For the second year in a row, the American Le Mans Series Monterey at Mazda Laguna Seca Raceway on the Monterey Peninsula had been a six-hour enduro race that guided people round the circuit into the post-sundown darkness.
Until now, the race was 4 hours, with two extra hrs in 2010. For Scott Tucker along with his Level 5 Motorsports racing team, the 2 extra hours allow for some space. "We always try to run a clean race, but little mistakes can add up," Tucker claimed 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."
Assuming Tucker and teammates Christophe Bouchut and Luis Diaz needed a 120-minute time allowance to overcome flaws could have been a lot easier in 2010, as it was Level 5 Motorsports' debut year in the Le Mans series. Nonetheless, the David Stone-managed, Microsoft Office-sponsored team took the LMP class championship, and Tucker was rookie of the year.
In the 2011 season, driver goof ups have been few in number for the Wisconsin-based team. Exploding into the season with plenty of podium finishes, the Level 5 drivers seemingly faced only circumstantial difficulties. After making podium at the 12 Hours of Sebring, the Long Beach circuit and Imola in Italy, and having top LMP2 points and a fourth-place finish at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the group had a record of vast majority clean races, with nary a scuff or a ding on their Nos. 55 and 95 entries.
Even so, the team has faced those little mistakes that are likely to mount up. 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 8th after Tucker's No. 95 got trapped in a stack-up in the infamously slender track. Even with easy subsequent performances by Bouchut and Diaz, who had just joined the team at the beginning of the year, Level 5 couldn't make up for the mistake. In a 24-hour race, extra time isn't a possibility, however the outcome 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 says at the Monterey. "It maximizes the efficiency of the track time allowed for a driver."
The team couldn't fix the faults in time to make podium at Daytona, they made quick work of perfecting their form and began their successful streak just after the despair 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 reported. "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. A second surprising 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 production, and the Level 5 team commenced waiting for the cars to be ready, ultimately pulling out 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.
As an aside, the new car's first ride was at the 2nd six-hour Monterey at Mazda Laguna Seca Raceway. They pulled off an incredible 1st performance in the HPD ARX-01g. Each of the drivers has undoubtedly improved since the 1st 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 vehicle, driver order and track time very important factors to consider.
Until now, the race was 4 hours, with two extra hrs in 2010. For Scott Tucker along with his Level 5 Motorsports racing team, the 2 extra hours allow for some space. "We always try to run a clean race, but little mistakes can add up," Tucker claimed 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."
Assuming Tucker and teammates Christophe Bouchut and Luis Diaz needed a 120-minute time allowance to overcome flaws could have been a lot easier in 2010, as it was Level 5 Motorsports' debut year in the Le Mans series. Nonetheless, the David Stone-managed, Microsoft Office-sponsored team took the LMP class championship, and Tucker was rookie of the year.
In the 2011 season, driver goof ups have been few in number for the Wisconsin-based team. Exploding into the season with plenty of podium finishes, the Level 5 drivers seemingly faced only circumstantial difficulties. After making podium at the 12 Hours of Sebring, the Long Beach circuit and Imola in Italy, and having top LMP2 points and a fourth-place finish at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the group had a record of vast majority clean races, with nary a scuff or a ding on their Nos. 55 and 95 entries.
Even so, the team has faced those little mistakes that are likely to mount up. 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 8th after Tucker's No. 95 got trapped in a stack-up in the infamously slender track. Even with easy subsequent performances by Bouchut and Diaz, who had just joined the team at the beginning of the year, Level 5 couldn't make up for the mistake. In a 24-hour race, extra time isn't a possibility, however the outcome 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 says at the Monterey. "It maximizes the efficiency of the track time allowed for a driver."
The team couldn't fix the faults in time to make podium at Daytona, they made quick work of perfecting their form and began their successful streak just after the despair 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 reported. "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. A second surprising 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 production, and the Level 5 team commenced waiting for the cars to be ready, ultimately pulling out 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.
As an aside, the new car's first ride was at the 2nd six-hour Monterey at Mazda Laguna Seca Raceway. They pulled off an incredible 1st performance in the HPD ARX-01g. Each of the drivers has undoubtedly improved since the 1st 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 vehicle, driver order and track time very important factors to consider.
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