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The suspension, wheels, and hubs have all changed for the 2016 season. The car has been on Koni Yellows for years. Last year it had 17″ wheels front and rear – but 5 bolt hubs front and 4 bolt hubs rear. This year Chris is running 18″ wheels front and the rear hubs were upgraded to 5 bolt with Type R calipers and matching rotor. Chris is very happy with the Neo Motorsports Big Brake Kit that he has installed on the front. After years of running Hawk DTC70 front and DTC30 rear, Chris is switching to G-LOC Brakes R16 front and R10 rear for the 2017 season. Photo by Boersma Racing.
Changes took place throughout the 2016 season to improve the car's handling characteristics. Fine tuning the remote canister JRZ RS Pro suspension with was one of the key things. After years of Koni Yellows, Chris has found that he is now able to use the curbs at Road Atlanta rather than avoid them. Photo by Boersma Racing.Chris has been a key member of the R-Division team for quite a while. He and teammate, Jimmy Houghton, travel together to events like Road Atlanta, Gingerman, and Buttonwillow. Eric from R-Division is with them to support them as needed. Thus it makes sense that you see them starting to utilize more and more of the same parts. Jimmy has been running G-LOC Brake Pads with great success so Chris is making the change. Obviously, they have been able to make comparisons throughout the season and have found that the products offered by G-LOC Brakes coupled with the technical input offered by Danny Puskar and Chris Puskar (and G-LOC Brakes dealer network) best meet the needs of their time attack cars.
Standardization is also happening with suspension. While Chris experimented with the JRZ RS Pro system for the 2016 season, for 2017 he is changing to K-Tuned Coilovers using the K2 Pro Circuit Two Way setup. The spring rates will likely be about 1300 lbs front and 1100 lbs rear – up from the current 1100 lbs F/1000 lbs R.
After admiring the car as it three wheels through this corner, you'll note that the front fender has changed. In the early fall some extensive reworking of the car's aero took place. While initially making the changes with his dad, Chris enlisted the aid and expertise of Professional Awesome after his trip to Gingerman Raceway for the Gridlife event. While experimenting on his own, he found the aero changes to be hit or miss. With Professional Awesome, the suggested aero changes just worked. Photo by Boersma Racing.Prior to going to Gingerman for the Gridlife event, front spats and fender cutouts were added. The front spats were to keep air from entering the wheel well while the TrackLife Composites' fender cutouts were added to help evacuate air from the wheel well. These incremental changes were made to enhance the aero grip. After Gridlife, Chris began working with Professional Awesome on the aero setup and he is quite vocal about how their suggestions work. That is a huge step as most amateur racers have been in the position where sometimes our ideas work and sometimes they don't. Chris would not divulge all of the suggestions that went into the Civic, but he did tell me he was very happy. A few of the things were that Chris built a new front splitter (he built his old one too. And the one on James Houghton's Typer R) to specifications that Mike at Professional Awesome sent him – the new one almost 77″ wide and extends nearly 12″ from the bumper. Additional vents on the hood and fenders are present to release trapped air. Tweaks were made to the diffuser and a 71″ APR wing that, while it looks to be trunk mounted, is actually supported by a frame within the trunk that Eric devised and tied into the cage, was installed.
Working with Professional Awesome has helped provide this already fast and great looking car with even more aero downforce. Unfortunately, Chris would not tell me all of the tricks that went into this aero setup. Photo by MotoLyric/Rommel Estrada.As you can see, 2016 was a year of change for Boersma Racing. There is no question that it was a year of success also. Running in the GTA Limited FWD Class Chris placed 1st at Road Atlanta and his time of 1:32.963 was only 0.35 seconds off of the class record. It would have been within reach, however, transmission problems ended their event after just the first session. Building the car for the GTA rule book meant that while running in his home Canadian CSCS series that the car would now be running in the Unlimited FWD class. Fortunately, R-Division teammates Chris Boersma and James Houghton get along much better than some of their F1 counterparts, so their friendship was not challenged by this move. To take advantage of the options in CSCS Chris was running for the first time on slicks. As the CSCS season progressed, Chris got to within a second of James at both Toronto Motorsport Park and Grand Bend Motorplex. Unfortunately, during the chase at the final CSCS event transmission gremlins attacked again. The final drive was the culprit, just like at Road Atlanta, and Chris was not able to draw closer to Jimmy. While happy with the second place with Unlimited FWD in CSCS – you can bet that the rivalry with his teammate is going to be even hotter next year!
