If I were laying down money the smart bet in my opinion would be Nick Barbado aka forced because of his auto x background. With that being said I have to say I'm gonna be pulling for Austin because of his forza roots and he was a cool dude.
I think Rack Attack, topgear (Matt), and forcednduckshn (Nick B.) will have a good shot at it. From talking to them at finals it sounded like they all have some good seat time in real cars and kicked ass at finals. That's just my vote based on the real car experience end of things. Who knows I'm sure there will be some surprises but good luck to all!
Agreed. We're past the gaming part, now the real drivers are going to start shining. I expect Forced and RackAttack to go far.
These guys are all there for a reason, and it really will be a hell of a competition, but forcednduckshn is going to be hard to beat in my opinion. I wish everyone the best though, and there are a few guys I'm especially pulling for (I hope you know who you are, I don't want to get hate thrown my way or anything
).
P.S. That's not a comment about anyone else by the way, just a few guys that really made me feel welcomed.
I appreciate the votes of confidence guys, and your support- thank you. It really is anyone's ball game, IMO. But I know what I am capable of, and that's all that I can control at this point. I am not the most "experienced" track racer out there, Rack Attack, Gumball and TopGear all have signficantly more track experience than I do, and that will be a signficant advantage for them. Objectively speaking, I admit my autocross background seems to be the strongest, at least on paper. But that is only one component of the package. My biggest disadvantage is my weight compared to what appears to be a field of little jockey-men. I am in good shape, will be in prime shape for the finals, but I am just a bigger guy, let's say best case I am a lean 185lbs for the finals. Maybe we can arm wrestle for an event?
In a 6-10hp go kart, 10 lbs is worth about .1s (1 tenth) of a second for every 30 seconds. over a 60 second lap, that is .2 per lap for just 10 lbs. At 40lbs (which I outweigh many of the competitors by,) that is a .8s disadvantage per lap. That sucks, let's face it, haha. Unfortunately they won't be ballasting; I just hope that the Pro judges remember and acknowledge the weight factor. Even in the bigger 3000 lb cars, 10lbs is significant, as KE (Kinetic Energy) literally goes up exponentially with speed (velocity). KE = (1/2) Mass x Velocity^2.
(nerd side of me.) Data all over the internet indicates about a 1.75% impact on lap time, for every 60 seconds, for every 100lbs added to a 3000lb car in the 200-300 hp range, (over 1 second) at typical track speeds. Quick math, and you're losing around .1s (1 tenth) for every 10lbs on a 60 second track. This is alot better than .2s per 60 seconds, but, it will almost surely come down to that kind of discrepancy in lap time to decide winners of events (case and point my loss at nationals last year by .002s.)
Anyway, blah blah blah. I can't control my DNA. I was blessed with many other positive physical traits, I'll take those and make the best of them. Bottom line is, you lighter guys have no excuses. You better have the fastest raw times
(That's about as close to **** talking as it's gonna get for me.) lol
Like I said before we'll just see how it all goes down in Silverstone. From this point forward I am going to scale back my "in front of computer time" significantly and focus on training. Just wanted to come on here, say thanks and give you guys one last shout-out. Cheers.
Nick Barbato (Barbato, with a T, not Barbado, haha)
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