348 / F355 Challenge - Look what I located.......

Met with Tom Popodopulous today in NY for a few hours. For those that don't know, he won the 1997 and 1998 driver championship of the F355 challenge series with Wide World of Cars.

He was kind enough to share this dvd of the 1996 race in Montreal along with many records. I will get this copied over and uploaded to YouTube and will post the link soon.

Barry's car is featured quite a bit along with many others.

I have contacted other drivers from the series and will have more to post soon...

Great history and drivers to celebrate.

Stay tuned.

Robb
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From Italy in 1996

Cars for:

Earle
Frame
Popudopulous

Great vantage point...

Robb
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It is featured in the cast of characters. Great stuff.

Robb

 

Your car was Tom's favorite car (he raced two white cars, a '95 and '97.)

He raced in '96, '97, and '98 and won in '97 and '98. It did not race in '95.

So you have one of the season winners.

Barry's car Peter Sachs won in '95

Rob Lay's car Dr Earle won several year's in '96 and '99

Heinz's Motorola car won when it was white in 2000 with Matt Drendel.

My memory fails on the 2001 final F355 season in the series for North Anerica... Will have to check my notes.

Robb

 

He had great setup of the car to fit his driving style... And because he was a mechanic on sports cars originally with his shop, he understood what was happening "underneath" the car so he could make adjustments and corrections accordingly. While he was not a pro, Tom was an instructor in other areas prior to starting the series. So he could plain out - drive.

Robb

 

I am happy to pass on all information to all owners with out any charges... We all love the history here for many similar reasons in our Group. It will only cost Tim some fiber-glassing to catch up on.

The goal is to make it all public in one easy to read location soon to celebrate the cars, the drivers, and the series. Will keep the group updated.

Robb

 

Tom's '97 car is on the east coast serviced in NY.

Robb

 

Trophy from North American series in '97

Robb
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Trophy from Tom's 1st place finish at Pergusa Italy in the finals in 1997.

Robb
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I will check with him.

One reason was the North American cars had to change numbers when in Europe.

Your car also had a cylinder head (4 valves in one head instead of 5) issue sealed from the factory, so the engine went back to the factory for a repair. The guy on the engine line had come over from building 348's and did not catch the problem in the '95 street car... **** happened.

Your car also had a fair amount of bodywork repairs with Tom's battling for lead positions.

Robb

 

I can tell you that Tom played by the letter of the law during the series. I saw his worksheets for each race on corner balances and suspension adjustments.

His car was impounded once by the race officials because a question was raised. They inspected the car and it passed without any issues. So it likely came down to having a few great amateur drivers, some good drivers, and some that were purely there for the experience just to finish along with golf, food, and cameraderie.

Tom told me that this was not the case in the European series where all teams bent the rules equally. So I guess it did not affect the balance there.

But the North American cars had trouble against the European cars head to head at the finals because of the different "cultures"...

Robb