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CLEAN, EFFICIENT -- AND PLENTY QUICK AT LAGUNA SECA
By Darryl Matsuda
Mercury News
The future of automobiles came to Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca and left with its perfect record intact.
Audi made it a clean sweep of the LMP1 class of the American Le Mans Series as Allan McNish and Rinaldo Capello, in the No. 2 Audi R10 TDI prototype, won the season finale at the Monterey Sports Car Championships. The No. 1 Audi driven by Emanuele Pirro and Frank Biela finished second.
Audi won all 10 ALMS races this season, including three early events with the old R8 car. But the R10 TDIs, which combined to go 7 for 7 in the ALMS, plus a victory in the prestigious 24 Hours of Le Mans, were the stars of the series. What made them stand out was that they were powered by diesel technology that could be coming to auto showrooms in the next few years.
Perfection might have been in jeopardy about halfway through Saturday's four-hour race. An hour and 49 minutes into the event, McNish tapped Harold Primat's Creation CA06/H-01 Judd LMP1 from behind entering the corkscrew, then spun the car and rolled backward through the downhill chicane.
McNish suffered damage to the nose of the car and pitted to have it changed. On the next lap, he was called in for a 15-second stop-and-go penalty for causing avoidable contact with Primat.
That dropped McNish to fifth place. But he worked his way back to the lead with 1:05 to go, passing Chris Dyson's Lola B06/10 AER. From there, he stretched the lead -- and his fuel -- for his eighth victory of the season.
For those who associate diesels with slow cars belching black smoke while their engines rattle loudly, the Audi R10 TDI is a revelation. Besides being fast (obviously), it's remarkably quiet -- not just for a race car, but for any car. It even runs clean. The Audi R10 TDI is close to achieving the ``clean diesel'' standard, which means it would meet emissions standards in all 50 states.
Combine all this with diesel's inherent efficiency (25 percent over a gasoline engine, according to Wolfgang Hoffmann, Audi's director of product management), and those gas-electric hybrids that are so popular in California might have some worthy competition.
``At the end of the day, the customer will decide,'' Hoffmann said. ``But if we are clean and we can communicate that diesels aren't slow any more -- I mean, we're winning races! We're talking about the 24 Hours of Le Mans, without failures.''
Because the two Audi R10 TDIs have been able to combine efficiency and power, they have been the cars to beat in the ALMS this season. To make the other cars competitive, a couple of rules changes were instituted during the season.
First, Audi's fuel tanks were limited to 90 liters while other cars are allowed 95 liters. Then the diameter of the fueling hose was reduced to lengthen pit stops. Because diesel has a higher viscosity than gasoline, it flows through the hose slower. Also, the Audis are required to carry an extra 140 pounds as an equalizing weight penalty.
Even so, the Audis still have a fuel-efficiency advantage on the course, especially when the yellow flag comes out.
``Under full throttle, the gas and diesel are very similar,'' said Rod Bymaster, head of Audi Motors Sports North America. ``But under partial throttle, the diesel is significantly better.''
There were four cautions Saturday, just enough for the Audi team to save fuel. McNish was able to go the final 1:50 without stopping for fuel.
``Without the diesel, we wouldn't have been in that position,'' McNish said. ``There's absolutely no way we could have made that number of laps without the diesel.''
• In LMP2, Lucas Luhr and Romain Dumas won in a Penske Motorsports Porsche RS Spyder. Luhr finished the season tied for the drivers championship with Penske teammate Sascha Maassen, who drove to second place with Timo Bernhard.
Luhr had one of the best cars Saturday, and was challenging McNish for the overall lead until he spun in turn 11 with 40 minutes to go.
• Oliver Gavin and Olivier Beretta, driving a Corvette C6-R, clinched the GT1 drivers title by finishing second to the 007 Aston Martin DBR9 of Stephane Sarrazin and Pedro Lamy. They also clinched the team and manufacturers titles for Corvette Racing and Chevrolet.
• In GT2, Mika Salo and Stephane Ortelli won in their Ferrari 430 GT Berlinetta. Jorg Bergmeister and Patrick Long were second and clinched the drivers championship. For Bergmeister, the title was his second of the year; he also won the Daytona Prototype championship in the Grand American Rolex Series.
CLEAN, EFFICIENT -- AND PLENTY QUICK AT LAGUNA SECA
By Darryl Matsuda
Mercury News
The future of automobiles came to Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca and left with its perfect record intact.
Audi made it a clean sweep of the LMP1 class of the American Le Mans Series as Allan McNish and Rinaldo Capello, in the No. 2 Audi R10 TDI prototype, won the season finale at the Monterey Sports Car Championships. The No. 1 Audi driven by Emanuele Pirro and Frank Biela finished second.
Audi won all 10 ALMS races this season, including three early events with the old R8 car. But the R10 TDIs, which combined to go 7 for 7 in the ALMS, plus a victory in the prestigious 24 Hours of Le Mans, were the stars of the series. What made them stand out was that they were powered by diesel technology that could be coming to auto showrooms in the next few years.
Perfection might have been in jeopardy about halfway through Saturday's four-hour race. An hour and 49 minutes into the event, McNish tapped Harold Primat's Creation CA06/H-01 Judd LMP1 from behind entering the corkscrew, then spun the car and rolled backward through the downhill chicane.
McNish suffered damage to the nose of the car and pitted to have it changed. On the next lap, he was called in for a 15-second stop-and-go penalty for causing avoidable contact with Primat.
That dropped McNish to fifth place. But he worked his way back to the lead with 1:05 to go, passing Chris Dyson's Lola B06/10 AER. From there, he stretched the lead -- and his fuel -- for his eighth victory of the season.
For those who associate diesels with slow cars belching black smoke while their engines rattle loudly, the Audi R10 TDI is a revelation. Besides being fast (obviously), it's remarkably quiet -- not just for a race car, but for any car. It even runs clean. The Audi R10 TDI is close to achieving the ``clean diesel'' standard, which means it would meet emissions standards in all 50 states.
Combine all this with diesel's inherent efficiency (25 percent over a gasoline engine, according to Wolfgang Hoffmann, Audi's director of product management), and those gas-electric hybrids that are so popular in California might have some worthy competition.
``At the end of the day, the customer will decide,'' Hoffmann said. ``But if we are clean and we can communicate that diesels aren't slow any more -- I mean, we're winning races! We're talking about the 24 Hours of Le Mans, without failures.''
Because the two Audi R10 TDIs have been able to combine efficiency and power, they have been the cars to beat in the ALMS this season. To make the other cars competitive, a couple of rules changes were instituted during the season.
First, Audi's fuel tanks were limited to 90 liters while other cars are allowed 95 liters. Then the diameter of the fueling hose was reduced to lengthen pit stops. Because diesel has a higher viscosity than gasoline, it flows through the hose slower. Also, the Audis are required to carry an extra 140 pounds as an equalizing weight penalty.
Even so, the Audis still have a fuel-efficiency advantage on the course, especially when the yellow flag comes out.
``Under full throttle, the gas and diesel are very similar,'' said Rod Bymaster, head of Audi Motors Sports North America. ``But under partial throttle, the diesel is significantly better.''
There were four cautions Saturday, just enough for the Audi team to save fuel. McNish was able to go the final 1:50 without stopping for fuel.
``Without the diesel, we wouldn't have been in that position,'' McNish said. ``There's absolutely no way we could have made that number of laps without the diesel.''
• In LMP2, Lucas Luhr and Romain Dumas won in a Penske Motorsports Porsche RS Spyder. Luhr finished the season tied for the drivers championship with Penske teammate Sascha Maassen, who drove to second place with Timo Bernhard.
Luhr had one of the best cars Saturday, and was challenging McNish for the overall lead until he spun in turn 11 with 40 minutes to go.
• Oliver Gavin and Olivier Beretta, driving a Corvette C6-R, clinched the GT1 drivers title by finishing second to the 007 Aston Martin DBR9 of Stephane Sarrazin and Pedro Lamy. They also clinched the team and manufacturers titles for Corvette Racing and Chevrolet.
• In GT2, Mika Salo and Stephane Ortelli won in their Ferrari 430 GT Berlinetta. Jorg Bergmeister and Patrick Long were second and clinched the drivers championship. For Bergmeister, the title was his second of the year; he also won the Daytona Prototype championship in the Grand American Rolex Series.