Mid-Ohio: Farnbacher Loles Racing race report

Henzler and Ragginger take sixth place at Mid-Ohio

The Farnbacher Loles Racing team had some new competition in the American Le Mans Series as the Corvette C6.R made its debut at the Mid-Ohio round. While entirely new, the Corvettes appear to be very sorted, right out of the box and have brought some new energy to the already exciting GT2 Class. In Friday's qualifying, Wolf Henzler turned a lap of 1:21.557 in the #87 Farnbacher Loles Racing Porsche 911 GT3 RSR, securing the fifth spot on the grid. With Dirk Werner unavailable, Henzler was co-driving with Porsche Junior driver Martin Ragginger, in the young German's first race with Farnbacher Loles. Ragginger started the car and drove consistently, learning the track and gaining speed as the race unfolded. The opening was marred though by a crash involving one of the Challenge Class cars, which necessitated seven laps to be run under caution.

At the halfway point, Ragginger pitted for fuel and tires from the seventh spot, and Henzler took over behind the wheel. Henzler showed his usual prowess driving the RSR, as well as his skill on the Mid-Ohio course as he battled with both the Panoz of Dominik Farnbacher and the Ferrari of Jaime Melo. A caution on lap 79 bunched the field, but the pace car came out behind the second place GT2 car, enabling the leaders to put a lap on the rest of the field. After the caution, only a half second separated Henzler in sixth place from Melo in fifth. The two drivers proceeded to put on one of the best battles in the race. Over the last 30 minutes, Henzler chased Melo's Ferrari with both drivers turning their fastest laps in the waning minutes. In the end though, Melo held the spot and the #87 had to settle for a less than satisfying sixth place finish.

The ALMS next moves to Road America in Wisconsin on August 16th for the Time Warner Cable Road Race Showcase.

-credit: farnbacherloles.com