Sean F

4 or 5 cars in our class were bumped to E at the Glen race for various infractions after a look over of the entire class field. All they looked for were obvious suspension kinds of offenses nothing in the engine compartments.

BTW, Fred's car has been scrutineered more times than probably any other PCA race car in history.

dave morris

Amen brother.

A little perspective from another D stock racer at Sebring. I had a coach for the test and tune day before the race. We had just recently installed a Traqmate. After I'd done a few laps in the car, he got in (having never driven my car before) and did 4 or 5 laps to establish a base-line. Every lap he turned was roughly 1 second faster than the last. His fastest lap was a low 2:31. I asked him later what he thought he could do with the car (w/o the constraints of driving somebody else's car etc) and he felt comfortable predicting low 2:30s. My fastest lap for the weekend was 2:374.

My conclusions. My D car's potential is probably comparable to Fred's. Fred is a damn good driver (I believe Fred's fastest lap in the enduro was 2:30 something). Being generous, I'm an average driver. As Brian said, the disparity in driver skills in PCA racing is huge.

Bryan Watts

What if the guy has a perfectly legal PCA motor but has to add weight to run in his NASA class but can remove the weight to race in PCA? What if he runs a different tune in NASA than in PCA in order to lower his power to fit into the power/weight class?

We have run 1:58's in BMW CCA and 2:02's in NASA GTS4...but we also detune the motor, add a little weight, and run R-comp tires to fit into the NASA power/weight classing structure whereas we can run the motor at full power, without any weight restrictions, and on slicks in our BMW CCA class.

I don't see the change in laptimes between NASA and PCA as an indicator of cheating unless I'm missing some detail about this particular car/class that isn't obvious to me.

Bryan Watts

Ironically, in club racing, where driver talent varies so much, it's RARELY the guy at the front who is actually cheating. If you can drive well enough to win, you don't need to cheat. It's usually the guys at the back who have a couple of illegal parts on their car (that they justify because everyone else is supposedly cheating) who look up at the podium shouting accusations of cheater motors with 30 more hp. They don't understand that learning to drive would solve most of their problems.

FredC

Data is the best enabler. Good for you to have bought a Traqmate. You'll shave your times.

Brian P

100% agree. When I first started racing, I sat there in the back of the pack wondering how it was even remotely possible that these guys were SO much faster.

Some of it was due to my car only being DE prepped, and these guys were driving cars set up to the limit of the rules. For instance, I had done no headers or exhaust changes. My springs were at about 350#F/500#R and my car was 200 pounds overweight.

That being said, the vast bulk of the difference was that the racers were driving better than me. The reason I know that was the difference is that I immediately fixed many of the car issues between my first and second race, and I only moved up to mid-pack rather than being a backmarker.

Over the next several years, I finally learned how to drive better and learned a bit more racing technique and I'm consistently in the front of my group. I'm certainly close enough to the front to realize that when I lose, I'm losing to a better driver and not to someone who is cheating.

Sean F

and sometimes, guys in front running "equal" cars just pull away from you at the start of a race on a long straight..and then you get so distracted that you drive right off the track in the first turn

http://vimeo.com/1905696

paradisenb

Smooth move, Sean.

To Don's point; the only way cheating would really appear likely would be side be side comparison on a long straight. If car A pulls WAY away from car B then something may be up with A assuming B doesn't have a problem. Most of the difference is driver skill. That can be many secs. If in doubt check out My Laps.

Brian P

Maybe. Even then, I think many drivers (and certainly most spectators) don't fully appreciate the impact that differences in cornering speeds make huge differences in the following straights.

Sean F

That's why I posted a start - no cornering speed in play

Mark in Baltimore

Some cars are more equal than others.

Sean F

You know first hand from that race

911 Wail Tale

Who accused Fred? I certainly did not. In my original post I just used "D" as an example: reread it if necessary. I just as easily could have said E,F,G,H,etc...

You are right in the fact that I should not have posted without knowing all the facts. I hope those individuals who do know will post.

I apologize if my post caused any grief. As I stated earlier, it was not directed at anyone here, especially Fred.

Adam

BostonDMD

Sorry Brian, I am not going to go there.......

I always thougth PCA racing was on the honor system.......

In the beginning it took me a while to accept it and move on........

I totally agree with this statement.........

I am hoping it helps me too.....

Chris M.

The same car did the same thing to me, only they started on my bumper through a turn, pulled out from behind me, passed me, and then passed the F car in front of me.