2001 Mid-Ohio - Grand Am

The 2001, Grand American Road Racing Championship (Grand Am) was the series second season. A business model which controlled costs, had stable rules and avoided being on dependent of automotive manufacturers attracted private teams. Based on the failure of the United States Road Racing Championship in 1999 critics suggested that the Grand Am would suffer a similar fate – races cancelled and the season cut short. However, that was not the case and all nine events were held as scheduled.

As in 2000, there were five classes: Sports Racing Prototype I and II (SRP-I and SRP-II), Grand Touring Sport (GTS – the former GTO class), Grand Touring (GT – the former GTU class), and American GT (AGT).

The 2001 season consisted of ten races - beginning with Daytona in February and ending in November at the same track. The series visited the same venues as 2000. Watkins Glen International gained a second date - running as a support event to NASCAR.

In early June the Grand Am series visited Mid-Ohio for the season's sixth event. The race was set for 250-miles (111-laps) around the 2.258-mile road course. There were forty-one starters with thirty teams being classified as finishers.

Intersport Racing captured their second win of the season. What made it more rewarding was Mid-Ohio was the team's home track. The Judd-powered Lola B2K/10 was driven by Oliver Gavin and, team owner, Jon Field. The Intersport car qualified behind the pole-winning Dyson Riley & Scott and followed it for much of the race. Gavin took the lead during the last round of pit-stops and was able to maintain his lead over James Weaver in the Dyson car.

Randy Pobst recorded the fastest qualifying time for the GT class and set the fastest race lap. He shared the No. 15 Porsche GT3RS with team owner, Kim Hiskey – the only woman in the race. Pobst started the event and led until the driver change – over half the race. Hiskey could not maintain Pobst’s pace and dropped down the order to finish fourth in GT. They would win the next round at Road America.

The Flis Team earned their fifth straight victory of the season at Mid-Ohio. The team suffered two engine failures and started third in the American GT class with a well-used back-up engine. Drivers Doug Goad and Craig Conway ran a steady pace and were able to capitalize on the misfortune of quicker cars in their class to take the win and finish tenth overall.

Finishing second in GT and 1-lap behind the class winning JET Motorsport BMW M3 were Kevin Buckler and Tom McGlynn. The Racers Group Porsche GT3RS started eighteenth overall and second in class. They ran third for much of the event but took the class lead after about 1.5-hours of racing when a full course yellow created an opportunity for pit-stops. However, they could not fend off the more powerful BMW.

The No. 16 Dyson entered Riley & Scott Mk III led most of the Mid-Ohio Grand Am race but fell just over five seconds short of winning the event. The Dyson duo of James Weaver and Butch Leitzinger dropped to second during a yellow flag pit-stop. Despite Weaver's best efforts to catch Oliver Gavin in the Intersport Lola, his progress was hampered by lapped traffic.

The Saleen S7-R driven by Ron Johnson and Chris Bingham scored a comfortable 2-lap margin of victory in the GTS class – despite a number of incidents involving contact with fellow competitors. Bingham was the fastest qualifier in GTS and set a new lap record in qualifying and during the race. The win made up for their disappointment of retiring in the previous month at Lime Rock.

Paul Macey and Andy Lally scored their second consecutive win in the Sports Racing Prototype II category. The team was also the fastest qualifiers in SRP II and Macey set a new lap record in the Archangel prepared Lola B2K/40. Mid-race they trailed the class leading Porschehaus Lola but at the checkered flag were 2-laps clear of them.

Didier Theys and Mauro Baldi started third overall in the Judd-powered Ferrari 333 SP. Theys took the first stint and followed the leaders, Weaver and Field, until the first round of pitstops. When the race went green Theys found himself in second but it was short-lived as the Intersport team car of Jon Field knocked him off the track – Field was given a 30-second penalty. The No. 27 Ferrari finished third overall.

Local racer Tim Cowen entered his Ford Mustang in the American GT class. He shared the driving duties with the very quick and experienced Tony Ave. The car started second in class - sixteenth overall. When the pole-winning Comer Racing Corvette had shift linkage problems they inherited the lead but ran second for much of the race. Unfortunately, they completed 76-laps retiring with transmission issues.

Scott Maxwell and Peter Czapka started eighth overall and third in the Sports Racing Prototype II class. They were second in the early part of the race but in the middle stages battled for third with the No. 22 Archangel Lola. When the Archangel car ran out of gas with two minutes remaining in the race, the Multimatic Motorsports prepared Lola B2K/40 inherited a third in Sports Racing Prototype II.

Finishing second in GTS and 2-laps behind the class winning Saleen S7-R were Larry Schumacher and Martin Snow. The No. 99 Schumacher Racing Porsche GT1 won the previous round at Lime Rock. They started thirteenth overall and finished ninth at Mid-Ohio.

Finishing third in the American GT class were Dick Greer and John Fergus. Greer and Fergus were locals who had logged many miles at Mid-Ohio. Fergus had won a number of amateur Sports Car Club of America National Championships at the track. The duo started and finished twenty-eighth overall in an ex-Rocketsports Trans Am Chevrolet Corvette.

The No. 84 Comer Racing Chevrolet Corvette was to be shared by Jack Willes, Andy McNeil and Kyle McIntire. The Corvette was one of the quicker American GT cars during practice and qualified fastest in the class. The team retired after just 16-laps with shift linkage problems.

The V8 powered BMW M3 of JET Motorsports scored their second straight win in the GT category. In May at Lime Rock they started mid-pack but won overall beating the quicker GTS and American GT cars. The car was shared by, team owner, Toney Jennings and Terry Borcheller. They also set the fastest lap for the GT class.

POS.	CLASS	DRIVERS	CAR	ENTRANT	LAPS	RETIREMENTS
1	SRP	Field / Gavin	Lola B2K/10 Judd	Intersport Racing	111	-
2	SRP	Weaver / Leitzinger	Riley & Scott Mk III	Dyson Racing Team	111	-
3	SRP	Theys / Baldi	Ferrari 333 SP Judd	Lista Doran Racing	110	-
4	SRP	Baldwin / Robinson	Riley & Scott Mk III	Robinson Racing	108	-
5	SRP II	Lally / Macey	Lola B2K/40 Nissan	Archangel Motorsport	108	-
6	GTS	Bingham / Johnson	Saleen S7-R	Park Place Racing	106	-
7	SRP II	St. Jacques / Julien	Lola B2K/40 Nissan	Porschehaus Racing	106	-
8	SRP II	Maxwell / Czapka	Lola B2K/40 Nissan	Multimatic Motorsports	104	-
9	GTS	Schumacher / Snow	Porsche 911 GT1	Schumacher Racing	104	-
10	AGT	Conway / Goad	Chevrolet Corvette	Team X1-R	103	-
11	SRP II	Clinton / Durand	Lola B2K/40 Nissan	Archangel Motorsport	102	Fuel
12	GT	Jennings / Borcheller	BMW M3	JET Motorsports	102	-
13	GT	Buckler / McGlynn	Porsche GT3R	The Racer's Group	101	-
14	SRP	Field / Field	Riley & Scott Mk III	Intersport Racing	101	-
15	GT	Murry / Merzon	Porsche GT3RS	Case It Racing	101	-
16	GT	Pobst / Hiskey	Porsche GT3RS	Fordahl Motorsport	101	-
17	GT	Drendel / Law	Porsche GT3R	G&W Motorsports	101	-
18	GT	Policastro, Jr. / Policastro	Porsche GT3RS	Gunnar Racing	99	-
19	GT	Assentato / Bunting	BMW M3	Genesis Racing	99	-
20	GT	Schrom / Polk	Porsche GT3R	G&W Motorsports	99	-
21	GT	Collin / Buttiero	Porsche GT3R	Seikel Motorsport	99	-
22	AGT	Bupp / Leavy	Chevrolet Camaro	Hamilton Safe Motorsports	98	-
23	GT	Byrne / Millman	Porsche GT3RS	Orbit	98	-
24	GT	Heinricy / Bartone	Chevrolet Corvette	Phoenix American	97	-
25	GT	Buitoni / Hindery / Tremblay	Porsche GT3RS	Orbit	97	-
26	GTS	Brown / DeFontes / Thompson	Chevrolet Camaro	Tempur Racing	95	-
27	GT	Hajducky / Stanton	Porsche GT3R	Aasco - Boduck	94	-
28	AGT	Greer / Fergus	Chevrolet Corvette	Dick Greer Racing	93	-
29	GT	Shalala / Mount / Vance	Porsche 911	ProTechnik Racing	93	-
30	GT	Ivankovich / Pumpelly	Porsche GT3R	Zip/Pumpelly Racing	92	-
31	GT	Hall / Tambourine	Mazda Miata MX-5	Team Tambourine	89	Spin
32	GTS	Altenburg / Marziale	Chrysler Viper	Muzzy Racing	85	-
33	AGT	Cowen / Ave	Ford Mustang	Cowen Racing	76	Transmission
34	SRP	Forbes-Robinson / Schroeder	Riley & Scott Mk III	Dyson Racing Team	65	Transmission
35	SRP	Roussel / Sezionale	Norma M2000-01	Sezio Florida Racing Team	65	Transmission
36	GT	Worth / Sansone	Mazda RX-7	Pettit Racing	49	Differential
37	GTS	Marshall / Wagner	Porsche GT2	G&W Motorsports	33	Brakes
38	GTS	Martindale / Weickardt / Borcheller	Chrysler Viper	American Viperacing	32	Accident
39	AGT	Kerry Hitt	Chevrolet Corvette	ACP Motorsports	31	Engine
40	AGT	Willes / McNeil	Chevrolet Corvette	Comer Racing	13	Gear Linkage
41	AGT	Ron Fariss	Chevrolet Camaro	Fariss Racing Enterprises	13	Engine

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