Thursday, August 6, 2009

Mid-Ohio Practice Sessions & Qual

Auugst 7, 2009

2:30 pm - Joerg Bergmeister on the pole in the No. 45! Congrats to Joerg and Patrick and the Lizards. Second pole this year.

2:28 - 2 minutes left. Joerg still holding provisional pole.

2:25 - Five minutes left. We are waiting to see if anyone will beat Joerg's time. In the No. 44, Seth Neiman is curently in P10.

2:21 - The No. 62 just did a 1:21.287 and... Yes, Joerg did it, a 1:21.022. The No. 45 will pit. We expect that Risi will try one more. 9 minutes left in qual.

2:10 - Joerg now P2. He is minus one-tenth from Jaime in the No. 62. Both cars appear to be on clean laps- we'll see if either hits traffic.

2:19 - Joerg now P4. No. 62 still P1. No 90 BMW P2. No 3 Corvette P3. Joerg P4.the top four cars are five tenths of a second apart.

2:18 - Jaime Melo in the No. 62 is currently P1 with a 1:21.376. Joerg is P2.

2:16 - Joerg was assessed a stop and go penalty for exceeding the pit lane speed limit. He's back on track again. Looks like there was a close call between one of the BMWs and the Risi Ferrari after the BMW spun on track. No contact though. Traffic is the big issue here - there are 16 cars on track right now - six of them are challenge cars.

2:14 - The No. 45 heads out for his outlap.

2:10 pm ET - Green flag on qualifying. Seth is in the No. 44, Joerg in the No. 45.

1:59 pm- Joerg again P1 with a 1:21.527. The top 7 GT2 cars are within four-tenths of a second of one another. Checkered flag. Qualifying begins at 2:10 pm ET - 10 minutes from now. Joerg Bergmeister will qualify the no. 45, Seth Neiman will qualify the No. 44

1:56 pm - The No. 90 BMW is now P2. The No. 62 P1; No. 45 P3.

1:53 - The No. 45 is in the pits. 7 minutes left in the session. Jamie Melo is now P1 in the No. 62 Risi Ferrari with a 1:21.633. The No. 45 is P2 with a 1:21.840.

1:41 - Joerg pits for fuel and shock setup change. The No. 45 still has the fastest time of the session. The No. 87 is P2, the No. 3 Corvette is P3 and the No. 4 Corvette is P4.

1:34 - Green flag. 26 minutes left in the session.

1:32 - Red flag at the moment. We'll do a driver change in the No. 45 -Joerg will go out. Seth will stay in the No. 44. Darren Law (who is co-driving with Seth this weekend) will arrive late tonight from Watkins Glen.

1:15 - Patrick heads back out after the change. He is still P1. The Corvettes have moved up to P2 and P3.

1:11 pm - Chief Strategist Thomas Blam calls Patrick into the pits for a change and to check tire pressures. Patrick reports that he's pretty happy with the car balance but still some understeer in some turns.

1:07 pm - Afternoon practice is underway. It's a one hour session prior to qualifying which starts at 2:10. Patrick Long is out in the No. 45 - he's currenly P1 in the session. Seth Neiman is in the No. 44.

10:56 - The No. 87 Farnbacher Loles Porsche has stopped on course - possibly out of fuel? Red flag. So looks like we are done for this session. The No. 45 Porsche was second in the session with a 1:22.064. The No. 90 BMW was P1; the No. 62 Risi Ferrari P3.

We'll be back with you for the second practice session at 1:00 pm ET. See you then *** Jen

10:52 - Joerg now P3 - 1:22.250. No. 90 is P1; No. 62 is P2. The No. 19 van der Steuer prototype is off course far into the grass. With a push he is able to continue and the course is staying green. Joerg is reporting back that he's happy with the last setup changes.

10:47 - Green flag. 13 minutes left. Patrick Long is suited up here and ready to get in the No. 45 but not sure if there will be enough time for him to get in. Seth is in the No 44. Darren Law will not arrive until late tonight so his first run in the No. 44 will be raceday morning warmup.

10:43 - Red flag - Patron prototype spun and is off track - high sided on the grass berm. No apparent damage but he'll need a tow out. Practice ends at 11:00.

10:31 - The No. 90 BMW is now P1 with a 1:22.044. The No. 62 Risi Ferrari now P2 with a 1:22.082. Joerg is P3 with a 1:22.518.

10:26 - The No. 45 pits for an additional spring change and also a swaybar adjustment. The No. 44 is also pitting for a change. Joerg feels that there is still not enough grip.

10:18 - Both the No. 45 and No. 44 are back on track after setup adjustments. Joerg in the No. 45, Seth in the No. 44. Joerg still holds P1 in the session. No. 90 BMW is P2; No. 4 Corvette is P3; No. 92 BMW is P4; No. 87 Farnbacher Porsche is P5.

10:12 - Joerg pits for a change. He reports very low grip - mid-corner push still the biggest problem. The engineers will make some additional changes, starting with some spring changes. TV shows the Ford has a flat, and also that one of the challenge cars spun just in front of the No. 45, luckily that driver kept the car off course and out of the way. Mid-Ohio is a high transition track - the car needs to be setup to handle the turn transitions quickly.

10:10 am - In the No. 45, Joerg is now P1 in GT2. Johnny O'Connell in the No. 3 Corvette is in P2, Dirk Mueller is third in the No. 92 BMW.

10:04 - Green flag.

10:02 - Red flag already - the No. 12 Autocon prototype off course. He is continuing so should go green quickly.

10:00 am ET - Green flag on morning practice - a combined prototype/GT session.

9:55 am ET - Good morning from Mid-Ohio. We are five minutes from practice start. Joerg Bergmeister is in the No. 45 and Seth Neiman in the No. 44. Darren Law, Seth's co-driver for this race, will arrive in Ohio late tonight after his race today at Watkins Glen. All went well in practice yesterday. The No. 45 was bumped during practice yesterday but the damage was minor. We have two practice sessions today, then qualifying 10 to 11 ET, then 1 to 2 ET. GT qualifying begins at 2:10 pm.

August 6, 2009

5:27 - Well, that's it -checkered on the session. We were second and third in GT2 in the session. We'll be back with you tomorrow, Friday, at 10:00 am ET. See you then! *** Jen

5:23 pm - Still Red.

5:16 pm - Patrick is now P2 in the No. 44. Red flag, one of the challenge cars is off, way, off into the gravel. This is a shame because it will take some time to get him out - this may be the end of the session.

5:10 pm - Green flag. Joerg is still in the No. 45 and Patrick in the No. 44. Dirk Mueller in the No. 92 BMW is now P1 in the session. The No. 45 is P3 (time set by Patrick), the No. 62 is P2.

5:05 - Red flag, debris in turn 11. 25 minutes left in the session.

5:00 - Joerg is giving the engineers a lot of feedback. He's not happy with the car right now. He's in the pits for some engineering changes. Patrick is in the No. 44 right now to give his feedback on that car's setup so far. Darren Law, who is Seth Neiman's co-driver for the weekend, is doing double duty - he's at Watkins Glen right now and will not arrive at Mid-Ohio until late Friday night.

4:51 - Joerg radios in that he was hit by a prototype on track. He is pitting. Looks like it was the new Spyder. There's some bodywork damage but it appears to be superficial.

4:35 pm - We are now in combined session with the prototypes. The No. 62 is the fastest of the session so far with a 1:22.347. Patrick is second with a 1:22.953. Oli Gavin is third with a 1:23.129 in the No. 3 corvette with a 1:23.129 and Jan Magnussen is P4 in the No. 4 Corvette. The session will run one more hour until 5:30.

4:10 pm ET - Good afternoon from beautiful Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. It's the first track session of the race week. Patrick Long is out in the No. 45 right now - he's in P2, three-tenths of a second behind the No. 62 Risi Ferrari in P1. Seth Neiman is out in the No. 44. The track is very green. Weather is perfect - warm and sunny with some light clouds and a light breeze - not too humid yet.

The Corvettes have made their first appearance in GT2 - both the No. 3 and No. 4 Corvettes are on track. They are in P 6 and P 7 right now but of course it's still really early in the week. Patrick has now moved into P1.

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