ILMS GT Challenge Daytona Race Recap

[JTninja]

Thanks to Mr. Tami for the following report.

March 6th, 2010.

The start of Champion Motorsports Grand Touring Challenge kicked off last Thursday night, March 4th of 2010. After the long off season, everybody packed up their equipment and headed down to Daytona, Florida, for round 1 of the GTC series. The 2.4 hour long event would be the first of 9 rounds in this seasons championship.

After a frustrating 2009 season, Champion Racing was looking to start fresh by having a better season for 2010. The GT1 Corvette C6R was sold (Ironically enough, to Team Modena, a former Aston Martin team). The team bought one of the new BMW E92 GTRs available for this years upcoming season, but due to a major crash while testing, acquired a GT2 Corvette C6R. Unable to make several official test sessions, the team was was looking forward to track time at Daytona.

Team owner and drive JT Tami made it clear to the team that their only goal for the event was to bring the car to the checkered flag. This was mostly because of the opening round for the 2009 season, where after fighting for the podium, a sudden explosion of the engine left the team on the side of the road. Add in JT's record at Daytona, which while competitive, had many DNFs, one can see why they've set this goal. The team unloaded their new Corvette, which was still in traditional Corvette Racing colors, and setup camp. Practice saw the car running in 15th overall, with no problems. "We were out just putting in laps, making sure the car wasn't bottoming out on the banked sections. We'd come in, make adjustments to cool the engine or brakes, and go back out. We needed a car that could keep driving, even after everything Daytona could throw at it."



Qualifying saw the #97 Corvette C6R briefly in the top 5 at the start of the session, where JT had a clean lap with no traffic. A slight error sent him back to the pits, where he remained, after only 3 laps. They quickly fell down the charts, and would start the car in 17th.



35 cars started the race. Despite the track being known for one of the hardest 1st corners, the field made it through without any incidents. The Champion Racing Corvette moved into 16th on the first lap. Lap 7, while under pressure from Philip Brown, took the wide line for T1/2, letting Brown take 16th. The car ran higher downforce that many of the others cars, which meant Tami could gain ground on Brown on the infield, only to loose it on the back straights. On lap 8, disaster stuck. While following Browns Corvette into the back chicane, Tami lost control of his Corvette, spinning into the tire barrier, ripping off the rear wing and causing damage to the rear of the car. While limping back to the pits, Tami made an error in downshifting, loosing the car at the entrance of the pits. "I had no idea what happened. One second I'm following Philip into the chicane, on my driving lane, no problems, and suddenly, as the car temporarily straightens, the car snaps around, and next second I'm in the barrier. No idea what happened. I limped back to the pits, and made an error coming to the entrance, loosing the car. Finally got the car to the box, did repairs and took fuel, but kept the tires and went back out in 31st. A terrible start to our season."



Back on track, the #97 Corvette began to fight back towards the front, having to pass GTC cars for position. "That was tough enough. Normally it wouldn't be an issue, you're faster than them with more power. But due to the damage from our accident, the car was 7 mph slower, making use just slightly faster or equal to many of the GTC cars. It was hard work"

By lap 23, Tami was up to 22nd overall. While getting lapped by the leading Ferrari F430, Tami once again found himself in the tire barriers. "The second accident was worse for the car than the first. I let the leading Ferrari go by as we were getting onto the back straight, and followed him into the braking zone for the chicane. I brake at the 150 meter marker, or around it, where Ive seen other cars doing the same. I'm following the leader into the braking zone, and he brakes at the 200 meter marker! I slam on the brakes, though I'm a good 50 feet behind him. But he enters the chicane at what seemed like a slow speed, like a GTC, and suddenly I find myself barreling down on him! I did the only thing I could do without hitting him; I threw the car out of the way. Spun right and slid into the tire barriers at 30mph. Luckily, the car still ran, but more damaged. I half expected a message from the car telling me to get out and walk back."



The rest of the race was spent battling the Cinnamon Porsche in GTC. Tami pushed to catch up to them, and with final pit strategy playing out, managed to finished ahead of them, in 11th overall and in class. "It didn't exactly play out as I would have liked today" JT said after the race. "But we finished, and that was our goal. Started great, no incidents in the field, was very impressed! Other than our incidents, the only problems we've had with the car have been braking issues. For some reason, one of the cables is pinching, causing the car to slight brake, even when the brake pedal isn't used, causing the rear lights to flicker, or go off, even when not braking. Its annoying on straightaways. To fight this, Ive had to literally lift the brake pedal with my left foot, holding it up. We tried everything to fix it, but nothing yet. Hopefully it will be sorted out by round 2."



After the race, the Corvette was loaded up into the truck, which soon after left the track, heading back to the teams workshop in Irvine, California. The rest of the equipment, including the full camp itself, was left at the track, as Champion Racing will be competing in the opening round of the Champion Motorsports Multi-class Series, with Round 1 starting next week, where JT will drive an Audi R10 TDI in the LMP1 class. Round 2 for the CMS GTC series will be on March 18th, at Old Ring Racing Circuit.

Congrats to David Ortiz on his GT Class win and also To Lenny Trap for taking the win in the 1st ever GTC Class Race.

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