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As someone who has been around MANY different race cars what astounded me most about this accomplishment was that GST is a SERIOUS grassroots effort. The car was built by Mike and the crew at GST out of a spare car Mike had lying around. There isn’t a huge budget and/or factory sponsor, it is a group of buddies that build and maintain the car so that pro driver Jeff Westphal can tear off heads with it. Quite simply it is a home brewed weapon of mass destruction and I mean that in the nicest possible way! As you can imagine all of the teams stopped what they were doing to congratulate GST on the new record, and the kudos were well deserved.
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| Congrats GST! Take the sweep by winning at Infineon will ya! |
As the day progressed the World racing crew worked on getting the Scion ready for the track and there were still doubts that it would make it on track at all. They worked methodically on the task at hand and observing their pace reminded me of a horror movie. I know the analogy may be strange but all I could think of was the fact that the bad guy didn’t have to run to kill you. In the end he would accomplish his murderous goal and you would perish. I witnessed cutting, grinding, welding and a slew of other techniques to finish fabrication on certain crucial parts. Everyone in attendance was in awe of the machine being slaved on and I think ALL of us wanted to see that thing run…. It was up to the World crew to make that happen.
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| This was the seen from unloading until the end of the first day at the World Racing rig. |
Sessions 3 and 4 saw plenty more action with the GST team back out to make a few changes to be primed for Sunday. Tony Wiesenhahn and the TurninConcepts WRX was out pushing hard despite some serious wrenching in the pits. At one point I saw turbo plumbing removed and a cracked flex pipe. I also saw them near the World racing rig which goes to show the camaraderie between the teams. World was able to help get their piping back up and the car was ripping in no time.
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| From this… |
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| To this! |
Chicago local Ryan Upham was double dipping this weekend by running in both NASA ST and Unlimited GT AWD in Global Time Attack. He came over during the 4th session to put down his best time of 1:31.445. In the Street RWD Chik-Fil-A was the order of the day. No seriously Frank Hart drove his RX-8 from PA to Chicago to represent the food chain and went 1:46.158 in the 4th session. Also laying down his best time in the 4th session was Mark Forenbaher in his EVO IV with a 1:39.163.
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| Frank Hart has a nearly stock RX 8 that he campaigns in the Street RWD class. He is sponsored by Fox Valley Chick-Fil-A. I was rather hoping he has some original chicken sandwiches on golden wheat buns in the trunk… |
As the team’s pondered the final 2 sessions the spectator’s flocked to Chris Rado’s Scion TC as the team was close to having the car on the ground. They had finished fabricating the front splitter backing plates and tensioners and were going over the electronics systems. Chris was even walking around in his driving suit. Was this a publicity stunt? would would he really make it out? Honestly I don’t think anyone was really sure. Also at this point GST had parked the Impreza for the day to save “kill mode” for Sunday morning.
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| It’s a bird… It’s a plane… It’s err… a FWING! |
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| “I’m not sure if it will work or not…. But I have faith in my guys.” Not his exact words but something along those lines… :) |
After sorting through issues all day session 5 allowed Tony Weisenhahn to lay down a flyer and post the second fastest time of the day in his Unlimited GT AWD WRX with a 1:28.974. Several driver’s had bettered their previous times in session 5 leading us to believe that grip was improving in to the late afternoon. Tony Szirka took advantage of said grip to post his best of 1:32.189.
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| With 600 HP and a well sorted suspension the UMS Evo is starting to come into its own! |
