It was a nice day today at Buttonwillow with the exception of some wind and dust here and there. I think I got a hardcore farmer’s tan too. There were the most people (participants and spectators) I’ve seen at Buttonwillow to date so I believe the Time Attack sport is definitely growing. The standard time attack track configuration was used: clockwise #13. The American built unlimited class cars are definitely getting quicker with the Factor X NSX and Billy Johnson busting out a 1:45.5. They broke a turbo so were not able to run the last session. Second fastest for the day was the C-West S2000 and Tyler McQuarrie with a 1:46.7 (Khiem I didn’t see the other S2k that was supposed to rock the C-West car). A failed Cometic head gasket forced the Design Craft guys to swap the head gasket between sessions, but they were unable to beat their fastest time. Third fastest (I think) was the Crawford STi with Tarzan Yamada driving cranked out a 1:48.1 (I think). The guys from GST had some transmission and wastegate problems which kept them from ruining everybody’s day. The turbo was producing 37psi of boost for some uncontrollable wheel spin and the 2nd and 4th gear gates were way too close causing the engine to see 14,000rpm for a during a mis-shift.
The GS-T car is looking pretty pissed off in all black. They are still continuing to develop their newer GD car, but are still campaigning the GC. Mike made the switch to E85 and likes the results. The Cosworth engine keeps on ticking.
Design Craft’s last minute luck finally ran out and they were not able to run the fastest time of the day. Usually they somehow manage to go faster in the very last lap of the day. Gary needs sponsors so he can buy engines.
There’s Tarzan in the driver’s seat. This car is fast considering how heavy it is.
I’m not sure how fast this car was. It was in the Modified class. I still like Fox body mustangs. There’s something about the 5.0 LX that I still dig after all these years. I’m going to get one…one of these days (even though it has pushrods).
One car that looks promising, but broke an engine, is the Fontana Nissan 350Z. It ran a 1:48.8 before a rod came out the side of the block. It was a beautifully prepared ex-Grand Am Koni Challenge GS race car prepared by Unitec/Jackson Stewart Racing. My buddy Naoto who used to work for XS, now works for Sakata Motorsports and was handling track support on the Motec system so Naoto introduced me to Jackson. It turns out I bought a Garrett T04S from Jackson when I was 17 (for my FC RX-7 at the time). What a small world. Anyhow, all of the car’s dry carbon panels were built using the in house Autoclave at Unitec. It produces about 460bhp normally aspirated and uses an X-trac sequential transmission (big $$$). This car is very sano inside and out.
Yes, the flares look PERFECT. This is true race quality dry carbon with OEM fitment. Look how perfect the body panels match up. No Seibon action here…
Dry carbon dash, Racetech carbon bucket seat, Motec ADL dash and M800 ECU, and the X-trac shifter (I love that thing). A Bosch MS4.3 spec ECU is required if racing in Grand-Am, but it is not currently raced in Grand-Am.
After getting reacquainted with Jackson and his engine builder Chris after 19 years, they asked me about the Cosworth 3.8L stroker for the VQ35DEs. Needless to say, he plans to visit Cosworth to check out the parts. Both of them are already familiar with Cosworth parts having prepared many race cars and engines with Cosworth BDs, YBs, and DFs over the years.
Here’s my buddy Victor’s tow truck. His company name is Emergency Hookers and the comapny motto is “You blow it…I’ll tow it!”
