Had a pretty good weekend. We ran two events this weekend. The three hour WERC race and the two hour US Touring Car race. The USTCC race is supposed to be televised on Cable Sports Network next month. We won the USTCC race for the GT class. We won the USTCC overall, and we came in 4th in the WERC race. We had to down size our engine and add some weight for the USTCC rules and we also made an extra pit stop which put us in 4th out of 8 cars in the WERC.
The USTCC was a standing start and it went very well. Video to follow. Great time even though myself and my co-driver, Steve Lisa, were both a bit under the weather. I was getting over a long term cold, and Steve got the stomach flue on Friday night. He was barfing all weekend and only ran 20 minutes of the races.
One of the things that is really cool is that they are going to have live feeds from all the cars in the future. They used the system this weekend and it worked well. I believe that will be on www.speedcast.me but I am not 100% sure. Probably also available through the USTCC website.
In a car I've only the more common rolling start. I know the rolling start is safer, but the standing start drag race is awesome. Can't wait to see the video of that.
XTF #2
build start date June 19 2023
GTM # 344
Build Start December 2010
First track day April 2013
In a car I've only the more common rolling start. I know the rolling start is safer, but the standing start drag race is awesome. Can't wait to see the video of that.
Funny story about that. I have raced various things for the last 30 years or so...I have never done a standing start. I was wondering if I should try the start in 2nd gear and just slip the clutch? With the clutch problem we had at last years 25 hour race I decided I needed to at least have some practice starts before doing it with 20 some cars behind me and a car in front of me, so out to the track entrance road I went. I did a couple of 1st-2nd starts and they went pretty good. We only had about 400 HP because of the power to weight rules of the USTCC. Still lit up the rear slicks (already hot as I just came off of a test session on the track) and basically I had to shift IMMEDIATELY. Broke loose in second as well, but very manageable. 2nd gear start was a NO GO. Tried it once and the car bogged down so much that it would have destroyed the clutch had I tried to slip it enough to make it work. So on to the real deal...
Line up and the starter takes what seemed like an eternity to hold up the flag. He drops it, I dump it, I grab 2nd and I wonder why no one else is moving? I'm thinking I must have totally dogged this standing start thing when the pole car that was in front of me and is now to my right side starts coming back up on me. Yeah he definitely had some big torque, even if our HP numbers were supposed to be "equal". Anyway, so I not only got the start right, I got it REALLY right and was battling for the lead right from the start. The Camaro did pull a couple seconds in front of me, but then we stayed about the same...until I made a mistake at about 120 MPH and took the FFR PDG GTM off roading. Almost saved it, but didn't. I hit a bump and it was all over. Either bent or damaged a tire on the left rear, so I had to go in to the pits for a new tire. Crew were great and had it changed in about 2 minutes and I went back out. We ended up coming back out in 4th place. I made pretty quick work of the third place car and thought I MIGHT be able to catch the second place car if things went well. Set up a pretty fast pace and just started clicking off laps. There were something like 50 cars on the track and although we were running 1:55s there were cars that were as slow as 2:12 or so, and it seemed like some of them I was passing every third lap or so...it was BUSY. This is actually why I went off the track. Trying to pass a group of three slower cars and thought they were going to go right to set up for the corner coming up and they all stayed left. I had already committed to going left and had probably 30 MPH on them. It was either run into the back of one of those cars, or go in the dirt. I chose the dirt. Anyway, so as I am turning decently fast laps and trying to just make sure the car makes it to the finish, the crew had done some calculations and figured that if I could close on the third place car by a couple seconds a lap that we MIGHT be able to beat him when he had to come in the pits for fuel. They said "go faster" and I said "no problem", even though it was a slight problem with all that traffic. Long story short the Camaro then experienced a fuel pump failure and it was just me and the BMW, which I was closing in on pretty quickly. He had to pit for fuel in the last 15 minutes of the 2 hour race and when he came out I was 6 seconds ahead. This energized me a bit and I put the hammer down. Twelve minutes later and we won the class and the overall for our first USTCC race by some 35 seconds. It was a really fun weekend, and while we didn't finish on the podium for the WERC 3 hour endurance race, we are only 20 points out after this first race and the two series do not run on the same weekend again for the rest of the year, so we should be more competitive in each series as we can focus on what we need to do for each separately now.
The USTCC race in Utah will be combined with the Lucas Oil TORC series, so we should get even more TV time and also have a crowd of some 30,000+ spectators in attendance. I can't wait!
I love the standing start. On motorcycles that's all I ever did for 11 years of racing. A rolling start is weird for me. The drag race into turn one with cold tires where you are going way slower than you normally go on a normal lap. Your braking markers are all wrong. Much more crowded in turn 1 with cars tho. it's a great place to pickup positions or pull a big gap.
Running a 400 hp GTM is not all bad. As you say it's still hard to launch with wheel spin in first and second. Might be easier to extract 100% from a slightly less powerful car.
Good story. Thanks for sharing.
XTF #2
build start date June 19 2023
GTM # 344
Build Start December 2010
First track day April 2013
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Originally Posted by kabacj
it's a great place to pickup positions or pull a big gap. 
