Dane set for Elkhart Lake | Erics Muscle Cars

Aug. 18, 2011 |

Jan Magnussen is:

An international commuter with a Formula One pedigree, competing ? no offense ? in the second division of a U.S. sports-car series with its own set of problems.

A European racing the quintessential American muscle car.

A champion pushing to stay on top and feeling overmatched for one of the most important events of his year at a track that has been vital to his sports-car success.

So yes, the 38-year-old Dane had plenty to talk about in an hour-and-a-half conversation this week amid preparations for the Time Warner Road Race Showcase. The American Le Mans Series makes its annual visit to Road America in Elkhart Lake for a four-hour race beginning at 3 p.m. Saturday.

Competition in GT: Magnussen is the only driver to win a race in all 13 seasons of the ALMS? existence, but he and partner Oliver Gavin find themselves chasing the BMW of Dirk M?ller and Joey Hand in the GT class championship battle.

?The last three races we?ve been catching, but in the beginning they were really pulling away from us,? he said.

?You want to win as many championships as you can, but on a personal level, it?s the harder ones that are the most fun to win.?

The ALMS attempts to balance competition among manufacturers every season, but with a vast mix of tracks and cars, that?s not always easy. When Magnussen says Corvette is in for an uphill battle on the long, fast Road America layout, he?s not just talking about the front stretch.

?I?m 99.9% sure it?ll fall into BMW?s hands,? said Magnussen, who watched from fourth place as M?ller and Hand won last year.

?Even last year when they were a little bit behind everybody they had an advantage, and they?re a lot better this year than last year. But that?s how it goes. It?s a four-hour race. Anything can happen. We?ll push hard and see what it gets us.?

The significance of Corvette: A Corvette class victory would make Sunday?s celebration of Chevrolet?s100th anniversary at the track all the more enjoyable. Corvettes have raced at the track since 1956, its second year.

Growing up in Denmark and focusing on the European open-wheel ladder system, Magnussen didn?t grasp the significance of the make, but that changed when he started racing in the U.S. in 1995 and truly hit home in 2004, when he joined the Corvette sports-car team.

?This is America?s sports car, and there is a lot of emotion behind it,? said Magnussen, who commutes from Denmark to compete in ALMS and Grand-Am.

?When I first joined, I looked at forums and what people were writing and it wasn?t all that positive. Some of the Corvette owners were very worried about this Danish guy that kept crashing into the Corvettes now driving a Corvette, but that shows how involved the fan is.?

Le Mans: Corvette Racing routinely comes to Road America in the spring to develop its 24 Hours of Le Mans. The team has won the world?s most important endurance race seven times.

?If we can make it work at Road America, it?ll work at Le Mans,? Magnussen said. ?With the long straights you take out as much down force as you can ? as much drag ? to get top speed.?

Daily drivers: Magnussen had to admit he doesn?t have a Corvette to drive at home. A family of four, including a 2-month-old, isn?t conducive to a 400-horsepower two-seater. But 18-year-old son Kevin, a full-time racer in the McLaren junior development program, owns a classic 1969 Camaro.

?He doesn?t drive it much. Fuel is $8 a gallon, so he just goes out, does a burnout and parks it,? Magnussen said with a chuckle.

From F1 to ALMS: Jan Magnussen was among the first drivers in the McLaren program and became the first Danish driver to reach the Formula One grid. After three years with the team as a test driver, he moved in 1997 to Stewart Grand Prix to race and failed to crack the top five in a season and a half. Magnussen also ran partial seasons in CART in 1996 and ?99 before landing in the Panoz prototype team in the ALMS.

?If you look at it in terms of performance, it?s a huge step from a GT car to a Formula One car, but that?s not what it?s all about. It?s about the competition,? Magnussen said.

?What I love about sports car racing is how much more of a team player you have to be. I liked the individuality that was in Formula One. It was all about yourself. But over here, I felt much more a part of a team, a much bigger thing, than I ever did in Formula One. We have for the most part two drivers and sometimes three drivers that have to find a compromise between all of us. It?s just as important for me that Gavin?s fast as it is that I?m fast, because we can?t win if one of us isn?t happy.

?There?s a tendency in Formula One that ?we win together? but ?(the driver) lost it.? Here we win and lose together, and I think you become better that way.?

A series thin on top: In his first four seasons in the American Le Mans Series, Magnussen drove in the premier division, LMP1. The prototypes in that class are purpose-built and technologically advanced, practically Formula One cars with bodywork. That makes them interesting and fast but also exceptionally expensive.

The top ranks of ALMS have thinned ? LMP1 has our entries this weekend and LMP2 has one ? while the production-based GT classes have remained relatively deep and competitive, creating a sort of an upside-down series to sell to fans.

?The GT show is fantastic now because you have all the cool cars, Corvettes, BMWs, Porsches, Ferraris. A little Lamborghini out there, a Panoz, everything out there, a Jaguar,? Magnussen said. ?The prototypes are fantastic cars. But it is an expensive show, and it really only makes sense for Le Mans; it?s all developing the car to win Le Mans.

?I think the competition is more important than what you race. If the prototypes should grow in the next year or two or three, it would only help the series but it?s not, I don?t think, necessary for the series.

?But again, I just show up and drive.?

***

American Le Mans Series

Event: Time Warner Cable Road Race Showcase, the sixth of nine races.

When: 3 p.m. Saturday. Qualifying 3:10 p.m. Friday. Support series races Friday and Saturday.

Where: Road America, a 4.048-mile road course in Elkhart Lake.

Distance: 4 hours timed.

Tickets: $35 Friday, $85 Saturday.

Broadcast: ESPN3 online live; ABC (Ch. 12), 3:30 p.m. Sunday.

History: Englishman Jonny Cocker got around Klaus Graf last year in the most improbable passing area, the Turn 12-13 complex, as Graf worked to stretch his fuel on the final lap. Despite the length of the track and the races (4 hours or 2:45), the overall margin of victory has totaled 9.397 seconds for the six events at the track with the greatest being 3.239 seconds by Audi in 2005.

ALMS class updates: With no finish lower than second, Guy Smith leads LMP1 and Dyson Racing is atop the standings, but the Muscle Milk Aston Martin team of Graf and Lucas Luhr has won three of the four races it has entered. Dirk M?ller and Joey Hand and their Bobby Rahal-owned BMW team have the upper hand in GT, but the Oliver Gavin/ Jan Magnussen Corvette has gained in the past two events with a victory and a second place (to Wolf Henzler and Bryan Sellers in the most recent round, Mid-Ohio).

The Level 5 team, which runs in a variety of series out of a Madison-based shop, is the only LMP2 entry. Defending class winner Gunnar Jeannette and Core Autosport teammate Ricardo Gonzalez share the LMPC lead. Tim Pappas, one of the two drivers to compete in every race in GTC, leads that division over Duncan Ende and Spencer Pumpelly, who have won the past two races.

Support series: USF2000, Cooper Tires Prototype Lites, IMSA GT# Cup and SCCA Pro Racing Trans-Am.

NASCAR Sprint Cup

Event: Pure Michigan 400, the 23rd of 36 races.

When: Noon Sunday.

Where: Michigan International Speedway, a 2-mile D-shaped oval in Brooklyn.

Distance: 200 laps, 400 miles.

Broadcasts: ESPN; AM-1510, AM-1470

History:Kevin Harvick chased down Denny Hamlin on their way to the white flag last year and then pulled away for a 1.7-second victory, his first at the track. With Hamlin winning the June races in 2010 and ?11 and Brian Vickers in August ?09, Toyota has claimed three of the past four events nearest the Motor City.

Season to date:Marcos Ambrose passed Brad Keselowski on the first lap of a green-white-checkered finish Monday at Watkins Glen to become the fifth first-time winner this season. Kyle Busch leapfrogged Carl Edwards and Jimmie Johnson to take the point lead, and those three and Harvick are within reach of clinching Chase berths.

Other series

NASCAR Camping World Truck Series: VFW 200, 11:30 a.m. Saturday at Michigan International Speedway; Speed. 2010 champion: Aric Almirola.

Grand-Am: Montreal 200, 10:15 a.m. Saturday at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, a 2.71-mile road course in Montreal; Speed, 6 p.m.

NASCAR Nationwide Series: NAPA Auto Parts 200, 1:30 p.m. Saturday, at the Circuit Gilles Villeuenve; ESPN, 1:30 p.m. Defending champion: Boris Said.

NHRA: Lucas Oil Nationals, 11 a.m. Sunday, at Brainerd (Minn.) International Raceway; ESPN2, 9 p.m.

Around the area

Slinger Speedway: ?SlamFest? Saturday, stock-car racing Sunday night. (262) 644-5921.

Great Lakes Dragaway (Union Grove): Nitrous Street Car Brawls on Saturday and Import Wars on Sunday. (262) 878-3783.

Dave Kallmann

Send email to dkallmann@journalsentinel.com. Read more throughout the week at jsonline.com/blogs/racing.

Article source: http://www.jsonline.com/sports/autoracing/128050573.html

Source: http://www.ericsmusclecars.net/muscle-car-news/dane-set-for-elkhart-lake/

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