Final Results 2004, and thanks for everyone's help

[sopwith21]

Well, the news is good. A lot of you chipped in with various chassis set-up thoughts in Sept and Oct, and many thanks for your advice.

Ironically, in the last race all the chassis work was worthless because it poured down rain all day and everyone may as well have raced on ice skates. My competitor for the series title was definately faster in the dry, but rain is The Great Equalizer and we were able to beat him in the rain, finishing fourth... one position ahead of him, making the pass with only three laps remaining. So our team won not only the rookie of the year, but also the series GT-2 title. Woo hoo! Full story is here: http://www.usarfans.com/article.php?story=20041102163705334

Now, if I could only do something about my poor ugly car... I need paint and some affordable, attractive body work. Any ideas?

[sblake01]

Congratulations! Are you the announcer for the Hooters Pro Cup on Speed Channel? If so, in the immortal words of Johnny Carson, "I did not know that."

[Victor Laury]

"Stephen Cox wraps up the most successful season of his career with three wins, sixteen top fives, a rookie points championship and the 2004 GT Challenge Series title to his credit. Sopwith Motorsports' success is due to perseverance, consistency, and primarily the efforts of Shane and Scott Stephens and the Stephens Bros. Racing crew, Jeff Saulsberry, Stephen Dale Skinner, car builder Chris Mahurin, chassis specialist Chad Fox and Larry Childs. Sopwith Motorsports would like to thank all those who have supported us so faithfully throughout the season"

Fantastic! Good work Stephen! On slicks? You should get a cheap set of 712's for rain days. Did that Beemer give you trouble?

[sopwith21]

Thanks, guys. Yeah, I do a lot of TV stuff. See http://www.sopwithmotorsports.com for details. And yes, the Beemers and Porches gave me fits all year long. They were both faster in the dry and there was nothing in the world I could do about it. My '74 260z simply won't run with newer 911's and M series cars. Don't get me wrong... we were fast. In 30-40 car fields we ran in the top eight nearly every time out. But nothing replaces raw horsepower. So we had to beat them with reliability and consistency. We had only one DNF in 16 events and I had already arranged for a backup car just in case, so we didn't lose too many points. Then at the championship race, the skies opened and it poured... YAHOOOOO!!!! We had been praying all day for rain and we went out and flat beat them for the title. It was really neat to win it on the track head to head instead of just hoping to stay close enough to hold on to our points lead. Whatta season. Thanks to everyone here who helped!

[260DET]

Well done! The suspension, and your driving, must be pretty good to do what you did in the rain and on slicks

[gramercyjam]

Congratulations on the 2 championships Stephen. It's darn hard to beat those new 911's and M3's, especially on the wrong tires!

I like your description "poor old car". You sound like me. Mine cars name is ROZ as in "Raggedy Old Z". The only affordable paint and body work I know of is the do-it-yourself kind, and its no fun to prep a car for paint. It's a race car, so a 50 foot paint job is all it really needs.

[Fun_in_my_z]

Great to here. Hope to here the same thing next season!

[sopwith21]

Well done! The suspension, and your driving, must be pretty good to do what you did in the rain and on slicks

Well, I made a massively dumb call to stay on slicks in the first place. I had a set of DOT rains ready to go but we thought sure it would clear up. I was hoping that The Enemy would go to a wet setup and then it would dry out, making me quick and him slow. He must have figured the same thing and we both went out on slicks... then came the monsoon. So we were both handicapped badly, which was in my favor. In a dry, car versus car scenario, I was in big trouble. I needed the rain to take the horsepower out of the equation.

He needed to finish THREE spots ahead of me so I let him go early in the race. At one point, about midway through, he was in second and I was in fifth - 22 seconds behind him - and I was sure we had lost the title. Then it started raining even harder, and the 3rd and 4th place cars started pressuring him. His BMW was very lightweight but he kept trying to maintain his lap times as the rainfall increased... big mistake. He went off in the grass with three laps to go and I got back within about ten car lengths of him. Half a lap later I made the pass, then just backed out of it and relaxed. The pressure was on him now with only two laps to go. He went off again trying to catch me and that was that.

For an old oval driver, I learned a lot about rain driving that day. Keeping your car on the track in a downpour is half of the battle. The other half is remembering to keep pressure on the other guy but don't go over the edge, then let him make The Mistake. Rain isn't about winning... its about not losing. Go into survival mode and make the other guy lose.

I spent the first twelve years of my driving career on ovals, but now I love the rain! Never thought I'd say that!