The Viper drivers on the track at that time were new drivers and had almost no track experience prior to that event. They were students, who were being taught how to track their cars. The vette driver was obviously an experienced driver. This information is in a post on the Alley from a driver who was at the event. The Z06 did not go out with the better drivers in Comp Coupes, who beat his times by several seconds per lap.
When I raced motocross in my younger years, I could go out in the novice class and fly past everyone as though my bike had double the horsepower. It may have looked that way but the reality had nothing to do with the bike. This video is nothing more than a similar scenario.
Uh, that's not true at all, the video was shot during the WHITE run group, all experience drivers. Most doing under 2:10 lap times. That car was way juiced up, lots of power, that's the only reason he was able to do what he was doing, his line around the track was ok in parts and no so good in others. He made up for it in HP.
As for him being a good driver, um, maybe, but he doesn't watch flags very well, he came flying up behind me at the end of the front straight at 160+ and the corner worker had a debris flag thown, he didn't see it and spun about 3 times from the end of the front straight to almost turn 2! He was trying to avoid rear-ending me, I sped up and narrowly averted collision.
I was doing 2:04 laps on street tires in an 01 ACR with no HP mods, the best Viper driver (not me!) out there in my car would be doing about 1:52 laps with slicks and 1:58 on streets.
The comp coupe drivers were doing 1:49 to 1:51 and some a little slower, on slicks.
I'd say this guy's driving was average, take away all the HP to make up for mistakes and he would be maybe 1:58 (on slicks). There was another "plain jane" C5 that did a 1:55 on slicks and he is a good driver.
I bet with all that juice he could be doing 1:45 or better if he tightened up his line and went deeper into some of the corners...
-J
