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As soon as the #37 made it to the shop it was on the lift. Though we knew the history of the car we still needed to give it a thorough inspection. This car was last raced in some sort of stock class in SCCA so modifications were very limited, which helped speed up the process.Finally some good luck! Our initial inspection resulted in a short basic list of wear & tear items which included; a clutch cable, front and rear brake rotors, cooling system flush, oil & oil filter and a new front main seal. With more than a few SR20 upgrades laying around in our collective garage piles we were able to scrounge up a Hot Shot cold air intake, Jim Wolf Technology ECU and a set of S4 Jim Wolf Technology camshafts. We opted to not install the cams as this car was going straight to the track with no testing. So basic bolt ons for its shake-down race was the call. The #37 was probably going to make all of 150'ish wheel horsepower under perfect conditions, so it was going to be way down on power against the other Tuner Under cars. The next time this car goes on track it will be much closer to 200whp…but more on that later.
After some basic wrenching and only a couple days before the race, the #37 was ready to hit the track. FYI – this car will be available for rent!A part of the preparation we did not take into serious consideration, and is often overlooked, was bringing the car up to current NASA safety specs. We were so concerned about getting the car running that we totally forgot about the safety portion of its annual NASA Race Tech Inspection. I mean, everything looked OK. It had a race seat, harness, window nets, roll bar padding, so what else could it need? Well, it would help if those pieces didn't have expiration dates. With the G20 out for the count, it was time to raid it! Something we needed to replace but couldn't source from the G20 was the roll bar padding. NASA requires that all the bars a driver can touch be covered in SFI padding. The #37 was covered in mostly the “pool noodle” padding, which wasn't going to pass tech. SFI padding is not exactly easy to source, but thankfully Baker Precision is very local to us and we were able to grab some as we were hitting the road. We would just have to swap it out at the track. No biggie.
The drive from Los Angeles to Pahrump is a solid 5-6 hours and by the time we got to the track on Saturday morning team Edo Motorsports already had their pit set up and the M-Factory DA Integra ready for qualifying. It's no wonder they are at the top of the Tuner Under standings.
Who is that stranger? After missing the first round at Buttonwillow, Justin Taylor brought out the Rockstar Garage S2000 to try to make his way into the championship running.
