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Re: Cup times vs DP times

To: "<vintage-race-digest@autox.team.net>
Subject: Re: Cup times vs DP times
From: Matt Trebelhorn <matt.lists@trebelhorn.com>
Date: Tue, 16 Aug 2005 12:56:18 -0400
I'll bet they are great to watch at VIR.

I actually really enjoyed watching the cup race on sunday; they sure as 
hell act like race cars -- they have body roll, they drop the nose 
under braking, and they get sideways in the turns.  And with the 
cast-iron brakes, and 3500 lb, braking zones are loooooong.  I'm pretty 
sure that some of the cars were lifting a left front tire at the top of 
the esses...

Looks like spectacular fun.

And like you said, it's pretty impressive that they're as fast as they 
are.  No matter what you do, that's a lot of car to hustle around -- 
three seconds off the DP cars (which were designed to match laptimes of 
a 962 at Daytona, so not exactly dragging their feet!) is not bad at 
all.

Matt

I realized that my previous post was from the wrong account, so won't 
show up on the list -- though Peter posted his reply to it.  Here's 
what I wrote -- sorry for the mix up.

>> I watched a bit of the race, too.
>>
>> They did show lap times, but what struck me as interesting: they 
>> showed them on-screen as, say, 73.456 seconds -- not as 1:13.456.
>>
>> Why?  Well, I'm willing to bet that the Glen and Sears Point are the 
>> only places Nascar goes that a lap takes over a minute; so laptimes 
>> are always in seconds -- not minutes.
>>
>> I'd love to see them at a longer track, like Elkhart or VIR: "And 
>> Junior's last lap was an outstanding one hundred and ninety-two point 
>> three four seconds!"
>>
>> Matt
On Aug 16, 2005, at 12:36 PM, Peter Krause wrote:

> Actually, it's quite entertaining to watch the Cup cars test at VIR...
>
> I've worked with Boris, Spencer and other coaches to help the 
> "left-turn"
> guys learn the nuances of road courses. Some of these guys are REALLY 
> good.
>
> The most fun was working with Terry Labonte a couple years ago and 
> learning
> that he'd started racing karts at VIR before it closed in 1974!
>
> Jeffy and Smoke are REALLY fast at VIR...
>
> -Peter





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