San Francisco SCCA Panoz results

I figured you all might want to know how the season finished up here in the SF Region SCCA. We run 2 GTSs in GT-2 spec and finished 1st and 2nd for the season. We also won the season finale 4hr Enduro race (3rd overall and "O" [over 2000cc] class win). The 4hr enduro is great fun and the won the overall and class last year as well. Tough on the drivers (3 guys 80min each).

cheers,
Kevin Booth
2000 GTS and GTRA

Congrats!!! Nice way to finish the season!

Awesome, Kevin! Are you headed for he Run Offs? I want to see you on Speed Channel!

Mike

Nice job Kevin. Any decisions yet on the NASA option? Any news on new run groups for us in SCCA?

I figured you all might want to know how the season finished up here in the SF Region SCCA. We run 2 GTSs in GT-2 spec and finished 1st and 2nd for the season. We also won the season finale 4hr Enduro race (3rd overall and "O" [over 2000cc] class win). The 4hr enduro is great fun and the won the overall and class last year as well. Tough on the drivers (3 guys 80min each).

cheers,
Kevin Booth
2000 GTS and GTRA

Great work Kevin. Assume you ran the 4 hour on slicks? What brand/size/compound and did you run the whole race on one set? What length was the track that the race was run at and what sort of surface?

I may run some endurance races on slicks in the future and am trying to get a handle on wear.

Thanks, Kel.

Kel,
we ran the race on a single set of the "new" Hoosier 18" slicks. Lap times at the end of the 4h were 1 sec off the first session and the tires were had wear left. Last year we ran the same race on a single set of Hoosier R6s and used them later for practice sessions! Slicks are 3+ sec faster than the R6s same car. No problems with 4 hrs on Hoosier R6 or slicks they wear well.

Here is the track: http://www.thunderhill.com/html/trackmap.html

3 miles 15 turns new asphault surface this year.

Thanks for the praise guys.....just wanted you all to know our plastic cars can hold their own. No plans for the nationals family would kill me.

Now for the learing pearl....our 2nd car DNFd due to right front wheel stud failure. The primary driver felt the tires were wearing and wanted them changed at 1h:20. A crew member changed and torqued the RF and car ran 10 more laps before the RF wheel became loose and vibrated the 3 of 5 studs out. The crew member neglected to appreciate that the spacer was on the old wheel and the closed lug nuts bottomed out with "slop" as there was no spacer....doomed to failure.

Kevin

I was thinking that the front spacers were no longer used when you went to the 18 x 10 front wheels and 18 x 11 rears. Clearly a wrong assumption then.

I once rotated tires front to rear (17 x 9's all around). The spacer stuck to the wheel, therefore unknowingly I had no front spacer. I noticed the difference when torquing the wheel. It kept going just a bit tighter with each re-torque. That was what alerted me to the problem. It can actually be felt when there is a problem. Mine was not in a race situation. I could see where it could be easily overlooked in a rush. A good solution to avoid this in the future is to drill, tap and screw (only one screw needed) the spacer and hub so it no longer can stick/transfer with the wheel.

Uwe,
with the CCS 18" wheels we switched to "Nascar" style studs with open lug nuts. Spacers are optional, but I like the wider track. Our #24 car has 17" wheels and the guy who installed the wheel felt it "torqued funny" (as the nut bottomed out)! Always learning but I think we will be more attentive in the future.

Keivn

Thanks Kevin, Did you switch out hubs/hats/rotors to take advantage of the extra dia. gained by going to 18" wheels, or does the Panoz racing spec prohibit that change?

Congratulations from the left coast. We had a great year out here also.

congrats!!!

Uwe,
I think you can run any 18" tires and 10" front and 11" wheels. I don't think the new rotors are any larger or other advantage. You can run the 17 or 18 inch wheels with the old and new rotors....does that help?? Same calipers and pads.

Kevin

UWE....SCCA requires the same spec rotor size and just because there is now room inside the rim you cannot enlarge the rotor diameter.