Orbit Racing - Mosport test day

power delay

Orbit Racing's drivers were delayed by the power shortage that affected much 
of eastern North America, but arrived at Mosport International Raceway just a 
few minutes after the start of the first American Le Mans Series test session 
on Friday.  Peter Baron and Marc Lieb were forced to overnight in Miami when 
their flight to Toronto was cancelled.  24 hours, two flights and a fast 
limousine ride later, they were on track.  They used the session to set up the No. 
43 YES Network Porsche 911 GT3 RS for the demanding 2.459-mile track.

"I'm just happy to get here and run some laps," Baron said.  "It turns out it 
was a good thing we did - we have a car that we were expecting to be a lot 
better than it is.  We have the same problems we had at Trois-Rivières [two 
weeks ago] with the concrete pads and the bumpiness in the track.  We have a whole 
bunch of data and fortunately we now have a day to work on setup instead of a 
lost day."

"I was only here for about three minutes and I went straight to the car," 
Lieb said.  "It was a terrible trip - we arrived just at the first practice, so 
we weren't very well-prepared for it.  I was just driving around to get to know 
the track because I hadn't seen this place before.  I was finding the line 
and making some setup changes.  The circuit reminds me a little bit of Zolder in 
Belgium.  It's cool, I like it!"

joker's wild

Michelin continues to improve the tires used by Orbit Racing and other 
leading ALMS teams.  Michelin's ALMS operations manager, Jerry Rinaldo, noted the 
manufacturer has a more durable tire this year, plus a wild card known as a 
joker tire.

"Last year, the tires performed well except for the safety cushion that we're 
well-known for.  The tires were consistent, but they weren't as durable as we 
wanted," he explained.  "This year we brought tires that have a little bigger 
edge of safety, not so much the compound, but the carcass is stronger.

"We've also been developing tires since last year - known as joker tires - 
and we brought some to hopefully test during the race.  The joker tires are 
something we test at the plant, but they haven't been used in a racing 
environment.  No matter what you do in the laboratory, it's how it performs in a race 
that counts.  We have some joker tires that, if the opportunity arises, we can 
throw them on and see how they perform during the race."

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Sylvia Proudfoot
spur07@cs.com
403 287 3945