Johnny Herbert, 114
5 Olivier Beretta, 92
6 David Saelens, 66
Teams’
Standings
1
Infineon Team Joest, 135
2 Team ADT Champion Racing, 117
3 JML Team Panoz, 95
Qualifying
Johnny
qualifies 3rd on the grid
Champion Racing, 6th September 2003: The ADT Champion
Audi of Johnny Herbert and JJ Lehto starts the seventh round
of the American Le Mans Series at Laguna Seca from the second
row of the grid. The 39-year-old Briton set a fastest time of
1:16.842, an average speed of 104.849mph around the 2.238-mile
Californian track.
Wallpaper
of above photo: 1024x768
- 800x600
The
team decided to save any further tire wear by not contesting
the final five minutes of qualifying when the 20-minute time
trial resumed which ultimately proved costly when James Weaver
demoted Herbert a place on his last lap.
Johnny
explained: “I was on provisional pole for each of my three
flying laps but Frank [Biela] ultimately bettered my times.
The front tires were starting to grip nicely on my fourth
flier but I had to back off when the red flag appeared. It
was decided to ‘save’ the tires [for the race] which is why
I didn’t go back out when qualifying resumed. Unfortunately
in those final five minutes, we were bumped off the front
row.
"I’ve
finished second here for the past two years so I would dearly
like to think we can go one better in my third Laguna race
and score a win. The team has worked hard to give us a competitive
car and it would be good to reward them.”
Preview
California
Dreamin' of Laguna success
Champion Racing, 1st September 2003: Team ADT Champion
Racing’s Johnny Herbert is aiming for a “third time lucky” American
Le Mans Series race at Laguna Seca on Sunday (7 Sep) after being
the “bridesmaid” in the last two corresponding races at the
challenging Californian roadcourse.
Briton
Herbert has finished second to the Audi of Frank Biela (and
Emanuele Pirro) for the past two years - by a mere 1.602secs
in 2001 with Andy Wallace and 25.7secs with Stefan Johansson
last year after 165-minutes of hard racing.
Eleven
points separate the championship leading Joest Audi pairing
of Biela and Marco Werner from Herbert’s Team ADT Champion Racing
co-driver JJ Lehto and the Anglo-Finnish pairing are fully aware
that a second consecutive ALMS victory is vital if they harbor
thoughts on Driver or Team title success.
Lehto
along with fellow ex-Formula One ace Herbert, who lies fourth
in the championship, earned Dave Maraj’s Florida-based Champion
Racing squad a deserved second ALMS victory with a dominant
performance in the last race at Road America, scoring Audi’s
30th overall ALMS victory in the process.
The
“Flying Finn” is no stranger to success around the 2.238-mile,
11-turn course that features the world-famous “corkscrew” section.
JJ won the corresponding ALMS race outright in 1999, netted
a GT class victory in 2001 and finished third overall in 2000
and ’02. He has clocked up over 1,000-miles of race action at
the track.
Johnny
commented: “My first-ever experience of Laguna was in 2001
when Andy [Wallace] and I finished a very close second. I
was given a 20-second penalty after contact with Jan Magnussen’s
Panoz otherwise I’m sure I’d have won on my Laguna début.
Last year we [Stefan Johansson] finished second again so I
would dearly like to think we’ll go one better on this occasion
especially considering how competitive we’ve been in recent
races.”
Brad
Kettler, Team ADT Champion Racing’s Technical Director, added:
“I believe we have a good starting set-up for Laguna. It's
always tough there with the track conditions ever changing.
We have experienced good races at Laguna for the last two
years. The team is well focused after a rebuild following
our Road America victory. We will all be in full attack mode
when we arrive in California on Wednesday.”
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