Freestyle BMX and Baja racer Jeff “Ox” Kargola will make his first foray into off-road competition, debuting the new General Tire Grabber street tire in the Superlite Class during the Lucas Oil Off-Road Racing Series (LOORRS) weekend at Glen Helen Aug. 7 and 8. General’s Grabber will compete in short-course racing. While new to off-road racing trucks, Ox is no stranger to racing - or to winning. Ox placed second at the 2010 Baja 500 in Class 22, took first place at the 2010 San Felipe 250 in Class 22, was a silver medallist at the Winter X Games for "Best Trick," was a WFA Big Air Points Champ and was the first person to complete a "Superman Seat-Grab Back Flip."
Ox has been chalking up extreme wins and titles since 2001.The race-winning Grabber Competition tire has done well in the desert, so General brought the technology to its new street and off-road tire, the General Grabber. Ox plans to add the 2010 LOORRS events to his list of impressive victories with this cutting-edge tire, tuned for ultra-high performance.
Pirelli P Zeros Keep Competition Hot in Twilight Sprint Race at Watkins Glen
Pirelli turned in another record-setting performance Saturday at Watkins Glen International in the GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series race – The Crown Royal 200. The race’s fast, furious pace created by the asymmetric track helped competitors get the most out of their P Zero Racing Slicks during the twilight sprint.
Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas won a record-matching seventh race in the 2010 GRAND-AM Rolex Series season in the No. 01 TELMEX/Chip Ganassi Racing BMW Riley Daytona Prototype. The winning performance included Pruett setting the fastest lap of the race just over three minutes prior to the checkered flag on a set of Pirelli P Zeros that showed no declination in performance after being raced hard for nearly an hour. The winner’s average speed of 120.679 mph was also a Daytona Prototype record at The Glen.
“Pirelli did a great job once again,” Pruett said. “We ran three sets of tires in the race and they were all great. The consistency and the durability, as I have said before, are just two of the areas where they have made a big step forward this year, and we see it race after race after race.”
Pruett, Rojas and the potent TELMEX/Ganassi team have all but officially wrapped up the 2010 GRAND-AM Rolex Series Team and Driver Championships, and the team’s lead driver is already looking toward next season when it comes to racing tires.
“I think it’s incredibly impressive to see this kind of performance and I am not sure why GRAND-AM is changing to a different tire manufacturer next year,” Pruett said. “I’d be happy to stay with Pirelli, but that’s out of my hands.”
In GT action, James Gué and Leh Keen scored a trio of firsts in the No. 41 Team Seattle/Global Diving/Dempsey Racing Mazda RX-8 GT after Keen charged to the lead and ultimate victory with just four laps remaining. The win was the first in GRAND-AM Rolex Series competition for Gué, Dempsey Racing and the first-year Team Seattle/Global Diving entry. Some quick in-race setup changes by the No. 41 crew to maximize the performance of the P Zeros in the changing conditions were one of the keys to victory.
“It was flat out pretty much the whole time but the Pirellis were there for us at the end,” Keen said. “This track is very fast and aero is very important, but James had a little bit of an understeer problem at the start of the race. We took some rear wing out of it on our first pit stop to help some of the balance, and when I pitted again, we took more rear wing out of it. That right there got us in the sweet spot right where we needed to be, the Pirellis responded, and we motored along to the win.”
Although the No. 41 scored its maiden victory, the first-year Team Seattle/Global Diving entry is not eligible in the Pirelli P Zero Club. That means a record “six-race-rollover” bonus of $35,000 in Pirelli P Zero Club money will be up for grabs for any eligible GT teams in the next race in Montreal later this month. Another repeat win by the No. 01 team also gave the Daytona Prototype P Zero Club bonus pool a “double bonus” bump to $10,000 for Montreal.
The Pirelli P Zero Club is comprised of returning teams that finished inside the top 10 in the final 2009 GRAND-AM Rolex Series Daytona Prototype and GT points standings. When one of those teams in either class scores its first victory of the 2010 season they will also earn a $5,000 Pirelli P Zero Bonus. Any repeat wins in the remainder of the season, or victories by non-eligible teams, will see that race’s $5,000 bonus “roll over” and continue to build at each race until other P Zero Club members score their first 2010 victories. For the season finale at Miller Motorsports Park, September 11, all members of the P Zero Club will again be eligible for the bonus, regardless of whether or not they have won earlier in the season.
Next up for Pirelli and the GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series is the Montreal 200 at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, Aug. 27-28. The two-hour race can be seen live on SPEED, Saturday, Aug. 28 at 2 p.m. ET.
HPD Highcroft, Flying Lizard Porsche Claim Green X Challenge Honors at Mid-Ohio
Finishing second in the overall race by 0.506 seconds and taking their second Michelin Green X Challenge win of the season were the E10 fueled HPD Highcroft Racing prototype and drivers David Brabham and Simon Pagenaud.
The Prototype category saw three different manufacturers, teams and fuels claim the top three positions as the winning E10 HPD Highcroft car prevailed over the E85R fueled Intersport Lola and the overall race winning Isobutanol fueled Mazda Lola of Dyson Racing.
“Highcroft have done a fantastic job in achieving great fuel economy without sacrificing performance,” Pagenaud said.
“The Michelin Green X Challenge is a great reward for the team and we are delighted to win it again. We’re now leading the series standings which is great and we’d love to win more of these in the last three races. Our goal is to win the ALMS Championship and the Michelin Green X Challenge championship,” said Pagenaud.
There was also a repeat winner in the GT Category. The E85R fueled #45 Flying Lizard Porsche of Joerg Bergmeister and Patrick Long also scored their second GT win of the season. The win was the fifth of the 2010 season and third in the GT category for Porsche. Ten of the top GT Class entrants including the top Porsche, Ferrari, BMW and Corvette teams have all switched to E85R fuel in recent months.
“The competition for the Challenge continues to increase and development of new technologies and energies through ALMS competition continues to speed up as evidenced by the shift to E85R and the performance of the Isobutanol fueled car here,” said Silvia Mammone, manager motorsports, Michelin.
Michelin Celebrates Ferrari, Corvette 1-2 in GT; Michelin Overall Win Streak Ends at 50
A nearly five-year long, 50-race Michelin winning streak ended by a margin of 0.506 of a second at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Challenge, the sixth stop of the 2010 American Le Mans Series.
In an exciting duel over the final hour of the two hour, 45-minute race, the Dyson Racing Mazda Lola of Chris Dyson and Guy Smith claimed the first overall American Le Mans Series Race victories for Mazda, Isobutanol fuel and Dunlop as they edged the Highcroft HPD prototype of Simon Pagenaud and David Brabham by 0.506 of a second.
Michelin arrived here at the 2.258-mile natural terrain circuit with just three LMP class entries, but the Lime Rock-winning Muscle Milk Team CytoSport Porsche RS Spyder of Greg Pickett and Klaus Graf was withdrawn after a heavy crash due to mechanical failure on Thursday afternoon.
After scoring its first ALMS race pole on Friday, the Drayson Racing Lola Judd of Jonny Cocker and Paul Drayson fell out at the one-hour mark, leaving the potent Highcroft HPD racing team as the sole Michelin prototype in the top three for much of the race. The defending ALMS series champions fought valiantly but were limited by a previous change to a low downforce aerodynamic package that was not especially well suited to the Mid Ohio circuit. Having started the season with a high downforce package, the team cannot change back. Despite that, Pagenaud had cut a 9.4-second gap on lap 95 to just 0.191 seconds on lap 107 when a yellow caution flag flew. On the restart, the Dyson Mazda pulled a slight advantage and maintained it to the finish.
“The Pass” and a Michelin GT 1-2
Taking the third win of the season and moving to second place in the fiercely contested GT championship was the front row starting #62 Risi Competizione Ferrari, driven by Gianmaria (Gimmi) Bruni and Jaime Melo. Together with the second row qualifying #4 Corvette Racing of Oliver Gavin and Olivier Beretta, they set the pace throughout the race.
Twice the BMW Rahal Letterman team played a perfect strategic hand, pitting the lap before a full course caution and leap-frogging into the lead on the pit stop exchange. Both times, the Risi Ferrari and the #4 Corvette hunted them down and pulled away. Melo made the move of the race and perhaps the season when after taking only left side tires on his final pit stop, he passed both BMWs heading into turn four on the restart.
“At first I planned to take a fresh set of tires, but we decided just to change the left side Michelin tires so we could get out ahead of the Corvette,” said Melo. “I could still keep the pace and the fight with the Corvette was very good. The win is good for ‘Gimmi’ and me, good for the Risi team, and good for Ferrari and Michelin.”
“The pace we saw from the Ferrari in qualifying was the pace they had in the race,” said Corvette Racing’s Oliver Gavin. “We are getting closer. It was like the battle we had in Le Mans Jaime raced hard, but clean and fair. We just couldn’t get around him. We feel that we are right in it now. It’s game on!”
Retaining the GT championship lead with a fourth place finish was the #45 Flying Lizard Porsche of Joerg Bergmeister and Patrick Long.
Finishing third overall and taking the win in the LMP Challenge class were #55 Level 5 Racing Christophe Bouchut and Scott Tucker, who ran the entire two hour, 45-minute race without changing tires. Considering that ALMS cars must start the race on their qualifying tires and Bouchut ran a session-high 15 laps in qualifying to take the pole, the duo covered 130 laps or 293 miles on a single set of Michelin non-confidential specification tires.
Despite the high wear nature of the circuit, four of the six LMP Challenge class cars qualified and raced on a single set of Michelin tires and all finished in the top ten overall.
“We believe in open competition and sometimes that means that you get beat. Today was one such day. We won GT and had a great showing in LMPC but lost the overall win. Congratulations to Mazda on their first overall ALMS victory and to the entire Dyson Racing team. They are great competitors. We will refocus our efforts on starting a new win streak at the next race at Road America,” said Silvia Mammone, manager of Michelin Motorsports.