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The Preferred Line - World Challenge Wednesday

3/29/2006 - The Preferred Line - Road racing news and commentary

SPEED World Challenge Wednesday (March 29, 2006) By Jim Bourn

"Yesterday I was wondering, how am I going to hang up my helmet gracefully without my tail between my legs so you can go from a hero to a zero or the other way real fast." - Leighton Reese after qualifying on the pole at Sebring.

PHOTO: Michael McCann (Dodge Viper), winner of the Sebring GT race was smiling and laughing all week in Florida.

Lessons learned at World Challenge Series seasons opener at Sebring

"The car was really hooked up right off the truck," said Sebring GT race winner Michael McCann of his McCann Plastics/K&N Filters Dodge Viper. "I think anyone could drive that car fast right now. Just give him the keys and go. It is that well hooked up!"

We frequently hear or read comments from a driver who raves about how well his car is behaving. Usually those are the drivers who are doing well on that particular weekend.

The World Challenge Series week at Sebring in March was yet another reminder that having your car hooked up 'right off the truck' is usually highly preferable to struggling to find a setup or worse yet thrashing well into the night trying to make the darned car work at all.

When the car is working the driver and crew can start working on subtle changes and even experimentation as was the case with Leighton Reese and his Banner Engineering Chevy Corvette C6.

Confident that he had a good Sebring setup in Leighton Reese's Banner Corvette crew chief Joe Kantarik was allowed to experiment. Not everything worked but at least he was learning what did and did not work.

"This is supposed to be testing isn't it," Kantarik asked rhetorically? "If I don't come here and try new stuff and try to improve why test at all. If you want to run the same as last year we should have left the car here!"

By the time practice rolled around Reese was the fastest GT car and as he explained, "We are doing little subtle tweaks now. We keep thinking that that is all that is left in the car and then we seem to find more!"

Not only does a well setup car work well but it does something else for the driver. It builds confidence.

Mike McCann was telling everyone that even the fan walking around the paddock could cut hot laps in his car it was that well hooked up! It showed that Mike was confident in his #82 Viper and comfortable as well.

And when we are comfortable in our work space we work better. And confidence in a race car means going into the turns deeper and getting on the gas sooner coming out!

"I am getting a little more aggressive with it because I am feeling more comfortable with it," Reese said during practice. "You enter the straightaway faster because you got through the corner faster and it gives you encouragement so you drive the car deeper because it goes around the corner better."

But if you are involved in auto racing at all you know that racing machines are inherently evil so we have on the flip side are the unfortunate ones who struggled not simply to find the optimum setup but just to get a reasonably functional race car.

In the world of GT Jon Groom's talented team struggled all week to solve transmission and other maladies on Ricardo Imrey's #64 AXA Financial Porsche 996.

"I've been out (on the track) for about 8 laps so far," said Imrey as he watched the crew labor beneath, over and around his Porsche.

Does this mean that Groom's team is somehow less than McCann's?

Hardly, as every team and crew has had one of those weekends where everything you do seems to go wrong as your own equipment seems to turn against you and getting to the motel before midnight a luxury!

What it does mean is that McCann's and Reese's crews were working on minor changes while Groom's crew was swapping out major parts and searching for answers. The teams working on the #92 Viper and #6 Corvette were making minor changes, relaxed, while the crew of the #64 Porsche was working long hard, under pressure.

And when the unfortunate teams do get their cars out on track they are making educated guesses on race setups that the fortunate teams have been dialing in!

It doesn't take much to ruin a session or even the entire day as was the case for James Sofronas who discovered that his Global Motorsports Group Porsche had a severe vibration. Pits stops ensued and it wasn't until a trip to the Toyo tires truck that Sofronas confirmed that his tires weren't balanced properly.

Sofronas had had those tires balanced away from the track by a local tire shop by the way.

There was North Canton Ohio's Michael McCann who won his first World Challenge race. There was nothing but smiles and casual controlled maintenance going on under the McCann Racing tent as they were fast from the beginning of the open test day on Tuesday right up to the final lap of the race on Friday afternoon.

Fast right off the truck guarantees nothing

Fame and luck are as fleeting as air in a punctured tire because as strong and as dialed in as Reese's Banner Engineering Corvette was the transmission tried to depart company from the differential as Reese tried to begin the warm up lap ending his day before it began.

On the other side of the worm Jon Prall and Hugh Stewart struggled all week with their Touring Cars but finally had their cars running strong during the race.

"The race was the first time I got in one trouble free lap all week," said Hugh Stewart with a shrug.

Both Hugh and Jon went from the back of the Touring Car grid to 15th and 16th winning the Sunoco Hard Charger Award (Stewart's Speedtechnik Dodge SRT-4)) and the B&M Hole Shot Award (Prall's DIG Motorsports/JustRacing.com BMW 325) in the process.

Touring Car Champion Peter Cunningham and his entire force of RealTime Racing Acuras were also in the fast off the track category at Sebring as were the Tri-Point Engineering Mazda 6s. World Challenge fans almost come to expect this.

And as expected Tri-Point and RealTime performed when race day came around as these two teams filled 6 of the top ten finishing positions.

Kuno Wittmer, driving the De Sigi Autosport/Autohaus Mercedes C230, wasn't as fortunate as his Mercedes ate its final transmission during the race while Kuno was firmly inside the top ten!

Good weekend or bad fret not for the talented crew members who toil under the World Challenge racing tents. If you want to send a note about any of this I can be reached at JimBourn@TheRaceSite.com; but be forewarned, we may use your letter in an upcoming article.

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