Our prototype did pretty good for a first time out. We opted to race Time Trials Unlimited, which is the top class in Time Trials. We opted for Time trials, to get more track time, for testing the car and checking settings, and getting used to being back on the track.
During the first weekend, we were having oil pressure problems and some relatively minor problems with the car being loose. We had to cut the weekend short due to deteriorating oil pressure.
However, during that weekend, we secured a 1st place finish, in addition to a 3rd place finish and a 5th place finish. All in all, the car did nearly as well as hoped or expected. Unfortunately, that was the only weekend we were able to race in 2018.
In 2019, we had installed a “new” used engine, which ran rather well for 25,000 miles on it, and we finished well, with nearly every race finishing in the top 3 positions, including at least a few 1st place finishes.
Unfortunately, early in the season, the engine broke the timing chain, which damaged the engine, and took us out of commission for about 4 months to get a new engine built. Once back on the track, we were having some run-ability problems with the new engine, but continued to finish in the top 3 nearly every race all year.
Over the winter of 2019/2020, we did some modifications to the car that we are hoping to be testing soon. Unfortunately, with the COVID-19 virus situation, we aren’t sure when we will be able to get back on the track.
We’ve posted the tentative 2020 schedule. We plan to continue to race with NASA, but also look forward to racing with SCCA as well.
With NASA, we will likely continue to race at least some events in TTU (Tim Trials Unlimited), and possibly TT1 (one level below TTU) for a number of events, to continue testing setups on the car. We also plan to race full competition races in the sister categories of Super Unlimited (SU) and Super Touring 1 (ST1).
This car qualifies to race in TT1 and ST1, but for simplicity, we will likely run TTU and SU more often.
With SCCA, we will be racing exclusively (at least initially) full competition ASR (All Sports Racers) which is similar to ST1 at NASA.
We are looking forward to an exciting 2020 year. We plan to post updates here when the racing starts up again.