Sunday, July 25 TIME: 1 p.m. ET SPEED (channel 607 on DirecTV) opcorn: Garden State 250 Get ready for the nose-to-tail action of the 2010 Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge! Fifty two of the latest production-based sports cars compete on the 2.25-mile, 12-turn Thunderbolt Raceway circuit at New Jersey Motorsports Park. Make sure you follow all the action on SPEED and see history in the making as the #198 Mini Cooper S of RSR Motorsports wins in convincing fashion to give Mini their first ever victory in Grand Am competition.
Shite! F1 is on from noon to 2 pm, this starts at 1 pm...decisions, decisions. Guess I'll catch the start of the F1 and switch over at 1.
Does anyone by chance have the capability of posting this race.....? My DVR took a dump and does not have the race listed in the queue! And the guy who normally posts the races on racingunderground.com had a power outage and can't do it.
Interesting... that one of the KIA team members called the race for the MINI with more than an hour to go. Also, my two of my favorite cars got firsts: Mustang won for GS, MINI for GT. Mustang did pretty good for a car some think can only go straight! Matt
Looks like it was going sideways a bit, too. Anyone know how many other cars are using non-OEM ECUs? After the MINI's run-away success, will other teams jump on that bandwagon?
The Bosch setup requires Grand Am approval in advance. Most of the other cars run Bosch. We were approved about 3 months ago. It takes a long time to implement. The announcer was saying that the winning 198 car was the only one of our 3 car Mini team that is using Bosch. and . . . that is correct. We will convert the other cars soon but not until we have resolved all the mapping and fuel economy issues. I guess the race result says we are pretty close . . . Randy
Cool, thanks for the clarification. The way the announcer said it, I wasn't sure if the 198 car had an advantage over the entire field; that didn't make sense. It really looked like the MINI just out-handled the field and carried more speed into the straights. One of the Kia guys (Lally maybe?) said his Kia was the best handling and best braking car in the field, but down on HP. I'm not sure their performance backs that up, though. For one, it seems like Jonsson can't find the brake pedal whenever he's behind a MINI... But I think the MINI was really the class of the field last race when it came to handling and braking. Can't wait to see what the rest of the season brings.
Funny that Lally would say that . . . they had us on the long straight. It was our braking and handling that ruled the day. He predicted we would win . . . I kinda thought that was funny too. VJ stuck it to his co-driver (Nic "I hate Mini's' Jonssen) on the last lap for 7th place. Credit to Nic for driving cleanly at the end. Randy
I would like to know the answer to that question. Especially if it is true that the Mini won by 16 secs.
The major difference is that the Bosch is not 'adaptive'. When the air fuel ratios and timing are set they stay there. If the car starts the race with xxx horsepower . . . it still has xxx horsepower at the end. The stock ECU is constantly adjusting to conditions. If the engine starts to run hot . . . it adds fuel and retards timing. If the inlet temps rise . . . same deal. The ECU is designed to 'save' the engine when it senses something it does not like and . . . it DOES NOT like racing. Read 'warranty' all over these adjustments. The factory builds in safety and reliability, which is desirable in your street car. The stock ECU will bleed off 20-30 horsepower by the end of the race which is why the cars have historically fallen flat toward the end. The 16 second win was partly because of the Bosch but most of it came because of a smart (lucky?) pit strategy . . . we had new tires and fuel w/ 40 minutes to go . . . everyone else had tires at the 60 minute (or longer) to go mark. Fresh tires were a key in the EXTREMELY hot conditions. I think we would have won anyway with similar tires because the car was so good, BUT the big margin was newer tires. Randy
I did, but I am not trusting the DVR right now. I should have access to a capture of it tomorrow so I can save it on my computer.