Jack that is harsh LOL..
But for what it is worth i (customer vehicles) had the fastest pass on a bike and the fastest record set in a car at speed week this year not too shabby.. if we had a track like 2004 more damage would have been done on the bikes as we had a load of power cranked into the Forstalll bike but not enough suspension for the course, a lot of people had that problem as well though. i suspect the only truly qualified driver for the 2005 course is Walker Evans of offroad fame.
I would like to add an interesting thought about the course. the best speed we had with the Berkly ever was 260 on the wheel speed sensors last year and I think around a 255 timed shutting down between 4 and 5. This year we had an exit speed over 260 and a record of 252 on an existing 221 that was not an old record, set in 2003 I believe. The 252 was a put the record in the bank sort of deal as we hurt the car a couple of times going for broke right out of the box. When it rained out i believe the qualifying run Turk made was in the 259 range with a 261 exit speed. I am not saying we got 100% of the power to the ground but in the case of the Berkly Ted Wenz and Keith Turk both got around 90 to 95% of the 720 HP we had on tap. Ted intentionally ran in the low 250's and Turk took it out to see what it might do once the record was in the book.
The bike ran a 221 and after a little discussion and investigation found an ignition system issue that would have pumped that it up a bunch. All On a bad course.
I don't think the course was all that bad if you had a suspension to deal with it and didn't build something that can only get down a concrete runway. Jim Lattin might want to take note of all that in his course prep bashing. Maybe some of the vehicles were built for only a perfect course that comes along every 4 or 5 years.
Watch out for the HiTech guys they keep going faster and generally don't have to wonder what has to happen next. We knew the down force curve vs. speed and position on the track and the general track adhesion in each mile and were prepared to make changes as the week went on had there been the chance, all on the bad course LOL..
Dave
