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Chris in the paddock at Toronto Motorsport Park.
The K-Tuned Civic runs on performance street tires in all of the series it runs. These vary from series to series but include Bridgestone RE71 and Pirelli Tropheo Rs, which both give performance levels that were unheard of from street tires a generation ago.As we began to talk with Chris about the results to date in 2017, he backed us up and started the discussion at Buttonwillow and the SuperLap Battle. While he set a new record, he knows that he left time on the table and that bothers him. That personal challenge is gnawing at him, and he cannot wait to get back to set the record book straight. And, that gnawing sensation has pushed him through his first events this season – not that he ever needs pushing. Chris has attended five events to date and has five wins and five new class records.
Racing at Road Atlanta is simply a dream come true for any racer. Chris is taking that dream to the limits by capturing class records and knowing that even faster times are waiting for the next trip south. Photo Credit: Adrian Stanescu.
Chris captured the Global Time Attack Limited FWD record with a time of 1:32.428, but it was bittersweet. The car was not running well, and that was disappointing. The up side is that we've got something to look forward to in 2018. Photo Credit: Adrian Stanescu.The first event for Chris was at Road Atlanta in Georgia with Global Time Attack. While 2016 saw a class win here, Chris left with disappointment. It was not enough, and he really wanted the record. 2017 saw a class win and the record – but spectators could tell that the car was having issues. Chris absolutely knew it was having issues. Chris has some theories about what happened but did not want to discuss them. Suffice it to say that he was not pleased. For us, it is a great bonus, as it means that Chris will be back in 2018 and will be really hungry. We all need to be there as there is no doubt that Chris is looking for redemption that can only be found in a fantastic run. Back at the shop in Kitchener, Ontario the bottom line was that the car needed some mechanical work on the powerplant. And, Eric only had two weeks between Road Atlanta and the second event at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park's DDT course to get the car sorted out.
Canadian Tire Motorsports Park has the infamous Grand Prix track. The complex also has the incredibly fun Driver Development Track and an awesome Go Kart track. Canadian Sport Compact Series opened their season at the DDT.CSCS held the second event attended at Driver Development Track, or DDT, part of the complex formerly known as Mosport in Ontario. It is not a track that Chris has viewed as being his most successful, but that all changed at this event. With the powerplant refreshed by Eric at Lavigne Motorsports, Chris put down his fastest lap ever during the first session out. In fact, he was faster in 2017 on Pirelli Tropheo Rs than he was in 2016 when he was running on slicks. The K-Tuned Civic was the fastest CSCS superstreet class car to ever run the DDT. As we have mentioned in previous articles, FWD cars are now some of the fastest cars in their class grouping. Period. AWD, RWD – it does not matter what the configuration is – there are FWD cars that are as fast if not faster. For a few years now, part of Chris' mental race preparation has been selecting RWD and AWD competitors as his competition and going after them. In some organizations he has had to do that simply because there was no one in his FWD class that was close to pushing him. Every racer needs to be challenged and pushed. At CTMP DDT this was the first win where Chris stood on the podium knowing that there was no other car faster in superstreet than he and his K-Tuned Civic. He took this win in a time of 1 minute 31.8 seconds.
