smlporsche

From the Lizzard's website...

"With two laps to go, both cars were neck and neck on the front straight with the No. 3 on the inside when the No. 3 suddenly went off track, short cutting through pit lane to overtake Joerg, which is not allowed by IMSA rules. Race control notified the cars to switch positions and Joerg retook the lead.

Starting the final lap, it was clear that both drivers were giving it everything they had to cross the finish line first. It came down to the last hundred yards: the two cars flew through Turn 11, the No. 45 in the lead, when the No. 3 Corvette made contact with the rear of the No. 45, allowing him to get next to the No. 45 on the inside going down the front straight. As they neared the finish line, the No. 3, now nearly touching the inside wall, but still slightly behind the No. 45, pushed to overtake the No. 45 on the inside. The No. 3 moved to go past the No. 45, but without enough room to maneuver, the two cars made contact, sending the No. 3 spinning across the track in front of the No. 45, with a hard impact into the far concrete wall. The No. 45 took the win, with the No. 3 second. The No. 44 finished fifth in GT2.

Bergmeister said, "It definitely was not the way that I wanted to finish out the race. I hope that Jan (Magnussen) is OK and I am sorry that the race ended in contact. A huge thank you to the team: this race was won in the pits. I'm honored to be part of the 100th Porsche win and my second championship in a row with Flying Lizard."

bobt993

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Honestly, that is certainly an opinion from Jorg's camp. The camera view from behind looked a lot different. As much as I was pulling for Porsche it looked more like the Vette was clipped from behind while it was half a car in front, but they will argue about this one until the 2010 season opener.

SundayDriver

So who has the data from the Porsche for T11 on that lap and previous laps? I would assert that without that data, you have no idea what really happened there. Did he go through at the same speed and get hit, or did he take a very common tactic and overslow to try to break the Corvette's momentum and got hit for brake checking him?

Could have been either situation but we, on this forum, are clueless.

IMO, the Porsche deserves a penalty for running him into the wall and causing the wreck. If the data shows that the Vette hit the Porsche (if there was no over-slowing) then they also deserve a penalty. Without action, ALMS is little more than the WWF of racing, and they should start throwing competition yellows to improve the show.

ervtx

Agreed. An arial view would be great for seeing things a little more objectively. From the T11 camera point of view at ground level, it did look like Magnussen was slightly ahead of Jorg at the point of impact against the pit lane wall - in order for it to send him in front of Jorg on his way to the right.

And in terms of the bump at T11, it might have shown that Magnussen's entry speed would have sent him into the gravel at track out were it not for the bump. We may never know...

Either way, we'll see that replay for years to come... might even get some names for previously unnamed portions of the track...

T1: Magnussen Expansion?
T11: Magnussen's Challenge?
Pit Lane wall: Burgmeister's Last Stand

uscarrera

I feel about this ending the same way I felt about the Sebring event a couple of years ago with the Ferrari, racing is racing, at least ALMS did not put out a competition yellow before the last few laps to "gather up the field"
Rich

smlporsche

In the interest of hearing all sides I found this on a Corvette forum... This explains ALOT !!!

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/auto...meister-2.html

"Hi Guys,

First let me say that Jan is the only driver on the Chevy team that came to congratulate us last race for out qualifying the Factory team. He is a class act.

He is also one tough driver .

First incident in pit out lane: the rule is there because there are always cars coming out of the pits and they have to travel around past turn 2 to enter the track. So driving 4 wheels into that lane is just asking for trouble. If there was a car coming out of the pits then, it would have been really bad for them.

Let me also say that in practice (yes practice) there was only one car that constantly hit us (yes hit us) or shoved our corvette into the dirt and they were the Corvette factory cars. Even when we were waiving them by, they would brush us or squeeze us. even at Atlanta, on the long straight as we were passing them they squeezed our driver (on video) against the grass for some reason.
I can only assume that the drivers were "Instructed" to intimidate us so we might be off our game and not repeat the Atlanta qualifying scenario.

No other cars on the track do that. Not to us and not to the others. Just the factory Corvette team. (must be the foreigners)

At any rate, at Laguna, which is Government owned, they did not want to move the inside pit wall toward the paddock to widen the exit of the pits to make room for the flagger's stand at start finish. So they pushed the pit wall toward the track side. so the pit wall curves toward the track side. If you look at the video, you will see that if you run within inches of the pit wall and stay totally straight on your steering, you WILL hit the part of the wall that is pushed toward the track side.

This is a common crash at Laguna. It would not require the 45 car to do anything for this crash to happen.

If you look at the video, you will see that Jan sees the wall coming and he turns to the right to avoid the wall. Bergmeister just provided the pivot that turned the Corvette to the right.
The Porsche then touches his brakes to avoid the Corvette as it crosses in front of the 45 car. The porsche just got out of the way and let the Corvette continue across the track and unfortunately into the wall. Thankfully Jan was ok because the hit was not a dead straight hit but rather a glancing blow to the wall.

Now to turn 11, the last turn. Jan is a hard racer. He saw that he was not going to be able to pass him cleanly so he released his brakes and actually accelerated into the Porsche with the intention of spinning him.

The contact only wiggled the Porsche enough to cause a drag race against the pit wall. "A wall that has a curve in it that protrudes toward the track side.

Once they were an inch away from the wall and an inch away from each other, there was no other outcome that could be had without the Corvette or Porsche giving up and lifting. And this was a high contact sport for some laps.
And to ask the porsche to lift and hand over the just after the Porsche got tagged intentionally and cleaqrly smashed in the rear by Jan, would be asking a racer too much.

So that is the way I see it. The Corvette drivers are getting a reputation as the "dirty" drivers in the series. When Johnny O pushed the Porsche into the gravel earlier, it was considered a good thing by the team. "Rah rah rah, good job" is what came over their radio.


So there you have it. You reap what you sow and if you rough drive too much, this kind of thing WILl happen more often.

Oh, and during the race, we lost a few laps for a couple of reasons, and bad calls on our part but while we were on track, our #28 car was hit in the door by the #3 car really hard in turn 9, while trying to let them by. and again in turn 2, they drove across my right front splitter and bumper. Weird!

Thanks

Lou Gigliotti

bobt993

There you have it from a pro racer's perspective. I feel better for Jorg and the win now. ^^^^^^^^^^^^

stuttgart46

I guess that Lou will be running something besides a Vette next year? It's good to read such a candid reaction.

mark kibort

the porsche definitely moved over to close the door while the vet, with more of a head of steam from the exit of 11, was moving through the 911 and barrier. while he was making wall contact and 911 contact, im sure his steering input was slightly to the right away from the wall when the front of the vet cleared the 911 , he came across the bow, with the rear ofthe car still touching the 911. that just kicked out his tail and sent the vet across track. Thats how I see it. very very tough racing, and a very exciting finish.

stuttgart46

Gavin's webcam type interview after the race. I've never met him but he seems like a down to earth guy. Good for him for not blaming anybody else for his mistake.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Iyy52OWYho

earlyapex

Lou has been a very vocal and candid critic of what doesn't please him. That's one reason he left SWC. He thought that Corvettes were being giving unfair competition adjustments and that his penalties were somehow worse than others. He is very entertaining and really helps liven up any bar table discussions about the sport.

ajcjr

Amazing ending, WOW go Lizards!!!

earlyapex

Let the Corvette owners eat each other. How can you come to any conclusions with the Youtube videos that are available? The talk is numbing. We will not see the data that really tells the story. Let's all be thankful that the drivers were not seriously hurt.

I'm trying to figure out what to do when all the racing is done for the year!

jrgordonsenior

I heard you locals get to drive the track daily ....

mark kibort

I have to pretend Im Jerry Woods again and build up a new car from scratch! . But, of course it will be made from 20 year old parts and will get only one alignment to last the next 10 race seasons.

Man, I just watched the video of the vet crash. That looked like bone jaring stuff, although, he did glance the wall, vs me just stopping into the tire wall in my crash. Its not the speed, its the stopping that hurts! Any one hear if Mag. got hurt at all? That car just exploded on impact! Well, GM stock is up, so they should be able to pay for the damage.