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'Great Dane' Sets The Pace In Final Practice

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By BRIAN GJURGEVICH

Highlands Today

Published: March 21, 2009

SEBRING INTERNATIONAL RACEWAY - "The Great Dane" appears poised to add another victory to his legendary resume.

Audi's Tom Kristensen drove the quickest practice lap for the first time this week in the final one-hour session prior to today's 57th Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring presented by Fresh from Florida.

Kristensen, who won the inaugural ALMS race at Sebring in 1999, turned a 1:45.200 (126.616 mph) lap on Friday morning in the brand new Audi R15 TDI, which is making its world debut under Central Florida's sunny skies.

"The good thing about Sebring is it has stayed the same for so many years," Kristensen said. "It's tough on the cars, the drivers and the pit crew, so preparing for this race is something everyone looks forward to. The race has so much tradition and the weather is good, especially for us Europeans, to come here and have a race in the same climate close to what we will be at Le Mans in terms of temperatures."

Kristensen, a four-time overall Sebring winner and 24 Hours of Le Mans record-holder with eight victories, is teaming with Allan McNish and Dindo Capello, the reigning Le Mans champions.

"Sebring is a very, very old race track still," Kristensen said. "In a way, it's a love-hate relationship about the actual race track because some corners are really great and others are a pain for the driver, especially the bumps and the changes of grip level through corners. But at the end of the day, it's a challenge, and we all laugh about the experience we have over the years on this course."

Just 0.089 seconds behind Kristensen was the No. 1 Audi, to be driven today by Mike Rockenfeller and defending Series LMP1 champions Lucas Luhr and Marco Werner, at 1:45.289 (126.509 mph).

The first of Peugeot's 908 HDi factory coupes sat third overall at 1:45.674 (126.048 mph) with Stephane Sarrazin, Franck Montagny and Sebastien Bourdais driving.

Adrian Fernandez threw down a late flyer to set the fastest time in LMP2. The Mexican star posted a time of 1:50.292 (120.770 mph) in the Acura ARX-01b that he'll drive with Luis Diaz.

Fernandez sat just 0.613 seconds ahead of Dyson Racing's Guy Smith - who will drive with Chris Dyson and Andy Lally - in one of the team's Mazda-powered Lola B09/86 coupes.

"We're just trying to finish and get points tomorrow," Smith said. "We know the ability in the car. We want to make the best of it and score points."

In GT1, Marcel Fässler posted the fastest time for Corvette Racing in the C6.R that he will share with Olivier Beretta and class pole-winner Oliver Gavin. The Swiss newcomer's time of 1:58.864 (112.061 mph) was 0.237 seconds ahead of the sister entry of Johnny O'Connell, Jan Magnussen and Antonio Garcia.

American Porsche factory driver Patrick Long went fastest in GT2 for Flying Lizard Motorsports and one of its Porsche 911 GT3 RSRs. Long's 2:03.722 (107.661 mph) in the car that he'll co-pilot with Jörg Bergmeister and Marc Lieb, was a meager 0.003 seconds ahead of the Farnbacher Loles Racing Porsche of class pole-sitter Dirk Werner, Wolf Henzler and Richard Lietz.

Flying Lizard's other Porsche, with Seth Neiman, Darren Law and Johannes van Overbeek, was third in class at 2:03.988 (107.430 mph).

PANOZ REFLECTS ON FIRST 100

Ten short years ago, Dr. Dave Panoz never thought about the day he'd see the 100th race in American Le Mans Series history.

But a decade later, the 57th Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring is here, as the 10th season of ALMS racing kicks off today with America's most famous endurance classic.

And, fittingly, the Series has come full-circle, returning home to Sebring for the 10th time since Panoz purchased licensing rights from the ACO to hold endurance races in North America.

"I thought I could bring stability to sports car racing," Panoz said on Friday. "When I got to Sebring in 1998 and had acquired the track, we did some basic things like put in bathrooms and things like that. When I started to see that the fans actually noticed, then the confidence that we were on the right track grew stronger."

So it's no surprise Panoz's fondest memories involve Sebring first and foremost.

"Audi coming to Sebring in 2000 with the R8 was a big moment," he recalled. "I had been to Florida to see the car when it arrived and told Dr. (Wolfgang) Ullrich (Head of Audi Motorsport) that it would win everything in sight. Even someone like me who was still a novice could see that. But that's exactly what they did."

"As far as the Series, to get our first races at Road America and Mid-Ohio was great, just like Long Beach. Some of the biggest keys for the Series early were to gain the trust and confidence of the promoters," Panoz said. "Once we accomplished that, those great venues fell into place."

Brian Gjurgevich can be reached at 863-386-5841 or bgjurgevich@highlandstoday.com. Read his "On Track" race blog at highlandstoday.com.

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