Sebring 2005 - Wednesday Pictures
Sebring 2005 - Wednesday Practice Sessions
I watched the ALMS series practice from turn 2 on the track. The Champion Audi's look strong like usual, just doing some laps.
The GT1 (formerly GTS) race could be a good race this year, lots of different manufacturers involved this year.
- Carsport (formerly American Viper Racing) has a GTS Viper here, but it was wrecked in the previous practice session, and they were still trying to fix it.
- Corvette Racing brought two new C6-Rs to the track. If they don't break, they should win.
- Pacific Coast Motorsports brought a former factory C5-R here with Menards sponsorship. They looked like they were decently fast. They are running Yokohama rubber instead of the factory team's Goodyear or Michellin.
- Aston Martin brought a couple of really fast DB7s here. I think they are real contenders.
- Maserati brought a GTP looking coupe here, but it was still dog slow in practice, and won't stand a chance.
- 2 Saleen S7s are back, one from Nash and one from ACEMCO.
Looks like Panoz and Spyker are here this year trying to keep Porsche honest in GT2. Haven't seen any of the Ferrari's here.
During the Speedvision WC practice sessions, I was up on the bleachers near turn 17. A guy from Dodge Motorsports came up and was running radar on the cars as they came down the backstretch. It sounded like from talking with him, that he was making sure that the Dodge's in the field weren't at a horsepower disadvantage to any other makes of cars in the field. SCCA constantly tunes the series to ensure good competition by placing intake restrictions and "reward" weights on different cars.
The fastest 2 cars I saw were actually an older Dodge Viper GTS (not the newer Competition Coupes the majority use) and Henzler's Porsche 911, both clocking speeding tickets in the 149 MPH bracket. The Cadillac CTS-V and the Dodge Competition Coupe were very similar in speeds from what I could tell, around 143 MPH top speed.
--- Article last updated: March 16, 2005 ---
