Grand
Am Cup VIR 200
April
20-22, 2006
Autometrics Motorsports went to VIR to
provide Management and Engineering support for Marcus Motorsports Grand
Am Cup efforts. Marcus has a pair of 2006 Porsche 997s and an
all-star driver line-up or Spencer Pumpelly and Andy Lally in the #49
car, and Brian Cunningham and Darren Law in the #50 car.
The weekend started off very poorly with
both cars blowing engines in the first practice on the test day.
The crew got both engines replaced for the first practice on Friday, and
the guys did a great job as the new engines ran flawlessly. The
problem was that the cars were virtually untested prior to this weekend
and with the engines, we lost the majority of our practice time.
The 997 is also significantly different than the 996s we've worked with
previously, so we struggled slightly to get the cars handling well.
With only 2 practices to get the cars
sorted, we were fairly content to have both cars in the top 15, less
than a second off the fastest car. We made further improvements
for qualifying, but that session got cancelled. Due to rain, the
session was changed to a practice, but it was ultimately cancelled
all-together because of the time it took to get a ST car off a wall.
We went into the race with a drying
track, but the skies and radar still showed threat of rain. The
cars started by points, which was unfortunate because both cars had bad
races at Daytona. Still, the way the cars were coming together, we
expected to be in the running after only a few green flag
laps.
Spencer took 49
from 12th to 10th on the first lap, and Brian moved from 36th to 33rd in
50. Unfortunately, the first lap was the only one under
green. The track went yellow until lap 11 and during this caution,
the rain really picked up, and both cars stopped for rain tires. Because
not all cars made this change, both cars moved way back in the field to
39th and 56th. Instead of dicing through the field, the drivers
were interrupted by the next long yellow of the race. We went with
a pretty risky pit strategy with the 49 car early in this caution,
making the driver change and fueling the car. If the race had
stayed wet, this very likely would have worked incredibly well.
The third waving of the green flag was
another 1-lap affair followed by a long caution. Blue skies moved
in before the yellow ended and both cars made the switch back to dry
tires (and Darren got in 50), so unfortunately, the 49 car strategy was
not working in our favor. There was not even a minute of green
flag action before the 4th caution came. This was truly getting
frustrating as we were unable to make up ground and the cars sat in 35th
and 41st overall. The drivers were confident that the cars were
handling well enough that they could put them in the top 5 given the
chance. Just under 2 hours into the 2:30 time limit, there had
only been 3 laps under a green flag.
No less than 4 laps ran without a
full-course caution, and Law and Lally were on a rampage. Andy
moved from 35th to 18th despite being pushed off course, and Law moved
from 41st to 16th. Both cars were within 16 seconds of the overall
leader. By the time the last yellow came out, al cars in
contention for the lead had made their final fuel stops, including
us. It was at this point, that Grand Am finally had the
opportunity to assess all of the penalties that had stacked up during
the race. All penalties must be fulfilled under a green flag,
which was a rare commodity so far this race. Many of the top cars
had to do drive-through penalties, including our 5 car, which was right
in front of the 49 car. Lally improved to 11th position on the
first green lap, but Law dropped back to 22nd due to the penalty.
Both drivers did impressive work moving through the field in the next
few laps. The top 2 cars overall had penalties pending, but they
both chose to not take the drive through before the end of the
race. At the end, our cars crossed the checkers 6th and 15th, but
we knew there would be improvement.
When
the post-race penalties came through, 49 car took a podium spot in 3rd
and 50 moved up to 12th. The 50 car was leading 49 prior to the
penalty, so we likely would have put both cars into the top 4.
Even so, we are very pleased with the result, especially considering the
adversity we overcame throughout the event. With this, the 50 car
moved up to 16th position in Team points, and 49 sits in 2nd, only 2
points out of the lead. In the driver standings, Darren and Brian
are 20th, and Andy and Spencer share 3rd. The next race on the Cup
calendar is in Laguna Seca, and Autometrics will again help Marcus,
providing our experience and expertise. With a bit more time with
the cars and some good fortune, we hope to get one of the cars on the
top step of the podium. |
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