WDMS - Chapter 292
THE DQ DEBACLE - WHAT'S THE REAL STORY ???
UPDATED 08 OCT 2021 (pics and more details)
Buckle up kids, sometimes the truth only makes sense in long form. Stick with me and read it all and then you can make an informed decision.
For those new folks to my website, I typically do race/event updates for my friends and family as a way to get the story out so I’m not retelling it dozens of times. I can include pictures and the relevant stories and it also is a nice repository of past events and what happened. I’ve put on a racing suit a few times and occasionally my reports help me remember what happened where. The fact that I'm closing in on number 300 hopefully tells a story in itself.
2018 NATS: http://www.witchdoctormotorsports.com/ch269.htm
2019 NATS: http://www.witchdoctormotorsports.com/ch276.htm
So, this is the “THROWN OUT OF THE EVENT” webpage and I’ll cover a lot here, and I’ll have another chapter that will be the typical update with pics/writeup on the National Event itself.
First off, we did not have illegal power. I have seen claims online of “an extra 50hp” to “an extra 100hp” and all the way up to “an extra 200hp!”. Wow. I freaking wish. What we DID have was a damn smart team and a unique environment and if you’ll bear with me for a while, I think you’ll understand. If not, I tried. The truth only works on some people, not all.
When Nats was announced for Daytona a lot of bells went off in my head. I’ve driven WRL there and it is a seriously WOT (wide open throttle) track. Grant Ellis (a GSpeed customer) and I decided to go to the Florida Region event back in May to test. It was a fantastically well run event and I was fortunate enough to win both days (free Hoosiers, wahoo!) and Grant did the HPDE, getting signed off as ready for TT. After this event, Grant decided to do two more TT weekends just so he could come back and race at Nationals.
What we learned was that Daytona is one unique track. What works at virtually every other track in North America does not work here. For my TT3 National win at COTA (against the guy with the MOST National wins in NASA) we still ran max downforce and just suffered in the straights because we’d still make up the time in the corners. For my ST2 National win at Mid-O, we again went against established teams (semi-factory backed NSX, the local guys) and was fortunate enough to win and set a new track record. Clearly we have an idea of how to win. Yes, we were on the dyno a lot!!
However, for Daytona, we launched questions into the GSpeed brain trust and hatched a plan. When I say “brain trust”, I mean folks who’ve been successfully engineering cars at the professional level for many decades. GSpeed is fortunate enough to have this brain trust and it came through in spades.
The PLAN was to bring our 2018/2019 National Champion car “Sledgehammer” and also to bring a car for ST4/TT4 since those run times did not conflict. GSpeed’s owner, Louis Gigliotti, had his Mother-in-Law pass away just before Nationals and so I took the ST4/TT4 car (Scraps) and then Louis needed to stay home, so SLJHMR stayed as well. It was the right call.
“Scraps” is just that. This was a car that was a frame and partial body and a long block 15 days before Nats. The GSpeed crew (I helped) turned this thing into a living/breathing/running race car in short order and sent it with the only run time being about two hours on the dyno and then a short 500 yard drive to make sure the (factory) ABS worked. Then it was loaded and away we went.
(There is a ton more to the ‘Scraps’ story, I’ll post that in the normal update next)
The plan for Scraps was to take advantage of the extra horsepower given to ST4 cars if you don’t run Hoosiers and you don’t run aero. ST4 is a 12:1 class, meaning you can have 1hp for 12lbs of weight. A 3000lb car gets 250hp. You get .3 (11.7) running a tire that fits the 282mm template, and you get .4 for running BTM aero (base trim model…more on that soon), and you get .6 for running a 100treadwear tire.
So, while a “normal” TT4 car weighing 3000lbs with a wing and hoosiers gets only 236hp, a car with BTM aero and 100treadwear tires gets 280hp.
Now, on a ‘normal’ track, a 240hp car with aero/hoosiers will beat the 280hp car because of so much cornering the Hoosiers and the splitter/wing will still come out on top.
But….Daytona.
At Daytona we are WOT (wide open throttle) for more than 75% of the lap. Yep, for a 2min lap, you’ll be foot-to-the-floor for about a minute and thirty seconds.
So, while a lighter hoosier-shod car will typically win at a typical track, the simulations we ran (and we ran PLENTY) showed us that a car that is slightly slower in the corners but with a dramatically faster top speed would win.
So that’s what we built.
But we also built it with a TON of changes to limit drag. Not only is a C6 corvette already super clean (ESPECIALLY when compared to a splitter/wing BMW….or even a splitter/wing NSX), we made it a ton cleaner. A huge portion of the grill got blocked off with carbon to let the air slip on by rather than get caught up, and the upper nose intake was taped over, side gills blocked (engine air dumped below), etc. We did three other HUGE aero things and I’ll share one of them.
When you go down a highway in your 2 door coupe and the windows are down and you hold up a tissue paper about 6” from the ceiling and you hold it right over the shifter and you let it go, what happens? Yep, it flies forward into the windshield and will likely circle to the side and out the window. A ton of air comes in the side windows, hits the back wall, goes back forward through the middle of the cabin and circulates. This is a metric crap-ton of drag. On Scraps, there were two huge coolers (trans and diff) along the back wall of the hatch and there are correspondingly big openings behind them that vent inside the rear panel and go down just behind the car. So, when you drop that tissue at 100mph, it simply flies back and sticks on the coolers. Scraps, a clean C6, with everything taped over and at the proper height and rake, didn’t pay a penalty for open windows as most every other car does. This may not seem like much, but talk to an aero person and they’ll confirm it is huge.
If you sit back and think about airflow over a car, the engine generating heat into the coolers and that the air out of the coolers is hotter and thus expanding, you can likely figure a line on our other two mods, but I think I’ve made my point.
And I know some folks say ‘aero isn’t THAT big a deal’ and you’d be wrong, especially at Daytona. If you don’t think so, plug in what it takes for a car with about 21 sq ft of frontal to push a .30cD and then another with a .49 and yet another with a .55. If you do it right, you’ll be a bit shocked.
How do we go fast? I saw a guy post on FB that “passing you (one of the BMWs) at the same power level is crap”. I get that folks sometimes feel the need to say something, but for the love of God, if you’re not sure what you’re talking about just say “dang, sorry you lost, that sucks”. Otherwise folks will screen shot your ignorance and use it to make you look bad.
I fully understand that horsepower and weight play a huge part in acceleration, but folks, when we’re talking top speed, aero makes the biggest difference (as I just proved).
For top speed, we take the coefficient of drag (a dimensionless number) and factor in the frontal area and power. The easiest way to understand the impact of this is the saying “to double your speed, you must quadruple your power”. Think about that. Down low, punching the throttle at 50mph, aero is a minor thing…but at 100 it is important. At 120 it is critical.
Now, I’ll let you all search and find top speed calculators and look up what coefficient of drag numbers for race cars are (much worse than street counterparts, which are with no air dams, wings, splitters or extra radiators and open windows). Suffice to say, a clean C6 against a race BMW (or even an NSW with a deep air damn, wing, etc) will have a much lower Cd and when you run the calculations, the results speak for themselves.
For a comparison data point the Spec Corvettes (C5 FRC) were pushing 370rwhp and were clocking over 170mph. I was in the upper 150s (with a big tow!) down from that with a MUCH cleaner car aero-wise than the spec-vettes. Scraps is a fastback vette and is less draggy than the FRC body and with less tire tucked in and a seriously vented interior with ram air, Scraps cuts a much cleaner hole through the air. And that was the entire point.
For all you old schoolers who raced fox bodys against 3rd gen fbodies, this is the same thing. A fox was lighter with a kiss more top end power and 0-60 typically went to the fox, but if we did a 100mph pull, the camaro/bird would just walk away and at 120+ it was not remotely fair. The fox had a lot more drag and when you’re talking high speed, that is all that matters. That is why Scraps was built the way it was, and that’s why it performed so well.
FOR THE PEOPLE THAT SAY WE HAD MORE THAN ONE MAP. No. The MoTeC ecu, just like the factory ECU had ONE power map (controlling spark and fuel) and that’s it.
FOR THE PEOPLE THAT SAY “YOU HAD A KNOB”. Yes. The 1 knob was right in front of the shifter and it is labeled “TC” for traction control. It is ‘adjustable gain’ and it LIMITS POWER the more TC you input. If it was raining (predicted) and I raced, I could add in TC to limit slip. This is just like a LOT of cars on grid (the C8s come to mind) that have ‘street’, ‘track’, ‘race’ and ‘off’ that allows you to dial IN TC to limit power. It is NOT A POWER MAP. It is simply a power reduction based on the difference from the front wheels to the rear wheels/slip (I’m pretty sure that’s right…one of the tuner guys will correct me if I’m wrong). I was exhausted in tech after waiting hours and hours and Greg kept asking about the TC “map” and I don’t know if he was being serious or not. I will chalk it up to being tired for both of us but he homed in on the ‘different power’ on the dyno pull with the TC on full and it clearly shows pulled power and you could clearly hear it as the motec (just like the factory ecu would) pulls power as it detects slip. It was raining on the dyno….raining a lot….so the TC kicked in when the slip was detected. I’m sure this confused the officials since when the TC kicked in it showed less power, but in all honesty it should have made sense….but it had been a long loooong day. Please note that every single position on the knob made the SAME POWER with the exception of P10 (full TC) which caused slip on the actively wet-due-to-raining and made LESS POWER, and position 2, which was missed in setup and added a few hundred RPM where POWER WAS FALLING OFF. So…no help there.
(Have video of the dyno runs in case anyone wants to see)
FOR THE PEOPLE THAT SAY ‘YOU CHEATED’. I cannot help you. I’m happy to have a reasonable discussion with anyone and I’ll answer what I can (I did not build the car or tune it). The only reason I did not argue was that the car was setup in a hurry and the donated MoTec (which came from a drift missile car) had one TC setting that didn’t get set to the same parameters as the others. It was an oversight by the tuner, he got the limits set in each position but missed that one. It was zero advantage on the track since the power was falling off and a gear shift at the normal shift point would have been fine. However, since the rpm went past what we claimed, I’m fine with the technical DQ.
THE CAR NEVER MADE MORE POWER THAN WE CLAIMED AND IT NEVER MADE “ILLEGAL” POWER. If you get anything from this update, I hope this comes across.
WHAT HAPPENED- YOU PASSED THE NSX FOR THE LEAD AND THEN SLOWED - The clutch pedal went to the floor and stayed there. I tried to pump it up, but no dice. I was trying to gently force (LOL) it to switch gears but it was killing the lap times. I ran the last lap in 4th gear, knowing I had a big gap because the crew told me on the radio. On the dyno, the guy was starting the car in gear and then trying to gently shift to get to 4th to dyno. I'm sure we'll be pulling the clutch/trans after this. Ug.
Do I think that was the right call to DQ? No. Do I argue with it? Also, no. The director has the right to make that call. I run a bigger event than this and I’d never make the call to impact a racers finish if the broach of rules is not a performance enhancer and my folks know to make the same call. But this is not my circus and not my monkeys, so when Greg said he was going to DQ, I said ok. (I had also been in wet clothes for 3 hours, not eaten, tech would not share water….but still)
What would I have done differently in tech: Had it been my event I would have quickly had a private meeting with the entrant and team and simply asked 'why are you guys so fast?'. Our full team was there for two hours and I was only approached well beyond that after the team had to fly home. I'm not the builder or the tuner, but showing our coast-down data would have absolutely shocked any tech-minded person and I think we could have showed tech some other legal things that would have had them say 'yeah, that makes a lot of sense'. But (to me) it was treated as an adversarial thing and that's not how I treat my customers at my big event since we want to keep growing. At my event a few years back we did just that: A bunch of the bigger teams were bitching at a "new" fast guy in a popular class because there was "no way he can launch that hard unless he is cheating". So, we went and chatted. Entrant pulled us in his trailer, pulled out a binder and showed us the geometry mods (legal!) he did and how he created more forward bite and doing it in a way that was awfully hard to see. Handshakes and smiles, told the other folks he was legal and to quit taking potshots at him.
FOR THE PEOPLE THAT CLAIM SANDBAGGING – Well, sandbagging is legal and for those paying attention, we did it in 2018 and again in 2019. We didn’t push hard till we needed to. For 2021, we pushed hard Thursday (ran with xponder unplugged and easily ran 8s and 9s) but then had all kinds of issues Friday and Saturday chasing TWO bad coils that were fouling plugs. Every session we were pulling plugs, changing wires, testing coils, etc. ALSO, the Goodyear tires we were on…I only had FOUR of them. That’s all TireRack could get me and with the issue with Louis and his mother-in-law early the week of nats I forgot to try and find more. I had ONE set of tires, and the rumor mill was they’d last no problem, but we were running a pretty small 265 on a pretty heavy car, so I didn’t push until I needed to. So we ran the same set of tires the entire weekend (I had full-depth 200TW Hankook RS4s ready if it rained, but it never rained for our sessions.
FOR THE PEOPLE WHO CLAIM THEIR GUY WAS OUT DRIVING ME: Well, yeah. I was in a heavy car on street tires and the car was not fast in the corners. In fact, that was the point. We wanted to be fast down the straights. If you think "Costas cannot drive" then that's fine with me. If you'll look over the chapters on my page, I've done some winning myself and currently hold the longest win streak in NASA history at 40 straight wins in my carb'd tube car Scratcher from 2014-2018. While I'm sure there are some drivers who might find some speed over me in the same car on the same day, I feel pretty confident saying I can hold my own and I'm blessed that folks pay me to impart my knowledge on them and I'm beyond blessed to drive for Louis and GSpeed.
I find this technicality stuff interesting because when NASA TX came into being (early 90s) and I was racing ASedan at TWS, the new NASA TX folks canvassed the paddock (at an SCCA race!) passing out flyers promoting NASA and how “we just want to race, no technicality crap”…which was funny at the time because a winning SCCA car had been DQd the day before for a non-performance enhancement and it was the talk of the paddock. We’ve now gone full 180 because I ran SCCA recently and tech found two non-performance things in SLJHMR and they just said ‘fix it before next race’ and noted the logbook.
Nationals is a big event, but I was shocked at how few cars were there. I run a big event as well (that dwarfs NASA NATS…we get over 600 entries and 30k folks in the stands for a 5 day event) and with Nats seemingly getting smaller and smaller, perhaps it is time to review what works and what doesn’t and make some changes. Five cars in TTU? Four cars in TT5? Six cars in TT1? Lots of race classes had fairly small fields as well. Of course, there were a few decent-sized fields too, but with this being post-covid, I’d hoped for a big turnout. I hope this is getting looked at because we’re looking forward to Laguna in 2022 and the more competition the better.
And for the record, I was the FIRST to congratulate the winner when we got on the podium and I offered my hand to him for both the ST and the TT podiums. For the winner to bad mouth me after I saved his WRL race a few years back with parts and his wife (event organizer) to say what she did after I hauled Nats stuff from Texas to Nats in MidO in 2019 and again hauled Nats stuff to Florida for them now….just wow. It has since been deleted but screenshots live forever.
Also for the record, the NSX was NOT dyno’d after the race. For some reason each race winner and 2nd place car was dyno’d but the NSX was not. Isn’t that odd?? If the excuse is that the NSX dynod after the TT session, well Scraps was dyno’d after the TT session (legal!) and was required to dyno again after the race. But the NSX did not dyno after the race. Hmmmmm…..I wonder why that is ??? It can’t be due to the rain since Scraps was dyno’d in the rain. I wonder why….
---- ADDITIONS ON 28 SEPT 2021
An aero buddy of mine (I hang around car and plane folks...and some are both car AND plane folks!) shared the incredibly relevant point that a Piper Comanche with a 180hp motor is a side-by-side seating airplane with a 180hp motor and it goes about 140mph...and then a TeamTango airplane is similar in frontal area and has the same 180hp motor and it cruises 210mph. It punches a cleaner hole through the air (kinda like a clean C6 vs a dirty'ed up e46 or a wing/splitter nsx) and that is huge.
How huge? Just to help you wrap your head around how big the aero is:
With a Cd of .33 and 22sqft of frontal, you get 150mp out of 184hp.
BUT, with a Cd of .48 and 25sqft of frontal, to get to 150mph you need 292hp.
Think about that....you need over 100hp more for a splitter/wing/boxy shape to go 150 than a clean shape. Hopefully now the light bulbs are going off in folks' heads and it is beginning to make sense. Scraps was ULTRA clean with a flat bottom from the tip of the nose to the middle of the front wheels, mostly blocked off nose, speedtape over the side gills and scoops, vented rear hatch, etc etc. Plus ram air giving us more power than the dyno showed since we were going 140+ and had nice pressure in the intake.
Want to play around with the numbers and see how this works? There is a good calculator here: http://www.wallaceracing.com/Calculate%20HP%20For%20Speed.php
PIC OF OUR OFFICIAL DYNO:
Pretty easy to see Position 2 of the TC gave some extra RPM that gave us NOTHING in power. Put these numbers in a drag race calculator and it will instantly spit out that you need to shift BEFORE 6500 rpm because the power falls off and by shifting, you keep the motor in the power. The corvette box has fairly tight ratios and we stay in the power shifting at 62-6400 otherwise we would have claimed 7000 on our paperwork. Also note that every setting on the TC switch made the same power (except the most aggressive and it was raining) and setting 2 that had more RPM but didn't have more power..or the same power....it had LOST power)
FROM THE NASA RULEBOOK:
23.1 Participant Conduct - Expectations: It is expected that every participant [Ref: (1.4.4)] and driver (entrant) at a NASA sanctioned event will conduct themselves according to the highest standards of behavior and sportsmanship, particularly in their relationship with other drivers and Officials, and in a manner that shall not be detrimental to the reputation of NASA, its series, or other drivers. This rule also pertains to actions away from the track, such as posting comments on social media or forums that are in violations of this rule.
My question is what happens when NASA conducts themselves in such a way to be detrimental to a driver's reputation? Clearly we had the ST4 winner posting seriously defamatory comments as also some folks on the super touring page, but I'm mostly concerned about the comments from NASA themselves:
NASA DQ'd our entry and put "DQ #13x - Multiple engine maps in computer" and that is a lie. That is currently (as of 28 Sept, 2021) what is on the official results and it is a lie. "Detrimental to a driver's reputation". Hmmmm. Should I consult a legal person about this? Is this slanderous to misrepresent what happened? Because to me, that is what happened. They did not put "technical violation".
If a NASA official does not know the difference between an engine map and a traction control map, should that person be part of the decision making process for a rules violation? We had ONE engine map. It is clear to see in the picture above, the engine map is the SAME. In fact, when Scraps was dyno'd time after time after time it was always the same, other than when TC was set to the most aggressive and the car was on a dyno and it was actively raining so we got wheelspin. TC did it's job and reduced the power (NOT CHANGED THE ENGINE MAP) to the wheels to reduce slip. Many cars have TC and tuners know the difference and I'm a bit skeptical that NASA officials don't know this. Supposedly they had a "motec expert" working with them and how any tuning expert could not explain a TC map and how it differed from the engine map is beyond me.
Think of it this way: On a carb'd car with TC, the TC kicks in and pulls power. The TC module can NEVER increase power. Only limit it when wheelspin is detected past a certain percentage. Same with MoTec. The tuner sets up the engine map, and it gets locked in. Then the TC switch is mapped and depending on wheelspin desired (we typically allow a bit of wheelspin in the dry settings, and allow less in the wet settings) the TC will reduce power based on the setting if wheelspin is detected. This is basically how all TC is used and there were a LOT of cars at Nats that had TC either from the factory (bmw, corvette, etc) and most every aftermarket ECU has that ability as well. As far as I'm aware, ours was the only car DQd for it.
Let's dig a bit deeper:
7.1. Dyno Testing Procedures The following procedures apply to all vehicles being tested on a dynamometer, whether for initial classing purposes, or for technical inspection post-competition. A certified Dyno report consists of three separate, reproducible Dyno tests for each Fuel/Timing Map or boost controller setting with SAE J1349 Rev JUN 90 correction, with the car owner’s Super Touring 1-4 Rules 2021 15.2 18 name, car number, car year/make/model, shop name and phone number, and Dyno operator’s name on the Dyno sheet, accompanied by a completed ST/PT/TT Dyno Certification Form……
……Any restriction device placed in the air intake system must be clearly identified as such and marked to indicate its dimensions. Vehicles that have more than one fuel/timing program or “map” in the computer/ECU/PCM must submit a certified Dyno report (3 pulls) for each of those fuel/timing “maps” regardless of which one will be used during competition. As well, the method used to switch between these “maps” must be clearly written on the ST Car Classification Form.
So wait...."Multiple engine maps in computer" is not actually a violation. Now, we did NOT HAVE MULTIPLE ENGINE MAPS, we only had one. Still, did the officials not know 7.1 ?? We had ONE "fuel/timing" map and then TC which only reduced power if wheelspin was detected.
Back to the rules: (bold and underline mine)
23.1.2 Unsportsmanlike Conduct: Any unsportsmanlike conduct, on any scale, is not welcome at NASA events. Acts of unsportsmanlike conduct have many forms such as arguing, yelling, intimidation, aggressive physical contact, and losing without grace. Other forms are willfully using non-performance technicalities to hurt another competitor’s race or point standings to the benefit of one’s own, “sandbagging,” and failing to report a mistake in scoring that benefits themselves. Use of an administrative procedure (e.g. appeal) by a driver that was not involved in an incident only to better that driver’s finishing position or season points is considered unsportsmanlike conduct. No form of unsportsmanlike conduct will be tolerated at any NASA event.
See the bold there?
NASA officials did that to me. A TC setting that gave NO PERFORMANCE was willfully used to hurt our outcome. According to the rules, that is unsportsman like conduct, at least the way I read it.
Now, while you might say "willfully using non-perforance technicalities to hurt" is only for competitors, the last line is a stand alone and it says "No form of unsportsmanlike conduct will be tolerated...". If NASA is going to follow their own rules, will the DQs (both ST4 and TT4) stand?
Non-performance technicality. I'd bet if I took a dozen random folks at a NASA event and gave them the bare bones facts, they would say that having an additional few hundred revs in one TC setting that did not increase power, or even keep the same power, but it was falling fast and would clearly not be faster....they would say that is a non-performance technicality. Maybe not....but I'd take that bet.
I'm still digging and thinking and will update this accordingly.
(Interestingly, I was back on track this past Sat/Sun running with some buddies in their WRL/ChampCar team and we were fortunate enough to win both days but the post-race glance found a non-performance item we didn't claim which is technically a violation, but since it was non-performance our win stood and we were told to fix it...what a refreshing encounter)
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UPDATE FOR 08 OCT 2021 (and likely the final update!)
Hola folks and thank you so much to the many of you that reached out. I didn't realize the reach of the social media/forums that are interested in this...and I'm humbled by the support. I love the clarifying questions and anecdotal info, but really the support from tons of folks I've never met really means a lot to me.
MFW (if you know, you know) found an incredibly relevant clip that completely shares our approach. If you search Motor Mythbusters (on Amazon) and check out season 1, episode 10, they take an old full size Dodge van and run it down the 1/4 mile. It traps at 71mph. Then they cut 1' off the roof, but add enough ballast to keep the weight the same, and line it up again (same power, same launch). It now traps at 77mph! Think about that, just by reducing some drag they add 6mph. And this is BELOW 100mph where aero is not nearly as impactful as over 100mph. Wow. I didn't do the full math workup on this, but with a full size van at about 7 feet tall and we take a foot off, figure about a 12-15% frontal reduction. 6+ MPH and that was with the majority of the time under 60mph! We know that doubling the speed needs to quadruple the power and it becomes pretty easy to see that at 120mph, when our car punches a clean hole in the air...it was simple to step out and pass the cars with wings and splitters. #PhysicsHasSpoken
Also, if you are a podcaster, check out "The Backyard Garage Podcast". Folks, when ANY show opens up with the theme from Top Gun you just KNOW this is going to be good. Specifically, if you check out Season 2 and Episode 7 at about the 23 minute mark you'll hear about our little NASA National adventure in Scraps (our C6 was built, literally, from scraps, so the name stuck) and some interesting points to ponder. If you're a cone-dodger the first 20 minutes is good as well, but to hear some interesting and very well qualified thoughts on our car, it starts at 23ish.
I *still* struggle with the NASA Officials saying we had "more than one map" when we only had ONE engine map. We *did* have different TC maps, but that is common and it can only REDUCE engine power when slip is detected.
IN FACT AS OF TODAY (08 Oct 2021) THE OFFICIAL RESULTS ARE *STILL* WRONG. The results page saying: "Multiple engine maps in the computer" is not correct and if a NASA Official will speak to a proficient tuner that tuner will tell them "well, you ran the dyno in each TC position and the only difference in results was LESS power when slip was detected since you dyno'd it in the rain and you had it on the most severe setting". Every TC setting made the same power....why? Because it is the same engine tune. The TC only kicks in when slip is detected. This is clear as day to pretty much everyone I've spoken with, but somehow it does not resonate with the NASA officials. These are car guys, right???? <rolls eyes>
Again, thanks for reading and I'm sorry this isn't short and sweet. A buddy asked for the "quick synopsis" and sadly I had to tell him to read the whole thing. Trying to shorten the story would have meant leaving out stuff that is impactful to the story. I wanted to provide the WHOLE story so folks can draw their conclusion with as many facts as I can provide.
Lastly, again, huge thanks for the support. I'm not sure what's next for me and the GSpeed team, but you'll see the coverage on this website!
~Costas