Chapter 303 : Sept 2022

GRAB YOUR GEAR!

Most of my readers have driven a car hard and understand the majority of what I type about on this website. When a car won’t “get into a corner” easily, it is typically understeering (or “pushing”) meaning the nose will note rotate into the turn as much as the driver would like. There is a plethora of levers we can pull in order to reduce/eliminate this unwanted characteristic, some fairly pure while others might create a correspondingly equal negative interaction that we might not want. Or the car might be loose. Or unstable. Or any of the dozens of things that inhibit our ability to go really fast. While a lot of theories can be applied/tested/checked, as in so very much of life, nothing beats experience.

"I hate waiting...."

Speaking of experience, that is likely the largest reason folks bring vehicles to GSpeed. The braintrust there, headed up by Louis is awfully hard to beat. While most folks quickly bring the incredible success of the shop car “Sledgehammer” to mind, the simple fact is that Louis was building pro-winning cars before he was 20 years old (he's like super-old now!) and the knowledge and experience here is best described as “quite vast”. On top of the actual experience is the wherewithal to say “I don’t know”, and “let’s find out”. That was the entire driving force behind GSpeed grabbing an early C8 with the top three goals of “test”, “test”, and of course, “test”. With new geometry as well as a rear engine setup, Louis wanted to know how to make these new cars fast, and we did (along with our partners at Penske and Cobalt).

As to this specific chapter, the GSpeed team was again entrusted by a top level competitor (Jake) to do some serious upgrades on his C5 as well as setup the car for the upcoming National event. As usual, the work expands and contracts to fit the allotted time and as it happened Jake could not get back to GSpeed the week before Nationals but with a new completely flat bottom as well as many other upgrades, the car desperately needed a full shakedown and dial-in.

So…as so many of my chapters start….my phone rang. Phone calls from Louis are always among my favorite. In the past I’ve shookdown/setup cars for pro and club events both and sometimes it is one car, and sometimes as many as five in a weekend. It’s always fun. We always learn. Most of the time we go faster.

The team getting it done! My job is the easiest!! Don't go off, don't miss a shift, and oh yeah, run under the track record! Simple!

Phone rang. Grabbed gear. Headed to track. Slid in car. Laps. Changes. Laps. Changes. Laps. Changes. Laps. Changes. Laps. Changes. Laps. Then a few more changes and a few more laps. Then I went home. <grin> (There was also Del Norte in there somewhere….)

Car was nut-and-bolted. Setup double checked. A few small things wrapped up. It left for Nationals a day later. How did it go? Won TT2. Won ST2. National Champion TWICE, plus track records. Huge congrats to Jake for being clean, being fast when it counted, and being smart the entire time. Huge thank you to Louis and Jake both for entrusting me with that incredible creation and I’m very proud to be a small part of Jake’s effort. Good times! Jake reported that at the event he only made a small wing change to the setup! Awesome!!

Want to watch the ST2 race? GREAT VID!!!! Check it out here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LmJ_8rEYifs

Huge congrats to Jake for pulling off the double-national-championship win!!!!!