American Le Mans Series at Coronado DE

[944Greg]

That last track session of the day with Red and White run group together felt like the American Le Mans Series with the Red run group playing the part of the P1 and P2 cars and the White run group 944's playing the part of the GT class cars.

They came up on me like the P cars on the GT cars, and when they passed, I didn't have to lift the gas. I then slipped in behind them for a tow. My fastest lap of the day was on a lap when I pointed by 3 Red group cars. It was .5 sec faster than my earlier fastest lap. At least they weren't flashing their headlights to pass. This was only a DE after all.

What a fun day. I can't wait for the Pahrump Time Trial next month. The Spring Mountain track is sooooo smooth of a surface, plenty of runnoff and no tire walls.

Greg
944spec #728

[Jackie C]

Greg,
Thank you so much for offering me gas at the DE. What was your fastest lap?

[Greg Trigeiro]

1.25.7, and a whole lot of 1.26's. I had some pretty consistent times.

Some of the Red group passed me twice during that last joint run group session.

Bill Ibbetson looked great out their, very fast driving for that car.

What were the Red run group times?

Greg

PS I know it was a non-timed event, a DE, but someone set up a Hot Laps anyway.
PPS I seem to remember Hot Laps set up at the Fontana DE too.

[pdy]

I had consistent 1:19.low, and some 1:18.x (with Students). I'm sure some Red-Group cars were several seconds faster (Jae, Erik/Roland, Jad, etc.).

BTW, I was nervous about mixing the Red and White groups, but it was effortless, and everyone was totally courteous and aware - many thanks!

[Jad]

First the excuses: It was VERY hard to get a clean lap, it was more of a fun event, always had a passenger, usually a large navy guy, old tires, a car with 3 drivers, hard walls, too many crashes and threats, etc, etc, but the best I saw was a 1:16. I am sure a sub 1:15, probably a 1:13 or so would have been doable at a time trial. Sure makes for LOTS of laps, even in a 20 minute session. I usually came in after a dozen or so laps.

[LUCKY DAVE]

old tires

Ha Ha, we all had old tires, the usual "DE specials" .
I dragged some stone-dead-from-heat-cycles 888's off of a junk pile in back of the garage where they'd been sitting in the sun for over a year, blew off the black widows, and mounted them. If they still held air, they were perfect! As bad as that sounds, I know many cars were skating on worse.
Mixing the red and white went very smoothly from my point of view (the view out of my rear view mirror ). When one of the "big cars" cars came up behind, they did it so fast it really got your attention, as soon as I saw them they got an instant point-by.
The cars in front of me gave the same attentive courtesy. It all worked out great.
The fact that most of us know each other and have driven against each other before certainly helped.

[davidsq]

BTW, I was nervous about mixing the Red and White groups, but it was effortless, and everyone was totally courteous and aware - many thanks

BUMP...

that was pretty cool, good heads up bye all the drivers

They came up on me like the P cars on the GT cars, and when they passed, I didn't have to lift the gas. I then slipped in behind them for a tow.

i didn't even see you... that was fun.

i was trying to get roland that same session, my best was also a 1:16.1 (as the G2X sayz)

ALWAYS TRY TO GET THE "FASTER CAR" , not the driver

DQ

[mrondeau]

That was a lot of fun. I got to run in almost every run group towing around navy personnell and with the exception of a certain vintage P car in the white group, everyone was courteous. My hot lap worked intermittently all day. I scrolled through the recorded times and my best was a 1:23:13 with most of my times in the 124:xx to 126:xx. I don't have any excuses as the car was running well and the RA1's were gripping very well. It was a very technical track and exhilarating to drive. Thanks again to everyone who helped put on this event and those drivers who came out to support it.

[rshon]

Wow, Mark, 1:23 in a 944 is smoking! I spent more than my share of time following the little silver car in the white group. He was fast in the top end down the front straight, but he cornered like a rhino. Since he was clearly "blue/yellow colorblind", I put my car in each of his three mirrors, flashed my headlights just like in ALMS, and even honked my horn at him at one point.
Running with the red group at the end of the day was fun. I managed a couple of laps in the 1:22's chasing a Corvette and one of the 911 race cars. With all the bumps, it was certainly getting "interesting"...Good fun! Thanks to the DE Team for all the hard work!
-R

[Jackie C]

Had a student and 13 passengers in addition. Loved the track. Best when the hot lapper worked was a flat 1.22 on 40 treadwear (NEW for a change tires) Jad still shames me.