| Grand
American Series
Barber Porsche 250
BARBER MOTORSPORTS
PARK 2005
GT
RACE REPORT
Race Strategy
The
scheduled race length was 109 laps or 2-3/4 hours. Our data showed
we could do 51 laps on 21 gal. We stopped on the yellow at 1 hour
10 minutes on Lap 36 to make David available for relieving Mae. Track position
was not a problem because at that time we were 4 th and 5 th was one
lap down. On the next caution, the cars ahead stopped and we went to
first. My calculations at the 1 hour 45 minute mark showed we could
finish without another stop if we got about 5 more pace car laps. With 45 minutes to go, it became obvious it would be a timed race and
would go less than 109 laps.
On Lap 67 we got 4 pace car laps. We ended up doing 93 total laps with
the last 51 being on one tank of fuel because there were 19 pace car
laps and 38 green race laps. After the race, we drained the tank and
reserve and got 1.2 gallons.
Race
The
race is started with two pace cars, one for DP and one for GT. When
the green comes out, the DP field gets over a 30 second jump on the GT
field. As a result, the DP's are lapping the tail of the GT field on
the 3 rd lap at Barber. #80 started 26 th (6 th in GT) and #81 46 th (26 th in GT). There were
7 full course yellows with pace car on track during the race.
The 1 st caution came out on L3 with the leader already ahead of #81.
The GT order was 16-17-36-22-80-21-73-63-64-14-57-61 with #81 1 lap down.
The 2 nd caution was on L11 for 8 laps and the 3 rd caution on Lap 20
for 5 laps. #17 pitted and the race went green on L25 for 8 laps. The
order was 16-22-36-80-73-21-65-64-57-96. On Lap 29 the #73 and #21 had
contact resulting in a long pit stop for #73.
When the 4 th caution occurred on Lap 32, there had been 14 total green
laps so far in the race. At this point the leaders were coming up through
the GT field and had passed all but 16-36-80-22. The rest of the GT field
joined #81 one lap down.
#80 pitted on the yellow on Lap 36 for fuel, tires and driver change.
David out, Craig in. The race went green on L40 and the order was 16-36-80-22/65-64-14-96-23-7-21-61-17-73-57-88-43-30-81-41/35.
The 5 th caution was on Lap 41 and #16 and #36 pitted on Lap 42. #80
became the GT leader. The green was out on Lar 48 and caution #6 on Lap
51. #81 stopped for fuel, tires and driver change. Mae out, David in.
It was green again on Lap 58 and on Lap 60, #36 pitted with a damaged
LF suspension.
The final caution came on Lap 67 for 4 laps. Just after the green came
out, it started to sprinkle and the #16 BMW fell back about 2 seconds.
As the track dried, the BMW was always on our rear bumper and could pull
alongside about 2 times a lap. On Lap 90 the BMW got by using lapped
traffic and went on to win. We finished 2 nd . The order was 16-80/22-65/64-17-21-73-14-23-88-96/81-30-43-41.
Sincerely,
David Murry
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