Season Opener
AGT will again kick off the season with the 2006 opener at Carolina Motorsports Park in Kershaw South Carolina. It will feature plenty of BBQ and plenty of track time to shake off the winter cob webs.
AGT invited USERA a new endurance series for Mazda Miatas to join in the season opener at Carolina Motorsports Park.
So far I have about 13 confirmed entries they include: The 2005 AGT Champion Edison Lluch and his son Edisito, Dave Machavern, Kenny and Jordan Bupp, AGT Rookie Ryan Mcmanus, Bob Salathe, Mike Canney, Terry Giles, John Finger, Jerry Lustig, Gene Tataryn and myself”, said series owner Woodson Duncan. “I am working on others who are on the fence”, he continued.
The event begins with an optional test day on Friday March 24 where we will share the track with the newly formed United States Endurance Racing Association. The Association was formed by Ken Grammer who has provided substantially all of our stewarding duties for the North American races over the past two years.
We will test and practice again on Saturday, with full race and qualifying schedule run on Sunday.
This year we are offering first time AGT drivers who have been running in the SCCA GT-1 class free entry to this event.
Goodyear will step up the distribution of tires to four sets if we get 15 cars to participate.
After a set for the winner and two tires for the runner up, a total of five random drawings for two tires would be left. Sweet.
This year is shaping up nicely and we look forward to seeing everyone in Kershaw to renew old or make new: rivalries and friendships.
After Kershaw the season gets busy with back to back races in May on two very big weekends Victoria Day at Mosport followed the very next weekend with Lime Rock Park on Memorial Day.
“We are trying to rationalize the rules to make the series easier for everyone while maintaining a level playing field. This plus the need to improve the affordability index of the series is priority for the 2006 season. We are studying some changes that would adopt the SCCA Weights for GT-1 as our starting point. We will however maintain the 125lb weight differential for the 358 package of 13X1 compression Vs the 311 package of the 13X1. We found that the 310’s still dominated the 2006 season at that differential. Also we are going to give a benefit for the guys who are running Detroit Lockers. The benefit will be either 35lbs or 50lbs we have not decided. Also in keeping with our initial position of the preferred package being a 358 12X1 motor twisted to 8200 we will give a 50lb benefit to the lower compression motors. Everything else will stay about the same.
With these rules in place a GT-1 car would not need to make any weight adjustments it would just need to show up and race. The GT-1 competitor, if running a Detroit Locker, could remove 35-50lbs for the locker and another 75lbs for the power to weight differential. As always if we see one package dominating we will adjust the weights.
“I am confident we will see some growth this year and with the Ponce Grand Prix on the schedule and interest in the series from Costa Rica we could see 30 car fields by the end of the season” predicted the series owner.
