gmblack3

From jayski.com

Cup teams test COT on VIR road course: Nearly 25 NASCAR stars testing the Car of Tomorrow for its road course debut flocked to VIRginia International Raceway Tuesday, taking advantage of the track's test days to prepare for the Sonoma and Watkins Glen races. The day went almost without incident as #20-Tony Stewart had an engine problem almost as soon as he hit the track in the morning. Then #11-Denny Hamlin had a differential failure late in the day, causing the car to be towed in behind a team truck. The best lap times of the day, on VIR's 2.25-mile North Course, hovered just under one minute, twenty-nine seconds, but differences in tires and sometimes in time of day, make absolute comparisons meaningless. Several teams had laps around 1:28.8, including #43-Bobby Labonte, #47-Marcos Ambrose, and the Hendrick team's development driver. With the wide variety of tires used, Labonte joked that at Sonoma, at least everyone would be on the same tires. He also expressed hope that they would be "better" than the tires used last weekend at Lowe's Motor Speedway's Coca Cola 600, where some teams elected not to change tires for one or two fuel stops. Testing continues on Wednesday, with several teams leaving after Tuesday's testing ended, but several more expected. Teams expected to test on Wednesday include Hendrick, Joe Gibbs, DEI, RCR, Petty, Hall of Fame Racing, Ray Evernham and several others.
VIRginia International Raceway is a multi-purpose road racing facility, located just on the Dan River between Danville and South Boston, Virginia. Reopened in 2000, VIR today hosts nearly every kind of motorsport event possible. VIR's next major event is the June 8-10 Heacock Classic Gold Cup Historic Races, where fans can see classic racing cars celebrating the track's fiftieth anniversary. Legendary driver and creator of the Cobra Carroll Shelby has agreed to be Grand Marshal and will be reunited with the Maserati 450S model he drove to a victory in the track's first feature race. Tickets are available online at the track's web site, www.virclub.com, by logging onto www.etix.com or by calling the track at 434.822.7700.(VIR PR)(5-30-2007)

Maineiac

So..is that a good lap time?? It MUST be slow...everyone knows that NASCAR guys aren't that good..they usually just drive around in circles all day.... That takes NO skill.... They can't turn right.....

AU N EGL

So far with a quick look the best time I could find was 2006, last year. a Porsche 996 Cup car did 1:39, the a BMW WC 325 at 1:41.7

AJRocketeer

Considering a modern day T1 car would do about a 1:33
In 2000 ( if i remember correctly) Motorola Cup ran the North Course at VIR and the fast time in a Corvette was a 1:34.1, and now with the A6 tires a T1 car is just a tick faster depending on track.

Falcon

Seems like the good times I remember were in the low 1:40's high 1:30's, and that was by some very good club racers. Those sub 1:30's are pretty impressive knowing what that north course is like.

Bink

yeah, that's what I was thinking!

trumper Z06

There are a few good road racers in NA$CAR... Tony Stewart and Jeff Gorden certainly are.

Those NA$CAR road course cars are fast. We have seen a few Ex-Nascar cars at various D E Events, and they are hard to catch.

AU N EGL

Yup they turn into NASA Super Unlimteds or SCCA SPO / GT1 cars.

and 750 bhp 358 ci ain't nothing to fool with.

LG Motorsports

Don't forget that they weigh about 3700+ pounds too

I have raced with alot of them and guys like Boris and Ron Fellows are no slouch when it comes to getting these heavy taxi cabs around a road course.

I would suspect that Boris and Ron would be even faster plus they are testing for the first time on a road course.

Racers are Racers, and these guys are really good racers. Ambrose came from the Australian V8 Supercar series so he also knows his way around the road courses.

At the Glen, a cup car will turn a 1:09 and a world Challenge car will turn a 1:18. They race what they are given and you would be surprised how good the Cup drivers really are.

Just my .02

LG

VIR Grand Am GT time this year was a 1:53.878 on the long course.

WNDOPDLR

Maybe Chris Ingles will chime in. We had a TT up there earlier this year and he spanked everybody. I don't remember what his times were. I compared them with mine and selective amnesia kicked in.

AU N EGL

Chris did a 2:05.xx on FULL course.

LG Motorsports

By the way Tom, Thanks for the help last week at Charlotte.

We appreciate it.

LG

dmwhite

29's is pretty smoking in those big heavy cars...the north course defintely lessens the benefit of high hp...it rewards good handling and good driving

if they had good track conditions, that's pretty slow for those cars

iirc, Chris was running 35's...i ran 37's in a friends bmw club race car, on r3s04's (i didnt think anyone still had any of those, and they were pretty dicey )

AU N EGL

T1 1 7 Chris Ingle C5 Vett 01:35.8 01:35.4 FTD
T1 2 20 Russ Snow C5 Vett 01:37.2 01:37.4 FT2
ITE 1 275 David White M3 01:37.8 01:38.3 FT3

racerjon1

I have run in the 1:42 range on street tires, and have seen cars run it in the 1:39 range on street tires. (One Lap of America front-runners. I ran 8th going 1:46, 1:42, 1:42.

There should be no doubt that a NASCAR cup car is still fast though, at CMP I have seen them run 1:38's which is just behind Porsche Cup times with a pro driver.

For more comparison, at Indy when they did the swap Gordon/Montoya were in the 1:39/1:38 range and the Porsche Cup cars run 1:35-1:36.

Jon K