professional 987S Cayman racing

[Matt Monson]

You can complain about the rules all you want, but personally I find it to be some of the most interesting road racing going on in America at this time. I think it's wonderful that these are production car based vehicles that have been modified into racecars. Hell, the black Cayman BGB runs was Jon Teece's personal daily driver street car before they put it into service. If you've never watched one of the races, watch a broadcast or go out to the track and watch one live before you call the Continental Tire racing shyte.

This is NOT GT Rolex racing. These are cars that you and I can buy and modify ourselves. There's still a lot of rules constraints and battles for parity, which John Teece has taken on with great success. He got all kinds of concessions from Grand Am last year and he's currently working on new things to make the cars closer to on parity with the Camaros, BMWs and Mustangs that totally overpower the little Cayman. The catch with the rules in this class is they require you to run something that's in production in the actual vehicle you race. It's totally opposite of the tube frame chassis rules they run in GT class. In GS class, the reason they haven't given BGB 3.8l engines is there's no such thing in the real world. They are allowing them to run DFI engine vehicles this year, and the black '09 car they just finished building and tested at Homestead 2 weeks ago have that engine, which ups their power by something like 20hp over the two cars pictured above and in this story.

I am very excited to see how they can do in this coming year. They've retired all the 997 C2's and are focusing 100% on the Caymans. Guy Cosmo is coming back to drive for them again and I think they have a very good chance of seeing the kind of success they have 4 years ago when they were running 996 C2's in this series.

[Flieger]

I like Continental Challenge better than the Rolex GT, for the record. I have seen a couple races on TV, but I still like ALMS and World Challenge better.

[Krokodil]

Matt,

Great points, with one clarification. I beleive, by prior knowledge and looking at the cars in this thread, that BGB and Magnus both ran the higher HP 09+ DFI cars last year as well. In fact, I beleive it was the only Cayman S version allowed in the GS class.

Please correct me if this is wrong.

Cheers,

[Matt Monson]

To be honest I am not 100% sure. I believe the black car (the original one, #38) was not a DFI car. The blue one, which crashed again after those above pictures were taken, and was totalled out and didn't make it to the final race at Miller may have been a DFI car. I think it was a midseason rule change Grand Am made, but I don't think BGB was in a position to fully take advantage of it. At least that's what my fuzzy memory says, but don't quote me as an expert on the subject. I do know everything they run in this new season will be DFI, though one of the points of negotation has been around whether they get to keep their custom exhaust and the GT3 throttle body or whether they have to go back to stock manifolds both in and out.

I know nothing about the Magnus car. It could have been DFI.

[ferdsgt3rs]

Amen to that, when I went to Daytona and looked close at the "new Mazda GT (Riley Chassis) it's basically a small tube fram proto. wrapped in carbon I was amazed Porsche could even be competitive at all,
I do really like th the GS spirit of racing, keep it real!!!

Ferd

[Matt Monson]

BUMP!

The race this coming weekend at Lime Rock is going to field that largest number of Caymans we've ever seen at a Grand Am event. And not a single 997 is entered!

There will be four Caymans out there running for the win. BGB's two cars will be there, Magnus has brought their car out of retirement, and Nobel Racing is running their first event in the car they just finished building. For those of you not familiar with Nobel, it's basically Dan Jacobs and Hairy Dog, with this being Baron Jacobs' professional racing debut as one of the two drivers.

The race won't be televised live and will replay later on Speed, but there will be live timing and scoring starting with practice tomorrow listed on the official Grand Am website.

[BoxsterGT]

Will the Cayman GS cars be in the same race as the GT and DP cars?

Len

[KTL]

Matt and others, nothing to share about the BGB green machine at VIR race a few weeks ago? That car was looking pretty racy for most of the race, but faded to 8th at the end. Anybody know why it couldn't hang in there to challenge for the win?

As an aside, good to see Rick DeMan come away unhurt after that big wreck. He took his leading ST Boxster for a serioulsy fast shunt into the guardrail and then it got really ugly after the rebound..... Good to see him out of the car right away and waving to everyone he was OK.

[Matt Monson]

IIRC, Cosmo had a small off that was enough to let the other leaders past him before he could get back on track and in the mix again. He actually led the race for a decent number of laps.

The Caymans have been midpack this morning in practice turning mid 59's. We'll see how they qualify in a couple of hours.

[BoxsterGT]

Any news?

[Matt Monson]

I don't have any blow by blow because I was in the middle of building an engine this weekend during the actual race. None of the Caymans did too well. One of BGB's finished the best up in something like 17th place.

I spoke to Dan Jacobs on Sunday. They are still learning the car and getting it setup properly.

Watch for all of them again this weekend at The Glen.

[Matt Monson]

And they're out... BGB isn't going to run any cars at Road America. After seeing the uncorked Camaros pull 2 seconds a lap on them at the Glen they are fed up.

Nobel crashed in practice at the Glen and is out for repairs. They are supposed to be back for NJMP, but I don't know that we're going to see BGB again any time soon unless Grand Am makes some rule changes in their favour.

[Flieger]

Can't say I fault them

[Matt Monson]

Bump...

Jack Baldwin and Napleton Porsche Motorsports has picked up the mantle on this and made Cayman lovers everywhere proud. Yesterday at Long Beach in the World Challenge race Jack took his Cayman S from the outside pole on the standing start, launched it into first place and never looked back. Now we've just got to see how he does at Miller in 2 weeks with some added ballast because of yesterday's win...

[oliver88]

GA will now allow the Camaro and Mustang teams to run twin turbos and tube frame cars that weigh 300 pounds less than the Caymans! Joking of course...I hope. I am down on GA and their "rules" BS.

[Matt Monson]

I think you missed the point. Last weekend Jack Baldwin piloted a Cayman to it's first ever professional racing win in the States. This is a big deal. Cayman fans have been waiting half a dozen years to see someone do this...

[oliver88]

I am very excited to see a Cayman win, it is terrific...what I fear is that GA will strangle the car with their Porsche paranoid mindset...remember, Porsche doesn't pay any NASCAR bills!

[Cory M]

Cayman victory was in world challenge not GA...

[Matt Monson]

Originally Posted by Cory M

Cayman victory was in world challenge not GA...

Ding, ding, ding.

Though there are some of us who are concerned that GA is going to strangle the 997 Carrera now that Rum Bum won a race and BGB came in a strong 4th at Barber. We'll see where that goes...

[oliver88]

Aha! The lightbulb went on for me now! WC Cayman success! GA can now work on neutering the 997!