Monday April 22, ProEV's Super Coupe ran in Alabama. Thank you Brian Cope, Electrathon Alabama, Alabama Power, Barber Motorsports Park and Zoom Motorsports for organizing a great event and making us feel welcome. I had a great time.
The Barber Motorsports track is a permanent close circuit road course in a park like setting. The track takes full advantage of the hilly terrain to provide exciting corners with rapid elevation changes. The hillsides around the track provide lots of great places to watch from.
Last year, at their first event, there were four vehicles. This year, I think there were twelve or more. Rodney of Tiger Racing and I were the Open class. Auburn University ran in the college class. The rest of the teams were High School.
The High School teams were enthusiastic and their crews and supports turned out in large numbers. They were also fast. Pensacola High School not only won their class but overall.
The Pensacola team has got their hands on a Dave Cloud Built vehicle. It is an impressive vehicle made of composites (Kevlar?) . Most of the design choices seem to be for minimizing aero drag. The body is a sleek tube with an enclosed front wheel (powers and steers) and two fixed rear wheel. The body is raised up a little (again to lessen aero drag) and the wheels and tires are skinnier and smoother than the Hookworms most of us run.
These were good design choices for the Barber track. While the corners were fun to drive, at 1 hour race speeds, it was possible to drive them all without modulating the throttle. This made aero drag more important than handling.
Pensacola High School should be quick at Five Flags Speedway as well. I expect the Super Coupe to be closer on this track since we were able to fix a few problems but they will still be hard to catch.
The Alabama race was great and I am looking forward to the Five Flags race Saturday. Any chance next year that these two races could happen Saturday /Monday instead of Monday/Saturday?
It is the old 40 car! We actually ended up getting hit on our last lap during the race at Barber by another car when they went into a turn. It ended up bending the spokes of our drive wheel, and the car began to wobble. Hoping we can solve the issue before tomorrow at the track!
Dave Cloud does build great cars!!! His car took first at the Pasco, WA this weekend all the way across the country in his car #41. His driver beat me by one mile (4 short laps) when I ran low on power after leading for about 1/2 the race. Don't count a Cloud car out on a tight track either. Over the years Dave's cars have gone from one of the best (or the best) in aerodynamics to also being very good at cornering. Way to go Dave Cloud on another 1st place bragging moment!!! We will see how we do at Lacey WA this Saturday! Hope to see you all at the track soon. Mike
