Tag Archives: Bill Auberlen

SoCal Speed!

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Spring brings racing to Southern California, and several of the season’s best events happen over the next couple of weekends.

SoCal

First of all, this weekend we have the Porsche Club of America (PCA) 13th Annual California Festival of Speed at Auto Club Speedway.  The Festival of Speed is the largest Porsche event in the Southwest, and it really does have something for everyone: Cup Races, Time Trials, Autocross, Concours, Vendors, & a Swap Meet.  More info including schedule and map on the calendar here: California Festival of Speed.

Next weekend the TUDOR United Sportscar Championship (TUSC) and IndyCar come to SoCal for the 40th Grand Prix of Long Beach – a massive weekend celebration of SoCal speed.  Long Beach is really a can’t miss event for motorsports fans.  Check out what SoCal’s Bill Auberlen of BMW Team RLL has to say about the party that is Long Beach here on the TUSC site.  Information, tickets, schedule, map, fan guide and much more can be found here: Grand Prix of Long Beach.

So far, aside from some really horrible officiating calls that have directly effected the race results, the unification of ALMS and Grand-Am under the TUSC banner has worked out quite well.  In particular, the series seems to have gotten the balance of power between the former ALMS LMP2 cars and the former Grand-Am DP cars just about right.  No surprise, the racing the in the GT classes has been particularly exciting and competitive.

IndyCar welcomes fan favorite Juan Pablo Montoya back to open wheel racing with Team Penske with teammates Will Power and Helio Castroneves.  The competition between the Penske guys, Team Ganassi (Scott Dixon, Tony Kanaan, Ryan Briscoe, & Charlie Kimball), and Andretti Autosport (Ryan Hunter-Reay, Marco Andretti, James Hinchcliffe, and Carlos Munoz) should be particularly close this year.  Sadly, we’ll be missing the 2009 Grand Prix of Long Beach winner, Dario Franchitti, who retired in the offseason due to injuries sustained in the Houston race last year.

Also next weekend, the Porsche Owners Cup will be running a Cup Race and Time Attack weekend at Willow Springs.

Motorsports Week – The Good, Bad, & Sad

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This past week has been quite a mix – happy things, not so happy things, but lots of emotion nonetheless.  Starting last Sunday, on the good side, a SoCal racer named Charlie Kimball won his first IndyCar race at Mid-Ohio with an inspired drive in a back up car.  Staying happy, another couple of SoCal racers had quite a battle in the GT class of the Grand-Am race at Road America on Saturday.  Bill Auberlen in a Turner Motorsport BMW passed Patrick Long in a Park Place Motorsports Porsche late in the race to win the GT class. The Grand-Am – ALMS double-header at Road America was a great setup for sports car fans, and Sunday’s ALMS race was shaping up to have a fantastic finish across multiple classes, but a full course yellow with just under 9 minutes remaining left us with an anticlimactic finish under yellow.  Not so good.  But probably the worst part of the motorsports week was Sunday evening’s final broadcast of both Speed Center and Wind Tunnel as SPEED becomes Fox Sports 1 in the next week.

Motorsports Week – Charlie Kimball’s First IndyCar Win

In last Sunday’s Mid-Ohio IndyCar race, Charlie Kimball drove a fantastic race to take his first win in the series for the Ganassi Racing team.  He passed Simon Pagenaud on lap 73 of the 90 lap race for the final lead change of the race.  Kimball was on a different, and ultimately better strategy than his Ganassi teammates, Scott DIxon and Dario Franchitti.  Dixon and Franchitti were initially on a two stop, fuel save strategy, while Kimball was clocking off great times lap after lap.  He ultimately led 46 of the 90 laps.  The whole story was all the more remarkable because Kimball was driving a backup car due to a severe crash on Saturday morning practice.

Motorsports Week – Grand-Am Road America GT Race

Road America was the site of Grand-Am – ALMS double-header this weekend, which was quite a spectacle for sportscar racing fans.  In Saturday’s Grand-Am race SoCal’s Patrick Long and Bill Auberlen battled for the lead throughout the latter part of the race.  With just over 16 minutes to go in the 2 hour, 45 minute race, Auberlen got a good run on Long off of Turn 3 in his Turner Motorsport BMW and passed him for good under braking into Turn 5.  Long stayed close for the rest of the race, but ultimately finished second, still a great finish for his Park Place Motorsports team.  Also in Grand-Am race, Brendon Hartley and teammate Scott Mayer took advantage of a relatively late full course yellow and notched their first win for the Starworks Motorsport Daytona Prototype team.

Motorsports Week – ALMS Road America Race

Sunday’s Road America ALMS race was shaping up to a fantastic finish with tight battles across multiple classes and several leading cars getting low on fuel when a bad wreck by a GTC car brought out of full course yellow with about 9 minutes to go.  Unfortunately, as Johnny O’Connell said on the broadcast, ‘… I think they’re just taking too long here…’, and race control was not able to manage a return to green flag racing.  The set up for a tremendous finish was missed.  Even with a finish under yellow, Road America did not disappoint once again with a particularly tight battle in the GT class, which was ultimately won by the #91 SRT Viper driven by Marc Goossens and Dominik Farnbacher.

Motorsports Week – Farewell To SPEED, Speed Center, and Wind Tunnel

In both the bad and sad news of the week, SPEED broadcast their final weekend of racing, which also marked the end of Speed Center and Wind Tunnel, much to the chagrin of racing fans everywhere.  We’ve known about the Death of Speed for quite some time now, but that doesn’t make it any easier to take.  I must say that while I was watching the final episode of Speed Center and Wind Tunnel, I was both saddened and somewhat unbelieving that Fox Sports 1 decided not to continue these popular enthusiast programs. I’ll especially miss Dave Despain and his excellent guests and regulars like Robin Miller.  I hope all those effected find even better opportunities in the near future.  Thanks for the great fun and great memories!

Rolex 24 At Daytona

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The Rolex 24 at Daytona kicks off the 2013 sports car racing season tomorrow at 12:30 PM Pacific Time.  Begun in 1962 as the 3 hour Daytona Continental and expanded in 1966 to its current 24 hour format, the Rolex 24 has been a premier international sports car race since its very beginning.

Rolex 24 Class Structure

The Rolex 24 is part of the Grand-Am series and runs to its class structure.  Historically, Grand-Am has had two classes: DP (Daytona Prototype), a prototype class and GT (Grand Touring), a production sports car based class.  This year, beginning with the Rolex  24, Grand-Am has added the GX class to accommodate cars and manufacturers that do not fit neatly into either DP or GT.  For the Rolex 24, the GX class has entries that include the Porsche Cayman and the diesel-powered Mazda6.

SoCal Racers At Rolex 24

At this year’s Rolex 24, Southern California is represented by following racers:

Driver Class # Car Team
Charlie Kimbal DP 01 BMW/Riley Chip Ganassi/Felix Sabates
Alex Gurney DP 99 Corvette DP GAINSCO/Bob Stallings Racing
Boris Said GT 31 Corvette Marsh Racing
Boris Said GT 94 BMW M3 Turner Motorsport
Alex Figge GT 51 Audi R8 APR Motorsport LTD UK
Jim Michaelian GT 68 Porsche GT3 TRG
Patrick Long GT 73 Porsche GT3 Park Place Motorsports
Kelly Collins GT 80 Porsche GT3 TruSpeed Motorsports
Bill Auberlen GT 93 BMW M3 Turner Motorsport
Joel Miller GX 00 Mazda6 GX Visit Florida Racing/Speedsource/Yellow Dragon Motorsports

 Rolex 24 – Race Day

Weather should be fantastic for the race weekend – sunny and low to mid 70s at Green Flag with no chance of precipitation thru Sunday.  More info, including spotters guide and live timing, can be found here.

POST RACE UPDATE

2013 Rolex 24 DP Results

What a race!  Both DP and GT races weren’t decided until the final minutes of the contest. The #01 BMW Riley of Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates, driven by Scott Pruett, Memo Rojas, Juan Pablo Montoya, Charlie Kimball, & Scott Dixon took the checkered flag of the 2013 Rolex 24 after an extremely strong – well frankly, dominating – performance over 709 laps.  The Ganassi/Sabates BMW Rileys had been untouchable in open racing; the multiple cautions throughout the race kept it close.  I’m sure there will be lots of discussion about balance of performance and the BMWs in the following days and weeks.

2013 Rolex 24 GT Results

A Ganassi DP winning the Rolex 24 is nothing new or unexpected.  The performance of the Audi R8s in the GT race was both.  If not for the Rum Bum Racing Audi running out of gas on the final lap, Audi would have swept the GT podium at Daytona.  As it was, the #24 Audi R8 of Alex Job Racing, driven by Filipe Albuquerque, Oliver Jarvis, Edoardo Montara, & Dion von Moltke took the top spot on the podium with 678 laps on the books.  At one point in the final few laps, any of the top three Audi R8s looked like they could have won the race – it was truly a nip and tuck finish.

2013 Rolex 24 GX Results

The new GX class was a tale of two cars: the Porsche Cayman and the Mazda 6.  All three Mazdas dropped out early in the race due to problems with their new Skyactiv diesel engines; the last Mazda running, the #70 Speedsource car, dropped out after 51 laps leaving the GX race as a contest between the three Caymans.  The #16 Napleton Racing Cayman driven by David Donohue, Shane Lewis, Nelson Canache, & Jim Norman took the   checkered flag after 635 laps looking nearly as pristine as when in started the race 24 hours prior.

Final Thoughts

The Rolex 24 at Daytona was an exciting start to the 2013 sports car racing season, especially in the GT class where Audi, Porsche, and Ferrari all looked strong.  In the DP class, the domination of the BMW Rileys could portend some balance of performance issues that need to be addressed.  In the GX class, hopefully Mazda will sort out the engine issues and be joined by more makes to give the Porsche Caymans a challenge.

The Speed broadcast we not one of their best.  Network coverage broke away during the night to show race reruns, reality shows, and infomercials.  They also interrupted close racing in the last hour for commercial after commercial.  I really was not interested in buying a pancake maker with 30 minutes to go in a close Rolex 24 race!  On the positive side, the crew at Radio Le Mans did a fantastic job with a streaming audio broadcast throughout the race – notably a great call throughout the night with Rooftopray providing the video.

Of the SoCal racers, Charlie Kimball takes a watch home as part of the winning Ganassi/Sabates team.  Better luck for the rest of the year for our hometown guys.