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Nascar meets ALMS in a C5R. And his codriver is Boris Said. Should make for an entertaining race if nothing else.

http://www.americanlemans.com/storyArch ... nhardt.asp

Graham

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http://www.greywinds.com

I hope he took some driving lessons. I've seen him drive at VIR and he stunk like dead fish. Maybe he is counting on Boris to get him far enough ahead that he can drive slow and they can still win.

Shawn

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OK so I'm back in. Now which tire should I buy??

Yeah I hear ya on that Shawn. It looks to me like a big marketing ploy. Boris is there to actually drive it into a winning position so Jr can run through the checkerd flag. The car will carry the number 8.

I hope Boris drives the wheels of that puppy. Everything I've ever seen him drive he does well. Even saw him race one of those 18 wheeler racing tractors once. I think if it has wheels he's game...

Graham

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http://www.greywinds.com

To borrow from the quote under your user ID, that's just crap!

Do you know all the circumstances surrounding that day? I've seen him drive a few different road courses in person and he was tearing up the place.

He came out to a WKA press day 2 years ago and promptly set the fastest lap time against some of the country's best drivers despite giving up upwards of 30lbs-- which in karting can be everything. Oh wait, they probably couldn't drive either. I've also seen him running his legend car at a couple of road courses and he was pretty darn good there too. He also didn't do too badly at Daytona. And I don't mean the 400 or 500.

Despite going "round and round" all the time, I'm sure all of the drivers on the Winston, er, Nextel Cup circuit drivers could show a lot of us a thing or 2 about running a road course.

Strange how Boris is such a great road course racer couldn't even win in the truck series. I know, I know, the good 'ole boys were probably keeping him down and he never had the best equipment, or something...

Jim
- who spent 99% of his former racing days (from the age of 4, no less) going round and round in circles and drives like a stinky dead fish too
- and who also respects everybody's ability regardless of what series or discipline they come from

I have no doubt that there are a number of what we would think are classic NASCAR "good ole boys" who are closet road racers. Some of them might even have some skill.

My Dad was telling me last weekend that he heard that Jeff Gordon was going to be driving F1 next year. I would not be suprised if Jeff did well in open wheel road racing if he decided to give it a real try, but I was having a hard time explaining why a top F1 team would not hire Jeff. It is hard enough for F1 to not feel they are lowering their standards when they hire a top CART/IRL driver let alone a NASCAR driver.

Did anyone watch the Gordon/Montoya car swap at Indy last year on Speed?

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Richard Casto
1972 Porsche 914
2013 Honda Fit Sport
2015 Honda Fit EX
http://motorsport.zyyz.com
Money can't buy happiness, but somehow it's more comfortable to cry in a Porsche than a Kia.

I saw that and thought it was very cool (even coming from a non-Gordo fan perspective). I think they impressed each other and both gained something from the experience.

Despite what most F1/Cart/Open wheel die-hard fans (snobs?) think, driving something like a Cup car around without burning the tires off it requires a tremendous amount of skill. This is coming from somebody who hasn't missed an open wheel race (whether it was live on tv, taped or in person) in 10+ years. Strangely enough, I can say the same thing about Cup races.

I also think that the F1 engineers came away from the experience with some appreciation for the Cup cars. Sure, they aren't even in the same ballpark as far as technology goes but they are still race cars. I think that anybody that doesn't believe that is kidding themselves.

Obviously the Cup guys were impressed with the level of technical sophistication in the F1 car. Listening to Larry Mac talk about the F1 cars in his deep southern accent was a hoot.

Jim
- who thinks racin' is racin' is racin' no matter what the vehicle or series...

If you guys remember, Dale Jr. drove a Daytona Prototype with Tony Stewart and Andy Wallace this year in the Rolex 24 at Daytona. They both did very well, with a wheel falling off of a broken suspension that took them out with only 40 minutes left. They would have won the overall if it didn't fail. Also, a few years ago Dale Earnhardt Sr. and Jr. codrove a C5R With Ron Fellows and someone else to a third place finish overall in the Daytona 24.

Other NASCAR regulars that competed in this year's Daytona 24 were Kyle Petty in a DP and Robby Gordon also in a DP. There were others, but I can't remember them right now.

I think we can say that he will do fine.

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Todd Breakey
STS 42 - 1992 Sunburst Miata
Dammit!
"You souldn't play leap frog with a porcupine. You might get hurt." - Eliza

Dale Jr. couldn't find his way around a road course on a sunny day with a map... A few years ago.

He really wan't that good, just look at his early road course efforts.

That said, he's done a hell of a job during his career fixing his weakness. They've spent a bunch of test days at the road courses, getting much better!

Matt saw Jr. at VIR some time ago, I bet things have changed quite a bit since then.

Scott

Not to take anything away from the quality of their driving (I think many were suprised at how well Tony Stewart did against many other established road course drivers), but I wonder how technically difficult the Daytona "road course" is. From what I can tell, the 24hr race is a test of the car (full throttle, hard on brakes, etc.) and not so much of the driver? It looks like a large amount is on the oval and from what I have seen, outside of passing as they enter the infield, there is not much going on in the infield section other than passing cars in other classes and punting each other off track.

Not that I wouldn't kill to get a chance to drive at an event like that.

Daytona map below...

http://www.theracesite.com/results.cfm?fri=715

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Richard Casto
1972 Porsche 914
2013 Honda Fit Sport
2015 Honda Fit EX
http://motorsport.zyyz.com
Money can't buy happiness, but somehow it's more comfortable to cry in a Porsche than a Kia.

I thought it was pretty good as well. Gordon looked so excited about the entire thing that I thought he was going to wet his pants at any minute (Ok, I would be as well ).

It took Jeff awhile to realize he could trust the traction control and just keep his right foot down as he exited turns. And like anyone else that drives an F1 car for the first time they all gush about the braking ability.

Montoya I think was impressed with the power (and I assume torque) of the Cup car. I think he had fun driving it since you probably could manhandle it much more than you could with the F1 car. I am guessing he probably liked the no traction control part of the Cup car. But I also think he was being polite about the car to a degree. Due to NASCAR rules, we all know that those cars are 50 year old racing technology (mixed in with some modern stuff where the rules allow)

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Richard Casto
1972 Porsche 914
2013 Honda Fit Sport
2015 Honda Fit EX
http://motorsport.zyyz.com
Money can't buy happiness, but somehow it's more comfortable to cry in a Porsche than a Kia.

Damn Jim.

Just a little sensitive aren't we? You will notice that I didn't say NASCAR drivers suck or that round and round drivers suck. If you took it to mean that then I'm sorry. All that rage you seem to have must be coming from some issues you have? If you will also notice I didn't even say Dale Jr. currently sucks. I only said that when I saw him driving at VIR North course he did.

As far as the circumstances surrounding what I saw, I suppose you are right. I didn't actually know that it was Jr. driving. For all I know he could have let a member of his crew take the car out for a few laps? Maybe whoever was behind the wheel was just driving way off line to see what it felt like? Maybe they were driving the NASCAR line and my opinion on it isn't valid?

I do know that Jr's car was
a) about 6 or 7 seconds off the pace of Jeff Gorden (who was also there and in my opinion can drive a road course really well) Gorden was running 1:32's while Jr was running 1:38's
b) at least 4 or 5 seconds of that time was, in my opinion, because of the line the driver was taking. Not due to handling or power issues.

I try to be like you and have respect for other peoples skills but on this particalar day whoever was driving Dale Jr's car displayed very little knowledge or skill.

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OK so I'm back in. Now which tire should I buy??

From what drivers who have driven both the Daytona 24 and LeMans have said in interviews, Daytona is more demanding on both the car and the driver. They say that the G's that you pull at Daytona on the banks are what wear the driver out. And those same G's are what cause some suspension failures.

I'd like to try driving Daytona to find out what it is like. But then I would have to drive LeMans to compare. Gotta make an informed decision!!

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Todd Breakey
STS 42 - 1992 Sunburst Miata
Dammit!
"You souldn't play leap frog with a porcupine. You might get hurt." - Eliza

Yes. And before I begin, let me say that I as a NASCAR Ford fan, hate Gordon with a passion. With that out of the way, he really surprised me in the Williams car -- on only his fourth hot lap *ever* he was only, what, two seconds off of the pace that would have assured him a place in the starting grid? Granted, that's two seconds from the Minardis and the Saubers, but crap, that's not too bad considering that he told reporters that he practiced the night before ON A PLAYSTATION!!! Geez, give the guy a break, he's a helluva driver.

Now, here's to him DNFing every NASCAR race for the rest of the year.

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Has no responsibility whatsoever.

I remember watching Gordon on Saturday/Thursday Night Thunder races on ESPN. He was only 14 years old when I first saw him. He was impressive back then. Oh yea, remember when all Jeff drove was Fords Would you be a fan if Chevrolet didn't steal him?

Rumor has it that GM might move into F1. Hmmmm

As for Dale Jr at VIR, I look at it like those armchair quarterbacks saying Elway sucks and they throw better passes in their flag football league.

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Jim Pastorius
2008 Silverado VortecMax
1992 Camaro CMC#92
2002 BMW R1150R

2009 3rd Place CMC Mid-Atlantic Championship
2009 CMC Hyperfest Winner

Can Chevy produce a *pushrod* 3L V-10 that revs to 18500 rpm? Or are they going to embrace the 1980s and learn about OHCs?

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Has no responsibility whatsoever.