Is that Unistrut channeling?

TymeSlayer said:

Is that Unistrut channeling?

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It’s plain steel U channel from McMaster-Carr

Installed a set of SPL Front Lower Control Arms. They provide for Roll Center and Track (Camber) adjustment, and save a few pounds:

Black Boss said:

Installed a set of SPL Front Lower Control Arms. They provide for Roll Center and Track (Camber) adjustment, and save a few pounds:

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Nick, Did you do the SPL Tension arms too? Can you add camber with just the control arm?

steveespo said:

Nick, Did you do the SPL Tension arms too? Can you add camber with just the control arm?

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Yes, you can change camber with just the Control arms, but it will impact Caster (as well as Toe, obviously). I have the SPL Tension Arms, but did not install yet.

I was mainly looking to raise the Roll center to offset the effect of lowering the car. I did increase Camber about 3/10's to 4.0* by increasing the track. That will have a minor impact on Caster, which can be adjusted with the adjustable length of the SPL Tension Arms. The SPL Tension arms also allow Anti Dive adjustment by changing the height spacers at the knuckle. I'm trying to minimize the number of changes made at the same time.....

Started modifying a Verus Diffuser to fit the Race car

How did your NASA weekend go? We missed you in Hastings.

NASA Nationals starts Thursday. MPH sounded great. Hope to make it in 2020!

Good luck!

Go fast, race clean, have fun! Will be keeping an eye out for you on the live streams!

All loaded up to leave for NASA Nationals tomorrow morning. Don't have the pace or seat time in the car to contend, but it will be FUN!

Had a blast today at the NASA championship test day. Ran a mid 1:33 on scrubs, about 3 seconds faster than the street 350R.

Great experience so far.

At the event tonight NASA announced that the 2020 Nationals will be at UMP.

Well that was a Rush!! I knew going in that neither I or the car would contend for the podium, so my game plan was to drive safe and look for incremental improvement.

In timed Qualification on Friday I was P9, After the Qualification race, P7. Then avoiding "Madness at Madness" in the championship race today, P4.

I'll post up some video and pics tomorrow, once I've recovered -- it's exhausting being crew chief, chief mechanic, rig driver and driver too!

Car looked great in The live stream!

Quick question, How did you defeat the Magneride?

There are two options: Cortex sell a defeat kit, or find an IP from a 2016 non-magneride car.

The intent of building the Race Car was to get back into W2W Racing.

I originally got hooked when I attended the Ford Racing School at Miller, taking their Competition School and running a NASA race weekend on the outer loop in 2015. Having got a Competition license, I ran a Time Trial at Mid-Ohio in the Boss and decided I really wanted to race W2W, rather than TT, so I didn’t renew my license after 2016, as I didn’t have a caged car.

Having successfully shaken the race car down last fall, I applied for a NASA Comp license in January – since it had lapsed, I was back to Rookie status (probably fair as I’d only raced 1 weekend in W2W and the regs now require 4 races to move from Provisional to Full Comp license and 8 races as a Rookie).



With the Nationals at Mid-Ohio this year, I was tempted to enter, but wanted to get some Race seat time in the car, plus you need 5 points paying races to qualify. Went to VIR in March and had engine issues at the end of practice day – 3 races missed. Planned to go to NCM shortly after, but the engine issues were still being fixed. Went back to VIR for Hyperfest in May and finished Race 1 managing Differential temperature issues, finishing 3rd and then blew a top hose a few laps into Race 2, but a least that was 2 races and a lot of fun!



I finally had a trouble-free race weekend at Gingerman, late June, and through some good fortune, won 2 races and was 2nd in a third. That was enough races to qualify for the championships. Good news, as travel plans would prevent me from running other Great Lakes events prior to Nationals.


At that point I decided I would enter for the Championships – I was kind of 50/50, because of my very limited seat time, racing, and knowing that the driving would be way more aggressive. But I had little to lose if I made a late decision to cancel, if I got cold feet – as entry prices were about to go up $150 and the cancelation fee was $50.

As the end of August (and as the cancelation deadline approached) I seriously considered cancelling and going the Mustang Roundup at MPH with @Bill Pemberton and @VoodooBoss. I finally decided to stick with the Championships as I realized it would likely be a lifetime experience – I was unlikely to ever attend a Nationals if not this one, with it being so close.

So, knowing that I would not have the pace to contend, my game plan was to stay out of trouble, try to improve through the event, and really enjoy the experience.

I loaded the trailer and, with a bit more than a little apprehension, headed out last Wednesday for the short 3-hour drive:


Staging and load-in was really well managed, especially given there were over 300 entries. And the weather was fantastic


Got in the Paddock at 3pm and I was all set up by 5pm as Team 5.2 showed up in the slot next to me, as planned. Anthony and team have done a great job developing their car and were co-favorites with Chad (last year’s ST2 winner) for the championship.

Practice Day on Thursday was un-eventful, a chance to see what other drivers and cars were doing. By the last session my tires were done, so I made the mistake of checking out the Michelin scrubs. Never used them before, but OMG – they were fast and easy to drive on. Ran a 1:33.68 on well used scrubs, that would turn out to be 1 second faster than Sticker R7’s:


Thursday night was the welcome/Drivers meeting at 6:30. The longest drivers meeting I’ve ever attended. We eventually left at 8:30 with our Impound labels:

Friday was timed qualification – 2 sessions. I put a new set of sticker R7’s on for the first session and ran a disappointing 1:35.6, not only 2 seconds slower than the Michelin scrubs, but the exact same time as the 20 cycle old R7’s I ran in practice the day before! The good news was that with the exception of Anthony and Chad, most of front end of the pack, including the eventual winner on Sunday ran 1:34’s, so I wasn’t totally out of touch.

For the second timed Qualification, I put on a second set of R7 Stickers. Ran a 1:34.6 for P9, just 0.3 seconds away from P7, in a field of 12.

Mid-Ohio is tough on brakes, so I changed front pads that afternoon.

Friday night was the party. Met up with friends and went to get some sleep.

Saturday was the Qualification Race. Total of 30 minutes, with position rather than time counting for Grid position, for Sunday’s Championship race. I put on the “slower” of the two Qualification tires, figuring I’d only have 1 cycle on Sunday’s race tires

Starting P9, I got a good start and passed a car before the first turn.


Eventually finished P7, but not without witnessing an interesting incident, fortunately no damage:


Changed Wheels back to the “faster” R7’s with only 1 cycle and went back to the hotel. Messaged with @ArizonaBOSS about the day’s experience and he provided some in-valuable advice: “If (when!) there’s a full course yellow, don’t lift until you catch the safety car”

Got to the track about 8:30am Sunday, in plenty of time for the 1:45 race. Weather was perfect: 80* and sunny. Modified tire pressures and prepped the car. I’d calculated that I’d need 14.4 gallons of gas with no cautions to finish the race. My paddock buddies, running a slightly more powerful and heavier modified GT350, calculated 15.4 and had added a Fuel cell in series with the OE tank. Hoping I was right, I topped off the tank to the very top:


I left getting to grid as late as possible to save fuel. Didn’t expect a delay as there was a gap in the schedule for a course check, directly prior to our start. Bad assumption! I sat on the grid idling for over 15 minutes as our race was delayed. It was getting hot, and I was just thinking about fuel consumption as we eventually got on track just after 2pm.

From P7, I got a pretty good start, passing one car and getting an overlap on another. Then on the blind turn into Madness, I see a Vette spin and block the line! I go right and then get pushed off track by a car without an overlap who’s trying to get between me and the Vette. I lose a fair bit of time in the grass, but several of the cars behind get collected by the Vette, and I was able to safely rejoin, losing only 1 place to the car that pushed me off (2 camera angles):


I pass a Vette that clipped the stricken car and a lap later under waving Yellow at Madness there are 3 disabled cars just off track left


The following lap there’s a full course Yellow and a Safety car, which is why Drew’s advice was so valuable. Thanks!!

From then on, I pass a slower ST1 car, and finish P4.

I could probably have protested the car that pushed me off, to get a podium, but decided it would be a “dis-honest” podium. Although strictly speaking he would likely have been penalized, he was faster than me all weekend, and my detour only cost me that place. He would have passed shortly after, if he’d been more patient.

The event was an absolutely fantastic experience. For anyone who thinks about attending next year I can’t recommend it highly enough. I’m so pleased I signed up and didn’t back out at the end of August.

There’s a lot more pace to be had. I was 5-6 seconds off the fastest laps. The good news is that probably a bit more than half of that is the car. I’ve had a Pro drive my car around Mid-Ohio for several sessions and his best lap was 2.5s faster than mine.

Looking forward to next time. Another race and the Rookie decals can come off!

The car mods have already begun……

Excellent write up and thanks for sharing your experience!

Sounds like you had a great tyme and thanks for sharing. I can certainly understand you missing MPH for this. Good luck moving forward bud.

Great Write up and What a Journey! I remember the Pictures going around of The Original Chassis and saw it in deans Shop.

Awesome stuff and thanks for sharing! That Lap 1 wreck looked nasty on the live stream--glad you were able to escape! Looking forward to 2020...I am planning on Nationals at Miller!