IFCA Trans-Am Season 4 Rnd 4 Sebring

Wow! Now that was a race! Special thanks goes out to Quantum who planned to sub for Team Penske's FRB Incognito but was having connection issues.  Instead, he made it possible for two of his club mates to try our format and step in as subs.  

Though they barely understood what we were doing in terms of format at first, RZM Vettel and RZM McQueen quickly "got it." True, they had some strong reservations about the car builds and had not read the premise of why the cars were built the way they were but got on with it just the same.  

The premise of the Trans-Am series as most know is to create all the cars from the historic Trans-Am series FM7 has to offer and make them feel more in-line with the actual cars. This means that the cars need to have a lot more body roll for a more realistic and challenging feel than you get when you put a full race suspension on them.  Simply put we didn't want the old cars to feel like new cars.  In so doing, the cars come alive and retain more of their original feel.  They also become an acquired taste as so few cars are built to race in this manner with stock suspension.  Vettel, not liking the Dart went with FRB Curve and the Mini, and McQueen went with me in the Dart.  

Some of you might be familiar with McQueen who had a good run in the Forza RC last year.  Currently ranked 38th in the world according to the IFCA computer rankings list, McQueen is about as fast as anyone could hope to have for a sub.  His rating? 2445.541!  Vettel as his name might suggest is equally as fast though unrated.  To give you an idea of how fast these two are, in some post-race test laps both of these drivers ran the Shelby Daytona into the 2:16s!

AOR BIG CLOUSE held the fastest lap all week in the Shelby Daytona with a 2:17.405 which proved to be the car to beat at Sebring. He backed this up with capturing the pole and breaking the track lap record with a 2:17.383!  In second position was RZM Vettel in the Mini with a 2:17.772, and third went to CRC Skitchin with a 2:17.796 also in a Shelby.  Somewhat disappointing fourth position on the grid went to RZM McQueen with a 2:18.004 in the Dart.

Fastest clean race lap went to Clouse's teammate lllRattlesnake in the Shelby with a 2:17.573.

With the two combined fastest drivers, it wasn't a surprise that Clouse and Rattlesnake won in the Shelby.  Just 3sec back CRC Skitchin and RIOT ChevyPower in their Shelby took 2nd place.  4sec behind them in 3rd place went to the Mini Cooper of FRB Curve and RZM Vettel who had a tremendous battle fighting with the lone Dodge Dart of Team Penske's GTDon and McQueen who eventually fell to 4th place a mere 1sec away from a podium finish.

The Dart and the Mini had multiple lead changes throughout the race all the way to the end when the Mini took over the lead in the final stint making it impossible for the Dart to pass.  All of the racing was hard and clean which isn't to say no contact occurred, but nothing worth penalizing anyone for.  Well done everyone!

Next up, Road America.

Points lead for the season has changed again and back to Clouse and Rattlesnake's Shelby as Team Penske's Dodge Dart falls back to second.  Third is in the hands of APX TREMEC (and now Nova) in a Shelby, and fourth is Bro and Celery also in a Shelby.  There is a tie for 5th between Team Tailwind Racing in a Chevy Nova of Sox and Creech, and Team RIOT 1 in a Shelby who missed the first race, of ChevyPower and Skitchin.

Shelby has pulled out a lead over Dodge and Chevrolet in the manufacturer's points standings so far.

Season Points: