Hockenheim Race Report

[Jeff Daniels]

Hockenheimring - Run...Run...Run...Run-a-way
Dateline - July 20, 2010 - The Hockenheimring, Baden-Württemberg, Germany
 Race Report by Jeff Daniels

I arrived in Baden-Württemberg, Germany on Thursday, July 15th after an all night flight that began at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport in Minnesota.  The flight was pleasant and I even managed to catch some sleep on the flight hoping to offset the dreaded jet lag that often accompanies such international flights.  I grabbed the airport shuttle bus after retrieving my luggage and was soon safely delivered Hotel Motodrom which is actually integrated right into the main stand of the Hockenheim circuit! 



Having made reservations as soon as the date was set on the VOR calendar to ensure that I would be able to enjoy all of the comforts of a hotel that is actually part of the circuit and not have to worry about transportation from the motel to the track and back.   Since I enjoy German cuisine, I was certain that I would feel right at home in Hotel Motodrom.  If the weather brought rain to the track, I could even watch from the viewing area directly above the start-finish line.

The airport shuttle dropped me off at the front door of Hotel Motodrom so I didn't even have to walk very far to check in for the weekend.  I was ushered to a pleasant room which overlooked the track and soon had my gear unpacked and put away.  Once I was settled in, I headed out onto the track for a look around the area.

As I made my way to the garage area, I noticed that there seemed to be less activity than I remember from other VOR international venues.  I walk through the are confirmed my impression.  There were only 27 championship teams that were getting their equipment settled and 11 support series teams located in the garage area.  A quick check with VOR stewards confirmed that no additional teams were expected.  While none of the teams had accumulated any track time, most of the teams were confident that they would give them the best compromise between speed and handling.  I made my way back into the hotel and was quickly seated in the dining room where I enjoyed a fine German dinner. 

After a comfortable sleep, I awoke to the sound of revving race engines  The schedule on Friday included the technical inspection and the first official practice session on the track for both the support series.  I watched as each team presented their cars to the technical inspectors and waited breathlessly as every dimension of the car been measured and confirmed by the inspectors.  Once the technical inspectors had declared that each car had passed the inspection, other track officials installed the transponder that was used by timing and scoring to record the time and speed of each car as it crossed the start-finish line. 
Technical inspection consumed the entire morning and the first practice sessions were scheduled to begin after the noon lunch break.  The GT and P2 cars from the support series were the first cars on the track and since there were only eleven teams entered the GT and P2 practice sessions were combined into one longer session for both groups of cars.

After the support series had completed their practice sessions, the stewards announced that due to the low turnout, the three championship practice sessions had been combined into two with the total practice time equally divided between the GT session and the prototype session.  The ten GT teams were the first championship teams to hit the track for practice.  Five of the entries were Corvette C6.Rs, three were Porsche 997 RSRs, there was one BMW M3 GTR and one Ferrari F430GT.  Once the GT practice was completed, the seventeen prototypes pulled on the track for their practice session.  There were seven P1 cars with five Acura ARX-02As, a single Judd-powered Pescarolo C60 and a single Peugeot 908 HDi making up the total.  There were ten P2 cars with four Acura ARX-01Bs, four Porsche RS Spyders, a single Mazda-powered Pescarolo C60 and a single Lola EX257.

Once the session was completed, I began walking toward Timing and Scoring to pick up a copy of the official practice times.  As I neared the VOR officials truck, I noticed quite a group of drivers and team managers all huddled around a couple of the stewards and from a distance I could tell that this wasn't just a friendly post-session discussion.  Both drivers and managers appeared to be quite upset about something.  As I got closer, I could hear drivers and team managers complaining that the official times recorded on the official timing and scoring sheets were incorrect.  The times that teams had recorded on their stopwatches weren't even close to the times that appeared on the timing and scoring sheets.   After hearing the complaints, the stewards met in the VOR truck to try and figure out what had happened.  In the meantime, it was announced that no timing and scoring sheets would be distributed until the stewards had figured out what was going on.

About an hour later, the stewards emerged from their truck and word was quickly sent to each team announcing that a special meeting for team mangers and the press had been called to explain what happened and how it happened.  At that meeting, the stewards reported that when they looked more closely at the times recorded by timing and scoring they identified several pairs of identical duplicate times which suggested a timing and scoring problem was the culprit.  When  the stewards checked the numbers of the transponders that were issued by the technical officials, they discovered that several duplicate transponders had been issued to the teams.  Since it was the first of two official practice sessions for each group of cars and since the second official practice session was scheduled for following day, the VOR stewards had decided that no official times would be recorded and the inaccurate timing and scoring report would not be distributed.  Team officials seemed to think that was a reasonable solution to a problem no one had ever imagined would happen.

I headed back to the hotel for dinner and conversation trying to figure out why duplicate transponders were issued.  No one had any answers to the mystery.  Then I headed up to my room to rest and get ready for the Saturday practice sessions.

On Saturday, I was up with the sun which streamed through the windows in my room.  After breakfast, I walked over to the garage area and watched as teams prepared their cars for their practice sessions.  Once again, VOR stewards announced that the same practice format adopted for Friday would be followed again on Saturday.  Once again, the support series cars took to the track first in the morning.  Following the lunch break, the championship teams had their practice sessions.

The GT cars were the first group of championship teams on the track.  Once again ten teams recorded official laps on the track during the session.  The fastest lap was turned by Butch Stone in the # 32 Phoenix Motorsports Corvette C6.R with a time of 1:37.051.  Alex Winston, in the # 823 Winston Racing Corvette C6.R was second with a time of 1:37.276 and rounding out the top three was Daniel Parsons driving the # 30 Propeller Race Works BMW M3 GTR.  Bill Brehm in the # 70 Critical Mass Racing Porsche 997 RSR had the slowest time recorded by the GTs.  His time was 1:40.883.

The second group of championship cars to practice was the P2 prototypes.  Six P2s recorded official laps during the session.  Recording the fastest P2 time was Pawel Korbel driving the # 11 Happy Days Racing Porsche RS Spyder with a time of 1:25.013.  Jake Witcher had the next best time driving the # 9 VLMS Porsche RS Spyder after practicing on Friday in the # 9 Talon Racing Lola EX257.  Apparently, Jake's team was unable to get the Porsche prepared for the Friday practice and sent Jake out in the Lola to get a feel for the track.  Jake's time in the Porsche was 1:25.171.   Rounding out the top three in P2 was Gregg Mulgrew in the # 5 Talon Racing Porsche RS Spyder with a time of 1:25.814.  Nikki Visser had the slowest P2 lap in the # 101 Visser Racing Porsche RS Spyder with a time of 1:27.813.

The P1 prototypes had the final practice session on Saturday.  Eight P1 prototypes recorded laps during this practice session.  Alexander Lugones, driving the # 34 Feint Motion Motorsports Acura ARX-02A set the fastest time of the day.  His time was 1:20.941.  Dave Jordan, driving the # 55 Deuces MC Acura ARX-02A, had the next best time with a lap of 1:21.408.  Rounding out the top three was Andreas Eriksson  with a time of 1:21.931 driving the # 87 Privateer Acura ARX-02A giving Acura a sweep 0f the top three spots.  Chuck Penfield, driving the # 16 Scuderia Bollesnegro Acura ARX-02A, recorded the slowest time of the session with a lap of 1:24.921.

A nice crowd gathered early on Sunday eager to watch the teams compete for the coveted pole position in each class.  It was a perfect day to be outdoors with comfortable temperatures, blue sky, and bright sunlight.  The support series teams ran their qualifying sessions in the morning and following the lunch break the championship teams were on the track for their qualifying sessions.

First up were the ten GT cars.  Daniel Parsons heated up his tires on his out lap and was the first driver to record a flier lap with a time of 1:37.061.  His time held up as Paul Nadaeu, Butch Stone, Alex Winston took shots at the provisional pole time.  When it appeared that one or more of his competitors might record a 1:36 time, Parsons ran a second flier and recorded a lap of 1:36.947 which held up for the remainder of the GT qualifying session.  Ending up second in GT qualifying was Paul Nadeau driving the # 62 Pastime Racing Corvette C6.R with a time of 1:36.993.  Butch Stone driving the # 32 Phoenix Motorsports Corvette C6.R took the third spot with a time of 1:37.021.  Recording the slowest lap in class was Tom DiLibero driving the # 22 Disaronno Racing Ferrari F430GT with a time of 1:39.535.

Up second were the 7 P2 two cars.  Gregg Mulgrew also got heat into his tires on his out lap and was able to post the first official P2 qualifying lap with a time of 1:25.744 in his # 5 Talon Racing RS Spyder.  A bit later, Mike Hirsch driving the # 39 Hirsch Racing Mazda-powered Pescarolo C60 turned 1:24.042 capture the pole.  Qualifying second in P2 was Pawel Korbel driving the # 11 Happy Days Racing Porsche RS Spyder with a time of 1:24.456 and Jake Witcher qualified third in his new # 9 VLMS Porsche RS Spyder with a time of 1:24.797.  Strangely, Mulgrew who posted the first provisional time in P2 ended up with the slowest lap in the class with a best lap time of 1:25.259. Nikki Visser was unable to complete an official lap in the # 101 Visser Racing Porsche RS Spyder.

Finally, four P1 prototypes pulled out onto the track catching the interest of most of the fans at the track.  These were the cars they had waited all day to see and now it was about to happen.  Andreas Eriksson, driving the # 87 Privateer Acura ARX-02A, also managed to get adequate heat into his tires on his outlap and started a flier lap as he crossed the start/finish line and recorded the first P1 time with a lap of 1:20.346.  This lap held up throughout the session.  Qualifying second was Alexander Lugones driving the # 34 Feint Motion Motorsports Acura ARX-02A with a best time of 1:21.285.  Rounding out the top three was Dave Jordan driving the @ 55 Deuces MC Acura ARX-02A with a time of 1:21.869.  Finishing fourth in P1 was Drew McLean driving the # 82 VLMS Judd-powered Pescarolo C60 with a time of 1:24.042.

The Sunday Schedule included two warm-up sessions, one for the support series and one for the championship series.  The support series cars were out first.  Once they were finished, the championship cars took the track.  Most of the drivers went out and ran one or two laps at moderate speed to be certain everything was bolted together and that there were no fluid leaks.  A few cars ran one or two laps at speed.  When the warm-up session ended, timing and scoring showed that Andreas Eriksson had run the fastest lap during the warm-up session.  His best time during the warm-up was 1:21.876 about a second and a half slower than his fastest qualifying lap.

Following the lunch break, the support series cars lined up on the grid and spectators were invited to the grid to see their favorite drivers and cars up close.  Once the spectators left the grid area, the support series cars were fired up and they were off on their formation lap.  The green flashed and the support series race was underway.

   

[Jeff Daniels]

Following the trophy presentation for the support series race, the championship series cars were formed up on the grid.  Once again spectators were invited to the grid to see their favorite cars and drivers.  All too quickly for some of the spectators, the track announcer was asking all unnecessary persons to leave the gird.  Once the spectators were back inside the infield, team managers gave their drivers any final instructions about running the 75 minute race.  Then the twenty-four cars were fired up and Andreas Eriksson led the field away on their formation lap. 

When the green flashed on, Andreas Eriksson immediately jumped into the overall lead and began pulling away from the rest of the field.  At the end of the lap number 1, Eriksson, Mike Hirsch and Daniel Parsons were all leading their respective classes.  At the conclusion of lap 3, Eriksson had a 7.055 lead on the second place car and he just continued to pull further and further away from the rest of the field as the laps counted up.

Chuck Penfield, who was driving the # 16 Scuderia Bollesnegro Acura ARX-02A started from the fifth position on the grid, but his run was short.  On lap 6, Penfield became the first driver to retire from the race when he pulled off the track with unknown issues with his car.  Paul Schumann, retired from the race on the next lap with unknown issues with his car.  Nikki Visser, driving the # 101 Visser Racing Porsche RS Spyder suffered suspension failure on lap 16 and retired from the race. On lap 21, Dave Jordan experienced an engine failure and retired from the race.  Lap 29, saw the brakes fail on the # 32 Phoenix Motorsports Corvette C6.R driven by Butch Stone.  Lap 39 brought an end  from an unknown cause to the race of Damjan Meze in the  #113 MZ Racing 997 RSR.  The final retirement happened on lap 45 when Alexander Lugones suffered an unknown issue.  He was officially scored in 11th place.

Paul Nadeau was the first driver to make a planned pit stop on lap 23.  Nadeau was driving the  # 62 Pastime Racing Corvette C6.R.  Lugones was the first of the P1 leaders to make a stop at the pits and on lap 28, Eriksson made his stop and returned to the track without losing the P1 position.  After the top three cars had made their pit stops, Eriksson was leading the race by 46.714 seconds.

By lap 29, none of  the top four cars in P2 had made their pit stops.  By lap 35, only Jake Witcher in the # 9 Porsche RS Spyder and Gregg Mulgrew in the #5 Talon Racing RS Spyder have yet to pit.  I can't help thinking that this is pretty gutsy strategy for Witcher since he had zero testing time in his new ride.  Mulgrew has been running his Porsche throughout the season and certainly had accumulated data to support his pit decision.  Witcher is the first to blink as he pulls into the pits on lap 36.  He returns to the track in 5th overall and third in the P2 class.   Mulgrew pits from the P2 class lead on the next lap giving the lead to Witcher.  Mulgrew returns to the track in 2nd place in the P2 class.

When Lugones suffers his misfortune on lap 46, Witcher pulls into third position overall showing the P2 class is not really that far behind the faster P1 cars.  Eriksson is the class of the entire field.  He leads from start to finish.  He laps every other car in the track and he seemed able to pull away from anyone else whenever he wanted to do so.  The ease with which he grabbed and maintained his lead throughout the 75 minute race must have left his competitors wondering what he had found in his Acura that no one else could find in theirs.  Any thoughts about something that isn't legal giving him the speed advantage are mitigated by the fact that his car went through the same technical inspection that every other car experienced and his car was declared legal.  I can't suggest any other reason why Eriksson seems to have such a huge advantage over the rest of the P1 field.

In the GT race, Daniel Parsons takes the pole and wins the race completing 46 laps in the only BMW M3 GTR in the race.  Finishing second in GT is Jon Backof driving the #4 Doug Henson Racing Corvette C6.R and rounding out the podium was Alex Winston driving the #823 Winston Racing Corvette C6.R.  When I caught up with Daniel after the race, this is what he said about his race:

"The revised Hockenheim course is tough to set up for, requiring compromise all around. It looks like setups for each driver ran the gamut of possibilities. I chose medium wings with an extra dose of rear downforce, and set up the suspension to understeer a little at the limit to ensure I didn't lose it in the greasy sections. The soft tires weren't significantly quicker in testing, so I went out on mediums to cut down on pit time.
 
"Early on, Paul Nadeau and Butch Stone were putting up an excellent chase, I wasn't able to gap them until the Protos started lapping. After pitting, I saw John Backof was 30 seconds behind, and took about 7 seconds out of me in as many laps. It took everything I had to pick up the pace. Seems like he ran into a bit of trouble which cleared my run to the top of the GT podium."

In the P2 race, Jake Witcher returned to podium after making a switch from his Lola to a new P2 Porsche RS Spyder during the race weekend.  When I caught up with Jake after the race, He had this to say about his race:

"Hey Jeff! First off I'd like to give a shout to my sponsors, Mac Tools and Melling Performance Parts. Unfortunately they weren't on the car this week to do the switch to the Porsche Spyder. My race was exciting from the start all the way to the end. Had great battles with Pawel and Gregg, it felt great to run up front with those guys again. My crew had adjusted my pit strategy some since the last time we spoke but I think was still one of the last to pit but took some fresh tires this race, I think that was the race winning move, fresh tires can go a long way for a driver. Had a scare with about 10 minutes left in the race but luckily I had someone looking out for me. This trip to the podium is special for me after such a long absence from it, makes you appreciate it that much more. Thanks for the time."

Following Witcher in fourth place overall and second in P2 was Gregg Mulgrew driving the # 5 Talon Racing Porsche RS Spyder.  Finishing 5th overall and third in P2 was Scott Berube who was also driving a Porsche RS Spyder.  His # 28 car was prepared by Feint Motion Motorsports and completed a Porsche sweep in P2.

in the P1 portion of the race, Andreas Eriksson simply ran away from the rest of field.  No one was able to match either his speed or his flawless driving.  When I caught up with Eriksson following the race, he shrugged his shoulders and said:  "Nothing much to say really, there was a few exiting moments with traffic spinning out in front of me and some of the usual miscommunication, but otherwise the race was quite straightforward."

Finishing second in P1 was Drew McLean driving the # 82 VLMS Judd-Powered Pescarolo C60 who finished a full lap behind the race winner.  To make matters more interesting, the live feed which I downloaded in the press room at the end of the race correctly listed McLean driving a P1 car.  But when the official timing and scoring results were distributed McLean was shown driving a P2 car and the winner of the P2 class.  Photographs of the McLean car confirmed that he was driving a P1 and not a P2 Pescarolo.  Finishing third in P1 was Alexander Lugones in the # 34 Feint Motion Motorsports Acura ARX-2A.  While trying to match the speed of the race winner, Lugones suffered an unknown issue with his car and finished eleventh overall in the final race standings.

The GT cars will join the rest of the GTS field next weekend and race at Autodrome Most located near the city of Most in the northwest of the Czech Republic where they will compete on the 21 turn, 4219 meter long track with track widths varying between 12 and 15 meters.  There is a 12.04 meter change in elevation on the track.  The pole position is on the left for a standing start and on the right for a rolling start.  The track runs clockwise around the track.

The Prototypes will take a week off and return to action on August 2 at Jacarepaguá. The official name of the track is the Nelson Piquet International Autodrome located in the Jacarepaguá neighborhood in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.  The asphalt road course is 5.031 kilometers (3.126 miles) in length and the circuit includes 11 turns.

I look forward to seeing all of you at these locations.  Until then, please drive safely, wear your seatbelts and don't talk or text on your cell phone while you are behind the wheel of your vehicle.

[Jake Witcher]

Another great one Jeff. Thanks!

Didn't know there was a hotel attached to the grandstands...rates must be through roof on race weekends

[JT Tami]

Yep, another great report. Now to watch F1 here 

[Gregg Mulgrew]

Great review, miss all the good photography!!

[Jeff Daniels]

Great review, miss all the good photography!!

So do I.  Camera Issues.

[John Tami]

Very nice, just wish since we moved to 2 rooms we had stories for both! Love reading them!

[Chris Burk]

Ah, I sent in my report last week?

[Jeff Daniels]

Grid Girls: Ich nehme zwei, bitte.

Chris Burk, VOR Staff Writer

VOR returned to the Deutschland this past week to burn tread at the historic DTM and F1 arena of Hockenheim. Most drivers touched down at Heidelberg Airport in the nearby town sharing the same name sometime on Thursday evening, with their equipment and cars dropping in only 40 miles away at Ramstein Air Base in the wee hours of Friday morning. Gracious owners of nearby Porsche dealerships, in an agreement with VOR, transported all equipment and cars in dealership haulers, free of charge (other than the great publicity it accumulated).
 
Cars, however, did not hit the track until late Saturday afternoon. Monsoon scale rains hit the track hard during Friday afternoon only minutes before pre-qualifying was set to begin, and crews were scattered in attempts to return equipment to their paddocks without water damage. The covers went back on their cars and the waiting game began. However, with clearing skies overnight and a crew that didn't stop working even when all the drivers went back to their hotels allowed the track to be drivable by Sunday evening. Drivers ran hot laps, but due to water damage in the timing system, no times were collected.

Monday morning came early for drivers, as the call time for the driver's meeting was set at 0800 local time. With the timing system fixed, the pushed-back qualifying had been reset for high noon. Again, teams were sent scrambling to ready their team for laps on minimal track time.

When the green lights lit at noon, the GT class cars hit the track. Newcomer Arturo Pereira took off with the class pole in his Tango Team Porsche in only his first race of the season, dropping a blistering 1:38.673 in his first timed lap on the track. Talon driver Kent Dickie qualified second with a 1:39.658, and John Tami's 1:41.172 driving his self-owned Porsche put him third in the class.

The LMC drivers then took to the pavement, heating up the already warm track. Terry Fisher grabbed the overall pole after last week's GTC class victory at Laguna Seca, posting a 1:25.126 in his league borrowed Porsche RS Spyder. Ivan Langham and his Langham-Olympus RS Spyder took the outside front row spot, posting a lap just six tenths slower than Fisher. Brazilian Luiz De Boni grabbed inside second row in his Brazil Racing Team EX257 with a 1:25.828.

The drivers then took a short siesta, as qualifying ended around 1500 local time. Most opted for the lunch route as the track was closed, but both Burk Racing drivers could still be found in the pits, along with CanUSA driver Mark Bradshaw, tweaking their final race setups.

Fourteen cars, split evenly between the two classes, lined up on the grid at 1700. Only six spots were saved for podium finishers, and every driver hoped it would be him.
The rolling start that started the race at the exit of corner two went off without a hitch, the same as most of the starts during the season have gone.
On lap three, De Boni's teammate Helcio Aguirra went off in turn two and the turn five hairpin, in an attempt to catch up to the rest of the LMP2 class, dove into turn five, directly into the path of Pereira, causing a small accordion affect among the trailing GT drivers, resulting in Chris Burk tapping John Tami in the rear.


Aguirra dives deep into traffic as the GT class drives on

On lap twelve, pole sitter Pereira made an error entering the turn five hairpin and connected with the wall after sliding through the exit. After pulling the car out of the sand, he made it back around the circuit and pulled his car into the garage, where the team promptly pulled the shutter down, hinting that Pereira would not be returning to the course.


Pereira slides into the turn five hairpin, the resulting crash would retire him

The course was considerably quiet after that, with no crashes and only a number of spin-offs, none of which resulting in retirements.

On lap 32, De Boni, who had fought his way back up from seventh after spinning off during lap 23, parked his fourth ranked EX257 on the outside of the turn five hairpin with no indication of damage to the car or to failing parts. De Boni accepted the courtesy ride back to the paddock and gave no word to the press.


De Boni parks his LMP2 outside of the turn five hairpin

Fisher's seemingly dominant run of the LMP2 class ended just seven laps from the finish when he was passed by Langham on lap 43, after leading 33 of 43 laps. Langham held on to the spot for the remaining seven laps and claimed overall victory, with Fisher finishing second, just ten seconds behind Langham, and Roy Fuller in his self-owned Mazda C60 finishing three laps behind Fisher to claim the third spot.



After Pereira's retirement, Dickie ran away with the GT class in his BMW, finishing first in the class with 44 completed laps. Despite being punted early into the race, John Tami raced on to claim the second spot, a lap behind Dickie. Mark Bradshaw's post-qualifying setup paid off, as he picked up the third spot in his CanUSA GT40, just three laps behind Dickie.



The LMC series will take it's normal one week break, and most of the drivers will take part in next Monday's GTS event at Autodrom Most in the Czech Republic. The LMC series will return on the second of next month in Rio De Janeiro, as they take on the famed Jacarepagua for precious points as the season heads past it's midway point.

[Luiz De Boni]

Chris, my words to the press:
"Ich bin in Brazilien geboren und das brazilien frau est gut!!!!"
 
GREAT writing!

[Chris Burk]

Writer's Note: Sorry about such late posting on this one guys. I had originally sent it out on Thursday after writing it Wednesday night and I guess my ISP didn't like the way it was written and kinda stopped it from getting to Jeff.

Stinkin' satellite ISP!

[John Tami]

Thanks a ton Jeff & Chris! Great job guys! Its appreciated!

[Hélcio Aguirra]

Thanks!

[Roy Fuller]

Nice writeup Chris but one small typo. I finished 3 seconds behind not 3 laps.

Thanks

Roy