Quote:
Originally Posted by WolfsburgRS
Thanks for sharing Mike! Great to have a first hand perspective. I was wondering, do you find the level of driver skill in WC (GT generally) to be the same as the other North American series? Better / worse?
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It's kind of hard to tell since I've only done one race. I think there's a bigger spread of skill from the front to the back compared to all the ALMS classes (including PC/GTC) and Rolex GT. In all honesty, with my experience in the 3 series this year I'd have to rate overall driver skill in order of: ALMS, Rolex, WC. Granted, there isn't that big of a difference and the WC race didn't feel like a club race or anything and the guys at the front handily kicked my ass (finished P8, I don't even remember where I qualified.. I think P12 or something weak like that). With more than 40 minutes in the car to set it up I think I could have done a little better... but they're still really good. If it makes any difference, 2 weeks after the Sonoma WC race I qualified P5 (with a difficult car to drive, went faster in the practice sessions) in the Patron Ferrari at the Laguna Seca Rolex GT race (before getting penalized and moved to the back of the pack). But, I knew the track and had driven the car before.. so I was much more comfortable. And the week before that I was absolutely decimated at the Porsche Supercup race at Spa (don't worry, I have plenty of excuses for that performance too! :P).
I think the difference in performance between the cars in WC GT was the most surprising to me. The Rolex and ALMS cars (in the same class) all go about getting their lap times in a very similar way... in WC GT it seemed like the lap times were generally pretty close among all the different cars, but the way they got to it was really different. Not just the Volvo Vs. Cadillac, but even the Porsches, GTR, Ferrari, etc. I don't know if it's due to vehicle prep/cost or specifics to the rules.
-mike