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· IMSA · TRANS-AM · USSBA
Petersen Motorsports/White Lightning Racing
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Nice guys finish first
As he tried to explain to me how this one team member did this and this one did that, he explained that although he and most of the team didn’t go last year, the car won at Le Mans in 2003...and the quickest way to see that is this ACO sticker on the top of the car. “We aren’t taking that off” and I thought... hum. This is fascinating stuff. I spoke to my editor and said “wouldn’t it be great to be able to follow a team and show the world just what is involved in getting a team ready to win this race?” --> MORE
"And we have
now taken the lead!"
Margot: When we last spoke, Patrick was in the car, the team had just replaced some brakes and the “Ho” car was good to go to the end of the race mechanically. We have less than 4 hours to go, what do you give your teams’ chances to finish in the top spot? Tom: We are currently running 2nd, Patrick is in the car; we are pretty much a lap down from what I can determine from this timing and scoring. Margot: And the last time we spoke, we were 3 laps down, so that is a great improvement. Tom: Ya, and Patrick has been in the car for a couple of laps, and I am assuming that Sascha will jump in the car next, so I don’t know exactly how they will finish them off; at this point either Jörg or Sascha would be able to jump in immediately. And then it looks like someone will have to do a bit of an extra stint, a stint and a half, at the very end. But, knock on wood, everything seems to be going OK. No complaints. The car appears to be running very well. Margot: Given the time left, and the gap between the cars, is a victory a reality?
Tom: Ya! If we didn’t
think that we would stop right When we arrived back at the paddock, Sascha Maassen was available to speak to me about his race so far. Margot: Sascha, tell me about your big battle with Mike Rockenfeller last night. Sascha: Actually, it was not such a big battle; I tried to go as quick as possible as we were having troubles keeping him from passing and the car was very, very good so I just did what the car could do. Margot: Tom told us you shattered the track record last night! Sascha: Yes, that is true. I think they told me I had the quickest time so far and I’m happy. This car is really, so quick. Margot: Give me your impressions of this race that is Le Mans 2004. Sascha: It’s a crazy race! All of the classes are going up and down. We are leading again now but I’m not sure; anything can happen in this race. Now we want to carry our baby home so we will be not be going for breaking any lap records now! The goal now is to go as smooth as possible. Margot: Is there anyone giving you a hard time out there tonight? Sascha: Only we are giving us any trouble. The only ones able to beat us is ourselves. Margot: How are the track conditions out there now? Sascha: Ah, fine. During the week they just get better and better, so now there is a lot of grip; we have to see now during the later morning when the day gets hotter it could be a little bit worse again. Margot: How are you liking the Traction Control? Do you notice it? Sascha: Almost nothing. We have it for back-up, and for security. We don’t want to run into it, if it had raining, it would be a real help. Margot: And the new sequential gearbox? Sascha: Oh, no, it’s really good. Margot: Do you like it? Sascha: It was out and it was Ah HA! This is great. We went out in warm up, and the engine and the gearbox felt much better. It’s great. The combination is very good. With less than 2 hours to go, Sascha, Jörg and Patrick are still holding onto 1st place; here is hoping that the “Ho” car and Team Petersen/White Lightning will be charging to that top step at Victory Podium come 4pm!
It’s really getting exciting now! Margot: Do you think this will be the last time we see Patrick in the car? Tom: I don’t know I haven’t had an opportunity yet to ask if we are continuing to double-stint into the day or not; if he is, obviously he will be in for this stint. I suspect another one. It’s great – Sascha went out and set a new track record for the race and he had a great battle with (Mike) Rockenfeller for 6 laps last night. It was really very cool and very exciting; at one point they had identical really high numbers. Margot: These tire warmers are a godsend tonight! Tom: It’s been very cold here. For the guys that were here last year dealing with the 100+ deg heat, no, but it’s nice to have this gigantic tire warmer – it’s about 208 deg and the guys have found ways to use them to keep warm at night. Margot: Do you think the cold helped Petersen’s gain some track position back? Tom: One of the things people may not know is that here at Le Mans they still open up the city streets at night so that the people that still live inside the racetrack can get into their homes. The entire Mulsanne is a public street as well as other parts of the racetrack. That puts out a lot of oil, a lot of dirt, unlike other racetracks. Heat brings that type of stuff out of the asphalt. That makes for real loose racecars and nasty situations all the way around. And so cooler temperatures do help; and we had some overcast temperatures yesterday as well. That really did help, and fortunately we didn’t have any rain. Nobody can accurately forecast the rain except God, and He has been very good to us this weekend; it’s been very beautiful this weekend. The Petersen guys are actually, I don’t want to say disappointed right now, it’s too early to be disappointed, I think we had such high expectations and we ran so flawlessly through the first part of the race, that when we got the transmission from Jörg it was “HUH? That can’t be!” And we looked at each other like we were all having the same bad dream. And then the throttle linkage. So there are no worries, Patrick had a little off and that’s no big deal, we brought him back in and changed the tires; Michelin has been very good to us. When I started my long-winded diatribe that I call my “thing” here.. things are looking good. We are about 3 laps down, but we are running laps that are faster than Ortelli, and if we can continue to do this, if we can continue to go through without any mistakes, any problems, or at least address them quickly enough; which is a true testament to a team because anybody can have luck. We should be in good shape. The guys right now are in there working on bearing and linkages just in case because we have used up our redundancies in the throttle linkage and shift linkage. We have to think ahead, and it’s guys like Mike Petersen and Dale White and Stefan and Kent that have gone to all the trouble to get all this stuff together and figured out in advance. And put the plans and systems and the processes in place in case these things happen; that is what it comes down to. About the battle between Rockenfeller and Sascha last night. Margot: Especially because Sascha is the senior driver and Mike is the youngest, and they are probably the 2 most naturally talented drivers Porsche have. Tom: I think that is an interesting comparison. I never “compare” drivers. In the fact that they were down to the .001 of a second. We know what we have right now. We know the amount of time we have until 4 o’clock this afternoon. We know that we have a 3-lap deficit to make up. We know that we have the best car, the best crew, with 3 of the best drivers. We know that we have a team put together here, a management put together here that has the plans in place to make it happen. The guys may be a little down right now, not depressed but I don’t think they realise we still have a lot of hours left in the day to get the job done.
Quick Quotes after midnight
Margot: Last time we spoke, you had just pulled Sascha out of the car, and now we have just put him back in. Tom: We need to come up with a different time to talk about this! It's now 10 o’clock and we have led every lap in this race up to this point with the exception of one lap; and that was our first pit stop when Lieb got around us. Until they made their stop and we gained the lead back. That is the only time when we have not led. Margot: Do you get brownie points for that? Tom: Yes we do. We get Rice Krispy squares. The team owner was kind enough to bring in home made Rice Krispy treats in for the whole crew. It was very nice. Things have been going like clockwork up to this point; the team has done an incredible job and continue to lay down stops that no one else is even remotely close to even though all of the hard work last night, and the continued hard work today, it’s just phenomenal. The only “blip” on the heart monitor was when Patrick felt like he had a puncture on the right rear, and that is a characteristic of a driver that has driven as many cars as Patrick has; so we were concerned that that it was a puncture, but at the same time it may have been pick-up (drag) from when he went past a prototype. And when you go off line there is a lot of debris and marbles out there. It turned out that it was marbles and not a puncture so it was definitely the right decision the team made to keep him out there. And his lap times continued to be really, really good even with that so the problem cured itself and that was in the last stint. The guys were ready to change tires instantly, but it wasn’t required. Margot: What about the water bottle? Did that get repaired? Tom: Everything looks to be fixed pretty quickly, and I think they did. Margot: And double stinting? Jörg said he thought he would be the first one. Tom: it’s never been the plan to double-stint, not at this point anyways. As it goes into the night, we will start double-stinting. I haven’t gotten the confirmation on that one – you know a lot of that stuff is fluid as the race plays out. Margot: It’s starting to get cold. Are you prepared for the rain? Do the boys like running in it?
Tom: It feels like it is
going to rain later. It shouldn’t Patrick Long: I’ve got my first 24 hours of Le Mans stint through and everything was clean, and now I just have to concentrate on good, steady laps. Now in the dark, I’m just going to progress into that, and not take any chances. The last night of qualifying, I was able to get a good amount of running in and that gave me my confidence. Two for the Show:
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No. 90 in for a brake change  June
13, 2004 (6:30 a.m.) -- As
I was heading down to the pits for our update piece, the Petersen/White
Lightning car was pulling into the pits for work of some sort; as I watched
Sascha Maassen climb out of the car my heart leaped into my throat; had the
gear problem returned? Media Rep Tom Moore explains.
Margot: Last time we spoke, everything was still good and the #90 was in first place. Tom: It’s still good. We were really making up a lot of ground there, we made up a lap. We had, shortly after 2am Jörg was in the car and we had a shifter cable break. The linkage broke, so we had to come in and get that changed. And that took us from a 2-lap lead to a 3-lap deficit. But at the same time we went ahead and changed brake pads, made a drivers swap and put Patrick in the car, and put a full load of fuel in the car. Margot: Did you have to put Patrick in the car? Tom: Well, it was a little bit early, but it was near the end of Jörg’s stint, and the time for Patrick’s 2 stints to start; so we did that just as we would. So we ended up losing overall 5 laps. Patrick did a great job, turned out some of the fastest laps; the fastest he has turned all week at night, just did a super job. Sascha has had a pretty uneventful stint – we are making up a considerable amount of ground. Margot: Imagine my surprise. Tom: We have made up 1 lap already and we are running laps faster than anybody – Rockenfeller put up a really good lap as well, actually has made a couple of them. So they are coming on, too. But they have a bigger deficit than we do. And then just moments ago, just a little before 6 a.m., we went ahead and did a front brake pad change just to make sure our front pads would make it to the end.
Sascha is still in the car; he
will do one more stint and then Jörg Stay tuned for a quick interview from Sascha when he gets out of the “Ho” car after his turn behind the wheel in approx. an hour from now.
Going for the double
"I like a new challenge every day"
"I'm just trying to help the team wherever
I can" |
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