Acumen Fans: Most of us are back from 2 days of hard testing at Daytona. I’ll fill you in on the details in another email once we all catch up on some paperwork, sleep and our ‘other jobs’.
In brief: it was fast, fun and outragious – and not without some new insites and problems.
More soon!
End of the work week for most but not the Acumen Motorsport team.
Crew Chief Don Hoevel is at Sebring, FL and will be headed to Daytona for the tire test. Team owner, Doug Grunnet has been up for hours – as usual.
Uncle Frank got up early – 4:45 – check emails, work schedule for the day. To the gym after defrosting the SUV windshield (31 degrees). Back at 6:40 and here on the web site. Setting up the massive logistics for the 24 hour takes a team effort over a period of months.
Join us at the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona. We have reserved premium RV slots on the super straight for our Acumen Motorsport sponsors and guests.
Thanks for all the good comments on our site. Yesterday we were the feature story on the Grand-Am.com site and speed.com as the first Porsche to enter the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona (beating out the other Porsche teams with our entry and press releases).
This is a massive effort and one great experience.
While most of us have race in or been involved in Rolex 24 Hour races in the past, the 50th anniversary will be very special.
Good Morning Acumen Motorsport fans and friends. It’s 7:00 am here in CT and back from the gym. Normal work today involved a zoning commission presentation – unlike next Tuesday when we will be at 170++ MPH on the Daytona banking.
Contact patches – think about your car. All the acceleration, braking and turning action is predicated on four rather tiny patches where your tires touch the pavement. Race tires tend to be larger and the rubber compounds, stickier – but the contact patch is surprisingly small. Race drivers need to have total trust in those patches to get around the track at the highest possible speeds in the shortest time period. We will be at 55 MPH in the slowest portion of the track and over 170 at the top. TRUST!
Good morning racers and race fans. The Acumen Motorsport Porsche is in the trailer and heading to Daytona. The testing goal comprises several parts. One is to continue to get the drivers comfortable in the Porsche and the Daytona track. Some of us have hundreds of laps around the nearly 3.5 mile oval and infield but the recent paving changes the track slightly and levels of grip need to be felt with the new tires.
Tires do more than hold the car off the ground. They act as a part of the suspension – by altering the air pressure, the effective spring rates change. The range of optimum air pressure with a hot tire – 180 – 220 degrees F. is quite narrow. We will use Nitrogen rather than compressed air – since it is dryer and expands less when heated.
Contact patches and trust. More later this week.
Good morning Acumen Motorsport fans and crew. It’s 6:58am and just back from the gym. Since I’m the oldest guy on the team, conditioning is high on the priority list for the Rolex 24 Hour at Daytona.
We will be tire testing soon. With a new wider front tire and a taller rear tire, we need to reset the suspension for optimal handling in the infield and ‘bus stop’ sections.
More on what them round donuts really do – next note.
We are going to be looking good. No more donuts and cheese danish till February!
Good Morning Gang:
The Acumen Motorsport team is really ramping up the effort getting ready for the Dec. 6th and 7th tire testing at Daytona. The new Continental Tire for the Porsche is slightly wider in front and taller in the rear. We will be making suspension adjustments to adapt to the changes.
Check us out on facebook and here for the latest news.
OCTOBER 31, 2011
THE AUTOBAHN COUNTRY CLUB – JOLIET, ILLINOIS
Acumen Motorsport Team ran a very successful two day test at the Autobahn Country Club North and South tracks October 27th and 28th.
On Thursday, we started with a cold North track, reminiscent of many early mornings from past Daytona 24 Hour races with temperatures climbing into the mid 50’s and light rain at day’s end. The North track is fast with a number of sweeping turns good for Daytona set-up.
The Acumen Porsche 997 GT3 Cup racecar performed flawlessly under the guiding hand of crew chief, Don Hoevel with mechanics John Grunewald and Chris De Minco.
Friday we ran the South track with its more technical slower combinations and greater elevation changes on the faster sections.
After two days our drivers: Douglas Grunnet, Gary St. Amour, Scott McKee and me were all lapping within tenths.
Next up: Tire testing at Daytona December 6th and 7th!
More Chat soon.