For the 2nd year back to back, the American Le Mans Series Monterey at Mazda Laguna Seca Raceway on the Monterey Peninsula had been a six-hour enduro race that directed individuals around the circuit into the post-sundown darkness.
In the past, the race had been 4 hours, with the addition of a couple of additional hrs in 2010. For Scott Tucker with the exceptional Level 5 Motorsports racing team, the 2 additional hrs provide for some breathing room. "We always try to run a clean race, but little mistakes can add up," Tucker talked about last year. "Two extra hours can be a huge advantage even for experienced teams because of those unexpected things you tend to run into with endurance races."
Believing Tucker and teammates Christophe Bouchut and Luis Diaz needed a 120-minute time allowance to overcome issues could have been much easier in 2010, as it was Level 5 Motorsports' debut year in the Le Mans series. However, the David Stone-managed, Microsoft Office-sponsored team took the LMP class championship, and Tucker was rookie of the year.
During the 2011 season, driver slips have been rare for the Wisconsin-based team. Bursting in the season with plenty podium finishes, the Level 5 drivers seemingly faced only circumstantial problems. After making podium at the 12 Hours of Sebring, the Long Beach circuit and Imola in Italy, and achieving top LMP2 points and a fourth-place finish at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, they had a record of vast majority clean races, with nary a scuff or a ding on their Nos. 55 and 95 entries.
All the same, the team has faced those little mistakes that usually tend to add together. At the 1st appearance of the season, at the Rolex 24 at Daytona, the team-on track for the podium for the better part of the race-finished eighth after Tucker's No. 95 got caught in a stack-up in the notoriously narrow track. Even with smooth subsequent actions by Bouchut and Diaz, who had just joined the team at the beginning of the season, Level 5 couldn't make up for the mistake. In a 24-hour race, extra time isn't a choice, however the results of the Rolex 24 had been different had every single driver just had a bit more seat time.
"One of the benefits of a six-hour endurance race is the extra seat time in a racing environment," Tucker suggested at the Monterey. "It maximizes the efficiency of the track time allowed for a driver."
The team couldn't fix the slipups in time in making podium at Daytona, but they made quick work of perfecting their form and began their winning streak immediately after the frustration at Daytona.
But at the Spa-Francorchamps race, a suspension failure sent Bouchut into the sideboards, and the team's hopes of continuing its incredible streak with another ILMC top finish were dashed.
"It's one of those things in racing," Tucker suggested. "It's pretty unfortunate-it's a pretty rough spot on the track for that failure to happen." The statement is similar to what Tucker had said the previous year about little unexpected things that pop up in endurance races. Another unpredicted development came in the summer for the Level 5 team, when a Honda Performance Development/Wirth Research partnership was producing a cost-capped LMP2 prototype. Tucker reserved the first two out of manufacturing, and the Level 5 team commenced waiting for the cars to be ready, ultimately removing of Lime Rock and Silverstone, partially because they didn't face much competition and partially because they were preparing the new car for its ALMS debut.
Incidentally, the newest car's very first ride was at the second six-hour Monterey at Mazda Laguna Seca Raceway. They pulled off a beautiful first performance in the HPD ARX-01g. Each one of the drivers has undoubtedly improved since the first six-hour format in 2010, and certainly the newer, faster car was also a significant factor in the podium finish, but one has to wonder how it would have fared in a four-hour enduro. World-class motorsports competition is a field of strategy, with car, driver order and track time all important factors to consider.
In the past, the race had been 4 hours, with the addition of a couple of additional hrs in 2010. For Scott Tucker with the exceptional Level 5 Motorsports racing team, the 2 additional hrs provide for some breathing room. "We always try to run a clean race, but little mistakes can add up," Tucker talked about last year. "Two extra hours can be a huge advantage even for experienced teams because of those unexpected things you tend to run into with endurance races."
Believing Tucker and teammates Christophe Bouchut and Luis Diaz needed a 120-minute time allowance to overcome issues could have been much easier in 2010, as it was Level 5 Motorsports' debut year in the Le Mans series. However, the David Stone-managed, Microsoft Office-sponsored team took the LMP class championship, and Tucker was rookie of the year.
During the 2011 season, driver slips have been rare for the Wisconsin-based team. Bursting in the season with plenty podium finishes, the Level 5 drivers seemingly faced only circumstantial problems. After making podium at the 12 Hours of Sebring, the Long Beach circuit and Imola in Italy, and achieving top LMP2 points and a fourth-place finish at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, they had a record of vast majority clean races, with nary a scuff or a ding on their Nos. 55 and 95 entries.
All the same, the team has faced those little mistakes that usually tend to add together. At the 1st appearance of the season, at the Rolex 24 at Daytona, the team-on track for the podium for the better part of the race-finished eighth after Tucker's No. 95 got caught in a stack-up in the notoriously narrow track. Even with smooth subsequent actions by Bouchut and Diaz, who had just joined the team at the beginning of the season, Level 5 couldn't make up for the mistake. In a 24-hour race, extra time isn't a choice, however the results of the Rolex 24 had been different had every single driver just had a bit more seat time.
"One of the benefits of a six-hour endurance race is the extra seat time in a racing environment," Tucker suggested at the Monterey. "It maximizes the efficiency of the track time allowed for a driver."
The team couldn't fix the slipups in time in making podium at Daytona, but they made quick work of perfecting their form and began their winning streak immediately after the frustration at Daytona.
But at the Spa-Francorchamps race, a suspension failure sent Bouchut into the sideboards, and the team's hopes of continuing its incredible streak with another ILMC top finish were dashed.
"It's one of those things in racing," Tucker suggested. "It's pretty unfortunate-it's a pretty rough spot on the track for that failure to happen." The statement is similar to what Tucker had said the previous year about little unexpected things that pop up in endurance races. Another unpredicted development came in the summer for the Level 5 team, when a Honda Performance Development/Wirth Research partnership was producing a cost-capped LMP2 prototype. Tucker reserved the first two out of manufacturing, and the Level 5 team commenced waiting for the cars to be ready, ultimately removing of Lime Rock and Silverstone, partially because they didn't face much competition and partially because they were preparing the new car for its ALMS debut.
Incidentally, the newest car's very first ride was at the second six-hour Monterey at Mazda Laguna Seca Raceway. They pulled off a beautiful first performance in the HPD ARX-01g. Each one of the drivers has undoubtedly improved since the first six-hour format in 2010, and certainly the newer, faster car was also a significant factor in the podium finish, but one has to wonder how it would have fared in a four-hour enduro. World-class motorsports competition is a field of strategy, with car, driver order and track time all important factors to consider.
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