Tim Pruitt

I heard Renauer had some difficulty with scrutineers after qualifying and will start at the back of the field. Any truth to this information?

Laura

Asked hubby about that and he said IMSA has not informed them of any changes to the starting order sheet they were given last night. But anything can happen.
A new series always has its' snags, but I thing they will do the best they can at this point. So far for us, they have been great to work with.

Now, the countdown starts to race time!

ngoldrich

Laura,

Good luck in the race!

Norm

Laura

Thank you and good luck to fellow Rennlister Analog Mike P. ! He's very close behind us !!

93 FireHawk 968

Farnbacher did open a shop in Danbuty CT, right next to the airport.

ngoldrich

Laura, Mike,

So how did the race go ? Was the event fun ?

Norm

analogmike

It went according to our fears and was a crashfest

STart was not bad, pretty clean. I passed a few cars on the outside of T1 and a few more as people spun out ahead of me, and one on the straightaway after a good charge out of T7. Then we had a few full course yellow laps due to more accidents. Had moved up from 19th to about 11th when I was punted turning into T7 ending my race and the life of my passenger's door, rear fendern(again!), and windshield. Driver apologized. I would not mind if he sent me a new door (they cost as much as a driver 944, chump change for him but a lot of guitar pedals to sell for me).

out of our 8 cars, 2 went undamaged, Ricardo Imery (Formula car driver from South America, ended up 2nd, awesome driver was ahead of the carnage) and Paul Orwicz who avoided it too and ended up with a nice clean 5th place. If I could have held my position I might have ended up 8th just due to attrition but probably 9th as Keith Alexander was right behind me when I was hit after his own incedent put him back in the pack, he moved up well and would have passed me.

We had another Formula car driver in Lawson Aschenbach, a college kid who can really drive. He crashed on the warmup lap in qualifying and really damaged the brand new 2003 tub of his rental car. They fixed it up overnight (duct tape bodwork) and he made the race from the back and passed me pretty quick, but had a collision in T10 A/B with another of our cars, Russell Smith, who was a little ahead of me, and took his door right off (!) and crushed the rear fender. Our team swapped another door (Russels' I think as his radiator broke) in the pits and taped it on and sent him out losing 2 laps, but even with bent suspension he was able to get fastest race lap trying to catch up, ending up 22nd.

That's racin!

lots of pictures to come,

Laura

We are happy with our finish, the last 5 or 6 laps Nathan was just hanging in the best he could, he knew he hit a berm too hard and messed up something. It looks like he broke a rear shock (no wonder "the handling just went away"). Three weeks ago it was a front. Nathan comes from a truck racing background and I think he might have been late to the class about saving the equipment!

So we came away with 6th, no damage to the car other than the shock, the team and driver met alot of good people, stayed under the estimated budget, I think it was a great weekend!

Looking forward to Analog Mike's comments, his day unfortunately ended a little early. Not sure what happened.

I'll post some pic's soon.

http://www.imsaracing.net/2003/event...3_ProvRace.pdf

Robert Linton

Herr Renauer drove as a guest driver in the first race, did not score points and will only be in the first race. Other guest drivers may be present from time to time.

Benton

One unfortunate aspect of such a competitive amatuer/semi-pro series is that it will be nearly impossible to have completely clean races with matched cars. I wish I had the $$ to race in it; sounds like FUN.

I watched the race... sorry to hear about the incident, Mike.

carreracup21

I saw the race. It looked expensive, maybe too expensive for most personally funded amateurs to have any kind of staying power without significant sponsorship. I think this is particularly true given the next planned iteration, the 997 GT3 Cup which will be even more expensive. I think the 997 GT3 Cup works well in the Supercup format where it is the main warm-up act for the most popular racing series in the world F1. Those supercup cars are heavily sponsored with pro drivers and a big audience. I certainly applaud the effort by PMNA and IMSA as a great idea, but I think that Porsche should consider a new "Cup" car with a more realistic lower price point. Perhaps a lightweight Cayman version of the Cup car which would be almost as fast as the current GT3 Cup. Something around 2200-2300 lbs., 275-300 hp, steel brakes, and a relatively bullet proof stock engine/tranny. I think that might be very popular and would make a lot of sense for amateur racers and the growing DE market.

Nordschleife

Why, this racing to TOO expensive for the US? You jest surely, this US series is cheaper to run in than the Carrera Cup in Germany, France, Great Britain, Asia, Australia and the Supercup. These series are primarily for current model cars only, most teams buy new cars every year.

PCA racing is as cheap or as expensive as you wish to make it, and is perfect for most people. For those teams and drivers that wish to step up and match their skills with the professionals, then the Carrera Cup and Supercup are good places to start. I believe that it was a mistake to try and limit the fields in this series to 'amateur' drivers, let Long, Henzler and the other hot Cup shoes race, that would really help the drivers who wish to progress to a higher level and have a trickle down effect for all PCA racing.

If you start trying to dumb down the top class you will only reinforce the arguements of the critics who have been heard to describe amateur Porsche racers dismissively. Instead, have a series that the best drivers in the world have to paddle damn hard in if they want to finish in a respectable position when invited tp fill a guest spot.

R+C

Bill935K3

Congrats to Paul Hupfer, Paul Orwicz and Keith Alexander always nice to see guys you have raced around do well.
A-Mike, Sorry to hear about your misfortune, back to back events with damage are daunting, best wishes. Sounds like the guy did not get to where he should be if he apologized.
In regards to cost, with the incidents etc. did you guys get enough track time and enjoyment to justify the expense?
As far as top level guys running in this series, I can see a little of it as guests but not more than one or two and definitely not for the points. The top guys mentioned have the race venues, connections and sponsors so what is the point? I think the point of the series is somewhere for young up and coming talent to be able to showcase there skill. If young karting graduates and open wheelers can rent and ride beat some of the better PCAers at their own game in a venue like this they can get noticed (GREAT) and if some of our talented PCA veterans can do the same thing more power too them. Pro Porsche teams have been using and can keep using PCA club racing for test and tune and to audition drivers at places like Watkins Glen and Sebring as the have been doing for a while, if the pros want seat and race setup time they should enter club races and stay out of this venue. IMHO
If this is going to be amateur the cost has to be kept down, speaking for us working stiffs, earning the money and spending the time on the cars and travel leaves nothing for hunting down sponsors and meeting any commitments to them. As an example I got some help from Bell Helmets but could not meet a car show commitment to them do to having my one car tied up fixing a problem for the next race.
If this is going to turn into another Pro series to promote Porsche I think I would duck out now as it sounds like Porsche Motorsports NA and the tuners had a profitable weekend.

Robert Linton

This will not become a series for pro drivers.

Nordschleife

Robert
You mean like Athletics or the Olympics (lol)
R+C