Trans Sport Racing Completes ALMS Street Race Swing With Steady Improvements
May 3, 2007 Boston, MA - Team Trans Sport Racing completed its three race swing on the ALMS calendar with 7th, 8th, and 6th place finishes. The team continued its quest to build a database on the Yokohmama-shod Porsche RSR and move forward on the grid. I set a goal of having a top-five finish by mid-season so these races were critical to gaining the knowledge base to accomplish that goal. I can proudly say that the team is on track to reach fifth place or better by Lime Rock.
The first stop on the calendar for the team was St. Petersburg, Florida, which saw the team finish in 7th place at the Acura Grand Prix. St. Pete was quite a difficult race for some of the teams and damage was heavy. But 54 came away unscathed and ready to head west for round three of the ALMS season at Long Beach. The next two races were back-to-back, so having little to do in addition to maintenance was a plus. The crew would need all the rest they could get.
The Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach is one of the most prestigious street races in America, having run continuously since the Formula One cars roared through the streets nearly 30 years ago. Everyone at TSR was excited to be a part of the legendary show, and what a show it was! Packed, sell-out crowds poured through the gates on Friday and Saturday, numbering over 70,000. The stands were full for all of the ALMS sessions and the swarms of sports car fans made the paddock almost impassible for racecars. It is really cool to be a racer when the stands are full. I remember in Grand Am when we used to say, "In NASCAR the fans know all of the drivers; in Grand Am, the drivers know all of the fans!" Not so in American Le Mans; I met interesting people and had a blast doing the autograph session, which is a first.
In fact, during the autograph session on Saturday, most fans remarked that the American Le Mans Series was the "premiere" series today in all of US racing, which is certainly a nice complement. Running in conjunction with the Champ Car World Series makes that statement even more powerful as Champ Car has amazing drivers and very professional teams.
The Toyota Grand Prix at Long Beach has certain restrictions on time, due to the number of different series cars running in the event, which limited the Long Beach ALMS race to 100 minutes, the shortest of the season. Some at TSR felt that running alongside another major series (or in this case, several major series), marginalizes the value for ALMS teams and sponsors. I tend to disagree, instead feeling that the event was a great opportunity for fans to be entertained by many different cars and drivers. We look forward to running with Champ car again, which as it turns out, would be at Houston a week later. I enjoyed seeing my man George Lucas running the Toyota Celebrity race, although clearly the Force was not with him on that day - George should stick to making movies (his racing day ended in the tire wall). The Toyota Pro/Celebrity race is super cool and was good fun to watch.
The race at Long Beach was short, but not without incident. An early yellow due to Tom Milner Jr.'s crash in the Rahal Letterman Porsche (incidentally the team would go on to have 3 DNF's in 4 races) meant that the driver switch could get done early, which is what we did at TSR. Borcheller took over the car thirty minutes into the race and went on to a solid 8th place finish. The 54 car struggled a bit with grip at Long Beach and a set up that was difficult to refine with the limited track time afforded to the ALMS teams. Particularly, we suffered under braking, locking up rears and fronts, depending on how you much pressure we trailed into the corner. Ultimately though, we tested a lot of different changes and tire compounds and went away from the race with a clean car and many ideas for Houston.
The Lone Star Grand Prix gets high marks in my book - it was run extremely well and the venue is fantastic. However, if we are to continue there, I hope the promoters will consider paving the circuit. The circuit runs along roads that connect the Reliant Arena, Reliant Stadium, the Astrodome, and several parking lots in the vicinity. None of these roads get maintained like public streets do, which means that they are pretty rough. All of the surface is poured concrete, not asphalt, and is quite possibly the worst surface I have ever raced on. The bumps jostle the energy right out of you - after 1 hour and 15 minutes I was drained. Because there is no straight section of the track (the straights have long, constant or decreasing radius turns) you never have time to rest. I barely was able to activate the drink system!
We got the car fairly well optimized for the tire and track conditions, but our times were off of the top cars. The Ferrari is just not in the same league as we are and I think that unless IMSA does something, the championship will be all over but the shouting in a few races, way before the end of the season. 54 was about 1.5 seconds off of the leaders, which meant that we had to push and do "qualifying" laps every time around. I was pushing so hard during my stint, it was fun, but hard work. I have a lot of blisters on my hands after that one!
Terry took over and did an amazing job, fighting with the #22 Panoz for most of his stint. The race ran into the night and during a late yellow, at sunset, we elected to put a softer tire on the car. This was good decision as the temperatures dropped quickly. Our pit stop was awesome; I must congratulate the crew as we came in with an advantage of less than one second over the Panoz and left with over 18 seconds in hand!
Terry drove hard and thanks to the crew's work (plus a little luck) we came away 6th.
I am proud of the team and happy that we have moved a bit farther up the grid. We entertained a number of guests at Houston and I can also say that it was a challenge to provide folks with a good experience, as well as getting our jobs done. But everyone did their best and I think that our guests had a perfect day.
Post-race we went to the Jimmy Buffet concert at Minute Maid Park, which was actually a lot more fun than I had anticipated - I figured I would be wiped out and wouldn't like being on my feet. But it was entertaining: the music was great, and the Land Shark Lagers were cold and tasty. Capping off a perfect three-race swing with some chill tunes and funny, parrot-hatted Buffet fans was an unexpected adventure. Special thanks to Savannah and Jimmy!
The team has a small break before Utah in three weeks. Look for the 54 to come back out, gunning for the front of the grid.
For more information, contact Jessica Saller, Team Trans Sport PR Manager at (215) 732-3200.