Ferrari of Washington did it again and repeat as GT Champion in their 360GT....
Ferrari of Washington did it again and repeat as GT Champion in their 360GT. http://www.ferrari.it/cgi-bin/fworld.dll/ferrariworld/scripts/magazine/news_details_office.jsp?oid=1610640858
The next step for FoW would be to outlast all the Daytona Prototypes and to win next year's Rolex 24 at Daytona.
And the Pro-Drive 550 GTS finished 2nd in ALMS, losing by 1 pt. to Corvette. The Risi Comp/Calpont 360GT took 3rd for the season in ALMS with about a jillion Porsches to battle against.
FOW is my local dealer and I know all the folks there and have met Cort and Brett. I root for them as well but let's be real.....they faced absolutely no competition at all. The Bell motorsports M3 only ran at Daytona this year (and did poorly) and there was only the Marcus Motorsports M3 which is a 6 year old E36 model and not considered a competitive car thought they matched and sometimes ran faster than the #33 like at Barber Motorsports Park during the summer. I know Steve Marcus of Marcus Motorsports very well and his team is on par with the top amateur teams in SCCA and not considered a professional privateer type team. They ran on a shoestring budget and ran out of money twice this season. It was rumored that Cunnignham and Plumb drove for free at some races (though I find this hard to believe) There were only three regular privateer 996 GT3 cars and all were underfunded and not competitive. Last year the only competition for FOW was the Mosler which was always faster but couldn't last more than half the laps. I am glad they won again but it was to be expected given the competition in Grand Am (or lack of it). In ALMS it's still going to be the GT3's that win. They have better drivers (Massen and Luhr), real factory backing for the Alex Job team, and the car is just plain better. Just my 2 cents worth. Regards, Jon P. Kofod 1995 F355 Challenge #23 www.flatoutracing.net
Willis, ALMS is much tougher to compete in than Grand Am. Take a look back to the 24 hour race at Daytona this year. The Risi Comp/Calpont 360 GT finished on the podium in 2nd place overall between two GT3 cars. They beat the Daytona prototypes, SRP11 and GTS cars. Yet, the Risi Car could only finish 3rd overall for the season in ALMS. At Daytona, the FoW car was way back. I give a lot of credit to Cort and Brett, but Jon is right. The competition is just not as strong or as deep in Grand Am, except in DP. If FoW was racing in ALMS, they would have to fight much harder just to finish in the top 10 than they did to win GT in Grand Am. Just my opinion
Look, A win is a win. Be happy about it. That's all I'm saying. Another Ferrari won a championship is good, right? Why knock it? I'm well aware of ALMS and how the Ferraris did there.
I love this series and the Grand Am (or whatever it is currently called) cup. Its great to see something (close to) what you can buy from the factory built in action. Ed