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Sonoma GT2 Qualifing

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Since there seems to be quite an interest from the west coast on this forum, here are my qualifying laps from my Mustang this past week at the SCCA Runoffs at Sonoma in GT2. Turned a 1:37.2 followed by a 1:37.8 ( getting held up) . On this day I got pole, but sadly the next day the TA2 Camaro got it back by a tenth and a half or so and I got caught in traffic on my flyer. It didn't matter as on the start of the race ( which hopefully will posted soon) I got the lead into turn 2, but a failing transmission sadly knocked us out. Not too bad for struts and a pandhard bar... :cool:

Enjoy and happy curb hopping... ;)o_O
©2017 Mike Doran-9549.jpg
 

racer47

Still winning after 30+ years
392
497
Exp. Type
W2W Racing
Exp. Level
20+ Years
SE WI
Were you the only production based car near the front?
 
Most of the cars were production based at Sonoma. Hoosier built a tire that has finally let the TA2 cars show some speed and longevity on the twisty tracks. Other production based cars were qualified 3rd, 5th and 6th.
 

Mad Hatter

Gotta go Faster
5,237
4,227
Santiago, Chile
Oh!!! Which Hoosier tire is that??? (we are the Hoosier reps here in Chile, would love know!). I though I saw a pic with a set of Contis??
 
Good seeing you out there but sorry it didn't go your way this year. The photo of you bouncing off of T3 looks like one of the NASCAR's. Maybe you should be one of the hired guns in June when NASCAR runs there. They will be running Mustangs next year...
 

racer47

Still winning after 30+ years
392
497
Exp. Type
W2W Racing
Exp. Level
20+ Years
SE WI
Most of the cars were production based at Sonoma. Hoosier built a tire that has finally let the TA2 cars show some speed and longevity on the twisty tracks. Other production based cars were qualified 3rd, 5th and 6th.

Thats kinda surprising. I would have thought that most of the runoff level cars would have gone to the ta2 chassis by now.
 
Yeah, that was my goal. I have not been captured on two wheels lately. It will be interesting to see next year where the Cup car times fall using the full track as usually the TA2 cars have been a touch faster than the Xfinity cars at the races where Trans-Am ran with Xfinity. I'd love to run one a Cup car there. Its a challenging track in High-hp, low grip, low aero cars.
 
There were 7 or 8 TA2 cars, but only 2 or 3 were "newer" cars and most of the rest were early cars which seem to be much slower. Driver also plays a factor, and tires have not been up to par on them until now. I've always got a kick out of taking it to purpose built racecars with a converted street car sort of thing, so I'd never run a TA2 car.

I also think there is a fear among some in the GT2 class of the TA2 cars due to a lot of the rules being only enforceable at the Trans-Am level with dedicated staff. Kind of like old WCGT and TC cars being dumped into club racing classes years ago, the rules had to evolve into something that could be checked by club racing staff, so like RPM limits, and boost limits had to be replaced with something else. The GT2 class has a huge mix of cars, and was looking like it was going to be one of the largest classes at the Runoffs, but by race time it had dropped from 30 to 20 cars. This isn't a knock against the TA2 cars, as I've always been worried about the rules makers coming down hard on my Corvette from years previous but I guess they feel comfortable about where the goal posts are on STO cars, but the TA2 cars are still unknown.

It would have been an interesting end of the race if I wasn't dealing with a broken transmission.
 

Mad Hatter

Gotta go Faster
5,237
4,227
Santiago, Chile
Thats cool to know! We tried the 335/30-18 A7 on a modified ZL1 but they would go greasy after 10min.... Might be because that porker weighed 1800kg (3960lbs) with out the driver...
 
147
60
AJ, What happened to the trans and when was the last time it was refreshed?
 
173
72
So impressed by how aggressively you attack in qualifying and really work the throttle hard. I also love how you seem to subtly snap the wheel to counter oversteer before the rear ever has a chance to come around.

I would love to push the limits to this extent but my checkbook keeps me grounded. I know I would break stuff exploring that learning curve.

I watched a video of the race from a vette and he was about 10 seconds slower than your qualifying time. Curious how you alter your driving style for racing and what were racing lap times before you broke?
 
AJ, What happened to the trans and when was the last time it was refreshed?

Not sure yet. it was a fresh rebuild. Things break, it happens.

So impressed by how aggressively you attack in qualifying and really work the throttle hard. I also love how you seem to subtly snap the wheel to counter oversteer before the rear ever has a chance to come around.

I would love to push the limits to this extent but my checkbook keeps me grounded. I know I would break stuff exploring that learning curve.

I watched a video of the race from a vette and he was about 10 seconds slower than your qualifying time. Curious how you alter your driving style for racing and what were racing lap times before you broke?

Thank you. Its a real mix of seat time, knowledge and having been in a lot of situations. I wish we could bottle driving talent and sell it. Coaching can't teach the student to learn how to get to the edge and not step over it easily imo. I think that is where natural car control comes into play allowing a driver to explore the edges without having an expensive lesson.

Race times were down about 2 seconds for me. I think I ran off a bunch of low 39's early before I started having problems. For this race and track I knew rear tires would be the key, so I changed lines and just didn't push hard in certain places early on. Had to factor in competitor strengths, and it was okay until it stopped shifting easy.
 
173
72
For this race and track I knew rear tires would be the key, so I changed lines and just didn't push hard in certain places early on.

Thanks for the reply. Curious why you say rear tires were key to this race? Sorry for so many questions....I’m always trying to learn. Thanks again.
 

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