Flatout/Nick Leverone Wordl Challenge at LRP

G

Greg Amy

Administrator
Staff member
I created this topic as a heads-up for Flatout Motorsports and Nick Leverone's World Challenge efforts this weekend at Lime Rock Park.

Yesterday was practice, two sessions. As I understand it from the SCCA Pro forum, the morning practice was wet, but the afternoon dried up. Our own Nick Leverone pulled in a 1:01.5, good for a 9th-place time! Remember, these guys are on Toyo Proxes RA-1 tires.

http://www.world-challenge.com/2004/events...rp/tc-comb.html

Watch that link; it should be where we get this afternoon's qually times. If not, go to the following link and navigate from there:

http://www.world-challenge.com/2004/events...rp/results.html

Qualification for WC is this afternoon, with GT at 3:10 and TC at 3:45. Live timing sessions available at:

http://www.world-challenge.com/2004/events...livetiming.html

Today's a beautiful day, and promises to stay that way. Put your head down and sic 'em, Nick!

A couple of Flatout-unrelated observations:
- PD Cunningham broke the 1-minute mark in his SE-R with a :59.8
- GT cars are running in the low 55's!!!!
- Any good Northeast ITS car (BMW or RX-7, on our racing tires) would easily be in the top 1/3 of the TC field...
- I need to buy a Touring Car. Donations, anyone?
 
Holy Toledo!

Nick dropped over a second off his Friday time to post a 1:00.311, which put him in...get this...24th place!!! Boys and girls, Bill Auberlen takes the Touring Car pole position in his BMW with a :57.678!!! You had to post a sub-minute time just to get higher than 20th place!!!

Even more...horrifying?...the GT pole time is a :54.362 posted by Randy Pobst in an Audi RS6...I take it back, I don't want a World Challenge car...I don't think I have the balls for this...

Best wishes to Nick and the Flatout crew for Monday's race!
 
Couldn't help but chuckle about any good NE ITS car easily being in the top 1/3. Even if qualified up front, there's still the race. Pretty amazing stuff! Can't wait to watch on Monday.

Hopefully Nick can use all of his LRP experience and make his move up through the pack.

------------------
Dave Gran
NER #13 ITA
'87 Honda Prelude
 
Eric Curran is here as well, running both GT and Touring. I will have images from here at the track online tomorrow. Too tired tonight to upload.
 
More food for thought.

The danger in just reading results sheets is the incomplete picture. Fridays times were done in iffy conditions, and not much clear track time. Yesterdays Q session was clear and dry and the track was fast.

Secondly, imagine how the Cadillacs would have done had they not been slapped with the weight and the restrictor after Sebring! Audis 1 and 2, but kudos the Westport, CTs Michael Culver in his Porsche in 3rd! Beating the GM factory!

And to be fair, there are significant differences in prep between an ITS car and a Speed Touring car. The GT rules are even looser.

Also, keep in mind that not only does the series work with reward weights, but the rules are different for each model car. In all cases though, they are more liberal in many ways than IT. Gaze under a touring car and try to find a stock suspension component! I dare you!

And HP? The small touring cars are more than the best ITS BMW...

Speaking of qualifying, last events ITA polesitter would have been 31st on the grid...

And other notables: Ken Payson was 34th with a 1:03 or so.

------------------
Jake Gulick
CarriageHouse Motorsports
ITA 57 RX-7
New England Region
[email protected]

[This message has been edited by lateapex911 (edited May 30, 2004).]

[This message has been edited by lateapex911 (edited May 30, 2004).]
 
I hope the Audi guys bring a shovel, I'm sure the Caddy's are going to drop a big bag of sand at the start!, both teams I think went out for 4-5 laps in there sessions, should be fun to watch. I think Nick will have a good race, I was watching him, he is very smooth in the corners, the big guns just have much better cars.

------------------
Anthony Serra ITA 99
 
Originally posted by R RACER:
I hope the Audi guys bring a shovel, I'm sure the Caddy's are going to drop a big bag of sand at the start!, both teams I think went out for 4-5 laps in there sessions, should be fun to watch. I think Nick will have a good race, I was watching him, he is very smooth in the corners, the big guns just have much better cars.
Click to expand...

one of the Caddy's went for a nice ride into the swamp and then was slow
 
I'm back home from the track for a few short hours, thought I would post an update.

These WC guys are serious pros, eh? After Nick's great showing in practice, we expected him to go faster AND go backwards in qualifying -- but all the way back to 24? These people sure know how and when to turn on the juice.

The good news: Today we talked with some people who really know the Toyo tires, learned a few things, and made changes accordingly. Tomorrow's another day.

/Steve U
05 ITS
 
Nice job Flat out!!! We will be rooting you on from home!!!

Eric.. Nice job in the Viper!!!

Raymond
RST Performance Racing

Love the Audi's
wink.gif
 
Originally posted by lateapex911:
More food for thought.

The danger in just reading results sheets is the incomplete picture.
Click to expand...

Even more food for thought.

The first 27 cars broke the previous track qualifing record. What a difference the Toyo RA1 makes. How fast would they be on the new Hoosiers?
 
Well, it was fun watching Nick move up through the field, (I misssed that spin) and make us proud. He looked great and raced clean. Congrats to Nick and all the Flatout guys.

Some notables Nick finished ahead of include:

Bob Endicott
Memo Gidly
Pierre Kleinubing
Nick Esayian

according to my Prov. Race result sheet. Nick moved from 24th to 17th. Radar shows the top speed of the field to be about 124we todsaaf
 
Originally posted by ITSRX7:
As usual, Doug took some killer photos!!!

Luckily for us, that spin took place during the warm up, not the race!

AB
Click to expand...


psst... the above aren't mine AB. I sent you an email. Got a few you will be interested in
 
Cool nice shots. Thanks for posting them.
Scott NER CRX 09 ITA

P.S. Good job to Flat Out

[This message has been edited by p99ro (edited June 02, 2004).]
 
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