JimB

Only 108 GTA/Cup cars registered. Where is everyone?

jrgordonsenior

It will be interesting to see if any of the new 08' Cups show up to play....

JimmiLew

How many showed up last year?

RSRRacer

A few 08s will be there. Darrell Carlisle, Mike Piera, and a few others.

Turn 1 will be ...um..... fun

mklaskin

Chris,

What are you running this season?

RSRRacer

For Sebring I am co-driving with a new racer Matt Einstein in his 996 Cup. I am looking at some other cars but am too busy with work to be buying a car.

I will be around this year, just don't know in what car!

My "old" car will be there and will be driven by the new owner Russell Williams from Charleston.

JimB

Looks like 8 2008s signed up so far.

We tested with one 06, one 07 and two 08s last week but there was enough difference in the quality of the driving that not much could be told about the difference in the cars.

analogmike

The 08s seem to be a little faster than the 07s but I'm still learning how to drive mine. Should be fun as there are plenty of GTC4 cars this year and the ones with upgraded shocks no longer need to run in GTA.

jrgordonsenior

Craig Stanton tested one fresh out of the box at Willow Springs a few weeks ago and was incredibly fast. He turned a 1:17:3 which is about 2-1/2 seconds quicker than any 7 or 6 cup has gone there before. He said he corded his outside rear in 1 session!.....

So Jim, how do you like your new 7-cup which is apparently from So Cal?....

JimB

My car was actually owned and raced by a friend from MN but he sold it to a broker/race shop in CA before he knew I was looking. I bought it from them.

I had two days in the car at MSR Houston a couple weeks ago. Once I half figured out the brakes and the shifter I loved the car. It's a blast to drive. We focused more on learning the car than really going fast but its easy image that it will be a few seconds faster than the 996 was. Sebring should be interesting.
Jim

stuttgart46

Hey Jim, feel free to give me a call if you need anything the next time you're in Houston.
What kinds of times were you running? Were you guys running CW or CCW?

JimB

Thanks for the offer. I'm sure we'll be back next winter. We were running backwards. CW. I loved the corner (T4?) where you pop over the little hump.

We were just there to learn to drive the cars so we didn't have the right set up and we were running very old tires and we weren't pushing hard and I'm pretty much out of excuses. What time would I have to claim to not be embarrassed?

stuttgart46

It's hard to say running backwards. My buddy ran a 1:38 in his '06 Cup car. I haven't been able to run my car in that configuration but the track is a lot of fun CCW as well. It's developing into a great facility as well with all of the new buildings and kart track.
Take care,
Chad