2019 SRO America: Road America

[cbbrit]

GT America (GT3) Race 2 notes:

https://sportscar365.com/sro/blancpa...ersial-finish/

And results:

https://www.tsl-timing.com/file/?f=P...3806rc2wcg.pdf

[cbbrit]

More on the late full course yellow flag/safety car deployed/sudden green flag situation near the end of the race:

https://sportscar365.com/sro/blancpa...ery-for-k-pax/

[nasportscar]

Originally Posted by merak1974

Great to see that Jeff Courtney took his Maserati GT4 out of retirement to get a podium in the Sprint race AM class yesterday: https://sportscar365.com/sro/gt4-ame...t-points-lead/

He was at Watkins Glen too...and has done a couple of Trans Am races with it

[merak1974]

Originally Posted by nasportscar

He was at Watkins Glen too...and has done a couple of Trans Am races with it

Thanks for the info. I had no idea. I looked it up, and he and the Maserati did even better at the Watkins Glen races. I thought he had retired the MC GT4 after winning the AM class overall last year. I was obviously wrong.

[cbbrit]

Latest news re-the full course yellow/safety car deployed/green flag 10 mins before the end of Race 2:

https://sportscar365.com/sro/blancpa...pax-to-appeal/

[Flying Lap Media]

Forgive the shameless plug but if you guys want to see a cool highlight video we put together from the event. Just trying to help SRO spread the word.

https://youtu.be/p3f_rvW7CnM

[TRspitfirefan]

Originally Posted by cbbrit

Latest news re-the full course yellow/safety car deployed/green flag 10 mins before the end of Race 2:

https://sportscar365.com/sro/blancpa...pax-to-appeal/

This situation makes me so angry. K-Pax got totally screwed. Between the regular BOP and the SROs attempt to initiate IMSA-style mandated tire pressure and caster/camber settings, the Bentleys were WAY down on pace all weekend, through no fault of their own.
Camping at Road America is always fun, but I was pretty ticked by the end of the weekend. I typed up a long post ranting about the problems with the GT races and BOP racing in general when I got home, but then deleted it without posting. SROs GT World Challenge has so much potential to be better than this, if they would only get out of their own way.




BTW Congrats on the win Mike!

[TRspitfirefan]

Originally Posted by Flying Lap Media

Forgive the shameless plug but if you guys want to see a cool highlight video we put together from the event. Just trying to help SRO spread the word.

https://youtu.be/p3f_rvW7CnM

Well done! That is an awesome video.

[Mechanic Z]

Originally Posted by Flying Lap Media

Forgive the shameless plug but if you guys want to see a cool highlight video we put together from the event. Just trying to help SRO spread the word.

https://youtu.be/p3f_rvW7CnM

Watched it earlier. An excellent video!

[Mechanic Z]

I was waiting for some resolution on the protest before posting my thoughts on the weekend. Since it looks like the final call on the appeal is going to be a while, here goes:

Negative:
-The SRO seriously messed up with the safety car debacle. I'm not sure what they were thinking, FCYs have never been simply cancelled over here. KPAX was massively robbed. SRO should have fixed the issue in the final 10 minutes. Now it's in USAC's hands, hopefully they at least partially rectify the situation.

-As TR noted the BoP and tire mandates were really messed up. Bentley and Porsche didn't seem to have much of a shot against the Ferrari or the Acuras. And this at RA, which usually sees a strong showing from the Continental and 911 in GT3.

Positive:
-It's Road America. It's awesome.

-RA fans turned out for the event. It wasn't in remotely the same zipcode as the Indy event, but it was miles ahead of the last two WC events I'd attended (VIR 2019 and WGI 2018). There wasn't a huge camping crowd, probably partially due to the time of year and weather, but the day attendance, even with the rain, was really solid on all three days.

-One thing SRO did really well was the pre-race parade/party at Siebkens in Elkhart Lake. It was a blast, and it also had a solid turnout. It is definitely something they should make an annual event.

Final thoughts: the rain was simultaneously miserable and a lot of fun, and resulted in some great photos. And congrats to Mike and Realtime on a very well done victory.

[Mike Hedlund]

Originally Posted by Mechanic Z

Negative:
-As TR noted the BoP and tire mandates were really messed up. Bentley and Porsche didn't seem to have much of a shot against the Ferrari or the Acuras. And this at RA, which usually sees a strong showing from the Continental and 911 in GT3.

Just to clarify, the tire mandates were only for the 1st official session. After that everything went back to the way it had been all season -- Pirelli "recommends" specific PSI/camber settings, but the teams can do what they want, which everyone did like normal. I can't speak to the BoP: I mean Serra out qualified the other Pro's by 1.8 seconds in the first qualifying session...

Originally Posted by Mechanic Z

Final thoughts: the rain was simultaneously miserable and a lot of fun, and resulted in some great photos. And congrats to Mike and Realtime on a very well done victory.

Thanks man!

-mike