With great weather, a meaningful test, a fantastic driver and a new car, we were rightfully hopeful for a great result at Sebring, the first race of the SCCA Pro Trans-Am series.
Thursday’s running validated our hopes; we were easily 2nd on the charts in both sessions. We did notice on the telemetry that our straight-line speed was down, but attributed it to wind and traffic since it was slight, only 3-4 mph. By Friday’s official practise we knew we were in big trouble, the speeds kept dropping. In qualifying it was so bad; we only completed one lap as the engine was surging on acceleration. We don’t know how, but Josh Hurley, our very talented driver, still managed a 14th and a 2:07, which is simply remarkable being that down on power.
We were up till the late hours, and our test revealed nothing. So in desperation, we replaced everything external, harness, ECU, sensors, injectors, plugs, wires, etc. With fingers crossed, we awaited the race.
Josh managed to make it up to 11th within a few laps, but spotting from Turn 17, we were able to see the speed on the straights. We knew right away we did not fix our issues. During yellows, which bunched the field up, we were a sitting duck, and cars blew past us on the restarts. Luckily, we had amazing handling and brakes, so Josh managed to salvage a 14th place finish. Great drive Josh; sorry we didn’t give you the car you deserve.
On to Atlanta……
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