05-19-2010, 12:41 PM
Here's a quick 968 racing update. We had the TeamDI Pro IT race last weekend at Lime Rock Park in CT. Great weather and a massive turnout - we had a wait list of 20 cars above the 43 cars entered.
The BigSpeed Racing 968 was in great prep but this would be the first race run without my trick air intake scoop. I had been penalized after winning the first race of the season for not having the plastic grill in front of the air intake and the bodywork had been modified to fit my ram-air scoop. Had to put all that back to stock.
We qualified fifth overall and second in class with a 1.01.7 - pole was a 1.00.9 so we weren't too far off the pace. I had about 14 heat cycles on my tires and while they felt great I opted for sticker tires for the race. I was feeling great in grid with brand new hawk pads up front, sticker tires - I was ready!
Checker flag and it's four wide into turn one. Two cars run wide and I'm up to third place but we don't even make a full lap before full course yellow - big wreck at the uphill and we lose five laps to cleanup. This is a 50 mile race - 40 laps, no pit stops.
On the restart I hold third and run about 10 laps chasing the AutoTechnic BMWs - this team shows up with a tractor trailer and uniformed mechanics - big outfit with some very fast drivers. After about 10 laps my tires start to fade and I think it was because I ran the car with a full tank of gas and another 25 pound weight to be sure I didn't get DQ'd at tech for being underweight. That put the car at 3150 at the start and I believe the tires we're over heating.
Then I ran wide into the downhill turn under pressure and was passed - got into the marbles and the crap on my tires slowed me up and I began to drop like a rock - finished up in 8th place with my best time ever at a 1.01.004 and second fastest lap to a 1.00.8 by the polesitter. I don't think the intake mattered that much but I still thought the car didn't have the same throttle response off the corners. I wish I had checked tire pressures but we were all stopped on pit lane for some tech inpsection stuff and never got to check. I bet they were up around 47-48 pounds even though I started at 27 left side 28 right side on Hoosier R6 tires.
Great fun - put the car on the trailer without a scratch and the beer was ice cold :-)
Here's a link to the first 15 minutes - ran out of memory...
http://video.yahoo.com/watch/7498905/19864306
The BigSpeed Racing 968 was in great prep but this would be the first race run without my trick air intake scoop. I had been penalized after winning the first race of the season for not having the plastic grill in front of the air intake and the bodywork had been modified to fit my ram-air scoop. Had to put all that back to stock.
We qualified fifth overall and second in class with a 1.01.7 - pole was a 1.00.9 so we weren't too far off the pace. I had about 14 heat cycles on my tires and while they felt great I opted for sticker tires for the race. I was feeling great in grid with brand new hawk pads up front, sticker tires - I was ready!
Checker flag and it's four wide into turn one. Two cars run wide and I'm up to third place but we don't even make a full lap before full course yellow - big wreck at the uphill and we lose five laps to cleanup. This is a 50 mile race - 40 laps, no pit stops.
On the restart I hold third and run about 10 laps chasing the AutoTechnic BMWs - this team shows up with a tractor trailer and uniformed mechanics - big outfit with some very fast drivers. After about 10 laps my tires start to fade and I think it was because I ran the car with a full tank of gas and another 25 pound weight to be sure I didn't get DQ'd at tech for being underweight. That put the car at 3150 at the start and I believe the tires we're over heating.
Then I ran wide into the downhill turn under pressure and was passed - got into the marbles and the crap on my tires slowed me up and I began to drop like a rock - finished up in 8th place with my best time ever at a 1.01.004 and second fastest lap to a 1.00.8 by the polesitter. I don't think the intake mattered that much but I still thought the car didn't have the same throttle response off the corners. I wish I had checked tire pressures but we were all stopped on pit lane for some tech inpsection stuff and never got to check. I bet they were up around 47-48 pounds even though I started at 27 left side 28 right side on Hoosier R6 tires.
Great fun - put the car on the trailer without a scratch and the beer was ice cold :-)
Here's a link to the first 15 minutes - ran out of memory...
http://video.yahoo.com/watch/7498905/19864306
