Ford GTR MKVII at Sebring

[olibor]

It has been a long hard road with lots of work but the Ford GTR MK VII is making its debut at Sebring. The car is working well right out of the box with only a couple days of testing earlier this week. The drivers are all happy with the car and its handling.

The car has run well in all the sessions... except qualifying when on the first lap an idler pulley on the motor broke causing the belt to come off. Since this was also the oil pump drive belt the engine lost oil pressure. The pulley failure happened on the out lap so the team didn't get an offical qualifying time and will have to start at the back.

The team changed out the engine in less than four hours and the car was ready for night practice where it ran well. One hour of practice today and then the race on Sat.

 

[911teo]

Good luck. I'll be following your progress with excitment! Thanks for sharing you experience with us all!

 

[gtjoey]

Pictures baby!!!! is it on tv? gtjoey 1314 good luck:thumbsup

 

[Thursday]

Pictures baby!!!! is it on tv? gtjoey 1314 good luck:thumbsup

http://fordgttv.com


Good luck Oliver!

 

[conundrum]

I can't wait to see what she can do on the track. Good luck!

 

[AlohaGT]

This is simply amazing if you pull it off with so little run and track time.

Much success, Oliver! We're all rooting for you.

 

[nthfinity]

Ouch, crash! The car was making an impressive showing 7 hours in an endurance race...

 

[conundrum]

She even looked good going around on three wheels after losing the driver's rear after that one pit stop.

 

[B O N Y]

great effort, hoooorah

 

[Bill M]

Oliver the car did very well for it's first time out, with some more track time and what you learned for this event this should be a great race car. Bill M

 

[conundrum]

The car sure looked good going around that Ferrari 430.

 

[cobrar1339]

She even looked good going around on three wheels after losing the driver's rear after that one pit stop.

It just looked painful to me, like nails on a black board. I could not imagine me actually driving the car like that, dragging the frame etc. The rules unfortunately allow no other choices if you want to continue. It felt like that little segment lasted for hours. It had to be painful for them to do this with the new car as well:ack

The slam against the tire wall was not pretty either. Hard to tell the extent of the damage, hopefully is was largely cosmetic.

She was starting to make a nice move, very encouraging. Especially when you think there were 3 drivers that had barely spent time in the car and very little sorting. Hopefully all the bad luck was used up in this one.

 

[Sinovac]

Is there any video of the wheel coming off?

 

[1418]

There was a brief shot of the tire rolling off the track. It was painful to watch the car scraping the bottom. Andrea Robinson, who I believe was at the wheel did a great job babying the car back to the pit.

Maybe someone tivo'd it and post a vid of it.

Manny

 

[Deleted member 2175]

Not bad for just getting started! :usa Sounds like there will be more racing very soon.

 

[FB GT40]

GT

There will. Car was not badly damaged - mostly cosmetic - and will be up for St. Pete. Hopefully with larger restrictors...

 

[The One]

www.bluegrass-speedway.com/Sebring 08 Website/Sebring 2008.htm

 

[The One]

Sorry for some reason the quote will only hot link the first part of the URL. Just copy and paste the whole thing.

 

[PIRAEUS]

the new Sebring Race Video is now online at www.fordgttv.com

I did my best to capture the feeling, but one camera man on a few square miles makes for bad odds to cover it all. You won't see a wheel coming off, you won't see a crash, but if you don't feel the event, then I have failed you.

enjoy

-Johnny

 

[somelee]

great vid. Thanks for posting it!