| Author | Message | ||
| Ben Lobenstein 90 TR (Benjet)
Member Username: Benjet Post Number: 636 Registered: 1-2001 |
In case anyone is/was interested I've found some more pics on the net taken by others: http://www.theracesite.com/index.cfm?pagetype=2&form_article=3441 http://www.theracesite.com/index.cfm?pagetype=2&form_article=3455 http://www.theracesite.com/index.cfm?pagetype=2&form_article=3457 | ||
| Ben Lobenstein 90 TR (Benjet)
Member Username: Benjet Post Number: 620 Registered: 1-2001 |
33 cars on the roster here, I think only 30 or so began the day: Entry List Note that there are multiple classes running at the same time, and a first thru third finish for each class. Race Results -Ben | ||
| Ben Lobenstein 90 TR (Benjet)
Member Username: Benjet Post Number: 619 Registered: 1-2001 |
Sunday May 19th 2002 Morning. It was raining, surprise, the rain was supposed to come in later in the evening. We decide to head to the race anyway, our support American LeMans will be unhampered by rain. We know that if no one shows up to these events they may not bring them back to our area. So we arrive at Sears Point Raceway in Sonoma, CA, we were hoping that in the huge remodeling they are working on they had paved some of the roads leading to the parking areas, NOPE! Every road into every lot is not dirt but down right mud and not just mud but thick murky gooey mud. There were supposed to be shuttles to take us the 3/4 mile from the parking area to the track, but we are told that they can't come thru the amount of mud that has accumilated. So in the rain, and thru the MUD - we walk, cold wet and now quite dirty to get to the track! Do we need to to fly to races to be called diehard fans? Once at the track we find that some of the grandstands are covered. After a walk around the paddock, and the surrounding areas, we take up to position high up in the grandstands under shelter and prepare for the start of the ALMS - Grand Prix of Sonoma. The race begins under yellow flag conditions and stays that way (no passing & 45mph speed limit) for about 5-6 laps, the excitement was begining to wear off. This was televised parade laps, not exactly racing in my book. The contenders for GTS class (which is why we came to see this race) are as follows: 2x Chevy C5-R, 2x Dodge Viper GT-R(?), 1x Saleen S-7R, and the Olive Garden Ferrari 550!!!! We discovered that the Olive Garden team has NO Ferrari sponsorship, as evidenced by the fact that there is NOT ONE Ferrari logo on that car, although they did have a Ferrari nose badge patch on their outfits. They are based in Italy and speak very little English. After a few yellow laps to dry the track, they went green and now the excitement heated up the crowd (and melted the clouds overhead). As you can see in the pics below, the change in track and weather conditions were for the better as the day went on. It was and will be replayed on SpeedChannel/Vision, check your local listings for details. The race was very fun to watch, I'll post the entry list and results a little later, when I can figure out how to format them (I was hitting the horizontal scroll issue)... Here are some pics - First parade lap:  Lined up on the grid:  One of the first laps (yellow):  Race goes GREEN:  As the track dries out:     Some parts of the car that we haven't seen on this forum yet, (there was a thread some time ago about this car, with alot of info on the changes they make to get this car to this level - http://server.ferrarichat.com/~ferrari/ferrarichat.com/discus/messages/21/8758.html ) :   After the race:   and lastly a link to a bit of video (5mb): http://www.autozotica.com/video/MOV03589.MPG I have more, please let me know if you would like me to post more.... -Ben |