jasonberkeley

http://scca.cdn.racersites.com/prod/...turday-gp7.pdf


http://scca.cdn.racersites.com/prod/...ay-gp7PROV.pdf

Any stories or background?

fatbillybob

I raced it. The track is super fun. To be one of the first amateur racers on the newest Tilke F1 track was amazing. The track is very technical with lots of run off area and lots of fun features to test you. You can pass anywhere on the track if you set things up right. Flag stations are a bit difficult to see since they are buried in cyclone fencing. We ran 2 days testing, 1 day practice, 2 days race. Friday practice and Saturday were rain days and Sunday dry. Racing it rain is so fun! I did not bring rain tires but brought a hand tire hot knife and cut drys into intermediates right in the paddock. Kumho V710's make great inters. Group7 my group big bore group got screwed all weekend. We lost tracktime from bad SCCA Lone Star region mamangement mostly. Infact we raced twice sunday because they ran out of time saturday. That sucked waiting all day to race when we could have hunted for bar-be-que instead. By sunday group7 drivers were so punchy driving was aggressive and once they had to full course yellow and bring 3 tow trucks to pull off the beached cars. What were people thinking and that was just the cars off for the full course yellow. Guys were passing under yellows and in impound about 5 officials were all over the group trying to sort out passing under yellows. It was ugly ugly ugly out there. It seemed that cars were everywhere but on the racing surface. Natha and I and another T2 car had a great race deeper in the pack. Sunday's dry race was a bit better as far as driver control but I got bogged down in traffic. Fields were about 70 cars. I avoided an idiot coming up on my rear. He just did not look right. Later Klye who won my class and I went to dinner only to find out that the same idiot used Kyle as brakes and now Kyle needs to do some minor bodywork. Well this is SCCA clubracing at the highest level. It is not chess! Anyway the track is super fun and I want to race there again SOON!

J.R.

For: fatbillybob

It looks like the Porsche Cup cars were super fast as compared to Ron Farmers Corvette, or was it the weather?

It doesn't appear like the Corvette, under the current rules, is going to be competitive in GT2.
Your observations:

jasonberkeley

Look at Road Atlanta results from Majors race today and Sebring fom earlier in the year. I think theyll be ok.

Fast-Eddie

Road Atlanta results Sat. GT-2

1st. Pete Peterson Toyota Celica

2nd. Russ Snow Corvette

3rd. Jason Lee Audi R8 LMS


4th. Randy Kinsland Corvette.

It wasn't close at all. Peterson ran away with it.

fatbillybob

I don't know about GT2. all I can say is those P-bugs in GT2 can be placed anywhere on the track. They were giving the GT1 cars trouble and at least 1 of the GT1 cars is a 3 time national champ.. Our first sunday race was wet and the second bone dry. The first race had lots of turmoil in it and less so the second race. With all the passings under yellow and 1/2 the field getting a green on restart while the other half of the field still being shown double yellow it was certainly not a well run race by any stretch. It was actually quite a joke. Overexuburance still reigned supreme on sunday race two and there were shinanigans. Some drivers were still taking their stupid pills. It was such a joke that by race 2 halfway through I just went on a sunday drive "to take it all in" because I'm not sure "if or when" I'll ever be back racing at Cota. This was an expensive weekend like better than 5g's. I think that if there was a 3rd race laptimes and finishing positions would have been better represented. Quite honestly both our races were such a cluster f&^K I really don't think you can take anything of value away from the results. It was fun as heck though and I want to do it again!

fatbillybob

I forgot the national office was there putting data recorders in various cars I guess in an effort to collect data and justify parity. Many classes were not well represented so I'm not sure how useful that data will be. But if we are lucky all the vettes in the various classes will get some help. Those darn mustangs are very fast in T2. I think T2 vettes are over restricted or too heavy. Kyle was getting pulled in the straights all day long. I think he won because of superior racecraft, huge cahones, and lots of traffic. On an empty track the mustangs would have walked away. Andrew A was a no show and I think he would have killed the class in his T2 mustang.

jasonberkeley

Look at the Road Atlanta results from yesterday. Matt Pulano is dusting a two time T2 Natl Champ in his C5.

CP Thunder

CotA was an amazing facility. From crew standpoint......it was nice not having everything covered in gravel...LOL. Tire wear was excellent and Natha never said the track was slick other than the wet sessions (we tested Thurs in the dry too). The T2 Mustangs have some grunt are fast along with the Porsche. I am withholding judgement until we are paired up on a track we are more familiar with AND there is less traffic to deal with. It really did look like a cluster F**k out there. The GT2 Porsches embarrassed everyone in the slick sessions and held their own in the dry. Some of them made some dumbass moves (even in the practice sessions) one being a guy diving under an AS car in 17 straddling the gator forcing him to evade left slamming him into our Vette. Good news is he only needs a new door and we just buffed out the scrapes (gotta love plastic). The in car video shows a pretty good whack!! We did bend the right front wheel (Kinesis) but I think it can be repaired.

Note to Carl.......it was great meeting you! I didn't know you were 'FatBillyBob'...LOL!!

jfaphoenix32

Thanks for all of the insights about COTA. we were there for the Grand Am race the week before and had planned to stay over, but we had some car problems and decided to come home and avoid all the crowds.. Sounds like it was lots of fun Carl.

jasonberkeley

http://www.mylaps.com/results/showru...634&perclass=1

Road Atlanta Results

fatbillybob

Yes LOL! my stagename is somewhat different from my appearance. There is a story... Anyway, it was great to meet you and Natha and other racers I just get to converse with on the forums. That's one thing that makes these events so nice is that everyone is friendly and great to chat with. One day I'll get to meet the infamous Joe A. and crew. I got a taste of champagne and cavier with a big awninged transporter, limitless supplies, full crew, "arrive & drive", and granite countertoped hotel suite. Big luxury = wack the annual racing budget. Next month I'm back to reality the next majors race being at Buttonwillow, (aka dusty bumppywillow) , my open trailer, and motel 6.

rmj951

FYI Farmer was in a Viper ACRX that weekend.

Bandit 00C5

Yeah Carl was living the luxurious life with our track setup and staying dry under our awning. We all had a pretty fun weekend except for the lack of track time and laps under green. My driver really liked the track except for way too many cars and a 16yr old who thought he was going to out gun the big GT1 cars , in a GT2 Porsche, in the dry and caused a mess in turn 1 on lap 1. We came home with some cosmetic damage but oh well. Carl, see you at Buttonwillow.

Bandit 00C5

Hey Look,

There is fatbillybob in the flesh.

fatbillybob

Brian,

You guys made it a great weekend! Your team is funnier than heck until it is time to put your game faces on. The weekend would have been a lot of painful waiting around if you comedians weren't there to entertain since both our cars ran flawlessly all weekend.