Orbit Racing - Road Atlanta practice 2

no qualifying

Orbit Racing will start Sunday's American Le Mans Series race from sixth and 
10th on the GT grid, after the Saturday qualifying session on the 2.54-mile 
Road Atlanta road course was cancelled.  Officials cancelled qualifying when a 
brief rainstorm moved through the area prior to the session, so the grid was 
set on practice times.  Leo Hindery and Peter Baron will start the No. 43 YES 
Network Porsche 911 GT3 RS from sixth and Joe and Jay Policastro will take the 
10th spot in the No. 42 Classic Industries Porsche.

"Having qualifying scrubbed is an emotional letdown," Baron said. " We were 
building up to it, practicing and making adjustments on the car, not really 
worrying about the time.  The whole point of practice is not to lay down the 
fastest lap, but to work on the car.  Had we known they were going to revert to 
the fastest practice lap, we could have done a lot of different things with the 
car, using a fast fuel map and different tires.   We had a whole bunch more 
time in the car ..."

rain game

Jay Policastro noted rain racing is more cerebral than physical:  "Driving in 
the rain is a different game.  You have to be more precise with the car, you 
have to be less physical.  When we drive in the rain, the physical demands of 
the car are about 70 per cent, which makes a heck of difference.  So the 
strategy changes - it's more a mental strategy."

tech talk

Orbit Racing is using a stepped gurney at Road Atlanta, rather than the usual 
straight one.  (The gurney is a thin metal strip that fits on the rear wing 
to reduce aerodynamic drag.)

"We're trying to reduce the drag on the car, to make it faster in a straight 
line and not lose any downforce," technical director Tim Munday explained.  
"The wing isn't equally efficient all the way across because the roof covers the 
central part of the wing, so you need a larger gurney in the middle to get 
the same effect.  You can reduce the gurney on the outside of the car to reduce 
the drag and still maintain the downforce.  It seems to work!"

tire talk

Michelin staff took 2500 tires to Road Atlanta to ensure the right 
combination was available to its teams, but the extra tires weren't needed.  "We brought 
two new carcasses and compounds  in case the compounds and carcass that we 
thought were going to work, didn't," Jerry Rinaldo explained.  "Yesterday, the 
temperature wasn't as hot as we thought it would be, so the standard tire did 
work.  Today, because of the weather, we really didn't learn much, but with the 
forecast, we'll continue as planned and not use our new tires."

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Sylvia Proudfoot
spur07@cs.com
403 287 3945