This was a great event and everyone's point here is valid, to me at least. I do have a few random observations:
- First off, Danny Popp is one hellofa driver and his car is his perfect match. When he put the throttle down, the car planted and it took off. No major squat, no huge time killing burn out, just all go. On the AutoX - especially the last few turns where the most cones and a spin went down - he just rotated the car where it needed to go. On the road course, it took the real race car (a Spring Mountain 1:40 lapper) more than one and half laps to catch him. Just an observation, but I found it ironic seeing him parked at the DSE pit with the rest of their crew + Finch and Stielow. From a driver/car combo he belonged there although I'm not sure there was one DSE part on his car? Enough said on that...
- On the road course, all the usual suspect PT cars hung it all out. The bus stop on turn 9 upset quite a few cars, although Stielow ran it quite well. On turn one I noticed Kyle Tucker wobble (not slide) quite a bit as he pushed his car as fast as that thing would go! It was awesome.
- The LPE 5th Gen Camaro sounded absolutely awesome. Lumpy and full of compression. I'd love to know what was in that engine!
- The smell of race gas was in the air. I loved it and felt like mis-quoting Apocalypse Now.
- It would've been nice to hear lap times for the last few road course competitors. There was no timer board, so it was up to Matt MSA69 to use his iPhone and he did pretty good! But seriously, what's the big secret? The spread was 1:42 - 1:5x for the top drivers.
- Mr Hobaugh and Mr Maier killed it on the AutoX. They started ahead of Mary and Stielow and Popp and I thought there was no way they'd be beat. Just shows how fast Popp and Mary are in that venue.
Back to the classes discussion...I could care less which way they go, but I'm not sure our cars would ever kill modern technology and the vehicle examples given above, which does prove Todd's point about how good Mark really is. Another point made ahead of me is the sponsor issue. Really, is DSE, RideTech, Raybestos, there for the Corvette crowd? Wilwood and Optima have a small piece of that market for sure.
Looking at Optima, it's the All Star event of our hobby (not including the cars that get automatic invites for various reasons). These cars get faster every year and more race-car-like. Listening to Vinnie (great guy BTW!) and Mike Maier put their cars into first gear made me smile. Try driving those cars on the street! Also, this event has the same issues Bill Howell is dealing with as the RTTx events mature. Put a clock on an event with fast cars and people will find a way to win. No matter what. My point here is treadwear and tech inspections were the only constraints when this event was born. What'd y'all think was gonna happen?
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