SCCA Trans-Am Series

[fieldodreams79]

Scott Borchetta had a huge shunt at T1 today. I was watching on a slight delay but the onboard speedO showed the speed stuck at 116 MPH...

https://tobychristie.com/2023/03/26/...-road-atlanta/

[JT240Z]

Not good. Hope he's OK. Turn 1 can be a little tricky in a crowd and a pretty high speed turn.

[broadrun96]

That explains the relative quiet during the coverage. Was on board with him until T12 and then we saw the car after and a black flag. Here's to the Keslowski T1 hospital stay at worst, new tire bundle are good thing there I think

[FIRE]

Originally Posted by broadrun96

If you're around YouTube TA2 could be interesting today, it's been storming all morning and still wet. Power and only traction control being the right foot could be interesting at the start

I enjoyed the TA2 race.
Shame for the heavy crash and black flag period.

[Firehawk505]

Watching Lime Rock TA2 right now. It's been an entertaining season, but I'm eager for what the off-season holds.

But I am also really eager to see the Detroit race tomorrow. Seems like lots of complaints about the downtown road course. It is very simplistic, but I think it'll be fun. For the rest of the weekend, I'll be curious how the unorthodox pit layout works out, but that won't affect TA.

ETA: I always watch these races way late, but it seems like they are carried way late anyway. May 8th, MAVTV.

[Firehawk505]

dp

[broadrun96]

Catching up on Sebring TA race this afternoon. Dyson just straight up couldn't drive the track and right at a bump and DESTROYED Ernie Francis Challenger. That's not a racer move, there's a reason NO ONE takes the inside line, slower and the bump so you can't make it work. Instead he destroyed a car with a limited budget, and his car

[joeb]

Originally Posted by broadrun96

Catching up on Sebring TA race this afternoon. Dyson just straight up couldn't drive the track and right at a bump and DESTROYED Ernie Francis Challenger. That's not a racer move, there's a reason NO ONE takes the inside line, slower and the bump so you can't make it work. Instead he destroyed a car with a limited budget, and his car

Just read up on this, and the summary from Racer was great

"Paul Menard was able to cruise to victory, but not without a late challenge from 1986 champion Wally Dallenbach Jr"

That is a blast from the past!

[broadrun96]

Yeah, Menard was running away but there are rumors of set-up "illegalities" with the leader TA cars and suspension. Supposedly they run at legal height but when you weave to warm before the start the suspension settles and then you run dead laser straight and smooth after the race and it rebounds to legal height. Have had a few discussions with racers in Atlanta, I seem to find race drivers at property inspections lately, mostly Historics but I've fined two professional drivers in the last couple years for trees.

3 weeks and TA/SVRA to Road Atlanta. Usually Dyson and teammate run away with it but TA2 race on Saturday is usually better, last year was upper 30s or low 40s car count

[NaBUru38]

The Trans-Am will do an All-Star Race at Lime Rock Park on July 19-20.

There's 16 guest drivers so far: Scott Speed, Greg Biffle, Ryan Newman, Bobby Labonte, Ken Schrader, Mike Skinner, Paul Menard, Ron Hornaday, Geoff Brabham, Ron Fellows, Boris Said, Davy Jones, Max Papis, Pippa Mann, Davey Hamilton, and Danny Sullivan.

[skycafe]

That will be an All Star race!

[broadrun96]

Damn, they're running Road Atlanta next weekend. Decent lineup, Boris back in the old old old Challenger. But that race will be insane

Sadly it sounds like they're gonna be sharing a TA2 with the regular drivers in a 60 min race. But I get it, there aren't many TA cars out there to run them. But I'll still tune in streaming

[NaBUru38]

The Trans Am races this weekend at the Pittsburgh International Race Complex. There's 13 entries in TA / SGT / GT, and 18 entries in TA2.

[dwh43scale]

https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjBxp2x

A first visit to Road America (stunning !) and second time seeing (hearing !) TransAm. A few images here ...

[broadrun96]

Was a decent race watch on YT, miss some action cause Road America is quite large for their minimal camera setup. Looked like amazing weather for you too. 2 weeks from now is THE time to be there for the Brian Redman, believe over 500 historic cars are to be there this year

[dwh43scale]

Sadly by then we will be back in the U.K. and probably at Snetterton for British GT. Now that former airfield track will be a contrast to the last couple of weeks !
F1600 third race probably best of the day yesterday.

[joeb]

Originally Posted by dwh43scale

https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjBxp2x

A first visit to Road America (stunning !) and second time seeing (hearing !) TransAm. A few images here ...

It is almost unquestionably the best track in the US. I haven't been since 2012 but would go up there a couple times a year as a kid. I know they have had major upgrades to the facilities and would love to go back again soon. Great pics too!

[NaBUru38]

Originally Posted by NaBUru38

The Trans-Am will do an All-Star Race at Lime Rock Park on July 19-20.

There's 16 guest drivers so far: Scott Speed, Greg Biffle, Ryan Newman, Bobby Labonte, Ken Schrader, Mike Skinner, Paul Menard, Ron Hornaday, Geoff Brabham, Ron Fellows, Boris Said, Davy Jones, Max Papis, Pippa Mann, Davey Hamilton, and Danny Sullivan.

The 20-car entry also has Casey Mears, Andy Lally, Todd Bodine and Hailie Deegan.

https://gotransam.com/news/Race-Prev...ock-Park/73301

[broadrun96]

Boris and Boris will be a good pairing, Jr is fairly quick but mid pack with moments of top end. Connor Mosack and Schrader could be good, Connor is quick quick and Silver Hare makes a quick car. Lally and Brent Crews are likely the top pairing

I'll have to set a reminder to catch it on YouTube Saturday, been decent production with limited set cameras at a few events the last few races

[Firehawk505]

Paul Menard wins the TA championship and Rafa Matos wins the TA2 championship. On to '25. But first, the offseason. Any predictions or wants for changes?

[broadrun96]

Would be nice if the Burtin Racing Camaro could come back but looked like they/Andretti or both ran out of money for it. Wish Drissi would park it, destroyed a guy's one-off R8 cause he couldn't make a corner yesterday and he's often hitting folks.
There aren't enough TA cars for the field to have 2-3 failures every race, XGT was second yesterday after Annunziata, Menard, Robinson all fell out. Only 3 full season cars ain't great and from what I've heard from a few guys who run in TA2 there's some anger from teams about tricks they think the Dyson car has that are insanly expensive and questionable within the regs.

XGT needs better explanation, looks like it's kinda run whatever as long as it is older but at least a few can challenge up front overall. More GT cars needed, only Maserati ran and that car is getting long in the tooth. The team is looking for any and all chassis they can find for spares. Letting it be just GT4 straight up and balance any older cars in, they have the lap time data for the Maserati. SGT should be GT3 straight up and adjust as needed for the few older cars. I get their desire to keep the older cars running but the fields are SPARSE, only plus trackside is SVRA or Formula America/F4 run with them at most events so you have some action

[Firehawk505]

Yeah, I'm having huge problems with the GT side. It seems like GT itself is OK as far as grid numbers, but XGT and SGT have been terrible. GT3 could be the answer (it's everywhere, anyway, it seems; and that's a whole other thread), or the Trans Am people could invent a new ruleset that GT3 could fall into, but that might naturally include other thingss, too. I'm a bit rushed, so I'm not explaining myself well here. I may post later on this.

And let GT have its own race, and TA and TA2 run their own multiclass race. I think that would look a lot more organized, even if you will need to cap the amount of qualifying cars because TA2 is still apparently huge.

Points are a bit weird in my mind. Isn't it some unround number like 113 points for a win? Why not 25 for a win? Or even 100? Bonus points, I don't know. I think I'd prefer a point for all lap leaders over just s/he who leads the most laps. Maybe both.

But again, I'm in a rush. Love the cars, hate the structure of the series. It's hard to watch.