Todd Benne

Sonny Whelen is taking his team to the Grand-Am Rolex GT class with a pair of Corvettes. The team will be leaving World Challenge for G-A. The cars are not yet ready, so not sure of the first race for these guys.

bosco022

Todd, do you know if they are converting the W/C cars or starting over?

Todd Benne

Chief, I took it as they were converting the WC cars. Don't hold me to it, that was my understanding.

coffey

Sweet. More Vettes in GA. Should be a great season.

Cloaked323

That should be interesting, Curran was pretty quick WC, I'd like to see how he stacks up in GA. Aren't WC Vettes faster than the GA Vettes obviously I've never compared the times, the WC cars look a lot faster.

AU N EGL

Lets see GA gets REAL TV coverage. World Challenge has moved to an off cable channel

No wonder why teams are leaving

bosco022

W/C cars have more power, but less grip. GA uses Pirelli slicks vs the
DOT type race rubber of W/C. The prep 2 tube frame cars MAY have an advantage in suspension geometry and ability to relocate weight

The lap times probably wouldn't be that much different. The front running
GT Rolex cars justed tested at Daytona running 1:49's that is super quick for the relative lack of power.

Kanmer

Another interesting little tidbit is that GA is expanding and also getting expanded TV coverage while ALMS et al is shrinking and struggling. Hmm

Bob

AU N EGL

With more corvettes n GA there should be more clout to help with rules

davidfarmer

it is a shame, my roots are in WC, but the totally screwed things up, lost sponsors and decent TV coverage, and Grand Am has it right (although I still hate the DP's). Should be an awesome year for Grand Am, and virtually no one will see WC.

I'm not switching to Dish Network just to watch WC..............

Todd Benne

World Challenge is in a world of hurt for 2010. Whelen is gone, Gunter is gone, Mike Davis is headed to ALMS GT2 in a Doran built Ford GT, Mazda money is gone so look for Tindol and Tri-Point to bail, BimmerWorld went to Continental...so who is left?

Real Time will clean up with their two cars in Tc and two cars in GTS. K-Pax and Sofranos to battle for GT honors? Then a handful or guys who jump in and out depending on the schedule. Unless club guys start coming out of the woodwork...

It is my understanding from talking to various teams lately,those that have left have lost faith in SCCA and WCVision. Most don't like the direction they are taking the series. Cost are too high, no good word on the Toyo R888 tire, Versus doubts, and most say that SCCA and WCV do not have a clue how to treat teams and sponsors. So, they are voting with their feet and leaving.

Bove can't sell series sponsorship, unstable rules, paddock favoritism, all add up to unhappy customers. It will be interesting.

joemoia

EC drove the #28 for LG in a couple of ALMS races back in '08.

Rolex GTs were about 1 sec/lap faster than WC at Laguna and Mid-Ohio

ScaryFast

Curran's a great driver but I've seen very few races where he finishes. He either wrecks or has a mechanical. Either Whelan's cars aren't built to last, or he needs to learn to be gentler on his equipment.

It will be nice to see some 'vettes, do they use solid axle cars in Rolex?

davidfarmer

Exactly the same issues that those of us with less money have been complaining about for years, more or less. Not the tires or TV at that time, but lack of consistent leadership, escalating price (for no "good" reason), and team equality have always been problems. And while they may get some large fields due to the Club cars being legal, honestly nobody wants to watch club race cars in a pro series. Diluting Trans-Am with GT1 cars didn't help, and running T1 cars in WC won't either (no offense to T1....as a former T1 racer as well)


Eric is very fast, and really seems to have only had mechanical issues the last few years. Whelen obviously builds good cars, but I have to think Eric may have had some bad hardware along the way.

I continue to like the ALMS CARS best for endurance racing, and the SPEED GT CARS for sprint racing, but the Rolex and Koni RACING is by far the most competitive and fun to watch right now.

Locke

The Tube Frame cars can run either. See the Stevenson Team's Vettes from a few years ago. They had a Riggins built car with a straight axle and a Crawford built car with a transaxle in the back.
The production based cars have limitations but Lou was commenting that they were using an aftermarket transmission. There goes that rules creep that drives costs up. I guess it's necessary when the factory pieces can't stand the strain of racing.

Riggins and Ron even had a set of drawings for a car with a removable back half to be able to run the straight axle at the high bank/smooth tracks and the transaxle at the twisty/rough tracks. GM didn't want to see Corvettes in the series so the car never got built and Stevenson went with the Pontiacs; but it was a neat idea.

Locke McCormick
North Florida Corvette Assn.
Jacksonville, FL

bjm

Now that there is no Pontiac Div it sounds like there is more support for having the Corvette run. At least in the rules, not from GM!!

Todd Benne

I wanted to provide a clarification about Whelen.

The team is building two completely brand new G-A Rolex GT spec Corvettes. They will not be converting their WCGT cars. It was deemed as not feasible to do.

Sorry for any confusion.Wanted to set the record straight.

USAsOnlyWay

I am excited to see them do battle in GA.

I stopped by and spoke with Sonny himself a few years ago when ALMS/WC still came to Portland. Super nice guy and spent time talk to us about how they were swapping a bum motor etc.

Curran is fun to watch and if the cards fall into place I can only see his stock rising.

I'm looking forward even more to GA this year.

Cloaked323

Thanks

greendot

There was a SPEED program Saturday night that featured (among others) the Stevenson cars and the Pontiacs have been converted to Camaros.