Wagner won’t be taking it easy as he nears Le Mans series title

Friday, Nov. 5, 1999 | 9:48 a.m.

American Le Mans Series Grand Prix schedule

Friday

9:20-10:20 a.m.: Combined Practice -- Prototype/GTS/GT

11:10-11:35 a.m.: Women's Global GT Series practice

12:05-12:25 p.m.: ALMS Qualifying -- GTS/GT

12:30-12:50 p.m.: ALMS Qualifying -- Prototype

1-1:25 p.m.: Women's Global GT Series practice

Saturday

8:40-9:40 a.m.: Combined Practice -- Prototype/GTS/GT

10:30-11 a.m.: Qualifying -- Women's Global GT Series

11:10-11:30 a.m.: ALMS Qualifying -- GTS/GT

11:40 a.m.-noon: ALMS Qualifying -- Prototype

Sunday

9-9:45 a.m.: Women's Global GT Series race (45 minutes)

10-10:30 a.m.: Combined Warm up -- Prototype/GTS/GT

Noon: Grand Prix of Las Vegas Prototype/GTS/GT (2-hour, 45-minute race)

Cort Wagner's task is relatively simple heading into Sunday's American Le Mans Series Grand Prix of Las Vegas at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Leading the GT class points standings by 16 points over Johannes van Overbeek, Wagner needs only to finish 10th or better in the 2-hour, 45-minute race to clinch the championship.

But Wagner, a Southern California resident, has no intention of taking it easy.

"The truth is, we're coming here to win (the race)," Wagner said. "I'd like to say differently, but as a team, as manufacturers, to wind up the year with another win would be really nice."

Wagner has done little else but win this year in his Porsche 911 GT3R. He has posted six wins, including the prestigious 24 Hours at Daytona and the 12 Hours of Sebring, and won the USRRC GT3 championship earlier this year.

"It has been a great year," Wagner said. "We haven't left the track with a worse position than second all year. We won Daytona, we won Sebring, we won the Petite Le Mans -- which is the silver crown of endurance road racing in the United States; that's a huge feat in itself."

Wagner may have a leg up on his competition in the GT class this weekend, as he raced on the 2.25-mile infield road course at LVMS during a Professional Sports Car Racing event in 1997. Wagner won the pole in the GT class and was running among the leaders before a mechanical problem dropped him to a fourth-place finish.

"That was a good event for us," Wagner recalled. "It's a good track -- it's not what you would say is one of our favorite road-racing tracks, but it is a good track. The track is really a track that is kind of technical; it requires a lot of grip and it requires horsepower.

"I think it's going to be very tough and the competition for us is going to be people like David Murry and Johnny Mowlem in the other air-cooled cars because the wider tires really is a great benefit."

After spending the past four years in the GT class, Wagner said he hopes to be able to step up into the featured Prototype class next season -- but he said he would only consider doing so with a top-flight team.

"The goal of a race car driver is to win races, period," he said. "I would rather be in a car that can win races in GT than in a Prototype that doesn't win races.

"It's real important to win races and be recognized as a leading driver and have the ability and the skill to put it on the pole, to win races and to be consistent."

* NOTES: The Olive Garden restaurant chain will donate dinners to needy Clark County families for every lap the Doyle-Risi Racing Team and driver Wayne Taylor (which is sponsored by Olive Garden) complete in Sunday's race. In addition to the free meals, Olive Garden donated a refrigerated truck filled with food to the Community Food Bank of Clark County. ...

Championships will decided this weekend in Prototype, GTS, GT and the Women's Global GT Series. Elliott-Forbes Robinson holds a narrow three-point lead over David Brabham and Eric Bernard in Prototype; Olivier Beretta leads Martin Snow by 14 points in GT3; and Cindi Lux has a 16-point lead over Divina Galica in the WGGTS standings. ...

Beretta is enjoying an unprecedented run in his Dodge Viper, winning all five ALMS races he has entered. Dodge Viper Team ORECA, which can post its second consecutive undefeated season with a win Sunday, has won three straight FIA GT championships and two consecutive Le Mans titles.