Rob in VA

+1

I have been following Skeen for quite some time and I was a little surprised it took this long for a decent team to pick him up. This weekend his car held up and guess what? He won both Saturday & Sunday races. The dude has an amazing natural talent and can wheel.

Veloce Raptor

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James-GMG

Some pretty funny comments here......I'll leave it at that.

Skeen is talented for sure! When he was in Trans Am, he won in lessor equipment and everyone knew it.
Now the Vette he is in, let's just say that car pulled 12 car lengths on me and Long at Mosport and it was an overdog. Now I had 148 pounds of rewards weight and Long had 105 but 12 car lengths is A LOT!!

SCCA let them play for the first 6 races and now both the Vette and Viper will get a restrictor as we head to Mid Ohio so we should have a good race there as last year Skeen and I both won running nose to tail in the doubleheader. Again, Skeen would do well in any car he is racing and has talent. But when it comes to whether someone is a good driver or not.......well it's one thing to lay down a strong lap time but can you do it for 30 laps in a row with someone on your butt!?

Nizer

Nice drive by Pat for 2nd place. Look forward to seeing what happens at Mid Ohio.

"Long, who struggled to a fifth place finish after contact on the start in Saturday’s race, missed an opportunity to chase down Skeen for the win, but was happy with the points he earned with the second-place finish.

“In a lot of ways it feels like a win,” Long said. “The Corvettes were in a league of their own this weekend, and quite honestly, I think the Cadillacs were pretty darn good as well. It was about getting a start and putting the pressure on Skeen as much as I could in traffic but I knew it was inevitable, once there was a bit of a break, that we were going to have to maintain second and try to put points between James [Sofronas] and I. Unfortunately, I think he had some fuel issues at the end but that helps us for the championship. There is a lot of competition in this series and I’m glad to be here. Although we missed a race we are going to fight for the Championship to the end.”

mark kibort

Hey, if you read my post i said i was impressed from where he came from. he has NO real history before the show. he did go karts. I also said i noticed his improvement through out the show . certainly some natural tallent. My point , and VR read this, was that his success was and is impressive considering how he peformed at the beginning at the show, vs the end, and then certainly with the few series he ran afterwards, including the later runs with Transam.

you might want to re-read my first few posts on the sub-topic

back to the GMG story!

mark kibort

VR, you have NO real racing experience so you should probably keep your comments to yourself, unless it is about doing donuts in a 4x4

really? why dont you enlighten me!
as far as I know and said, Skeen improved a lot during the show and ended up pretty solid. obviosly, as was noted, he competed very well in the next few series he ran in , against the more seasoned crew of e30 folks for example, with are like high powered miata battles! (good hard racing)
But, he would have to been a pretty good actor to fake the mistakes and novice look and feel of his driving in the early stages of the "Set up " show. he has tallent and my only point was that what he is doing is pretty good, seeing that he had very little experience just a handful of years ago and now he is going toe to toe with Sofronas.

Veloce Raptor

Yup. Sad to see another thread Kibortion.

mark kibort

Dave Scott, you are hardly in a position to judge.

again, you cant even comprehend a post with more than 5 words and a dirty picture. read what I said again.

real simple. (this is like dealing with my 5 year old)

1. skeen did welll considering a few years ago, he didnt have much experience
2. he got better during the show
3 he has done real well, and now running toe to toe wiht top pros.

Nothing more nothing less.

Dave, lets race in colorado and channel your put down energy into something that could do some good for charity.

Mark

mklaskin

Mark,

I read your post perfectly the first time. My response was not in any way directed at your comments. Merely, I was remarking that Mike Skeen is a good addition to the driver line-up in World Challenge.

mklaskin

Your first post on the subject.

A. Mike Skeen has experience in Trans-Am, thus my point about him being well prepared for his current ride.
B. Based on your grammer, I cannot tell if you meant to say that he had no experience until a few years ago, or that he won a reality show a few years ago.

mark kibort

Yes, transam was a couple of years ago, before the show set up
based on my grammer? He had little experience before the show and it was pretty obvious by the incar footage from the show that he was just getting rolling with his skill sets. (regardless of his karting experience or limited roadracing experience). He was on that reality show a few years ago, as we all might now. actually more like 4-5 years ago.

It looked like it was . Sorry about that. I TOTALLY agree. he is a hot hand and pedallig the car well. (as I said too, exactly!). Absolutely is he a good addition to the drivers. Not because MOST of the drivers are kind of green anyway, but because he can hang with the top pros that are well seasoned!

He got his scca after doing those schools, not the years and years of DEing and timetrialing like many do. He got that license in '04, ran that e30spec series in 07 and did ok. probably after or before the set-up show, then in 08 after the show, (as I said, he progressed and seemingly became a better stick), he won that e30 series, also had the test with rolex, ran a bunch more series and certainly started to "live the dream". nothing to take away there.
The einsteins here will argue til the cars come home, but if you read my first post. its a complement to him, but also a note that he has a very strong car. thats it, nothing more. he didnt have much experience a few years ago, now he has a ton!

Greg Smith

The top speeds posted in qualifying would say that Skeen's car is not an overdog, actually you and Skeen had the same top speed. However, some other cars were 4 mph faster.

I'm not sure of the intent of the last part of your post, it seems like you're trying to say something without actually saying it.

James-GMG

Greg,

I wasn't speaking of top speed, I was referring to rate of acceleration....there is a big difference. The Vette and Viper have so much torque, they get to their top speed so much quicker than the Porsches. Top speed is only one indication of a cars rate of acceleration. My car did a one lap in higher end of the range........but I had a nice draft thanks to Pilgrim!

Like I said, Skeen is talented and a nice guy as well......Mid Ohio should be fun.

Rob in VA

Mid-Ohio is such an awesome track. I'd think it would be better suited for the GT3 than a Corvette. Should make for a good race. Good luck James.

Circuit Motorsports

Here's a video from the race. You can see how the Vette really gets a nice run out of the corners and on the first part of the straights showing what James is talking about. I'd imagine that the gearing is playing as much of a part as the power band considering the speeds in the traps.

http://www.youtube.com/user/michaels.../0/zrwvR9SyDqc