Bahrain GT Festival

[SALEEN S7R]

I wasnt rubbing anyones nose in anything. All I was doing was thinking why the Weith Ferrari 550 has so far this week been slower than the Cooper Racing Ferrari 550. Beleive it or not drivers do make a differnce to the cars performance, how many times do people here compare cars against one another? And then as soon as I compare driving line up's I get my head bitten off.

[ff s conscience]

I wasn't biting your head off. I help prep the Coopers car and I know how fast Simonsen is. The Germans couldn't even win a war at two attempts....

[eddsc]

No, not bitten off at all. I'm not disputing the speed of Brabham or Simonsen, but Kaufmann is a very, very quick man too... he's just had few chances to show it lately.
Realistically of course, we don't know their relative speeds, but I suspect in equal cars there would be just a tenth or two between them - and I wouldn't like to guess the order - although I would round the Nordschleife.
MC

[ff s conscience]

Interesting, but I have worked with a few pro's now, and Simonsen is special. Smart, cool, consistent and simply savagely quick. Seriously.

He beat Raikonnen in karts not so long ago.

[SALEEN S7R]

Personally I can see what u are saying Malcom, in equal cars there probably woudnt be much differnce in lap times. But for my money itd be Brahbam, Simosen and then Kaufmann, particulary now, Id guess Kaufmann is probably a little past his best, thats not to say past it but Id imagine he was faster when he was say 28-32. There might only be a few tenths a lap differnce in times, but over a proper length endurance race, ie 500km or more that ammounts to quite a fair ammount of time, and over 1000km Id imagine thatd be a couple of laps.

[eddsc]

I wouldn't disagree with that view of the Dane at all. I spent some time with him at Bathurst last year, where he was phenomenal. Very brave too.
MC

[Gilles]

Originally posted by E. Becclestone
Is the 10/10 PM/ email device working? I've tried it a fair few times to Ayse, Gilles, you & Fab.....he's the only one that's replied....... I'll give it another go now, so fingers crossed in 5 minutes, yhm?

What was the subject of your email ??

I received nothing about it !!!

[Gilles]

Originally posted by Fab
I had the e-mail this morning. I'll ask Ayse and Paul - and Gilles - this week-end.

Cheers mates !

Fab

Fab, please ask me better on saturday before 3 PM (Le Mans Central Time)

[Fab]

Originally posted by Gilles
Fab, please ask me better on saturday before 3 PM (Le Mans Central Time)

Sorry for that, Gilles, I missed your post. I sent an e-mail this morning (sunday).

[Fab]

And back to topic...

Results of the festival are here.

That's : 550, Viper, Saleen... variety and quality !

Few comments, from Infocourse, thanks to Claude Foubert and Laurent Chauveau :
- the Maranello is a former Rafanelli car, and the team could enter some FIA-GT races next year
- french teams had a good week-end (two on the final podium)
- we've got at least six or seven different cars in the top ten...
- the show deserved a media coverage... any hope, someone ?

Am I wrong, or is this the last of the last races for 2004 ?

Daytona : two months to go

[GTRMagic]

Originally posted by ff s conscience
The stopwatch tells him plainly enough. No need to rub his nose in it.

The Coopers car is the Rafanelli car, and it's not de-tuned. It was for Nations cup but now it's back to ALMS spec as raced by Raffanelli.

It's just had a paint job and a refresh here and there. A few gear ratio changes and a tickle in the right spots....

A much much better paint job than the Weith car

Well done to Maranello Motorsport/MCR & the Coopers team.. there were some hot cars in the class, similar in spec to run here in Nations Cup, and some better, but the tiny Aussie team from Melbourne won the day

[Fab]

Originally posted by GTRMagic
the tiny Aussie team from Melbourne won the day

Don' know for the young Dane, but Brabs is not the worst pilot too... bravo David !

[SALEEN S7R]

Originally posted by GTRMagic
but the tiny Aussie team from Melbourne won the day

Yes, but they were lucky. Had the JMB Ferrari 575's and GNM Saleen's not had their transportation problems they would have been at the event, and I dont know about everyone else but I feel the JMB Ferrari 575 with Karl Wendlinger at the wheel would have won the day. Still, theres always next year.

[bf1]

One Question, will we (in europe) get to see this on TV?

[Robert Ryan]

Still, they were more than "lucky" winning 3 races and taking pole.

[SALEEN S7R]

They only won all 3 races because in race 2 the Saleen suffered a puncture. And with all due respect to the teams present, none of them were really top line cars. Sure Labre was there, but with a old Viper. Had Labre brought their Ferrari 550 it would have been a very differnt story.

[vandijk]

Originally posted by SALEEN S7R
Yes, but they were lucky. Had the JMB Ferrari 575's and GNM Saleen's not had their transportation problems they would have been at the event, and I dont know about everyone else but I feel the JMB Ferrari 575 with Karl Wendlinger at the wheel would have won the day. Still, theres always next year.

Noone exactly knew where the cars were right?

[Graham Goodwin]

You can only race against the cars that are ther and the Coopers guys did just that.

They emerged from the week with a lot of credit, not just for winning but for the way they approached the racing.

Dupuy was the only driver that looked remotley likely to beat them on pace (and only did so when Brabs stumbled over a backmarker on the last lap of a sprint race which he had led throughout).

We'll be seeing more of the Aussie team soon and that's great news for anyone who likes real racers

[SALEEN S7R]

Im not trying to take away anything from them Graham, just pointing out that they werent exactly up against the cream of the GT1 field of the world were they. I for one hope we do see more of this Australian squad, lets hope next time we do though they have some serious competition. Itd be good to see how they shape up against the FIA GT guys.

[GTRMagic]

The harder you work, the luckier you get

A 550 against a comparably prepared 575 would not quite be an even fight... it would be like driving a Carrera Cup spec 911 against a 911 GT3RSR.... close but not really.

Mr Simonsen and Mr Brabham did well for a private squad, without a whole heap of resources... and I didnt mind the red paintjob either

[Audi R8R]

Originally posted by TerryC
A little question, the Diablo that Bouchut raced, is the car the former Reiter one?

No Terry, it was a former Lamborghini GTR Super Trophy car. It was the Charriol car (hadn't altered since the one make series dies in 2002!!)

It broke at the start of the second race and took no further part in the meeting.

And Saleen, you'd need to have been there to see how the Ferrari whipped the S7R's rear all week. I know it wasn't FIA top notch stuff, but Brabs and Simonson were first class all week.

And Paul... You should have got on a plane mate, it was top banana!!! You'll be reading about the Mosler in the locals this week (I hope! ) and about the new Spanish GT Champion on DSC soon. (Thanks Graham )

[johnh875]

To be fair GTR did not claim them to be the best car/team in the world on the strength of this one result either.

I'm glad they got such a good result, it can only be good for GT racing in our country. Or, as a parochial Aussie, it is always good to see an Aussie team take on the world stage too.

[Chucky]

Originally posted by SALEEN S7R
They only won all 3 races because in race 2 the Saleen suffered a puncture. And with all due respect to the teams present, none of them were really top line cars. Sure Labre was there, but with a old Viper. Had Labre brought their Ferrari 550 it would have been a very differnt story.

We shall find out how good they really are next year.

[D.R.T.]

Originally posted by Robert Ryan
Still, they were more than "lucky" winning 3 races and taking pole.

I think it is wrong and unfair to lable the Coopers Racing victory as lucky. While I concur that they were not up against the the top FIA GT teams across the world, there was still competition and they won.

This is a huge achievment for Australian Motorsport. A small Aus team winning in Europe. I think this shows the abilities of Simonson, Brabham Coopers Racing as well as the competitiveness of the Nations Cup Championship.

Bring on 2005

[SALEEN S7R]

Originally posted by Chucky
We shall find out how good they really are next year.

Oh I do hope so. Im afraid you may be in for a rude awakening, sure Coopers did well, beating a few slower GT1 cars. FIA GT's are the real deal, I personally feel they will struggle to be competitve and id not be at all suprised to see a couple of the GT2 cars out qualifying and outpacing the Cooper Racing Ferrari 550.

I dont want that to happen of course, just my gut feeling. And then of course theres the matter of David Brahbam, yes he was at Bahrian with Cooper Racing, but will he be able to race for them in 2005? Not if hes racing for Prodrive with the Aston Martin, who then will partner a relativly inexperinced (in the sportscar world) Simonsen?

Originally posted by D.R.T.
This is a huge achievment for Australian Motorsport. A small Aus team winning in Europe.

Last time I checked Bahrian wasnt in Europe.