GRIDLIFE Midwest breakdown w/ Mechanical Advantage!!!

GRIDLIFE Midwest breakdown w/ Mechanical Advantage!!!

Posted on by Konig Gfx

GridLife’s Round 3 marked the second time this year that Mechanical Advantage Racing’s UltraMiata has taken to the tarmac competitively. The MAR North team made the trek from our base in Dayton, Ohio to South Haven, Michigan after work on Thursday. The rains from Thursday cleared as we made the 5-hour trip north and we arrived just as the sun was setting on Thursday at Gingerman Raceway. A quick unpacking of the car and trailer gave us time to catch up with some old friends and to make some new ones of the neighbors around us. The weather outlook for the weekend appeared to be, as it normally is at Gingerman, unpredictable. Initial reports showed no rain Friday, Rain Saturday, sunshine Sunday, and ideal temperatures all weekend. All in all, this was shaping up to be a great weekend out for the Miata and the team!

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UltraMiata with Grant’s custom Helmet at Gingerman Raceway

Friday started off with some minor prep work for the first session (2nd session for GridLife on the weekend as we missed 1 timed session Thursday night due to traveling). The morning was brisk yet sunny and quickly warming up as we approached our 10:00 am the start time for our first session. The set up for this session was essentially identical to what we had way back at Round 1. We were running our same alignment on our Fortune Auto Coilovers, Avon Slicks on Konig 15×10 Dekagrams, Borg Warner EFR 7163 Turbo, Tial BOV, built K24 motor, MAR designed front splitter, rear diffuser, and rear wing. Minor changes for the build from Mid-Ohio only came as countermeasures for the issues that ended Round 1 early for the Miata. The exhaust was now re-routed through the passenger wheel well to allow for more clearance due to the larger slicks and it was now made of stainless steel since apparently Aluminum and high Exhaust Gas Temperatures don’t mix well… Additionally, a new fitting and higher temp line were used for the oil return line for the turbo to prevent the near-failure experienced. As it was all fixed up and sporting the parts listed, the Miata was lined up in Group E for the first session as it had not had a time set yet so we waited for our turn and lined up on the Grid around 11:30 am for the first run at GridLife Midwest!

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New Stainless Steel Exhaust to fend off those pesky Exhaust Gas Temps

The first session was underway as the temperatures started to soar past the alleged high predicted for the day. Grant was positioned towards the middle of the pack and it was immediately clear that the Miata needed some room to run to get a good time in. Thankfully, going into the second lap (and last recorded lap for that session as it was cut short due to delays earlier in the day) he had a small clearing and ran the fastest time in the group at a 1:40.612! This was a good enough time for us to jump to Group B and hopefully have a competitive crowd that would allow us to reach our time goals for the course.

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UltraMiata headed onto Track at Gingerman. Picture by Turbo Tara Media

Although it was a very short session, we were still able to get tire temperatures in the hot pits and evaluate how the car handled around the course. We learned that it was pushing through the corners pretty aggressively so we needed to address the understeer condition keeping the team from really attacking the corner entry and exit. To do this we tried to loosen the front anti-roll bar to help keep the wheels in contact with the road. We also noticed that our rear tire temp distribution was skewed pretty heavily towards the inside of the tires and visually we could see that we had uneven wear favoring the inside. We made the decision to remove some of the negative camber in the rear to help even it out and ensure we have maximum tire contact with the road throughout the race. We adjusted the camber ourselves to an average of -2.1° on the rear and left it there for the rest of the weekend. This change definitely helped even out our temperatures and wear pattern and added no oversteer instability on track. After the changes, it was time to wait for the next session to start at 2:00 pm.

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Grant Focused on…. something? Probably the race. Yea, the race.

Session 2 for MAR came about with the Miata taking to the Grid with Group B. Unfortunately, due to issues on the track, the Group was red flagged into the first hot lap and sat idle on the tarmac while the issues were being resolved. This ate into the run time once again and allowed for only 1 true hot lap when all was said and done for MAR. Grant did his best to make the most of it by running a 1:40.634 proving he is a very consistent driver! As the checkered flag came down we were still in the low 1:40’s and not quite where we were aiming for. Regardless we did our same hot pit checks and re-grouped at the trailer to prep for our last session later in the day.

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UltraMiata waiting on Grid at Gingerman Raceway

When we all returned to the trailer we deliberated on what we could take from the last session. Grant shared that the car was still pushing through the corner and may have felt a little looser in the corners so we made the decision to return the anti-roll bar to its previous setting. Instead, we decided to lower the air pressure in the tires cold all around to see if that would help improve the grip conditions. The turnaround from session 2 and 3 on the day was pretty quick so we were back in the Grid for Group B before long.

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Konig Dekagrams wrapped in Avon Slicks definitely fill out the wheel wheels on the UltraMiata

The final session of the day was slated to go to Grid at 5:00 pm. We lined up in what felt like GridLife south’s heat beating down… In Michigan…. In May. The day progressively got hotter and hotter which, in turn, also made the track temperatures hotter and less ideal for faster times. Knowing that tomorrow was supposed to bring rain and not ideal conditions we knew as a team this might be our best bet to really get after our goals for the weekend. Grant was fortunate to get 3 hot laps in a row with a cool down before coming to the Hot Pit for checks and an eventual exit of the Grid. In those laps, he was able to run a 1:40.495 which was an improvement over his times on the day! Although we were not reaching our overall time goal we were running consistently and in every session which is a great feeling for anyone with a new build.

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Another great shot of the UltraMiata tearing up Gingerman! Picture by Turbo Tara Media

We had one final pow-wow for the night before heading out to see what GridLife Midwest Festival had to offer. In that meeting, we found that we were running our tire pressures much higher than most on slicks. Unfortunately, none of us there had experienced first-hand running tires like this so we were all unaware of optimal tire pressures for this set-up but after talking to some of our friends who also run this tire on a K-swapped Miata (Thanks David!) we decided to drop our cold tire pressure set point for day 2. We were hopeful that this change point would be the cure for our new-found understeer condition that was limiting our ability to push the UltraMiata. Another small change we made was to flatten the second wing element to help reduce downforce on the rear and try to even out the balance on the car. We thought that the new addition of the wing may be causing a slight imbalance on the higher speed entries so we simply used the adjustment holes in the endplates to rotate the element flat to shift the aero balance forward. Once all of this was complete, we lowered the tent on the Miata for the night and went out to see Midwest after the track fell silent and the stage roared to life.

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Grant and our friend Chris Bickford waiting on the Grid

Saturday welcomed all of the drivers with a relatively mild morning. Once the track went hot it was partly cloudy and decently warm at about 64°F with no rain falling yet. The first session on the day mimicked that of the day before with a start time of 10:00 am. Group B went to Grid at 10:15 am but unfortunately had to sit idle while the crews were clearing a car from Group A. In this time, the rain that was predicted for the day began to roll in. As Group B finally got the green light to go out, it was beginning to rain and slowly picking up pace. Even though we only had the Avon slicks packed for the event we decided that we would attack the course until the weather deemed it unsafe wherein Grant would return to the pits until the next session. He made his exit after 3 hot laps and 1 cool down lap as the rain had become enough that most cars with wipers still installed turned them on. We did our normal routine in the hot pit after Grant had completed a 1:42.954. At this point, we could make a few changes to continue to counter the understeer being exhibited but we were also at the mercy of Mother Nature for the last 2 Sessions.

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Starting contest with the Ultra Miata in the Paddock

The second to the last session of Time Attack for the weekend was scheduled to be at 1:20 pm but so was the rain. We made a few final changes with the hope that the weather would pass for this session like lowering the air pressures again in the tires. As Session 2 approached the tropical Michigan weather showed no signs of slowing down so we decided to wait it out for Session 3. We took this time to try and enjoy some of the other racing events taking place during the weekend. Spectating at these events is one of those things that normally we can’t do. If we are not out on track we are usually going over what the last session held, improving our set-up to be as ideal as possible, or just getting things ready so we can be back out on track in time. It’s amazing how fast the time passes when you are constantly in the mindset of trying to get the car to use as little time as possible on the track. But with an extra few hours, we had the time to just be spectators and watch some of the Touring Cup Series and Drift Series.

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Buzzing by all the spectators at Gingerman. Picture by Turbo Tara Media

During the drift session, as some reading this might know, there was an unexpected pause in the action. We along with our friend Chris (who won his Street GT Class this weekend!) were standing between turn 1 and turn 2 enjoying the shredding of tires from the insanely powerful drift cars roaring by. GridLife organizer Adam was past the spectating fence talking over the loudspeakers about the events taking place. During a yellow flag, he turned to the west and saw a wall cloud moving our way. I may be paraphrasing what was said during his realization but it went something like, “We have a big storm moving our way, we’re going to go cold (on Grid) until it passes. Please find shelter and wait for it to pass.” At that point, most were looking west and saw the mass of dark skyrocketing towards the track. Some were walking away and some were running, but with every moment passing it was clear this was going to spell bad news for anyone who had a tent or awning not attended to. We all started running to our trailer which was close to the south entrance of Gingerman. We made it to the trailer as some tents began to gain altitude and come raining back down on the cars around the paddock. Our team along with a few others took shelter in the trailer over the course of the front ripping through. It didn’t bring much rain and was over in roughly 90 seconds but during that short period of time, quite a bit of damage was done to those camping and the racers in the paddock. Thankfully for MAR, the only thing we suffered was a derailed trailer door as the wind forced it to shut. All in all for us we were back to normal in half an hour or so and again waiting for the final session of the day.

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The only picture we got of the impending doom that roared through South Haven

The final session was set to go at 5:00 pm and, to our surprise, the previous weather report of rain from 3:00 pm to 1:00 am Sunday was now partly cloudy with 0% chance of rain! After the cell past over and wreaked havoc on the Festival, the sun came out and began to dry the track. By the time Group B went out for their final assault on the track, it was not completely dry, but it was close enough for the UltraMiata to get one last chance at breaking past that 1:40 mark. Grant again was able to run 3 hot laps and 1 cool down before deciding to bring the Miata into the pits. Although we were set up with good conditions, we were unable to improve our time. The understeer characteristic was still present and the car felt down on power so gaining time in the straights was out of reach. All in all, though ending this session on our own will marked the first event on the new build that we ran successfully through to the end which is a big step for the new build! We ended the weekend with the best time around Gingerman of 1:40.495. After all, is said and done we do have a few things to address. Obviously, we were not able to obtain our time goal but running 5 out of 6 sessions (due to weather) and ending the weekend with a car we could drive to the next track and run is exactly what we wanted to get back to. The NA setup last year ran very reliably but was not at the level we wanted. As builds become more and more powerful and chase more aggressive goals things are bound to be beaten on close to their limit or even reach the point of failure. We saw this at Mid-Ohio with a few items. We returned home, addressed the situation, counter-measured the issues, and returned to the track for the next event. The cycle will repeat until we have, in our eyes, the car that we originally envisioned. This time we will be going home with a roughly 10-week break before Road Atlanta and the GridLife South Festival. Some of the takeaways we will be working on from Midwest is to get the car on the dyno to continue tuning the new turbo set-up and the grip up front being less than what we experienced at Mid-Ohio. This is the first time anyone on MAR North has designed/built a turbo set-up so naturally, there are areas we will have missed and will need to fix to resolve the issue. As for the understeer we were experiencing, we believe the slicks that we were running may have reached their use limit. We will still perform an assessment of the front suspension geometry to make sure we didn’t miss something that may have caused it. Along with these items we have a few things that have been on the list needing to be done that will also be addressed during our short downtime but we hope to return to Atlanta stronger as we did here at Gingerman.

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Team photo in front of the UltraMiata. Picture by Turbo Tara Media

If we had to choose a word to recap Midwest, it would most likely be “Bittersweet.” We had some victories with the setup and reliability but also experienced misses in overall time and results. Even though we didn’t reclaim our 3rd place finish from Round 1 at Mid-Ohio, we will walk away knowing what he has brewing right past the horizon when we make some adjustments and learn our set-up. These larger events always bring the best to track both on and off the tarmac. During our few days there we saw some amazing drivers and competition which will only make us better on the track. Off the track, we met a lot of new friends in all lines of work related to the racing industry and got a chance to meet quite a few new faces that may be racing the car right behind or ahead of us (for now!). We had a chance to do a quick shoot with Turbo Tara and talk with her about the car and we got to know Hunter, Jesse, Wooley, and Mike from S3 Magazine. They came out to get an interview with Grant and the UltraMiata and were a great group of guys that were a lot of fun on and off camera. This kind of shared passion for the racing community is what makes these events. The time, effort, though, and frustration put into all builds is shared and appreciated by many and it shows when we come together as a community and celebrate what we are able to do. This is a driving force behind MAR and what we do. We strive to show what can be done as a group of enthusiasts. A group who saw a stock, daily driven, NA Miata in the garage 2 years ago and decided to take it straight to the fight in the unlimited class. A group who has been building a monster Subaru GC since before the inception of Mechanical Advantage Racing LLC. We are not only building 2 racecars, but we are also building a team to help drive the racing community into the forefront of motorsports. With every design we come up with, every failure we find and fix, every wild idea that takes shape and helps drop our lap times, we are helping show the current and future generations what can be done in your average garage. We are showing what can be done when a group of friends and colleagues team up and simply share a passion. We may not be the fastest yet, but that isn’t going to stop us from getting there, only fuel us. For now, it’s time to regroup and come back stronger for GridLife South Festival at Road Atlanta August 23rd-25th!

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Eyes on the next event! See you all at Road Atlanta!

If you want to stay up to date on the progress being made before that race make sure to check out our Instagram Accounts or Facebook Account.

The UltraMiata is running Konig Dekagram in 15×10 et 25mm squared in Semi-Matte Black (Good-Win Racing exclusive wheel). The Konig Dekagram is Flow Formed.

The Slumdog is running Konig Dekagram in 18×10.5 et 18mm squared in Semi-Matte Black. The Konig Dekagram is Flow Formed.

Behind The Wheel Podcast: FD Edition – FDATL 2019

Posted on by Konig Gfx

Check out this FD edition of our podcast as we go into Joey Redmond’s TOP 10 THINGS LEARNED points from Formula Drift Atlanta! Make sure to share your thoughts with us!

If you like what we’re doing here, please subscribe! We’re on iTunes and Google Play! Additionally, every full episode is uploaded right here to our YouTube Channel!

See you after FD New Jersey!

If you like what we’re doing here, please subscribe! We’re on iTunes and Google Play! Additionally, every full episode is uploaded to YouTube!
…. (details/cheat sheet below! – Audio )

00:47 | “Passionate Pat” Goodin is the Underdog Everyone is Cheering For
05:02 | A Great Top 32
11:44 | It’s Electric and Qualifies – Now What?
17:39 | Fans Remain the Real VIP with Weather
19:04 | Odi Bakchis vs. Forrest Wang is the New Rivalry FD Needs
22:46 | Josh Robinson Wins Pro 2 – Makes Championship Wide Open!
26:06 | James Dean Back on the War Path!
28:48 | Odi Bakchis Falls Just Short of All-Time Tandem Wins in a Row Record
30:24 | The Big Statement from Ryan Tuerck
34:26 | Fredric Aasbo Capitalizes in the Rain with Perfect Event
43:27 | Outro

FOLLOW:

Scott Weiss (Konig): Scott_Konig
Joey Redmond : joeyredmond
Konig Wheels USA Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/konigwheelsusa/

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Wiborg Engineering is back for 2019 season! TANU RD1 recap!

Posted on by Konig Gfx

TANU: Ring Knutstorp – ROUND 1 | May 10th and 11th

An amazing start to the 2019 season!

During the winter the Wiborg Engineering Evo had undergone a massive upgrade program featuring a new engine and turbo/IC setup. Weight saving of close to 50kg, implementation of carbon brakes and a completely new front end aero package.

The team knew beforehand that the first race weekend was going to be a real challenge with all the new bits and pieces on the car, no prior shakedown and a double race weekend that started in Norway and the Rudskogen track with NTA series on Friday and the weekend would be finished with TANU on Saturday at the Knutstop track in Sweden.

The team arrived early Friday morning at a rainy Rudskogen track in Norway, the car was unloaded and all the tools and equipment set up in the pit box. The first 3 outings on the track were spent on a fully wet track with a very busy shakedown program where the new brakes were bedded in, the new engine is broken in, the new boost control setup tuned and some fine tuning of the engine ECU and new aero package started.

After 3 heats on full wets, the track was beginning to dry up and with more rain scheduled for later in the afternoon the team new, this might be the only chance this day to go for the tintop track record that was the aim with this trip. The boost was still on a very low setting (2.0 bar) due to the limit time to set up the car. The track was judged to be dry enough to head out on slick tires. Slicks showed to be the correct choice but the track was still damp and very slippery but one attempt on a fast lap was done but it was impossible to get a good enough lap time in to brake the current record due to some of the corners still being fully wet. Despite this a time of 1:24:8 was but down only 3 seconds of the record before the heat was red flagged due to an accident.
The team hoped for the weather to stay dry for another 60 min for a chance of a run on a fully dry track but unfortunately, it started raining heavily again. The amount of water on the track meant the planned schedule also had to be canceled. The car was later in the afternoon sent out in the heavy rain for a run in the finals to secure the overall race win, the time set was good enough to win with almost 10 seconds and the team packed up quickly and prepared for the trip back to Sweden and Knutstorp where some sunny weather was forecasted. Although the record could not be broken the team was in very good spirits after a great event by NTA and the car seemed to be working perfectly so far.

Saturday morning after only a few hours of sleep the team again unloaded all the gear into a pit box this time at Knutstorp and the first race of TANU series. The weather for Saturday was perfect with sun forecasted for the entire day. The plan was to continue the aborted shakedown program during the first 3 heats and then go for the tin top record in the final (4th heat).
The 1st heat, however, did no go as planned as a fatigue failure on the OEM steering rack caused the car to go off track and hit a banked grass section with the splitter first. Mikael and the team managed to do some quick repairs of the failed rack and patch up the splitter that luckily only suffered cosmetic damages but for this meant another heat was lost which was a big issue due to the limited track time available.

For Q1 the car was sent out still running at the low 2.0 bar boost setting, after 3 laps a time of 57,9 was put down only 0.9 sec of the overall tin top record. For Q2 the boost was raised to 2.2 bar and some new Yokohama super soft compound slicks fitted and another 3 laps put in. The result was an impressive 56,2-sec lap a full 0.8 seconds faster than the current tin top lap record and the setup and balance was now spot on.

With the tin top record already broken the overall lap record seemed to be within reach standing at 55.5 seconds. a further 0.7 sec was needed and prior to the final, the boost was raised to last years max levels at 2.4 bar (2.8 bar is the intended race boost level for 2019). The car setup was absolutely spot on and after 2 attack laps, the clock showed an amazing time of 55.177 a new absolute track record with a 0.3-sec margin and a the tin-top record was now broken by 2 seconds. This meant the 10-year-old record overall track record had been broken and not by a formula car!

So to summarize the first weekend of 2019 it seems the changes done for the 2019 spec Evo performed exactly as intended and that there will fall a lot of records this summer.
For the next race, the last tuning on the boost control and engine ECU will also be finished to enable the max boost of 2.8 bar to release the last bit of speed.
A huge thank you to the team that consists of Mikael, Jimmy, Martin, Marcus and Lucas and of course all our partners that make this possible.

Frederik is running Konig Hypergrams in 18×9.5 et 25mm all around in Race Bronze. The Konig Hypergram is Flow Formed.

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Kelsey Rowlings recounts FDATL!

Posted on by Konig Gfx

FORMULA DRIFT PRO 2 ATLANTA, GA 2019 – ROUND 2

Kelsey’s drifting for April 2019

After a power steering pump failure led to a bad crash in the first round of Formula Drift Pro 2 competition, my team and I were crunched for time with only a week to repair the car for round two at Road Atlanta. We were determined to make it happen, and with the help of our friend Billy Mitchell at Sanford Paint and Body, we were able to get the car on a frame machine as early as possible.

The damage had pushed the strut tower in, but we were able to get it back to “close enough,” to align and compete with. We knew the car was not going to be perfect, it just needed to work. We were able to get our vinyl quickly reprinted by Socal Sign Craft, and our good friend Tahir at Guardian Wraps made himself available to re-wrap the damaged parts of the car on short notice. Including some sleepless nights for repairs by my crew chief, it was a true group effort, which ultimately gave us time to take a couple of laps on the skid pad of OSW right before we left for Atlanta, to make sure our newest power steering pump and changes in the system were working.

While the power steering pump seemed to be working, I was noticing some resistance and notching in the steering. We discovered that the tweak in the firewall had slightly changed the angle of our power steering shaft. We already didn’t have a lot of room with our steering shaft passing between runners of our exhaust manifold, and the damage was just enough to cause a problem. We spent some time sanding down the steering shaft, which appeared to help, and we continued on to Atlanta.

Our first practice session was pretty decent considering we only had time for 2 laps. They weren’t laps up to my standard, but I knew they were laps I could build upon in the next session. When the next session came around, I started noticing the resistance in my steering again. I radioed to the team and we figured that the amount of heat in the engine bay was causing everything to expand and rub again. When we were testing, we never ran the car long enough to let it experience the same levels of heat.

With qualifying quickly approaching, we decided to pull out of the line a little early to address the steering shaft. We borrowed a file from another team and tried to hand file the parts that appeared to be rubbing based on the score marks on the steering shaft, and just turning the wheel side to side in the air. We hoped that the additional filing of the steering shaft and allowing it to cool before qualifying would help our problem.

My goal for the first qualifying lap was to take somewhat of a safe lap to get a score and make sure the steering was feeling better. While it definitely wasn’t my best, it gave us a score of 62 and it was something to build off of the next run. Unfortunately, not long after my first qualifying lap, the skies opened up and it started to pour.

We were forced to take a break due to the heavy rain and lightning, but we were able to continue once the storm lightened up. The only difference was that we now had a wet track and completely different driving conditions from practice, and it showed. My 62 managed to keep us on the board up until our second qualifying lap. I knew I could improve on it and get a safer score to keep me in the competition for the top 16 battles the next day.

I took my sight lap and quickly discovered that the track was like ice all the way through the entry and first outer zone. The car was able to find a bit of grip through the horseshoe, before losing it again on the way back down and up the hill to the start line. Being from Florida and pretty confident in the rain, I felt good about my lap all the way up until I tried to throw my car into the first turn.

Because of the wet conditions, I knew I didn’t want to flick the steering wheel too hard. I tried a small flick, went to grab my handbrake, and suddenly realized there was no pressure. My car simply bobbled with my little flick because my rear wheels didn’t lock up. I desperately yanked on the hand brake a coupled more times to build pressure and then threw it sideways heading towards the first inner clip. I was pretty sure I was past the final initiation cone, which would result in a zero, but I was determined to put down a good rain lap.

I made my way around the up the hill and into the keyhole. I clutch kicked where I found grip and rode the slide down the hill and transitioned into the final turn up the hill. It was a solid wet lap, besides the entry. My suspicions were confirmed and I was given an incomplete run due to my entry. I was disappointed in the hand brake failure, but proud of the lap otherwise. Our win in Atlanta was being able to show up with a fixed car that was able to make it around the track. We now have some issues to sort out before St. Louis, but I know that we can make some magic happen now that we have a little more time to spend on the details. On to St. Louis!

All the best to each of you!
Kelsey (aka Drift Chick) and Dan Rowlings

www.driftchick.com
www.facebook.com/KelseyRowlings
https://www.instagram.com/kelseyrowlings/

Kelsey is running Konig Hypergrams in 17×9 et 25mm front and 18×9.5 et 25mm rear. The Konig Hypergram is Flow Formed.

Boersma Racing Back on Track for 2019! (GTA Road Atlanta Recap)

Posted on by Konig Gfx

boersma logo

Boersma Racing Back On Track for 2019!

Welcome to the 2019 race season, the team at Boersma Racing finally unveiled the new 2019 Time Attack car this past weekend at Global Time Attack Road Atlanta. After spending the offseason completely rebuilding the car from the ground up the team was excited to introduce the car to the world and showcase all the changes they had worked so diligently on.

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With all the changes to the car, the team knew they were going to have some figuring out to do. Basically, every part had changed from the previous season. The team had focused on improving every aspect of the car, power, aerodynamics, grip, suspension, and handling, electronics, pretty much everything!

The Thursday of the event is an open test day so the team used this to shake the car down and ensure that everything was functioning as expected, there were a few issues the team had to work through but for it being the first time the car had been on track everything was pretty minor.

The team spent the evening preparing the car for the first day of competition, doing a nut and bolt check, pulling logs from the Link Thunder ECU, making changes to the traction control profiles and changing wheels/tires to be ready to attack the first session on Friday.

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Friday kicked off with the threat of rain that never really materialized. The first session out for the car did not go as planned as starting his first timed lap Chris had the car unload through turn 2 which sent the car off track damaging the splitter. The team worked hard to fix the splitter and also raise and re-align the car to ensure this wouldn’t happen again. The team worked so quickly that they were able to make it back on track for the 2nd session of the day. With the car fixed for the 2nd session Chris headed back on track, only to find that there was a vibration in the car above 160km/h, the car was back in the pits and the team decided to change the tires out for the next session to see if that was the culprit.

The 3rd and final session of the day, the car headed out on track on new tires and the vibration issue was fixed. However, a new problem appeared, with the car starting to become uncontrollable at higher speeds from oscillation in the suspension, likely due to the new aero on the car. Chris managed to push through and complete a timed lap, but had to keep his speed under 200km/h in order to keep control of the car. At the end of the first day, the team was still sitting on the podium in 3rd place, not too bad considering the issues they had.

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Day 3, the final day of competition again saw the threat of rain that never materialized. The team worked throughout the night trying to make changes to the suspension in hopes that they could control the oscillations that were occurring. Unfortunately, the 1st session saw no improvement. The team worked again between sessions to try and get the issue rectified but saw no improvement throughout the rest of the sessions for the day. Chris did manage to get 1 lap in, again limiting his speed to keep the car in control and still managed to crack off a 1:34.097 lap time on the cars lowest boost setting. Unfortunately, this time was just shy of getting the team on the podium but they still wound up in 4th place out of a 20 car field.

Overall the team was happy with the results given how new of a car they had brought to the track and the amount of data they were able to gather has definitely set the team up for more success in the future. The team is going to continue working and testing the car before the next event GridLife MidWest to ensure that they can put their best foot forward for this highly competitive series

Boersma is running Konig Hypergram in 18×11 et 15 front and 18×9.5 et 35 rear. The Konig Hypergram is Flow Formed.

Behind The Wheel Podcast: – EP11- Travis Reeder

Posted on by Konig Gfx

Travis Reeder, Formula Drift Pro driver, 2018 Formula Drift Pro2 Champion, and FD Pro Rookie have a lot of buzz around him and his team. That is mainly due to Travis and Napoleon Motorsports building the first PRO ELECTRIC drift car. However, in the first two events of the season they have not been able to run the car and had to go to their backup car, Travis’s 240sx from Pro2. There has been a ton of controversy around the EL1 Camaro. Should the car be allowed to run, is it safe, too boring for a sport like drifting are only a few of the shots thrown at them.

Travis joins us on the podcast to talk about how the car works, drifts, how he linked up with Napoleon Motorsports and so much more!

Thanks for all of your support and listening!

And please, if you like the podcast and what we’ve been doing here, please subscribe! We’re on iTunes, Google Play and we always put the full video interviews on our YouTube Channel (we’d love if you subscribe there as well)! Thank you for listening!

As always you can use our timeline cheatsheet (below) to jump around in the podcast and hear what you like the most.

 




CONTENT CHEAT MENU:
0:20 Intro
1:50 How’d you link up with Napoleon?
4:50 How much seat time do you have so far?
5:50 The difference drifting an electric drift car
8:20 Difference between Pro and Pro2
11:18 Can you tune the throttle?
13:30 How comparable is electric power to horsepower
15:40 How much power does the EL1 make?
17:07 Any doubts?
18:40 How do other FD drivers feel?
20:20 What really happened at FDLB, why were you not allowed to run the EL1?
24:00 Making sure the car is allowed at every other track
28:00 Why didn’t you use it at FD Orlando
33:20 Preparing for new tracks
35:00 Adjusting this car vs a conventional drift car at the track.
38:20 Wheels are like an electric car quick change?
41:12 Difference driving w/ guys like Tuerck & Gitten Jr.
43:55 Driving Blind
47:25 Drifting Pro Tip (for chase runs)
48:50 New view for Livestream
49:58 2019 goals
51:38 Is the lack of noise a disadvantage while driving?
54:00 Do you think EVs will become more popular in drifting?
55:15 Outro / Contact info!

FOLLOW:

Travis Reeder: @travisreeder
https://www.instagram.com/travisreeder/

Napoleon Motorsports:
@napoleon_motorsports
https://www.instagram.com/napoleon_motorsports/

Scott Weiss (Konig) Instagram: @scott_Konig
https://www.instagram.com/scott_konig/

Joey Redmond Instagram: @joeyredmond
https://www.instagram.com/joeyredmond/

More on the Konig Behind The Wheel Podcast and to SUBSCRIBE:
https://konigwheels.compodcast

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Behind The Wheel Podcast: FD Edition – FDORL 2019

Posted on by Konig Gfx

Formula Drift Orlando brought some heat to OSW and the PRO2 drivers finally were able to join the party! Multiple qualifying runs seemed to be on the doorstep of perfection and the field, including pro2, seemed to step up their game! Adam LZ brought new excitement to the event and we saw quick repairs and builds make it to the oval after suffering massive crashes. Join us as Scott (Konig Wheels, Marketing Director) and Joey Redmond (Wreck’d Magazine) dissect and breakdown FDORL!

Check out this FD edition of our podcast as we go into Joey Redmond’s TOP 10 THINGS LEARNED points from Formula Drift Long Beach! Make sure to share your thoughts with us!

If you like what we’re doing here, please subscribe! We’re on iTunes and Google Play! Additionally, every full episode is uploaded right here to our YouTube Channel!

Track footage from Formula Drift LIVE Stream:
Formula DRIFT – Orlando 2019 – Qualifying LIVE!
Formula DRIFT – Orlando 2019 – Pro 2 Qualifying LIVE!

See you after FD Atlanta!

 

If you like what we’re doing here, please subscribe! We’re on iTunes and Google Play! Additionally, every full episode is uploaded to YouTube!
…. (details/cheat sheet below! – Audio )

4:35 | Ryan Tuerk Made it
7:22 | Jhonnathan Castro dominates OSW
11:15 | Adam LZ – Hold off the verdict
25:28 | Chelsea DeNofa’s chase and speed were mind-blowing!
26:13 | Trenton Beechum runs a perfect Pro 2 weekend
28:22 | I wanted just a little more from Goodin on home turf
36:10 | Vaughn’s team works a miracle
39:50 | James Deane’s woes continue
43:00 | Perfect qualifying session – first ever in series history?
55:13 | Odi Bakchis looks unstoppable


FOLLOW:

Scott Weiss (Konig): Scott_Konig
Joey Redmond : joeyredmond
Konig Wheels USA Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/konigwheelsusa/

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Kelsey Rowlings season begins! Recap of FDORL ’19!!!

Posted on by Konig Gfx

FORMULA DRIFT PRO 2 ORLANDO,FL 2019 – ROUND 1

Kelsey’s drifting for April 2019

April was an exceptionally busy month as it included a round trip from Florida to California to have the car wrapped in its new incredible livery and to attend the Voodoo Ride Bash. During the bash the new livery was revealed as was our new title sponsor, Voodoo Ride. Voodoo Ride develops extraordinary car cleaning products that work and we are proud to be working with Voodoo Ride. Be sure the check them out.

Kelsey Rowlings 1

After all the activity it was very quickly time for the 2019 season of Formula Drift Pro2 to begin. Here, Kelsey summarizes the event:

2019 Formula Drift Pro 2 Round One – Orlando

Team Drift Chick was feeling very confident going into the 2019 Formula Drift Pro 2 season. Round one would be hosted by our home track, Orlando Speedworld, so we were in comfortable territory. Unfortunately, our confidence was short lived.

Due to some power steering pump issues plaguing us since we built the car, we have been making small changes to our system in hopes of alleviating the issues. We thought we had found a solution in a new brand of pump, but our excitement only lasted a few months when it also failed. We decided to give that brand of pump another try since it had lasted the longest without issues so far, and we couldn’t rule out the possibility of leftover metal bits from other pumps causing its failure. Because of this, we decided to replace everything in the system to brand new parts so we could rule that out as a possible culprit for the failure.

I drove 60 laps on that pump at the Import Alliance Atlanta demo issues with no power steering issues. We were relieved and hopeful it would hold up. We traveled out to California for the wrapping and reveal of our new 2019 livery, as well as to announce our new title partner, Voodoo Ride. At their Voodoo Ride bash event, I noticed my power steering stiffening at points and my heart sunk. We found metal “specks” in the power steering fluid reservoir, and I immediately knew we were back to where we started with only a couple weeks before round one in Orlando.

Kelsey Rowlings 2

At this point, we constructed a plan for preventative maintenance. We would always have three pumps in circulation; One was on the car, while we had one with us as a spare, and another being rebuilt or as a second spare. Knowing that two of these pumps lasted at least 60 laps before failing, I was confident we could use this system, and start with a fresh pump for each competition, to get through the season so we can find a more permanent solution in the off-season when there is more time.

We installed a brand new pump and planned to test the Saturday just before Thursday qualifying. In our first bit of bad luck, I was stepped on by a horse Friday and sustained a lot of injuries around my heel and ankle, leaving me unable to walk, let alone drive a drift car. Everything on the car, besides the power steering pump, was the same as usual, so I didn’t think that missing testing would really hurt us since we have had longer life out of these pumps than any before. I was very familiar with the track and I felt ready.

Kelsey Rowlings FD Orlando

This is where things went very wrong for us. Being comfortable with the track, I decided to go all in for the first lap of practice. I put the car on a very high line around the bank of the first turn. Everything was feeling great until half to three-quarters of the way around the bank. My power steering cut out and tried to rip the wheel from my hands. I tried to save it, but I was already so close to the wall that there was little I could do to avoid a collision.

The damage was fairly extensive. All of the suspension on the driver’s side was broken, and the front strut tower was pushed in. The car would need a frame machine to be repaired safely, and qualifying was that evening.

Because of the time crunch, and because the wreck happened in our first “open practice” session and not our first “official practice” session, we decided we had a better chance of getting back on track if we switched to a different car instead of fixing the wrecked car for this round.

Our SR22 powered S14 demo car was sitting at home with the valve cover off and no cams, in the middle of a repair from its most recent double rocker arm failure on cylinder three. However, we knew it would be faster to get it running than it would find a body shop willing to take us in last minute. Crew Chief Dan and Tom drove the 45 minutes home to get the SR car running, while Daniel M. stayed behind to get new suspension parts on the Ford-powered FD car to get it at least rolling again.

The SR car arrived at the track at the same time I returned with some last minute decals cut by Tahir of Guardian Wraps (We have a brand new wrap planned for the demo car, but due to unfortunate circumstances it continues to be put on hold). We unloaded the car during our second practice session, but it was running very rough. With the help of Andrew DiMartino from Haltech, we got to work trying to set the timing and diagnose any issues. As time went on, we were moving from one possibility to another as to why the car wouldn’t run right. We checked and swapped spark plugs, checked grounds, checked fuel injectors, and we even checked compression. It came down to our second qualifying run and last chance to qualify. I hadn’t driven a full lap all day, but I decided that even if the engine was hurt if I thought I could get around that track, I would make it take one lap.

After calling for a competition time out to get out there at the last possible second, I pull up to the track in the demo car, sporting the brand new Voodoo Ride decals. As I’m doing so, the engine drops a cylinder. I’m devastated. I pull into the burn out box hoping for a miracle and to at least show in front of our fans. I do a few donuts but the engine continues to sound worse and worse.

At this point, I did not think the car would make it around the bank safely and it would just be a risk to the car, and myself, if I were to try. I signaled to the officials that I was calling it quits and exited the track.

Although we were unable to make a qualifying lap, I know that the team and I did everything we could to rally after such an unexpected and untimely failure. Fortunately, the support system and web of fans have been overwhelming, and they led us to Billy Mitchell, of Sanford Paint and Body. He had us on a frame machine Monday evening after business hours and stayed late to help us pull everything out in one night.

While we don’t have time to address our power steering issue before the next round, we do have some new ideas and adjustments to make on our current system. We have parts on the way and plan to make the changes as soon as we return home. In the meantime, if we experience another power steering pump failure at Road Atlanta, we are hoping our power steering preventative maintenance plan be more successful since the walls are further away and harder to hit there! We stay in good spirits and are looking for redemption in Atlanta!

As always, we will continue to get out there to compete hard and to constantly learn and improve.

All the best to each of you!
Kelsey (aka Drift Chick) and Dan Rowlings

www.driftchick.com
www.facebook.com/KelseyRowlings
https://www.instagram.com/kelseyrowlings/

Kelsey is running Konig Hypergrams in 17×9 et 25mm front and 18×9.5 et 25mm rear. The Konig Hypergram is Flow Formed.

Alec Robbins recaps FDORL ’19!!!

Posted on by Konig Gfx

Formula Drift 2019 Season is rocking and rolling! With FDORL being the opening round for PRO2, Alec Robbins recaps his experience at FDORL!

There were a lot of nerves going into our first round of Formula Drift Pro2 in Orlando, FL. We had made a lot of updates over the offseason and with time constraints and bad weather we weren’t able to test our new set up. Luckily we have some great new partners on the team, like Sandbeck Race Development, who had the car on the dyno for the first time just a week before the event. With a full, fresh engine build (upgrading our stock rods and pistons to a set of Manley platinum series pistons and pro series rods) SRD had everything on the engine compartment built and tuned perfectly… We ended up 100+hp over last season. Other changes included adding a Whiteline swaybar setup to the car after running no swaybars in past seasons, as well as some other geometry changes.

Having not driven the car since the final round at Irwindale Speedway in October, I was anxious to get behind the wheel. After our first run, the nerves faded and the car felt amazing. With 40 drivers registered for the round, we knew that we would be limited on practice time, luckily no major adjustments were needed aside from tire pressures. We were able to get 4 practice runs in before qualifying, which isn’t nearly as much as I would have liked after not driving for 6 months, but the car was feeling better than ever and I had a good amount of confidence going into qualifying.

Our first qualifying run we decided to go for a more conservative, safe run and landed an 83/100 which set us up to be in 9th place. By the time we were up for our 2nd run, our 83 had us sitting in 15th place and on the verge of not making top 16. I knew we needed to throw down a solid run. Not wanting to leave anything on the table I initiated slightly higher than I had in previous runs and got into the wall. Staying committed I held it wide open, tapped the wall again before pulling away from it enough to maintain angle. I kept it high on the bank and still wide open dropping down to the first and second inner clips getting them perfectly. When we tapped the wall, it was hard enough to crack the left rear wheel causing it to go flat. Going into the last outer zone, I overshot it just a little bit before pulling the car back on line and finishing the run off with a big angle right on the outside zone. I could tell everyone in the stands was pumped, clapping and getting thumbs up as I pulled off track. The wall taps however impacted my score pretty heavily and we scored an 80 on our second run.. leaving us 17th out of 40 drivers and sitting just outside of making it into the competition. It was a huge bummer. However, going into the next round we know that we have a killer car. My confidence in my driving and in the car has never been higher and are super excited to tear up one of our favorite tracks at Road Atlanta for round 2 next week!

Huge thank you to all of my sponsors, friends, and family for getting us to the point we are at today. I couldn’t dream of a better group of people to be a part of this with us. Thank You!

Make sure to follow Alec Robbins on Instagram at @alecrobbinsracing for more!

Alec is running Konig Hypergrams in 18×9.5 et 25 on the front and rear in RED OPAL. The Konig Hypergram is Flow Formed.

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Mechanical Advantage Racing recap of GRIDLIFE MID-OHIO!!

Posted on by Konig Gfx

April 6th, 2019 marked the first GridLife event of the 2019 season at Mid-Ohio where Slumdog started another season and the newly dubbed “UltraMiata” got its first shakedown after a major overhaul during its first offseason. The weather was continued to bounce back and forth in the forecast from rain over both days to a perfect window of dry and moderate temperatures in the ’60s, providing us with almost optimal conditions for a true shakedown. For Slumdog, a few solid outings showed us some minor changes are needed to complement the new components put in place this year before the next event. As for the Miata, this first event was not only a successful shake-down but also a shimmering glimpse into how ‘Ultra’ it really is.

Gridlife Mid Ohio Mechanical Advantage 1
UltraMiata unloaded and ready for GridLife Round 1

The months leading up to this event were very busy for Mechanical Advantage Racing. Slumdog made the trip from North Carolina arriving early Saturday morning after a good week of prep work. On the Miata, our traditional To-Do list made from painter’s tape on the windshield never seemed to get shorter and with each task crossed off at least one additional was added to take its place. But, as with the 2018 season, the car fired up and pulled onto the trailer Thursday night before the weekend and was ready to go to Mid-Ohio for GridLife round 1. The MAR North Team packed up and made the relatively short drive out to Mid-Ohio from our, well, Mid-Ohio Headquarters (Grant’s House) and arrived at the track a little after 7 pm Friday night. Upon arrival, the Miata received a quick oil change, alignment check, sticker, and banner application, and final bolt check before passing tech and waiting patiently for our first time out in the morning where both UltraMiata and Slumdog would make their presence known.

Gridlife Mid Ohio Mechanical Advantage 2
UltraMiata and SlumDog waiting in the Paddock

With the new structure of the Time Attack series, our approach to these events as a team has changed. Since both Slumdog and UltraMiata run in the GridLife Unlimited series, Mechanical Advantage Racing competes as one entity with both cars. What this means is whether the Miata or Slumdog are out on the tarmac, we are scoring points for the same team. This gives us a bigger competitive advantage now that the team is split up geographically. For certain events that are a very long haul for one car or the other, we will all travel to the event to support the closer car and run that under the MAR tag. For events such as Mid Ohio where we were able to have both vehicles present, we are able to deem one car “Primary” and the other “Secondary.” If our primary car runs into any shakedown issues, maintenance concerns, or component failures, we can prep the secondary car and continue to keep MAR in the fight. For this first event, we were fortunate enough to have both cars there and the UltraMiata has deemed the primary car for its new build shakedown and Slumdog was the big hitter waiting in que.

Leading up to Round 1, numerous changes were made to both platforms during the offseason. In a brief, the Miata earned the “Ultra” addition by adding an Borg Warner EFR 7163 Twin Scroll Turbo on a freshly built K24 motor, a totally new Mechanical Advantage Racing designed rear dual element wing and chassis mounted uprights, suspension tweaks to help optimize the new aero set up, new Konig 15×10 Dekagram wheels wrapped in Avon Slicks, an entirely new ECU, engine wiring harness, and digital dash from Performance Electronics, and numerous other changes to help support the major overhauls. The Slumdog went through an overhaul as well during this offseason. Along with some new hardware, a 2.7L Stroker Motor from Callies Performance Products, a new revision to the dry sump oiling system, a new X-Shift sequential gearbox with pneumatic paddle shifters, and numerous tweaks to the existing components brought the Slumdog together for the 2019 season. After the event, Slumdog made the trip to Performance Electronics for the same treatment given to the Miata prior to our debut at Mid-Ohio.

Gridlife Mid Ohio Mechanical Advantage 3
UltraMiata’s new Borg Warner EFR 7163 Turbo Set-up

Jumping back to the action at Mid-Ohio, the sun started coming up on a chilly Saturday morning and the sound of the early Track go-ers filled the Paddock. GridLife Round 1 was underway! Time Attack qualifying was slated to begin at 10:30 am and it was overwhelmingly obvious that the team was ready to send Grant out in the new and improved Miata. With the roar of the first Time Attack cars rocketing out of the Grid the first Session of the weekend on. With the new set up it was planned to take the first few laps easy to ensure there were no obvious functional issues and that the Miata was safe to find the limits and start cutting time. After the conclusion of last year, one of our top priorities was to change the set-up to eliminate the rather unpredictable oversteer characteristics we were seeing which made finding the true limits difficult and dangerous. As the UltraMiata rocketed around the course on the first true hot lap we were very pleased to find that we were successful in fixing this issue! We were able to basically eliminate the oversteer characteristic and actually induce a slight amount of predictable understeer at the limit. As far as our vehicle stability goals we were very close on our first outing of the year giving us a huge sigh of relief!

With one full session on the books, Grant made his way back to the pits for a post-run inspection and adjustment if needed. We did a full inspection of the car and found a few things we needed to change. The first thing that we found that needed attention were the fenders. Leading up to the event we installed fender flares to help with the aerodynamics of the new set up but we did not trim the existing metal fenders as we were unsure of clearance. Well, we found out that in certain full or close to full compression situations with the new, extremely wide, slicks we did, in fact, rub a little bit. Thankfully it was not enough to do damage or to even be audible to Grant while driving but we decided to break out the trusty angle grinder (probably our most used tool!) and cram one of us in the wheel well to help clearance the meaty set-up. While hacking away at the fenders, the rest of the team turned their attention to the engine bay to check the new set up. What we found was that our bolts holding the turbo to the manifold were backing out. To ensure our snail didn’t run away on track, we installed new bolts with lock washers. After these few changes, it was time to relax, celebrate a little as a team, and wait for Session 2 where the Miata qualified for Time Attack Group A after putting down a time of 1:39 in the qualifying round.

Gridlife Mid Ohio Mechanical Advantage 4
Josh making some room in the fenders after Session 1

In our second session the plan was to send the Miata out to run a few hot laps and continue to drop time, then after 1 cool down lap, return to the Grid and attach the transponder to the Slumdog and send Kendall out for a few shakedown laps. When the cars made it to Grid Grant was the first car out followed by our friend, Chris Bickford in his 2016 Chevy Corvette Stingray. It was great to see both drivers doing well and competing fiercely and even better for MAR seeing Grant stay out in front for all of his hot laps! After 4 hot laps we started to see our oil temps rise to our pre-determined “hot” threshold so after 1 cool down lap the Miata returned and out came Slumdog. Kendall made one lap and noticed that the Subaru’s coolant temperatures were running a little higher than normal so he returned to determine what the issue was. After a quick inspection, we decided to “burp” the coolant system in the Subaru and keep it ready for the next Session. As for the inspection of the Miata upon its return, we found a few interesting and weekend-ending issues.

Gridlife Mid Ohio Mechanical Advantage 5
Kendall and Nick Prepping Slumdog for Session 2

In an effort to save weight last year on the NA set-up, we fabricated a 3” steel downpipe that ran from the 4 to 1 exhaust manifold through the passenger front wheel-well to a 3” aluminum side exit exhaust. Well, what we have now learned with a turbo set up is your Exhaust Gas Temperatures are very hot… Hot enough to start melting the interior of the aluminum exhaust, spit it out the exhaust exit, and make the connection between the steel and aluminum fragile enough that a hit from the tire at full lock (another issue we found on track that we will be addressed by the next event, damn those massive slicks!) completely separated the exhaust. This was definitely an eye opening and jaw dropping failure that left us surprised and a little disappointed that we didn’t consider the idea of the aluminum exhaust being an issue with the new turbo set-up. Additionally to this failure, we found that one of the oil return lines on the turbo was experiencing its own heat failure. The line was run pretty close to the turbo housing which leads to the exterior protective sheathing melting and exposing the actual oil line. We did not get to the point of failure but we did not feel comfortable sending the Miata back out with either issue found so that was the end of the weekend for the UltraMiata. Not all was bad news though! At the expense of a few parts, Grant was able to cut his time down to a 1:36.9! At this point, we were sitting in 3rd overall in the Unlimited series and it looked promising that that’s where we would stay! With all the excitement after this second session, we had a short wait before sending The Slumdog out for round 3!

Gridlife Mid Ohio Mechanical Advantage 6Gridlife Mid Ohio Mechanical Advantage 7
UltraMiata Exhaust Failure

The Slumdog made its way to Grid for round 3 after resolving the coolant issue with the plan of improving on Grant’s time in the UltraMiata and scoring as many points as possible for the championship series. Now in its second outing of the weekend, the Slumdog sprinted around the track improving on its time until suddenly the clutch decided to make a premature retirement. Thankfully it is now running the X-Shift sequential gearbox mentioned earlier and we were able to finish the lap and make it back to the paddock for evaluation. What we found was the hydraulic line feeding the slave cylinder failed. Even though this was another weekend-ending failure, it was a smaller failure than we initially thought it might have been and should be a simple fix. With Saturday’s final Time Attack session over, both cars were ready to be packed up after a short weekend but we were still sitting high in the points race and at an overall Unlimited 3rd place with the Miata’s 1:36.9!

Gridlife Mid Ohio Mechanical Advantage 8
Slumdog on Track at GridLife round 1. Picture courtesy of Rob Wilkinson

As we watched the races from our respected homes through Sunday the time posted by the Miata never fell. Once the dust settled on Sunday the official results showed that Mechanical Advantage Racing held on for the 3rd place finish marking the first time the Miata has made a podium finish! As with any competitive racing team, we wanted more out of the weekend and out of the cars but considering it was a true shakedown for both cars after very busy off-seasons we can happily re-group, address our issues found on the track, and come back stronger for the next events!

Gridlife Mid Ohio Mechanical Advantage 9
UltraMiata on track at GridLife Round 1

With the weekend at a close, we were obviously happy with our podium finish, but this weekend was also about more than just the cars and the racing. Now with life taking members of the team further and further away, we are more spread out making group events and team meetings harder to have. This event was not only a race for Mechanical Advantage Racing, but it was also a vacation for some, a team outing for all, business for others, and just an overall enjoyable time with friends and family to have together done something that most would consider outside the norm. From hanging out in the bed of the tow rigs, sleeping in the trailers, catching up with old friends at the track, meeting other enthusiasts and gear heads, to driving and watching the team’s cars tearing up the track, this is what we do it for. It’s not all about the cars. It’s not all about the posted times. It’s not all about the points or trophies at the end of the weekend. It’s about the whole building/designing/racing experience with friends on our own time as a hobby and being competitive as a grassroots team with dedicated racing teams. This is what Mechanical Advantage Racing is all about and what we hope to inspire others to do as well!

Gridlife Mid Ohio Mechanical Advantage 10
Mechanical Advantage Racing Team Discussing Racecar stuff… Probably

The next outing for Mechanical Advantage Racing with be at Gingerman Raceway on May 11th featuring the UltraMiata. This event is not a part of the GridLife series, but it is a KMiata track day where we will be able to race against other similar builds and continue to fine tune the UltraMiata in preparation for Gridlife Midwest on May 29th! Make sure to check out our Facebook page, Instagram pages, and YouTube Channel to stay up to date on the builds and prep work and we get each car ready throughout the year!

The UltraMiata is running Konig Dekagram in 15×10 et 25mm squared in Semi-Matte Black (Good-Win Racing exclusive wheel). The Konig Dekagram is Flow Formed.

The Slumdog is running Konig Dekagram in 18×10.5 et 18mm squared in Semi-Matte Black. The Konig Dekagram is Flow Formed.