Intersport Racing At Houston – More Success
Scalp Two In LMP2

For Intersport and the other American Le Mans Series teams the Houston event, a combined billing with Champ Car in which the sports car half would be the Lone Star Grand Prix, got underway at 11:10 AM on Thursday, May 11. It was 81 degrees F, and the track temperature was 92, both quite cool compared to the Series’ previous experience at Dallas. The combined practice – GT and prototype classes together – was of fifty minutes duration, and a revelation for all the participants.

We couldn’t find anyone who had ever raced on a bumpier surface. This track was more suited to motocross than to sports car racing, and by the time the checkered flag ended this first Lone Star Grand Prix there would be an equipment bill to pay for most of the participants.

Ben Devlin, driving a Lola B2K/40 AER for Van der Steur Racing was out early to set the class’ initial fast lap, a 2:06.954. Clint Field’s first flying lap in Intersport’s #37 Lola B05/40, a 1:24.338, was substantially faster though, and times improved from there. Romain Dumas would drive a 1:08.470 lap in the #7 Penske Motorsports Porsche RS Spyder, only to see it bettered by Lucas Luhr in the #6 sister car with a 1:08.053.

Clint and co-driver Liz Halliday drove thirty-three laps and Liz posted a best of 1:12.487 on lap 29, just before the end of the session. Clint drove only the first five laps or so. “Liz is going to qualify,” he said, “so she’s getting the seat time. It will be her first time to qualify the prototype, she wants to do it, she’s ready, so it’s as good a place as any.”

Not really, of course, since street circuits – particularly this one – are tough, and a mistake ends up in a wall rather than a sand trap. The decision was clearly a vote of confidence in the skills of the transplanted (to England) Californian. Although that practice session clocking was well adrift of the two Porsches (they would contest with the LMP1 entrants for fast times in each of the weekend’s sessions), it was comfortably ahead of other class entrants. The Mazda Courage prototype of B-K Motorsports was two and a half seconds slower, and the van der Steur Lola stayed on the far side of one and a half minutes for a tour of the 1.7 mile circuit. The form was thus set early. The new Porsches would look like they belonged in the other class. No one else would challenge Intersport Racing. If everyone stayed out of trouble, the Dublin, Ohio team seemed assured of a podium, in third spot. But this is endurance racing, and it was already clear that this circuit would have brutal affect on the cars, and that a mistake would be catastrophic, so there was nothing to do but run the race, wasn’t there?

Audi’s Dindo Capello gave us his take on the track, "In one word, bumpy. At the moment this course may be too aggressive for sports cars. The last bump at the end of the back straight (corner 9) is very dangerous and for the Champ cars it will be even more (so). Right now the GT cars can go through it faster than us because their cars can be more aggressive. Allan (McNish) warned me about the bump, but that's not the same as driving through it."

After the session the Intersport crew was busy. “We broke a header,” said Clint. “But it will be ready for the next session.

The Lola, like other entries, was being put on softer springs; Goodyear was providing a new tire, a softer compound, and Clint hoped for better results in the afternoon practice. “Right now we don’t have any grip," said Field. “We easily get a power oversteer, part of which may be the rule changes giving the AER turbo more power here than we had at Sebring.”

Liz Halliday would be in the US between Houston and Mid-Ohio, but wouldn’t be losing any time getting back to England after that; Harry and Oscar (the horses) will be joining her at the Tweseldown Horse Trials in Hampshire for “scrutineering” (horse and rider have to be in good shape and look good, too) on Tuesday, May 23. With a full schedule of equestrian events and Le Mans on the calendar, it’s a busy time for the international race driver and Olympic equestrian team hopeful. “Katherine (Legge, Champ Car driver) and I were talking earlier, and she said Long Beach is pretty much a smooth course!” said Liz, commenting on the unusually severe bumpiness of the Houston track.

The second practice of the weekend took the green flag at 5:20 pm. The 83 degree temperature was comfortable; with an even later race start scheduled, heat wasn’t likely to be the problem it had previously been in Texas. The two Intersport pilots completed thirty-two laps, the best a 1:09.341. Learn the course, get a good race set-up, and conserve the hardware were the team’s objectives. The goals were a bit more aggressive over in the Penske camp. The four Porsche drivers continued to set fast times in class and overall, ending with Dumas’ session best 1:05.997. The schedule gave the prototypes a forty-minute break, before qualifying at 6:50 PM.

The Porsches were out fast, competing for the overall pole with Dyson Racing’s James Weaver. It appeared that Romain Dumas, piloting the #7 Porsche RS Spyder had won the starting position, but the laps was disallowed; Dumas “straightened out” the chicane on that lap. Weaver would be on the pole, having clocked at 1:04.459. Liz was fast – she posted the team’s quickest lap of the weekend, a 1:08.399 on her tenth and final lap. The two Porsches and Weaver’s Lola expended 11 (#7), 14 (#6), and 12 (#16) very hard laps in their battle to lead at the race’s start. Liz would start the B05 / 40 AER third in class, and eighth overall, with two Corvettes ahead and two Aston Martins behind. There was concern about the start, particularly that chicane before turn two, but Liz would be a pro amongst pros starting there.

Liz and the other drivers were aware that mistakes would cost them all. "I think the team and everyone's goal was just to stay alive (through those first turns),” she said later. “We chatted with some of the other teams and we all agreed not to get in a wreck. I think we all did a good job respecting each other and keeping it clean.” Fellows and Beretta ahead, and Turner and Lamy behind, would be counted on to be steady and careful early, and they would trust Liz to do the same.

A thirty-minute “warm-up” started as scheduled at 1:45 PM on Friday, race day. It was the warmest it had been for an American Le Mans Series session, 90 degrees. A few minutes in, a short session was made shorter by a red flag. Intersport’s Lola had already come and gone, so quickly that it wasn’t noticed, and didn’t record a time. “The input shaft (transmission) broke on the out-lap,” explained Clint, “so that ended the session for us.” Later, those ten or more laps not taken on the brutal Houston circuit would seem important indeed. Once again, the Porsches headed the charts, Lucas Luhr fastest with a 1:06, teammate Dumas second. The LMP1 cars posted slower times. The Porsches seemed poised to dominate at Houston.

After the evening race, Liz Halliday described the thinking at Intersport. “We knew we'd have a solid third, if the Penskes held together.” Just as the team didn’t expect to challenge the Porsches on the track, they knew that the other LMP2 entrants had no chance of challenging the team’s Lola. If everyone finished... But that was a big if, of course, for all of them.
The Race

The cars were rolling off for the Lone Star Grand Prix at 8:01 PM; they got the flying start, Weaver pacing the field at 8:05.

The fear of an early incident in the chicane proved unfounded, perhaps because concern affected behavior.

The temperature was a cool 80 degrees, the track surface a similarly cool 87 degrees.

James Weaver maintained the early lead from the pole in the Dyson Racing LMP1 Lola B06/10 over Romain Dumas’ LMP2 Penske Porsche RS Spyder. The other Porsche, however, is in early trouble, a quick off for Sascha Maassen in the runoff at turn 8 and flat-spotted the tires that require a pit stop. Liz has settled into second among the LMP2 racers. ..but there is a long way to go in the gathering darkness in east Texas.

Twenty-five minutes into the race, Jamie Bach brought the Courage C65 Mazda into the pits for tires, and fuel. Bach remained in the car, while on the track, Dumas’ Porsche had stretched its lead to over five seconds on the now-second overall Audi R8. The Porsches are storming. Well short of an hour, Dumas has both Liz Halliday and teammate Maassen down a lap. Maassen has recaptured second from Liz. That means the pace of the Porsche had already made up a forty-eight second deficit for that first stop. The Porsches were apparently more stiffly set up than the other prototypes, their movement over the bumpy course is clearly more violent. Over at Intersport, they are unperturbed; the race is simply going as expected.

A few minutes later at 8:45, another of the LMP2 contestants pits earlier than expected; Ben Devlin takes on fuel and hands the van der Steur Racing Lola over to Gunnar Van der Steur. "I'm not very happy with the car,” said Devlin. “I've been fighting oversteer all weekend. We tried switching to the manual shift (from paddle actuated) before the race to see if that would help but it really hasn't."

Just twenty-seven minutes after his first stop, Jamie Bach is again in the pit with the Courage Mazda, this time handing over to Guy Cosmo.

Liz Halliday pits right on plan at an hour into the race. The crew refuels, puts on fresh rubber, and Clint Field takes over. It’s running smoothly for Intersport.

With a win at Sebring in their pocket and the clear pace advantage of the Porsches here, a third will give them valuable points.

The race leader pits later when Romain Dumas brings the number 7 Porsche in a few minutes later and gives the driving duties to partner Timo Bernhard. Maassen does his stop and gives the second Porsche to Lucas Luhr. All the LMP2 cars have made their first stops now. Dumas professes happiness with the performance of his race-leading Porsche. "It was a dream stint. The car was great to drive. After passing Weaver is was easy to drive around. It shows we are just one step quicker.”

"The car (Intersport Lola B05/40 AER) is running really good,” said Liz Halliday after her stop.

The pace of the Porsches is blistering: at halfway, Luhr leads Clint Field by four laps, but is trailing Allan McNish, whose Audi R8 leads overall. The first of the small prototypes in for a routine second stop is van der Steur Racing at an hour and forty-three minutes. Gunnar van der Steur takes on tires, fuel, and hands back to Ben Devlin. Guy Cosmo brings in the #8 Courage C65 Mazda in for fuel just a minute later and returns to the track still in the cockpit.

Bernhard now leads the Audi; McNish came in as soon as the R8 was “in the (fuel) window” to finish without another stop. The Porsche folks are hopeful that Dave Maraj’s Audi Sport North America team is wrong. Clint, Liz, and the rest of the Intersport team are running their own race, seemingly avoiding excitement of all kinds. That reverie was about to end. Just past two hours of the two-hour, forty-five minute race, Clint Field brought the Lola AER turbo into the pits and refueled – for the first time, Intersport makes an error, Clint serves a 20-second penalty for an infraction in the pit.

Just four minutes later, the Porsche performance starts to fall apart. Timo Bernhard, on his second stop, is delayed in the pits to replace a battery. The overall lead is lost. With thirty minutes to go, now back on the track, the same Porsche RS Spyder is very slow going into the chicane and is staying well off the line. Clint is suddenly having problems of his own, though. "The car got comfortable at the end,” he recalled after the race. “I could do some low 7s (laps of 1:07) but I came down the straight and it (the Lola’s AER engine) made a wicked noise and I lost power. I knew right away what the problem was (a broken exhaust header) because we had the same problem earlier in the week.” Clint headed for the pits. So did Bernhard, with the #7 Porsche that had slowed on course. The rear deck came off both. The Lola was soon buttoned up and Clint headed back onto the track. The Porsche stayed put. The Lola’s problem wasn’t fixed yet, but the race would soon take another turn in the favor of the little team from Dublin. Three minutes late, the #6 Porsche – the other one – the leader in the class, slowed and stopped on course, between turns 7 and 8. That brought out the race’s only full course caution. “I passed the yellow Porsche and I thought this is too good to be true,” said Clint. “We came in and they safety tied it (the header) back together and it held.” Under the yellow flag, Clint brought the Lola back into the pits to make sure of the safety wiring that secured the broken header, and then returned to the track.

The green flag came with just sixteen minutes remaining. Five minutes later, Clint had the Lola four laps behind now the now stationary class leading Porsche RS Spyder. Since only the overall leader is required to be running at the finish to win, Clint needed to nurse the wounded Lola along to make up those four laps. He did, but it wasn’t an easy drive. “At the end of the race, power-wise it was a quarter of the power, I could do flat out in most of the corners that I shouldn't have been able to.”

The checkered flag came out at 10:50 PM. Intersport, Clint, and Liz were winners again, their second straight this season, and fourth win in the past five races, since last year’s Petit Le Mans.

“We seem to have a knack for holding the car together and Penske is developing one for losing the race with half an hour to go,” said an exuberant Clint Field.

”I didn't expect things to come like they did today,” said Liz in the understatement of the day.

“It was survival of the fittest,” she summed up.

Having – improbably – swept the first two races of the season, Intersport headed for Mid-Ohio, their home track, to have yet another go at Roger Penske’s Porsche RS Spyders. So far, so good.
TK