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Ryan is crushing the limited class in his Hypermiata.
Jensen in his NC is battle for FTOD with James in his Integra
Looks like Ulrich had a bit of an off, too much curb contact or some sort of structural failure of the splitter/right front fender area.
Excited to see the times drop after they get the oil spill cleaned up and the track starts to warm a bit.
Looks like Ulrich was able to get the car repaired and was back out for Group 1 Session 2 after the big S2000 oil spill. The Lyfe GTR my one flying lap and is running 2:13 while Houghton found 4 seconds to run a 2:14. Jenson ran another 2:19 but pulled off for a bit just before turn 1. He seems to have it sorted however. Ryan has picked up a load of time as well.
Still find pretty interesting that GTD (GT3) cars in IMSA were doing sub 2:10s (2:08.5 in Q) on those shitty Contis. No one in Unlimited is even close with twice the HP and no "BoP". At SMP in WTAC, Pro cars are 7-8s faster than GT3 now.
EDIT: In Pirelli World Challenge they actually managed 2:04s in Q... Pirellis helped obviously. 911 Cup cars can do 2:10s.
Gonna take my dog for a hike before he loses his mind, then head back that way. Didn't get a chance to drop by and say hello yesterday, but will try to today.
Yea it would be nice if there were a list of drivers and cars with at least some info on setup and class. COTA is a huge track so I definitely agree that Ryan’s car would benefit from more power at a circuit like this.
This was a fantastic event, and the level of access around COTA was nuts. We ended up on the podium by accident and watched most of the Saturday morning sessions up there. Seeing Hyper up close was great too. Can't wait to go back next year.
What a weekend!
For me it started with the most insane flight delay which was a comical level or errors and fuckups, my projected 4.5 hours flight from Burbank to Austin ended up taking ~20 hours.
Way to go, American Airlines.
By the time Ryan picked me up from the airport it was Friday morning instead of Thursday evening and I was on ~30 minutes of sleep total.
Quick power nap and I was ready for some drag reduction crash fab on Hyper, AirBnB driveway FTW!
We had to unload at the track around 6ish, so we packed up in the middle of the work and drove to the track with the idea that we will finish fabbing the long tail side extensions at the track.
COTA is an unbelievable facility, makes any track I've ever been to look like a caveman special.
We shared garage with our friends from Lyfe Motorsports GTR and the K-Tuned/Lavigne ITR and it was fun and hilarious all weekend, and Friday night we were all working away on the cars.
By the time we got the long tail done it was just past midnight.. I wasn't going to get a ton of sleep tonight either, haha!
Back at the track early the next morning, we finished last prep on the car and sent Ryan out with the car as is, we wanted to get a baseline on the car before we put on the new pieces on.
As soon as session one was over, we had the chief tech walking into our garage to tell us that we've been protested, and they were going to hold the protest.
Part of the game, as annoying as it may be... It's also a compliment, if someone is so scared of a 320 HP Miata at COTA, no less!
But, it was still crunch time and we had the choice of either destroying Ryan's existing trunk lid or fabricating a new one, luckily our friends from UMS Tuning offered us a piece of Alumalite that they had in the trailer (thanks guys!) and some 20 minutes later I had that baby done and on the car.
We had a few more minutes before the session so I took a sec to cut some Red vinyl stripes and match the old trunk so you barely even noticed it wasn't the same one, while Ryan added the "Protest This!" sticker on the back
On the downside, this meant that our long tail extensions cannot be used as I originally designed them to connect with the old trunk, so I had to modify them before they even went on the car...
There was a delay because of oil on track which caused the next two sessions to be bunched up, and by the time everything was sorted out we only had the 4th session to put the new pieces on the car.
The session didn't pan out as planned but we still had the next day to put it together.
Later that night after some much anticipated TX BBQ (the hype is real!) we went over the data and video and saw where we can pick up a good chunk of time.
I also got a little more sleep that night which was "a good thing".
The first session on Sunday was a throwaway in terms of times, someone spun out right in front of Ryan on hot lap and there were some traffic issues, the wind picked up etc...
We had a game plan for session 2 and knew that there's at least a low 2:22 or a high 2:21 in the car.
Ryan goes out and comes right back in with a gearbox full of 2nd gears.
Game over.
Ultimately, the gearbox dying didn't change the result for us, and the 5th position in the biggest class is a fantastic result.
The chances to get 4th were extremely slim and the podium was well out of reach with Hyper's power level... for comparison sake, the third place GTR has some ~800 HP and active aero, and that was good enough for 3rd.
The car needs ~150-200 HP more to be a top contender in COTA, and we never even got all the parts that we fabricated to cut drag on the car.
We came, we saw, we put down a very respectable time and we'll be back for more next year.
Super Lap Battle 2019 was a huge success IMO as an event, despite the very short notice.
Kudos to GTA and everyone involved in the making of this event, it was brilliant!
Would you mind on elaborating what they were protesting? I'm assuming something with the duck bill. As someone who is about to add a duck bill to the trailing edge of my hatch and also prepping for GTA limited in the future, I'd be very interested to know if there's something I'm misinterpreting, but I understand if its top secret, too. Thanks!
Would you mind on elaborating what they were protesting? I'm assuming something with the duck bill. As someone who is about to add a duck bill to the trailing edge of my hatch and also prepping for GTA limited in the future, I'd be very interested to know if there's something I'm misinterpreting, but I understand if its top secret, too. Thanks!
Would also like to know this.....you would think with hammer head fronts, dive planes, flat floors, diffusers and anything else all and sundry, a duck bill protest would be laughable!
And congrats on a great result. Look forward to seeing next year when the package can be a bit more finalised before hand.....and for goodness sake add a turbo or something!
Super Lap Battle COTA
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