IMMEDIATELY . . . After yesterday's ALMS race at Mid-Ohio PWL is down one driver. Tomas was on probation with PWL and IMSA after the incidents at Lime Rock and he was let go immediately from PWL after 45 minutes into yesterday's race. Muller finished the race with the damaged car. I admire PWL for sticking to their team policy and abiding by the decision of the stewards. He's caused unnecessary damage to the Risi cars in the last two races. The additional driver for the #31 F430 will be announced prior to Road America in a few weeks. Wonder who it will be? He and Mika will be on F430 teams next weekend for the TOTAL 24 Hours of Spa. Tomas with Scuderia Ecosse and Mika with AF Corse. Replay of yesterday's race on CBS at 1300 CDT. Carol
Mika took out Enge though. He told CBS it was revenge for Lime Rock. Enge barely made contact and there were LMP cars around turn 7 where the light contact was made. Mika took out Enge on turn 13 with Enge on the outside. (chicane not used) http://www.pccchicago.com/images/paul/midohio/MidOhio_trackmap01sm.JPG http://www.petersenmotorsports.com/singleItem.asp?ID=366 Risi could have won the race if Mika didn't take Enge out. The # 62 car had a 2 minute penalty and had to fix a flat tire, but they finished 2nd in GT2. Gianmaria Bruni finished 3rd in GT2 in his debut ALMS race with the # 61 Ferrari with co-driver Eric Helary. http://www.risicompetizione.com/go/news.cfm
Thanks for the update! It is very difficult when they run two different classes of cars. The speed difference makes for all kinds of trouble. The Risi manager could not believe his driver took out Enge. Wonder what he thought after seeing the tape. Mr Risi was smart not to even show up at that Saturday race. The 333SP seemed to attract better talent... CH
I like Salo, but if anything the move he pulled was more dangerous than the incidental contact that Enge had with him. Did you see that Enge came close to hitting the retaining wall after they both went off?
Hi Bruce - glad to see you on here (thanks for the link to all the Challenge photos - they're great - have they established a location for the finals yet?) Interesting race for sure. Pirro has to get the award for the best moves of the entire race with his passes. I really like the four classes running together. I don't like the way Grand AM has split some of the races, but then I'm not a real fan of that series. John & I are headed to Spa for the 24 hour - GT2 should be entertaining for sure. Carol
Good Morning Carol! The final will be at Mugello. It is about a half hour outside of Florance. Will I see you there? NOTE: You can pass on the codes for the photos if you like
Enge screwed the pooch at Lime Rock. At Mid-Ohio Enge made a small mistake, but what Salo did was flagrant and intentional and should have warranted much stronger reaction. There is no room for revenge ramming when lives are on the line. Too bad for Enge. He was obviously as fast or faster than the Risi car, so White Lightning is down a very fast driver. And it still appears the GT3s need Ferrari to self destruct before they can pick up a win. What I am confused about is the how the Audis looked SO much faster than the P2s, but then after the slowish pit stop, never played a factor again. I know there was the off, but how did he end up so far back to begin with?
Audi = TORQUE - torque is better than HP. Watch Road America and you can see torque in play. Marco mentioned he lost overall due to the pit stop. Audi pit stops can sometimes be slower as diesel is slower filling than other fuel. Allan did his usual stellar performance but time was his enemy. Watch the replay of Salt Lake City - the start is absolutely awesome by Pirro - definitely the torque of the diesel brought Audi up from far back to first in the first corner. Carol
Good morning Bruce - I also just found out from our friends in London that the final is Mugello. Not so sure at this point about going (lots on calendar in Sept/Oct - F1, ALMS). Guess if we are thinking about it, hotel reservations are a must now! Do you stay in Florence? See you next month at the brunch?? Carol
Okay, you guys have hi-jacked this into a chat thread. What about Enge being dismissed? Opinions? Perspectives? Enge's touch was due to traffic, Salo's blatant ram was inexcusable. And then he admits it on (inter)national TV! Shouldn't Salo get some serious heat for this? His rancor at Enge seems pretty hypocritical after what happened at Sebring. Could he be leveraging this to get rid of a potentially faster competitor?
Jamie was driving at the completion of the Sebring Race. In fact he drove the last 2.5 hours of the race. Held 20 seconds (his lead was 20 secs) for penalty - visor up during refueling. . . FL took lead. Brakes were going away in the last 30 minutes; 2 minutes left in race NO brakes - some fantastic driving - won by .202 seconds. We saw them come across the line - some of the best racing we've seen in a while. One of the closest and best of all ALMS GT racing. Carol
Ooops, good point. Had thought it was Salo. Certainly invalidates that point. I just think Enge is getting a bit of a raw deal and Salo is crying "foul" a little too loudly. But from PWL's perspective, Enge is a bit hard on their cars, for sure. lol Sebring: Great racing, no doubt. Great adversity, epic performance. But by the rules (please correct me if I am mistaken), intentional/avoidable contact that gains an advantage is verboten. Period. All avoidable contact merits a penalty. Yes? So the question would be was the contact intentional or not? I guess we will never know.
Just read the PWL statement about Enge on the ALMS site. It sounds like they let Enge go because they had to, due to team policy, and the fact he was assessed a penalty while on probation. They even make it sound like they don't blame him for the initial contact with Salo. That is too bad: a driver let go due to a questionable penalty call by the ALMS officials. Enge got himself into the situation of being on probation, of course, but it sure leaves a bad taste in one's mouth. What was developing into a great battle...gone.
Bruce thanks for the detailed answer. I was just thinking of open and closed cars. The GT1> Corvette is more of a parade than a race; just for bragging rights and even that is one sided. CH
Wow interesting. I did not know that Enge had been dismissed from PWL following the race at Mid-Ohio, though I did see the race. This really is too bad, as Enge did NOTHING wrong IMO at Mid-Ohio (though his actions at lime rock were unacceptable). He did not make intentional contact with Salo and still recieved a five minute penalty, thoguh when Salo rammed him into the next turn he only recieved a 2 minute penalty? Rediculous. Even Enge's actions at lime rock weren't as vicious and dangerous as Salo's move at Mid-Ohio yet (as far as I know) he has recieved no formal reprimand for it. I'm looking forward to hopefully seeing Tomas back in an Aston maybe at the end of this year or next year, or at worst at Le Mans next year.
Enge's manager has submitted protest against penalty http://www.tomas-enge.com/index.php?lng=EN&webid=10&id=721&akce=clanek&PHPSESSID=db55ab29922ef95478713fa54a1423e8
True, but the Risi team stance seems hypocritical. They benefit from rubbing in Sebring, but they block at Lime Rock and Salo goes postal when bumped in traffic at Mid-Ohio; then the manager threatens on TV to pull his team? I guess the manager might not have known at the time that the collision was intentionally caused by Salo, but it still makes them look bad. PWL will be getting my GT2 Ferrari vote this season. Okay, I give. I don't have the faces memorized. Who are the gents in the pic?
