gmgracing

I am pleased to announce that we were able to win the SuperStreet /Eurotuner /NASA Time Attack Finale held at Buttonwillow this past week .

The Time Attack is sort of "Time Trialing" based on Japanese format of elimination- fastest cars advancing to the final rounds based on lap times. There were 6 qualifying rounds held throughout the year at various tracks in order to qualify for this event. Most recently we were able to win the qualifying round at Infineon Sears Pt and set a new track record.

With more than 80 entrants @ Buttonwillow competing for the overall win and 6 class titles on the line we knew this would not be easy show up and walk away with everything.
Sure enough as expected there were some very fast and very purpose built Time Attack cars by many of Japans top tuners.

The GMG/Rennworx/Dymag/Toyo Tires WCGT Porsche Cup car (#14 in World Challenge GT) driven by James Sofronas posted the fastest time of the day taking the top prize of Fastest car overall as well as winning the unlimited class overall.

The second place car was a 700+hp Skyline GTR purpose builtand driven by one of Japans drift kings.. Complete with wide body and shod with Hoosier DOTR tires.
The battle was intense, James was able to put down a flier posting a 1;49;000 lap time compared to the XS engineering Skyline GTR's time of 1;49;261.

Very close indeed but the Porsche proved victorious!


I am also very pleased to annouce we won the "limited" class which is open to any ( any configuartion) but has to be licensed on for road use and insured however has to run on a tire that was rated @100 UTQ or more .
We ran our GMG GT2 in this class - Running on left over Toyo Ra-1's (old race tires) we won the limited production class overall and had the 4th fastest time of the day ( overall) @ 1;53;4xx ( over 3+ seconds faster than any car in its class )

Our GT2 was run with the following modifications
GIAC/GMG Software 91 octane mode- GMGWCGT Sport Exhaust with 200 cell sport catalyst- Stock Airfilter- Moton Club Sport Damper- GMG Upper Dog Bones- GMG Inner A Arm bearings-GMG Thrust Arm bushings- GMG Toe steer kit.
Champion Magnesium GT wheels with Toyo RA1 305 rear and 245 front.
GMG Competition alignment and corner balance
For Safety our GMG GT Harness/Rollbar was installed with Sparco 5 point harness.
Complete interior was left intact.- including floor mats.


Attached are a few pictures from the event.. Look for a complete story on the event in the upcoming SuperStreet and Eurotuner Magazines.

Special thanks to our partners for this event:
Bill from Rennworx/Dymag ( Carbon Mag wheels )
Toyo Tires
Moton
Eibach
Champion Motorsports (GT2 wheels)
GIAC Andy, Garrett and Jarod

Benton

Awesome! Those wheels are baaaad, and I love the way the paint job goes to the uprights. James really impressed me this year with his qualifying in GT in the 996. Will you guys be using the 996 next year?

Adam@Autometrics

Congratulations! Some of the Time attack cars are VERY fast and to win is quite an acomplishment. We ran against the S15 JIC silvia at road atlanta and that car is quick! I am happy to see some german muscle beat the japanese cars at their own game

Cory won the Super Street/Eurotuner East Coast Finals at road atlanta few months back in our 997 GT3 Cup. The article is in the December 2006 issue of Super Street. The magazine/article is obviously targeted towards young Japanese car enthusiasts. They poked fun at a few of the top competitors. It is not derogatory exactly, just more focused on entertainment than fact.
The caption on the photo of the 997 reads: "Cory Friedman won the overall in his GT3 Cup car. We're not sure, but we think he celebrated by filling the hot tub on his yacht with Cristal." I guess us Porsche "snobs" are giving the Japanese cars sonemthing to shoot for next year .

4 Kurves

Congraulations guys - well done!

Is this the same car that you guys had across the street at Porsche Motorsports open house this past Saturday? I noticed the Dymag carbon wheels. Did you run those wheels in the WC Speed series?

I thought WC Speed GT required 5 lug wheels like GA but I noticed that the car had single nut wheels (like stock Cup car) - guess I was wrong about that.

So - what configuration was used at BW?

Veloce Raptor

James is a FANTASTIC driver. Well-done!!

mark kibort

I saw this on another tuner website. Way to go James. pretty cool. I dont know if many of these guys know that the porsche cup car is a factory produced race car with the SpeedGT engine upgrades, but still, many of the competitors had unlimited budgets to pump up their rice rockets! (especially the skyline). what these guys forget, is that that GT3 in SpeedGT ran 1:29 at Laguna, so basically, the caddy, comp coupe vipers, audis, volvos, PTGM3s, etc, would have been in this range with top pro drivers. They dont understand how fast the GT3 cup cars are, but maybe now they do!

The GT2 was most amazing as thats flying for a heavy stock street car. You are lucky TOYO changed their tire ratings from 60 to 100 a year or two ago because they were finding that they were lasting longer, even though near as sticky as hoosier 40 rated DOT race rubber. kind of an unfair advantage based on the other crappy tires you need to run if you dont run RA1s to meet that spec. Still, 1:53 is incredible.

Next year, you need to bring out an ALMS GT3RS and run 3 seconds faster still!!


By the way, what is the requrirement for this event. I didnt see any V8s, are they not allowed? is it by engine size? (certainly not HP due to the 800hp skyline running, i mean, 600hp detuned that day as was their excuse!)

MK

spazegun2213

Congrats guys! There was some serious competition there and you all came out on top. No doubt that James's driving and a well setup car took you all to the top. Congrats!!

gmgracing

Guys

Thanks for the kind words and all the support throughout the year of racing it was a pleasure meeting some of you as the series went from track to track....


Mark,
The time attack was a blast...... Apperantly the Skyline camp wasnt very happy with the results of a german car showing up and winning the event....

The GT3 cup is a purpose built race car and it is expected to win...Yes, true its built at the factory and modified further for WCGT competition .. But these guy were crying wolf all day because this unknown bunch of guys showed up to thier event and won...

But the fact remains that our car was not built as a "time attack" car and the second place car was. If anything we were at a disadvantage .. We just showed up and run what we brung
James had a conversation with the guys running the skyline after the final round and they told him the car was making 700+ HP for the event... Now i hear it only made 600hp... Regardless.. That car was a purpose built car developed just as much if not more than the our WCGT car. It was Fully caged- Wide body- special diffs and running on hoosiers.. And the guy driving it was some "star driver" from Japan.. I heard the car can make more than 800hp .... If I was in there position I know I wouldnt have run the car with just 600 hp when I was getting beat'n.. Considering James's fast time of the day was run during the second round of eliminations and there was one round to go..


The GT2 ran with the following modifications- Stock engine- except for GIAC/GMG flash , GMG WCGT sport exhaust and GMG diverter valves.. We even ran the stock air filter and air box. - Suspension consisted of Moton Club Sports with Eibach springs- GMG inner a arm bearing- GMG rear upper dog bones - GMG inner thrust arm bushings- GMG toe steer kit.
Safety items included our WCGT harness/roll bar and Sparco 5 point harness. Complete FULL interior - including the spare tire was left in the car.
Tires were "used" old race Toyo Ra-1's from our cup car 305 rears and 245 front.

Other than the GT2 is completely STOCK....Completely streetable- emissions legal and driven weekly. It was run as it is driven on the road.

Why is it that everyone complains about results of these types of event "after the fact" When they have access to just as much technology and resources as we do... ???


Anyways.....

Overall we had a great time at the event.. Everyone was very receptive of the Porsche's running and showing well...... It was different and nice to mix it up with some other cars ..

There were some very fast street cars and very very fast time attack cars.. The competitors involved in the event were professional.. I would do it again anyday..........

gmgracing

The car is the same car that we had at PMNA open house - the way you saw it was the way we ran it..

We ran CW 13 with the bus stop. 149.012 was the time turned.. Our lap timer showed 149.000 but official was a little slower......... Its on the superstreet website.


If anyone is interested we have a seat available for next year in World Challenge GT in the #14 car..
Its probably the most developed 996 GT3 in World Challenge... We are going to run a 997 next year and have the other car ready to go..

Email me directly. fabryce@gmgracing.com