Grand Am Weekend - The Porsche 250 at Barber Motorsports Park Video Interview with Driver/Actor Patrick Dempsey

It was Oh-So-Hot – track temperatures hit 120 degrees – but equally as beautiful, at the 2.3-mile, 16-turn “Augusta-Like” road course, quickly cementing its reputation as one of the best in the world. Although the track is but a few years old, the crowd is already exceeding 55,000 for the three-day Grand-Am weekend, punctuated with quality entertainment for the luxury-lifestyle car enthusiast. And that brought Makes & Models Magazine and its video crew.

You’ve heard of this unique track, with its large-scale eccentric art, Botanical Gardens landscaping, and overwhelming museum. But it’s one of those places you have to see to believe.

What a great venue for Grand Am: world-class racers in the lap of panoramic beauty, punctuated by luxurious appointments, such as a Wine Dinner from Adobe Road [sidebar] at LaDama Italian (www.ladamapizzeria.com) for the chef’s pairing of Adobe’s creations with spiced rubbed lamb chops and jalapeño mint jelly (hint: try Adobe Road Cabernet, Knights Valley) and prime tenderloin with southwestern whipped potatoes and chili butter (Adobe Road Cabernet, Alexander Valley 2004). The Chef, and Adobe’s owner, were there to explain the background behind the wines and selections.

Next it was the race itself, with a nice field of blistering-fast prototypes mixing it up with GT cars. One of the prototypes we followed was the Pole-Sitter: Wayne Taylor’s SunTrust Dallara car, going head-to-head with Ford Riley and a V-8 Porsche-powered (Cayenne) prototype. Suntrust’s entry ( www.SunTrustRacing.com) was significant. It won the Pole, and they’re a bank set up to service racers [sidebar]. The team was nearly destroyed by a fire earlier in the season, and re-built while racing. Also, they’re driving the first Dallara Daytona Prototype – Dallara has a nasty habit of dominating whatever series it enters, so this could be good.

One of the hottest cars of the series, and not just on the 120-degree track, is the Brumos Mk XI Riley-Chassis Porsches, #s 58 and 59. (www.brumosracing.com) it’s a series-spec FABCAR, modified to Porsche’s specifications, with a smooth flat-6 boxer motor, 3795 cc displacement, with water-cooled heads, putting out about 500 hp.

Race enthusiasts might recognize that that motor – the same basic configuration has won LeMans for Porsche 16 times. For that matter, Porsche’s flat-6 has won more other races than any other motor, ever, by far. Something over 20,000 race victories. It’s a formula perfected for the 962 and now the basis for Porsche’s road cars.

They were painted in Brumos’ famous white, with red and blue stripes – the same configuration you remember winning the 24-hour races at Daytona as far back as 1974. One of the most winning endurance drivers that’s ever circled the planet, Hurley Haywood, is Brumos’ lead driver, going back so far with Brumos as to claim 10 major endurance victories, including 5 times winning the Daytona 24 Hours, 3 times the 24 Hours of Le Mans and twice winning the 12 Hours of Sebring.

Also driving for Brumos were David Donohue, Darren Law, and JC France – the top drivers in the world. France was winning kart races at a wee eight years old at Daytona, left briefly for competitive weight-lifting, and semi-pro football, then returned to carry the France-family racing mantle and most recently sports 2 Grand Am victories and 8 podium finishes.

The 58 and 59 cars both moved up at Barber to fifth and sixth in season standings, thanks in part to Brumos driver Joao Barbosa setting 2nd - Fastest Lap of the race, and thanks to the second place finish for # 58, (their 3rd runner-up podium in the last four races) both overcoming early damage from contact and a loss of a lap, affecting starting driver France.

We also followed The Racer’s Group, and not just because TRG owner Kevin Buckler also owns Adobe Road Winery! TRG has the most wins of any team in the Grand-Am Rolex Series with 23, including the 2005 and 2006 Rolex Series GT championship trophy to go along with wins at the Rolex 24 at Daytona and the 24 Hours of Le Mans. TRG is great to watch at Barber, with a “Barber podium streak going.” says Buckler.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Farnbacher likes the Barber track – “it’s good for Porsche because it’s nice and twisty.” Frank adds. They finished 2nd thanks to Dirk making up 5 places at the very end. He was just about to clinch 1st place when someone rudely called time. Barber was their 3rd race in a row to be on podium.

 

One of Farnbacher’s secrets is chassis engineer Lars Girsing. Their other “secret” is the quality of their drivers. There’s no space for an adequate summary of the 21 world-class drivers for Farnbacher Loles (check their web site for more) but: Dirk Werner, who came from behind at Birmingham to put them in 2nd place, won the 2007 Rolex Series GT Class with 10 podium finishes, and 3rd in the Rolex 24 at Daytona, and won the Porsche Carrera Cup; Eric Lux won 7 top 10 finishes in 2006 & finished 2005 in 3rd for the season; Jörg Bergmeister won GT Class at LeMans in 2004, Tim Bergmeister is a F3 and karting veteran, Timo Bernhard won 24 Hours of Nürburgring.

They started from fifth on the 20-car GT grid and moved to third before Dirk Werner took over, returning to the track sixth. He fought up to third, and then dropped back to seventh after a fuel stop. Again he charged, back up to fourth, and then surged through the heat to second place on the last lap of the race.