Details

Category: Latest News

Created on Tuesday, 25 September 2012 15:53

UP TO SPEED

Who’s Racing:  

Rolex Series – September 29, 2012 at 3:00 p.m. (LIVE - TV – 9/29 on SPEED at 3:00 p.m.; MRN radio) Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge Series – ST - September 28, 2012 at 3:20 p.m. (TV – 10/13 on SPEED at 12:00 p.m.) GS – September 29, 2012 at 10:30 a.m. (TV – 10/14 on SPEED at 1:00 p.m.)

*All times Eastern

Track:

Lime Rock Park – 1.5-mile; 7-turn natural road course (The GS ST races will be run on the 1.53-mile original track layout)

Length:

Rolex Series – 2.75 hours Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge Series – 2.5 hours for both the GS and ST races

Tire Sets:

The DP and GT teams will be allowed 6 sets (7 sets for teams with Truman/Akin drivers) of tires for the event (including slicks and rain tires).  There is no set limit for the Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge Series (CTSCCS).

 Where Else Does This Compound Race:

DP – will use DP-O.  This tire is used everywhere except Homestead and Indy. GT – will use GT-R.  This tire is used at New Jersey, Mid-Ohio, Road America, Watkins Glen, Laguna Seca, and Lime Rock.   CTSCC – this tire configuration will be used at all other tracks this season except Indy.

Pit Window:

The pit window (fuel run) for the weekend is approximately 60 laps for DP and GT.  Both the DP and GT cars will go through approximately four to five sets of tires while the CTSCCS will use approximately two sets of tires during the race.  In the GS and ST races, you may see some teams change left sides only or in the case of front-wheel drive ST cars, fronts only. Don’t look for teams to double stint on tires.  These are just approximations and does not account for fuel mileage, weather or caution flag laps.  Don’t look for teams to double stint on tires.

Track Characteristics:

Lime Rock can be likened to running a clockwise “oval”.  There is only one left-hand corner (turn 3) in the entire 7-turn natural road course.  As a result, the left side tires are stressed far more than the right side tires.  Look for a lot of teams to run much less camber on the right than they do on the left.

PIT STOP

And the winner is????  

If you race in the Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge Series and have completed the most miles in 2012 you’re in luck.  Continental Tire is presenting the “Driving Confidence” award to each GS and ST team (car) who have completed the most miles this year.  It’s a tight race in both classes so there will be a little added drama at Lime Rock this weekend.  Here’s how the top five break down through Laguna Seca:

DID YOU KNOW

• Driving confidence – In nine CTSCCS races, the GS and ST classes combined have completed 33,608 laps OR 90,062.4 miles.
• They’ve driven how far? – It’s 24,901.55 miles around the Earth’s equator so one could say that the CTSCCS has been around the globe 3.6 times this year.  Those Conti tires have held up well!
• Don’t forget me – As a comparison, the Rolex Series (DP and GT combined) has completed 59,616 laps or 187,626.8 miles to date.
• Busy work day - Continental Tire expects to process 1,200 tires at Lime Rock over the course of a weekend.
• Prepared rain or shine – Continental will bring approximately 2,000 tires to Lime Rock (inclusive of rain and slick tires).
• Kansas tire test – On September 12, three teams tested for the first time at the newest road course, Kansas Speedway.  Joao Barbosa tested the No. 9 DP car, Bill Auberlen tested the No. 94 GT car, and Ryan Ellis tested for iMoto in the ST class.  Because the track is new it was extremely green and dirty.  Similar to the Indy tire test in June, it was hard to rubber the track in with just three cars.  However Barbosa did make a fuel run (30 laps) and early indications are that once the track is rubbered up, the tires will perform to their fullest potential.  It’s worth noting the asphalt used at Kansas is similar to the asphalt used at Daytona.
• Preparing for 2013 – Just like the race teams, Continental Tire has plenty of work to do in the “off season”.  Between October and January, Continental will be busy testing at tracks like Kansas and Daytona and building thousands of tires for the 2013 race season.  No rest for the weary.

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