Chocolate, anyone?

Since the return of the Mini as the MINI, parent company BMW has given MINI a very free hand in doing what they want. Is this one a stretch too far? Did someone at MINI ask a Starbucks barista to go design a MINI?

Because here is one in a solid, deep chocolate brown, complemented by jet black, deep tans and subtle brown pin striping — the new MINI Mayfair.

My first real run-up for the Mayfair was a visit to a private car collection in Sausalito with Rich McKee, a hearty fan of the original Mini. Sacrilege, sacrilege, he cried: a Cooper S with an automatic? Sorry, Rich, only a scant 7% of all new cars sold in North America feature a standard transmission, I replied.

I admit the MINI tranny did respond insipidly, slow as molasses in winter. That was until the magic “Sport” button was pressed. Once engaged in “Sport” mode the 6-speed automatic became whole — from slush box to precision tool: perfectly-timed, rapid-fire shifts triggered in the high 3000rpm range. Simply delicious to play with, it felt like someone had added nitrous to the equation.

In Mayfair garb, the car otherwise offered what I expected: luxury, comfort, great features, snicky shifting on demand, go-kart handling, blah, blah, blah. The real surprise was the fuel consumption. Now, no efforts at back road bashing were made. (Not needed, as MINI capabilities are well-known — and the tires tucked into that 97” wheelbase already displayed the handiwork of some previous wring-it-out tester.) On the other hand, this driver made zero effort to pussy-foot around to ensure that the gas lasted a whole week. So while the go-pedal connected to the 1.6 liter turbo motor was not mashed, it was definitely used with enthusiasm.

The EPA says to expect 24/32 city/highway with 27 combined, but the Mayfair returned over 30mpg from premium placed in the 13 gallon tank. Take that, OPEC! Considering there are 172 ponies at 5500rpm with a computer-controlled dead-flat 177 lb. ft. from 1600 to 5000rpm in this 2700 lb. car, this is rather impressive.

The last two cars this tester saw return over 30mpg were the smallest Kia in 2006 and the original, somewhat underpowered, and delightfully quirky Series One Scion Xb. (Scion, the offspring of Toyota, quickly killed off the original Xb in favor of a larger and quite boring utility box with zero personality.) Of course, neither the Kia nor the Scion came with an automatic or a turbo motor capable of some serious output, though both had a serious fun factor. (Try driving a slightly underpowered car on a regular basis — you can play with it and no one will notice you because you aren’t really moving along that fast. That’s a good argument for the standard Cooper, by the way.)

According to my Dr. Who-addicted progeny, the MINI also offers more usable room in the back than some significantly larger two-door cars, small on the outside while big on the inside. Magic from an ex-Tardis engineer? No, just thoughtful design. The Mayfair even suffered gracefully when the three of us stuffed it to the gills when we made our pilgrimage to Costco for several weeks of supplies.

Are there any downsides? While it is nice to see that the Mayfair’s interior does not have the silver trim paint the other MINIs do that scratches off so darned easily, the quality of the plastics used in the radio control buttons on the steering wheel and the decorative heat and fan control wheels leaves a bit to be desired — and, I’d say, might be expected to crack with the first smack from a hard object. So keep your hammer out of the car, or at least away from the dashboard.

Also, the lovely 17” wheels are nice, but the run-flats tend to feel harsh.

Okay, the nits have been picked.

MINI has become a runaway success story for parent company BMW. No, MINI quality control is not quite upto Japanese or new Korean standards, but it very close. The MINI is not a bland transportation appliance that is going to go 250,000 miles without some minor attention, care and feeding. If you can live with that then the MINI, which maintains the highest resale values of any new car line on the market, will reward you with years and years of pleasurable driving.

Now if this scribe could only figure out how to talk MINI into offering a ten-year extended test drive program...

[The MINI Mayfair is being offered along with another special edition, the MINI Camden — in silver and white — in celebration of the Mini’s 50th anniversary, which technically occurred last year. While this particular Mayfair was equipped with an automatic transmission, the package comes standard with a 6-speed manual in either Cooper (normally aspirated) or Cooper S (turbocharged) form.]

Imposing in jet black, it whispered, “Protective Services, high security, please stand back.” From the hulking body to the heavy-duty interior pieces draped in leather and wood, the 2010 Range Rover Sport Supercharged I had on test felt industrial in strength but crafted for comfort — as if its designers were under orders from someone very senior in government or industry for a mobile command post, a defended office with wheels.

You climb into the Supercharged Rover. Through the windshield you can see over anything short of an H2 Hummer. You sink into the large leather thrones, noting the grippy steering wheel with speed and radio controls in its console. The control buttons are Chiclet-size and the labels are large, no glasses needed.

Since it was not cold we did not activate the heaters for the seats. But I did enjoy the feel of the aluminum-and-leather pistol-grip shifter.

The Supercharged Rover imbues a sense that there is no rush and you can putter through traffic to get from Point A to Point B. So we did — my son Sam, age 11, daughter Arielle, age 9, and I having invited fellow journalist Steve Schaefer to join us on the trip to the Santa Clara Fairgrounds in San Jose, CA, to attend the annual British Motorcycle Show.

Early on we ran into an unanticipated but predictable logjam on the freeway. The very tight 37.8’ turning radius came in handy as we slipped out of the barely crawling traffic. We zipped into the exit lane and wended our way through slogging but progressive local traffic. We passed three highway entrances that appeared clogged, and entered the freeway again having lost about 10 minutes. Maybe it was because we were rolling along on 275/30/20 tires on the distinctive alloy wheels, but while escaping traffic the feeling of bushwhacking through dense rainforest jungle kept seeping in, producing a smile.

I noticed the Rover tilts and rolls a bit more than a sedan, but it is balanced and even in movement, and the helm responds nicely to driver inputs when you start approaching the expected limits of an SUV.

The EPA rates the car at 13 city and 18 highway. Even with the 6-speed automatic and two-speed transfer case operating in overdrive it took only 165 miles to consume half of the 27-gallon tank of premium fuel. (Granted, this was due in no small part to a driver who lead-footed around a highway impasse, pouring on lots of extra coals in order to meet our schedule.)

The 5.0 liter, 90°, all-alloy, dual-overhead-cam supercharged V8 is splendid, with 510bhp between 6000 and 6500rpm and a flat 461 lb. ft. of torque from 2500 to 5000rpm. This yielded an incredibly smooth, uneventful and more than slightly addictive naught-to-60 in under six seconds — without bothering to shift out of “Normal” mode into “Sport” or to use the available paddle shifters.

Given the 113” wheelbase, electronic air suspension and huge, 15” discs with ABS, ESC and all the toys, utterly stable deceleration was a breeze as well. Towing capacity for the Range Rover Sport Supercharged is rated at 1,600 lbs. for an standard trailer and 7,700 lbs. for one equipped with trailer brakes.

For a 5,700-lb., five-passenger vehicle with permanent four-wheel drive, the Rover is surprisingly deft and graceful. It also gets bonus points for being categorized as a multi-purpose vehicle with a GVWR of over 6,000 lbs., so the $74,195 price for the “base” 2010 Range Rover Sport Supercharged is not subject to luxury tax at purchase.

If you insist on using this Rover as a Rover, be aware that you are limited to a 27.6” wading depth — so please stay away from extremely flooded zones. Otherwise, turn on the lovely 720-watt Harmon Kardon six-disc sound system, stay out of the engine room, keep fuel consumption to a reasonable level, and enjoy one mighty fast luxury conveyance that wafts along in utter comfort on any road or non-road, through pretty much any kind of weather.

That’s my story and the reason for the stupid smile on my face, and I’m sticking to it.

[Jon is a frequent contributor to the Marque and last year gave us his impressions of the Land Rover LR2. Next time he will review a new version of a classic Mini “special edition,” the 2010 MINI Cooper Mayfair.]

BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA to VALPARAISO, CHILE — January 2010, and it was shipping time for our red Lotus Elan to Buenos Aires and its first visit to the Southern Hemisphere. The occasion was the Patagonia Rally sponsored by ROARR, the organization otherwise known as Rhythm Of The Road Rallies.

We’d been busy after the problems in Morocco in November on another rally, the Casablanca Challenge, but there is never enough time to do everything. [See our January/February issue for more details. —Exec. Ed.] The passenger’s door had been repaired and resprayed, but it wasn’t hung properly and whistled over 55mph. We had a new battery — an Optima — but starting was still a problem. There was a new distributor and a new diff output shaft and seal. We completed routine servicing and reduced the regulator box voltage as well.

Customs clearance in Buenos Aires took the best part of two days. Headlights are (nearly) compulsory so it wasn’t long before we were stopped by the police for not using them, but only a gentle reminder.

Our first stop was Balcarce, home of a certain Juan Manuel Fangio, where we visited his museum — and the starter was already failing. The repair, however, was astonishingly easy. The starter shaft was loose in the housing, so at a cost of £4 we hired a ramp, bought some sandpaper and put in a new bush (a gift from the electrical factor).

The next day it rained, so lights and wipers, and as we had reduced the dynamo voltage, inevitably a flat battery. Before we solved that problem we also had to cope with a washed-away bridge on the only road to our hotel. A police checkpoint turned us round and as we retraced our route we picked up other rally cars. The convoy decided on an alternative town to overnight. In true rally style we proceeded along the straight tarmac at speed and arrived in time for a beer.

The following day we reached the UNESCO site of Peninsular Valdez and had our introduction to the ripio, a gravel road, usually fairly wide, which serves much of southern Argentina and Chile. This ripio was smooth and flat and 50mph plus was quite comfortable. The Peninsular is home to colonies of penguins, sea lions and elephant seals (and whales, but not in February) so our rest day was spent observing them as well as the armadillos, foxes, rhea and guanaco.

Then we went to Wales! The Welsh arrived in this part of the world in 1865 and we visited their towns of Trelew and Gaiman, where we had to guide the organiser and the route surveyor onto the route shown in their roadbook! Heading south we reached Comodoro Rivadavia, where we got completely lost (navigator couldn’t cope with her GPS) until the police coerced a passing lady motorist to lead us to the hotel.

Up to now we’d had no trouble with fuel. The first sign of trouble was at a fuel station where we were rationed to 15 litres. We’d been warned that fuel distribution was a problem and tanked up frequently, as well as carried 20 litres in cans — none of which we used except to help other cars. We were probably the car with the longest range, aside from the Bentley. All fuel stations at our overnight stop were out of fuel and the evening was taken up with discussions of “What if...?” When we set out next day with one exception we all made the next fuel stop without difficulty.

The roadside was increasingly brown and dry as we continued south and the good tarmac roads straight with little traffic. Before Ushuaia we had a taste of real ripio. It was tarmac as far as the Magellan Straits, but now we were in Chile and the ripio was bad. It had potholes, there were tracks with heaps of gravel to make you worry about your underneath, there were lumps like large irregular cobbles, and of course it was dusty. We had a lot more of this to come! We visited the petrified remains of a 140-million-year-old forest, where the landscape was surreal. They also had winds. They said today’s wind was nothing much but it seemed pretty strong to me as it was an effort to walk into it and it took several miles per gallon out of the car.

Our hotel, west of Ushuaia, looked out across the Beagle Channel. As we sipped wine on the balcony we looked south — just a few islands between the Antarctic and us. Here more than anywhere else there was a sense of history. This was where Darwin had been, this was Tierra del Fuego. We were at the bottom of the world.

We had a rest day to take a boat trip along the channel to see the sea life and the sites of the many shipwrecks in this narrow sliver of water. There were constant reminders of the mixed background of this part of the world: British names and British equipment in all the museums, but Japanese 4WD on the streets! On the ferry crossing to Punta Arenas we learned of massive earthquakes in Concepcion, where we were due in two weeks time (and of damage to the port of Valparaiso, where the cars were due to be shipped).

Our only mechanical problem showed up that evening with a worn trunnion — easily solved as we had a spare. Then we found that no one had a grease gun (not even the rally support crew), and as it was Saturday evening, garages didn’t sell grease and grease guns were as rare as hens’ teeth. So a routine procedure became a crisis! We had to take it all apart again and pack it with some rather solid graphite grease and hope! Not to worry, our life was about to become much more exciting.

Our next stop was a hotel on an island in the lakes of Torres del Paine — another national park where we had a rest day to wander round the immense grandeur and admire the mountains and listen as the snow fell in avalanches off the ridges. We were halfway to the Argentine border when the driver had a “moment” with a right hand bend on the ripio. After unsuccessfully fighting the skid she lost control and we ended up on the roof in a ditch, hanging from our seatbelts.

It took a while to get to grips with an upside down world, but the passenger’s door did open though the driver’s door was blocked by the ditch. We clambered out on the passenger’s side and surveyed the result. Petrol was dripping gently from the fuel tank breather so the fire extinguisher was first out, followed by the “grab bag” and the laptop.

Patrick’s Chevy was the only car to arrive in the half hour we were stopped. They helped us push the car first onto its side and then onto the wheels. The windscreen was broken as were both front pillars and there was a hole in the roof (fairly close to my head!). The passenger’s door, which had been difficult before, looked fine from the outside but had split in half vertically and was not usable. There was no oil on the ground though a little had dripped from the dipstick onto the bonnet. We checked brake and clutch fluid and started the engine — fine! Thanks to the Optima battery there was no leaking acid and the electrics were unaffected.

We carried on slowly as we were in danger of pushing out the rear screen. Patrick carried the front screen to a rubbish bin. We were completely unscathed, not a scratch.

It was a relatively short run to El Calafate but very cold and we were well wrapped up with the windows open to reduce the pressure on the rear screen. Here the rally mechanic found a double-glazing firm who would install a perspex screen. They were concerned about the holes their pop rivets would make and that we could not use the wipers (scratching). We said that with bodywork like ours a few extra holes really wouldn’t make much difference! Communication here was easy as the owner spoke English, and our mechanic was of German descent so that’s how most of us communicated with him.

Our rest day was to enable us to see the Perito Moreno Glacier, with its 30-metre-high wall of ice, as it crawls into Lago Argentino, with chunks cracking off and drifting away as icebergs down the lake. The first day with the new screen was a gentle drive to the foothills of Mt. Fitzroy and our introduction to Ruta 40, the Argentine equivalent of Route 66, which even though it’s a main highway has more ripio than tarmac. The next day was a long, slow day, 11 hours/600km, with a solid 180km of ripio in the middle. We started with the sun in our eyes but perspex scatters light so there is zero visibility when driving into the sun. Putting your head out of the window was the only solution! The ripio varied from poor to awful and as we approached the end we crisscrossed the new ribbon of tarmac but could not get onto it.

The hotel, an estancia, was not expecting us when we arrived early so we got a frosty reception. Some in our party pushed off to the nearby town hoping for something better. We were fed up after a long, slow, dusty day and were grateful for anything. Plenty of wine at supper certainly helped!

Our next excitement was the border crossing back into Chile. The Customs lady here had read the rules, which said that RHD cars were not allowed in. (All the other officials took a more reasonable view.) The Argentines told us that she came on shift at midday and we must ensure we got through before then — we and our RHD Elan did! Once over we ran alongside the spectacular Lake Carrera on a ripio that steadily deteriorated to a dusty single track. We were later told that it was much improved!

The hotel at El Maiten was set in between two lakes, and we had a rest day to wander the hills and admire the scenery. This was a place where we met all nationalities: a Japanese lady who lived on what was not a public footpath, a German lady who told us where it was, and a couple from Jersey who had the misfortune to be the only other guests in a rally hotel.

From the peace of the national parks our next stop in Coyhaique was a shock because it was full of people, schoolchildren, shops and cars. We weren’t used to this! We’d been told that Brasso was good for cleaning perspex so we tracked down the only pot in all Chile. Not sure it helped, and I carried on sticking my head out of the window!

Next day was due east for 300km — straight into the sun and with 200 of them on ripio not good. Fortunately once the sun climbed it was easier. In Rio Mayo we treated ourselves to a civilised hotel lunch (steak, of course) in the cool, away from the dust and noise of the ripio. Reaching Esquel some of the group were able to ride the Old Patagonia Express, a steam train powered by diesel that was intended to open up Patagonia for settlers. It went bust and is now a tourist attraction.

We continued north to Bariloche and our hotel was almost certainly the most expensive around so we graced its car park. We changed the oil filter, the Chevy a wheel bearing, and the organiser’s Alfa a head gasket (which still didn’t work afterwards even though they were working on it till 1 a.m.). The next few days weren’t good for either of those cars: the Alfa had to be re-repaired and was not seen again for a couple of days, whilst the Chevy stopped in the middle of next day’s ripio, was removed on a truck, and after various false starts caught up after some 24-hour driving.

Two days later saw us on our deviation to avoid the earthquake zone around Concepcion, so we visited the wine growing area round Mendoza. What a contrast to the arid pampas of Patagonia — vineyard after vineyard and our hotel was in the middle of one! There was no way we could avoid a little tasting.

Then to the last day, which started with a protest on the dual carriageway. The price of petrol had just gone up by about 35%. The protest involved parking your car on the central reservation and sitting on your deckchair in the outside lane. There followed a glorious drive (for a Lotus!) up and over the Andes. There were long, flowing bends, spectacular scenery, lots of traffic to be overtaken — and the engine was still pulling strongly at 3,200 metres.

It was an easy run from there to Valparaiso and, after 6,250 miles of almost trouble free motoring, the container home.

[Peter and Allison, who happily take their Elan to places where they admit “it was not designed to go,” have thrilled readers of this newspaper with their adventures on rallies in North Africa, Iceland, the Himalayas and Southeast Asia. This one was sponsored by U.K.-based ROARR (Rhythm Of The Road Rallies), www.roarrallies.com, which runs these events for charity.]

SEBRING, FL — Saturday, March 20th saw the 58th annual running of the Sebring 12 Hours, America’s oldest and most prestigious road race, and the first race in the 2010 American Le Mans Series.

Sebring has had a rich past. The first event was held in 1952 and won by Harry Grey and Larry Kulok, driving a Frazer-Nash LMR. Since that time the list of Sebring winners has read like a who’s who of endurance racing drivers, including Moss, Hawthorn, Fangio, Hill, Gurney, Surtees, Ickx and Andretti, to name but a few.

For the past nine years the race has been the private domain of Audi, whose drivers have won every single event. This year would see another winner, however, as Audi was forced to pass up Sebring because they were unable to modify their cars in time to meet late changes in the Le Mans regulations. In the absence of Audi the consequence was that the factory Peugeot team, which entered two of their diesel-powered 908 prototypes, was expected to dominate the event — but then again, this is a 12-hour race on an exceptionally punishing course and results are never a foregone conclusion.

Unfortunately for the British race car enthusiast, two British-built prototypes in the P1 class were scratched before qualifying even began. On Monday during untimed practice the Intersport Lola B06/10 AER of father-and-son team Jon and Clint Field got airborne and flipped several times on the straight between Turns 9 and 10. The accident was attributed to a failure of the right rear suspension. Jon, who was driving at the time, was able to exit the car without injury but the car was beyond repair. The team expects to rejoin the series at Long Beach in April.

The other British car to miss the race was the Creation CA10 Judd. Creation Autosportif has set up a U.S. base in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, with the intention of contesting the entire 2010 ALMS series. Although appearing on the official entry list for several weeks, on the Tuesday before the race it was announced that they were withdrawing “due to non-performance of one of its principal sponsors.” Hopefully this team will straighten out its sponsorship issues and join the series in the near future.

As to the other British entries, the most likely challenger to the Peugeots in P1 was thought to be the lone Lola B09/60 Aston Martin to be driven by Stefan Mucke, Harold Primat and Adrian Fernandez. Aston Martin won the European Le Mans Championship in 2009 as well as finishing 4th at Le Mans behind the diesels of Peugeot and Audi. The car is an Aston-modified Lola utilizing the same Aston Martin V12 that powered their successful GT1 car. As attested to by their 2009 results the car has proven itself to be extremely reliable and the team was optimistic that a good result could be achieved on this very rough track.

In qualifying the Aston turned a best lap of 1:46.079, placing it 3rd on the grid — some 0.865 seconds slower than the pole-sitting Peugeot, and only 0.238 seconds behind the 2nd-placed Peugeot. The team was delighted to qualify so close to the French car’s times but realistically knew that their chances of staying with them come race day was remote.

Another exciting British entry in P1 was the Drayson Racing Lola B09/60 Judd. This is a team that we have followed for the past two years as they campaigned an Aston Martin GT2 car. At last year’s Petit Le Mans we saw the team move up to P1 with the Lola and the car proved fast right out of the box. Following Petit the car competed in the two-race Asian Le Mans Series where it captured one pole position and two fastest laps. After a winter of testing Paul, Lord Drayson, Britain’s Minister of Science and Innovation, is looking forward to running the entire 2010 ALMS series.

For Sebring the team’s regular drivers Lord Drayson and Jonny Cocker were joined by Emanuele Pirro, who had been released by Audi to compete at Sebring. Pirro brought a wealth of experience to the team and was instrumental in identifying improvements to the car. During qualifying Pirro posted a best time of 1:47.684 for 4th on the grid, which was only 1.246 off the pole time. Needless to say the entire Drayson team was excited to have qualified so well against three factory-backed cars.

The only other British car in P1 was the Lola B06/10 AER entered by Autocon Motorsports. The car, to be driven by Bryan Willman, Tony Burgess, and Pierre Ehert, qualified 8th overall and 5th in P1 with a time of 1:54.441. Unfortunately, this car never made it to the grid as it was withdrawn due to mechanical difficulties.

In the lower-horsepower second prototype class, P2, the stage was set for a three-way battle between the Highcroft Racing Acura ARX-01C of Brabham/Pagenaud/Franchitti, the Cytosport Porsche RS Spyder of Pickett/Graf/Maassen, and the Dyson Lola B09/86 Mazda of Dyson/Smith/Meyrick. For the Sebring event Dyson took on British driver Andy Meyrick as its third driver. Meyrick had driven an Audi R10 for the Kolles LMP team in the 2009 European Le Mans series.

The most interesting of the three P2 cars was the Dyson Mazda, not because of its British-built chassis and British-developed AER engine but because it was running on an experimental fuel developed by BP and DuPont called BP isobutanol/ethanol. Dyson had used this fuel in one of its cars at the last two races of the 2009 ALMS series. However, they were not allowed to score points or be classified because of this fuel. For 2010 IMSA announced that for the first two races this fuel will be authorized, although any car making this choice would have to add an additional 30kg to the car’s minimum weight. This weight restriction will be lifted by round three at Laguna Seca.

During qualifying the P2 cars finished 1-2-3 in class and 5-6-7 overall, with the Acura on top followed by the Porsche and Mazda. All three cars were covered by only two-tenths of a second!

The most competitive class at Sebring again was GT2, with representation from Ferrari, Porsche, BMW, Corvette, Ford GT and Jaguar. The Rahal Letterman BMW of Hand/Mueller/Priaulx qualified fastest however, the first eight qualifiers were covered by about one second, which suggested a very exciting race.

The Jaguar XKR GT campaigning in this class had undergone extensive testing since its debut at the end of last year’s ALMS season. Paul Gentilozzi of JaguarRSR said that rather than treating the qualifying session as such, they ran the car in race trim in order to learn more about the car and got the proper set-up for the grueling 12-hour event. The car qualified 11th in class but the team was optimistic about their performance in the race.

As to the other two classes, which are new this year, there was no British representation in LMPC as it is a one-car class, running French-built Oreca FLM 09 cars, while GTC is another one-marque class running Porsche 911 GT3 Cup cars.

The race

Race day dawned with beautiful blue skies as the usual huge crowd gathered in anticipation of an exciting race. At the drop of the flag the first four qualifiers jumped into an immediate lead and pulled away from the pack.

As expected the Peugeots opened a gap leaving the two Lolas of Aston Martin and Drayson Racing to fight for 3rd place. Just when everyone thought the script was going to plan, Pirro in the Drayson Lola passed the Aston and went off in pursuit of the 2nd place Peugeot. Within a few short laps he caught the Peugeot and actually passed it, much to the delight of the crowd. Your correspondent was at Turn 10 when Pirro came by in 2nd place while a huge cheer went up from the spectators.

But Pirro wasn’t finished. He then went after the lead Peugeot, which he caught and proceeded to harass, at one point entering Turn 10 actually striking the Lola’s front wheel inside the Peugeot. Although he never got ahead of the lead car the crowd loved it. Everybody loves the underdog! But if the crowd was excited, it was nothing compared to the excitement in the Drayson pits where Lord Drayson wore a smile even larger than normal. This performance was something they had never expected.

Unfortunately the fairy tale came to an end when after three hours and 34 minutes the alternator on the Drayson Lola failed. A lengthy pit stop to rectify the problem dropped the car down the field to 8th place. A further alternator problem and a water leak resulting from a collision with one of the Peugeots pushed the Drayson car further down the field, finally finishing in 12th place overall, 4th in class.

Despite these problems the team was very upbeat. Late in the afternoon, hours into the race, the entire team was still pumped up over that first stint. When we later talked to Pirro he could not praise the car enough and said that he thought with a little more work it would be even more competitive. Of his epic drive he said, “You should have seen the smile inside my helmet!”

Of course the Peugeots went on to finish 1st and 2nd, running a trouble-free race. The Aston Martin also had an uneventful race and held down 3rd place to finish three laps behind the winning Peugeot of Wurz/Gene/Davidson.

In the P2 category the Acura took an immediate lead followed by the Dyson Mazda, which moved into 2nd place at the start. Unfortunately for the Dyson team after 20 minutes the car had to be taken to the transporter to fix an electrical problem that proved to be lengthy, dropping the car from contention. After six hours the Acura, which had been leading its class by five laps, suffered an electrical fire, losing 11 laps. Ultimately the Cytosport Porsche won the class, finishing in 4th place overall and four laps in front of the Acura. The Mazda finished a distant 3rd.

GT2 turned out to be an action-packed race. The first retirement unfortunately was the Jaguar, after only 11 laps. The official reason for the retirement was said to be a “cooling issue,” but while talking to a team member in their transporter we were told that it related to the heads. Nevertheless, the team did not let this setback dull their enthusiasm, and the general consensus was that it’s still early days and the car has much more potential.

The Risi Competizione Ferrari F430 GT won the GT2 class in a trouble-free run. The same cannot be said for some of its competitors. The Team Falken Porsche 911 GT2 RSR that had been the early leader lost a wheel on two consecutive laps. Unfortunately one of the Flying Lizard Porsches was in the wrong place at the wrong time and was hit by the second wheel while running in 2nd place. Nor was the normally efficient Corvette team without drama. At about the two-hour mark the number three Corvette had a power steering problem that cost the car eight laps. Then at about 3 o’clock the two factory Corvettes collided in the pit lane, causing damage to both cars. In the end the Risi Ferrari was followed home by the two BMW cars, which like the Ferrari had a trouble-free run.

The new LMPC class was won by the Level 5 Motorsports team of Tucker/Bouchut/Wilkins. The equally new GTC class saw Alex Job Racing take the first three places, with Leitzinger/Gonzalez/Keen at the wheel of the winning car.

Next up is Long Beach, as St. Petersburg does not host the ALMS this year, and then Laguna Seca, which was moved up in the series schedule.