Exclusive series update from Dominik Farnbacher

[RWD]

A Drivers Network Exclusive

The Drivers Network is happy to announce the Dominik Farnbacher well known driver for Panoz in the American Le Mans Series and Ferrari in the Le Mans Series in Europe, will be treating us all to an on going Forum Race Report as his season progresses.

Race Report from Utah
By Dominik Farnbacher

After finishing 2x 3rd in Seabring and St. Petersburg and 6th in Long Beach, so we tried to collect as many Points as possible for this race in Utah.

Our goal is to end up on 3rd palce in championship this year. That would be incredible. since our car is 6 year old and there is almost no more development done to it. My team " Team PTG" has done an incredible job on the car to make it perform well and to keep up with the strong factorys of Porsche and Ferrari and the new BMWs.

Now for this race, we got a bigger Restrictor diameter, that made us gain 10 Ponys..that is a lot down the straight. In the last race in Long Beach we couldn't keep up with Porsche and Ferrari at Top Speed; so they gave us and the BMW and advantage. By giving us an bigger restrictor but in addition to that we had to put in 25kg of weight.

That restrictor change helped us a lot, if you know Salt lake is very high in altitude and the Oxigen is very low anyway.

Also Yokohama Tires gave us a new developed hard-long run tire, which was very good and consistant in the race, we gained a lot of time by not having to change tires at the pits. With the new tire we could drive double stints without any problems. We also received a fresh engine for the race..after the first 3 races.

Qualifying, was not very good for us. We only got 7th. It was hard for us to get the new tires on temperature. Also we had the old engine in our car, which was not as powerful at that point..anyway for the race it was a lot better.

In the race Ian James my teammate started. He had a very good first lap. He came back from the first lap on the 4th position. After the Ferrari and the 2 BMWs couldn't decide who enters Turn 1 in first...so we were the lucky 3rd or lets say 4th at this point. Later then, Ian got by the Ford GT and we were 3rd. But the Porsche with Johannes van Overbeck was very strong and got by us. Ian did some awsome laptimes on these new spec tires...which was shown late in the stint, when he turned his fastest laptime almost in the last lap of his stint. "Thanks again Yokohama for that great tire"

Ian then gave over the car to me after 1hour and 10 minutes.
The team performed an awesome pitstop and I got fresh rubber for the last 2 hours of the race. That means we had to double stint the tires. (Tires are the most important tool in racing) besides the car.

So I went out for the chase..but the Factory Porsche of Flying Lizard and the Farnbacher Loles Porsche (Engineered by my Dad) were too quick. I couldnt gain time against them...also they were too far away at this point...maybe a safty car mode would have helped me...but no crashes in this race. I could catch the 46 Porsche after a few laps...so we were 3rd for a long time..Until I got problems with the Fuel pump..We had Engine Cuts...and I knew I was short on Fuel...so I had to come in as quick as possible..and I lost a lot of time in my in lap..because of the shortage .. so I had to use very low revs and low throttle...so the Risi Ferrari went by me .. But after getting fresh fuel..( no tires) I did bring home a good 4th place. Anyway, the Ferrari would have catched me also with out the problem..But we finished 4th and we collected important points. So were still 3rd in the Championship.

Thanks again to my Team PTG, to Panoz and all the Fans.. I had an incredible Weekend. Lets see how we will Perform in Lime Rock...We will get a newly Developed Differential from Drexler Antriebstechnik in Germany, they will support us with the latest Development parts in LSD-Technology. We will perform, a test in Summit Point the upcoming week. So we will see if we can improve our times.

So I will have a few weeks vacation..after heading to LeMans 24h. I will race in the car #89 Hankook Ferrari.

Thanks for coming to see my report..feel free to ask questions.

Your
Dominik Farnbacher

[Ackmann]

This should be fun to read along especialy looking forward to his 24hr LeMans Race

[LeManns67]

VERY VERY COOL!!! I look forward to reading this. Just post race reports?

[Ackmann]

24hr Le Mans Question

What do you do for hydration in the car. Is there a water system and hose or do you just tough it out til the change over?

[Ackmann]

A Drivers Network exclusive.

Pre LeMans Update

By: Dominik Farnbacher

I am on the way to the states again. I will have a test on Monday and Wednesday in Summitpoint, to get the new Diff to work better on the Panoz.

I have started to prepare for the LeMans race in the Ferrari..I have been working a lot on my fitness..running everyday for an hour or more. I feel very sore..haha.. But it will be very warm in Lemans this year; so I need to be in good shape.

I will race for my dads team in the F430; the name of the team is Hankook Team Farnbacher, and we are sponcored by Hankook. My teammates will be Allan Simonsen from Denmark and Christian Montanari from Italy. All 3 of us are very young drivers . So it was good news to hear that Hankook will bring 4 umbrellagirls straight from Asia..so we are really looking forward to that too. LOL..

I will get to the track on Sunday night, because there will be a lot of preorganization and the first practice will be on Wednesday. I will drive to the race with our mechanics straight from Germany, to the middle of France....so it will be a long trip, but it's always fun to hang with them. All our mechanics work fulltime for my dad, in our dealerships. So I know them all by heart. (ha.) But driving for my fathers team, its not only joy for me . I will help to get the truck unloaded and I will help build up the pitequipment and tents. Not always the glamore life you see on TV.

We are still preparing our Ferrari F430 in our shop. We are repainting it, we just rebuilt the engine, the gearbox, the shocks and will put new driveshafts and uprights in. So all in all the mechanics work 24/7 to get the car ready for next week. Its a lot of work for such a big race.

I am definatelly looking forward to the race, and the 300,000fans, the driversparate on Friday and the great racetrack.

For me it was an unbelievable feeling to drive there 2006. I was so excited. also we finished 2nd..so my goal for this year is to win. and we have a good chance..with 3 pro drivers. but you never know..everything can happen. lets see. I will keep u updated to share the exciting race with u guys.

Dominik

[PanozBob]

Good Luck at Le Mans Dominik. Thanks for posting.

[LeManns67]

Good Luck Dominik. We'll be watching.

[Ackmann]

LeMans Race Report from Dominik Farnbacher

Thanks again to everybody wishing me good luck..that is very nice of you guys.

LeMans was not what I expected...we had a lot of bad luck...with our Hankook Ferrari #89. I arrived on Sunday night, and helped the crew to build up everything, then there was registration and photoshoots on Monday and Tuesday.On Wednesday we had Free Practice from 6pm to 12pm...so there was a lot of time to set up the car for this highspeed track. We fought with a lot of understeer the whole weekend, and we could not get the front tires to work, also it rained a lot on wednesday, so the track was wet and dirty from all the daily traffic on the racetrack. But we found a pretty good set up so we ended up on 6th position. My teammate Allan Simonsen from Australia, drove Qually for us on Thursday, but it was very cold that day, and as expected our tires did not work at that temperatur, compared to the michelins, but we ended up on 10th place out of 17..so it was ok..Usualy it doesn't matter where u start in such a long race.

Friday was driversparade in downtown LeMans, man there were a lot of crazy people from all over the world..it was amazing to see 150,000 people screaming and cheering at us..haha.. So then the we had warmup on Saturday morning, our car was good that day, we ended up on 4th position, we changed our right hight...and it was a lot less understeer then in Qually.

Then the Race, Allan Started the race from 10th..he drove a single Stint in the begining, and improved our position from 10th to 6th after 1 hour driving, then it was my turn, to do a doublestint on the tires. So I fought my way up through to the Dunlop Ferrari, The Flying Lizard Porsche and the AF Corse Ferrari, and I ended up on 3rd after my first Pitstop, when we were at the Pits we only fueled up and kept the tires on, so I improved to 1st in the pits, and I was leading the race with the Hankook Ferrari for 30min.... then we had a tireblowup...man that sucked ...we lost a lot of positions, because I had to drive slowly to the pits...then Christian Montanari went into the car, he fought his way up again to 5th position, then later he had an other tire blowup, and then Allan Simonsen too...We could not doublestint the tires, as expected. But the tire performed very well in laptimes and was very consistant.. so we were far back after 12hour, when I went back in the car at night... I had a very hard battle with Joerg Bergmeister in the Factory Porsche of Flying Lizard...I fought with him over several laps...then on the entry to the Porsche Curves; there was an oilspill from another car and I lost the car in that very fast right hander...and I hit the tirebarrier a little...sliding over the graveltrap..but it was only a very light tap on the front bumber so I could continue, Then Christian Montanari went back in for the last stint...he came in after 1 hour saying the engine in overheating... .. a carbonfiber peace had damaged our radiator and we were loosing water...and the temp was pretty high; so we had to stop..usually when you continue, even when you repair it, the engine will not perform anymore once it overheats, you are done! So that was bad...but I am glad the Risi Ferrari with Melo, Salo and Kaffer won, they showed an outstanding performance, and earned that victory..Congrats. Porsche had 5 cars in the race, but no Porsche finished..they had Problems with Fuelpumps, Gearboxes and crashed too. Every farrari saw the checkered..ours was the only one which did not..haha..but anyway next year we try it again .

All the best Dominik Farnbacher