Friday, May 15, 2009

Salt Lake City - Practice

Saturday May 16

3:40 pm - Checkered flag on the session. Joerg Bergmeister put the No. 45 Flying Lizard Porsche on the pole. Seth Neiman in the No. 44 is ninth.

3:36 - The No. 62 came in just over 1 tenth of a second behind Joerg, but wasn't able to beat his time. The No. 87 is making one more attempt. Right now, the top three GT2 cars are separated by 2 tenths of a second.

3:35 pm - Five minutes left - Joerg still holds P1. No. 87 is P2 and No. 62 is P3. Still a few minutes to go and there are a few cars out, including the BMWs, the No. 87 and the No. 62.

3:31 pm - In the No. 87 Wolf, who was in P2 and was working to beat Joerg's time, locked it up and spun on track. We'll see if Joerg's time holds. He is in the pits and we will not go out again.

3:28 pm - Joerg is now P1 with a 1:47.120.

3:36 - The cars are still getting up to speed. The No. 62 Risi Ferrari has already set some fast laps and is in P1 with a 1:47.720. The No. 45 has not yet had a time.

3:20 pm - Green flag on the qualifying session. Joerg Bergmeister will qualify the No. 45 and Seth Neiman will qualify the No. 44. The Lizards have had the fastest time of each practie session so far this week -- but the competition has definitely closed the gap over the last 2 days. We'll see what qualifying has in store for us.

3:10 pm - Checkered flag on the session. Joerg finished out the session with the fastest GT2 time of 1:47.768. Johannes van Overbeek had the sixth fastest time of the session. Qualifying begins in ten minutes.

3:04 pm - No. 87 is now P1 in the session, with a 1:47.848. The No. 62 is second with a 1:47.975 and Joerg is third with a 1:48.085. Six minutes left in the session. Qualifying begins at 3:20 pm MT. In the No. 44, Johannes is now sixth in the session.

2:50 pm - The No. 44 went in the gravel but he continued and is pitting for driver change to Johannes van Overbeek. There does not appear to be damage to the car but the tires are flat spotted so they'll do a tire change.

2:41 pm - Happily, an uneventful session so far. Patrick has the fastest time of the session so far with a 1.48:326. Joerg is currently in the No. 45 - he'll pit in a second for a setup change. Seth Neiman is still out in the No. 44. He currently has the eighth fastest time.

2:33 pm - Patrick pits for driver change to Joerg.

2:20 pm- We are a few minutes into the afternoon practice session - our final practice before qualifying. Red flag immediately into the session to remove a car from the track but we are underway again now. Patrick Long is out in the No. 45 and Seth Neiman is in the No. 44.


10:30 am - Checkered flag on the session. We held the fastest time of the session in the No. 45 (Joerg with a 1:48.123). All is well. We'll be back with you for this afternoon's practice session at 2:10 pm MT.


10:16 am - All going well so far in the morning warmup. Patrick is back in the pits for another setup change. Seth is still out on the track in the No. 44.

10:09 am - Seth is in the pits for a setup change. 21 minutes left in the session. In the No. 45, Joerg still holds the fastest time of the session (Patrick Long is now in the car.) In the No. 44, Johannes van Overbeek holds the sixth fastest time of the session - Seth Neiman is now in that car.

10:04 am - Joerg pits for driver change to Patrick Long. He is still P1 with a 1:48.123.

9:57 - Seth also back on track in the No. 44. 30 minutes left in the session.

9:55 am - In the No. 45, Joerg is back on track.

9:51 am - Seth went off in the No. 44 and is pitting for the crew to look at the car. Joerg is pitting for fuel and new tires. He'll go out for a lap on the new tires, then back in for another setup change. Joerg is back in P1 with a 1:48.643.

9:48 am - Joerg is back on track again after a setup change. Seth Neiman is now out in the No. 44.

9:43 am - Joerg is in the pits for a change. He says the car is a bit looser and slippery than yesterday. He currently ahs the second fastest GT2 time so far this session. In the No. 44 Johannes is still out and has the third fastes time. The No. 62 is in P1.

9:36 am - Joerg as the fastest time of the session so far with a 1:49.390. Johannes is third in the No. 44. The No. 62 Risi Ferrari is 2nd. The track is still cold so we'll see times fall over the session.

9:30 am - Green flag on the morning practice. Joerg and Johannes are both on track.

9:22 am MT - Good morning from Miller Motorsports Park. It's a gorgeous day here at the track - crisp and clear this morning but it should get into the high 70s today and the mid-80s tomorrow for raceday. The first of the two practices today starts in a few minutes - 9:30-10:30 am MT. The second practice runs from 2:30-3:20 and then qualifying starts at 3:20 pm. Johannes van Overbeek will go out first in the No. 44 and Joerg Bergmeister in the No. 45.

Friday, May 15 -

4:07 pm - Checkered flag for GT2 on the session. In the No. 45, Joerg Bergmeister had the fastest GT2 time of the session of 1:48.215 - nearly one second faster than the next closest GT2 car. We'll be back with you tomorrow.

3:58 pm - They've figured out the problem in the No. 44 but won't be able to get it back on track before the end of the session so they are done for today. In the No. 45, Joerg now has the fastest time of the session - with a 1:48.435. Joerg is back out again after a pit stop for a setup change and will finish out the session. Less than 10 minutes left in the session. In the No. 44, Johannes was fifth fastest in the session. Lap times are still coming down as the track grip increases over the session.

3:45 pm - The No. 44 is heading back to the garage. There is gear oil "everywhere" so they need to figure out what's going on. They'll check it out in the garage.

3:31 pm - Patrick pits for a driver change to Joerg Bergmeister.

3:19 pm - Red flag to remove debris from the track in corner 14.

3:18 pm - Johannes van Overbeek is now in the No. 44 - he's currently P7 in the session. Patrick Long is still in the No. 45 - still holding P1, with a 1:49.139.

3:03 pm - Seth is in the pits for driver change to Johannes van Overbeek. This is Johannes' second race with us this year. He is alternating with Darren Law as Seth's co-driver for this season. Darren is at Laguna this weekend in Grand-Am driving with Brumos.

2:58 pm - Patrick is currently P1 in the session. Seth is P8. 14 cars on the track right now.

2:54 pm - Patrick pitted for a change and gave us the first report on the new Cup cars - he says it's very difficult to pass them. Those Cup cars are fast in the straights so we were expecting that.

2:43 pm -Green flag and we are on track. new for this race is the Challenge class - there will be five Cup cars from the IMSA GT3 Challenge series joining us on the grid.

2:35 pm MT - Good afternoon from Toole, Utah. We are at Miller Motorsports Park getting ready for our first practice session for this Sunday's Utah Grand Prix. A beautiful spring day here in Utah. The mountains still have a dusting of snow and it's still relatively cool. Temperatures are supposed to heat up by the race into the 80s. Patrick Long is in the No. 45 and Seth Neiman is in the No. 44. The session starts at 2:40 and will last until 1:10 pm.

1 comments:

VroomGrrl said...

Enjoying your updates, and listening to Radio LeMans streaming live. Love the sound of the VROOM! Gooooo Lizards! Hope you guys have a fantastic day. Good luck today & tomorrow. Woohoo!!!