2007 Season

Results:

Atlanta Region - Sean 8 Wins, Ron 2 Wins, Alabama - Sean 5 Wins, SCCA National Events - Sean 1 Win, SE-Divisionals - Sean 2 Wins.

       

End of the year update...

As a team, we accomplished all the goals we set.  Sean won a National Tour event and three championships, 2 regional and the South East Division.  Ron placed second in all (and yes there was competition in Atlanta Region, Ron just got 2nd in the last event of the year).  At the National championships Sean moved up 8 spots relative to the year before and Ron did not finish last.  The biggest surprise came at the end of the season banquet in Atlanta.  Ron and Sean were given a special “Spirit of a Champion” award for their upbeat attitude and competitive spirit. 

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Sept 2007 - So much to talk about -

As we prepare to go to the 2007 Nationals as a team for the first time I want to reflect back on the year so far.  We still have several events left... the Solo Nationals, 2 Atlanta points events, 2 Alabama points events, plus the SE Divisional Championship event.  We have run a lot this year and have done pretty well.

But, let's go back to before the season started.  Between the end of last season and the start of 2007 there was much work to be done to take the mustang from pretty much a street car to more of a real prepared race car.  In 2006 we had removed much of the interior but there was still more to go.  For 2007 we really went into lightening and some other stuff...

  1. Remove the airbags
  2. Remove rest of interior, radio, anything non-essential
  3. Remove door glass, motors, mechanisms, and as much of the interior as possible.
  4. Remove front bumper and as much other stuff as possible like inner fender liners, cruise control etc.
  5. Remove Air-conditioning
  6. Remove headlights completely and taillight guts, just leaving lenses.
  7. Install BBK throttle body and cold air kit
  8. Install bosch +4 plugs and new Taylor Thundervolt wires
  9. Install new Panhard bar
  10. Install new 17x9 wheels and 275/40/17 Hoosier A5 tires. (this took some wheel spacing in the front and new 3" Steeda wheel studs)

I also purchased a Granatelli Motorsports Fuego tuner to upgrade the tune of the car to better performance tune.  Bascially redoing the chip tune to something with a little more power.  We have not had a chance to go dyno tuning with it yet, but hopefully before next year.  Dyno time costs some money.

Anyway, our first event was a National Tour event in South Georgia.  We were there with some good nationally competitive cars.  We finished last and next to last but first and second for Southeast Division cars.  As far as championships are concerned this was a good start.  More importantly, we were closer in competitiveness to these higher prepped cars then we were at Nationals just 4 months before.  The bigger more aggressive tires helped, as did the changes we made over the winter.  We have gotten the car down to 2760# or there abouts.

Then, on to Atlanta Region events.  First was in March, and wouldn't you know... I go to a class that no one has been running and now there are four of us.  It does make it fun.  The car runs good, Ron continues to improve and we finish1st and 3rd.  I am unable to attend the next event, Ron goes by himself.  And gets his first outright win on his own!  3 cars in class and he nails it.  Two more events in Atlanta, April and May, and Sean has wins while Ron finishes 3rd and 2nd.  We pop over to Alabama for another event in May and being the only cars in class we finish 1-2.  In looking at the PAX (aka RTP, Racer Theoretical Performance) numbers we appear to be getting better in relation to others and that is good.

At the beginning of June we travel to Huntsville for another National tour event (again it counts toward the divisional championship as well).  I believe worry about sound limits kept other C-Prepared cars at home so Ron and I were the only C-P'ers there.  I got my first National Tour win and again, looking at the class of drivers there I believe we are getting better.  We follow this with another 1-2 in Alabama and then Ron is out of town for the next Atlanta Region event.  This is a night event at AMS though I am in the first group so it is daylight when I run.  I am able to win that event with only one of my fellow Atlanta guys coming out.

At the end of July, Atlanta hold a two day "Super-Regional" event.  This event also counts toward the SE Divisional series.  It is a strong event for me, with another win.  Ron winds up third.  But his driving is getting better all the time and if it were not for one pesky cone on his last run, he would have been second.  We move on to another Night event.  This time we run in much darker conditions.  I get my seventh win of the season and clinch the Atlanta region title.  Ron has a tougher time with the lack of light and comes in 4th after a valiant effort.  You can see a video of my run in the video section of the site.  That night we drive to Alabama to run an event the next day.  A third CP car shows and we have a good time with me winning, and Ron coming in third.  Again, he would have been second except for one pesky cone on his last run.  This really is good, it means he is pushing the car harder and closer to the limit.

Our next event is in Birmingham on our way to Nationals.  We have two new front tires to scrub in.  We have learned that we need to flip the tires to get the most wear.  The current fronts began to show cord at the last event and if we had flipped them before we could have gotten quite a bit more out of them.  As it was, we think we got about 80 runs on them between the two of us.  I am having the two new fronts I have mounted up and will flip the rears around on the rims in preparation for Nationals.  More to come when we get back.