Great pictures and reports guys..
It was great to see some new faces and some old ones too...
The GTM guys are a great bunch and I had a good time chatting with them and checking out the GTM-R...lots of nicely thought out details....I was bummed to see them go out so early.
As negative as the SL-C's results may seem at first glance, the experience and information learned is of great value.
The chassis and suspension set up we had worked extremely well for both drivers
Rick "Ironman" McCormick
Ric McCormick's racing website.
Troy Castaneda
Troy Castaneda - Schedule
They both really enjoyed the car and the technical feedback is very valuable.
The only real issue on the car was the electronics package....
Dave Capurro from C and C Automotive in Reno is the crew chief and he had to endure numerous issues during the programming of the car.
The Bosch MS4 sport ECU and the MSA2 (interface box) were both of the latest variants and both had incorrect firmwear installed ...unbeknownst to Dave or anyone else in the USA. for that matter......
The Shiftec gear shift system was also plagued with issues from the vendor ...again the lastest spec unit currently being retrofitted by many ALMS teams as flatshift technology is legal for 2011 in ALMS...most of those were worked through prior to the race with the exception of the blip downshift algorithm...this is a really cool feature when fully sorted...
So the technology integration was the biggest issue period...once the nose and wiring harness had been unceremoniously ripped off by the tow truck, after an innocent spin on slicks in the wet , it was a tough go to get her back on track and functioning...we lost our main lights and had to run on the "Baja bar" only.
The car did get up and running again a couple of times during the night portion of the race, ...during one 45 minute stint it was the second quickest car on track, ...despite running on wets with a drying race line...so the potential is there for the SL-C to be a stonking race car
All other areas of the car worked great.., fuel economy was right where we expected and handling was spot on, aero balance was right on the money...even in the changing conditions....next year will be a very different story.
I think I may have convinced the car owner/driver to run the 13 hour at VIR as a warm up....so the East coast guys can come see it run too....better fit a bigger engine Ron...wink.
Everyone involved in this programme worked extremely hard and now deserves a rest.
Unfortunately we did not get the kind of final result we were hoping for but thats life...see you next year at the 25 hours of Thunderhill....
