PHILLIPS: Different Strokes for Different Folks

GRAND-AM

PHILLIPS: Different Strokes for Different Folks

With a schedule featuring a yawning 14 weekend gap between Round 1 & 2, it should have been crowded at Homestead last weekend for the big open test.

David Phillips | http://www.speedtv.com | Posted April 01, 2009 Charlotte, NC

Major players like SunTrust and Gainsco stayed home from the op-test Homestead, but why, asks David Phillips. (LAT)

You’d think with a schedule featuring a yawning 14 weekend gap between Round One and Round Two of the 2009 Rolex Sports Car Series and a Grand American Road Racing Association that strictly limits testing, there would have been an overflow crowd at Miami-Homestead last weekend for the series-wide open test.

Not.

While there was no shortage of Daytona Prototypes and GT cars on hand -- including two Porsche Rileys from Brumos Porsche, overall winners of the 2009 Rolex 24 at Daytona -- there were some noteworthy absentees. For example, Gainsco/Stallings, Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates, Krohn and Suntrust Racing -- winners of the past five Rolex Series Daytona Prototype titles -- were nowhere to be seen. What’s up with that?

For openers, consider that it’s nearly seven months before the Grand-Am teams will compete in earnest at Miami-Homestead Speedway in the season finale of the 2009 Rolex Sports Car Series. Too, the fact that the Miami-Homestead Speedway road course consists of one part speedway, one part road course means the set-ups developed for the south Florida circuit don’t readily translate to “pure” road courses like Virginia International Raceway, where the Round Two of the Rolex Series (aka the Bosch Engineering 250) is slated for the weekend of April 24-25.

“When we found out there was not going to be a race in Mexico City this year, but that its place on the schedule would be taken by a test, we were all pretty stoked,” said a team member who preferred to remain anonymous. “We said, ‘A test will be great. Anywhere but Homestead.’ So what do they give us? Homestead. What works there doesn't translate to any other track on the schedule, so we probably saved ourselves $50,000 by staying home.”

On the other hand, a bevy of Daytona Prototype and GT teams begged to differ. Indeed, they went at it rather enthusiastically if the fact that the unofficial fast laps in each category were considerably quicker than the respective lap records. But fast laps were just a by-product of what some of the teams were doing last weekend.

Take LevelFive Motorsports, which managed to pip Michael Shank Racing for fast time of the test in Daytona Prototypes. Relatively new to the Daytona Prototype scene -- and with a rookie driver to boot -- the Kansas-based team saw the test as an opportunity to work on the operational basics that will apply no matter the circuit. What’s more, they were going to be at Miami-Homestead Speedway last weekend anyway.

“First of all, we were going to be at Homestead for the first two rounds of the 2009 Ferrari Challenge,” says David Stone, “So we went down there with our two Ferraris and had a good weekend. Scott Tucker, who drives our DP car, won both races, so that was a good start and a lot of seat time.

“The second reason is that, because it is a new team that we’ve put together for this year. So we wanted to give the crew and everybody time to work and kind of jell and start clicking together. In addition, our driver from France -- Christophe Bouchut -- had never been to Homestead before, so it was good for him to get some seat time on the track even though the race isn’t until October.

The 'Roval' provides testing data that applies to nowhere else but Homestead, according to Phillips' sources. (LAT)

“So it seemed to make sense for all those reasons and we did walk away with some good set-up information. There’s so many things you learn at every race track that are, for lack of a better word, generic -- that don’t have to be specific to that particular race track that you’re going to carry with you to every race track. And we’re still looking at where we can make the car better, refining little things, new bits and pieces because Riley pretty regularly come up with a new bit here or there that you want the opportunity to try out.”

While the fact that Bouchut posted the fastest lap of the test in the Supercar Life Racing BMW Riley, in and of itself, may not have been terribly meaningful, Stone notes it’s never a bad thing to be quickest at a test.

“We were happy with the outcome, of course,” he says. “Anytime you post a quick time at a test it’s good for morale of a new team.”

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

David Phillips

SPEEDtv.com

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