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Chuckwalla 4 Hour WERC Race
We had the first race of the year for the FFR PDG GTM race team February 18th and ended up 5th overall and 2nd in class.
Had some issues with tire wear and lighting, but driver Ken Kurtz did a great job in an unfamiliar car and running on a track he had never driven before.
Hit a curb about halfway thru the event and damaged the left rear lower control arm, but was still able to finish the race. The curbing at Chuckwalla is large and I heard a Lotus Evora lost two left side rims and tires from hitting a curb here the day before our race. To be honest, this track, while improving over the years, is not the greatest. It is the most isolated location I have ever been to for a racetrack, the pit spaces are dirt/gravel, and there is no pit wall. Paddock is nice and freshly paved, but I can't figure out why they would not also pave the pit spaces. Very odd.
Anyway, with dozens of changes last year to the car, this was a very successful event for our team as it was the first long-run test of all the "upgrades".
Next race is a 6 hour event at Buttonwillow Raceway on April 15th.
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Ok, I have been listening to Adrian Newey's audio book too much lately, yes as some pointes in his career he was the race engineer, so....
What was the GTM's strengths and weaknesses compared to the first and/or third place car?
What were the GTM's strengths and weaknesses before hitting the curb?
Other than fixing the suspension damage, what needs done before Buttonwillow Raceway?
And because I am very selfish, what setup/tips/tricks can I steal and use on my streetcar to make it have a better driving experience, not just measuring outright track speed? (A reoccurring question that Gordon Murry askes for the cars he designs).
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Please see the answers within your quote...
Originally Posted by
doug_porsche
Ok, I have been listening to Adrian Newey's audio book too much lately, yes as some pointes in his career he was the race engineer, so....
What was the GTM's strengths and weaknesses compared to the first and/or third place car?
2 of the 4 cars in front of us were LMP cars. A Norma and a Ligier. Unless they break we will never beat them with straight up speed. They are 8-10 seconds a lap faster than us, and rightfully so as $300k prototype cars that are 800 lbs lighter than us. They were in a different class. The Porsche that was in our class and won our class...well...we always have some good racing with him, but this is his home track, and we have never raced here before. His speed was super impressive as he was only 22 seconds behind the 1st place Ligier and beat the Norma. Both the GTM and the Porsche have fuel load advantages over the LMP cars and the longer the race the more this comes into play. The other car that beat us overall was because we had to pit at least 3 times because of tire wear issues after the curb incident. We used all our race tires and our spare tires during this 4 hour race.
What were the GTM's strengths and weaknesses before hitting the curb?
Our main strength is our fuel capacity. We can run over 2.5 hours on a fuel load. Our major weakness here was that we had never run this track before. Either team or driver.
Other than fixing the suspension damage, what needs done before Buttonwillow Raceway?
The digital dash needs to be reconfigured, we need to work on an electrical issue with the main lights, and there is possibly an exhaust leak or something else wrong that is making the engine run very rich.
And because I am very selfish, what setup/tips/tricks can I steal and use on my streetcar to make it have a better driving experience, not just measuring outright track speed? (A reoccurring question that Gordon Murry askes for the cars he designs).
If you do a search for alignment threads on here I have given those specs over and over again. That is the biggest thing you can do to make your GTM comfortable to drive on the street...get the alignment correct.
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