The Story So Far... (Part 2)

During the winter of 2022-2023, Tim and Chris were getting pretty excited about the prospect of running an entire year of AutoCross. When Glenn overheard how excited the two of them were getting, he decided he would also give it a shot as well. All 3 team members racing their own cars! It was set to be awesome and hilarious. Until disaster struck Chris.

At the beginning of March, Chris was involved in a fairly big 2 car accident in his WRX STi. Luckily he and the other driver were fine. His car, not so much. Totaled. A massive heartbreak for Chris after all the time, effort, and money he put into the car.

But all hope was not lost for the 2023 season. After insurance was fought and settled, Chris was on the hunt for a replacement. He ended up finding a beautiful, low miles 2018 Ford Focus ST for sale. After the month of research he did on various different sporty hatchback vehicles, this seemed like a pretty good deal. He pulled the trigger and bought it.

Chris had to work quickly in order to get his car prepped for the season. He got a new set of wheels and summer performance tires from TireRack and got used to the car. Before we knew it, the season was upon us. There was a pretty big learning curve for all 3 of us, but we soon settled into a rhythm of how the events worked and really enjoyed the experience.

By the end of the season, we were all having a blast and really showing improvement. Tim was able to capture the STU (Street Touring Ultimate) class championship. Chris and Glenn had a 1/2 finish in the Novice Championship, with Chris pulling out the win! Immediately, thoughts began to shift towards the 2024 season, where Chris would enter his Focus ST in the G Street class and Glenn would take his 2009 Dodge Challenger SRT8 into F Street.

    

At this point, we are caught up on the story up through the end of 2023. We will make another post in a few days to recap the start of 2024, and hopefully continue to post through the rest of the season. Stay tuned for exciting changes!

The Story So Far (Part 1)

It has been quite some time since we originally started this race team and this blog (clearly) without any actual updates. Time for that to change. We will start by updating you of the story so far.

In April of 2021 we acquired a 1990 Toyota Celica STX with a 4A-GZE engine swap. Our original plans included fixing it up to compete in AutoCross and building it to the point of participating in the endurance racing series known as ChampCar.

We jumped right in working on just getting the car to start. After way too much troubleshooting and buying parts we thought were the problem, we realized the battery ground strap was bad. A $15 part... Hey, it was a learning process for all 3 of us. We did an oil change, re-attached the intercooler, and gave it a good wash. Once we had it running, we noticed 2 more problems.

    1) The idle was really bad. It would shoot up to 3500RPM for a few seconds and drop to 1300RPM for a few seconds. Then it would shoot back up. We figured it was a vacuum leak somewhere. We would look for that later.

    2) The car wouldn't move when we put it into gear. We could feel the transmission engaging, but it wouldn't spin the axles. We got the car lifted up and quickly realized that both front half-shaft axles were broken. After 1 failed attempt at ordering new ones and realizing we would have to get MR2 axles ($800-$1200 investment), we had a good long think about what we were going to do with the car.

We procrastinated, and eventually decided in April of 2023 to sell it. It was going to be too much financial investment to get the car just to a drivable order than what the team was willing to invest at the time. We put it on Facebook marketplace, Craigslist, and pushed it out near a busy street with signs in the windows. After a few weeks, and constant phone calls from non-buyers, we found a group of guys who love the older import scene. We struck a deal and soon, we were watching a tow truck take away our failed experiment.

During that 10 month thinktank, 2 of the founding members (Tim and Chris) did an AutoCross event with the MKE SCCA Solo group at the Road America karting track. Tim has a long history of AX-ing, and this latest iteration was in his 2019 Honda Civic Type R. 

This was Chris' first introduction to it. After that event, Chris decided he enjoyed himself so much, he was committed to running the entire 2023 season in his 2008 Subaru Impreza WRX STi.

End of Part 1

 Let The Fun Begin

The venture begins with a purchase of a low cost car with the intention of ultimately competing in the Champ Car series.