FFR PDG GTM 2011 25 Hours Of TH Extended Version

[crash]

Here's a link to the video from photographer Alan Yordy of the 2011 25 Hours Of Thunderhill. A little long, but tells the story well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=injXC...1&feature=plcp

[kabacj]

Yep its a long video all right. But the race is 25 hours is long. Helps you get in the mood of 'yeah this race lasts forever'. The simple things are pretty amazing. You guys must go through over 200 gallons of gas. Did you turn down the exhaust outlets like that in order to direct the sound away from where they set the sound meters at the track. maybe its my imagination, but it seems like the hood is getting a bit of lift at speed. Am i just imagining that? I also noticed when the best/ last lap times were posted the 53:38 that team super truck west were putting down the same times as the mercer team sure Mercer guys had an additional 7 seconds running at their fastest pace, but it seems like Truespeed and team super truck and of course PDG had the speed to get on the podium. Im looking forward to next year. Im definitely going to go.

john

[crash]

I can tell you that we could run a pretty fast ideal lap. Not saying it would be Mercer fast, but the whole deal of an endurance race is strategy and planning. We plan what window, as far as individual lap times are concerned, we need based upon previous races competitors times, to win the race, and then try and stick as close to that as possible. Things come up. We have to deal with those, and there IS a margin for some of these built into our window target.

I can tell you that this year REALLY pumped up the team and we are going to incrementally step up a couple of areas where we think we can pick up significant time. Bang for the buck, and making sure we don't do something that is detrimental to a finish is job one, but we WILL be faster next year. With just a couple changes this year as far as details, we most certainly would have been top 3.

I think I speak for the entire FFR PDG GTM Team when I say that we simply CAN'T WAIT for next years 25!

As to your questions... yes we turn the exhaust away from the meter... yes there is a bit of lift in a GTM at the higher speeds under the nose...yes we can compete with the trucks and the Truspeed Porsche in most instances. The Truspeed car we have beaten before and really didn't think of them as a threat because they have issues with reliability and a couple other things. The trucks have to use NEW slicks to be able to beat us in the corners, but have more HP than us. In the big picture we see the FFR PDG GTM having the advantage over the LONG HAUL. In other words, the longer the race, the better we do. Mercer, however, is another issue. We're gonna have to step things up considerably if we want to take them on.