American Le Mans Series Grand Prix of Mid-Ohio

ALMS at Mid-Ohio
THE AMERICAN LE MANS SERIES
SATURDAY AUGUST 25, 2001
PIT NOTES: Page 13

JJ Lehto (#42-GT BMW M3 GTR) “On the first turn it was full of action. I went to the outside and out braked the guys and it worked out. I was a little worried because I left the braking late and I went a little understeer into the first corner. But I got through and I got the lead. I was a little concerned with my tires because we haven’t had a chance to do a lot of running and see how these tires do in this temperature. We were careful with the tire pressures and we got on top of it and it was fine. It was a very good stint. I opened up a gap which was a lot in GT class, because all the cars are so equal. There’s no real time difference. I was happy with that. Then the yellow flags came and I save the car. We lost the advantage but it was always under control. Jörg did a good second stint, and that’s why we are here.”

Jörg Müller (#42-GT BMW M3 GTR) “If you’d see JJ’s stint, all the six cars, the four BMWS and the two Alex Job cars, the cars are quite competitive, they do equal times, just a tenth up and down all the time. JJ’s advantage was that JJ knows the prototypes and he just got better through the traffic. Sometimes the other cars were a second slower, but he just lost a few tenths, and that’s what opened up a gap.”

Sascha Maassen (#23-GT Porsche 911 GT3-RS) (about losing the points lead) “A DNF was bound to happen sooner or later. We didn’t make any mistakes today, but the half shaft breaking is just bad luck. Hopefully our luck will be better next time.”

Rob Dyson, (owner, #16-P900 R&S Mk IIIC/Lincoln) “The guys did an excellent job. We thought we had a chance for second place and James (Weaver) went for it. James and the Audi (#1-P900) went sideways (into turn 2), and we came out on the short end.” (about the progress of the new car) “We have a lot to learn, electrical problems to cure and fuel feed problems. We are progressing inch by inch.”

James Weaver (#16-P900 R&S Mk IIIC/Lincoln) (about the incident with the #1-P Audi) “He won it fair and square. It was a hard fought battle.”

Kelly Collins (#4-GTS Chevrolet Corvette C5-R) “Laguna is ours!” (Johnny O’Connell #3-Corvette – “No, its OURS!” as in the team’s). Andy Pilgrim “We’re ready for a win – it was a great day. The Saleen was really quick and we could have stayed (and raced) with that car if they hadn’t had a piece of bad luck. We all look forward to the next race.”

Emanuele Pirro (#2-P900 Audi R8) “I’m not very happy because we had this electrical problem which cost us a lap – it could have been another story because everybody had a few incidents. I was quite happy at the beginning with my performance, the car was going well and we had a good strategy. So Frank (Biela) was in the lead, but he lost the lead, we had this problem, and the race was over.”

Claudia Huertgen (#11-P675 Lola B2K/40/Judd) “Our setup is right on so I made no mistake, and for me it was a good stint I think.” (about the car in traffic) “The problem is the 675 versus the GTs. I couldn’t pass them on the straight line, but it was just a problem on my last five laps.”