As usual at Long Beach, the World Challenge entrants are housed in a far corner of the convention center, right on the edge of the very large Life Style Expo that is such a large part of the Long Beach experience.
Working on the cars by the teams has to be a tough proposition, given tight confines, lots of distractions, as well as being away from the transporter. But it appears to pay off, as the area was quite packed with fans milling about. Whether there were more fans present in the World Challenge Paddock compared to the TUDOR paddock is subject to debate, but it did give the impression of a good sized crowd being present.
Johnny O’Connell and the GT3 Spec Cadillac, “I don’t know any specifics, I just get in the car and drive.” Typical Johnny, but with the assistance of a crewman, it was verified that these were no carry over components between the Cadillac’s old and new. Well maybe one thing, the new car is running the size of Pirelli tire on the front that the old was running on the rear.
Being a turbo, Johnny compared the Caddy to the Nissan that he drove so effectively back in the mid-‘90’s, which too was a turbo V6. “We’ve come a long ways in many ways. We still have some turbo lag, but it is nothing like we had back then. It’s way more refined, but one good thing about the old set up was that it had a throttle cable. The Cadillac does not, it is fly by wire. Believe it or not, that old throttle cable gave a bit of feel that is totally absent in the current system. Just that simple mechanical link communicated with me and helped me judge when the power was ready to come on, which allowed me to control all of the power.”
“We’re making good progress with the car, as was seen by the results today (Johnny was second fastest in the Friday morning session). We’ve got a lot to sort through, but we’ve got the best team here I’ve ever been with. I’m sure we’ll make this car a success just like the old one.”
Flying Lizards/K-Pax McLaren: While the McLaren is not in the traditional Lizard colors, there is still quite a bit of the old Lizard heart and soul supporting the K-Pax effort. At least the Lizard name is visible on the wing end plate.
Thomas Blam is still with this effort, but as the team strategist, things are a bit different now. In this sprint format, strategy pretty much goes out the window. There isn’t much more to say than to go faster! Well, it’s not actually all that simple, but one of the things I must do is continually remind the drivers that no matter how they are doing in a race, they must think about setting a quick lap to help their grid position in the second race of the double header weekends.”
Blam will get his chance to return to familiar ground in two weeks, when the Lizards will bring their Audi back on track at Laguna Seca in the GTD class. “It will be good to return to that format again. It’s familiar ground for all of us. But change is good. It pushes you out of a comfort zone and makes you think. That has been good for me and also the team. We are hoping for a better result than we had at Sebring though. That was quite a disappointing one for us. Before the race, we’d noticed a puddle of oil under the car. We tightened everything up and hoped for the best. When the car started smoking, we hoped it was simply some residual oil burning off, but we soon found out that that was not the case at all. The Audi technicians found that it was a crank seal leak – one that they’d never experienced before. As it was a 4-hour repair, it was decided to simply retire the car, especially as we are not in the points chase anyway.” The team also expects to be racing the Audi later in the season in some additional longer races, but right now the World Challenge effort is their priority.
Black Swan Viper: After the nasty wreck at St Pete in which the Black swan Mercedes was destroyed, Tim Pappas was fully prepared to be sitting out a few races while repairs were made to his car. But at the prodding of his old co-driver, Jeronen Bleekemolen, Tim took a look at the GT3 spec Viper. He was present at the recent shakedown of the GTLM spec Viper at Road Atlanta and got some track time in a GT3 spec car. Even though it was extremely wet at the track, he like what he saw and decided to make a change.
“I thought long and hard about it but I felt that this was the right move for us, considering the circumstances. We’d be missing 3-4 races while the Mercedes was rebuilt, as the tub was absolutely destroyed. Plus that car is nearing the end of it’s run, so a change was going to be necessary at some point. Why not make the change now. When Mercedes made it clear that they wouldn’t be supporting the US racing efforts last season, it continued to make myself responsible for bringing the parts in from Germany. That is a timely proposition and is a primary factor in the repair time required in order to get the wreck back together again.”
The car that Tim is in possession of is the same car that Kuno Wittmer drove to victory in the Toronto round of the World Challenge last season. He went that route, as it is a proven race car and was ready to run, something he needed in order to make the race here at Long Beach. “Since I moved out here, Long Beach has become my home track and I really wanted the opportunity to compete in front of my friends here.” It’s been a tight schedule, with the team getting the car here just this last Wednesday, but it has allowed Tim to at least get some track time in it.
In the morning session, Tim understandably struggled a bit with the car, especially with the brake pedal travel being much longer than comfortable. That was among the list of items the team was addressing on Friday afternoon. “We’ve got some ways to go, but we’ll get there. I’ve so little time in the car, I’ve not yet become comfortable with it. The Mercedes was like putting on an old shoe, it just fit me, now I just need to reach that comfort level with the Viper.”
Gary Horrocks
