AMERICAN LE MANS ENDURANCE SERIES

DRAMAS ON INDEPENDANCE DAY

The New England Sportscar Grand Prix race, round 4 of the American Le Mans Series run at Lime Rock Park in Connecticut on Monday provided Tim Sugden with a few dramas en route to a 5th place finish.

Testing on the short road course in rolling countryside north of New York had gone well with Tim in the top 4 cars in GT2 but as soon as the final qualifying session started the handling of the car deteriorated but nothing could be found, later a tyre problem was detected by the technicians.   The result was a disappointing 9th place on the grid for Tim and partner Justin Jackson at the start of the 2 hour 45 minute race.

Justin took the first stint and with a crowded race that had over 30 cars in four classes all competing for space on the 1.5.mile track it was not surprising that a few incidents followed and J3 racing chose the second yellow flag period to pit for fuel, tyres and a driver change after about 60 minutes running.    Tim gradually moved up the field getting as high as 3rd at one point but more yellow flags and bad luck with the timing of the final fuel stop dropped him down to 5th again despite putting in lap times equal to the leading cars in GT2.    

A fourth yellow flag period to clean up spilt gearbox oil from a damaged Dyson LMP1 car that was in close competition with the Le Mans 24 hour winning Champion Audi R8 lasted 20 minutes and although Tim was less than one second behind the 4th placed car a lower placed car sat ahead between them in the queue behind the pace car.   When racing was resumed this car had a spin 9 minutes from the end Tim was forced onto the grass in avoidance and so lost his last chance to take the 4th place that would have equalled their position in the 2004 race at Lime Rock.

Altogether some 30+ laps of the race were spent behind the pace car during yellow flag periods.

The result leaves Tim in 4th place in the championship and J3 dropped to 3rd in the team table.