ALMS 2006

Sebring St-Peterburg Mid Ohio Lime Rock Salt Lake Portland Road America Mosport Petit Le Mans Laguna Seca

Sebring 2007-03-17

Starting Lineup

Lowe's Fernandez Racing will make its American Le Mans Series debut from the eighth spot on the grid after qualifying this afternoon for the 55th Annual Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring. Adrian Fernandez qualified the #15 Lowe's Acura Lola during the 25-minute session, posting a best lap of 1:48.417 (122.859 mph) which was sixth-fastest amongst the LMP2 class. Co-driver Luis Diaz will start the race with David Martinez assisting as a third driver during the event.
The team has been on track at the challenging 3.7-mile, 17-turn road course since Monday in preparation for the 12-hour endurance classic, which will also mark the debut of Acura in ALMS competition. Official practice began yesterday and three sessions remain before the green flag waves at 10:00 am EDT this Saturday.

Adrian Fernandez: "Time-wise, we are not very happy. When we tested here, we were very fast and now we can't get close to those times. We started out the week with some diff [differential] issues and brake issues which we fixed and now the car is good through the corners, but we are losing speed on the straight. We don't know what we are missing on the setup but we can't repeat the times that we did here before. We have really been chasing the car since Day One. It is a little frustrating in that respect. I know speed is not that important in a 12-hour race but it would make a nice comfort zone to know you have a car capable to be able to fight for the win if you are in that position. Right now, we haven't found it. We are not giving up. This is part of the learning process. We have a very reliable car and we have a great team. If we do what we did in the Acura 12-hour [simulation] race and with a little bit of luck, I think we can win this thing. The car feels good. We just need to find what we are missing on the setup and make sure it gets to the end of the race.
"This is a fantastic series and I am very excited to drive this car with Luis and David. It is nice to see so many fans around the race track, and the atmosphere is great. We are happy to be here in the American Le Mans Series with Lowe's and Acura, and hope to be a part of this family for a long time."

Luis Diaz: "It has been exciting for me to learn. about this series and I feel that I am ready heading into our first race weekend. This series is really totally different than what I have been used to in terms of the rules, and passing traffic is totally different with the difference in speeds in each category. It is a very competitive series, but I like challenges so I am excited. Looking ahead to the race, qualifying is not that important. You need to be there with one hour to go. We know we have a strong car and that is the most important thing about this race -- to have a strong car. I know we are going to be there at the end. If we are smart and we race like we know, we are going to have a good result."

David Martinez: "We have had a pretty good week despite a few ups and downs but it's good that the few problems we had happened during practice. We've really had a very reliable car all this week so we are looking forward to hopefully a problem-free and mistake-free race. I feel very comfortable in the car. I have only done about 20 laps so far this week but Adrian and Luis are doing a great job on the handling of the car and I feel quite comfortable at the speed I am running."

Tom Anderson, Co-Owner/Managing Director: "Qualifying is not critical for track position during an endurance event so obviously our total focus is on the race, and we feel we have a little bit more to gain with the chassis. Based on our 12-hour simulation race here and the changing track conditions during that race, we are looking for that compromise to where we are reasonably good in all conditions. If we hit that mark close, I think we will have a good result. The Lowe's Acura Lola has been quite reliable in winter testing and during our simulation race. The mechanics are doing a great job. If we keep doing what we have been doing and with a few gains, I think we will have a great result come Saturday night."

Horag Racing's Didier Theys of Scottsdale, Ariz., qualified ninth in the very competitive LMP2 class Thursday for Saturday's 55th annual Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring at Sebring International Raceway. He'll share the Swiss team's Lista and Lista Office-sponsored Lola B05-40 Judd No. 27 with Fredy Lienhard and Eric van de Poele in the once-around-the-clock classic.
All 34 cars in the field will use fuel that contains 10 percent ethanol. The American Le Mans Series is trying to showcase that exotic sports cars' performance needn't suffer even when ethanol is used to help save the world's environment and resources. Horag Racing's red and white Lola will start on the outside of row six in 12th position overall Saturday.
Theys' best lap in Thursday's qualifying session was timed in 1:53.594 for an average speed of 117.260 miles per hour around the 17-turn, 3.7-mile road course. The team did not focus on trying to win the class's pole position. Its primary goal is to finish the race. "Our car is a bit too neutral," said Theys right after the qualifying session of his Michelin-shod mount. "We don't have good straightaway speed. We have good grip in the corners, but we're losing a lot under acceleration and at the top end. "We knew the factory cars would be faster than we are," he continued. "If we can have the reliability that we had at the Petit Le Mans last fall, we will be OK. We have a good team that can prepare a reliable car. We need to stay out of trouble and finish. Our goal is to be there at the end of the race."

Lola sportscars undertook final preparations for this weekends Sebring 12 Hours yesterday with official qualifying taking place on the historic Florida circuit. Four Huntingdon built LMP1 and LMP2 sports prototypes line up on the grid for the 55th running of the classic endurance season opener.

This year, Lola are the chassis providers for both the Acura and Mazda assault on the American Le Mans Series and both entries showed that they will be in the hunt for major honours this season. Fernandez Racing will line up 8th on the grid after team owner and driver Adrian Fernandez lapped in 1m48.417s with his Lola-Acura LMP2. The Mexican had gone significantly faster in the practice sessions held earlier in the week, but as he explained, there is significantly more pace to come from their package in the race itself. “Time-wise, we are not very happy. When we tested here, we were very fast and now we can’t get close to those times. We started out the week with some diff [differential] issues and brake issues which we fixed and now the car is good through the corners, but we are losing speed on the straight,” said Adrian Fernandez “We don’t know what we are missing on the setup but we can’t repeat the times that we did here before. We have really been chasing the car since Day One. It is a little frustrating in that respect,” continued Fernandez. “I know speed is not that important in a 12-hour race but it would make a nice comfort zone to know you have a car capable to be able to fight for the win if you are in that position. Right now, we haven’t found it. We are not giving up. This is part of the learning process. We have a very reliable car and we have a great team. If we do what we did in the Acura 12-hour [simulation] race and with a little bit of luck, I think we can win this thing. The car feels good. We just need to find what we are missing on the setup and make sure it gets to the end of the race.”

Lining up just two places behind Fernandez and his team mates Luis Diaz and David Martinez will be the BK Motorsport Lola-Mazda. Ben Devlin set the cars fastest time of the week so after just a handful laps since the team first shook the car down in the UK last week. The up and coming British sportscar racer was delighted with the way the Mazda powered Lola was handling on its Kumho tyres, saying. “We’re very pleased with progress so far, it’s where we expected to be. The car arrived in the States only last Thursday and the boys have done an enormous amount of work in that time. We’re going for a finish and getting there as quickly and reliably as we can.”

Horag Racing returned to the tracks with some consistent lapping in their red and white Lola B05/40 Judd. Didier Theys and his team mates Fredy Leinhard and Eric Van De Poele start 12th overall and 9th in the ultra competitive LMP2 class. Their primary goal is now to finish the 12 hour marathon. “"We are pretty happy. The car doesn’t have the full '07 aero package yet, just the front end. It still makes a difference though with better speed down the straightaway, better cooling for the brakes and more downforce." said Theys.

Autocon Motorports line up 4th in LMP1 with their Lola B01/60-AER. The California based team are on the 5th row overall and Chris McMurray who set a best time of 1m53.125s and his team mates Bryan Willman and Michael Lewis are aiming for a podium position on Saturday evening.

Race results

Race Report

Another win for Audi, the first for Acura and Andretti Green Racing, and the most exciting finish in race history marked the start of the 2007 American Le Mans Series on Saturday. Marco Werner, Emanuele Pirro and Frank Biela drove to victory at the 55th Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring in one of the most thrilling editions of the Florida classic in its history. It marked the second straight Sebring win and ninth victory in as many races in the short life of the diesel-powered Audi R10 TDI. Werner crossed the finish line after 363 laps for his third victory in five Sebring starts. Biela won for the fourth time in America's greatest sports car race (tied with Tom Kristensen), and Pirro won for the first time since 2000.
Werner was seven laps up on Bryan Herta in the Andretti Green Racing Acura ARX LMP2 entry that he shared with Dario Franchitti and Tony Kanaan. The Audi trio came back from a punctured tire, pit lane penalties and a two-lap deficit to win.
"I would have never put money on our car," Pirro said. "When you are two laps behind, it's very tough. I just had to put my foot down and race. We had to believe we were still tough competitors. Today's race was very demanding, and every car had problems with mechanicals. We never had a mechanical (issue) and that is another reason why I am so proud to be an Audi R10 TDI driver."
Werner started on pole position and ran with its sister car of Allan McNish, Rinaldo Capello and Tom Kristensen. That trio led most of the opening five hours after the winning car had its problems. After the five- hour mark, McNish pitted and handed off to Capello, who couldn't get the car rolling. The team replaced a battery, starter motor and electrical dashboard before rejoining the race after a 30-minute stop.
"It was a tough race, the TDI was running good but you never know what will happen," Werner said. "So you have to push all day long and you never feel safe."

The class win for Andretti Green Racing came less than a year after Acura publicly announced its entry into the American Le Mans Series. Herta, Franchitti and Kanaan led overall three different times and finished two laps ahead of the Lowe's Fernandez Racing Lola of Adrian Fernandez, Luis Diaz and David Martinez.
It is quite an accomplishment for an Acura program that hit the track for the first time in late August. But miles and miles of testing, a 12-hour simulation race at Sebring and many months of tireless work paid off.
"I can't put it in words. I would rate it as one of the highest emotional experiences I've had," said Robert Clarke, president of Honda Performance Development. "So much work went into this program. It has been a long road, not just for HPD but for Acura, our teams, sponsors, drivers, everyone who is involved in the program. I couldn't have been so bold as to dream of this result."

The three Acura entries (Highcroft Racing was fourth in class) mostly ran steady throughout the day. Aside from electrical issues with the Highcroft prototype, the Acuras were immune from major problems up until the final hour. The Andretti Green entry made two unscheduled stops in the last 35 minutes to add gear oil as Herta had trouble shifting in the closing moments.
"I really couldn't catalog all the problems from the last hour," Herta said. "Right from the beginning we were having battery voltage problems so we couldn't use a lot of he electronics. Then we had problems with the gearbox and gave us troubles. I think in the last 10 laps the car shut off half a dozen times and re-fired.
"I have to take my hat off to the group," he added. "I have never seen a group that has worked so hard and put in so much effort. You wouldn't believe how many problems we had in testing and it's a testament to bring it here and to bring us this result."

Porsche's four RS Spyders found significantly more trouble. Electrical problems and other maladies set entries from Penske Motorsports and Dyson Racing back in the race's first half. Penske's Romain Dumas, Timo Bernhard and Helio Castroneves weathered the storm well enough for a third-place finish in class.

The Lowe's Fernandez Racing duo of Adrian Fernandez and Luis Diaz made their presence known in the team's American Le Mans Series debut today by capturing a podium finish in the season-opening 55th Annual Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring. Strong drives, great pit work and strategy, and excellent reliability from the #15 Lowe's Acura-powered Lola netted a second-place finish in LMP2 class competition and third-place overall result in one of North America's most prestigious endurance races.
The result added to an impressive debut by Acura in ALMS competition as the manufacturer claimed the LMP2 class victory with Andretti Green Racing as well as a fourth-place result with Highcroft Racing. Back-up driver David Martinez, who impressed the team during practice with his first tours in a sports car, did not have the opportunity to pilot the #15 Lowe's Acura Lola today as Fernandez and Diaz alternated driving duties. Lowe's Fernandez Racing will return to Florida in two weeks for the next round of ALMS competition -- the Acura Sportscar Challenge of St. Petersburg on March 31.

Adrian Fernandez: "I am very happy for everyone at Acura with their strong results today. This is a good start to the season for our great partners at Lowe's and Acura, and a nice reward to everyone on the team for all of their hard work. For me, today was a bit frustrating. The car was just not fast enough. We were more reliable than other people, but we still have more work to do with the car itself. The performance right now is not the level we want. It's very confusing because we are not reaching the speeds we were doing before, so we have some homework to do before St. Petersburg."
Luis Diaz : "It was a very good result today for us. It was a great learning process and a good result at the same time. This is so different from the sports car racing that I have done and I am very happy to start like this. The biggest challenge for me today was dealing with the traffic. You really have to time the traffic different than what I am used to and you have to take care of the car. Also, you are dealing with drivers that you haven't raced with before. I learned a lot today and it is going to be a big help for the future. If we can keep doing the job that we did today and keep making podiums, I think we can contend for the championship."
David Martinez: "It was a really nice week. I was able to learn a lot from Adrian and Luis and they are great friends. It was an amazing week and a great result for the whole team. Even though I didn't get to drive in the race, I was cheering and supporting the whole time and maybe next time I will get to drive."

The Horag Racing team ran in sixth place in the LMP2 class and in the top 10 overall for the bulk of Saturday's Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring, but a persistent electronic problem forced the entry of Didier Theys, Fredy Lienhard and Eric van de Poele to retire just 50 minutes from the end of the race. The Lista and Lista Office-sponsored Lola B05-40 Judd still ended up seventh in LMP2 and 19th overall.
The problem with the car's electronics affected different parts of the car at different times, but the Horag Racing crew and its drivers kept dealing with it until they just couldn't anymore. Although the team especially wanted to finish the race, it came so close that it still only lost one class position at the end.
The problem was evident even at the start. Theys qualified ninth in LMP2 and 12th overall, but he had to start the race on pit road. That was due to a penalty that the team received for not reporting to the grid on time, which was because they were changing the dash at the last minute. The team rebounded from that too, as it only took Theys 15 minutes to get back up to 13th overall, and by the end of hour one he was eighth in class and tenth overall.
By the end of the second hour Lienhard was in sixth place in LMP2 and eighth overall, and the entry stayed in that spot for the next four hours. The paddle shifting system went out of commission fairly early and all three drivers had problems now and then shifting manually too, but they kept on going.
At the halfway point a problem with the power steering couldn't be ignored, and the team lost about 14 minutes in the pits and 11 laps to reset the power steering system. But by the eighth hour the team was back in sixth place in class, tenth overall. Hopes were still high, as many of the other LMP2 cars were also experiencing problems.
The team was still sixth in LMP2, tenth overall, with 60 minutes to go, but 10 minutes later the electronics problem left van de Poele stranded in Turn Nine at 9:15 p.m. and 11 hours and 10 minutes complete.
The team's fastest lap of the race was the 1:53.503 Theys ran on lap 149. The car circled the 17-turn, 3.7-mile road course 307 times in all.
With one race over, another one began immediately, as the team's equipment here - the transporter, race car, pit equipment, and everything else - has to be in New York City by 8 a.m. Monday. From there it will all sail to Liverpool, England. The team will pick it up at the port there and take it back to its headquarters in Switzerland, where it will have just four days to ready the car for the LMS season opener in Monza, Italy April 13-15.

Quotes follow:
Didier Theys: "All the problems we had were related to some electronic problem. We knew with our lack of testing and our budget that we would not be the fastest; our goal was to finish the race. I think if we hadn't had the problem with the power steering system we would have done that and we would have been sixth in class."
Fredy Lienhard: "We came close to finishing. We had some good driving and exercise. I felt good about my stints. I think I'm not slower than I was before; I think I'm better than before, which is good news. It's no secret that we don't have the fastest car. We would have liked to have finished, but that's racing. Sebring is a fantastic race; it is very challenging."
Eric van de Poele: "The dash had been flickering but then everything just went dark. I coasted to a stop. I didn't even have radio communication to tell them where I was. We have been chasing an electronics problem all week.
"None of us had any contact on the track with anyone; there isn't a scratch on the car. It's a shame we couldn't finish; we were able to do some good laps."

Lola sportscars kicked the season off in successful fashion with 3rd place overall and 2nd in the LMP2 class after 12 Hours of hard and exciting racing at Sebring on Saturday. Fernandez Racing made the podium in their first ever ALMS event in the Lola-Acura B06/43, beating the much fancied quartet of Porsche LMP2 cars.

The all-Mexican pairing of Adrian Fernandez and Luis Diaz completed the entire 12 hour race duration as the teams third driver David Martinez was left as a standby driver for the event. The team did lose some time in the pits after an altercation with Dindo Capello’s Audi in the 7th hour which necessitated a change of front bodywork. “It was a very good result today for us,” concluded Luis Diaz after the race. “If we can keep doing the job that we did today and keep making podiums, I think we can be contenders for the championship.”

The Fernandez Lola-Acura proved reliable over the full 12 hours but team owner and driver Adrian Fernandez believes that there is more to come in the coming races which come thick and fast in the next month, with events at St Petersberg, Long Beach and Houston.
“We were more reliable than other people, but we still have more work to do. We have some homework to do before St. Petersburg but I am very happy for the strong result today.”

The BK Motorsports Lola-Mazda combination showed tremendous promise at Sebring despite having just a few shakedown laps prior to last weeks running. The team of Ben Devlin/Jamie Bach and Rafael Matos were learning as they went during the race after Devlin had put in a superb performance in qualifying to start 8th in class. Despite some lengthy stoppages during the race the Mazda powered Lola took the chequered flag and Ben Devlin believes that Sebring is the best place to learn about a new package and develop it for the long season ahead.
“All in all we learnt so much from this week. Yes there have been problems but as a team we overcame them brilliantly. There is a lot of determination with everyone here and that will shine through this year. Mazda have put together the right ingredients, now we just have to keep pushing in order to fulfil all the potential we have here.”

Horag Racing were on schedule for a good top 10 finish overall but were denied a deserved result with a persistent electrical problem. Didier Theys, Fredy Leinhard and Eric Van De Poele had run consistent laps in the red and white Lola B07/40 Judd throughout the race. However, the cruel last hour retirement meant that the teams efforts went unrewarded.
"The dash had been flickering but then everything just went dark,” said ex F1 driver Van De Poele. “I coasted to a stop. I didn't even have radio communication to tell them where I was. We have been chasing an electronics problem all week.
"None of us had any contact on the track with anyone; there isn't a scratch on the car. It's a shame we couldn't finish; we were able to do some good laps."

Autocon were also unlucky in their Lola B01/60 AER, one of only four LMP1 entries at Sebring this year. Chris McMurry, Bryan Willman and Michael Lewis had set some useful laps in qualifying but had a difficult start to the race when they were forced to pit on the first lap for some bodywork adjustments.
In the final hour the team were running a fine 17th overall but a broken suspension forced them to retire. It was a bitter pill for the team to take as they were set to challenge the Creation LMP1 for the final LMP1 podium position.

St-Petersburg 2006

Starting Lineup

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Race results

Race Report

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Mid Ohio 2006

Lime Rock 2006

Salt Lake 2006

Road America 2006

Portland 2006

Mosport 2006

Petit Le Mans 2006

Laguna Seca 2006