Great racing yesterday. Was able to avoid the traffic and the attrition in the White group and scored a 6th overall and 3rd in class (GTC3). Back out today for a 40 minute sprint and a 60 minute enduro. Weather has been GREAT so far, with more clear, cool weather today.

 

Here was my quickest lap of the weekend.

 

Nice job!

 

Nice track, love the run off room.

 

Bryan,

Nice lap. That's all I need.... more SP996 envy.

Bill

 

Nice lap, looks like the car understeers quite a bit though. Good to see with a little more setup time these could be decent gts3 cross over cars.

 

I think the track makes it look like under steer, but a lot of the turns are off camber and very bumpy...

 

And he probably had 30 heat cycles on his tires :-)

 

 

Coco is right, just looks like pushing more than it really is. Car is very neutral. I am maybe driving into some of the slower corners a little to hot for these tires on this lap, Just trying to hard to close the gap on the leader. Our spec tire is BFG R1, love them and the number of HC they have before they drop off too much. But they are not slicks at all. I would love to mount some new CUP car tires on it and change the set up to match them and go for some hot laps and see what the car could do. Anyone want to fund my fun laps????

 

Bryan,
Nice lap! It's good to see a car get pushed like that.
I've been eyeing the SP996 class for a little while now (since the Hallett race) and I regret not paying attention to the class or it's drivers during the race weekend. It seems I could have learned a lot.
Seriously considering a jump from E!
How big do you guys think this class will be next year?

 

We're expecting 9-10 cars at TWS in March. I would imagine most if not all of those will make it to Hallett as well. And then there's COTA...

 

Mike's guess is right. Last year there was 6 at TWS, 4 at RA, 7 at Hallett and 5 at MSR. Plus a few of us went to Sebring and VIR as well. I know of 5 being built now and a lot of people talking about it and trying to sell their current cars to build a SP996. I think with a lot of people like you the class will grow at the same rate as SPB did maybe faster with some SPB guys moving over the SP996 as well.
Love the car and the class. Let us know if we can help you in anyway.

 

Definitely looks like the car is pushing a lot to me judging by the amount of steering angle you're putting into the car, and also when you're dialing in a lot of additional steering input into the car in the corner and the car isn't responding. It might be 'safe', but you would be quicker will less understeer and using more of the rear tires to 'steer'(slip angle) the car. It's the car, not the track.

And yes, I've driven MSR many times.

 

Greg,
I would agree with you just watching it. But I was in it and it was just me over driving into the slower corners and using the front wheels to scrub off the extra speed on that lap. If I had reduced my enter speed just a little and got back on the gas just a little fast it would have looked a lot different. Faster, maybe or maybe the same lap time... I ran a lot of 1:20's that weekend with the rear a little loose to turn the car, but had to enter a little slower and then did not have to scrub any speed in the middle of the corner.
Here is my same car and set up last month at Hallett using the rear to steer though the slower corners.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cek8cjIu_Lk