RSRRacer

I wanted to offer up a few comments (worth every penny you will be paying for them) on the Sebring race. Not to stir the pot, just to provoke some commentary from people with as much or more experience than me.

My perspective is that of a person who has semi-withdrawn from club racing after selling my 996 Cup last year. I was able to drive a few cars this weekend, in the night race and the sunday warm up (2:13.3 )

Also note I have never raced in any other class so my comments apply only to the Cup/GTA class. Maybe I am "out of touch."

Comments:

1) The night race at Sebring is too dangerous to be run by amateurs in cars as fast as the 996/997 Cup. I was personally intimidated by the experience and had little confidence that a following competitor could have avoided me if I were to have spun. (Which I did, in spectacular fashion, going into T17!)

2) 997 cup cars and (996 R/RS/RSR) are just too much of a car to be driven all but the best amateur racers. Too much carnage this weekend.


To what extent to you agree with #1 and #2 above?

sbelles

I can't comment on your questions but the pace car driver needs a 13/13 for picking up the 2nd place car after the caution and leaving the leader (by 20 sec) out in the cold in the sprint race

FredC

how much carnage was there?

RSRRacer

Not sure of the exact total. I personally saw 1 totalled 996R or RS, 4 997 Cups, and 1 996 cup with damage. I think there were a few more.

Larry Herman

I absolutely agree with that. There was a time when it was very difficult and quite expensive to have a car with the capabilities of even a 996 cup, which seems to be the starter car of choice now. You had to build it, or if it was an ex-pro car, re-build it and had to have a mechanic onboard to keep it running properly. You as a driver were most likely intimately involved with the details of the car. You also probably had plenty of driving experience before you decided to build that monster.

Now anyone can go out and buy something just as fast with 10 times the reliability for half the cost. Even worse, they can rent it. It's not a good situation. It's one reason that I'd rather run in the lower groups where most guys are racing their babies, and value the car (and themselves) as such.

FredC

all at night?

Gator_86_951

Were there more cup cars this year than last?

Last year the biggest incident I recall was a cup car flipped over in the hairpin. Also, one of the TRG cars ended up dropping a left wheel off coming into the hair pin under braking = spin against the guard rail.

stuttgart46

I wonder if PCA would consider a "Super License" for cars over a certain HP or performance index.

JimmiLew

Chris,

Point 1: My first time night racing. I have 10 years experience club racing and it was "intense" to say the least. I have to say that everyone was well behaved in the night race. No carnage really at all. I think everyone drove within themselves at night. The night field was also considerably smaller than the day field, which helps reduce the volume of traffic (hence the number of issues). Once I got used to the darkness, I was right at home. Loved it! I think others did as well. I think ones nautral ability see at night helps a lot. If one has issues seeing at night, they may want to think twice about racing in the dark!
Just be honest with yourself.

Point 2: I agree there was a ton of carnage. Way more than there should be. I was smart enough to stay out of trouble. The issue with the Cup Car group is its very easy to buy one, get a few days of driving in to get a license, and go race. Its a really fast car for someone of this demographic. I saw some really poor decisions and moves from guys out there that were really scary. Its merely from having more money than experience (and a big ego to boot). The problem also arises is that if you are a good driver, and got balked in qualifying, you have to start in the mid pack against less experienced drivers who will block the hell out of you no matter what. There egos keep them from going to school on you (which is what they would do if they were smart). If one want to play in this group, they should do so with eyes wide open, in many regards! I agree, it was pretty scary out there!

My .02C for what its worth.

JL

Geoffrey

You need to get your facts straight. The pace car was not able to pick up the leader because the leader was running race pace laps under double yellow.

JimmiLew

Tilly,

I saw this incident. This is a good example of lack of experience as a major contributing factor for the fire. The guy just goes in too hot, slides off the track, not hitting anything, he and stops on the dry grass. The grass ctaches fire. He doesnt know the car is on fire at first. As it sits there and starts smoking, he thinks this is normal. Then the thing is really on fire and the marshalls tell him to get out.

How do I know this? Because I listened to the guy tell the story! All he had to do was slowly reneter the track at a safe time and come to a stop on pavement and his car would be intact now.

Equally amazing was how long it took the fire crew to extinguish the fire. At least 2 laps from my in car vantage point. I could believe it! Thats about 5 minutes! Also, they just left the car there after they pu the fire out and completed the run group. Unreal!

Its a shame to see such a nice piece of machinery needlesy damaged to the extent it was.

sbelles

Got my info second hand as I had to leave early. My bad. And his.

BluemaxxRacing

Personally, I had a problem with 2 out of the 3 run groups this past weekend. Although I did not race this weekend, I came up on Saturday to see where my car would fit in. As most of you know, I have been racing my '99 996 in the C-stock class for the last couple of years and with the new changes, it would now be classed in H-stock. Well, that is before I stripped it out completely. Now, I have no choice but to run in the GTB Class with the Grand Am Cup / Koni Challenge cars and I'm looking forward to it. Last year I clocked a few low 2:26s but mostly ran in the 27s and 28s during races. So, here is what I observed;

First, I had no issue with the Orange group. They all seemed to be grouped well together. When I watched the Green Group, I saw my former race mates in the H, I, and J classes put in with a gaggle of GTA cars (including KingLeh!). This upset me because I started imaging running in the H stock class with my other racing buddies where we would all be running in the 2:26 - 2:30 areas depending on traffic. KingLeh was running 2:04s!!!!! And the other GTA cars are running between 2:09s and 2:15s!! Awesome but at the same time frustrating and scary to think that at times there is NO WAY us guys in the lower classes are going to know if guys like KingLeh are coming because you are busy racing and concentrating on your line. Realistically, there are the straights and a few other places where you can look behind and see the faster cars coming. But when there is a 30-second/lap difference in speed, I could be past the Start/Finish line, look back for traffic, see nothing coming up on me, look back ahead and start braking under the walk-over bridge, downshift, turn-in and BAM!! there is KingLeh with a couple of other GTA cars. Those GTA cars have the ability to make drastic changes mid-turn but our stock cars do not. Also, the closing speeds are so ridiculous that is is extremely hard to gauge if the GTA cars are going to be turing in or not when they are so far back. With everything else going on, this is dangerous!

The Red Group saw the GT1, GT2, GTC3 and GTC4 cars going at it. Pretty well grouped together and there were a **** load of cars out there. Unfortunately, the only GTB car that was out there was placed in the Red Group and this guy qualified third-to-last in the group with a low 2:24!!! That is faster than anything I have ever run in my 996 and that is where I would have been classed this weekend. With all the new class changes, I know this was a "trial run" but here is my suggestions;

Get GTA cars OUT of the Green Group!!! Move the GTA cars up to the Red Group with all the 996 & 997 Cup cars where they belong! I know this will fill up the Red Group even more but the registrars have to start cutting entrants off sooner!

Move the GTB cars out of the Red Group down to the Green Group. That lone GTB car this past weekend would have been hard pressed to qualify in the Top 20 in the Green Group. Besides, I'm sure the I and J cars would love to run with the Koni Challenge guys since their cars are similar.

Move GT2 class out of the Red Group down to the Green Group in order to allow the GTA cars to move up to the Red Group as well.

Move the H stock cars down to the Orange Group. The top G and H guys all seemed to be running close times and this would highten the competition even more in the Orange Group.

These suggestions are only for the Sebring Club Race as I saw it. I know that every CR is different and every CR director places cars differently but safety is the #1 thing and we need to keep "like-time" cars running with eachother. Just my humble $.02

Flying Finn

I wasn't there this weekend but just in principle I completely agree with #2

There's a lot of club racers who think that now that they filled the form, got the licence and bought a race car, they are good and fast drivers.

That is far from truth, there's many out there who aren't very fast, experienced, nor good.

This is not limited to new cup cars but obviously those are the fastest car and therefore most dangerous.

Flying Finn

I wasn't there this weekend but just in principle I completely agree with #2

There's a lot of club racers who think that now that you filled the form, got the licence and bought a race car, you are good and fast driver. No you're not!

That is far from truth, there's many out there who aren't very fast, experienced, nor good.

This is not limited to new cup cars but obviously those are the fastest car and therefore most dangerous.