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2009

Speedway Motors 2011 Tire Rack SCCA Solo National Championships Music Video

By Jake

Below is an excellent music video prepared by SCCA marketing partner, Speedway Motors. The video features the best of the best competing for top honors at the 2011 Tire Rack SCCA Solo National Championships in Lincoln, Nebraska. Don't miss the Hamfist Racing RX7 shooting a quick fireball from the exhaust at the 3:53 mark. Enjoy!

Lincoln Nebraska Chamber of Commerce Hamfist Racing Interview: 2011 Tire Rack SCCA Solo National Championships

By: Jake

Below is an interview with Hamfist Racing (specifically Elena and I) by the Lincoln Chamber of Commerce regarding the 2011 Tire Rack SCCA Solo National Championships. I hope we were able to successfully promote SCCA's appreciation to Lincoln for hosting our championships and the symbiotic relationship that ensues. Thanks again to all our marketing partners/sponsors, without whom we would have never been able to compete in Lincoln - Park It NY, ANZE Suspension, OSGiken, Hoosier Tire, Mazda Motorsports and Speed1 Allentown!

From The Lincoln Tunnel to Lincoln Nebraska

By: Jake

2009 ProSolo Finale: Lincoln, NE Sept 5th - 6th

The journey to Lincoln Nebraska started out with a circus of undercover NYPD officers swarming my vehicle within half a block of my apartment. I knew it was a bad idea to leave the exhaust dump and those damn Redline Time Attack decals on the car. There I was, sitting in a flashy, sticker ridden race car
--> with a matchbox spoiler on my trunk, surrounded by fifteen plain clothed undercover NYPD officers with shields dangling from their necks. The traffic stop was a hell of a spectacle for the hundreds of New York City passers-by.












NYPD Traffic Stop (Dramatization)

It was nearly an hour until they sent me on my way with a measly traffic violation (no massive drug bust here, sorry folks). I guess the undercover detectives were not very familiar with the practices of cutting traffic tickets. As it turned out, I allegedly honked my horn without any clear sign of danger. We were in Manhattan for Christ’s sake, who doesn’t honk their horn? That battle would have to wait for another day; I had a more important one waiting for me in Nebraska. It was peddle to the metal out of the Lincoln Tunnel on a mission to a new Lincoln.

Hamfist Racing Subaru Begging for Unwanted Attention

After about fifteen hours of driving I was in the middle of nowhere and getting restless. A quick glance at the GPS showed I was approaching the Mississippi River. If there was one thing I learned throughout the many years I was forced to take social studies in grade school, it’s that civilization cultivates around water. There was bound to be something along the river to do or see. I discovered downtown Moline, IL and in this city there was a hair salon... two actually. At that point I had grown an incredibly grizzly beard and a Jew-fro that rivaled Seth Rogen. I sat my ass down for a relaxing professional grooming - my first paid haircut in nearly 10 years - to take my mind off the fact that I still needed to drive another 12 hours. Despite being in Bumble-Guam, Illinois the two hair stylists were really cool. Without second guessing my directions – or mental state – they carved the mysterious pylon into my head.

Photo By : Danny Kao

Thanks Beth And David From DaVarah Salon For Making Me A Conehead Like Dan Aykroyd

Back on the road, I spent nearly half a day dodging oversize tractor trailers with one hand while the other was fingering the novel scalp terrain.

1300 Miles Worth Of Insecticide On The Street Driven Hamfist Racing STU Impreza

Upon arriving in Lincoln I could see the racers in attendance were the best of the best from the 2009 ProSolo series. A win in Lincoln, I realized, was going to take perfection. Expecting my Subaru to understeer on concrete, I decided several test and tune runs would be necessary to obtain that perfection. Since the car has non adjustable shocks I jacked up the rear pressure to astronomical levels in an attempt to induce oversteer. The concrete was too grippy for that trick, so I had to rely on alignment adjustments, which I have not played with all season, to get the car to rotate at corner entry. Corey Ridgick – driving the Bridgestone Mitsubishi Evolution in STU – helped decipher my rear toe adjusters, and Max Hayter – driving the ChaseCam/Fordhal Motorsports Subaru STi in STU – let me borrow his set of Longacre toe plates, to achieve a slight rear toe-out alignment, effectively dialing out the terminal understeer that plagued my car on concrete. Thanks guys!

2007 & 2009 ProSolo STU Champion Ridgick (left) and 2008 ProSolo STU Champion Max Hayter (right)

Day 1 of ProSolo competition started out well. On the left course I was chipping away at the clock with some solid runs and respectable times. On the right course, however, I felt off the mark having gone too deep into the braking zone after the far right slalom. Despite imperfection I was sitting behind Geoff Clark in second place going into the afternoon runs. In the afternoon it got hairy. I red lit after psyching myself out thinking I needed a solid improvement on the right course. With that red light still etched into my retinas I must have overlooked a wall of three slalom cones. Swinging around for what would be my last run of day one I shook off the cobwebs and yelled at myself to look ahead. With the announcer calling out all sorts of action at the top of STU, I tried my best to concentrate. On the right I pulled out a three tenths improvement moving me ahead of Clark, but it wasn’t enough. Both Ridgick and Hayter edged me out and I was sitting in third place, 0.517 seconds from first.

Hamfist Racing Subaru STI in all its impound glory

The spread to first was within reach but I knew Ridgick wasn’t going to give it up without a fight. Sure enough, on day 2 he improved by eight tenths. I simply needed to go faster… and I did, improving run after run with a near 6 tenths pick up on the left and almost a full second on the right! I stormed ahead of Ridgick and Hayter and ultimately secured my first ProSolo victory.

The win felt fantastic but at the same time bittersweet. All season I’ve been chasing one driver: Corey Ridgick. Every event I would get closer and closer to victory until I finally began to drive faster than him. The times I was faster, however, were always on one course out of two course events (National Tour or Prosolo format events). He would best me on the other course, by a greater margin, ultimately winning the event. I always “won the battle but lost the war.” This included finishes at DC ProSolo, Finger Lakes National Tour, Northeast Divisional Championship, and the Holbert Memorial.

The Provisional Hamfist Racing Win

After finally driving faster than Corey on both courses and securing the event win at the ProSolo Finale, Ridgick once again managed to edge me out and win the war. I finished 2nd place in the overall season points championship and Ridgick secured the 2009 ProSolo Season Championship. Congratulations!

Corey deserves the season championship. He was nearly perfect every second of every course of every event all season. That’s what it takes to win this game. I still wake up covered in sweat thinking about the 0.001 second differential from DC ProSolo and how things could have ended differently. I swear to the world, next year I will hamfist my way to perfection and to a ProSolo Championship. No more f’in What Ifs.

2009 ProSolo Season Finale Results
2009 ProSolo Championship Points Standing

Hamfist Racing win in Lincoln featured at SCCA.com...

"Baker Wins ProSolo Finale, Strano Takes JCJ Cup
BY:SCCA Communications
09/06/2009


Photo:James Sykes

LINCOLN, Neb. (Sept. 6, 2009) – The first Tire Rack® SCCA ProSolo Finale at Lincoln Airpark ended with Ian Baker, of Herndon, Va., taking the top prize, while runner-up Sam Strano, of Knoxdale, Pa., earned enough points to claim the overall Super Challenge Championship and take home the JCJ Cup.

Driving a Stranoparts/SSC/KONI Honda CRX, Street Touring S winner Baker faced off against F Stock winner Strano in the final round of the Super Challenge. Baker, who had yet to win a Super Challenge this season, picked the right event to get it done, beating Strano’s StranoPerformanceParts/Capital Quest Mtg. Ford Shelby Mustang to the finish.

With a sturdy lead in the Super Challenge points heading into the Finale, Strano’s second-place finish was enough to claim the JCJ Cup for the top Super Challenge point scorer.

The leader of the Ladies Challenge points came away with the Ladies Challenge Finale win as well. It was only fitting that after winning Ladies Class 1, Leslie Cohen, of Cardiff by the Sea, Calif., would face off against the woman chasing her in the Ladies Challenge point standings, Meredith Brown, of Los Alamos, N.M. Cohen’s C2 Racing/Leslie Cohen Design Honda Civic bested Brown’s Automotive Pros/MidAtlantic Toyota MR2 to take the Ladies Challenge win and Championship.

The Honda Tuner Challenge went to Jinx Jordan, of Terrell, N.C., driving a SoloPro Driving School/Hoosier Honda Civic. Jordan managed to beat the Super Challenge winner himself, Baker.

In class competition, Jake ..., of New York, N.Y., stormed to the front of the Street Touring® Ultra field to take the win in his HamfistRacing.com Subaru Impreza. The victory ended Corey Ridgick’s STU win streak. Ridgick, of Allentown, Pa., would finish second by just 0.026-second in his Bridgestone Mitsubishi Evo, but take the STU ProSolo Championship.

In D Street Prepared, Mike Sheilds, of Temple, N.H., took a slim 0.086-second win in his Ambrosia SW BMW 325is over Mark Alan Smith, of Denver, Colo., in a 3Zero3MS.com/Ska Brewing/Bildon Volkswagen. Sheilds, however, scored enough points to take the overall DSP ProSolo crown.

A Street Prepared was shaken up, as Eric Stemler, of Peoria, Ill., took the win in his Chevrolet Corvette over Jason Collett, of Smyrna, Tenn., also in a Corvette, while ASP point leader Jason Uyeda, of West Hills, Calif., finish fourth in his A.R.E./ProParts Lotus Elise. This finish turned the point standings upside down, as Stemler would take class honors with 53 points, followed by Collett, with 52 and Uyeda, with 51.

In H Stock, Ron Williams, of Topeka, Kan., made a comeback to take the win in his MINI USA/Hoosier Tires MINI Cooper, beating Joseph Austin, of Montgomery, N.Y., in an On a Dime Racing MINI Cooper by 0.352-second. The win secured Williams’ H Stock title.

The tie for the Ladies Class 2 ProSolo Championship was finally settled, as Annie Bauer, of Renton, Wash., beat Christine Berry. Driving a PMWLTD.com/SignEdge.com BMW 2002, Bauer topped the Hoosier/ChaseCam/BerryFamilyRacing Mitsubishi Evo of Berry, from Alta Loma, Calif., by 0.683-second.

The pylons won’t be put away just yet, as the Lincoln Airpark has one more event to contend with. The 2009 Tire Rack SCCA Solo National Championships begin on Tuesday, Sept. 8, and run through Friday, Sept. 11. News and results will be posted, as they become available."

Stayed tuned for the Hamfist write up... For real this time.

2009 ProSolo Season Finale Results

Ferrari F430 Scuderia - Elena's Last minute ASPL ride for Nats

Elena was fortunate enough to get offered a codrive in a Ferrari F430 Scuderia (lightweight race prepared edition F430, for those of you who don't know). Here are some images and videos of the experience. Note the discrete "Hamfist Racing" magnet that needed to be taped to the aluminum body of the Ferrari.

Click on the video links below to view inside the Ferrari during autox...
http://vholdr.com/video/scca-2009-solo-nationals-east-course-elenas-3rd-run
http://vholdr.com/video/scca-2009-solo-nationals-west-course-elenas-2nd-run

Click on the images below to view in high resolution...

(Photos By: mageep)

(Photo By: Gotcone.com)

National Scramble… See you in Nebraska.

By: Jake

Team Hamfist Racing has its final roster of attendees at the 2009 Tire Rack SCCA Solo National Championships. The list includes both La Rosa’s, Elena and Sandro, running in ASPL and ASP respectively with their Mazda RX7, Grant Winston running ES in his Mazda Miata, and Dave Corsaro codriving with me in STU class in the Subaru Impreza WRX STi.

After my shared experience of shifter issues at the Divisional Championships with Dave, and my expectation for having to shift at the National Championships (given the scale of Lincoln Airport), I pulled the trigger and ordered all new shifter bushings from Turn In Concepts. The parts include the Kartboy Rear Shifter Stay Bushing, TiC 04-05 STi Shift Linkage Bushings, and TiC 6MT Pivot Bushings. These are going in Wednesday, just in time to break them in at Warminster Park, PA Sunday at the Philly Region SCCA autox. There is no room for error at Nationals. Every shift needs to be spot on, otherwise you can kiss your chances of putting together the perfect run in three.

Also in the scramble before Nationals, Sandro has been working hard to get his RX7 healthy. All new Mazdaspeed suspension and shifter bushings were installed last week and tested at NYR SCCA’s autox yesterday. The car felt spectacular, despite having a boost pressure loss scare after the morning heat. We discovered the bypass solenoid hose had blown off the Y-pipe. Redoing the clamp remedied the situation for the afternoon heat; however, I strongly recommended that new worm and T-bolt clamps be swapped prior to Nationals. Much like a miss-shift can kill your chances at winning Nationals; a blown critical boost pressure line severely impacts your acceleration and thus your chances of Hamfisting the competition.

Even Grant Winston, National rookie, is scrambling to get every last tenth out of his Miata. He is running over a set of SSR wheels to the machine shop to get them within offset tolerances for stock. Thus creating the lightest ES Miata wheels one could own. Good luck Grant. I’m sure E-Stock is rolling deep this year, as usual.

Good luck everyone else heading out to Nebraska! Drive safe. I hope your mad scrambles for National readiness are as fun and stressful as us Hamfists'.