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Sonoma GT2 Qualifing

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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.

Sonoma's pavement is worn out. It needs a repave badly. Turns 4, 7 and 11, all tight, and very low speed, (50mph and below) corners which where very slippery. New tires for a few laps was fine. Also lots of cornering while on throttle, ( turn12, 1, 5, the esses) That puts a lot of energy into the tires. And on a big heavy, under-tired car was not a good mix. If we had run the Indycar/PWC layout, things may have been a little better as that pavement, and the traction areas were not as worn out as the "standard layout" places.
 

Mad Hatter

Gotta go Faster
5,237
4,227
Santiago, Chile
Was wondering about "under-tired".... If you had no tire size limitations.... what would you go for?? Is 315/30-18 Hoosiers big enough??
 

ArizonaBOSS

Because racecar.
Moderator
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Man that looked wild from the outside, didn't seem that crazy from the inside, ha.
Great run. The stick axle tub Mustang in capable hands is so impressive. Any chance a GT4 is Phoenix’s future? Would love to see you guys out in PWC again, and even better, giving Dean some competition in IMSA?
 
Was wondering about "under-tired".... If you had no tire size limitations.... what would you go for?? Is 315/30-18 Hoosiers big enough??

I'm on 315/18 A7 hoosiers and in T1, they are pretty good on an average track. Needed different rules to get bigger tires on the car to fit. It was a long shot asking a lot from the Mustang at the track like Sonoma.

Great run. The stick axle tub Mustang in capable hands is so impressive. Any chance a GT4 is Phoenix’s future? Would love to see you guys out in PWC again, and even better, giving Dean some competition in IMSA?

Thanks, and yes it is. Someone has to show up with a pile of money for a GT4 car. Just the way it is saddly. I'd love to do it, and had purchased some lottery tickets, but it didn't pay out. :cool:o_O
 

Mad Hatter

Gotta go Faster
5,237
4,227
Santiago, Chile
I wanted to share this with our race category ....but I know will get asked the following.... Is the following a legit pass???

View attachment 5516

Depends on the series or group. In SCCA and SCCA Pro, curbing is considered the racing surface. In PWC, curbing is not considered the race surface. Yes, its legit in SCCA. In hindsight I should have gone all the way track right to defend, but again with the other stuff I was trying to nurse, it was inevitable. That is one place that local knowledge seemed to have an upper hand and the willingness to go inside there. My guess is that the pavement isn't worn out all the way inside like that.
 
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I'm on 315/18 A7 hoosiers and in T1, they are pretty good on an average track. Needed different rules to get bigger tires on the car to fit. It was a long shot asking a lot from the Mustang at the track like Sonoma.



Thanks, and yes it is. Someone has to show up with a pile of money for a GT4 car. Just the way it is saddly. I'd love to do it, and had purchased some lottery tickets, but it didn't pay out. :cool:o_O
Yes, sad it is. As a guy who will likely never experience more than grassroots budget racing, I have never been able to understand where all the money comes from in IMSA and, to a lesser extent, PWC. The WeatherTech series is off the hook expensive, and the sponsorship funding is nowhere near what it needs to be to foot those bills. With Kohr as an example just in Continental, I scratch my head and wonder how they make it happen. I was clearly under the incorrect assumption that if they were in a position to do it, you guys would be too.

I definitely enjoyed following you and Kurt in PWC. Keep us posted as to what your racing plans are from season to season so we can continue to follow. I appreciate you being here on the forums with us.
 
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The ugly truth to pro road racing (and rapidly expanding to every other racing area) is very few are truly "pros". Simply put at least one driver in each car is bringing money to put that car on track. It takes cubic dollars, and real sponsors that fund the whole thing don't exist anymore. So money comes either from their family, or from their own business. My favorite is googling a driver name and sponsor and usually its easy to find a connection, although some like to keep it really discrete so they can maintain the illusion of being a "Pro" driver. It used to be people who could drive, not wreck, and won races were worth their weight in gold. Now it doesn't matter how much you hit as long as the check is good to fix the car, and the manufacturers love it as they get to re-coup those development costs.

Look at all the drivers who were young 20 years ago, but are still at the top today. They were damn good then and they still are damn good now but there is no one trusted to fill their shoes. To me the problem is the next generation of replacements never got to go far because they got pushed aside for the drivers with money. Then those drivers with money run out of money, or the next step up the team figures he paid then, they can pay now, or dad stopped writing a check after so long, and the void forms. Then add in dumb rules get written like driver rankings and banning certain rated drivers. So Billy J gets booted from the series that he cut his teeth in, and without Ford putting extra GT's on track, he doesn't have a drive.

Its cool what we have done with the S197. I wish we started with them earlier, but its still been a lot of fun pushing the chassis 4 years after it went out of production and beating on cars it had no right staying close to. And a lot of what we know is rooted in those "open" years of CTSC and PWC being able to build and fine tune the car to make it faster than the rest.
 

ArizonaBOSS

Because racecar.
Moderator
8,730
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Arizona, USA
Yeah, there is no path to entry unless you are bringing the money or you know someone willing to foot the bill.

You guys have done great stuff with the S197. Inspirations to us here, for certain.
 
Good lord, that was impressive to watch. Your setup is looser than mine, but you have the skill to make it work, and the payoff is higher mid-corner speed. Your car control in some of the corners was a joy to watch.

Inspiring stuff. Thanks AJ.

Thank you,

To me the track was looser than I had ever felt before (virtually no grip in turn 7 and turn 11) (limited experience there, once was PWC GTS/Indycar weekend so lots of good rubber on the track+ different layout, and the other was a test day in July with a car that had 1/2 the HP). So I was chasing the car a little bit more than I wanted to. In hindsight, if I hadn't missed the first testday session of the week, I would have had one more setup change, and maybe the transmission would have broke in qualifying and not the race. At that power level (alot) and downforce (not so much) Sonoma is a beast of a track.
 

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