NASA GTS Footage from Putnam

[cstreit]

Just posted the Saturday race from the NASA GTS Midwest/Great Lakes region crossover event. Overcast the whole weekend with rain on and off every 30 minutes made tire choices impossible.

In this race half the field started on wets and half on try. Thanks to some very detailed regional radar on wunderground.com I started on dry's knowing the 1st 10 minutes would be rain and then dry. First few laps were dicey untill the rain quit... then laps got quicker and quicker.

Sundays race (to be posted later) had damp conditions untill the end finished the race under an absolute deluge on slicks... wooooweee was THAT interesting.

from Chris Streit on Vimeo.

[Craig S.]

Hey Chris,

Nice race! That track looks like a real skating rink considering the amount of moisture I could see in the video. You seem to be the only driver that had a clue, despite your early spin. Bet it took a while to get any heat in your tires, what were you running?

[Rob Channell]

Nice driving. The start did not seem any faster than I have run it before and then I remembered the water. I think I need to go back to Putnam again sometime.

The last laps were much quicker as you described. I am thinking the last lap was close to a 1:19 or so (just from checking the video time). I'd need another couple hundred horsepower, bigger brakes, 200lbs off the car and somebody else driving to do that.

There do seem to be some drivers making more errors than I might have expected. I guess it could have been the rain or maybe the group as a whole is not as experienced as I imagined they might be.

The BMW driver did avoid you at the 2:30 spin so that's a plus. Was it a slick track coupled with the driver in front of you starting to spin that made you lift ever so slightly or what? I'm curious.

Cool video, Chris. Thanks for posting.

[cstreit]

I managed a 1:15.8 in qualifying but it doesn't could to the class record which is only recorded under race conditions.

Here is Sunday's video.

I made the call to start on Dry's despite the early rain because the local radar (Thanks wunderground.com!!!) showed a letup just as the race would start so I left the dry's on but softened up the front of the car quite a bit and added some wing. I figured I could build up a wide margin and when the rain started back up, I'd be able to hold it.

The serious rain stated at about 15 minutes into the race as you'll see. It got so heavy that they flagged the race about 7-8 minutes early. Lucky they did because it was so slick we basically had to idle around the track. Had anyone gone out on rains they would have owned me in about 2 laps no problem.

My wife said that the instant the heavy rain started the decibels went down across the track instantly.

from Chris Streit on Vimeo.

[Flieger]

Nice driving. It is cool to see one of a small number of Porsches in the field winning all the races.