Two days of initial testing for the Chip Ganassi Racing Ford GT program at Daytona International Speedway have been hailed as a success by CGR managing director Mike Hull.
"It was a good testing day, we ran all day, took bigger swings at setups, and learned quite a lot in our first outing with the car," Hull told RACER.
The mid-engine car, powered by Ford's twin-turbo V6 EcoBoost powerplant, was driven by CGR's Joey Hand and Scott Pruett on the circuit where the Blue Oval will make its official return to GT competition on Jan. 30-31 at the Rolex 24 at Daytona.
Based on Hull's comments late Wednesday, the progress made at Daytona will allow the team to concentrate on performance testing when they move the program to Sebring later this month.
"One of the things you really need to get right is the data, all the sensors, all the instrumentation, to understand what the car's doing," he said. "We spent a lot of time to make sure all of that was right, and it's a painstaking process – particularly with a new car, and used some time [Tuesday] getting some things sorted. With all of that working today, we were able to focus on the tuning parameters with the racecar with an emphasis on the next test. We found some directions that the car likes and we'll follow those directions, but we're still in the car's infancy."
Hull says the team was excited to put some of the performance items they've come up with to the test at Daytona.
"If it was a chemistry lab, and this was done in a beaker, we wouldn't go the track," Hull noted. "Our beaker is the mechanical testing we do – either on a shaker rig or a damper dyno, it's wind tunnel testing – either full-scale or half-scale, and simulation. And in those three areas, you capture information that needs to be tested and confirmed.
"Then we go to the track and try what we've learned – try a weight distribution that looked optimal and we go see and find out if it is. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't. And learning things like that not only helps the drivers and engineers at the track, but it also helps the people in our 'lab' to find a better direction for us the next time we test. Particularly with a car that doesn't have very many miles. These two days at Daytona have been very helpful in that regard."
Using the insights from Hand and Pruett also helped the team to work through their initial test plan.
"We had a series of dampers built up from dyno testing, and some of them worked, and some did not work based on what Joey and Scott told us in their feedback," Hull explained. "Testing isn't just about what works; you learn just as much from whatever was wide of the mark, and in this case, we had some dampers that we thought would be helpful, but our drivers didn't care for them. And that's where testing is also invaluable.
"You can build things away from the track that you think will really help the car, but if they don't complement the driving style of the people strapped into the car, it doesn't really matter how what you've come up with. This gave us a lot of direction on what our drivers felt the car needed, and what they needed personally to get the most out of the car. There's a long way to go, but it was a good step for us and our partners at Roush Yates, and Ford, and everyone that's part of the program."
Lap times were not released from the test, but Hull feels confident the Ford GT's pace is on the right trajectory.
"Today's benchmark for the track were vintage Porsche 962s and other cars getting prepared for a vintage race, but we know what the Corvette guys did to set the pole in January, and I don't think we were completely out to lunch today," he said. "I think when we come back in November for the official series test, that will give us a more representative look at where we stand on the same day in the same track conditions.
"What we're doing today in testing privately will help us to be ready when we start to test publically. We didn't get all lathered up today on how fast we were or weren't going, I can tell you that. We just worked on learning the car..."
