996 RSR @ Road Atlanta

[jester911]

This past weekend I volunteered with the Peachstate PCA. We got to see amazing cars/drivers and it was a lot of fun.
This driver/car was in the last sprint race Saturday which I got to watch in person. He looks as though he is on the track by himself because he started the race in front and this is the first 2 laps.

He caught the back of the field in 4 laps. You can see his lap times at the intro of the video. Pretty damn impressive.


http://gscdownloads.com/RSRroadATL

[IROC]

I didn't watch the video, but would be extremely skeptical of a claim of "200mph on the back straight". I simply do not believe that. Maybe I'm the one that's wrong, though.

[richbunch]

I competed in the same event, not same run group. I can vouch, this car was unbelieveably fast. I can't speak for the 200mph, but i would have to say it had to be pretty close. You could see the power coming out of 1 going up the hill! Something to be seen!

[jester911]

For the record. I stand corrected. He was only reaching somewhere around 160. My bad.

[jim911]

What camera sustem is in the car?

[IROC]

He ran a 1:21?!??! OK, that is really fast. I realize my earlier comment might have sounded condescending, but I remember watching an ALMS race on TV a couple of years ago from there and the prototypes were only hitting about 175 max before braking for 10A - hence my skepticism.

I could only hit 125 at that spot with my 165hp 2.7. I'll find out in June what I can with the 3.2...

[jester911]

The driver said his system is a racecam. A lot of guys commented on the clarity of the video on rennlist where it was posted.
Mike, I do understand being skeptical about the top speed. One of the other drivers in the race that was in a 997 said he was reaching 156 mph and this guy went by him like he was standing still.

Last fall I got to a little over 130 mph in my car. I probably could do a little more than that but I had a little concern getting slowed down enough to make 10a with street tires and brakes.

[Patrice911]

Last October I was getting around 136 to 138mph. That's calculated form the RPM, more accurate then the Speedo is.
Here a link to a 2laps video I did, in the video when I got pass by the GT2 I was going around 115mph.


http://s90.photobucket.com/albums/k262/pbousquet/Road%20Atlanta/?action=view&current=RoadAtlanta.flv

[cbeers]

Nice!

Did anyone else think his seat moves around a lot?

Sure love that shifter......


-Chris

[Jon Merck]

Did you catch the drivers name? Looks like Leh Keen...he is very fast at RA.

[Jon Merck]

It is...just saw his thread on Renn.

[450knotOffice]

I've seen his in-car videos before (and posted one here a while back). The guy is an amazingly talented driver. I'll go out on a limb and say that based on what I've seen, he could compete head to head with the best drivers racing has to offer.

[jester911]

After seeing his lap times I curious about something. I attended the Petit Lemans @ RA and watched the basically the same cars in GT class and figured they probably were not any faster than that.
Well here are the times from that race.

Granted Road Atlanta has new pavement so that accounts for a couple seconds which makes Leh's times about the same.
http://www.imsaracing.net/2006/events/petitlemans/ALMS%20Race%20Summary.pdf

[ttweed]

Originally posted by 450knotOffice
I'll go out on a limb and say that based on what I've seen, he could compete head to head with the best drivers racing has to offer.

You're not going out on a limb at all to say that-- Farnbacher/Loles signed him for their GrandAm team this year and he's already had a podium finish in Mexico and had the pole at Homestead, led the most laps, and might have won except for gearbox problems at the end (and that pesky Mazda, that needs a little weight penalty.) They led the Daytona 24hr race until the last 2 hours when they blew an engine as well. See his website here.

[TimT]

PCA allows the 996-997RS/RSR models etc to run without restrictors

[450knotOffice]

I think the whole concept of restrictors is bull, unless we're talking about limiting horsepower for safety's sake, ala NASCAR and the Superspeedways.

I mean, Come on!

(rant over)

[Kevin From Cali]

Originally posted by cbeers
Nice!

Did anyone else think his seat moves around a lot?

Sure love that shifter......
-Chris

Yea Chris, that doesn't look safe, he needs a back bracket
from the seat to the roll bar. The sequential shifter is very cool!