Mosport, eh?

[MOTV8]

Hey, Johnny Strutt, the C6.R's are up in Canada this weekend, eh?

The American Le Mans Series schedule is filled with classic, North American road courses. For the drivers, venerable venues such as Sebring, Mid-Ohio, Road Atlanta and Road America require a draw from a deep well of speed, precision and courage. Mosport International Raceway demands an even longer drill. The first purpose-built Canadian race course has changed little since it was carved into the hills of Bowmanville, Ontario in the late 1950s and it remains to many drivers a perfect mix of dream and nightmare. Therein lies the magic of Mosport. The track is a favorite among the drivers because it is a challenge. It demands respect and rewards speed and exact driving.

As the American Le Mans Series heads to Mosport International Raceway in Bowmanville, Ontario, Canada, the eighth stop of the 2008 American Le Mans Series, championship battles are in full swing and tires are a key part of the championship. Tires have played a key role in the resurgence of the Audi R10 turbo- diesels. Victories at temporary circuits in St. Petersburg and Long Beach with the new Michelin "street soft" tires have been followed by success at Mid-Ohio and Wisconsin's Road America with more traditional Michelin tire options.

While Audi and drivers Lucas Luhr and Marco Werner have LMP1 class championships in sight, it is a much different story in the LMP2 class. There it is Porsche vs. Acura for manufacturer honors; Penske Racing vs. Patron Highcroft Racing for the team title and Penske's Romain Dumas and Timo Bernhard vs. Highcroft's David Brabham and Scott Sharp for the driver titles. As the pairs of Porsche RS Spyders of Penske Racing and Dyson Racing tend to take a different route on Michelin tire selection than the four-pronged Acura attack from Andretti Green Racing; Lowe's Fernandez Racing; Patron Highcroft Racing and the newest team, de Ferran Motorsports, tire choices may well determine the outcome.

On the GT side of the ALMS paddock, the Corvette C6.R of Johnny O'Connell and Jan Magnussen is poised to take back the GT1 title from teammates Olivier Beretta and Oliver Gavin. (Maybe Gavin will keep it on the track this week, and keep the lone Aston from collecting another 2nd place finish. ) The GT2 class is in a heated battle as Porsche tries to wrestle the GT2 manufacturer crown back from Ferrari, while the Flying Lizard Porsche and surprising Tafel Racing Ferrari have each claimed three wins to date. Two of the Tafel Ferrari wins (Long Beach and Mid-Ohio) came as a result of double-stinting their Michelin tires.

In addition to the American Le Mans Series - their only Canadian stop - the race card has six other North American championships, including the SPEED World Challenge (GT & Touring). Racing at Mosport gets underway Thursday, with the green flag dropping on the Mobil 1 presents the Grand Prix of Mosport race at 3:00 pm (EDT) Sunday (Aug. 24).

Speed has live coverage of the 2 hour 45 minute ALMS race beginning at 3 p.m. Eastern, 12 p.m. Arizona time, set your TiVos/DVRs or pull up a couch and crack a cold Moosehead, eh?

[MOTV8]

Corvette Racing's Johnny O'Connell scored his second GT1 pole position in three races and his first at Mosport. His time of 1:13.878 (119.825 mph) outpaced teammate Olivier Beretta by the slimmest of margins - 0.069 seconds. It was a remarkable achievement for Beretta and Oliver Gavin's crew to be so close. The team had to replace many of the front parts of the Corvette after Gavin went off hard at Turn 2 in the morning practice.

"I'll be the first to admit that I'm a pretty crappy qualifier so I'm pretty stoked," O'Connell said. "Olivier is so good and anytime you outperform him is a good thing. The bigger story to me is how hard the guys on the No. 4 car worked to get that car ready to go this afternoon. I didn't think it would be that close."

O'Connell is a five-time winner at Mosport. He won in class last year with Jan Magnussen in the C6.R, nine years after they teamed for an overall victory in a factory Panoz prototype. With just two pole positions entering the season, O'Connell has doubled his total this season.

He and Magnussen enter Mosport with a 23-point championship lead.

"It's a lot of fun here. This is a magical racetrack," O'Connell said. "I think there are a lot of tracks that all the guys like coming to, and this is one of them. You have a lot of moments here. We brush our brakes nearly all the way around except for Turn 5. The rest are at 20 percent because you want to maintain your momentum."

Terry Borcheller qualified third in class for Bell Motorsports with a lap of 1:15.611 (117.078 mph) in the team's Aston Martin DBR9.

[jstrutt]

Dean, there is a thread about the old days in Off Topic, but this does bring back a lot of memories for me from my kid days in Toronto. We used to go to Mosport all the time back about 40 years ago when it was a small dump just cut from the Bowmanville soil with real junkers running on her. There was one burger joint near the track. It was great back then but I've never had a chance to return. It must be a sight now.

[MOTV8]

Well, Mr. Strutt, that small dump in Bowmanville became the fastest road course in North America (based on average lap speeds) over the weekend, and in fact became the third fastest road course behind Le Mans and Monza. They flat haul azz around there.

***SPOILER ALERT***RESULTS BELOW***

Lucas Luhr and Marco Werner captured their third straight overall victory, Audi went 1-2 overall and Acura took the top two spots on the LMP2 podium for the first time since Sebring in 2007 on a thrilling day at Mosport International Raceway. Luhr crossed the finish line 21.392 seconds ahead of teammate Emanuele Pirro as Gil de Ferran ran out of fuel on the last lap while leading in class. That sent David Brabham and Scott Sharp to their fourth class victory of the season.

Luhr passed de Ferran for the overall lead with nine minutes left as the Luhr/Werner duo won in LMP1 for the seventh straight race to extend their championship lead. The Audis qualified 1-2 overall and finished in the same fashion as Pirro and overall pole-winner Dindo Capello placed second.

Brabham got by both Penske Racing’s Romain Dumas and Lowe’s Fernandez Racing’s Adrian Fernandez to put the Patr¢n Highcroft Racing Acura ARX-01b in position to take advantage of de Ferran’s misfortune. Fernandez and Luis Diaz finished second in class with Penske’s Sascha Maassen and Patrick Long placing third.

Johnny O’Connell and Jan Magnussen won for the second straight year in GT1, going flag-to-flag in their Corvette C6.R. Corvette Racing’s championship-leading duo was fastest in every session this week including qualifying.

O’Connell won for the sixth time at Mosport since 1999, and Magnussen is now a three-time winner there. They won overall at Mosport 10 years ago in a Panoz factory prototype.

Jaime Melo and Mika Salo won their long-awaited first Series race this season, taking a hard-fought GT2 victory for Risi Competizione and its Ferrari F430 GT. Melo in the pole-winning car got around Dirk Werner’s Porsche 911 GT3 RSR with 22 minutes left at Turn 1. Melo and Salo won eight times last season on their way to the class championship, and their only other victory this year was at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Werner and Pierre Kaffer finished second in the Farnbacher Loles Racing Porsche. Dirk Mueller and Dominik Farnbacher placed third in Tafel Racing’s Ferrari F430 GT.

Sunday’s results

1. (2) Marco Werner, Germany; Lucas Luhr, Germany; Audi AG R10/TDI (1, P1), 127.

2. (1) Rinaldo Capello, Italy; Emanuele Pirro, Italy; Audi AG R10/TDI (2, P1), 127.

3. (4) Scott Sharp, Jupiter, FL; David Brabham, Australia; Acura ARX-01B (1, P2), 127.

4. (6) Luis Diaz, Mexico; Adrian Fernandez, Mexico; Acura ARX-01B (2, P2), 127.

5. (8) Patrick Long, Oak Park, CA; Sascha Maassen, Germany; Porsche RS Spyder (3, P2), 127.

6. (5) James Rossiter, England; Franck Montagny, Brignoles France; Acura ARX-01B (4, P2), 127.

7. (7) Simon Pagenaud, France; Gil de Ferran, Brazil; Acura ARX-01B (5, P2), 126.

8. (3) Timo Bernhard, Germany; Romain Dumas, France; Porsche RS Spyder (6, P2), 126.

9. (10) Chris Dyson, Pleasant Valley, NY; Guy Smith, England; Porsche RS Spyder (7, P2), 125.

10. (9) Marino Franchitti, Scotland; Butch Leitzinger, State College, PA; Porsche RS Spyder (8, P2), 125.

11. (13) Gerardo Bonilla, Orlando, FL; Ben Devlin, England; Lola B07 46 Mazda (9, P2), 121.

12. (14) Johnny O`Connell, Flowery Branch, GA; Jan Magnussen, Denmark; Corvette C6.R (1, GT1), 117.

13. (15) Olivier Beretta, Monaco; Oliver Gavin, England; Corvette C6.R (2, GT1), 117.

14. (16) Terry Borcheller, Vero Beach, FL; Chapman Ducote, Miami, FL; Aston Martin Vantage (3, GT1), 115.

15. (17) Jaime Melo, Brazil; Mika Salo, Finland; Ferrari F430 GT (1, GT2), 113.

16. (18) Pierre Kaffer, Germany; Dirk Werner, Germany; Porsche 911 GT3 RSR (2, GT2), 113.

17. (19) Dominik Farnbacher, Germany; Dirk Mueller, Germany; Ferrari F430 GT (3, GT2), 113.

18. (20) Wolf Henzler, Germany; Joerg Bergmeister, Germany; Porsche 911 GT3 RSR (4, GT2), 113.

19. (22) Tom Milner, Leesburg, VA; Tom Sutherland, Los Gatos, CA; B. Sellers, Centerville, OH; Panoz Ford (5, GT2), 112.

20. (24) Jim Tafel, Alpharetta, GA; Alex Figge, Hollywood, CA; Ferrari F430 GT (6, GT2), 111.

21. (26) Seth Neiman, Burlingame, CA; Lonnie Pechnik, Pacific Grove, CA; Porsche 911 GT3 RSR (7, GT2), 111.

22. (28) Paul Drayson, London, UK; Jonny Cocker, UK; Aston Martin Vantage (8, GT2), 109.

23. (21) Johannes van Overbeek, San Francisco, CA; Patrick Pilet, France; Porsche 911 GT3 RSR (9, GT2), 105.

24. (25) Joel Feinberg, Ft. Lauderdale, FL; Chris Hall, Daytona, FL; Dodge Viper Comp Coupe (10, GT2), 105.

25. (11) Jon Field, Dublin, OH; Clint Field, Dublin, OH; Richard Berry, Evergreen, CO; Lola B06/10 AER (3, P1), 86.

26. (12) Ryan Lewis, UK; John Faulkner, Pittsford, NY; Lola B06-10 AER (4, P1), 64.

27. (27) Tony Burgess, Canada; Chris McMurry, Phoenix, AZ; Creation CA07-002 Judd (5, P1), 42, Suspension.

28. (23) Nicky Pastorelli, Holland; Francisco Pastorelli, Holland; Marc Basseng, Germany; Porsche 911 GT3 RSR (11, GT2).

Gavin DID take another off-road excursion in qualifying, straight into the tire wall to munch the front end, but the team rebuilt the #4 lickety-split. I'm starting to think even the Dawg could find his way around these tracks better than this guy...

Next weekend they all head to Detroit (pronounced Day-twah, eh?) and Speed has the coverage again.

BTW, I heard little Lou Gigliotti will return and enter the Riley-prepped LG Motorsports GT2 C6 Corvette in the Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta later this year. Don't know what he's been doing since we last saw him. Maybe he needed all this time to let his ass heal from all the butt-kickins he took early this year?

[Guest racingchester]

It was as tho the Vettes were not even racing. They had very little to say about them.......

[jstrutt]

I'm starting to think even the Dawg could find his way around these tracks better than this guy...

5 will get you 10 he can't.............

[MOTV8]

It was as tho the Vettes were not even racing. They had very little to say about them.......

Well, that tends to happen when you drum the competition into non-existence.

Corvette Racing has been basically running 'vette parades in the ALMS the past coupla years, even with the limited competition from the lone GT1 Aston this year, mostly to keep sharp for the big show at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Speaking of which, I was notified of the following news flash earlier today:

Corvette Racing appears increasingly likely to move from the GT1 class to GT2 as early as the middle of next season. A proposal is on the table that would see the existing Corvette C6.R GT1 car race in the American Le Mans Series--up to and including the 24 Hours of Le Mans--before Chevrolet switches to a GT2 version.

The new car, developed, as was its predecessor, by Pratt & Miller, then would take part in selected ALMS races during the second half of the season.

"We will hopefully get to a 95 percent answer very soon," said General Motors road-racing boss Steve Wesoloski. "Over the next six weeks, budgets will be finalized, so we can determine the 2009 program in detail."

If I was to guess, I would say that Corvette will move into the GT2 category so they can have some competition in ALMS. Presently, the team really only races against themselves and that isn't fun for anyone (and TV coverage suffers). A move to GT2 would put Corvette up against Porsche, Ferrari, Aston Martin, Ford, Panoz and the forthcoming BMW M3 team.

[Desertdawg]

A move to GT2 would definitely get more TV time too, I look forward to the added competition.

[P51tj]

[ A move to GT2 would put Corvette up against Porsche, Ferrari, Aston Martin, Ford, Panoz and the forthcoming BMW M3 team.

Don't forget about that lowley Viper out there, MoFo needs entertained also!

[Desertdawg]