WERC 2020 Round #1

[crash]

The FFR PDG GTM raced in round #1 of the 2020 Western Endurance Racing Championship and scored MAXIMUM POINTS at Willow Springs International Raceway this weekend.

Drivers were returning 25 hour drivers Carl Rydquist and Beau Borders in the 3.5 hour timed event.

Before this race, due to rules changes, we had discussed which class we would race in. The issue was that if we chose to race in the class we have traditionally raced in, ES, then we would have to run a different ECU map that limited our horsepower. OTOH we could run in the ESR class and not have to limit the output of the GM LS3. The downside to running ESR was that we would be running against made for racing only cars like the Norma and Radical type cars.

Our competition from the last few years, Tom Hacker and his no holds barred GT3 Cup Porsche, was running in ESR and that kind of pushed it over the edge, so we decided that this year we would try out the ESR class.

This led to a second fastest qualifying time to a Norma, but only by about a second, so we started outside on the front row.

The race started and for the first few laps Carl and the Norma had pulled away from the field and battled for the lead. Carl led for quite a few laps, but then finally we decided that we should take the longer view of 3.5 hours and let the Norma go. The Norma led for quite some time but eventually succumbed to mechanical issues and the FFR PDG GTM became the overall race leader. This continued until the driver change and fuel stop at one hour and 45 minutes into the race. Everything went well with the pit stop but Beau re-entered the race in 2nd position overall and first in class. Our friend the Porsche was in second in ESR but had a couple of long pit stops that put him two laps down to us. This ended up being fortunate for us as about an hour into Beau's stint a lapped car ran into the side of the GTM with enough force to break the door/bodywork/Sheetmetal/side skirt just in front of the right rear wheel. Beau would now run considerably slower lap times but we decided to keep him out as we didn't figure there was enough time for the Porsche to catch us. The Porsche did unlap himself, but we came home the victor.

1st in class and 2nd overall. While we are always trying for the overall win, we will take the maximum points for the year end points and look forward to the next race which is a Trans-Am event on March 15th.

[beeman]

I think it is insane that your GTM is competitive with Radical/Norma! Blows my mind.
Awesome job, as usual.

[crash]

I think it is insane that your GTM is competitive with Radical/Norma! Blows my mind.
Awesome job, as usual.

Thanks for the compliment, but I feel I should point out that the FFR PDG GTM is really a collaborative effort by the many volunteers to the PDG team, and facilitated by car owners Richard and Yvonne Migliori. Of course we couldn't do it without our many sponsors also, including Factory Five Racing.

As to being competitive with the Norma...this track lends itself to our car being as fast as the Norma because they build for relative low horsepower, light weight, high corner speeds and not much top end speed. Whereas the FFR PDG GTM is focused on corner speeds, but gives up any weight advantage with it's relatively large and heavy drivetrain. This gives the car much more top end speed but makes it a bit harder to get through the corners. Willow Springs is a very fast track and thus we are able to out top speed the little sports racers there.

[RR46]

Richard and team (crash, Jim, lot of volunteers) have built one incredible car and the team is so seasoned, it's incredible. The GTM is an absolute beast. Also, the NASA WERC series attracts a lot of serious builds and turn key racecars run by very talented teams and drivers, this season will definitely be an exciting one.

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