ALMS photos

[Brett Dikeman]

A special treat for those of you checking your email this weekend!

I went to practices today at Lime Rock and came away with a ton of 
photos.  ~60 of them are up so far.

http://frank.mercea.net/zoph/photos.php?album_id=20&_order=name

(Sidenote- you'll need a browser with color profile support or the 
photos might end up looking very washed out.  Safari and IE 5+ 
support ICC profiles...Mozilla/Netscape do not.)

The Champion team had a little trouble with what I'm guessing was 
radiator damage from an off-track excursion during practice, but I'm 
not sure; they were doing a lot of vacuuming with a shopvac while 
ripping the thing apart, and the tires had quite a bit of dirt/grass 
on them.  There are photos of the team in the pits checking the car 
out, though it was from VERY far away...and then the crew back at the 
trailer rushing to fix the car before the practice session is 
over(they made it, I believe).

Highlights of the album:

-lots of closeups of purdy R8 bits.  Brakes(it's got some -serious- 
brakes), the famous quick-change rear end(although it was partially 
"shrouded"- the engine was completely covered whenever I looked), 
suspension stuff...it's just so damn pretty that I had to include 
them.  Didn't have the access I had with the RS6 team, but that's 
what big lenses are for :-)
-#50 spinning out entering Big Bend
-#78 spinning out after the chicane
-#19 blowing smoke, possible engine failure, I didn't follow up
-shot of the Champion R8 with glowing front rotors down the main straight
-Champion car down the back straight with debris bouncing off the 
front of the car
-random "stuff that was there" shots. TV crew, flaggers, medevac, a 
gorgeous Porsche Spyder in the parking lot, yadda yadda.

Sorry for the lousy angles on many of the shots, but I didn't have 
any credentials and thus is was strictly behind-the-fences and pits 
(which are open) for me.  Between credentialed press standing RIGHT 
in your line of fire, fence wire/posts, bushes/trees, earth 
berms...argg! :-)

Oh, and I know someone's going to ask- the three lights on the side 
are the position indicator system.  3 lights = 3rd in class, 1 light 
= 1st in class.  During practice (early photos) the lights meant 
nothing and were blinking in an annoying "look at us!" way...

Enjoy, and give a holler if you'll be at the races on Monday!

Brett
-- 
"They that give up essential liberty to obtain temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." - Ben Franklin
http://www.users.cloud9.net/~brett/