Who won Tribute to Le Mans?

[Jack Olsen]

I was out there for about an hour tonight, watching a full field of 911's tearing up the track at Willow Springs. But we had to leave before the finish.

Who won?

[speeder]

Thought that the race was tommorow, it was tonight? Some pretty fast cars out there? Also, check your email.

[RSupdate]

Wasn't the enduro last night? Would love to know who won that, and who , if anybody, broke down...etc.... got some buddies who both drove &/or pitted in that.

[Tinker]

Brent Martini in the 996 GTR3 held off a charging Doug Baron in his turbo to take the win by 20 seconds. An other lap and it would have been two in a row for Mr. Baron. The lead car went on reserve during the last lap. An other 30 minutes and the third place car would have past them both. It was turning laps three seconds a lap fast than both in the final half hour. In fact it set its fastest lap on lap 136 @ 1:22.6.

Pretty poor turn out in terms of the number of cars (17) with only 12 running at the end. Must be a combination of the Festival of Speed at Cal. Speedway next weekend and the poor economy?????

Tinker

[campbellcj]

I helped work the event Fri & Sat and had a great time, although it was pretty exhausting (and I didn't even drive). I now have a much better understanding of what goes on behind the scenes at an event like this...a LOT of work. The POC officials, Dave Bouzaglou and a BUNCH of other people sure worked their tails off to make this event happen.

Putting a bunch of sponsor decals on a brand new Cayenne Turbo pace car was an interesting experience. Unfortunately I didn't get to ride in the pace car, but I must say the Cayenne kind of grows on you after a while. It looks better in person than in pics, that's for sure.

It was a good race despite the thin field. Actually I think only 11 cars finished. There where a number of DNR's and DNF's due to mechanical issues.

The Doug Baron / Loren Beggs car really sounded like crap in the final few minutes; they managed to pull off a great finish though. I heard that the low-fuel light was on and they'd already flipped the reserve switch a couple laps earlier.

My pics are uploading right now and will be here shortly --

http://www.nosubstitute.org/events/Tribute31May03

[Jack Olsen]

Are the full results posted anywhere?

[TRE Cup]

Tribute was indeed a tiring event to work: The combination of high desert heat, Willow's infamous "breezes", and the unceasing (but glorious!) noise of the P cars really takes a toll.

Kudos and thank you to all the volunteers and crews that helped make it happen.

Don't let the low entry field fool you; there was some very heated competition going on during the event. For added spice, we allowed other non enduro club members to race the first hour of the Tribute. The starting "field" ballooned to 30 cars as a result and made for some interesting passing situations. Also, there were quite a few other teams that just could not get their cars fixed in time for the green flag. They really tried too- there were cars apart all over the place. A couple of teams substituted other sprint cars (which in turn had to be prepped for the enduro. i.e.- install lights, wiring, radios, cool shirt equipment, etc.)
In short, the event went pretty smoothly and POC looks forward to bigger turnouts in the future
Hint- with some new blood on the board mixed with the "old guard's" experience, some positive changes are afoot

Results will be finalized and "Official" early this week and I'll get a copy for this board

[TRE Cup]

COOL pictures Chris!
Thanks for taking them
and once again thanks for the help

[Laura-Hergesheimer MotorS]

Thanks Dave for all your hard work. (I know we gave you a headache, but what are friends for.) But I for one am glad Tribute is over, that old saying 'if we didn't have bad luck, we wouldn't have any luck at all' was our our sleeve all weekend long.

But we did finish the car during the national anthem, and did make the start! and the finish! Yes, it wqas the wrong car, with the small motor, and someone elses backup trans, but we made it the the fiinsh 4 hours later.

This year the starting grid was smaller than years past, but many teams were pushing the envelope much farther knowing the competition was going to fierce. And as a result many tweeked just a little too far and after 3 days of pushing didn't make it to the start line or retired early.

Our 3 drivers had their suits on and off more times this weekend than they had laps. We had to drop down to a V1/R3 car which left us out of the run for a top finish, but our drivers Rudy Poe, Pat Flanangan and Kevin Buckler stuck it out through all the problems and kept our 10 year finishing streak alive. Our crew worked so hard the week before and during the weekend, the guys who help out during the heat and conditions really have to like what they do, and we appreciate them very much. They are tearing the cars done right now and will be back at it for trip to Fontana on Thursday.

Thanks again Dave and POC for another memorable Tribute to LeMans.

P.S. At least the after race parties went without a hitch...

[MarkP]

Where can we find out info on future races?

[nostatic]

anyone know this car? Looks like an SC gone very very bad

[sammyg2]

Sooo,..did the 917 run? (wishful thinking probably). What about the Enzo? Yeah, I know.
What was this silver car, a saleen? http://www.nosubstitute.org/events/Tribute31May03/tn_DSCN0015_jpg.jpg

[TRE Cup]

In the POC Tribute To Le Mans show tent there was a Aston Martin Vanquish, TechArt 911 turbo, Lambo Diablo GT , Saleen S 7, Ferrari Enzo (yup!), and the Porsche 917 that won at Sebring in 1971. Out side the tent there were more 911 turbos in Ruf, Tech art, GT2 configurations than you could shake a stick at. Then a couple GT3 Rs for sale, and a bunch of Ferrari 360s for good measure. Probably close to 10 million bucks in less than 4000 square feet of space: Now THAT is expensive real estate!

Pro class drivers in the field included Kevin Buckler (Porsche Cup 2002 , Daytona 03, Le Mans 02 winner) Cort Wagner (Porsche Cup winner) Johanes Overbeeck (sp?), Rick Knoop (BFG 962 Le Mans), Anthony Lazarro (alms, grand am), Constantino Bertuzzi (Ferrari factory driver- took 5th (?) at last year's TTL in a 360), and the most special drivers of all: POC members that worked their butts off to get to this moment

So the level of driving expertise was very high, but "our guys" worked the track with the best of them.

Unfortunately the Martini 917 was stuck in gear, so we had to be content to sit in it and pretend to be Michael Delaney on the Mulsane straight. I swear a ghost whispered "David, I want Porsche to win Le Mans"

[TRE Cup]

The silver car is Ladi Van Jansky's 930 turbo with our bumpers on it. Pretty cool look, eh?

[makaio]

I really like Rossi's car:

[MMARSH]

Matt, it looks even better is person. great lookin car. Now I wanna run 18's on my car.

[fasttech]

Who was it that was so fast in third?

p.s. great pics campbellcj

[TRE Cup]

Dennis Puddester, Rick Knoop, and Dwaine Dement driving a turbo that Vision built. Surprisingly, but not really, the normally aspirated 3.6 powered 911 of Steve Cross and Anders Hainer were in 4th overall. A strong showing with consistently fast driving, no mistakes in or out of the pits, and good fuel mileage.

[masraum]

It just doesn't get any cooler than this

[fasttech]

what happened to STEFANOWICZ this year, anybody know?