It was another successful weekend, thanks to help from friends.  We took first place Sunday and second on Saturday (more on that to come).  We also broke the prior Buttonwillow #13 CW and #13 CCW track records for our class.

Buttonwillow has been a challenge this season due to shortages of the Hankook race tire.  This weekend was the first time (all season) we had fresh tires.  Gruppe-S managed to do the impossible sourcing the race tires with heroic efforts (thanks Braydon and Eddie!).  We knew the car was competitive at Buttonwillow, but we didn’t know how much a margin we’d actually have.

With turns ranging from 110mph to 40mph, Buttonwillow is known as a technical track.  This is a challenge for the car setup because the car must be good at all things.  It must be loose enough to rail through a 180 degree hairpin corner, while planted taking a 110mph high speed sweeper.  Muellerized Suspension Tuning has been instrumental to the car’s success and we hammered out a strategy.

New aerodynamic additions to the car came from APR Performance:  the GTC-200 wing and a front splitter.  These parts are made of lightweight carbon fiber and are beautifully constructed.  But more importantly they are highly functional parts backed by APR’s investment in R&D.  Tuned perfectly to the car’s suspension, we were able to find more low speed rotation balanced with high speed stability.  This gave us the winning edge we needed.  Front-end lift was reduced and the rear was planted at speed.  The results were impressive and significant.  APR was fantastic with supporting their products (thanks Tony).  I recommend APR to anyone looking to fine-tune the handling of their car and/or are looking for well engineered aerodynamic parts.

The car was fantastic this weekend.  It’s always been excellent, but this weekend it was just incredible to drive.  It carved through the corners effortlessly.  It would pick up car lengths in exit speed on the competition.  I couldn’t be happier with the performance.

Finally, the weekend was not without controversy.  On the Saturday competition day, I broke the track record in the morning run, while just beginning to bring the car up to pace for the first time.  What followed was disappointing.  Suffice to say, there was some procedural improprieties on the part of a competitor.  I am grateful to the NASA officials that addressed the issue.  I was moved and humbled by the support from dozens of racers and NASA officials.  I wouldn’t have gotten through the weekend without their help.  Thanks are in order:  John Mueller, who took time out of his vacation to help and show again and again that Muellerized support goes above and beyond; Dan and Brad of the Jackson Dawson Scion TC Race Team who improvised an absolutely brilliant fix for Sunday (and spent hours helping me); the help of NASA officials who invested time and diligence to right the situation; and drivers Ed and Mark who were there to lend a hand.  Thank you!  It’s absolutely certain that the car had plenty left in it to secure a 1st place finish that Saturday.  But I am very grateful to have simply finish the day (with the help of others) and for the fantastic Sunday we had.  All considering, I couldn’t ask for more.

The last event of the season is in November.  The 2008 Socal Championship is on the line and the events this weekend make it that much more challenging.  The competition is determined to win.  I’ll do my best.

Special Thanks:  Muellerized, Gruppe-S, APR Performance, Jackson Dawson Scion Race Team, GiroDisc Racing Brakes.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 15th, 2008 at 4:00 am and is filed under NASA, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.