apc_monk

Thanks for the input on some of the smaller details. Lets hope for more improvement by the team. It was hard to watch but it sounds like they had long term goals for a focus which is nice to hear.

bern

The car was on the track for the first time Sun/Mon before the race, in England... and then packed-up and shipped driectly to the track, basically

The throttle issue was the most bothersome, and a case of the Mazda production engine not really being designed to use a hard line throttle cable. Remember, most OEM motors now are TBW systems... this will definitely be addressed by the next round. On a oil-line, or brake line, breaking, I didn't not recieve any confirmation on this.

This was the most embarrasing deal to me... the Porsches just seemed to be falling apart... not good for them, especially since this was some of the same stuff that plagued them at last year's race.

If this was a sprint race, the Mazda would've beat the Fernandez Acura... it was ahead of them for almost 3 hours. Unfortunately it wasn't a sprint race, but the potential was/is there.

Very true... the Kumhos are not there yet, and are costing all their teams some time. Driver quality and experience is also another factor at the moment... as the drivers/team get more familiar with the car and set-up, there is a few more seconds to be had here too.

Yes, there was no real rush, and the ultimate goal became to learn and gather as much data as possible for future reference and adjustments.

Very true here.. the good thing is that Mazda will have further engine iterations coming down the line, and this start was a good stepping stone to the next level.


Very true, and for those educated in the race game, this result was pretty much to be expected... the challenge for Mazda now is to communicate effectively to all those outside the race game why they were last in P2 and -140 laps down... fortunately in racing though, most of the time, only POSITIVE results are reported and highlighted, the negative stuff is left to us enthusiast (kool-Aide drinkers) to mull, chew, and spit out!



Thanks, great pics!!


-Bern

bern

Any one catch Mr. Haskell helping out in the pits!! Mr. Steve Saunders MazdaSpeed Motorsports honcho is standing in the back with the black MS jacket



-Bern

rotary crazy

As I said before, I fully expect this car to get faster, the thing that I think remains to be seen is the reliability part of the equation.

Im sure MR.Haskell was helping out with the ECU set up, I hear hes quite good at it

I love what mazda its doing in the motorsport scene, its treating all its programs as a big family helpping each others out not as separete programs, you see this from pit crew to drivers( at least thats my perseption)

rotarygod

Johnny Herbert will be driving for Aston Martin in ALMS this year. If anyone is wondering who he is, he is known for his F1 career but more importantly to the rotary fans out there he was one of the drivers of the LeMans winning Mazda 787B in 1991.

http://www.autoblog.com/2007/03/20/r...n-martin-team/

rotary crazy

He is one hell of a driver, lets hope he gets intrested in the mazda efford, it would be great to wach hin drive a mazda again

Race Shooter

The oil line went during the afternoon. I was in the pits with the team and John D. verified that is what the problem was to me.

I totally understand the disappointment. I'm out there trying to shoot the car and they are in the pits during all the golden evening light. Bummer. I want to see them do well as much as anyone else.

But I also understand a bit about what it takes to develop these cars. I know a little about what went on behind the scenes with the Acura as far as time testing, likewise with the Porsche. These cars are not like your street car that will go out and run 24 hours without issue, there is a lot to them and the testing that goes on to get them to that point is tremendous.

The fact they actually finished the race without any problems that they couldnt fix during the race is highly commendable. Even one of the Acuras went up in flames during one of their 12 hour pre-tests. I'd say its a good start to the new program. Unfortunately what most see is the last place finish in the final results and not much more.

rotarygod

Although I'll always be a die hard rotary fan I'm getting behind their new effort. The car looks awesome. It's a very cool looking car. The appeal of the rotary to me has always been it's under dog nature and in some ways they are still the under dog in P2. Aren't they the only one's not running a V8? Someone verify that. I'll be excited to see them pick up the pace as it were as each race goes on. I really do wish they had the direct injection going right now though.

simontemplar09

I believe Van der Stuer Racing will have the AER I-4 turbo when they make the grid.

rotary crazy

has the team got any more seat time before this weekeng ?

any news?

Renesis_8

not that i know of, practice starts friday morning.
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WEB SHOWS

bern

The team is all set... there has been no testing since Sebring, but motor was strong there. The team did solve the throttle issues and are looking forward to giving her a go... The boys are hoping to spoil Acura's weekend as they are title sponsor of the event!! Set your recorders and let's see if our guys can sneak into the top 3.

-Bern

rotary crazy

Thanks for the update, lets hope for a strong showing this time out

Tirminyl

Why haven't they been testing? No time to?

rotary crazy

I would love to see an IMSA lites race, the side has not being updated since last year

http://www.imsa-lites.com/

Renesis_8

Friday morning practice

Pos Car Cls CP Driver Now Laps Gap Intv Last Lap Best Lap Best Speed BL # Stops Last Total Car Make/Model Team Tires Notes
1 6 P2 1 Sascha Maassen Pit 25 0.000 0.000 4:58.339 1:05.331 203.91 23 4 4:08.992 24:13.429 Porsche RS Spyder Penske Racing Michelin --
2 7 P2 2 Romain Dumas Fin 29 0.025 0.025 1:16.567 1:05.356 203.83 26 5 1:11.943 20:46.045 Porsche RS Spyder Penske Racing Michelin --
3 26 P2 3 Bryan Herta Pit 32 1.302 1.277 1:08.347 1:06.633 199.93 31 4 3:27.479 17:04.326 Acura ARX-01A Andretti Green Racing Michelin --
4 9 P2 4 Stefan Johansson Pit 32 1.412 0.110 1:06.743 1:06.743 199.60 32 3 2:20.452 13:18.736 Acura ARX-01A Highcroft Racing Michelin --
5 1 P1 1 Rinaldo Capello Pit 36 1.675 0.263 1:28.497 1:07.006 198.82 2 4 4:50.602 12:37.170 Audi R10/TDI Audi Sport North America Michelin --
6 15 P2 5 Adrian Fernandez Pit 33 1.989 0.314 1:28.865 1:07.320 197.89 33 5 1:42.713 15:32.391 Lola B06/43 Acura Lowe`s Fernandez Racing Michelin --
7 16 P2 6 Butch Leitzinger Pit 37 2.018 0.029 1:08.717 1:07.349 197.80 35 3 2:15.159 10:47.206 Porsche RS Spyder Dyson Racing Team Michelin --
8 20 P2 7 Chris Dyson Pit 35 2.109 0.091 1:08.036 1:07.440 197.54 33 3 2:56.273 11:27.009 Porsche RS Spyder Dyson Racing Team Michelin --
9 2 P1 2 Marco Werner Pit 31 2.854 0.745 1:21.975 1:08.185 195.38 30 4 3:40.179 17:39.222 Audi R10/TDI Audi Sport North America Michelin --
10 3 GT1 1 Johnny O`Connell Pit 27 6.940 4.086 1:12.769 1:12.271 184.33 25 2 4:52.288 5:36.833 Chevrolet C-6R Corvette Racing Michelin --
11 4 GT1 2 Olivier Beretta Pit 26 8.407 1.467 1:14.690 1:13.738 180.66 22 2 2:06.136 6:42.734 Chevrolet C-6R Corvette Racing Michelin --
12 37 P1 3 Jon Field Pit 35 8.553 0.146 1:14.024 1:13.884 180.31 34 4 1:55.117 9:14.999 Creation CA06/H001 Judd Intersport Racing Kumho --
13 31 GT2 1 Tomas Enge Pit 32 8.688 0.135 1:19.345 1:14.019 179.98 30 3 2:01.747 14:56.022 Ferrari F430 GT Petersen/White Lightning Michelin --
14 62 GT2 2 Mika Salo Pit 33 9.145 0.457 1:31.549 1:14.476 178.87 32 3 3:52.517 10:44.785 Ferrari F430 GT Risi Competizione Michelin --
15 12 P1 4 Bryan Willman Pit 32 9.242 0.097 1:47.247 1:14.573 178.64 2 3 4:02.436 9:08.348 Lola EX257 AER Autocon Motorsports Dunlop --
16 18 GT2 3 Ralf Kelleners Pit 33 9.377 0.135 1:21.592 1:14.708 178.32 32 2 1:45.519 10:25.940 Porsche 911 GT3 RSR Rahal Letterman Racing Michelin --
17 71 GT2 4 Wolf Henzler Pit 34 10.758 1.381 1:17.441 1:16.089 175.08 4 3 2:55.590 8:26.269 Porsche 911 GT3 RSR Tafel Racing Michelin --
18 73 GT2 5 Dominik Farnbacher Pit 32 10.829 0.071 1:17.162 1:16.160 174.92 29 3 1:47.534 11:23.107 Porsche 911 GT3 RSR Tafel Racing Michelin --
19 21 GT2 6 Bill Auberlen Pit 34 11.140 0.311 1:16.471 1:16.471 174.21 34 5 1:12.851 10:06.949 Panoz Esperante GTLM Panoz Team PTG Yokohama --
20 61 GT2 7 Jose Maria Lopez Fin 35 11.366 0.226 1:16.697 1:16.697 173.69 35 1 5:07.759 5:07.759 Ferrari F430 GT Risi Competizione Michelin --
21 45 GT2 8 Johannes van Overbeek Pit 31 11.382 0.016 1:17.380 1:16.713 173.66 3 5 2:51.657 15:17.958 Porsche 911 GT3 RSR Flying Lizard Motorsports Michelin --
22 8 P2 8 Ben Devlin Pit 14 11.458 0.076 -- 1:16.789 173.49 5 2 5:57.307 7:58.990 Lola B07/40 Mazda B-K Motorsports Kumho --
23 44 GT2 9 Lonnie Pechnik Pit 32 11.779 0.321 1:32.186 1:17.110 172.76 5 5 2:15.927 13:40.572 Porsche 911 GT3 RSR Flying Lizard Motorsports Michelin --
24 54 GT2 10 Terry Borcheller Fin 29 11.885 0.106 4:23.500 1:17.216 172.53 12 4 3:08.981 15:35.975 Porsche 911 GT3 RSR Team Trans Sport Yokohama --
25 22 GT2 11 Scott Maxwell Pit 36 13.268 1.383 1:35.104 1:18.599 169.49 13 3 1:04.352 5:27.347 Panoz Esperante GTLM Panoz Team PTG Yokohama --
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Laguna Bay Condos

rotary crazy

thats a disapointing performance, hope they get better soon

Renesis_8

they're way off the pace, the car must've had some problems.
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WEB SHOWS

rotarygod

I'm disappointed to not see Audi at the top of those times. This is what they've complained about. The LMP1 cars are supposed to be the fastest. LMP2 cars are not supposed to be faster. This is what they are complaining about. I know they'll still win their class in the end but they should be the fastest. That's how it is supposed to work.

Renesis_8

I read somewhere that the Audis are designed for all out speed, at Le Mans 24H. Hence they are at a disadvantage when it comes to street course. The Porsches will only get faster.......
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Wong Amat Tower Condominium

bern

The car had some minor fuel flow issues this morning, so they took it easy. The team has worked a solution now. So look for improvement in the next sessions.

-Bern

rotary crazy

100% agree with you, LMP2 should be slow down or the LMP1 should get faster, my personal opinion its that LMP2 should not have more than 450hp

rotarygod

That's just how it should work. It really has nothing to do with whether or not you like Audi or with the fact that they are dominant. That just means they've done their homework within the rules. LMP1 cars should be consistently the fastest followed by LMP2, GT1 and then bringing up the rear GT2. It doesn't mean that they necessarily have to finish in that order as there are many things that can happen in a race such as maintenance issues but at the very least qualifying time should reflect which class is the most powerful.

rotary crazy

Qualifying started

rotary crazy

Audi #1 in the wall

#8 in last P2 position 5 seconds begind the next p2