'09 LMS Round 3 • Algarve - Portimão, Portugal

[cmk]

Originally Posted by AndrewF31

Ya, Fast Amateur sounds better. Anyone who pays for a ride would be an amateur. Gentleman driver for me, is someone who pays for a joyride. There are a few out there, maybe not that many find their way into the 24 hours or higher echelon racing but there are some. I'm thinking of Lichtner-Hoyer, for one.

It's tough to split the difference IMO. Scott Sharp 'pays' for his ride now through Patron, but nobody would argue that his success early in his career was through sheer pace. The definition changes through the years - Peter Revson got his ride through family money but he would take anyone in F1 or Can-Am for breakfast on a good day and check out a pretty blonde in the evening...on his own merits of course, but let's face it, the family business could've made her pretty if she was homely to begin with!

Originally Posted by MJ_N_09

Thats not bad.............he's like Seth Neiman or Chapman Ducote.

Yeah...and how many races have either of them one at any reasonable echelon of racing? Yeah, fine if you want to putter around, but actually not what Modena, Garcia or Melo are accustomed to. And who can blame them?

Originally Posted by old man

True, there have been worse but the cars they are in don't win at this level. The GT2 field here and in FIA is full of top line pro's and losing 4 seconds a lap for 30 + laps is tough for them. Mansell is a gentleman driver not a pro and should be in the car first or second stint so the others can make it up

I agree with you up until the point about stint timing. The elapsed time of the car is all that counts and in the end they were 3rd place at best. Putting him in earlier in the race would only have had him dealing with more cars and in the end I only see that losing more time (unless he was considerably faster in daylight, and there was not evidence of that in practice). Ideally someone else would write the cheques daddy is writing - someone who realized they'd get better exposure if Melo and Garcia drove alone.

[old man]

If the Gentleman gets in second stint the field is strung out enough for a reasonably competant guy to keep out of trouble and the car is working well so that once he gets his contractual laps out of the way the pro's can get on with it. Some teams put the guy in first but I agree that this is more risky, better to wait for the field to settle. When he does run first you will often find he is the team or car owner. It is more demoralising for the pro's to know they are working hard to get the car into a good position only for it to slip inevitably back, better that they know what they have to do and can just get on with it. Also when trying to hold a position the pro's have earned over 4 or 5 hours the Gentleman will be more liable to take risks beyond his capability just to prove his point and not let the team down.

This was even more the case in the Algarve when skill was at a premium in the dark on such an undulating track

[Trussers]

Originally Posted by cmk

Quite so. I make the answer to the homework question to be about 119 seconds, with some simple assumptions.

And the gap between the JMW Ferrari as it started its last lap and the Modena car was 76 seconds... so what does that tell you?

PS Well done for doing your homework... doesn't look like anyone else did. If I could hand out gold stars, I would do!