MotorWerks Magazine - Volume 8, Issue 2

THE ULTIMATE READING EXPERIENCE VOLUME 8 ISSUE 2 - DEC 2018

Published by TreeFree Publishing a Division of Webtronic Enterprises

Motorsport News from MotorWerks Magazine

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P u b l i s h e d B y Tr e eF r e e P u b l i s h i n g a Division of Webtronic Enterprises

Ed i t or - i n - Chi e f / Pub l i s h e r Ian Rae EDI T ORIA L We s t C o a s t US A Ed i t o r Mi d We s t US A Ed i t o r E a s t C o a s t Ed i t o r S o c i a l Me d i a D i r e c t o r S e n i o r Wr i t e r Te c h n i c a l Wr i t e r

No r ma n Ne l s o n Da v i d L e w i s Cr a i g Ne l s o n Je s s e Ne l s o n A s h l e i g h Mo r r i s Mar k C o l l i n g w o o d

PHO T O GR A PH Y Photographer Photographer Photographer Photographer Photographer Photographer Photographer Photographer Photographer Photographer Photographer

No r ma n Ne l s o n Mar k C a mp b e l l Cr a i g Ne l s o n Ke v i n Ehr l i c h Jo h n S c r o e d e r A l i c y n Dr e w Ja k e G a l s t a d Di t o Mi l i a n To m Ma x w e l l Ja n i s Ra e S a m Mo o r e

HO W T O RE ACH US

Phone: (905) 467-5148 ianrae@motorwerksmag.com Published by

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CONTENTSDecember

FEATURES 20 All in the Genes 76 Kissing the Blarney Stone 79 Meeting a legend 116 Uphill Battle 136 World’s Apart

RACING ROUNDUP 28 Third Time’s A Charm - WTAC Pro Class 40 Bitter Sweet - WTAC Pro Am Class 48 Two In A Row - WTAC Open Class 4

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52 82 88 74

That Elusive Win - WTAC Clubsprint Rule Britannia Mini Festival Watkins Glen Knockhill unveils Rockstar Chase Series

TECHNICAL 64 My Way, No Boost, Just Data 72 Back to School 111 Structural Integrity

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REGULARS

EXTRA

4 From The Editors Desk 6 New Products 14 On The Grid134 MotorWerks Magazine Fan Groups 142 Contact Point - Visit our Advertisers

37 Baker on the Spot 130 Never Give Up 133 Editor’s take on Gridlife Midwest 136 World’s Apart

PICTORIALS 58 Seen at WTAC 92 Track Attack at WGI

Motorsport News from MotorWerks Magazine

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From The Editors Desk

M

y trip to Australia for the World Time Attack Challenge drew attention to a fact that makes racing around the World something special as far as I am concerned. The cars in WTAC have some great technology and most of it is home brewed.

Because the cars have such liberal rules the teams are able to dream up something special, prototype it, test it and if it works use it to make their race car go faster. What that has done is make for a rather healthy motorsport supply chain in Australia, one that even provides components overseas like my TVS 900 supercharger from Harrop Engineering.

So why am I talking about this? I guess it has to do with the way that racing is going in North America. I was happy to see the announcement that TCR racing was coming to the left side of the Pond. I enjoyed watching it, the cars look exactly like Touring Cars 6

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should look as far as I am concerned. For some reason I kept seeing SRO Motorsport America coming up on the Internet either during searches or going on pages I visit. SRO was founded in 1995 by Stephane Ratel a French racing driver, who primarily organized series in Europe and in May 2018 bought a controlling interest in WC Vision LLC which was the owner of the Pirelli World Challenge and that gave his company control over the Pirelli World Challenge. So what is the problem? None with SRO running the events but I noticed that there is now a three class structure all involving homologated cars.

The issue I have with that is that a European company is running a series mandating mostly European built race cars! The motorsport supply chain like the one I described in Australia is going to take a hit in North America. I have no problem either with homologation, I just think that the lower classes can be covered on certain components without having to single source things like brakes and wheels from the manufacturer. Where many teams had long relationships with brake and wheel (I am using these two components as samples) that either gave them free or discounted components they now have to pay what the manufacturer decrees. Wheels could be homologated as 18x10 with a set ET and either cast or forged, brakes as 350mm x 34mm rotors and maximum of six pistons.

That is simple! And with that type of homologation many companies can still sell to the premier racing classes. As it is, not only are American and Canadian companies losing out but the countries are too and in most cases the components are ultimately sourced from Europe. So think about my comments and watch for a future article.

Regards

Ian Rae, Editor and Publisher

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NEWProducts Unit 2’s K-series Elite oil pan is now available

Throughout the past year we started a project to develop and build the ultimate Honda K-Series oil pan. It all started with James Houghton suffering a major engine failure at the 2017 Global Time Attack’s Super Lap Battle due to oil starvation on the high G Riverside corner. And with that being the final event of the year we knew we had to come up with

prior to GTA Road Atlanta event and ran all season competing in over thirteen events across the USA and Canada. Collecting data from every event using James’ Racepak IQ3 datalogger we knew we had hit the nail on the head, and the oil pressure was no longer a problem. Even when it was subjected to over 2 lateral Gs and spikes of over 3 Gs. The pan consists of a machined 6061 billet flange with formed sheet aluminum meticulously Tig welded together. Six separate compartments and eleven trap doors help control the nine-liter oil capacity. As seen in the pictures. We have done our best to accommodate the DC5/EP3 and 8th Gen chassis, something ignored by all other pan manufacturers on the market.

So, if you are looking for the ultimate oil pan for your K-Series engine this is it!

Until their new website goes online you can get info on Unit 2 Fabrication on Facebook at www.facebook. com/unit2fab/

Klaus Composites get busy a solution, so it wouldn’t happen again.

With James being local and the one most likely to have high G force oil starvation it only made sense we develop the pan with him. All through 2018 the pan has been tested in the most extreme conditions at some of the quickest tracks in North America.

The pan was first installed on James’ Acura Type R 8

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You all saw some of the sweet carbon fiber products Nick Large of Klaus Composites is working on in the last issue of the magazine. Since than Nick and I have been talking a bunch and we agreed to work together on a state of the art wing for CooperRSR. In fact Klaus Composites are so busy that they are recruiting a composite technician trainee and assistant. Nick told us. “The composites industry

is expanding at an unprecedented rate, with new applications and opportunities emerging daily thanks to a global increase in the demand for stronger, lighter, and more fuel-efficient high-performance structures, automobiles, and aircraft. Klaus Composites is uniquely poised to cater to this demand with its commitment to design and engineering innovation, and adoption and implementation of advanced manufacturing technologies and methods. The applicant will be playing a key role in the manufacture of exciting parts for projects that push boundaries in the motorsport, marine, aerospace, and other dynamic industries. We are looking for a High School Graduate with some trade experience e.g. automotive bodywork technician, mechanic, or carpenter. Some composite part fabrication experience, DIY or at professional level would be an advantage.

Above: You can see how strong this splitter is when you view the top surface.

Below: The quality finished underside shows the directional diffusers

Please email your rĂŠsumĂŠ and a cover letter to Nick Large: nick@ klauscomposites.com 167 Cole Ln, Winchester, VA 22602-6104, United States You can see from the photos on this page how trick the Klaus Composite splitter is for the BMW E46 with the E36 version coming soon.

Klaus Composites can be found online at https:// www.facebook.com/ klauscomposites/ and https://klauscomposites.com Motorsport News from MotorWerks Magazine

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8 New Forgline Wheels Debut at SEMA The engineering team at Forgeline has worked VERY hard, over the past few months, to complete eight brand new wheel designs that made their public debut, at the recent 2018 SEMA Show These latest designs represent a broad range of styles and applications, while remaining focused on Forgeline’s deeply-rooted commitment to motorsport and performance engineering.

FF1 (One Piece Monoblock Series) Our handsome FF1 is a one piece forged monoblock version of our extremely popular three piece FF3C. But unlike the FF3C, the Forgeline FF1 is a fullyforged one-piece monoblock wheel that is built utilizing manufacturing technology similar to our very successful GA1R wheel. The concave 5-spoke design of the FF1 looks great and allows plenty

GS1-6 (One Piece Monoblock Series) Based upon our original 5-lug GS1, the GS1-6 is a 6-lug street-friendly version of our extremely successful GS1R racing wheel that has carried many top-level professional road racing teams to victory!

The Forgeline GS1-6 combines the latest in advanced wheel technology, including one piece forged monoblock construction, motorsport engineered design, and I-beamed spokes. And just like the GS1R, the GS1-6 is engineered to withstand the rigors of top-level endurance racing with a 2100 lb street tire load rating and exceptional deflection stiffness.

See more (including sizes and pricing) at: https:// forgeline.com/wheel/gs1-6/ NW101 (One Piece Monoblock Series) The striking NW101 continues the exciting evolution in Forgeline monoblock design. It delivers cuttingedge styling with five multi-dimensional split spokes that span integrated lug holes and strong chamfered edges. And the NW101’s relatively open spoke pattern is perfect for showing off the sexy giant brakes that are found on most serious modern performance vehicles. The NW101 is machined from a single forging of 6061-T6 aluminum. It is currently available in 18, 19, 20, and 21-inch diameters with a range of widths and offsets. And just like any Forgeline wheel, the NW101 is available with fully customizable finish options. See more (including sizes and pricing) at: https://forgeline.com/wheel/nw101/ 10

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of room for caliper clearance and extreme brake fitment, while the one-piece monoblock forging and computer-simulated FEA design process yield a wheel that is ruggedly handsome, extremely stiff, and has excellent fatigue strength. See more (including sizes and pricing) at: https://forgeline.com/wheel/ff1/ SE3C Concave (Concave Series) Inspired by our friend Anthony Busack, the new Forgeline SE3C forged concave wheel combines a deep-dish concave profile and a seven V-spoke design with full-length spokes that extend all the way through the center’s rim register. And thanks to Forgeline’s unique performance-inspired concave design philosophy and racing-style I-beamed spokes, the SE3C delivers both beauty and performance.

See more (including sizes and pricing) at: https:// forgeline.com/wheel/se3c-concave/ JO3C (Heritage Series) When country music sensation James Otto had a vision for the perfect wheel for the pro-touring restoration of his childhood Chevelle, he knew just where to turn. Our engineering team worked with James to create the JO3C, a throwback to

3-piece wheel that is manufactured from fully forged 6061-T6 aluminum centers using the latest engineering and manufacturing technology. The FU3C borrows from the original five-spoke design with dimensional inverted tapered spokes, but rather than just recreate yet another replica, the Forgeline engineering team spent many hours refining our design to create a wheel with a unique distinctly Forgeline character. This resource-intensive process yielded a wheel with a concave center, carefullytuned proportions, and extended spokes that reach out beyond the rim register and over the stepped lip outer. See more (including sizes and pricing) at: https://forgeline.com/wheel/fu3c/ NT3C (Concave Series) Designed in collaboration with renowned designer Neil Tjin, the NT3C is full of outside-the-box design features. Combining both retro and modern styling cues, the NT3C features a very strong multidimensional precision-machined tapered 5-spoke design, an open lug hub center, and an extremely deep inset rim register with exposed hardware.

See more (including sizes and pricing) at: https:// forgeline.com/wheel/nt3c-concave/

the original rally wheel found on Chevelles and Camaro Z/28s of the 1960s and 1970s. But unlike the original, the JO3C is a modern 3-piece wheel that is manufactured from fully forged 6061-T6 aluminum centers using the latest engineering and manufacturing technology. A traditional five-spoke design with inverted tapered spokes and creative machining details, the JO3C evokes a traditional muscle car flavor while delivering modern technology and performance. See more (including sizes and pricing) at: https://forgeline.com/wheel/jo3c/ FU3C (Concave Series) The Forgeline FU3C wheel pays homage to the classic Porsche wheel of the 1960s and 1970s.

But unlike its predecessor, the FU3C is a modern

LS3C Concave (Concave Series) The LS3C Concave combines the classic mess styling from our Heritage Series LS3 wheel with a concave center profile to create a wheel with elegant looks, timeless character, and plenty of room for caliper clearance and extreme brake fitment. See more (including sizes and pricing) at: https://forgeline.com/ wheel/ls3c-concave/ Though 2018 has been another record-breaking year for Forgeline, we remain committed to continually creating fresh designs, leveraging new technology, and responding quickly to dynamic market opportunities. We THANK YOU for your support, and we look forward to seeing you, in Indianapolis!

Motorsport News from MotorWerks Magazine

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BTCC launches new official app Britain’s premier motorsport series further enhances fan experience The British Touring Car Championship, in partnership with fusesport, is delighted to announce the launch of a new official BTCC mobile application – free and available now for all iOS and Android devices.

Britain’s premier motorsport series prides itself on further enhancing the fans’ experience, and this BTCC mobile app becomes a significant part of its digital offering to its many followers around the world.

The app, which will continue to be evolved and enhanced ahead of the 2019 season, will feature an array of exclusive content, including latest news, videos, behind-the-scenes access, polls, surveys and stats that will be of great interest to all BTCC and motorsport fans. You will also find driver and team information, plus details on events such as race dates, timetables and tickets.

It will also be the place to visit during a race weekend, with quick links to video, timing and audio ensuring followers are kept right up to date with the action.

Fan interactions will become a key part of the app’s offering too, with your chance to sign-up, follow your favourite driver and team while contributing with photos and opinions on everything BTCC. Series Organiser, TOCA, has worked with sports industry leader fusesport in development of the 12

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app. Fusesport is a global leader in helping sports organisations grow their communities and revenue by managing their events and data more effectively.

One of the most complete event management solutions available, its cloud-based software covers everything from registration, accreditation, promotion, volunteer/workforce management, data analysis and more.

Series Director, Alan Gow, said: “The BTCC has continued to transform its digital offering in recent years, having launched a new website, enhanced its coverage with our loyal television partner ITV, increased its social media presence, as well as adding ‘as live’ and further video content online.

“The new BTCC app is part of that evolution and we are delighted to be launching the app over the coming days. Working alongside Fusesport, we will continue to enhance and improve the app to ensure it provides fans with the best BTCC experience available. This is something for our followers to enjoy as excitement builds ahead of the 2019 BTCC season, which is sure to be another fantastic campaign – both on and off the track.” fusesport CEO, Jeff Bliss, adds: “fusesport is both honored and excited to partner with BTCC to help enhance their fans’ experience. We bring broad experience across the sports industry and around the world, as well as a deep appreciation for the motor sport industry and BTCC’s fanbase, and we look forward to continually improving the fans’ experience with BTCC”.

Motorsport News from MotorWerks Magazine

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High Downforce Diffusers Now Available from Pro Awesome High downforce diffusers are the latest aero products coming out of Indiana based Pro Awesome.

Designed and optimized using CFD to ensure the best possible performance these high downforce diffusers are perfect for racers working on their own aero.

Once installed, the diffusers create a low-pressure transition zone that greatly increases the downforce potential of any splitter. Designed to be installed on an otherwise flat splitter, it instantly turns the splitter into a high-end, active front element for a fraction of the price. These diffusers are best used in conjunction with our universal vents to maximize the downforce gains.

They are engineered and manufactured in the U.S.A., made from high quality, durable ABS plastic. two diffusers, left and right handed are included in the purchase price of $300 US. Installation tips: Make sure you have adequate room in front of and behind the diffusers to ensure airflow isn’t constricted for maximum performance. They are designed to be riveted, bolted, and/or bonded to a splitter. Please ensure your splitter is properly attached to the car. These can, and will, create much more downforce and can rip the splitter from its mounts. YOU’VE BEEN WARNED! We have also released titanium skid blocks to keep your splitters alive and and your airflow stable.

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Designed to be mounted under your splitter with the goal of keeping it from impacting the ground and damaging your precious aerodynamic parts. An additional side benefit is our blocks can help keep air flowing properly under your splitter for consistent aero balance.

Titanium was chosen over aluminum or steel due to its hardness staying more consistent at the higher temperatures it sees as it gets slammed into the ground. This allows the blocks to last much longer, so you don’t have to worry about it wearing away during an event. Additionally… SPARKS! These 1/2″ thick titanium skid blocks have been water jetted from Ti-6Al-4V and have been CFD designed and tested to have minimal impact on airflow downstream. The mounting holes are 1/4-20 threaded on 1″ centers.

These are sold individually at $45 US

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Motorsport News from MotorWerks Magazine

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OnTheGrid Alphasonic Motorsport to enter TCR

Alphasonic Motorsport is pleased to announce their plans to enter the TCR category. The team has acquired a new Audi RS3 LMS factory-built racecar to compete in the TCR category in various series across North America. The Audi RS3 was the first TCR to be sourced from Audi Canada and will be followed by another for the team later this year.

The team principals are extremely thankful for the support provided by Audi Canada and especially

by Amelia Li, Audi Canada’s Motorsport Manager, throughout the purchase and delivery process.

The team is excited to enter and move into the TCR platform, which is growing worldwide. Now with three sanctioning bodies having classes for the cars in North America the team has a multitude of venues where they can run and get familiar with the cars in 2018.

The team is planning to run the entire 2019 schedule of the Pirelli World Challenge with 2 cars. Team Octane, Canada’s most successful touring car team will be providing trackside support.

The team will get acquainted to the platform by running a developmental testing schedule through the 2018 racing season. Drivers will be announced at a later date. The team’s first event will be at 16

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Shannonville Motorsport Park for the Canadian Touring Car Championship’s Summer Challenge on July 7-8.

Everyone at Alphasonic Motorsports is eager to get to the track and play with this fantastic new racing platform.

About Alphasonic Motorsport – Alphasonic Motorsport is the latest race team in North America to jump into the TCR arena. They are supported by the following marketing partners who we thank for their loyal support, Forward Bravo, Psonic inc, Audi Downtown, MotorWerks Media, MotorWerks Magazine, PCM Auto Service.

About Team Octane – Team Octane is the most successful Canadian Touring Car team, having won five driver’s Touring Class championships in the first ten years that the series has run.

For more information on Alphasonic Motorsport please contact Ian Rae at MotorWerks Media (905) 467-5148 or ianrae@motorwerksmag.com or alphasonic@videotron.ca

Ashleigh Morris takes the Celtic Speed Scottish MINI Cooper Cup ladies Championship In her first year racing MINIs Ashleigh Morris and he family run team from the small village of Reay in Caithness adapted to front wheel drive well and progressed up the ladder to become a consistent top ten finisher all year cumulating in the Ladies Championship.

She told us, “We did it! We achieved something we weren’t sure was possible but never stopped trying for! The season marked another year with a 100% finish record and it just goes to show what can be achieved as we pulled off a “Turkington Finish” to the year! It was far from my best drive but we did what needed to be done and are now going to be presented with a beautiful piece of silverware for it! In race three, Gary Clark had a lot to answer for

– he definitely kept me going and when we were on the cool down lap, driving side by side like team mates was a great feeling!”

Ashleigh went on, “Morris Motorsport worked with Bridgend Racing Developments this year, and we’ve found a great partnership in doing so! Together they boast a fountain of knowledge, but have never been afraid to ask questions where needed. We look forward to working closely with them again!”

She finished by saying, “After the race we ran

back to the paddock where our car, team, family and friends awaited the news. There were a lot of cheers, a lot of smiles and a lot of rain… In the form of champagne! Unfortunately we had to make that long drive home to Caithness but we’re looking forward to celebrating properly with the team and friends at the SMRC Awards Dinner in November.

For only a brief moment I felt a bit sad, as it sank in that this was the last race meeting of the year for AMR. However, we are in need of a break now.

2018 hasn’t been an easy year for us out with racing but we can truly say we’re reaping the rewards of our efforts now. This whole year, and the success we have had wouldn’t have been possible without our amazing support partners, thank you all so very much, you deserve this award as much as we do.”

Her father told us after the Scottish Motor Racing Club awards, where the team came home with the

Mini Cup Ladies Championship, Lady Driver of the Year, Young Saloon Driver of the Year and Best Prepared Mini. “I was absolutely delighted with the trophy haul. Ashleigh worked her socks off this season and thoroughly deserves her awards. We couldn’t have done it without all the back up and support of a brilliant team. These are for everyone who have backed Ashleigh through the ups and downs of motorsport.”

During the recent SEMA show there was a Time Attack Drivers Summit held. A second Summit is going to be held at the upcoming PRI show in Indianapolis. According to Global Time Attack head honcho Jason Dienhart it was a good meeting with lots of good discussions. One of them being a GTA Superlap Battle at Austin’s Circuit Of The America’s track. When I asked Jason about the details he said they will be announced shortly when everything is sorted out.

Chris Stewart of #Gridlife will also be making some big North American Time Attack announcements at the Summit along with their 2019 schedule so make sure you don’t miss it.

Motorsport News from MotorWerks Magazine

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We have interesting news for the grassroots motorsport community. John Elliot of the Honda House in Chatham, ON has been a lifelong gearhead. As part of the Sandy Elliot Ford drag racing team the father and son duo along with Barry Poole were a major force in NHRA Super Stock Eliminator in the 60’s and 70’s. For more than three years, the team which was known as the “Border Bandits”, dominated Super Stock racing in the U.S. and Canada. In 1968, John became the first Canadian to win a NHRA stock class title. John’s motorsport career is not just in drag racing and lately he has been a major force in promoting the Grand Bend Motorplex’s Track Nights where anything from a road car to a full blown race car can run on the multi-track layout at GBM. Recently he can up with a plan to showcase showroom stock and what you can achieve with one at the racetrack. In keeping with the Honda dealership John runs, the project will feature a 18

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2019 Honda Civic LX. The plan is for MotorWerks Magazine to record the build of the car and its adventures at the track. John told us last night, “The car is ordered, it will be produced at the Alliston Ontario Honda Manufacturing Plant in January. We are proud that it will be a Canadian built car we are to be using in this project. The goal is to keep it very close to stock but to get it to run sub 80 second laps on the Technical Circuit at Grand Bend with the stock 156 horsepower motor. We are hoping to have it out to test in as delivered showroom stock specification from the factory at the opening Track Day or Night of the 2019 season. The plan is to set a baseline lap time before starting with limited modifications to the car.

We will be creating a Facebook page for the project so everyone can keep up to date and even build a similar car themselves.

There will also be updates on The BEND Track Nights Facebook page.

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Motorsport News from MotorWerks Magazine

19

MSA Time Attack announces new category for GT3s and Sports Cars In response to recent enquiries and a developing trend amongst competitors, organisers of the MSA Time Attack Championship are excited to announce that a brand new category for GT3 and Sports Cars will be included in its line up of classes from 2019.

This new category will be open to all Sports/GT cars, whether or not they are within their current period of homologation. Therefore, championship organisers have confirmed they will welcome older models that have exceeded their date for participation in events that are only open to current FIA specification vehicles.

In addition to GT3, other denominations of Sports and GT cars will be accepted. These include GT1, GT2, GT4, GTE and other models from Europe, Asia and the USA. The GT’s will run alongside vehicles currently competing within the existing Time Attack Pro Classes.

This means cars will only need comply with MSA construction and safety regulations, with no other modifications or requirements having to be carried out. Drivers will need to hold a Race National B (or higher status) competition licence.

The Championship is also pleased to confirm that it will continue its association with Pirelli for a further three years. Having supplied controlled tyres to the Championship since 2016, the company has developed a range of applications that work perfectly for this unique motorsport discipline, as Pirelli UK Motorsport Manager Jonathan Wells explains: 20

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“We have recently introduced a range of supersoft competition tyres that have shown to deliver outstanding performance in sprints, hill climbs and Time Attack events. For us, the introduction of this new class is perfect timing, as we have just extended our super-soft range for GT3 and other sports car applications, which would usually run out our harder compound tyres. We are therefore very pleased to extend our association with the championship and wish organisers the best of luck with this innovative new class.”

Another new feature in 2019 that organisers believe will appeal to GT drivers is the introduction of Night Time Attack, an additional event at the end of the season that will see competition continue into

the darkness hours. Taking place at Snetterton in November 2019.

Time Attack owner Andy Barnes is excited about the prospect of seeing GT cars competing in the championship: ‘Time Attack’s philosophy is one of continual development as well as a passion to make the championship accessible on all levels. We’re therefore delighted to provide a new and exciting opportunity for GT3 and Sports Cars – whatever their age or specification – in a highly competitive

environment that comes without the stresses, strains and costs of traditional GT racing.’

He added: ‘This is an attractive proposition for GT teams seeking to hone qualifying performance in their drivers given our sport is about setting the quickest lap possible or indeed car owners that wish to keep the wheels turning on their GT cars and enjoy them for what they are, making this opportunity very inviting.’

Details about the new GT3 and Sports Car class, regulations and further information about MSA Time Attack Championship are available from Championship Coordinator: Simon Slade: simon@ timeattack.co.uk / 01935 424873 About the MSA Time Attack Championship Time Attack defines the art of registering the quickest lap-time. Originating in Japan and introduced to Britain in 2006, the UK Championship has become the largest and most professional series of its kind in the world.

It attracts drivers and teams from all corners of the British Isles, as well as many from overseas,

assembling an eclectic mix of cars that readily relate to those owned by many of the 1,000s of spectators and on-line supporters who follow the action.

Organisers work hard to ensure that every Time Attack round is a weekend to remember, with many of the rounds supported by spectacular and wellattended car shows, which means there are plenty of spectators watching the action.

Time Attack is held at the UK’s leading tracks and is organised to the same level (or beyond) of organisation as top-level circuit race championships.

Over an hour of track time per round is on offer, with four sessions during the day comprising Warm up, Practice, Qualifying and the Final. Results are calculated from the lap times set in the Final session.

Competitors who register for the full season will score championship points. Single round entries are also accepted.

For more information visit our website at www. timeattack.co.uk or on Facebook at https://www. facebook.com/UKTimeAttack/

Motorsport News from MotorWerks Magazine

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S E N E G e h t n i All

s p e t s t o o f ’s d a D n i g n i w o l l o f ws

Sam Fello

Sam, you and I have known each other for many years, even though we were at the racetrack you were not behind the wheel, you were in the Media Room responsible for some of the great videos that are used to promote Canadian Tire Motorsport Park.

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Now you are trying to embark on a racing career a little later than most of your contemporaries, how old are you now and where do you currently work?

I am 24 years old and my official title is Brand Ambassador for CTMP. I handle the social media,

advise on communications and marketing, and help run the Ron Fellows Driving Experience At what age did you realize your Dad was special when it came to driving.

It’s a good question because my dad is such a humble guy and he brought me and my siblings up the same way. I knew he was an exceptional driver because he was winning races both in ALMS and

NASCAR when we were younger. I think as I got older and more interested in driving that I realized what a wealth of knowledge and experience he had, I’m always asking him questions about techniques and different experiences he’s had. But I think at Le Mans in 2007 it really struck me that he had a special talent. He was in the car with only a few hours to go trying to chase down the Aston Martin leading in GT1 - it was raining like crazy and at one point he was catching the Aston at something stupid like 30 seconds a lap and was the fastest car Motorsport News from MotorWerks Magazine

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in the entire field - prototypes and all. I remember looking up at the live timing when he came down the front straight and seeing the lap time at minus 30 to the Aston’s time - all the Corvette crew and even the other drivers in the garage started going nuts. I think seeing that really put it in perspective that he was doing something few others could.

Unfortunately, the ACO brought out the safety car due to dangerous conditions and dad couldn’t advance any further up the road but by the crew’s math he would have caught the lead Aston with under an hour left in the race - I still think it could have been one of the all-time greatest finishes at Le Mans.

Unlike many other second-generation racers, you never came thru the normal karting route. Why not?

I did a very little amount of karting when I was younger. Most of it was done on private track days just getting some experience. I think my father was a little worried about just sending me out there because of my last name - he didn’t want to put any extra pressure on me. I did a season of arrive and drive racing at Goodwood - I finished 3rd a couple times but I couldn’t beat the top guys. I’ve always been a taller kid and I think my extra weight didn’t help much in karts. I had fun and I learned some of the fundamentals, but I never competed at a very high level. I think one of the major factors was that my dad was still racing at that point and our priority was to follow him around the race circuit. We were constantly on the road throughout the summer and my dad liked having us around - for him it was a distraction if we weren’t there.

When did you get interested in getting behind the wheel and racing?

Basically, as far back as I remember. I had a very cool upbringing, I basically spent every single weekend of every summer until I was about eighteen at a race track. I was always around racecars and race-car drivers and as a kid I remember just wanting so bad to be like my dad and all these other guys I held in such high regard. All the other 24

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Corvette Racing drivers were like uncles to me especially Johnny O and Max Papis. For most of the 2000’s it was them and my Dad in the #3 car and Oliver Gavin, Olivier Beretta, and Jan Magnussen in the #4 car - they were all so nice to me. I looked up to all of them. I think my dad just saw that I had a serious passion for racing and so he put me in a 4-stroke kart to see what I could do and its kind of spiraled from there. When I was fifteen I learned how to drive standard on a C6 Corvette at Spring Mountain in Nevada and I spent a week there on track learning how to drive a sports car. I’ve been there a few times a summer ever since just practicing and learning as much as I can.

Your brother Patrick is a very good hockey player, has he got any racing aspirations?

Patrick is an incredible athlete and we’re always competing against each-other whether it’s just playing games or at the gym or otherwise - when we were kids we raced the arrive and drive at

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Goodwood together, Patrick was pretty quick himself but at that time he was already playing rep hockey and one day I think he said to my dad, “Dad I love racing but I think I love hockey more, is that okay?”

Obviously, Dad was fine with it, he’s a huge hockey fan himself. But Patrick and I watch F1 together every weekend we’re big Danny Ric fans, I’d love to get him on track at CTMP sometime soon.

Your ‘Pro’ debut in the Canadian Touring Car Championship was very successful with the Pfaff Motorsport BMW M235iR, how did that come about?

I wasn’t sure how competitive we would be just jumping into the class like that for a one-off, but I managed to have fun and find some success which was more than I could ask for. I ran a slightly modified mostly stock 1995 Camaro for the past two years in CASC GT4 enduro just kind of cutting my teeth as it were. At the BEMC weekend last September Scott Goodyear and his son Michael entered the three-hour in a PFAFF BMW 235iR. I’m not sure if the PFAFF guys even knew I was racing at that time, but I managed to clinch the GT4 championship that weekend. A couple weeks later we got a call from Steve Bortolotti at PFAFF offering me a test in the M235iR that Scott and Michael drove, and I did pretty well. Over the winter the opportunity arose for me to race the BMW. My Dad, as a Chevrolet factory driver, gave me his blessing that he would not disown me for driving a BMW, and I was tad worried about that to be honest. I have driven Chevy’s my whole life - but I received a great opportunity from PFAFF and it would have been a shame to not take it - so I put my Camaro hat on the shelf…for now. The only hang-up was we needed to find a team to run the car because PFAFF is already busy enough with their Pirelli World Challenge program they simply wouldn’t be able to do it. Richard Boake is a good friend of mine and he runs his monster Subaru in Time Attack with Can-Jam Motorsports. I knew the Can-Jam guys were reliable and very well experienced and so they agreed to run the car for me at Victoria Day 26

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SpeedFest in CTCC and they did a fantastic job.

They’re truly great guys - they stayed up until four in the morning one night building me a rear wing we found out on test day that we were way down on horsepower for the class unfortunately, so we figured we would focus on the corners by adding as much downforce as possible. On Sunday in the dry I managed to finish second but I’m glad that it rained on Saturday because that was the only way I was going to win. I’m so grateful to PFAFF for trusting me to race their car and I’m very proud to have brought them and Can-Jam a win. Once upon a time before my old man had a contract with Chevy he raced a couple Rothman’s Porsche Cup events with a car sponsored by PFAFF - it’s very cool to have done the same.

Right after the CTCC win you ran in the CSCS Time Attack and finished 2nd in the Unlimited Class. How different was running against the clock as opposed to other racers?

It was different for sure. I really try to race hard, I try and study the Fernando Alonso book of overtaking and I have a pretty good coach as well who has taught me how to make a good clean pass.

I knew the 235iR might be a little underpowered for that class but I also I knew it would be a lot of fun and if I drove well enough I might even be able to win. Unfortunately, I was about 7 tenths off the win at the end of the time attack - I’m still trying not to lose sleep over that one… It was a bit of a lastminute decision to run CSCS, but I really wanted to bring the car out and get some exposure in front

I approached Steve Bortolotti the manager at Pfaff Motorsports and asked him for his view of this young charger.

“Sam was beyond impressive during his CTCC debut this past May. His calm, calculated, and level-headed approach resulted in one of the best wet weather drives I’ve seen in recent memory.”

Some context from our side. It’s nice to support a 2nd generation Pfaff racer. Ron Fellows had a brief stint in the 944 Turbo Cup back in 1990 in a Pfaff car, and he and Chris Pfaff have remained close ever since.

“It’s an honour to work with Sam, and support a second-generation Pfaff driver, as well as the son of a Canadian racing legend. You can tell he & Ron share the same passion for racing, and the dynamic between them as teacher / student couldn’t be better. The first time I let Sam drive our BMW, it was quite evident that the apple didn’t fall far from the tree.”

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of those fans which is a little different crowd than the fans on a typical sports car weekend. I was at a CSCS event last summer and it blew me away in terms of the crowd and their level of passion for the events. Blasting down the front straight with all those people standing on the wall is such a cool feeling. Despite the horsepower differential I was hustling the BMW as hard as I could, and I was sliding out of basically every corner. It’s interesting because you just go like hell for three laps and try to lay it all out there. You don’t have to worry about your tires falling off or your fuel mileage or having to deal with other drivers around you. You have to focus on yourself and really minimize mistakes because you have such a short window to get the job done.

What is in your future racing wise?

At this point I’m taking whatever comes my way.

My goal and dream is to one day race professional sports cars like my old man and go to Daytona and Le Mans. I have a long way to go before I get there. My mindset is to basically take every opportunity I get and make something out of it.

I’m hoping to get at least one more race weekend in the BMW this summer, but nothing is set in stone. I’d love to race CTCC at Trois Rivières and if I can the Silverado 250 28

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weekend at CTMP. I’d love to do another time attack event in the future as well. There’s some other plans a little more confidential on the horizon as well but right now I’m focusing on my training both on and off the track. Being a taller guy at 6 foot 4 every pound I can shed in the gym I see as another tenth or so off my lap-time, so I do my best to stay in the gym and out of the fridge. As well, I work as an instructor at the Ron Fellows Driving Experience so I’m always on track at CTMP trying to stay sharp - I’ve already been out to Spring Mountain twice this year and I’m hoping to go back again to train some more. But for now, the only racing that I know for sure I’ll be doing is on Gran Turismo every night after 8pm!

Photos Above: Sam with his mother Linda at the RaceFest show at Yonge-Dundas Square prior to the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship event at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park. The event gave fans an early opportunity to meet the drivers and see the cars before they headed off to Canada’s biggest sports car race, the Mobil 1 SportsCar Grand Prix.

Below: Pit Stop demonstrations by the factory Corvette Racing GTLM team included Ron Fellows at the wheel of a Corvette C7R

Considering the title of this article it only seemed right that I talk to Ron Fellows himself since it was his genes that spawned young Sam and no doubt inspired him to become a racer. During the conversation he talked about his racing career and how it differs from the path Sam is currently taking.

“One thing currently lacking is quality Canadian based series that offer a legitimate path for a kart racer wanting to make it to the bigger leagues.

Having said that I have to say there is a path through the Canadian Touring Car Championship or NASCAR Canada but it is not a cheap option.

Back in my day we had the Player’s LTD/GM Motorsport series from 1986 through to 1992, the Honda Michelin series and the Rothman’s Porsche Turbo Cup, they were all quality championship and designed to fit various pockets. And look at the racers that came out of those series, Richard Spenard, Kenny Wilden, Ross Bentley, Frank Allers, David Empringham and the Lapcevich brothers, a virtual who’s, who of Canadian motorsport.”

He went on, “Back then racing just seem to be easier, you had to be quick behind wheel and that tended to be it. These days you have to be able to drive, to market yourself, to promote yourself, your team and sponsors through press releases, shake hands and talk to the fans even when you’ve just completed a multi hour stint behind the wheel.

I have to say both Linda and I are really proud of Sam and how he put together the deal to run the Pfaff M235iR in the Canadian Touring Car Championship at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park in May. He did that all on his own.”

“When I embarked on my own career Linda and I talked about how we would handle me being away so much especially with a young family. We we decided we would do it as a family as much as we could and we took the three kids with us as often as possible and that was great for them, seeing foreign countries, meeting all sorts of people and seeing some great racing. I guess some of the last thing rubbed off on Sam.”

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Third Time’s a Charm!

Barton Mawer has driven the Porsche simple known as RP 968 three times at the World Time Attack Challenge and as far as he is concerned the third time was indeed a charm. Mawer took over the driving of the Porsche in 2016 and every year since the team would return to Sydney Motorsports Park in an effort to collect the win in the Unlimited Class. In his first event he carded a 1:23.038 and a second place. 2017 saw his laptime drop to a 1:21.485 but Tim Slade and the MCA Suspension Nissan S15 known as the Hammerhead bested him for a second year in a row. So what did 2018 bring? Read on to see why Barton was so happy.

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Barton Mawer - Royal Purple Pro Champion

1:19.825

Words by Ian Rae, Images by Ian and Janis Rae Motorsport News from MotorWerks Magazine

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Anyone heading to the World Time Attack Challenge in 2018 had one eye on the computer and the other out the window. Both were to check on what the weather was doing. Fortunately the weather at Sydney Motorsport Park was significantly better than the various forecasts that were found online or on TV at that time and other than raining for a short time during Fridays sessions and the Class Shootouts at the end of the day on Saturday little else was affected.

The Pro class was short on cars but what it lost in quantity it made up for in quality. MCA Suspensions were back with their winning Nissan Silvia S13 as was RP968 and their super-trick Porsche 968. The thrid and last entry was Fire Ando in the Escort Mitsubushi Evo, but that entry would change come Saturday.

There is no point me trying to provide race results in this article as that has was seen on the Internet during the live streaming presented by Bosch Motorsport Australia. Heck, it even kept the media up to date in the Media room as we were downloading photos or just resting our feet. Instead we will try and tell the story from the team’s point

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of view. After all it is them who know all the ins and outs of what really went on. So, who won?

It was Barton Mawer’s year to be the bride not the bridesmaid in Rod Pobestek’s RP968 Porsche and not only did he step on the top step of the podium he lowered the track record and went sub 20 doing it.

It was a result that rocked Time Attack fans around the World.

When asked about the third time being a charm, Barton said, “The win was a relief more than anything else for the team. After years of heartache, trying to get the win and dip under 1:20 we finally made it, both major achievements in one go. Rod Pobestek the car owner, had visions initially of high teens for the RP968. Some people did not believe it could happen. But here it is, the RP968 team finally delivered!”

That statement was echoed buy the team’s aero guru, Sammy Diasinos of Dynamic Aero Solutions.

The former F1 aerodynamacist with Toyota, Williams and Caterham has been involved with the RP968 project almost since his return to Australia. He explained, “I got interested in getting into Formula 1 when I read an article by Harvey

Left: Barton Mawer was trying hard everytime he left the garage in RP968 as can be seen from this shot taken at Turn 15.

With a poor weather forecast he knew every lap would count and the sooner he laid down a good number the better.

The MCA Suspensions Hammerhead The top right photo was the view many expected to see of the MCA Hammerhead in 2018 considering its previous performances at the WTAC. V8 Supercars driver Warren Luff was drafted it to pilot the car in place of Tim Slade who drove it in ‘16/’17.

Chatting with Warren Luff he told us, “Hammerhead is completely different to drive to a V8 Supercar.

If you compare the 2 based on pure numbers Hammerhead is approx 350kg lighter, and has 400hp more, & has more than 4 times the amount of downforce. So as a driver it’s all about trusting the aero and using that to carry more corner speed than what you could ever possibly imagine in a V8 supercar. I liken Time Attack to drag racing with

corners, it’s all about huge Horsepower and massive aero and trying to get that one perfect lap.

I have always been a huge fan of Time Attack and loved seeing the sport grow over the last 10 years.

In a modern world where motorsport is so heavily governed by regulations and parity, Time Attack is one of the few categories that allows freedom and diversity in how people build their cars.”

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Postlethwaite who was involved with such teams as Ferrari, Tyrrell and the aborted in-house Honda F1 project. He suggested becoming an aerodynamacist if you really wanted to make it into F1 as that was an arena that was becoming more and more important.

So I did what he said, got a PhD and headed to out to make my fame and fortune in F1. Little did I know, you really start out at the bottom of the totem pole in that environment, but I was lucky enough to work my way up and get more and more important jobs, then some other guys were working for me.

Then at Caterham I was in charge of CFD and Wind Tunnel testing.”

By 2012 Sammy felt it was time to return to Sydney and put down roots. He found out about Time Attack and felt that it was a motorsport where his creative juices could flow and it would be right close to home. “What I really like about Time Attack”, he said, “Is that unlike F1 where you get a little part of the puzzle to play with TA allows me to come up with the whole solution. Because of the aero treatments at the front of the car I know what was in my head as far as the aero working with the rear of the car. An unbalanced aero car is as bad as one unbalanced suspension, both ends have to work together.

Rod Pobestek made some comments back at the start of the project that had some people shaking their heads, some were laughing. The visions he had were ambitious for sure by the team has worked non stop to make it happen. When you consider how close RP968 is to the overall Sydney Motorsport Park record of 1:19.142 held by a 550 bhp Lola Zytek driven by Nico Hulkenburg a current F1 driver you cannot help but be impressed. You have to bear in mine the WTAC calls for Yokohama Advan control tire, something you could run on the street that makes Barton’s 1:19.825 very impressive.”

We went on to talk to Dejan Ninic of TT Suspension and surprisingly he told us, “I just, realised from reading your draft is that I read that same Harvey 34

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Posthelweite article that Sammy is referring to.

How uncanny. I’ve known Sammy since 2000 and I only just learnt that about Sammy since reading your draft. I remember clearly the day I read that article, must have been in August or September of 1996, F1 Racing. Postlethwaite was on the cover and I read that article and thought, yes I want a job in F1. I was in year 12 in school and I had already submitted my preference to study Civil Engineering at UNSW. I was already hooked with motorsport but I never considered it as a career... until then. Then, shortly after, I stayed up and watched the Monza GP and it was the eve of the last day to submit my uni application and I called in and changed from Civil to Mechanical Engineering. Obviously I got in to Mech Eng and eventually stayed on to do a PhD. Once I finished my PhD I moved to France and served as a race engineer with Citroen Sport Technologies and Ph Sport in the World Rally

Championship and I got to work with stars like Kris Meeke, Chris Atkinson, Urmo Aava, Dani Sordo and several other winners. After several years in Europe I returned to Australia and I started a company called Balanced Forces Pty Ltd, which is the parent company for Envirage (race engineering and race car design consultation), Simmersion Racing Simulators and our very cool school for race engineers called the Race Engineering Academy. I’ve known PR Tech since 2004 where I served part of my industrial training, working on Porsche race cars and having designed some cool software for engine valve train opimisation. When I returned from WRC in 2010 I called Richard den Brinker and let him know I was in town. I met Rod Pobestek in 2013 I believe, having designed some Bilsteins for his 944 track car. Eventually, Rod heard that I was involved in WTAC and we got to taking about putting a 911 rear suspension in a 944 for Open Class. Ian Baker

slammed that idea and said he would put that car in Pro Class because of the number of modifications so Rod, Richard and I spoke about the level of technology required to make a Pro Class car. It was very exciting to see Rod so keen to make the best car possible but with my experience of WTAC I knew we were up against some cool competition with Tilton, MCA and Scorch.

I eventually got Sammy involved and the rest is the started point for the RP968 project.

The dampers in RP968 are the level of technology that is available to anyone that wants it. It’s not exclusive and not ridicuously expensive.

They use the smaller diameter piston in our range (38mm or 46mm) and they have canisters with high speed and low speed compression. The patented DDA valve inside the damper changes the overall damping at 160 times per second so we can control the body (load transfer) and the wheels (contact patch forces) at the same time. The real strengths of Tractive Suspension dampers are the quality components and the algorithms that the Tractive team developed.

Other companies are trying to emulate Tractive Suspension but they are a decade behind. The algorithm in the RP968 uses data from g-forces sensors and damper position to vary the damping rate. With WTAC the amount of track time is very limited, so I believe that we are only scratching the surface with this car. Some of our tarmac rally cars are much more evovled and I am transferring knowledge from tarmac rallying to RP968 with success.

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Fire Ando and his Mitsibushi Evo 9 from Japan were popular with the WTAC fans in 2017. Now with full support from the famous Japanese tuning house, Escort, Ando realized they would need to step it up a bit to match or better the competition in 2018 so they designed and built new aero at the Escort facilty with some help from friends in the Super GT arena.

The engine department was also upgraded with a billet aluminium Bullet block, a much larger GCG GTX3584RS turbocharger resulting in a power increase to approximately 1000PS or 986HP (to the rest of the World) on Martini Racing E85. This is considerably more than last year and also includes a healthy dose of Nitrous Oxide controlled by a Motec ECU to eliminate lag. The limited slip diffs were also been upgraded to trick carbon fibre versions from Active Traction Service.

While the weather at Sydney Motorsport Park was a hot topic leading into the WTAC it was the weather closer to home that was causing Ando concern.

Asian typhoons Trami and Kong-rey made for severe weather between Japan and Australia and the concern was whether the container carrying the Escort Evo would make it to Sydney on time. And it was a justifyable concern as the container was only getting unpacked on friday morning, meaning Ando 36

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and the Escort team missed Thursday’s practice day entirely, putting them on the back foot right from the get-go.

Once installed in their garage the team readied the Evo for the track but it was now time for the Sydney weather to show its hand and in changeble conditions Ando preceeded to get laps in and prepare the car as best he could for Saturday morning when the conditions were forecast to be more favorable.

But Saturday brought up a new issue that nobody, least of all Ando was prepared for. With all the increased aero grip Ando was fighting a new challenge, one where he was having difficulty driving due to a medical condition with one of his hands.

Ando and WTAC organizer Ian Baker put their heads together and the idea of putting Under Suzuki in the Escort Evo so as not to dissapoint the fans.

Once agreed upon and with grey skies looming the Escort team prepared the car for Suzuki to go out in the next session. The crowd loved seeing Suzuki driving (his own car was not ready in time) and when he Suzuki recorded a 1.27.558 on his second lap in the unfamiliar Evo they went wild. It makes you wonder what could have been achieved if Suzuki had been in the car all weekend including the practice day.

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Baker on the Spot!

When I met Ian Baker at the World Time Attack Challenge I purposely kept the introduction short because I know he was one busy dude! He puts on a show like no other in the World and that takes a lot of doing, I was not going to get in his way and waited for a month after the event before getting in touch and chatting.

When asked how he felt the event went he replied, “Now in our tenth year of time attack in Australia and our eighth year of WTAC we have an extremely good operations team all who are equally as passionate about this as I am. Unfortunately we have no control over the weather but thankfully we managed to get some dry laps in and the records fell again across both the Pro and Pro Am classes with Barton Mawer in the RP 968 Porsche now only seven tenths off the outright lap record held

by Nico Hulkenberg in a Ferrari powered A1GP open wheeler despite the fact the Porsche is still on road legal tyres!!

We had the biggest international field ever in Pro Am with teams from Switzerland, Singapore, Canada and Australia and also a Swiss team in Open and Clubsprint Class.

Despite some inclement weather during affecting day one of the event and the Superlap Shootout, all in the event was still fantastic. I was also extremely happy that my good friend Kosta Pohurukov walked away from an extremely high speed crash in the legendary

Tilton Evo, a true testament to the super high build quality and safety features of the cars constructed for WTAC these days. He still had a smile on his dial as he walked onto the podium to collect the Pro Am Champion trophy and reset the class record.

A special mention has to go out to team RP 968 (Pro), Tilton Interiors (Pro Am), JDM Yard (Open) and Elusive Racing (Clubsprint) on their wins in their respective classes.

The International Drifting Cup was a big hit with a brand new World Cup style format and big name international drifters from all corners of the globe.

The fans just loved all the action. Congrats to Naoki Nakamura who came all the way from Japan on the win.

Taking about the highlights of the event as far as he was concerned Ian went on, “The highlights for me included obviously seeing R968 reset the WTAC Motorsport News from MotorWerks Magazine

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lap record, Tilton Racing reset the Pro Am record, seeing Under Suzuki receive a standing ovation when he took the wheel of the Escort Evo after Fire Ando could not drive, seeing Keiichi Tsuchiya drive the beautiful nostalgic Beau Yates AE86, the release of our ONE PERFECT LAP hardcover coffee

that goes with the Internet came out about the number of Pro cars and the streaming coverage. An unconcerned Ian commented, “Look I’m not that fazed by all of that as it is part and parcel with this business. Motorsport is always an expensive deal and you will always have those who try to keep

table book and seeing Naoki win the International Drifting Cup were just some of the highlights I will remember for a long time.

I was also happy to see great support from the racers in the Clubsport class, this class continues to gain interest from both the grassroots and workshops but this year we had our first ever “semi works” entry by Hyundai with Street FX fielding an Hyundai I30N driven by reigning Clubsprint champion Jordan Cox that caught everyone off guard with a 1.44.8 in a full weight street car with only minor mods. One can only wonder of the potential of a stripped out “proper build” version of this car and the team at Hyundai were extremely impressed with the whole show. Hopefully we may see a full “works” entry next year.”

Immediately after the event some of the negativety

things at a very grass roots level so they can still play. Unfortunately they fail to realise that we are now an international event with an audience well into the millions watching to see who has THE FASTEST cars of their kind across all classes. We will always look at it this way and always try to attract the best of the breed. Social media gives people the opportunity to speak their mind and some it may be good, some of it may be bad, but very little has any real bearing on our direction both now nor in the future.”

Well Mr. Baker, that is great to hear!

Baker mentioned above that he has a great crew, we gave him the chance to thank the major people that are

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part of the event.

“My CFO and fixer of all disasters Inga Whitman, Racing & Operations Manager Linda Long, Marketing and Media Manager David Lysien, Clerk of Course Jess Nicholson, Technical Director Steve Stanley, Drift Operations Manager Dan Mackie, Race Director Jeff Boulous, Scott McGrath, CAMS, James Stewart and the entire Driving Solutions team, Brendan Whyte and the entire D1NZ crew, Commercial Director Bo Jones, our scrutineers Paul Brell and Michael Simpson, Adam and the whole Downshift crew, Livestream producer Matt Swaab and the team from AVE, all of our announcers and presenters, Joel Strickland, Ash Minikin, Amanda Salmon, Gary O’Brien, Dave Oliver and George Hitchins from the Marketing crew, and everyone else who helped make this event what it is. All of our partners, sponsors and exhibitors who make this event possible.

Without all of our volunteers, flag marshals and track officials there would be no WTAC and a big shout out to all of our competitors that traveled from around the world to party with us.

But most of all THANK YOU TO ALL OF OUR FANS THAT WERE AT THE CIRCUIT OR WATCHING FROM AROUND THE WORLD. YOU ARE THE REASON WE DO THIS EVERY YEAR!

Ian Baker and the entire WTAC crew would like to thank our following partners, you were a huge part of another successful World Time Attack Challenge.

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BITTER SWEET

Kosta Pohorukov - Royal Purple Pro-Am Champion

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rs Interio n o t l i eT rth and th om Ga v r o f k o u v r on oho er E usly w i Lanc osta P o h K i s v i r e b o r f u its dp nd ed f his M weeke Evo ha o t n e g o e s retir t n l i a i w v i T s w r r r e d e a h t ec the an it. T a bit and th n over ob of ustrali j e 5 A It was k e 1 e / a k i t 4 h l t d an in 3/1 es He ha workm in 201 dd rac unning a p r i o d h e i team. y s c t d n n n he twe mpio perie ince n and h only ing ex t ck Cha i n a i t ears s W a t y Walde . g A s e r n e h a e t m i e be e ye t in orld T for fiv this tim elf had ver bu i s , r S d m d the W l R i e h o 3 fi r ta ap AC l SR 5. Kos ans is he WT Radica t e s i o m t h in 201 o n h yn wit etur s he b l Cup ng a r e a i e c n i r n d g a a a l R he re p en we esume r d l class. s a i h W m A h t on o r r a G eP e and el in th e h w 2016 h t the osta a K h t i w Motorsport News from MotorWerks Magazine

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When Kosta and Garth Walden started talking about bringing the Tilton Evo back out for the 2018 WTAC they knew a lot of things had changed in Time Attack in the short three years since they ‘retired’.

“The Pro-Am class was going to be a tough nut to crack,” said Kosta, “Rob Nguyen and his ‘Mighty Mouse’ CRX may have retired but Will Au Yeung was coming back from Canada and we knew he would be fast. For us to stand a chance we had to upgrade the Evo for us to be competitive. So we talked to our longtime aero partner, Voltex who you may remember had the car is a wind tunnel way back, where they developed what was a state of the art aero package at that time. They came up with some new updates on the aero side, we chose Emtron for a new ECU and local company Brypar built us some new new uprights and brakes.

In preperation for the WTAC Kosta drove the car at three test days this year. He said, “It was fun!

I had to get use to the extra power and speed, it didn’t take long though, I was not intimidated by it.” Once at the WTAC another variable was thrown into the equation, the spec tire from Yokohama, the Yokohama Advan AO50 which was available in two compounds, soft or medium.

Kosta told us, “The R spec was great for one lap but after that it was a bit loose when trying to drive it hard. I am used to slicks on the Radical but it was just one more thing I had to get used to.”

Saturday dawned dry but with a forecast of rain due to hit sometime around the class Shootouts so everyone was looking to step it up when the track was still dry. The Tilton Interiors team was no different and on his first flying lap the fan favorite Evo got away from Kosta, “We had put more power in the car” he said before continuing, “It was really quick down the front straightaway but lost aero grip over the bump in turn one, I ran wide about 1 metre off the track and it turned me around and I speared into the infield wall. It was a pretty hard hit that seemed to go on forever but when it was over I could move my arms and legs. My ribs were sore from the belts I suppose but I was still alive and kicking. I have to thank the guys for building such a strong car.

Peter Maxwell Bryant and Brypar were a huge part of the Tilton Evo upgrade. Peter told us, “We were first approached by Kosta about eight weeks prior to the event. The Tilton Evo had been suffered from severe brake pad knock which was associated with the wheel bearings, uprights and brakes.

The car was generating a lot more load on these components than they could stand. Remember these were as fitted when the car got parked in 2015 and technology has moved on, so we set about designing new uprights and hubs to help reduce loads on the wheel bearings, which were also upgraded to much larger units. Originally the car ran with 25mm wheel spacers as well as another 25mm of spacer built into the brake bells. This was both front and rear. The previous uprights used all manner of adapters for both brake and steering components. We designed new front uprights assemblies, which moved the entire upright 80mm outboard, completely removing the spacers that were required previously. We Motorsport News from MotorWerks Magazine

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also designed the uprights to allow the caliper to bolt directly to the upright, rather than using an adapter. The lower control arm pickup diameter was increased by 50%. The rear we designed the uprights without the need for adapters or the use of factory style tapered ball joints. Custom hubs and larger wheel bearing was also used. Finally we designed custom brake discs (and bells) to suit the event.

Previously the car would suffer sever pad knock just by swerving to warm the tyres. We eliminated 95% of the pad knock however we were not able to design a new caliper in the time frame before the WTAC, which was the only piece of the puzzle we did not change. Also the old brakes suffered from not being able to generate enough heat. Our custom front disc generated heat instantly giving Kosta great confidence in the brake setup. He loved the feel of the brakes so much he is even quoted on our website, “I have full faith in the brakes now, something I never had before.”

Peter concluded, “In all Brypar supplied the following, custom front & rear uprights, custom front & rear hubs, large diameter motorsport wheel bearings, custom front & rear brake discs and bells and best of all designed, manufactured and tested in

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six weeks! While everyone was disappointed about the crash we are happy Kosta is okay and delighted he won the class in his first WTAC.” With William Au-Yeung returning from Canada with his wild Honda Civic, Olivia Merlini and Serse Zeli from Switzerland in a crazy carbon Evo X and Eddie Ng from Singapore in his stunning Mazda RX7 along with crowd favourite Dale Malone in the ex Nismo Super GT S15 the Pro Am class was certainly one to watch.

William Au-Yeung - 2nd 1:27.935 Canadian Au-Yeung came to Australia having reset the North American record books but car issues prevented the Vibrant Performance sponsored team from performing as they would have wished. Firstly a drop in oil pressure forced an engine change where the likes of Jason Dienhart, Kiet Le, Daryl Perusic, Scott Beeton all dived in to help.

When the car issues were sorted the weather did not want to co-operate and it was not until Saturday Will managed to get in the lap that would cement his second position. Having now qualified for the Shootout it was a disappointed Canadian who rolled out into pit lane, confident of laying down a competitive lap time only for the rain to start again and put an end to Will’s hopes.

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Serse Zeli - 3rd, 1:31.775 Serse Zeli and Olivia Merlini had travelled all the way from Locarno, Switzerland to run in the Pro-Am class at the 2018 WTAC with their J-Spec Performance supported Lancer Evo. Originally slated to share the car, the Swiss duo’s plans got thrown a curved ball due to the adverse weather conditions at Sydney Motorsports Park where it became unpractical to keep changing drivers and neither driver getting the time required to learn the track and set the car up for the circuit.

Olivia takes up the story of the 2018 WTAC, “Everything very well organised in general and the staff was very helpful, when we arrived our car was already parked in a garage ready for us to get our hands on and complete the last few things we had to do before practice day. If you had not realised, the WTAC Evo is the sister car of EVO X 46, which Serse drove to the 2018 Time Attack Italia championship. It is my car that I hadn’t driven since last November when it was run as a Club Class car and took the 2017 class championship. I was so looking forward to driving it at WTAC with a 48

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drastically new setup that I had never driven before.

However the weather decided to intervene and we made the decision to only run driver, Serse. But I did get to enjoy two laps in the rain on Thursday before we got down to the serious work of marking the Lancer and Serse competitive.”

She explained the lead up to the WTAC, “We transformed the car roughly one month before shipping, with Serse and another technician at J-Spec Performance working on it. When we put it on track it was untested, which was kind of scary but also exciting at the same time, but we were looking forward to dialing it in during the practice day.” She went on, “Everything seemed to be working ok on Thursday, but we lost time in the evening swapping the transmission out because of a leak on the shifting actuator piston which is installed inside the gearbox. On Friday we missed the first session as we finished the job and we also ended up having to swap the front bumper assembly due to a structural carak. In the second session the car went into limp mode due to the throttle body connector problem. In the third session we got a few laps in

and fourth session a few more but the rain had arrived at that point”.

Come Saturday morning, the Swiss team was a lot happier with their prospects of finally being able get a decent lap time in. Serse set out still on low boost, but right after the last curve on the first hot lap the motor let go. Olivia explained, “This was my motor with two and a half years of Time Attack competition on it, I could not be too upset about it but obviously it had to happen in the wrong place and at the wrong time.”

When the car was retrieved Serse checked out the actual damage; it had also caught fire, it was terminal and the team decided to try and swap the motor out in the very limited time they had left. A thankful Serse commented, “So many people showed up in our pit offering help, it was so awesome to see all these people there helping, it was simply amazing. Thankyou

to everyone that was part of our family that day.”

Olivia went on, “After four and a half hours the new motor was in the car and we ready for the competition that remained, the Superlap Shootout! And then hello rain again... But we managed to finish that one lap and Serse lowered our time even further on a slippery track, which shows how much potential there still is left considering the extremely limited track time and almost no setup time we had.”

“3rd Place in Pro AM was the first time on the podium for Swiss team at WTAC and we can’t wait to come back again! A big thanks to all our friends and sponsors that have been part of this adventure. I must say the WTAC was so cool! Ian Baker very well done.”

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Two In a Row

Adam Casmiri - LINK ECU Open Class Champion

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Adam Casmiri and the JDMYard Civic had dominated the Open Class in 2015 and 2017 and were looking to go for a threepeat this year. As you will read elswhere in this magazine they brought in Freddy Carbon of Topstage Composites to tweak the aero as they themselves tweaked the suspension setup.

Casmiri told us, “The JDMYard crew and I were trying hard to maximise our setup all week, with the constant changing weather it sure was a challenge.”

He went on, “It was a little frustrating for myself and the team, we never really got a chance to show the cars true potential. We were looking to the Shootout as being the last chance to really lay down a number but the weather turned for the Shootout and that was it. Mine you I have to admit driving in the rain was just as exciting! We have no real issues, car was a rocket from the get go. I did damage the front splitter running wide on turn one, it annoyed Freddy but we fixed it and went back out. I have to thank all the crew and sponsors for the help enabling us to win the Open Class title again for the third time. We could not do it without you.

When I asked Adam about Time Attack and why he enjoys it he said, “It’s two minutes or so of 52

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perfection, the car, the machine everything working 100%! From a driver and mechanic on these cars there is no better feeling of maximising every last bit of potential. Lucky for me I have had a few good moments over the years!”

Spectators were so unlucky with the weather when the Open Class rolled into pit lane. Many of the sessions were completed in wet or changeable conditions which makes the times even more impressive. But the WTAC fans are not all about records and fastest laps. Japanese icon, Keiichi Tsuchiya was behind the wheel of the Beau Yates built, Toyota AE86. Resplendant in Toyota Genuine Parts livery the 30 year old Corolla with a 62 yearold racer behind the wheel looked so impressive.

Even with limited aero Tsuchiya-san laid down a 1:35.7 lap. Maybe it is a time for a Nostalgia Time Attack class to be created. It would be a great way to control spending and if the cars were raced in nostalgic liveries that would add to the excitement.

Maybe a few of the vintage racers would be interested in another place to play. In fact I know of a replica Zakspeed Escort in Melbourne that would be a pefect fit, right Matt Hanrahan?

Josh Coote - 2nd, 1:28.459

Matt Longhurst - 3rd, 1:28.665 Motorsport News from MotorWerks Magazine

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That Elusive WIN!

Brett Dickie - V-Sport Clubsport Class Champion

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The Clubsport class was super competitive with the top ten covered by a scant three seconds. But at the end of the day it was Melbourne’s Brett Dickie in the Elusive Racing Honda Integra that took the top step of the podium.

Dickie told us, “The 2018 WTAC was not as easy as we may have made it look!”, he went on, “The week leading up to the event we had a lot of issues with the car, everything from wiring issues all the to chassis setup. We only had time for one test day before the car left Melbourne heading to NSW and the Emtron Engine Management facilty outside of Sydney. We even cut things fine when the car only came off the dyno at Emtron on Tuesday morning at 3am.”

It got no better once the Elusive Racing team hit the track. On Wednesday they were hampered by brake issues. Thursday it was the fuel system’s turn to be non co-operative and on Friday oil pressure and car setup issues, had the team wondering what they had done to deserve all this grief.

Saturday started off little better when the Integra caught fire in session one and red flags in sessions two and three resulting in us just getting making it into the Shootout with our Friday lap run in half wet conditions. Dickie said, “Our amazing team never gave from the time we got here and with all our sponsors helping us through the issues I knew that they were giving me a car that could win, I just needed to get a clear lap.”

He continued, “So now the pressure was on me and we only had the Shootout left and it was time to prove we could get the job done. It rained leading up to the shoot out and just as I put the belts on for my lap the sun came out. I would say the track was 90% dry for my lap. It definatly wasn’t great track conditions but I went for it. I knew from the way the car was reacting I was on a good lap, but would it be good enough for the win?

It sure was, a 1.38.75 which was a new record for Clubsport front wheel drive cars” “I still don’t know how we found those two 56

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seconds, I wish I could. Going out for the start of our lap, it was wet, someone upstairs obviously helped us out, because the sun came out and dried the track pretty quickly,” he said right after taking the win. I was over the moon, but without all the team banding together when we had the problems we would never have been so successful, thanks

to Kenny, Dave, Jimmy, Tmy, Andy, Justin, Mat and Scott and our partners Emtron Engine Management, Fabre Australia, Supertech, Manley, DS Industries, Dandy Engines, K-Tuned, Hasport, Pro Wire, Competition Clutch, Motul Stephen Wan - 2nd, 1:39.940 Stephen and the BYP Racing & Developments Honda Civic had been quickest earlier in the day but a crash relegated him to the sidelines and he could not

make the call for the Nulon Superlap Shootout. With Wan in second, Jim Tu (1:40.048) and the Team EXE OTR Mitsubishi EVO 9 took third spot ahead of Dan Burton (1:40.187) in his Team Burton Racing Honda S2000 and Jamal Assaad who pedalled the Evolution Racing Spares EVO 6 to a 1:40.843 to round out the top five.

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Stephen Wan - 2nd, 1:39.94

Jim Tu - 3rd, 1:40.048 Jamal Assaad - 5th, 1:40.843

Dan Burton - 4th, 1:40.187 58

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Seen At WTAC

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PEOPLE

The WTAC is about more than the cars, it is about the people, the ones that come from all over the World to be part of a one of a kind event.

Tarzan Yamada was there looking as super cool as ever, a Nordic invasion came in the form of Sammi and Mikko from the R8 1:1 team I could not tell if Fire Ando and crew looked nervous or excited when Under Suzuki agreed to drive the Escort Evo. The gentleman with the Williams Rothmans jacket (shown to the right) politely asked drivers for a breath sample and even jokingly offered to give me one.

It was great being part of the Media at the event Ian Baker, but pink vests?

Former winner Jordan Cox was mightily impressive in a fairly standard Hyundai, imagine a full blown factory effort.

Cole Powelson had flown in from the USA just before the event started to pilot the Topstage Nissan 200SX s14 for Freddy Carbon; as expected jet lag did not seem to be a problem for Cole and he did a great job piloting an unfamiliar race car.

Freddy Carbon was giving the thumbsup all weekend except when he was under the race car.

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Harrop Eng

Our friends from Harrop Engineering came to the WTAC in force with three Clubsprint cars, a supercharged E92 BMW M3, a supercharged Toyota 86 and their newest project a Holden Monaro.

Harrop also had a presence on the manufacturers midway with their parent company Adrad sharing their space showcasing their radiators, intercoolers and oil coolers. Harrop GM had a short WTAC in the M3 when car issues relegated him to the sidelines. Ben Schoots in the Toyota 86 traded times back and fore all event long with Ahmed Baghdadi in his first drive in the Holden Monaro. Baghdadi eventually winning out between the two with a 1:42.360 to Schoots 1:42.368.

Schoots may have lost the team battle by a scant 8 thousands of a second but won the unofficial Toyota 86 tussle with Ben Lords finishing with a 1:42.853

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FREDDY CARBON Topstage Composites stages an Open class assault.

Topstage’s primary focus in the 2018 WTAC was the JDMYard Civic Eg6 and helping them take a third time win. Zi had asked for upgrades help lower the lap times, so we designed an built a few minor aero changes. Due to limited access to the car and not having the car in house made updating it very difficult. So, Freddie made several trips to Sydney took measurements, transposed all that into carbon art ready for the WTAC. Further aero packaging to the car was performed with new profiling on the V3 front diffuser along with side skirt extensions to allow a flat floor.

The JDMYard team carried out some suspension upgrades to complement the new aero. The car was good for 1:26 times and all the data was very promising, unfortunately Adam had a slight off and damaged the front end. Not that that matters, Adam and the JDMYard team took the Open Class win with a 1:27.7 which was 0.7 second ahead of Josh Coote’s MCA car.

Xtreme GTR, a monster in the making! This full carbon car was designed on specific brief from team owner and manager Michelle Guyer. She wanted the car to still resemble the Godzilla, so we did just that.

Using the data we gathered from the JDMYard’s Civic frontend we carried out some similar packaging to the V3 front diffuser. WTAC 17 wasn’t the year for the Xtreme GTR when the car suffered major fire, but with huge determination Michelle and Mark rebuilt the car, were able to do few tests and iron out some mechanical gremlins. Its not until the last minute when Michelle got hold of the Motec wizard Brad Sherriff of Boost Automotive in Launceston Tasmania he was able to make Xtreme GTR run faultlessly for 2018.

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without any real dramas and that allowed them to collect some data to tune the car’s suspension.

Managing to clock a 1:30.1 during competition was a great achievement for the team and now that they finally have some base data this is a car to watch next year.

From a phone call from Ian Baker asking me who’s driving the Topstage s14, I replied John Riccho. He said an American driver Cole Powelson needed a car and he asked me what my plans were. So we had a discussion and I agreed to put Cole in the driver’s seat. So on July 1st 2018 we dusted off the car and started to do a full body upgrade and aero revision.

Still using the same V3 aerodynamic aero from 2016 spec, we package the body in a wild way.

We managed to go out for a shakedown ten days prior the event and boom, a rod on our SR20 420 rwkw engine decided to say hi to the crew. We made the decision to pull out of the WTAC for 2018, time and lack of data to tune the car would not make us

top ten or would place us in an embarrassing place and I did not want that. Many suggested putting a bone stock engine in so that Cole can have a drive.

Then with my wife’s support and my kids, generosity from Robert Sabbadin from Sabbadin Automotive and friends from Indomie, Archclad, Amaando Seals, and other sponsors. Next day, it literally was all hands on deck, my whole family helped to pull the car apart after the Sandown test day disaster and get the engine out. Robert Sabbadin and his crew stretched his legs to built us an SR20det with 380rwkw on safe tune which we run the whole weekend on in less than one week. Amazingly we were able to pull together a running car for 2018.

Having a car that just completed Wednedsay just before the transporter turn up, we are still bolting bits and putting decals, in the pits on Thursday afternoon. The Prowrap crew did really good job designing and installing a wrap overnight, in fact MotorWerks Magazine’s Editor Ian Rae could not find us on Friday as the car looked so different.

Cole arrived midday on the Thursday test day and we were still bolting up the new differential

that team from Speedtek, he managed to get two runs in to familiarize himself with the track and shakedown the car. Setup didn’t start from Friday when we really start having spring rate changes and aero adjustments. Issue with fuel tank leaks put us behind sessions and Cole managed to sneak us into 9th position 1:33.5 with a car that he is not familiar with and track. And to put icing on the cake, our last event when we fixed a lot of issues, the turbo manifold decided to detach the flange from collector.

The blackbird dream will continue, the only qusetion is what to call it #blackbird or #sr69blackbird?

Clubsprint is another class I want to start working with. Cars with our products finished 1st, 3rd, 4th and 5th, with cars like Elusive Racing needed help with bonnet cooling vents, Jim Tu’s rear wing upgrade and front bonnet aero landed their team in third place, Daniel Burton with a V3 rear wing his S2K in fourth, Jamal Assaad Evolution Spares with V3 Clubsprint package was fifth.

2019 will be interesting indeed.

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MY WAY

No Boost Just Data World Time Attack Challenge 2018 Under 2 litres and Naturally Aspirated – Why?

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Words by Mark Collingwood, Images by Ian and Janis Rae Motorsport News from MotorWerks Magazine

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World Time Attack Challenge 2018 - Under 2 ltrs and Naturally Aspirated – Why? Why? In 2011 an automatic 1992 Mariner Blue MX5 NA6 was purchased for my son as his first car, little did I realise that very soon I would be purchasing a red MX5 NA6 (manual) and giving this to my son as I decided to keep the mariner blue! This started a journey that culminated in the decision (early 2013) to build a road registered car that could be used on the track, whilst this is a ‘normal’ decision, keeping it naturally aspirated is not. The car’s current engine took its first breath on 23 October 2014, prior to this I was taking baby steps to become a better driver.

Since its first start with the current engine small changes have been made, bespoke air box and E85 however the car has remained true to its build and a naturally aspirated road registered car that was used on the track. Since late 2014 and up until early 2017 it was not uncommon to be told or asked “why is the car going so slow” or “it should be quicker”. It had become obvious that whilst the car had potential it was being let down by my lack of skill as a driver. Hence when the car’s registration became due in 2017 it was not paid and the decision was made to turn the car more towards a track car, but remain naturally aspirated and within the World Time Attack Challenge (WTAC) clubsprint rules. By mid 2017 people were commenting on how fast the car was for being naturally aspirated, obviously a corner had been turned.

At my local track (Queensland Raceway - Sprint) looking at lap times at about the same time each year they show: 2014. 1:05.4775 (888’s) (pre- current engine) 2015. 1:03.4367 (FZ-201’s) 2016. 1:01.3709 (AD 08R’s) 2017. 0:59.887 (Nankang AR-1’s) Running a naturally aspirated (NA) car at WTAC in Clubsprint is not the norm. Whilst Open class allows the use of N02 for NA cars, in clubsprint the only NA only rule 68

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is an additional 10% weight saving, the minimun weight for my MX5 NA6 is 804kg. This makes weight, momentum and driver skill critical to doing ‘fast’ laps. Looking at my previous WTAC events, the positive was each year I found time and each year I was not the slowest!

2015 - Road registered and first time at WTAC. Suffered a constant failing CAS sensor that caused a miss at high RPM as well as intermittent failure of the radiator fan causing overheating - 1:55.697 2016 - Road registered still and no big issues 1:53.692 2017 - Dedicated track. Experienced a Coolant leak and cracked Coil on Plug Bracket (caused miss fire).

Major change to front splitter - 1:52.216.

THE LEAD UP TO WTAC 2018 After the 2017 event the plan was to get more seat time and work on my skills as a driver as well as get some weight out of the car (and me), however work decided to have me go back to fly in fly out. This was not to be the only obstacle: 1. The car went for a tune in February 2018 and returned a confusing (and disappointing) 170 RWHP. The injectors were cleaned and the previous data reviewed to try and ascertain why.

No obvious issues stood out. However, whilst reviewing other data I chanced upon looking at the voltage against RPM. A graph was made in the Racepak Datalink II software and this showed that voltage was dropping as RPM was increasing. A literal light bulb moment, the answer was the loss of power was caused by the alternator not being able to charge the battery.

Alternator replaced and the power returned!

Figure 1, Voltage versus RPM

Interestingly data from previous years data was also reviewed and the alternator had been failing for a few years. I review the voltage/RPM graph after every track day now. (see Fig 1) 2. April 2018 a clutch band was snapped and a 5 puck clutch with a new flywheel was installed.

3. June 2018 a fuel hose let go in the engine bay.

The Haltech PS1000 went into engine protection and shut itself down. It was not until the car stopped and I tried to restart did I notice the pool of E85. It is on days like this that I was glad that I had installed a fire suppression system following all the fires at WTAC 2017.

However despite the lack of track time and the events above, there were some positives: • Was picked for Team Racepak 2018 on 21 March 2018. This was my second year of submitting an application however I have been using Racepak for my data logging since switching from Innovate in April 2015.

• After a chance meeting with Takumi Motor Oil Australia at WTAC 2017, the car changed over

to its engine oil in February 2018, just before the first dyno tune. Sensor data from the tune did not show any change in the engine oil information. Hence in October 2018 the gearbox and diff oils were changed to Takumi as well.

• At WTAC 2017 I had a few discussions with Kylie Forster about the car and a specific wing idea I had. During these conversations it was agreed that reducing drag and weight was the best course of action since staying NA. In January 2018 the wing was designed and fortunately as Kylie accepted a job in F1 in March. With Kylie working in F1 he could not do any other

Figure 2, 2019 wing

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behind the wheel.

Notwithstanding, a review of the data shows that compared to the previous year my times through the last 2/3’s of the track where I can normally find time I was way off pace. In addition the data collected allows for informed decisions to be made. Already I have spoken to BC Racing Australia (Just Jap) about reviewing my current BC Racing ER’s. It should be mentioned that the dampers have been in the car since February 2012 and whilst have had spring rate changes they are off the shelf dampers.

consulting work. Whilst the wing was not built for WTAC 2018 there are plans to have it ready for 2019. The wing has more downforce and less drag than my current one. Plus it has a special feature I cannot go into at this time.

• July/August saw a few more mods done to the car. A combination of delrin, poly and spherical bushes in the suspension, lowered engine mounts from Blackbird Fabworkx and 7 Vent sensors from Racepak (4 x 500hz suspension travel, steering angle, 2 x brake pressures) installed as well as one of the first Racepak CL1’s in Australia. However, limited track time did not allow the now almost bind free suspension to be reset up.

Therefore based upon the above my goal was to do a 1:50 around the WTAC track. I failed and managed a 1:52.206. The car felt so much better than in previous years, yet was let down by me driving it. To put this statement into context a trusted friend tested my car just before WTAC at the local track, in 4 laps he was 0.7 seconds faster than me. Suffice to say the car is faster without me

CRITICAL REVIEW 1. T1 shows a much better speed at the apex as well as later turn in and exit speed. The data analysis shows that on the right hand side the 2 x 205/50/15 AD08R’s had just over 1,000kg of weight on them. However, T1 is a high speed corner and to travel about 500m took me 10.14 seconds in 2018 as opposed to 11.07 in 2015.

Figure 3 Turn 1

2. T2 shows the start of the problem for 2018. The exit was slower than the previous years. This could have been caused by the wing angle being decreased in 2018 or the lack of time to fine tune the suspension for the new bushes. T2 also Figure 4 Turn 2

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highlights that momentum is critical. For the 520m into and out of T2 I used 18.47 seconds yet in 2015 it was 18.37.

3. Looking at the 2018 and 2017 laps, midway through T2 I was almost 0.8 seconds faster, however this was reduced to just 0.02 by the end of the lap. One thing from this is that I am yet to be consistent and until such time effectively evaluating change in the car will be difficult.

Figure 5 - 2018 and 2017 Laps

RACEPAK CL-1 As mentioned previously the car has been using Racepak’s new CL-1 since about June. What use is the CL-1 to my car when it already has 27 Vnet channels being logged to the Racepak IQ3 and over 50 math channels used for extra analysis? The answer is surprising... it is very useful!

Consider that to review the data from the IQ-3 the card has to be removed and data downloaded into a laptop/computer whereas the CL-1 provides the information live and ready for review. In addition the CL-1 overlays its data onto a map that provides visual references to points on the track as well as the line taken. Like Datalink multiple laps can be loaded from different drivers.

For testing purposes only the RPM signal was connected to the CL-1, however it can take 5 volt sensors as well as be connected to after market ECU’s and or used with an ODBII connector.

However with just the RPM signal the CL-1 is a capable tool to review lap data. What I found most useful is sitting down with others to explain my lines as well as letting others explain theirs.

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In the car the CL-1 provides lap times as well as predictive times. Again, my car has been running the VBox Lite for almost 5 years to capture video as well as provide lap/predictive lap times. In testing the CL-1’s predictive lap time is as accurate as the VBox Lite’s, on this one feature alone the CL-1 is worth consideration.

Takumi Motor Oil Australia during WTAC displayed the live data on a screen at their stand. Whilst I wish I could have done a 1:50 for those watching, I understand that people did like the technology. In addition other people added to my CL-1 account were able to watch live (as well as review old data) from the other side of the planet. Consider if the CL-1 was used live with radio communications to the driver, the driver could be coached on lines or if the car stops out of sight.

Below - CL-1 data live at the Takumi stand Spectators out in the Manufacturers Midway were able to follow Mark as the Clubsprint class ran.

Below - Live CL-1 data being viewed in Milford, Connecticut

Figure 8 - Best lap from WTAC 2018

To date the CL-1 has been used at an autocross event as well as numerous track days. Next outing for the CL-1 will be at the drag strip!

Personal Highlights from WTAC 2018 1. Being told that the car sounds like peripheral port twin rotary or asked if it was boosted.

2. “I’d say the loudest too lol, saw a young child start crying after you blasted past. Pretty quick for NA!” 3. Having Dia from Takumi Motor Oil Australia giving me pep talks before going out. Plus Dia enjoyed seeing the live data and being able to tell when I was on a hot lap as the live data also gave the predictive time.

4. Answering questions about the car’s build and what has been done to it over the years.

5. Allowing people to sit in the car and see what

manual brakes feel like. Since the dash displays brake pressures, it is as easy as asking them to press until the dash says 615 psi (lock up).

Most people are surprised at how much effort is required, but they also like the linear feel of the pedal.

6. Sharing the garage with Kendall O’Connor (Kenny O Racing), Guy Harding and Dave Olsen.

7. Meeting new people (including Ian Rae) and catching up with others.

PLANS for 2019?

• Reduce the MX5’s weight to 804 kgs by October 2019.

• Continue to get seat time.

• Setup the suspension by making use of the data collected.

• Continuing to provide data as well as feedback to sponsors and supporters as well as other interested people.

• Maintaining social media coverage of events that I attend.

Thanks to: Racepak Data (Data logging - IQ3 and CL-1) Takumi Motor Oil Australia (Oils/fluids) Motorsport Brakes (Winmax Pads- still using them after 5 years) BC Racing Australia (Dampers) SDT - Safe Driver Training (Driver training) Nankang Tyres Australia (AR-1 tyres used on the car outside of WTAC) Hacketts Discount Tyres (alignments and tyre fitting)

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Back to SCHOOL

Anyone who says there is a limit to what you can learn is telling you lies! We never stop learning as we go thru life, in my case it is building a racecar harness. I’ve wired a few race cars in my time and all have worked well and never really had issues.

But when it came to wiring our project MINI, Cooper RSR it is a different thing all together. This is my first race car harness incorporating a EFI ECU. But the Link G4+ is not a standalone but a PlugIn that still needs to talk to parts of the OEM MINI harness.

That means it is not a clean sheet design but an amalgam of new wiring and existing OEM wiring.

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Like building a race car chassis where you have to measure twice and cut once, the way to approach wiring is similar where you do not rush into things but thoroughly plan out what you are going to do.

My plan was to remove as much of the OEM wiring as I could, before starting to layout the combination of new wiring and old.

Those of you who know me will know I was a electrical tech to trade but machine wiring and automobiles are two totally different things. The wire is different, connectors different and the way you connect things different. I was lucky enough to learn a lot about race car wiring from Mike Brown of Wires & Pliers who I met through my buddy Steve Grebeck at Grebeck Racecraft. Steve built cars and Mike (Sparky) wired them. Because I already had the basic electrical knowledge Sparky allowed to help him wire of the wildest race cars to come out of Grebeck’s suburban Detroit race shop. Unfortunately both are no longer with us but I am grateful for the knowledge both passed on to me. Because it was

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back in 2007 that Mike left us I thought it would be good to have a bit of a refresher course on race car wiring.

The guys that came to my aid were the High Performance Academy out of New Zealand. I had previously taken some online EFI tuning courses with HPA and loved how they were easy to understand and not over my head. They have various wiring courses and the one I chose was the EFI Wiring Fundamentals course that has just been released. It’s been re-filmed, re-written and goes into much more detail than previous. The course now includes examples of how to crimp, solder, sheath, and plenty more practical skills.

Now I know how to do most of that stuff but I wanted to see when they recommended crimping rather than soldering, what type of crimps they recommended and how to incorporate strain reliefs into the harness and how to cover it so the wiring is protected.

Because you really should have a basic knowledge of electricity before you get involved in building your wiring harness HPA talk about the basics of electricity, volts, amps, ohms and watts. It may be a little boring for some, but the ability to use Ohm’s Law is something you can use in any electrical application and is especially helpful when you have to size your wire and fusing.

To make it easier to understand, Zac Perston, the course instructor uses the real world application of a water supply, water pipe and a tap to allow the student to understand how a similar electrical circuit

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works.

The course is broken up into modules that are covered at your pace and you only have to move to the next one when you fully understand what the one you are currently on.

When it comes to a motorsport harness there are really only two choices of wire to use because of the harsh enviroments they have to survive in. TXL is great for entry level and some parts of a pro harness with Tefzel being the choice for pro motorsport. The price difference between the two tends to be the dictating factor as to why club level wiring uses the TXL type of wire. The insulation on TXL is CrossLinked Polyethylene (XLPE) and is good for -51°C to +125°C. The wire meets Ford specification (M1L123A), Chrysler Specification (MS-8288) and SAE Specification SAE J-1128.

I mentioned planning earlier and part of that is knowing what wire and fuses you are going to use.

My plan with Cooper RSR is to do away with the all of the fuses normally located at the driver’s feet and replace it with a Racepak Smartwire Power Distribution Module located on the firewall. The solid state ‘fuses’ inside the Smartwire can be set to suit

the load you are going to drive from it.

When it comes to wire size there are a couple of things that have to be taken into consideration, the current they will carry and the length of the wire run. DC wiring has a thing called Volt Drop and the longer the wire run the more the Volt Drop. To get around the Volt Drop you can use a larger wire than is actually required for the current that will be seen

The Smartwire replaces Fuses, Breakers, Timers and allows logical programming of circuit outputs

in the wire.

One of the modules covers the joining of multiple wires so the power can be distributed to many devices. That brings us to the question, solder or crimp. You could spend years researching this on the Internet. While many previous harnesses I have built had the odd solder joint I am tending to stay away from that where I can now. Solder wicking up a wire away from the connection can be an issue if the wire vibrates a lot. And now that lead is no longer supposed to be a component of solder the higher heat required to make the solder joint can have a negative effect on the wire insulation. The downside to crimping is whether you have the proper crimping tool to make a proper joint. The cost of some of these crimper will make you eyes water but if you properly plan what crimps you will use affordable crimpers are out there on the market.

So you have your wire chosen and your layout sketched out, now it is time to decide how to cover your harness. There are a couple of reasons to do this and HPA has a module to discuss the options.

Expandable sheathing and heatshrink are the two main choices for wire harness protection. Make sure your choice will survive in the heat of the engine compartment if that is where it is going to be run.

Using a Raychem heatshrink with an internal glue will also help with weatherproofing the area being covered.

Another big part of your harness is what connectors will you use? Motorsport connectors have their place but most of us can manage with the likes of the Deutsch DT series of connectors. Crimpers are readily available and if you have never done much crimping get a few extra pins and try crimping them.

Remember after every crimp try the pull test! A loose crimp will not only cause intermittent power issues but will become hot and could destroy your connector or worse.

To find out more about the High Performance Academy check out their website www.hpacademy. com

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e h T g n i s Y s i E K N R A L B e n o t S With

Paddy Hopkirk I think the word legend tends to get overused these days, it may be because of social media and how easy it is for people all round the world to acknowledge even mediocre accomplishments. But one gentleman who deservedly can claim the title of ‘living legend’ or a ‘legend in his own time’ is Belfast born rally icon Patrick Barron Hopkirk or as he is known Worldwide, Paddy Hopkirk. I recently joked with him, that it really should have been Baron at the front of his name as I considered him rallying royalty. Typical of the man he played it down and told me to quit talking rubbish. It was typical Scots, Irish ribbing between two people who had a just had a great weekend at Watkins Glen International reminiscing of days gone past, of great drivers and great cars.

The main focus of the weekend was the Watkins Glen International Mini Festival VIP Experience presented by Towne MINI and our Grand Marshal was none other than

Paddy Hopkirk. The VIP Experience idea emerged when Mini race event supremo Rachel Nelson told us about Mini being chosen as the featured Marque for the Hilliard United States Vintage Grand Prix at Watkins Glen International in NY. She thought it would be a great event to have a Mini/MINI get together and with MotorWerks Magazine’s experience in organizing the MINI USA Corrals it made sense for us to get involved. So, in late 2017 we started negotiating with WGI to come up with a VIP Experience that would be one to remember.

Those that know me have probably heard this a million times, but MotorWerks Magazine is only what it is because of our West Coast Editor, Norman Nelson and his wife Jesse. They are two dedicated MINIacs who have known Paddy for many years, having first met him and Rauno Aultenon at a MINI United event in Europe. It created a friendship that continues to this day and when Norman asked Paddy if he was Motorsport News from MotorWerks Magazine

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interested in coming over for the MINI Festival and be the Grand Marshal of the VIP Experience all it took was a check into his diary and a resounding, “Hell yes.”

Growing up in the UK in the 60s, the name Paddy Hopkirk was well known to me, not only as a rally driver to other motorsport enthusiasts but to the general public when his accomplishments on the 1964 Monte and 1968 London to Sydney rallies not only had him on the evening TV news but at the London Palladium in front of 20 million viewers on live television. You were always reading in the motorsport press about Paddy and coupled with name recognition of his business enterprises, he was truly a household name. Imagine asking the British public to name a British rally driver in this day and age. Chances are it would still be Paddy Hopkirk’s name that would come out.

It is interesting that Paddy made a comment similar to Grand Prix Champion Jackie Stewart in that when he won, he was British and when he lost he was Scottish. In Paddy’s case he believed being Irish was always used to communicate something negative and his most famous remembrance of one of those occasions was when HM Customs came after him and decided that charging him with smuggling would be a good way to tell the British public they don’t care who you are, they will come after you for not telling them about that extra little something you bought on vacation. So that nice little camera that Paddy had procured while abroad turned into some negative press but he laughs about it now.

Laughing is something you see Paddy doing often, he could actually have a second job as a stand up comedian, his delivery is perfect, with a dead pan face and then the audience erupts at the punch line.

Over the five days we spent with him at the track, at dinner and over a few aperitifs at Patti Ely’s fabulous B&B, Dragonfly Dreams we heard many stories and typical of his age group he had no problem with any that made fun of himself or the Irish. It was refreshing not having to be politically correct like 80

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many of the lefties want us to be now. We were all quite surprised when he said, “You know I’ve seen these American Victorian styled houses on TV and I am really glad I’ve stayed in one before I die” Then he laughed his head off.

For a guy in his mid 80’s Paddy is super fit, he would wander off on his own at the racetrack to get his exercise, in fact a couple of times we had to put out a search party. But it was no big deal, some people had recognized him and he simply chatted away to them. The title of this piece says Kissing the Blarney Stone with Paddy Hopkirk; according to legend, kissing the stone endows the kisser with the gift of the gab, and Mr. Hopkirk has it in spades.

Throughout his career he has talked with royalty like Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Ranier and Princess Grace of Monaco, dealt with CEOs of multinational companies and the fans lining up to get an autographic. He treats them all the same.

Currently he is President of the British Racing Drivers Club, a job he says he took because nobody else would. His primary focus is to get the new owners of Formula 1 to understand the BDRC is not joking when they say they will walk away from hosting a Grand Prix if it means that have to go into debt to do it. It is sad indeed that Grand Prix the likes of Germany and France have been missing from the calendar in recent years but unlike all these new locations who have their governments fund their events those two and Silverstone has something way more important, history. And let me tell you this Liberty Media, history equates to fanbase and if Silverstone is lost so will a myriad of fans too.

So why is Paddy so passionate about racing when he was a rally driver? Well like many of the motorsport greats back in the sixties many racers competed in many disciplines. Scottish F1 World Champion was one, rallying on the 1966 RAC Rally, winning the Indy 500, sports car racing and so on. Paddy is in good company and I really feel honoured to have made his acquaintance.

Till the next time Patrick Baron Hopkirk.

! d n e g e L a Meeting

Irishman Paddy Hopkirk is a legend many have never heard of. However, for those neck deep in MINI Cooper history and lore, he is a figure on par with other greats of history, contributing to motor history, for example, as the Beatles or Frank Sinatra did in the world modern music.

Now, just imagine if you could spend a weekend with the Fab Four or Sinatra, listening to their stories and you’ll begin to feel why an early September weekend became a “bucket list” event for me.

Fellow MINI enthusiast Norm Nelson e-mailed me this past spring with the news that Ian Rae, editor of MotorWerks Magazine, was planning a weekend event at the Watkins Glen International racetrack where MINI Cooper faithful would be allowed to drive their own vehicles around the historic track.

Driving my MINI in a parade lap around that track was quite appealing, but what sealed the deal for me was that Paddy Hopkirk, would be there as the headline act of the weekend.

It was like Christmas morning on Sept. 6 when I

pulled my MINI out of my Virginia Beach driveway and headed towards Allentown, Penn. where the weekend would begin with meet and greet with Paddy at MINI of Allentown.

Arriving around noon, I was greeted warmly in the showroom by “motoring advisor” Lauren Leaman, who is not only a top sales person at the dealership but also tops in the nation. MINI showrooms are always a fun place to stop and look at the newest kids on the block. That day, MINI of Allentown, was no exception, pulling out all of the stops,displaying brand new Clubman, Countryman and Cabrio vehicles.

Peppered between those new offerings were a lessons in history -- restored classic Mini’s looking showroom ready just as they did when so many decades ago. My eyes had just settled on a a pristine 2006 MINI GP, when I saw a the replica of Rauno Aaltonen’s 1967 Mini. Pure Heaven!

Maneuvering through the motoring magic, I spied Paddy and a line of people waiting for him.

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With Norm Nelson’s wife, Jesse Nelson acting as the maitre d and photographing each visitor with Paddy, I patiently waited my turn. I was a bit nervous about taking too much of his time, with others waiting.

When my turn came, his handshake and smile were disarmingly warm and genuine. There was no hint of him wanting to rush the moment as we chatted.

Jesse took our photo and I was a happy guy.

But a photo just wasn’t enough and Paddy graciously continued the experience, unhurried as he moved from MINI to MINI on this hot and muggy morning, meeting and talking the the excited owners.

Coming a way with a photo was a nice touch, but having one’s MINI Cooper signed by the legend took experience to a new level.

I photographed him putting his autograph on my bonnet stripe that I posted on Facebook. I chuckled to myself as I received several replies wondering if I would wash the car again. Some even suggested I get a new bonnet and have this one on display in my living room.

Their words did get me thinking of how best preserve his signature, but in the moment, it slipped into the background, for now.

On a MINI high I left Allentown, for the 200 mile trip to through the hills of Pennsylvania to the scenic farmland of New York’s finger lake region, arriving eventually in the sleepy village of Watkins Glen.

It wasn’t a surprise that all the hotels and motels booked. So, I ended up lodging in nearby Ithaca giving me the added benefit of a daily 25-mile commute, along a two-lane ribbon of a road, with ups and downs and plenty of curves. The views were scenic while the road was largely free of traffic.

This allowed motoring at a healthy pace while also allowing me to “Walter Mitty” along the way, imagining myself a rally driver. Needless to say the drive was a fun one.

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Above: Marc Miller impressed Paddy. Below: We found

out both Paddy and David Hobbs raced Formula 3

Arriving at the Glen, I was waved through the gate after a quick check of my credentials. Making my way through the tunnel that ran under the track, I could hear the roar of engines at high RPM’s sounding like angry bees! The ear shattering sound and smell of exhaust just added to the excitement at being there. Locating the VIP Mini suite was next on the agenda. The MotorWerks Magazine crew had packed the weekend with a great line up of speakers and events for all us VIPs and I was ready for it.

We were treated with great racing stories from David Hobbs, a former Formula One , Indy Car, IMSA racer and a LeMans veteran; current TransAm driver Marc Miller, and of course, my favorite Paddy Hopkirk. We had Mini and MINI racers show up to talk to us. Andy and Rachel Nelson run Minis in SVRA event and at this race they had multi-time

SCCA Champion Doug Peterson drive their Fortech Mini. BMW MINI owner were not left out as Randy Smalley and Mark Congleton of RSR Motorsports brought out their R53 cars that they ran in the Grand-Am series.

For 40-minutes, Paddy entertained us with fun stories from his days as a rally driver. I found his memories of road side repairs particularly fascinating. He shared memories of the mechanics, who did their magic on the side of the road. One such event was at the 1966 Acropolis Rally. Paddy’s Mini needed the CV-Joints replaced. With no lift handy, mechanics simply performed this repair by turning the Mini on its side, gaining access to the undercarriage and proceeded to fix the Mini.

Paddy shared his feelings about the old Mini Coopers and the new MINIs. “They often smelled of petrol and were very uncomfortable when compared to the new ones” he said. One feature of the new cars particularly appealed to him now that he’s getting older. “I like the new “heads up display” at my age I don’t have to look around, with this feature I can see my speed, even navigation,” he said. “It also allows me to see the accident that is about to happen in front of me”!

He detailed how his 1964 Monte Carlo win while driving a Mini translated into gigantic sales for the original Mini’s. “The Mini really bridged the class gap.” he said. “After our win it was common to see a Mini Cooper S in the drive way of a rich Lord, and a Cooper in the back that was owned by his cook”!

Paddy’s Irish charm, wit and warm smile, all made his stories charm his audience. Some are born with old souls, while it was quickly evident that Paddy, now well into his eighth decade, has a very young one. Through the entire weekend there was always someone wanting something from Paddy, which he freely gave. He shared stories, autographs and always posed for photographs. His enthusiasm never lagged, he treated everyone like an old friend, listened to their stories with full attention, too.

Saying this was a weekend I couldn’t have imagined

in my “wildest dreams” does not fully describe my weekend at the Glen. As I pictured the event this past spring, I thought I might get drive my MINI on the fabled track. I also hoped to meet Paddy and get an autograph. I never imagined that my experience would end up with having several conversations with him, not all of them about Mini’s or racing. We talked of family and even some about my time in the Navy. But the icing on the cake for me was when he presented me with, one of the last remaining copies of, his book “The Paddy Hopkirk Story”! Then, he asked me for a copy of my book Serendipity - The Chronicle of a Navy Photojournalist. His gift and request humbled me and left me without words -something those who really know me might not ever believe!

And it just gets better. After the closing events on Sunday, Jesse Nelson invited me to a small party at Patricia Ely’s Bed and Breakfast, where the Nelsons and Paddy were staying. It was a small birthday party for the owner, Patti.

It was a small gathering with Ian and Janis Rae, Jesse and Norm Nelson, Craig Nelson along with Susie and Gary Daniels, the other Nelsons, Doug and Gail Peterson, and of course Paddy.

For all of us, getting to party with Paddy the Mini and rally and racing legend , was like partying with our favorite rock or movie stars. In all it was an incredible weekend, one I will never forget!

Below: Party time at Dragonfly Dreams, Patti Ely’s awesome home in Dundee, NY. Motorsport News from MotorWerks Magazine

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Words by Mari Miller, Images by Ian Rae, Craig Nelson and Harry Gerwien

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Mari Miller’s Diary I’ve raced or taught on road tracks throughout the Eastern USA, but this would be my first experience on the track at Watkins Glen. I didn’t give it much thought until we pulled up to the main gate, and the awe and grandeur of the track became real. I now understood why it was known as the Mecca of North American road racing. Watkins Glen track has banking, and substantial elevation changes along it’s 3.4 mile course. I’ve raced courses that are the same size, but banking and the 57 foot elevation going up the Esses would be a challenge.

I race a 1966 Mark 1 Mini Cooper S, “Bridget” as we call her is an all original Mini with the exception of the safety equipment added per the Vintage Racing regulations with a 1293 cc BMC engine (we are allowed to bore 20 over per regulations). She weighs in at her original weight of 1300 lbs, and can red-line at 9300 rpm.

Bridget is definitely a beast on the track, and Watkins Glen would test her and my abilities.

Thursday would be our first scheduled practice session, and I will admit I was a little nervous getting out on the track. First couple laps around I was learning braking points, apexes and the flow of the track. I was the newbie on the track, and had lots to learn. Fortunately Motorsport News from MotorWerks Magazine

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I was on the track with some of the ‘best Mini racers’ in the United States and Canada. I used their experience to learn the braking points, which was only two turns where I just tapped my brakes.

The hardest was not touching my brakes through the ‘bus stop’… it’s full throttle all the way through!

When I came into the paddock I was literally on cloud nine. It’s hard to even express the thrill that I felt on the track… it was definitely challenging, but WOW the thrill would continue to carry me through the weekend.

We had two qualifiers on Friday. The first was an early one at eight o’clock in the morning… good thing I’m a morning person. It was another great session to continue to get comfortable with the track, but I was having a few mechanical issues.

My tach decided to flash red lights during the whole session and was definitely a distraction, but I listened to the engine and watched my pressures until the checkered flag. In between our qualifiers we were honored with a special guest, none other than rally legend, Paddy Hopkirk. The time he spent with me and my fellow drivers was more than a Meet and Greet, Paddy wanted to know about you and your race car - literally he wanted to see the engine. He shared his own stories and the tweaks he had done with his own Mini, followed by autographing the official poster. Bridget and Paddy share a special connection… she has a Paddy Hopkirk gas pedal! Our second qualifier was more beneficial than the previous as I now had the track down in my memory. I could see the next turn and anticipate where I should be going, driving ahead as you are supposed to. The tach was now working until I hit the first turn, and poof - it stopped. I was also having some issues at high rpm’s… she was running really rich and flat through the back side of the track. This is a fast track so I was staying in third and fourth gear and really noticing power loss through some of the elevations, but I managed to get to the checkered flag finish without any further issues.

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One thing about Vintage Racing especially in the Mini family…. Everyone helps everyone! There were engine heads borrowed, tools shared and even our truck was borrowed to move a trailer. We are all friends except between the green and checkered flag- we are competitors then!

I have a great Crew Chief who just happens to be my husband Craig, he is doing a great job learning how to keep me and Bridget running strong. He knows muscle cars, but this little British engine is all new to him. Fortunately the other racers enjoy mentoring and jumped in with suggestions and even parts to help Bridget run her best. We changed out the fuel and air jets and had her running better than ever for her historic re-enactment run to downtown Watkins Glen, which follows the ‘Old Course’ around the village. Watching the excitement of over thirty thousand people lining the streets as Bridget and her fellow racers raced through the streets of

Watkins Glen was a rewarding experience. I’ve never had her on public streets, and was a little hesitant to participate especially since she is a wild beast, but the fans loved her and we had a

remind myself that I am only racing myself…. This is only my second race, and although I and Bridget are capable of so much more, I have to force to myself into believing being consistent is more important especially to the other racers on the track. They have the experience I don’t and most have larger engine displacements than I do so them knowing what they can expect from me as a driver is important. We are doing speeds in excess of eighty-ninety miles per hour or faster down the straights and almost as fast through the turns there’s no room for errors. One of my mentors had given me the advice “you won’t always get your line so be prepared to race outside the line next to others”. Not that I wouldn’t have figured that out, but having it in my head during racing has been a huge benefit in my consistency. I’ve gone through the turns

great time.

Race Day… the feeling should be the same as the qualifiers, but race day brings on a whole new level of pressure. I now know the track, and it feels great. The ‘bus stop’ and the ‘boot’ are the two most challenging sections, but they have become my favorite. I can anticipate every turn ahead of me, and the track that seemed like it would never end in the beginning is now fun and exciting. I have to

three wide, and kept my line around with no issues.

There’s no monetary gain to be had in Vintage Racing, it’s about bragging rights and getting to the checkered flag. I may not have placed first, but my win is getting through to the checkered flag, and the big bonus was I improved my times by 14 seconds Motorsport News from MotorWerks Magazine

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from practice to the first race. I have my own goals that I am reaching, and every race they get higher.

As a car chick I have always loved the smell, sounds and power of cars, and I’m fulfilling a dream of racing I’ve had since I was young.

I also have to give a big shout out to all the Bridget fans. I had no idea how big her fan base is - she is one loved race car! We were consistently busy with fans stopping by for photos, autographs and words of encouragement… each of you gave us the extra support to get the checkered flag five times!

This is a first for us to finish every race to the checkered flag. Other races there were track issues or mechanical issues that caused us not to complete the race. Bridget and I started a tradition at VIR before we go on the track… I tell her every time ‘I won’t hurt her if she gets me to the checkered flag!’

It works, and we have a new appreciation for each other. I am finally getting comfortable racing in a classic- it’s much different than the BMW MINI so many of us drive. The Classic Mini apexes very late, and braking is not as aggressive- at least on this track, and driving on the right side of the car has never been an issue, in fact I’m so concentrated on the track I don’t even realize I’m on the right side.

A few more races and we will be up there with the big guys- it’s about seat time! I have the taste of

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what Winner’s Circle is like, and the feeling of being there with so many great Mini racers was a check off my bucket list.

I was one of only two women racers at Watkins Glen out of three hundreds racers, and was the only women in a Mini. I go into a race with only thoughts of racing, and doing what I teach others to do- hitting apexes, keeping my lines and stretching my abilities. What I didn’t expect was the way that my fellow racers treated me in the paddock, and on the track. I was a race car driver… it didn’t matter to them if I was a woman. We talked racing, cars and were true sportsman on the track. My experience at Watkins Glen will be hard to top… from the many Bridget fans that came by to wish us well to my fellow racers welcoming us into the racing community and let’s not forget the track itself! I will always treasure the memories made at Watkins Glen and will have a beautiful memento of the handmade shift knob made by Robert Beauchemin and medal presented to each driver as well as photos to relive the moments as I raced around Watkins Glen.

I was glad I chose to come to the Mini Festival, running one that iconic Grand Prix track and meeting Paddy Hopkirk are memories that will be hard to forget.

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Multi-time SCCA Champion Doug Peterson, Auburn, CA leads his car owner Andy Nelson, Dunnville, ON the the start of the SVRA Governor’s Cup race. Nelson is being chased

by Georgetown, ON’s Dave Morgan in a 1293cc Cooper S. While Peterson re-aquainted himself 90

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with the Fortech Mini in which he drove to many previous wins driving for Mike Kearney. Canadians Nelson and Morgan battled back and forth all race before Morgan bested Nelson. The Governor’s Cup featured twenty Minis of all ages, from 1961 to 1986, featuring cars from almost showroom stock to

full blown tube frame like the Fortech Mini. Powered by the venerable BMC A-Series motor cubic capacity varied from 1071cc to 1380cc.

In addition to the Governor’s Cup Mini only event the Minis ran with Group 1 where MG Midgets, Alfa Romeos, Triumph Spitfires replayed scenes that

could have been straight from the ‘60s.

Although Paddy Hopkirk is known for being a rally driver he also sparred with some of the road racing greats like Matt Neal’s father Steve, John Rhodes, John Handley, Alec Poole and many others. In fact Hopkirk finished in the top ten of the British Saloon Motorsport News from MotorWerks Magazine

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California’s Don Racine of Mini Mania in his 1275 Cooper S goes inside of Dylan Wittenauer, Farmington Hills, MI in his grey 1380cc Mini. Racine and other family members have raced all over the United States this past summer.

Randy McConnell in his 1292cc Morris Mini leads Canadian Richard Paterson, 1309cc Austin Mini Cooper S and Robert Fairbanks in his 998cc Mini Cooper through the Inner Loop

One thing is for sure James Stiehr never travelled all the way from Evergreen, CO to Go Bowling. Here he goes side by side exiting the Inner Loop with Canadian Jason Ramage.

Dennis Racine in his 1275cc Rauno Aaltonen clone drove well to finish fourth in the Governor’s Cup 92

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Car Championship in 1963/64. Another interesting fact is that Andy Nelson’s blue Cooper S is Steve Neal’s old Equipe Arden car that he ran in the British Saloon Car Championship in 1964/65 and it was only an event date change in the UK that kept former BTCC Champion Matt Neal from making the trip to upstate New York to drive the car.

After doing a bit of investigation for this article I found out that the first BSCC Champion in a Mini was not a driver normally associated with the marque. It was none other than Sir John Whitmore who took the Mini to the title in 1961. Whitmore is more known for his exploits in Alan Mann prepared Cortinas where he regularly duelled with a rather quick Scotsman on a busman’s holiday called Jim Clark.

Whitmore’s win was as a privateer driving for Don Moore. Back in 1961 cars of any class could win the Championship, and despite missing the opening round, Whitmore took the BSCC title with a round to spare. The four class wins in the Moore Mini was enough to clinch the first BSCC championship for Whitmore.

Suitably impressed by the speed of the Mini the Cooper Car Company entered three Minis in 1962 with John Love being one of his teammates. Love,

a Rhodesian would go one to race in formula 1 also with Cooper. Love was more than competitive with Whitmore and often beat him into second place resulting in a poor eighth place finish for the previous year’s Champion while Love became the second person to win the BSCC at the wheel of Alec issigonis’s box on wheels.

Whitmore stayed with Cooper for 1963 and looked to be on the way to a second title with eight straight wins, but he never entered the last event and Jack Sears class win handed the title to the Sears who used both a Ford Galaxie and a Lotus Cortina during the year.

The third driver at the Cooper Car Company in 1963 was none other than John ‘Smokey’ Rhodes whose lurid tire smoking drives made him a fan favorite in Britain’s national saloon car series. During his time in Minis in the BSCC Rhodes never managed to win a championship but came ever so close when he lost a tie-breaker with John Fitzpatick and had to settle for the runner-up spot. He drove for both the Cooper Car Company and Downton Engineering during his time in the BSCC. In 1968 he also competedin the European Touring Car Championship where he once again won his class.

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Track Attack A much anticipated part of the VIP Experience was the Track Tour of the famed Watkins Glen track. This was made even more attractive to the attendees when the tour was moved from a lunchtime spot to three laps after racing had concluded on Saturday evening.

A mixture of old and new automobiles lined up on Baker Street alongside the Tower Suites. Those still hanging around the track must have wondered what was going on when thirty plus Minis/MINIs rolled out between Turn 1 and 2 and proceeded to climb the almost sixty feet to the top of the Esses.

MINI of Allentown owner Gary Daniels was period perfect as he piloted his Rauno Aultonen clone #177 up hill and down dale. It may not have carried Paddy’s famed #37 but it was the perfect ride for the Track Tour.

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ISLAND Invitational Harrop’s Ultimate Street Car Invitational at Philip Island

Words by Ian Rae, Images by Ian and Janis Rae Motorsport News from MotorWerks Magazine

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When we were planning our trip to Australia in 2017 the only two motorsport events on the schedule were the Bathurst 1000 at Mount Panorama and the World Time Attack Challenge at Sydney Motorsport Park. As 2018 dawned the reality of the trip of a lifetime was setting in but still with the original schedule on the cards. Imagine my excitement when with only two months to go I found out our friends at Harrop Engineering in Melbourne would be holding their Open House on the Sunday after

we arrived. That excitement peaked further when a post on Facebook announced the Harrop Ultimate Street Car Invitational would be held on the Monday following the Open House and better still it was moving from its previous home at Winton Raceway to the scenic Philip Island track, home of the Aussie Bike GP.

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Once the crowd at Harrop’s Preston, VIC facility started to thin out we packed up our cameras, programmed our GPS for the San Remo resort we were staying at and we headed out on our first major Aussie adventure. Driving on the right-hand side of the car was not a problem for me having lived in the UK for 30 plus years, I just wish I had got to sample the Holden Commodore I had asked for rather than the Kia we got.

Harrop had organized a meal in an Italian restaurant in Cowes for the HUSCI participants and the organizing crew. It was a pleasure to be invited to join them in a restaurant that was proud to display memorabilia from bike racing on Philip Island. We sat with Smith who I was informed had a badass Holden Ute or pickup to the rest of the World.

I also got introduced to some of the major players at Harrop. Clayton Stairmand one of their engineers is a MINI fan just like me. He is currently working on a no holds barred race version that will use one of Harrop’s TVS superchargers, but I can’t tell you which one yet. Jake DiPietro and I had communicated since Harrop came on board as an advertiser, but this was the first time I had met him in person. It was nice to put a face to the name.

The HUSCI event consists of two track disciplines, lapping the racetrack to get the quickest laptime, two runs at a Motorkana or Autocross as we would

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call it in North America and a Design & Engineering portion where HUSCI judges score the aftermarket modifications each vehicle owner has completed on their vehicle. They are be scored on the Look, Innovation and Functionality of the modifications, with 1 being the lowest and 5 being the highest score possible.

1. Look - Competitors vehicles are be judged on the quality of modifications including there fitment & finish. A score of 1 would be a stock vehicle, 3 a vehicle with bolt-on mods and 5 a vehicle with custom OE quality mods 2. Innovation - Competitors vehicles were judged on the use of innovative aftermarket modifications and concepts. Again a score of 1 was awarded to a stock vehicle, 3 for a vehicle with bolt-on mods and 5 was for a heavily custom modified vehicle 3. Functionality - Competitors vehicles were judged against how much they compromise daily performance. A score of 1 was for a vehicle that is barely capable of being driven on the street and 5 would be an uncompromised daily driver.

The really cool thing about the Motorkana was it was to be run on a flooded skidpad. This was for two reasons. The first was to add a different element to the competition and the second was to ensure no ugly tire marks were left for the upcoming Bike GP. Racers would run the Motorkana in one direction before lunch and then it would be reversed.

Harrop GM Heath Moore told us, “Running the event at Phillip Island for the first time gave some competitors their first taste of one of the best GP circuits in the world.” He went on, “From the novices to the experienced driver, it’s a fast and flowing track that leaves everyone exhilarated. The wet motorkhana pad was dictated by the circuit but it was a new element that really tested the driver and their car control on safe grip limited environment.”

Given the location, the weather can sometimes be a big variable but we were lucky enough to have perfect conditions which made the event that much more successful.”

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Andy Monk in his Mclaren 720S took 2nd Overall

Alex Cimpoesu in the Ultima GTR was top on the circu

Simon Thompson’s HSV R8 LSA was consistent in all disciplines finishing 9th overall.

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2018 HUSCI

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Newcastle, NSW’s Kim Smith bucks the trend when she competes at the HUSCI event. Her ride is typically Australian, a HSV Maloo. This year saw my fourth year again, as always under the banner of Streamline. The car had a fairly difficult year drag racing as we pushed the limits, often finding

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them in the form of snapped axles and damaged drivelines. De-tuned for HUSCI and with a standard drivetrain installed, the Maloo was back to its best.

Being on such a magnificent track such as Phillip

Island only added to the greatness of the day as did the excellent company.

I was truly humbled to be recognised by Harrop with the Inaugural Passion For Performance trophy

this year. It was magic to realise that others see in me what I feel every time I am at a Motorsport event of any type. My heartfelt thanks goes out to Harrop and all the team. It sits alongside my most treasured trophies.

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Structural Integrity

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In all forms of racing there is the search to find a way to go faster! Nowhere is it more important than in Time Attack where big aero and big power make the cars a challenge to drive and maintain. Canada’s James Houghton is just like many other racers around the World, he and his team works hard on their race program, but he is ever vigilant watching what others are doing. The Internet makes that easy these days, forums, Facebook pages and other Social Media pages regularly display all forms of the Holy Grail. But is that resource really that good?

Houghton told us, “You really have to be careful with what you read on the Internet. Sometimes too good to be true is just that. How do you know what really works or what does not? My personal criteria is ‘show me the results’, and that may not be CFD numbers or other stuff that can be made up. It is the results on track that matter to me, does the car consistently win, and is the magic modification a huge part of that success? Is the upgrade track specific or will it consistently work at all track we visit? These are all questions I ask myself.”

So, when Houghton was looking to create more front downforce, so he looked to the standout

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Australian Time Attack car, the MCA Hammerhead Nissan that had won the World Time Attack Challenge in 2016/17.

Houghton sat down with his fabrication team, longtime crew-chief Eric Lavigne of Lavigne Motorsports and Mitch Hemmen of Unit 2. They came up with a plan to use wing profiles from APR Performance to create the aero improvement by adding winglets above the splitter at the front of the fenders. But to make the new aero change work efficiently the winglets would have to be built properly with internal supports that would allow the wings handle all the extra downforce gained. The plan was to use a streamline tube to maximize the structural integrity in the tight confines of the wing profile. James had mentioned to me he could source aero Chromoly tube from the UK to do the job.

That was when I informed him that he could actually source it from AED Products in Indianapolis, the very same people who had supplied the Docol R8 tubing when we built the cage on our Project MINI, CooperRSR. When we contacted Al of AED, we talked about what we were planning to do, and Al Lowe suggested using the Docol R8 instead of

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the 4130. When it came to be asking about stock it was a case of not having any in stock, but Al told us, “We actually form the aero tube in-house, order it today and at the latest we will make it and ship it tomorrow. We are very proud of that sort of turnaround, we don’t have to carry stock, but our customers get what they need in rapid fashion.”

And true to his word the tubing was shipped direct to Kitchener, ON in a few days giving the Houghton team time to work on the project in anticipation of its unveiling at the Canadian Sport Compact Series event at Shannonville on Sunday August 19th.

The plan was to build the winglets so that were removable with the carbon fiber splitter. The splitter has to be removed and stored before the car can be loaded onto the trailer so that made sense. The splitter mounts on the K-Tuned supported Acura Type R are beefy to say the least, that that provided a good place to start the fabrication process.

The Docol aero tube is held in place inside the winglet profile by structural epoxy. Both the inner the outer edge of the winglet incorporates a plate with captive nuts welded to the tube. The inner plate bolts to the splitter mount and the outer plate is where the carbon fiber endplate bolts to, giving both rigid mounting points and minimal deflection.

It was a tricky fabrication job to say the least, Hemmen had to ensure the finished product would work well by positioning the winglets in the proper place but also make it easy to remove the splitter/ winglet assembly without having to dis-assemble

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half the car. It was his first time working with Docol R8 tube and one thing he noted about it was the ability to MIG weld it. “We had some tricky spots with gaps to fill” he said, “and with Docol being weldable by the MIG process it made my life a lot easier.”

One thing Houghton prides himself in is surrounding himself with good people like Mitch and Eric and to take care of the carbon fiber work he brought in Alex Vongnhay who had recently started his own carbon fiber business, Spage Sport just down the road from Jim’s race shop. Alex has acquired quite a name for himself in the carbon fiber world and it was time for him to step out on his own. In addition to the winglets Alex modified the C3 Custom Carbon Composites splitter to work in perfect harmony with the new winglets. So, using a brain trust of Eric, Mitch and Alex, James had all the best input on how to make the modified splitter and winglets work and be structurally strong enough to handle the increased load the new aero would generate and AED had provided the mechanical tubing to give it that strength. It was the perfect theoretical plan.

And did it work? Yes. Were there any issues?

Yes! But nothing that could not be overcome by Houghton’s talented crew. The left-hand splitter end plate twice detached itself at Shannonville.

In an effort to direct the air under the splitter the end plate was a little too low and the kerbs at Shannonville took their toll.

Watch for future updates.

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clim l l i H l l i ryh a M t s We t e e M ni i M e h T

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The Maryhill Loops Road was an experimental road, built in Goldendale, WA by Good Roads promoter Samuel Hill. Assisted by engineer and landscape architect Samuel C. Lancaster the road climbs the Columbia Hills from the Columbia River. Built in 1911 is was first asphalt road in the state.

The road is now owned by the Maryhill Museum of Art and is normally closed to public motor vehicle traffic but on June 27th, 2018 it was the venue for the motorsport day of Mini Meet West 2018.

Traditionally an autocross satisfies the competitive needs of the MMW attendees but this year they got the chance to expand their horizons and climb to the clouds on the historic Maryhill Loops Road.

Ably assisted by the Northwest Hillclimb Association the MMW committee put together this one of a kind event. The starting line on the hill is at the 600-foot level with the finish line at the 1500 ft. The course is an adrenalin pumping two miles long. The road itself ascends 850 feet in a series of curves with a gradient of ascent at 5%. It consists of twenty-five curves, eight of which are hairpins. Spectators are

able to view the race from the Highway 97 Overlook and/or from designated viewpoints along the track.

Due to time and space constraints entries were limited to sixty cars. Each entrant got to make four runs up the hill. There were no classes as such for for the event, cars were basically classified as new and old, no matter what the modifications. Runs were timed but it was the racers responsibilty to keep track of their own times.

For those of you not familiar with hillclimbing, in the UK and Europe we call it speed hillclimbing. It takes place on a paved road where the start and finish line are at two different heights. In the UK there are many Championships dedicated to the sports and competitors can enter their road cars and work their way up too full-blown Single seater race cars if they want to. In Europe the championship courses tend to be longer due to easy accessibility to the Alps.

These tracks can be many miles long under very challenging due to their twisty nature and severe drops off the side of the mountain. Probably the best-known hillclimb in North America is Pikes Peak Motorsport News from MotorWerks Magazine

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which until recently was not fully paved, but it still commandeers respect from the competitors to come from all over the world to race at what is sometimes called Unser Mountain. The famed Unser motorsport family have a long history at Pike’s Peak. Jerry Unser raced motor cycle sidecar there in 1915 and from 1926 two 1969 there was at least one Unser on the entry list every year.

As a sport hillclimb is great for entry level drivers wishing to get into motorsport. Most class rules allow for minimum modifications to a road car to fit into the entry classes. The drivers then can progress through classes as they gain more experience or just want to go faster. Some racers have even moved on to circuit racing with the best-known being Andy Priaulx who was a three-time World Touring Car Champion with BMW but now races a Ford GT in international sports car racing. Priaulx took

the 1995 British Hillclimb championship in a single seater he shared with his father Graham. That is the other great thing about hillclimbing, many of the championships allow two drivers to share a car therefore making the sport more affordable.

Because of the nature of the tracks drivers learn to deal with bumps and off-camber curves and learn to read the road, something that works well when they transition to circuit racing. There is no taking a lap and getting up to speed, the driver has to be on it right away, right out of the gate. Back in the day our local hillclimb at Rumster in Caithness was a thirty second blast, not long I’ll admit but it was intense.

When you blasted into that parking lot located next to the TV mast and you knew you made a good run it was a great feeling. Because of that feeling many hillclimbers feel no need to move on to wheel to wheel racing, instead they get their kick out of that blast up a narrow road hitting every apex and breaking point exactly to the millimeter!

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The Maryhill Story!

It was great to see the variety of cars entered in the hillclimb, in the older mini category we had road going Mini Travellers, Mini vans, noted Mini racer Don Racine and Canadian Larry Sandham in his radical Fortech built tubeframe Vauxhall powered Mini Clubman. The new MINIs included a GP2, Doug Bennett and his radical track toy and fastest man up the hill We talked to longtime Mini racer Don Racine who has raced Minis for forty years. He told us, “This was in fact my first ever competitive hillclimb. I had heard for years about such an event but never had the opportunity to try it. The experience was all new and even though I watched a couple videos I did not know what to expect about the road or how I and my car would feel about it. The car I brought is an out and out race car with the biggest thing from a powertrain standpoint is the fact that we never use standing starts and thus are geared for a 60MPH first gear. This means little or no real grunt

when starting from a stop.”

He went on, “The hill was a little daunting on the first climb but I was very thankful to have more than one try at it. It was really different not to have someone to chase or be chased to judge how fast you need to be but the challenge of the hill was still there for sure. I am not sure it could replace circuit racing but was a great experience that I could see it could get addicting” Larry Sandham gave us his perspective in hilclimbs, “yes I’ve hillclimbed before, ninety-two other times to be precise! And yes I find hillclimbs a lot of fun.

I’m pretty sure there isn’t another driver in British Columbia who has run that many. I don’t know why I like it so much but I do. I circuit race as well at tracks like Mission, Pacific Raceways, the Ridge Motorsports Park, Portland International Raceway, the old Spokane race track, Westwood and Western Speedway. Next year will be my 50th year in motorsports.

Watch for Larry’s Mini in an upcoming issue.

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MidWest

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We have talked about Gridlife before in these pages, talked about what makes them different from the other Time attack series. I saw it myself at Road Atlanta last year at Gridlife South, but I was told the granddaddy of all their events is the Gridlife Midwest event at Gingerman Raceway Park in Western Michigan. And boy were they right! For the first time ever the eliminations at a Gridlife event was going to be decided by a Touge Battle. They called it the Bracket Battle (we will talk about that later in the article) but this would be the same type of Battle that was so successful at Motovicity’s Speed Ring event in 2017. I firmly believe that this type of eliminations could be the future of Time Attack racing. Where regular against the clock Time Attack is a difficult sell to the spectator, Bracket Battle pits two opponents against each other and the fans can see who’s winning. Plus, when it goes to a third run to decide the winner the excitement is amped up even more. So with each lap even more important would the regular top dogs continue to hold their spots or would we see new faces take the wins?

Most of the talk Friday was about the crazy numbers Canada’s Will Au-Yeung was laying down in Unlimited FWD. Continuing his rampage that yielded new track records earlier in the year at Buttonwillow and Road Atlanta Will once again was super fast

Above: Mike Puglisi may have worked on the car over the weekend but got the job done at the end of the day!

Below: Great crowds all weekend.

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out of the box with a 1:23.775 which set a new Gingerman record. His main protagonist was fellow Canadian James Houghton who looked to be out of the game after his first outing on the track; see the never Give Up article for more on that story.

Going into the event one of the favorites for Street Modified glory was local racer Bradley Yonkers from Grand Rapids. 2018 has seen Yonkers share a BMW M3 with fellow Bimmer standout Matt DeReus instead of running two BMWs. The inclement weather subsided just before the Bracket Battles started but with the track conditions varying corner to corner racers had to be totally on the ball to avoid making a mistake. Unfortunately the tricky track caught Yonkers out and that minor mistake was all it took to hand the win to another BMW M3, that of Nikolai Delov.

Yonkers summed up the weekend, “The Midwest Festival this year saw the introduction of Bracket Battles similar to last years Speed Ring. While Matt reset our class record earlier in the weekend I was knocked out of the brackets early by the eventual winner Nikolai Delov. This pressure boiler format would see several favorites get defeated throughout the Bracket Battles. The upsets were even more drama filled thanks to rain early on that led to drying

conditions throughout the course of the battles.”

He went on, “Gingerman is my home track so of course I always enjoy going back. With Gridlife being founded in the Midwest and having a large core of competitors from the Midwest I think Gingerman is sort of the group reference track.

Everybody has lots of laps at this track, everybody is fast at this track so being able to set a class record here is even harder than at the other tracks that Gridlife visits.”

The Midwest festival is always a riot. The best part of it for me is the comraderie between competitors.

You race against the clock and not directly against each other, so there’s no animosity in the pits. You can walk down the pits and just sit down in your competitors camp and always feel welcome.

The same attitude carried over to the Bracket Battles too. I didn’t realize that I made the bracket, so I hadn’t put gas in my car. When I got called up, Bradley Yonkers who I was racing against gave me gas from his pits, so I can make it out and race against him. When the battle went my way, Yonkers and his partner Matt DeReus came out and cheered me on the next race, as I would have done the same if they had won.

Same for the other two battles. I set my personal

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record against Dan Lewis, we were both super hyped after that. I think that was the best Battle of the day.

After my race with Michael Aumick, in the finals, he ran up to me in pits, shouting “dude, that was awesome” and gave me a high five.

You don’t get that anywhere but #Gridlife!

Above Right: The moment it all slipped away for Bradley Yonkers in the E46 M3 he shares with Matt DeReuss. Both Yonkers and Nikolai Delov had won a Bracket round and it came down to a third run to find the winner. Yonkers had a huge lead and got caught out on the still tricky last corner.

Below Right:Delov would go on to take the overall win the Street Modified Bracket with his one of a kind BMW E46 M3.

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Never Give Up! James Houghton thought all the hard work put in by his team leading up to the Gridlife Midwest event was for nothing when he had a transmission failure during the Thursday session. It turned out it was the same issue as last year and even more intriguing was it happened at exactly the same spot on the track. The team spent Friday discussing the issue and the options but when the word came in that Saturday would probably be wet, they started hatching a plan to get the K-Tuned Acura out in Sunday’s Bracket Battle.

Figuring outright power would not be so critical they tore into the transmission only to find the exact same problem as in 2017. They knew no internals had been scattered in the transmission last year so the decision to run as is with the power turned down was made and shift direct from third to fifth gear.

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The Houghton Team Battles Gingerma Saturday came around and it was wet as predicted but by the time for the first round of the Bracket Battles the track was drying quickly but still had tricky damp sections. Houghton’s first round opponent Greg Maloy was a no show so that allowed the Canadian to try out some strategies for the next round. Kendall Samuel and his black Impreza was the next to face of against Houghton.

Samuel told us about his face off against Houghton, ”I had popped a head gasket earlier in the weekend.

Going into the bracket 1 was only capable of running 1 full lap before overheating. Going up against Savannah I would have to run minimum of three laps a hot lap, a cool down and another hot lap. I was able to do all three against her but in the process did an entire hot lap with a crazy hot

an engine. On the out lap against James it became very obvious the engine was losing power and falling apart. So I shut it down and got towed in to prevent further damage!”

By now James had figured out the Gingerman track did not penalize him much when he missed out fourth gear and was happy with the lap times and the data from the Racepak IQ3. He would meet Jordan Bryant in the final who told us.

“I was struggling with a catch can issue all weekend, only allowing me a couple minutes of full throttle on low boost until the catch can oil started to overflow.

It’s a very small catch can that barely holds a cup of

oil. The G-forces would make the oil spill onto the exhaust creating a lot of smoke, limiting me, fter a couple laps I would need to come in, dump the can and get back out.

If I was able to run full boost and have no other issues I felt I could have given James a run for his money considering the issues he was battling as well.”

So the moral of the story is Never Give Up, something Houghton’s team never does. James agreed, “I am so lucky in that respect, Eric, Mitch and the guys don’t understand giving up, we are here to race and we are going to do that come hell of high water!”

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Editor’s Take on Gridlife Midwest In 2017 I did not really start travelling with James Houghton to events until mid-year so I missed Gridlife’s premier event hosted every year at Gingerman Raceway in Michigan. This year it was on my schedule and I am sure you were wondering what did I think about the Gridlife Midwest Festival? I had a great time, I enjoyed the party atmosphere and huge crowd. The drifting part of the event was simply some of the best I have ever seen. The fans loved the combined Time Attack/Drifting show, the manufacturers midway and the huge array of food available.

So what could be done better if anything? One thing I would suggest to the organizing team is to pit your premier racers all in one area.

The NHRA and IMSA have been doing this for years and it works for two reasons. The first is allowing the fans to easily find your top racers, in most cases that what brings them to the event in the first place. Secondly and more importantly for the racers, the ‘Pro’ teams tend to be working on their cars more often through the event.

Having them working on pavement makes their lives a lot easier.

What else? It was good to see the Bracket Battle’s come to Gridlife especially with a slick track thrown into the mix. That equalizing factor made for many surprises when it came to the awards being presented. But I don’t think that the Bracket Battle name has the pizzazz that the event deserves. Having been involved in all sorts of motorsports in my career including drag racing, bracket racing to me indicates a handicap type of racing, that is not what we were watching. I hear that Touge Battle is out because most people have no clue what Touge is. The drifting community has Formula Drift which is a perfect way to describe their sport. Knockout Battle sounds too plain but describes exactly what the event is. I don’t know what the solution is and all I ask the powers that be is to think about what I have said and discuss it.

Otherwise have at it and keep up the good work. Your series has come a long way and its format is the perfect blend of festival and motorsport that exposes fans who have never been at a race to the most exciting form of racing to hit the tracks in the past twenty years.

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Keep up with all sorts of motorsport by joining one of our Fan Groups. Both Fans and Racers alike frequent these groups and they are rapidly becoming a great resource if you are building a car

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World’s Apart Journalism Down Under

It is fairly common these days to discuss the Press and how they inform the public about the trials and tribulations in our World. We know that as far as Mr Trump is concerned much of it is fake news. The one thing for sure not all of what we read in the papers and online sticks rigidly to the truth. So what about the motorsport press? While every one of us would like to be the one that breaks that big story, the one that tells the World that Mercedes Benz is leaving DTM for Formula E or similar it is very rare to see the motorsport press break a story that has many fictional parts to it.

I’ve covered events in Canada, the USA and the United Kingdom and all three treat journalists and photographers different. Covering drag racing I would apply to the sanctioning body for media credentials and they would then check with the local contact to see if there was an issue with granting credentials. I expected much of the same with Grand-Am when I went there but I was wrong. The tracks decides who gets admitted even if you have a series hard card. Daytona turns out to be one of the worst to deal with and they seem to hate digital media. Expecting more of the same from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway I was pleasantly surprised how well they treated us. Some feed you lunch, almost all have cold drinks available and Watkins Glen even has soft serve ice cream.

So, because of all these perks and free admittance to the track do you think we are biased in our reporting? I don’t think so, yes there are news outlets that cosy up to specific companies so that they become sugar daddies for the outlet. And some of those outlets don’t publish press releases from other sources because there is nothing in it for them.

My wife Janis and I headed out at the end of 138 © MotorWerks Magazine - The Ultimate Reading Experience!

September to visit Australia and our trip would include visiting Philip Island for the Harrop Ultimate Street Car Invitational, Bathurst for the V8 Supercars and Sydney Motorsports Park for the World Time Attack Challenge. Our intention was to shoot and report on all three events as part of a Mega Aussie Issue.

First off was the HUSCI event which actually started the day before at Harrop Engineering’s suburban Melbourne facility. Their annual Open House allowed people to check out some of the HUSCI cars as well as getting a tour of their state of the art machine shop. Getting access to this was no problem as we already had a relationship with Heath Moore of Harrop who provided the new TVS 900 supercharger for our Cooper RSR project. At Philip Island there

was no problem getting in, “here taking photos” and all that was required was a signature and we were admitted to the home of the Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix. Interestingly enough, the general public was not allowed to drive around the course during this event. It was only signed on media that could do it, which was really strange considering we were shooting from spectator areas. That’s right there was no walking down the fence looking for a photo hole. In fact you had a harder job finding debris fences, they were few and far between which is

great as far as I am concerned. Spectators are the winners here as the photo opportunities are simply amazing. I was over the moon shooting between Turn 1 and 2, the background overlooks a bay and the Bass Strait, check out the killer lead photo in the HUSCI article of Thomas Randle in the winning Tickford Mustang.

I was disappointed when one of the track workers came over to me as I was shooting the Motorkana (Autocross to us North Americans) and said I could not stand there. I was only behind a double high Armco barrier with tires in front of it, something most of us do at IMSA events and it is perfectly acceptable. But their rules are there rules and I moved on. The photos of the wet Motorkana and competitors on track can be seen on our MWM Facebook Photo page.

Next up was Bathurst and the Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000. I previously had put the Aussie V8 Supercars on a pedestal because I enjoyed their racing so much. NASCAR is like watching paint dry compared to the premier Aussie series. But that’s where it stops, I went to register for media credentials and was faced with three pages of forms to be read and signed off on. They are fairly aggresive in their circulation requirements and we did not quite meet those. So I decided to use their media contact e-mail to plead my case. The E-mail comes back, great! Not really, ‘We don’t check this e-mail regularly so e-mail this guy or this lady.

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Thinking the guy would understand my case better I e-mailed him. Bounced e-mail, so just out of interest I went to LinkedIn and searched for him. It turns out he had not worked for Supercars for two years.

Same e-mail sent out to the same lady and to this day four months later I still do not have a reply.

At that point I decided we would simply go to the event as spectators and shoot where we could.

Another big thumbs up was Bathurst was also shy on debris fencing and the photo opportunities were plentiful. The Supercars or Bathurst circuit website was not very helpful when trying to find out about car parking. It basically said VIP parking close to the gate and general parking further away. What the hell does that mean? What does it take to create a map and visually show where parking is?

The information about shuttles to the top of the Mountain is about as vague as the parking info. We only stumbled upon it as we walked past a line of people and there was a shed selling tickets around the corner.

Having said all that, Bathurst is like no other track I have been at. The first time seeing the Supercars blast over the top of the Mountain just blows you away and depending where you are standing you can watch them continue down 140 Š MotorWerks Magazine - The Ultimate Reading Experience!

Conrod Straight into the Chase. These cars sure haul ass! But the top of the Mountain is more than about racing. Fans or Holden or Ford, Lowndes or Whincup, you have to be wary of what you wear up there. Not that some of the temporary Mountain inhabitants care, their various getups and garbs just leave you shaking your head and laughing. Having fun up there is paramount, along with getting drunk that is.

We spent a bit of time on the inside of the track at The Chase watching a couple of support races, the Porsche GT3 Cup and Spec 86 Toyota classes. Both races had plenty of close competition, a good field of cars and excitement on the last lap as the leaders came into The Chase. We were also lucky enough

to get invited for a pit tour by the Gary Rogers team.

I was impressed with the cars and had a good chat with their aero guy who enlightened me on how little aero the Supercars actually have.

That pretty well sums up the Bathurst experience, we had a great time but were somewhat disappointed in their lack of communication.

On to Sydney and the World Time Attack Challenge.

We had received our confirmation of credentials ahead of time and carried a letter that would gain admittance to the track for us. It was only when we got into the media center we got our wristband, but hey no big deal, there was no issue getting in. the media meeting followed the lines of any IMSA, Grand Am meeting and there were no surprises. A couple of things that could be improved Ian Baker, would be cold drinks in the media center and closer parking for those of us having to haul all that camera gear around.

The track itself? I was very impressed, once again there were few debris fences which made shooting real easy. Ian and his crew did a great job or keeping the event running and unlike some other sanctioning bodies actually went ahead of schedule when they could to try and negate the chances of rain that was promised later in the day. Being able to access the viewing area above the pit garages allowed for a perspective that we seldom get to shoot at North American circuits.

And the fans? The place was packed with them! The fan pit walk on Sunday with all competitors lined up outside their garages would rival any IMSA event! Awesome job on this, Mr. Baker! One point though, I never saw any Hero Cards floating about during this pit walk, it may

be an idea to suggest to teams that they have them to hand out.

Now after the fact, I was a bit disappointed to see people come down hard on Ian on the Internet for the lack of Pro cars and streaming coverage that did not match what they wanted. People, that is not Ian’s problem, I’ve been involved in a similar type of event in drag racing and I’ll tell you the number of times we were told, “Yeah we’re coming” and then they don’t show up, that happens more than you would think. It is easy for people to demand more Pro cars but these cars are expensive to build and if they are coming from overseas it is a costly trip that can’t continue year after year. Actually I was very impressed with the number of overseas entrants.

As far as streaming goes, it costs a lot of money to put on a show like the WTAC and everyone can’t be pleased with the results. Sometimes you just have to put up with what you get unless you are prepared to put up the funds to change it.

All in all the WTAC lived up to the hype as far as I am concerned, it delivered excitement in spades! Ian Baker and your crew should be very proud of what you have achieved in eight years and don’t let any keyboard jockey tell you otherwise.

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COMING NEXT ISSUE in our next Issue More Time Attack Action from Gridlife and CSCS V8 Supercars Pictorial Weird Fuel Pump?

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