“Houston, we have a problem”—
Jim Lovell (as played by Tom Hanks) in the movie, Apollo 13
Only seems appropriate to kick-start the Lime Rock 2011 Debrief with a quote from Apollo 13, since this month, July, is full of tributes (both right and wrong) to the end of America/NASA’s space shuttle program. When STS-135 made a night landing at Kennedy Space Center on Thursday, 21 July 2011, that was el finito and double-adioski for the U.S. space shuttle program, now grounded forever.
In the future, when we want to make that escape-from-gravity run to the ISS (International Space Station, we will be hitching a ride with our Cosmonaut comrades on Russia’s SOYEZ space vehicle, our own astronauts being de-horsed. Stranger things have happened in the world of space exploration but not recently.
Seems difficult to believe now.
A magnificent space program dismantled and there’s not necessarily a new one in sight (although much has been made of the Air Force’s super-secret X37B robotic space plane which is fancy to be sure but manned by robots or at least is robotically controlled; don’t expect much in the way of snappy dialogue under pressure from that chipset). With the end of the space program—do you really think we learned all we need to know and so it’s time to shut it down—the economy in certain parts of Florida, Alabama, and Houston will take a big punch. That wheezing sound you hear is the life going out of
south coastal Florida’s space and tourist industry.
But that’s progress. Do something incredible and do it well enough and people will quit paying attention and dropping their jaw because you make it look easy and the next thing you know your congressional budget disappears faster than Donuts at a Weight Watchers convention.
The “Houston, we have a problem” line is one of the best in history because it’s an obvious understatement, coming as it does when Apollo 13 is booking it for the moon and suffers an Oxygen tank rupture which puts the entire mission and the lives of the crewmen (James A. Lovell, Jack Swigert, and Fred W. Haise) in jeopardy.
With massive effort and some slick technological maneuvering, the three managed to turn it all around and arrive safely back on earth creating one of space exploration’s first major legends in the process.
For this year’s meeting at Lime Rock Park, Apollo 13 will prove to be the perfect allegory. A high tech, high risk mission aborted and blunted by fate, then the crew reworks the craft to save the day.
It’s not been easy for us at Lime Rock—at least during my time with the team—and rather than break form and have some good luck for a change, Lime Rock delivered, again, a very nasty series of jabs that prematurely ended another race weekend for the Rosso Corso clad team, cars and gear of Risi Competizione.
Coming into Lime Rock, hopes were modestly elevated. The team had a rather tremendous outing at the Long Beach Grand Prix, despite a rather difficult start(lost the wing in qualifying and so recorded no good flying lap, necessitating a trip to the rear of the grid), the drivers and team worked very hard and managed to punch the new Ferrari 458 onto the podium, snagging a third. It would be impolite not to mention that Extreme Speed Motorsports/Tequila Patron was kind enough to loan to Risi Competizione one of their spare 458 wings so that we could compete in the race, another in a series of very fine and classy acts of sportsmanship that makes us proud to say they also run Ferrari 458s. Thank you to Scott Sharp, Ed Brown and their group.
With the Long Beach results in hand, expectations were hopeful-but-cautious for Lime Rock. The new Risi Competizione tandem of Jaime Melo and Toni Vilander have proven to be tres quick and so despite a rather dismal history at Lime Rock, the mood in the pits was “maybe this is the year”.
The first practice certainly seemed to back up that feeling. The car turned a 51.813, which was quick enough for third place in the GT category and the cqr really wasn’t fully sorted, but just starting to test a series of adjustments, tweeks, and mods that had been planned for Lime Rock. First in class went to the No. 56 BMW(Mueller/Hand) at 51.330 and second was another BMW, No. 55 (Wener/Auberlen). BMW is on a tear this year—their last in ALMS—and it’s showing on the track.
The second practice did not go quite as well. With ten minutes to go in the one hour session, the left rear of Vilander’s Ferrari had contact with the right front of Bill Auberlen’s No. 55 BMW at Turn 4. At that point, both cars went off into the grass, with Vilander drawing the short straw and hitting the fence, damaging the right front as well as the left rear of the car. Auberlen’s car had no such damage (or luck) and continued back to the pits for a good checkover.
Risi Comp Team Manager Dave Sims called it for the press: “ There was some repairable chassis damage and we’ll replace the left rear suspension, right front cooling ducts, front splitter and floor. We plan to be out for warmup tomorrow but will start the race from the back of the grid because we didn’t set a qualifying time”.
And so there it went: another promising start to the race weekend pushed aside by luck and fate.
What Sims described in a few sentences would take the rest of the day and most of the night to fix, but the Risi Comp techs went to work and the car appeared right on time for the morning warmup on Saturday, July 9th, putting up a fourth-in-class time of 52.170. Obviously, it was fixed and the fixed worked.
Asked about the car, Jaime Melo just said “Everything is fine and it feels great”.
The flag dropped at 2:05PM for the two hour and 45 minute race and it didn’t take long for things to develop on the extremely tight Lime Rock track. Twenty minutes into the race, Ed Brown in the No. 02 Ferrari 458 GT was turned around by a prototype and managed to bag the two Corvettes (No. 4 and No. 3) in the process. All cars ended up in the pits where they had a rather long visit. Next, Werner’s No. 55 BMW came into the pits to have the entire front end replaced due to extensive damage.
Starting from the back of the grid doesn’t have too many advantages, but one of them is avoiding the hazardous crowding that always takes place in the front at a track like Lime Rock. To everyone’s surprise but the most astute observers, at 44 minutes into the race, Toni Vilander in the No. 62 Risi Competizione F458GT had moved into third place. From last on the grid. The car can go and the boy can drive.
But would it last.
Twelve minutes later, Vilander pulled into the pits for tires, fuel, and a driver change (Vilander out/Melo in). Race fans were just settling in to see how Jaime Melo was going to handle the last one hour and 45 minutes of the race when, at 3:21 PM, just 22 minutes after he was handed the car by Vilander, Melo was back in the pits complaining of engine misfire. Out came the laptop computer, in went the diagnosis connection and then….the car went behind the wall, with one hour and thirty minutes gone in the race and another hour and 15 minutes to go. Any such activity at a track as short as Lime Rock is difficult to over come.
“Houston, we have a problem”.
Melo brought the car back out on the track about 20 minutes later but it was not to be because just a lap or so later he returned to the pits, the car went behind the wall and Lime Rock 2011 was over for the Risi Competizione No. 62. The car was officially retired two hours and 34 minutes into the race with unspecified issues, and credited with 79 laps completed (the winner completed 176).
Joey Hand and Dirk Mueller won the GT class in their No. 56 BMW E92 M3; Patrick Long and Jorge Bergmeister returned to the podium in second place in their Flying Lizard Porsche 911 GT3 RSR and—surprise—David Murry and Anthony Lazzaro (a Risi Comp alum) took third in the Doran Ford GT/Elan Power crowd favorite. Well done all.
So, one third of the season gone and much has been learned.
Perhaps Mosport—a high speed track where Risi Competizione has had very good success—will see the team return to the top of podium. The Risi Competizione F458GT Ferrari has been competitive in every race this year but first year development issues have stunted podium progress.Personally, I sense a breakthrough race coming and the track for breakthrough is right in front of us: Mosport.
See you there.