Traveling to Road Atlanta (Braselton, GA) on Thursday prior
to the 15th running of Petit Le Mans, many wondered what sort of a
show to expect. Of course, the Nissan-powered DeltaWing was going to make its
North American racing debut. But, with no Audi-Peugeot rivalry on the 2.54-mile
circuit, the question remained…just how good was the competition going to be?
The answer was readily apparent at Thursday’s night
practice. The Lola of recently crowned WEC LMP1 champion Rebellion Racing was
fastest on the grid, the top nine GT cars were within 1.17 seconds of each
other, and the unclassified DeltaWing was ninth fastest. Qualifying on Friday
revealed the same dramatic results…Rebellion grabbed the pole position with
only 0.339 separating them from the Pickett Racing P1 car while 1.16 seconds
covered the top ten GT entries. On its best qualifying lap, the DeltaWing would
have been placed in P10 on the starting grid. As it was running as an
unclassified entry, however, the sleek black machine would start at the very
back of the pack for Saturday’s green flag.
Having to fight its way on the start through the GTC, GT, PC
and P2 fields to do battle for overall results wasn’t the only uphill battle
that the DeltaWing had to face. During practice on Wednesday, it tangled with a
GTC car at the crest of turn 11 resulting in a scary upside-down slide off the
circuit into the grass. Through the Herculean efforts of the Highcroft Racing
team, the car was rebuilt in time for Thursday’s night practice. (See Race
Tech’s facebook page for a link to the time lapse video of the repairs.)
Saturday morning saw a beautiful autumn day dawn in north Georgia. With the drop of the green flag, spectators were treated to what they hoped would shape up to be an epic battle between Pickett Racing and Rebellion in LMP1. This was not to be, however, as the Pickett car was spun off-course and impacted a barrier after contact with a GTC car in the uphill turn three. Incidentally, this was the same GTC car which caused the DeltaWing’s shunt on Wednesday. In order to solidify their American Le Mans Series P1 driver and team championships, Pickett Racing had to complete 70% of the 1,000-mile race. After being returned to the paddock from the turn three incident with suspension damage, the crew worked feverishly for over an hour to return the car to competition. While never able to bring the fight back to Rebellion for the win, Pickett finished third in class and clinched the ALMS P1 championships. Rebellion was the overall winner in convincing style, finishing three laps ahead of the second place prototype.
Despite all of the amazing competition taking place around
Road Atlanta on Saturday, it would be a safe bet that spectators and
professional photographers alike took a higher percentage of photos of the
DeltaWing than any other car on the circuit. During the pre-race grid, the
scrum of spectators crowding the car to get a photo or speak to the crew
rivaled the best of the GT entries with their scantily clad grid girls.
The diminutive dimensions of the car are really put into focus when witnessed in its natural habitat…carving through a pack of competitors. Comments in the paddock and along the spectator fencing ranged from calling it a technological work of art to speculation that beauty must really be in the eye of the beholder. Regardless of your position on the debate, it was hard to argue that the DeltaWing was something special to witness on track. And with a P5 finish overall (only six laps behind the winner), the car proved that it could deliver both performance and reliability. There is definitely a new batch of fans anxiously awaiting the car’s return to competition in 2013 as a fully classified entry.
All things considered, the 2012 edition of Petit Le Mans was a fitting (and successful) end to a year where many in the North American sports car racing community have been debating the future of the sport. Beautiful weather, an enthusiastic crowd of spectators, and epic battles both behind the wheel and in the paddock made for an upbeat finale to the American Le Mans Series season. Throughout the weekend, conversations around Road Atlanta frequently turned to the upcoming marriage between ALMS and Grand Am. Speculation of class structures, balancing performance, and which tracks should remain on the schedule will certainly dominate the off-season debates throughout the long quiet winter.
Let the countdown to the Rolex 24 at Daytona begin!
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