March 1st has crept up quickly…the first practice day of the International GT Round 1 Races at Sebring International Raceway is underway. After making some subtle setup adjustments to the GT3-R, both Juan and Rob agree the car feels more responsive and some, but not all, of the under steer they encountered back in February is gone. Rob prefers to drive a car with a little push, while Juan’s driving style is more suited to a car with a little over steer…so the crew was trying to find the right balance for both. Not an easy task.
Very little of the test day was spent actually driving when you compare it to the time going over data. Numbers don’t lie, and MOTEC doesn’t either. Interestingly, Juan was quicker on the front half of the track, and Rob was quicker on the back half of the track. What began as a joke of fusing Rob and Juan together became the ultimate goal in terms of lap times because if they could; the lap ET would be very really close to what the reported capability of the car was at Sebring….and far quicker than the GT3 Cup cars lap time both were used to. Qualifying is tomorrow, and the competition is stiff with some excellent drivers in the field.