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always Evolving - Mike Puglisi’s EVO MR
Another Profile Mike Puglisi
For as long as 40 year-old Mid-West Time Attack racer Michael can remember, he has been taking apart anything he could get his hands on. He enjoyed figuring how things were put together, how they worked mechanically and learning to put them back together again. In high school, Michael studied Auto Diagnostics for the full three years because he loved learning about cars and how to work on them. Before he was old enough to drive, he got into Radio Controlled cars and wanted to compete with them. However, traveling at the age of fourteen wasn’t possible and so he never got to do it in the way he wanted. As soon as he became 16, he got his driver’s license and badly wanted his own car. He had started working from the age of 15 just so he could save and eventually buy his first car. That first job was working for McDonalds and now he works in Technology which makes playing with race cars a bit easier. In 2001, he purchased his first “race car” which was a 1998 Mitsubishi Eclipse GSX. He started off his racing career like many others, racing on the streets and he eventually moved on to drag racing. He then tried road racing in the 2010 and fell on love with it. But let’s back track a bit… From the beginning, he started reading books and researching on how to make his car faster and more efficient. Racing didn’t just become a hobby, it turned into a true passion of his. Some may even argue that it has become somewhat of an obsession. When he initially bought this 2006 Evo MR, he told himself that the car would only be his daily driver, with a few bolt-ons but as we all know, that didn’t last long. It was at this point the Eclipse GSX got placed on the back burner and was parted out. One day, his good friend Dan Lewis wanted to get into road racing and asked Michael if he would be interested in competing with him. In 2010, they competed in
their first road race event at Three Ball Racing and in 2011, Nilesh Patel, Dan and Michael started up with the Honda guys at WMHM Western Michigan Honda Meet (WMHM) In 2016, Dan, Nilesh and Michael were excited to start competing in Gridlife, which led to them forming the team DMN Racing (well, now you know what the DMN means). DMN Racing is a race group that is driven by the passion for motorsports and competition at the grassroots level. Collectively, they have been in motorsports for over 30 years. More important than their history in motorsports together, they’ve all been close friends for almost 20 years. They started off by racing at smaller HPDE events and later progressed into the time attack style of racing which sparked the team’s creation. Pushing each of their cars
1420 Victoria St N, Kitchener, ON N2B 3E2 Tel: 1 519-589-7156
Race Car and Component Fabrication
The Unit 2 Fabrication K-Series Elite oil pans have been flying off the shelves! Developed with James Houghton and the one of a kind Time Attack Integra Type R our new Elite aluminum pan is data proven to reduce the oil surge that can kill an expensive race motor.
Also available as a steel pan. to their limits allowed them to gain a lot of educational experiences, if you will. From that point on, one thing lead to another and the rest is history. His “daily driver” has now become a full-blown race car. When Gridlife started, he immediately gravitated towards its Track Battle Time Attack series. Time Attack focuses on being a driver and a builder at the same time in Mike’s case. After a few years of finishing 3rd overall, everything came together in 2018 and he had finished 1st overall in Track Mod that season. All the hard work and long hours had finally paid off. Michael takes pride in being able to showcase his build and drive his own car to its limits. I have amazing partnerships with some of the best companies in the industry; I also do take pride in being the Builder, Mechanic, Engineer, and Driver of my own racing program. When I win or break a records, it’s a huge self accomplishment. “ Michael realized something about Time Attack early on when he started; people in drag racing were more secretive about their cars while in Time Attack, everyone is almost like an open book where they’re more willing to share information, and they also enjoy hanging out with each other during the weekend. He somewhat gravitated to that aspect of Time Attack. He likes the competition side of things but could never compete in a wheel to wheel environment because it would devastate him if he never got into contact with someone and damaged the car as he had poured his heart and soul into building the car into what it is today.
He compared Time Attack and drag racing and stated that they are similar and that Time Attack has a few elements of drag racing in it as everyone builds their car to a particular set of rules governing a class and race it.
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Helmets and accessories Snell SA 2020 helmets Coming in February
WE LIVE FOR THE TRACK
The biggest challenge he faced when he got started was that it was difficult for him to make the car fast on track. Whether it was driving or tuning, there’s a lot more involved than drag racing. Between the aero, tire and suspension, being able to adjust everything yourself and understanding what each setting does out there on track. There are definitely more things involved in making a fast time attack car than just making more power. During his very first event, he didn’t really know what to expect but he knew it would be fun. He actually ran into Dan from Professional Awesome for the first time at the event. Neither of them had the knowledge about EVOs that they do have now and that was around the time that they started competing in Redline Time Attack. Michael is currently working on improving his car and will continue to do so for the rest of the year, preparing it for next season since Covid messed with his plans. He wants to ensure that the car is dialed in so that he can be competitive. Michael used to work for a company that specialized in repairing and restoring crashed EVOs. This particular car came back because the person who bought it wasn’t happy with it after the repair. Michael had always liked EVOs and the guy gave him the keys and Michael drove it around for about a week. At that moment he knew he wanted to own it. He didn’t want to modify it, he just wanted to drive it around and have fun with the car. Later on, he added an aftermarket turbo kit to the car and it all snowballed from there. He also drag raced the car for a bit. The biggest issue he came across with the car was the head gasket. He thinks even Professional Awesome struggles with that issue as well. What he has right now is a dry sleeved engine that seems to be doing better. Also, the Evo understeers pretty badly from the factory, so correcting a lot of those things has helped the car perform better. Other than that, he didn’t really need to do much as the EVO is a
I’d like to thanks my sponsors for all the help over the years.
Bao House Racing - All the overnight parts. Team Rip Engineering - Everything drive train related. Wiseco - Help with the custom pistons and K1 cranks Magnus Motorsports - Dry sump oiling system. Mike Spec - Wizard behind our tuning Reinhart USA - Compliant suspension and control TF Works - Race alignment prep. Essex AP Racing - Big brake kits and braking knowledge SSB design - light weight suspension geometry correction
The Build List
Engine: - 4G64 Block - Darton sleeves - K1 94mm Crank - Manley 162mm Rods - Custom Spec Wiseco HD Pistons - 4Piston racing CNC Head - GSC S3 Camshafts - Garrett GTX3076R Gen II turbocharger - Magnus Dry sump oil system - Koyo Radiator and Oil cooler Drivetrain: - TRE Prepped X Shift 6 speed Transmission - TRE Race ACD Transfer Case - TRE 12-Plate Max Lock Rear Differential - Quarter Master 8-Leg Race Clutch/ Flywheel - AWD Motorsports 2-Piece Aluminum Drive Shaft Suspension: - Reinharte R3 Custom Valved Coilovers - Custom Spherical Bushing Kit - SSB Designs Billet Frint Uprights and Lower Control Arms Brakes: - Essex Racing / AP Racing 6 pot Front BBK 372mm rotors - Ferodo Dsuno / Ferodo DS1.11 Brake Pads Interior: - Sparco Circuit Racing seat - Self built NASA spec roll cage
