Super Lap Battle USA @ COTA
 

So, Global Time Attack had a meeting at SEMA where they made a couple of announcements and gathered some driver feedback. A video of the meeting is available on their Facebook page. Anyways, one of the announcements was of a standalone annual event called Super Lap Battle USA, and it looks like the end goal is to grow it into something WTAC-esque for North America and to also attract international competition and the likes. The way GTA is headed, it looks like there will be less small events like Pro-Am ones in order to focus on the big events. Also Super Lap Battle at Buttonwillow is still happing in 2019 and beyond but will now just be known as GTA Finals and not "Super Lap Battle X GTA Finals".

There's more info on the way but there is a date, which is February 16-17, 2019. My car won't be ready by then but I'm going to try to make it out there to spectate for sure. This first one will be the feeler event and they also have a date for 2020 where it's been said they will have at least 6 international teams shipping cars in to compete.

They just created an Instagram page so updates will likely pop up there as well.

https://instagram.com/superlapbattle

I think this is a pretty cool idea. I'd love to come out and watch, especially if there's a decent miata-bro crew going on.

I'll definitely go check it out since it's in my backyard.

That's in my buddy's backyard so it'd give me another excuse to go down and visit him

Hell yeah!

Well now I actually have to build a racecar!

Yep, that's exactly why they are shifting the focus to one big "Superbowl" event like this instead of spreading time and resources thin trying to put on more small events. Focus on making the big event BIG and it gives everyone a proper world-class reason to build cars for something truly epic. There are a lot of cool builds in North America gathering dust as they slowly get worked on in the back corner at a pace that will never see them finished because there hasn't been something to really fire everyone up. The goal here is to change that. I love it, I think the vision is on point. I'll be making sure that I figure out how to get there and support the event in 2019 so that it can grow into what it wants to become a couple years on.

Active aero, go!

When Namco raced in Chump Car at VIR a few years back they had active aero. Hooked up a headlight motor to the wing and the brake. It apparently worked really well. Not sure how common this is, as I have not seen any other teams doing it.

Serious question, would your active suspension system be of any use in this application?

Both independently and in concert with active aero, yes. SOP in modern supercars.

The difference in requirements for the two long straights vs all the mid and high speed turn complexes would make active aero very useful. Buttonwillow doesn't have any long straights.

Keith @ FM did this some years ago on his targa car.
I've been running an active wing on Creampheus but went the opposite way, going with a DRS setup to increase straightway speeds.

Just what I need. To drive all the way to TX to have my ass kicked by a bunch of Miatas...

:rofl:

If ever there was a track that could negate the Miata's advantage, this is it.

In that case, time to tune the SB2.2 to "party mode"!

What's interesting about COTA is both power and aero are at play.
The of the two straights one is really long and the other one climbs hard, and both of which are being lead into by slow corners, so you definitely need allofit in the power department.
But, there are also many med / high speed corners that aero grip will reward, so there's that too.
I like this.

I'd roll out to watch, COTA is a short drive