SCCA
BFGoodrich Tires Houston preview
* Trans-Am Ends Season at Houston - The Trans-Am Series for the BFGoodrich* Tires Cup will end the 2001 season at the Texaco/Havoline Houston Grand Prix, October 5-6. For the fourth year, the Trans-Am Series will be the Saturday afternoon ...
Edited: Apr 15, 2002, 11:45 PM
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* Trans-Am Ends Season at Houston - The Trans-Am Series for the BFGoodrich* Tires Cup will end the 2001 season at the Texaco/Havoline Houston Grand Prix, October 5-6. For the fourth year, the Trans-Am Series will be the Saturday afternoon feature race and will compete along with the CART FedEx Championship Series.
* BFGoodrich* Tires Cup Will be Awarded at Houston - The battle for the BFGoodrich* Tires Cup, the season-ending award presented to the Trans-Am Series champion, has come down to a two-driver shoot out. Two-time Trans-Am Champion Paul Gentilozzi has a 27-point lead over his Rocketsports teammate, Johnny Miller. Gentilozzi can clinch the championship by scoring seven points or by just finishing ahead of Miller. Defending BFGoodrich Tires Cup Champion Brian Simo, Tommy Archer, Lou Gigliotti and Rookie of the Year Justin Bell are in a heated battle for third through sixth.
* Tires Critical for Street Course - Street circuits provide a unique environment for racing tires and that includes the BFGoodrich* g-Force* T/A* radials used on the Trans-Am circuit. A Trans-Am car is moderately heavy, weighing 2,800 lbs. (for reference, a CART car weighs 1,550 lbs. while a Winston Cup car weighs 3,400 lbs.), with 690 horsepower. The result is a high-torque muscle machine that drivers must hustle through the corners. When concrete walls surround those corners, driving becomes even more difficult. The BFGoodrich g-Force T/A radials must be able to provide drivers with the necessary traction going through the tight turns and launch down the straight-aways, yet be durable enough to survive the constant hard-braking/hard-charging motion of the street course.
"It's a balancing act that BFGoodrich Tires faces every day, not only in our racing tires, but also with our passenger tires," said BFGoodrich Tires Director of Motorsports Herb Johnson. "Customers look to us to set the standard in traction and durability. The lessons learned here are directly applied to the ultra-high performance BFGoodrich g-Force street tires."
* Texas Heat - Houston is known as one of the hottest venues on the Trans-Am Series circuit, which eventually can take a toll on driver's concentration levels, car components and tires. If high temperatures are present, teams may opt to use the hard compound for their rear tires.
* Last Year at Houston - Paul Gentilozzi finished first in the race, but was later stripped of his victory due to a pit lane violation handing the win to Chris Neville. Stu Hayner finished second and G.J. Mennan followed in third while Gentilozzi's 25-second penalty placed him in sixth.
* Drivers to Watch - Houston is the fourth street course this season. To date, Paul Gentilozzi and Lou Gigliotti have mastered the "concrete canyons", Gentilozzi winning at Detroit and Cleveland and Gigliotti at Long Beach. In fact, Gentilozzi has won seven street course races over the past three years. Top contenders also include the 1998 Houston winner Brian Simo, who had three street course victories in 1999, while Johnny Miller and Tomy Drissi posted street course wins last season.
* Trans-Am Series on Speedvision - The Trans-Am Series race from Houston will be broadcast tape-delayed on Saturday, October 13 at 2:00 p.m. EDT on the Speedvision Network.
-BFG-
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