Rolex Sportscar Series Barber Thread

[19dodge]

another great race in store. Man, i love this. Three of my favorite series running all in the same weekend!

I wrote up a race preview to the Porsche 250. You can read it here

entry list here

Race starts Sunday at 1:00PM EST time in America.

[richmini99]

I have to agree; if there ever was a weekend to be a sportscar fan, this has to be one of them.

[courageous]

Can anybody tell me if/where there is audio on the web? I remember listening to the Daytona24, or was that just a one off for the 24hours?

[Danske]

Let's see if I can drag up any observations that haven't been beaten to death in press releases already... *strain*

Hmm, Tuttle has yet to name a co-driver. We might see something interesting there.

Grand-Am is allowing additional vents in the side windows, probably spurred-on by the temperatures expected for this weekend but I don't recall it being just for this race.

Last year Andrew Davis, a driving school instructor at Barber, put the Spark of Georgia Tech Crawford third on the starting grid, so he might bear some watching in the Tafel Porsche in the GT class.

In the team championship fifth through eighth place are separated by only seven points; if Finlay manages to break their string of fourth place race finishes with a podium they have a good shot at overtaking the #02 Ganassi car for fifth place in that championship. Buried in the Finlay press release they say they posted the fastest time at Barber in a test attended by several of the DP teams, so fingers crossed for them.

Re: live audio
www.grandamerican.com should have a link to the free live audio they provide when it's actually available during a session (which is distinct from the new PPV Speed online coverage at gms.speedtv.com). The garra-fans.com chatroom also has fans jawing about the race when it's on TV too, if you're lacking TV coverage or company too.

[Graham Goodwin]

Jonathon Cochet will race with Tuttle

[2112]

I have my $5 ready to give Speed TV. 6 in-cars and drivers audio!

[Danske]

Qualifying results:
http://www.grandamerican.com/Events/...?SessionID=533

Alex Gurney nabbed pole for the GAINSCO/Blackhawk Riley today, possibly aided by Matteo Bobbi binning his Ford Doran and ending the session early. If the Doran gets fixed in time it'll be starting 4th. The Ganassi cars didn't qualify so well in 7th and 11th. Max Angelelli also qualified uncharacteristically in 3rd. Cochet has been quick in the Tuttle Riley so far, but only got 9th. The early end to the session may have contributed to these results.

Many of the teams seem to be planning on two driver changes to cope with the heat. As the qualifying driver must start the race and Andy Wallace was unavailable for qualifying it looks like he's going to have one long stint in the heat tomorrow; I can't imagine the team is planning on putting Duno in to close out the race unless Andy can't stand the heat any more at the end.

In other Grand-Am news, in today's Grand-Am Cup race Nic Jonsson led only one lap to win the race. Michael McDowell, who will drive the #19 Finlay Riley tomorrow was a bit unsteady after a big shunt. Let's hope everyone behaves better in the Rolex race than the drivers did today in the Cup race and the bodywork toss record at Barber remains uncontested.

[billnchristy]

Hey thanks for carrying on the tradition and making a race day page!! I have been on the road and in the process of finding a new home in Atlanta so wasnt able to do it.

I have tried to get the speed onboard working, and for some reason it wont let me register, so i will miss my first GA race on TV or live in over 4 years. (

[cybersdorf]

Originally Posted by Danske

In other Grand-Am news, in today's Grand-Am Cup race Nic Jonsson led only one lap to win the race.

Really?? Which one was that?

[Danske]

Originally Posted by cybersdorf

Really?? Which one was that?

Must've been one in the middle somewhere.

The #77 was back on track in the final practice and was decently quick. The #01 Ganassi Riley was third fastest, so maybe they've figured out their setup problems. Seems uncharacteristic of Ganassi to be lost on setup, especially as everyone else seemed to be complaining about understeer while the Ganassi drivers were complaining about oversteer. But a fifteen-minute final practice tells us little.

Anywho. Two hours till the race. Championship leaders not on the front row, even with Angelelli qualifying the car. In GT the tube-frame cars don't show until the forth row, but one of the "privateer" tube Vettes is right behind the "factory" P&M GTO.R's.

[Liz]

I was watching the race and at 2:00 suddenly I got the screen that says "This program has been blacked out due to programming rights issues in Canada." An hour after the race began, they suddenly found out that they were broadcasting it illegally? And since when, anyway -- they've always broadcast the races before.

Bizarre.

[2112]

I was watching it online through the Speed service. No car audios, and I only saw 2 in-cars. Good thing I did ala-cart. Not worth it till the bugs are fixed.

[Danske]

"I was surprised how many good drivers were here in this series," Cochet said.

That's a little insulting, isn't it? He had been expecting nothing but club racers? On the other hand, he was driving a car painted like a Cleveland Browns helmet, which may have colored his expectations. A little ironic that Cochet also earned a one-minute penalty for running Memo Gidley into the grass.

[richmini99]

That's a little insulting, isn't it? He had been expecting nothing but club racers? On the other hand, he was driving a car painted like a Cleveland Browns helmet, which may have colored his expectations. A little ironic that Cochet also earned a one-minute penalty for running Memo Gidley into the grass.

Cochet impressed me this weekend. From the article I read it sounds like he wants to play a little more in our "little National series" . He even mentioned that the cars were "fun to drive". Lets see.........using catch phrases like "the cars are fun to drive" and running cars off the road during the race? I think our boy Cochet will fit right in. All kidding aside, I hope we see him again soon in a DP.

[Snrub]

Originally Posted by Liz

I was watching the race and at 2:00 suddenly I got the screen that says "This program has been blacked out due to programming rights issues in Canada." An hour after the race began, they suddenly found out that they were broadcasting it illegally? And since when, anyway -- they've always broadcast the races before.

Bizarre.

That IS wierd. It didn't do that for me. I have Bell ExpressVu, but it did block out the Champ Car qualifying which was on half an hour before the race was broadcasted on TSN.