WGI 2016 Edition

[Monty M]

Who's ready for new pavement - Watkins Glen 2016 - how much faster is the track?

Going to be a busy weekend with F1600, F2000, Atlantic, Trans-Am, MX-5 and NARRA GT.

[Steve Bamford]

Should be an interesting weekend. Rain in the forecast but that should be expected for WG, I don't recall running there in the last four years without some sort of rain sessions.

[Purple Frog]

Ahhh.... Watkins Glen in the spring.

[Purple Frog]

It could be wet...

[kea]

Wet, on new pavement, that should be fun !

[John LaRue]

Picture on post 3, very impressive. We need to get back to that.

[Purple Frog]

John,
That was only about 7 years ago. And, in the zenith of the great recession.
I guess about 1/2 the field got older. All except DaveW.
What a thrill to have 32 two liter cars roll to the grid.

[Michael Rand]

32 on the WGI grid, second only to 41 that started the pace lap at Road America !
Memory fails as to how many completed the first racing lap....but not 41 !

[Steve Bamford]

http://www.f2000championshipseries.c...en-race-1.html

38 started Race 1 in 2013, wasn't that long ago although it sure seems a long time ago.

[Steve Bamford]

Turn one curbs, they look a little rough on the inside

[reidhazelton]

Go DaveW!

Looks like a Citation sweep for qual 1. Nice work!

[Steve Bamford]

Go DaveW!

Looks like a Citation sweep for qual 1. Nice work!

Congratulations to Dave W! Pole! Really nice to see. He has been working extremely hard and keeps getting better.

[glm34]

Congrats to Dave W!!!! I know he worked extremely hard last week to have the car ready.

[Purple Frog]

and now sportsfans, MZRs are legal in F2kCS.

[John LaRue]

Specifically the USF car in full spec with the oval map... Nice cars, but we certainly have an over abundance of good Zetec cars already on the market. I hope this doesn't further confuse the market place. Lots of options.

BTW - what a job by DW!

[Steve Bamford]

Specifically the USF car in full spec with the oval map... Nice cars, but we certainly have an over abundance of good Zetec cars already on the market. I hope this doesn't further confuse the market place. Lots of options.

BTW - what a job by DW!

Not sure it will add any cars. The engines and transmissions are good for the 2017 cars aren't they? If so then teams can convert new cars by keeping engine and Trans cheaper then what they will likely get for them by selling the car complete and re buying those items. I could be wrong but just my uneducated guess. Lots of great Zetec cars for sale in the 30's k range. Bargain deals compared to what it would cost to build these cars.

[Steve Demeter]

Great to see Dave up front where he belongs.

[Purple Frog]

Obviously the race was rigged by powers above.

They name the race as a memorial to Glenn. Then in the most confusing last lap, out of the spray Glenn's best ever driver (who came out of a 3 year retirement to enter) comes across the line first... in Radon's first ever victory. Sort of storybook stuff.

I think Glenn was pulling strings from above.

[Purple Frog]

Congrats to Bam Bam! Nice win at a great track.
DaveW finished in a very respectable 4th after starting in 2nd.

[romoman]

Turn one curbs, they look a little rough on the inside

They didn't change the turn 1 curbs - they are the same as they were in 2013 and earlier.

[DaveW]

Thanks, everyone, for all the congratulations!

We also have to thank QSRE for their quick response to an engine issue - without them, we wouldn't have made it to the Glen!

And as I said in the RA thread, the car keeps getting better!

We actually amazed ourselves with the performance at WG. Hope we can keep it up or maybe keep getting faster. Our times looked quite good, but I had to be very precise to achieve them. Now we need to work on stuff to make it more versatile in traffic.

[Pop Chevy]

Way to go Dave !!! Wish I would of been there to see it .

[Tigaman]

Dave, would you say the track is quicker? Would you say the Bus Stop curbings are worse?

TIA and BIG congrats! Love seeing age and treachery win and do well.

[DaveW]

Dave, would you say the track is quicker? Would you say the Bus Stop curbings are worse?

TIA and BIG congrats! Love seeing age and treachery win and do well.

Quicker? I don't really know. This was the 1st time I've been that competitive. Last year folks were in the 1:52's, this year 1:53's. But there were big (20-mph+) winds and cool temperatures. I'm sure that affected the times a lot.

The curbs seem much the same as last year to me.

[Tigaman]

Dave, would you say the track is quicker? Would you say the Bus Stop curbings are worse?

TIA and BIG congrats! Love seeing age and treachery win and do well.

Steve, what do you think?

It's certainly not like the VIR repave...

[Steve Bamford]

Steve, what do you think?

It's certainly not like the VIR repave...

Times were off in Atlantic, 1600 and 2000 by what seems like a second or two. With that said the track never had a chance to rubber in over the weekend and the cool conditions helped for hp but not for grip. Tire pressures did not build as quickly as we first thought they would. A few competitors thought the track seemed slightly greasy compared to past visits.

It certainly didn't give the same results as we saw at VIR however the weekend weather was much different then weather we have experienced at VIR when laying down some quick times.

Curbs overall have not changed all that much. Bus stop were slightly higher but wasn't a huge change.

[Tigaman]

Thanks!

[problemchild]

Times were off in Atlantic, 1600 and 2000 by what seems like a second or two. With that said the track never had a chance to rubber in over the weekend and the cool conditions helped for hp but not for grip. Tire pressures did not build as quickly as we first thought they would. A few competitors thought the track seemed slightly greasy compared to past visits.

As Steve says, I don't think the conditions allow for a direct comparison. Despite the flurries and cold, with some sunshine on Sunday afternoon, and approaching 8 hrs without rain, the F2000 cars were more than a second, and the F1600s several seconds, faster than they had previously in the weekend. I personally do not think the pavement will change very much about racing there. The biggest factor may be that the track will dry faster, both because of the asphalt chosen and the reduced puddling.

[Beartrax]

Has anyone shared video from when the skies opened up?

[Matt M.]

Obviously the race was rigged by powers above.

They name the race as a memorial to Glenn. Then in the most confusing last lap, out of the spray Glenn's best ever driver (who came out of a 3 year retirement to enter) comes across the line first... in Radon's first ever victory. Sort of storybook stuff.

I think Glenn was pulling strings from above.

Rigged from the get go.... Funny you posted that picture of me at the Glen in the Jesse's Piper....on slicks...... Some pretty good foreshadowing there - Maybe you were in on the fix too.....

Nice to see Dave up front where he belongs!

[Purple Frog]

Somebody looks at those pictures?
I didn't think many would spot it as a Piper F2000 car. Rare bird. Obvious to me that it was your helmet not Jesse's "pineapple".
I believe that car went on to be the big winner as a F1000 in that spectacular F1000 race at Road Atlanta. Then, St Clair was modifying it with a big bike motor to try to steal the All time Waterford record. Then Novak took over with it. Jay can probably say whether it was the same chassis or not.

[Jnovak]

Somebody looks at those pictures?
I didn't think many would spot it as a Piper F2000 car. Rare bird. Obvious to me that it was your helmet not Jesse's "pineapple".
I believe that car went on to be the big winner as a F1000 in that spectacular F1000 race at Road Atlanta. Then, St Clair was modifying it with a big bike motor to try to steal the All time Waterford record. Then Novak took over with it. Jay can probably say whether it was the same chassis or not.

Not the same chassis. Jesse's car was not used to build the F1000 car. The F1000 car is now owned by Joel Hass and he finished 6th with it at the Daytona Runoffs.

Love me them Pipers.

[problemchild]

I don't know the hows or whys of the selected asphalt but all of our cars have clean tires ..... as in "no rubber pickup" on the inlaps. Absolutely zero on any tire among 3 cars in 2 different classes. We ran green for 24 minutes on two and about 10 mins on the 3rd in 40s temps and sunshine. Times were fastest of the weekend too. We normally get pickup on the F2000 tires and get some on the F1600 tires.