Congrats to PTG at Road America ALMS

[JimDerrig93750]

2nd place and led a number of laps. All while being down in hp and displacement to all other GT2 cars. Shows what good car prep, chassis tuning, and driving can do!!!

[Hallen]

It was great to watch Bill suck everything out of that car and track. The announcers kept talking about the aero of the car being the problem on the long straights. I woundered if it wasn't horsepower, but probably its a combination of both.
It sure was obvious that the Porsche had longer legs, and we know the Ferrari has longer legs than the Porsche after Portland.

Did you see Bill almost outpace LMP cars in the corners? That was pretty cool to see. I know that GT2 cars corner almost as well as LMP cars, but to see Bill hold and sometimes increas gaps in the corners was pretty cool.

[Jim Derrig 93 750]

1. ABS definitely helped at some of the corners.
2. At the slow corners the LMP's lose all that downforce and are not quite so invincible, especially if the GP2 has ABS.
3. Road America is a very deceptive course. The curves don't look like much on a 2-dimensional TV screen, and with the long straights you'd think it would be a power circuit like Monza. But it's not. The corners are trickier than they look. Tidy, controlled entry followed by good balance to carry speed through the turn are important and PTG showed both. Good driving and good engineering. Thus, congrats to the team.

Man, I've got to come up with an excuse to go drive that circuit. :)

[PTGSport]

1 more thought...or somethin'...keep in mind that 1 second behind at 160 mph is like 230+ feet or something (math skills are non-warranty items) while 1 second behind at 60mph is 87 feet (about)so cars always appear to close up in corners, and ok another sort of thought...you're totally right about the reduced downforce, the skill of the drivers and team...and braking from 180 takes alot more energy dissipation than braking from 150 and the LMP's get to use less and less of their grip as the aero-load comes off.

Just fun to think about it is all

[Hallen]

Road America is a very cool track. The corners are very deceptive and a lot faster than you would think. Turn 1 can be taken at over 100mph in a LMP. 8-0

I have a copy of rFactor (a racing ~sim) just for the reason of driving some real tracks just to see kinda what they are like. It is nothing like a real car of course, but you get the idea. Road America is very, very fun to drive.

I did see the BMW seemingly increase gaps a bit in the corners over a LMP, but that could have just been the lead and lag because of decel and accelerations. Anyway, it was a good showing. I just love seeing that M3 out there. I have a whimpy 323 that I love to drive and seeing that M3 on the track is just too cool.

[Jim Derrig 93 750]

I'm totally with you on thought one:

While the distance between the cars decreases, the TIME between the cars does not decrease, because the cars are going slower. This only is true, of course, for the average speed between the braking point on entry, through "track out" and back to full throttle--the instantaneous time between the cars will vary depending on where each car is in the turn.

Thus, we get an "accordian" affect in which it looks like the trailing car is catching up as it enters the turn, and then suddenly is losing ground as the car in front passes the apex, applies throttle, and exits the turn. The real points to compare are (1) distance to front car immediately before entry braking point, with (2) distance to front car upon trailing car's completion of track out.

Only then can you be sure you're closing the gap. Using that perspective, I was very impressed with Auberlin's speed through the turns.

[PTGSport]

As the P car hits the middle of the corner and begins to ad back throttle, the speed picks up the aero starts to work more efficiently and the power/weight ratio is better than the GT...Bill's just throwin' that thing through there with the kitchen sink and hanging on.

Best way to compare since they usually have slightly different turn-in points and apexes...is to do segment times at the entrance and the exit, after the initial turn in and before the final exit....or we could just ask for the data and read the mph at the apex!

HAve a great day!

[Kaptain]

Risi needs full-season drivers to be more competitive.