944 Spec with POC at Cal Speedway

[PeanutinCA]

Well, looks like nobody else is giving a report, so I will ;

 

It was a weekend of good weather and fun racing. Obviously I didn't get to watch the race with the 944;s or even partake in that action, so I can only give a review from the post pit conversations. Some of the usual suspects were there, Pete Yousko, Mark Foley, Mikael Wietze, Jim Richmond, Don Neville and John Momeyer. Due to car troubles, Mikael at borrowed/rented Eric Sorenson's old car which, I think made a 'great' match for some of the current front running cars. This put the driving into the equation and (for me), removed any car questions. Now, I can only compare (time wise) to 2 years ago when I ran, I don't know what people were running last year? It looks like everybody upped their games by a few tenths so, progression continues.

 

Sat found Mikael on pole at 2:00.9, Foley only 2 tenths behind in off po9le and Yousko in 3rd at 2:02.3. I understand the race found Foley hounding Wietze during the entire race, to finish in the starting order by a MERE half second (according to MyLaps). Mikael and Mark swapped fast laps during the race, with Mark actually running the fastest lap of the race, a speedy 2:00.943 to Mikael's 2:00.958, now THAT'S some close racing. Well done guys. Pete Youko rounded it our in 3rd, Richmond 4th and Momeyer in 5th.

 

Sunday it appears everybody got a little faster, setting new personal bests. Mikael's pole for Sundays race was a 1:59.4 with Foley in hot pursuit at a 2:00.6. The out lap for Mikael was not great as a front shock mount (upper bolt) came off and left the front wheel not wanting to head in the direction Mikael wanted to point it. This gave the win to Foley but, I'm sure he would have given Mikael a fight for it anyway had Mikael not fallen out with mechanical issues. Jim Richmond brought it home in second. Unlucky in love Pete had an over heating issue at the end of Sat's race and did not start. I'm not sure where Momeyer was for Sunday?

 

Mikael was able to redeem his Sunday race finish by repairing the car to make the Time Trial (track record) attempt. He managed to snatch the old track record away (from yours truly), besting the old time by a few tenths. The new track record now stands at 2:00.783 which, from memory makes it about 4 tenths quicker. Congrats to Mikael. Maybe next year I will have to enter the GSR Time Trial and borrow someone's car for a shot at getting my old title back?

 

Congrats to all 944'ers and hope you enjoyed the racing.

 

As a side note, the Boxster Spec Time Trial was decided to 3 / 1,000 ths. Now that's some close racing!!!! Oh, and pole was decided by 3 tenths also. Gotta love the spec racing.

 

P.Dilly.

[Spec-944#70]

Great post PD! I was waiting to see what if anything was said. I think the only thing left to prove it would be a shootout in a TT format. Maybe TC can get 2-3 of his cars to the track and then we have the top drivers take stints in each car to get used to them and then have a TT shootout. You can total the fastest laps in each of the test cars and then the driver with the lowest total combined time wins. Of course part of racing is traffic management but this way you could be fairly safe with regaurds to car damage.

If this happens I'll even put up $100 cash to the winner. It can be done on a Friday test day at any of the tracks before a weekend event. It should also put to rest any driver cheating issues especially if Mike wins in cars other than his own.

$100 dollars so far! Maybe some of the other drivers would like to ante up and we could turn this into a true Driver Championship. Do it on a crossover weekend and maybe Norm, Glen and Joe (plus others) could join. You too PD and Jim, Mark, Pete.

Could be fun and VERY informational!!!

[PeanutinCA]

I'd put in $100 towards rental. And yes, I would certainly take a shot at the title!

 

P.D.

[nhamden]

I'm in, how about 1 CA track and 1 AZ track?

[Tim Comeau]

.....and you'd be in there for the title, too, Dilly!

ah , ..for the good ole' days.....

[Spec-944#70]

So Tim are you in? CRE could sponsor the event by providing the cars used. You could call it the "CRE Drivers Championship"!! In fact I'll toss in another $100 for car support. It can be used for the cost of the cars whoever owns them and $100 for the winning driver. This way there will be no traffic to deal with, no excuses on bad equipment on that day as all drivers will rotate through the same cars.

It could settle alot of arguements as to cheating and driver ability.

[Tim Comeau]

Sounds fun on the surface. I'm ready to stack my driving skills against anyone else's in equal cars. That's why I joined this calss in the first place!!

Remember, all my races were won in a car with 133 HP/134TQ, stock headers, and an OPEN diff.

 

One problem we may have is fitting different drivers in different cars?

 

The new black car has an LSD and it's supposed to be a Guard GT unit. I haven't verified that yet, but at the AX shakedown last weekend, it was a different driving experience. I still need to learn how to optimize driving the car with that LSD thingie back there......

[PeanutinCA]

The new black car has an LSD and it's supposed to be a Guard GT unit. I haven't verified that yet, but at the AX shakedown last weekend, it was a different driving experience. I still need to learn how to optimize driving the car with that LSD thingie back there......

 

So to read between the lines, does that mean you "didn't" find the car to be faster straight off the bat? How was your experience with the LSD in the car over no LSD's in the past? Of course I'm curious about that too. I did do 2 laps in Hirschie boys car at Streeets when he fitted the LSD and man what a nice car to drive it becomes.

 

P.D.