Cadillac Closes Gap; Clutch Problems Prevent Local Driver Fellows from
Taking GTS Pole for Corvette
MOSPORT
PARK, August 18, 2001 – Team
Cadillac closed the gap to the leading American Le Mans Series contenders
a little further during today’s qualifying session for the Grand Turismo
3 Grand Prix at Mosport, Round 5 of this year’s championship. Max
Angelelli and Christophe Tinseau qualified sixth and seventh, but were
barely 3/10s of a second away from second row on the grid. In the GTS
category, Andy Pilgrim missed class pole position by less than 2/10s of a
second, while Ron Fellows qualified last when the clutch let go when the
car was driven to the pitlane, minutes before qualifying started.
“I’m
obviously disappointed,” said
local hero Fellows after having trundled around the track for three laps, “but
mostly so for the fans. Something happened when the car was driven form
the pre-qualifying technical inspection to the pitlane. But it’s not a
real problem for tomorrow’s race. I’ve started races from the back
before. And we have a fast car. I’m pretty confident we could have done
a mid-to-low 1m16s.”
Andy
Pilgrim agrees the Corvettes are fast on this track. “During qualifying, I told the guys that the car was still pushing
bad! But it was a little bit better than in free practice. They made more
massive changes and I went out again and it immediately was seven-tenths
quicker. If we'd done that on stickier tires we would have qualified much
better. But it’s good that we now have a better idea of the set up for
the race.”
At
Cadillac, Max Angelelli and Christophe Tinseau missed an all-time best
qualifying position for the Cadillac Northstar LMP by just 3/10s of a
second, but were pleased with the car. “This
is a very fast track where aerodynamics play a crucial role,” said
Tinseau, “and we know that that is
one of the weaker points of the interim car. But with an average
qualifying speed of over 200kph, we are happy with our times. The car has
some understeer, which we can’t quite get rid of, but we are looking
forward to a good race.”
In the morning’s free practice session, Angelelli had an incident with Bill Auberlen’s BMW, for which the Race Stewards later reprimanded him. “I’m really sorry about what happened,” the Italian driver said. “I hope that Bill is okay and that the team can repair their car and make it to the race.”
GRAN
TURISMO 3 GRAND PRIX AT MOSPORT – ALMS Round 6 – Qualifying Results
1.
Capello/ Kristensen
Audi R8
1m08s222
2. Biela/Pirro
Audi R8
1m08s408
3. Magnussen/Brabham
Panoz LMP-1 Roadster S
1m09s671
4. Wallace/Herbert
Audi R8
1m09s671
5. Leitzinger/Weaver
R&S-Lincoln Mk.IIIC
1m09s842
6. Angelelli/Taylor
Cadillac Northstar LMP
1m09s969
7. Tinseau/Collard
Cadillac Northstar LMP
1m10s254
8. Lagorce/Graf
Panoz LMP-1 Roadster S
1m10s727
9. De Radigues/Lambert
Reynard-Judd 01Q (1st LMP675)
1m13s501
10. Knight/Hürtgen
Lola-Judd B2K/40 (2nd LMP675) 1m16s094
11. Graham/Duno
Reynard-Judd 01Q (3rd LMP675)
1m16s861
12. Borcheller/Konrad Saleen S7-R (1st GTS)
1m17s091
13. Pilgrim/Collins
Chevrolet Corvette C5-R
(2nd GTS)
1m17s253
14. Lehto/Müller
BMW M3 GTR (1st GT)
1m18s840
15. Ekblom/Müller
BMW M3 GTR (2nd GT)
1m18s873
25. Fellows/O’Connell
Chevrolet Corvette C5-R (5th GTS)
1m39s296