SoloMatters Features 2012 Devens National Tour & Hamfist Racing!

Video By: SoloMatters

By: Jake

The front right wheel lifts substantially around the 1:23 second mark in the video. The Hamfist Racing SSM Mazda RX7 finished 1st Place in class by over 5 seconds at this event!

2012 SCCA Devens National Tour Music Video - By: Steve Segius

Steve Segius made a great music video of the Devens National Tour event featuring the Hamfist Racing Mazda RX7! Enjoy.

SCCA Devens National Tour 2012 Music Video from Steve Seguis on Vimeo.

Hamfist Racing Mazda RX7 SSM - SCCA SOLO Devens National Tour June 17th 2012

Hamfist Racing Mazda RX7 SSM - SCCA SOLO Devens National Tour June 16th 2012

2012 SCCA San Diego National Tour Highlights

Why You Should Run The 2012 SCCA Devens Solo National Tour

Registration for the Northeast Solo National Tour event is now open. The event is being hosted by the New England Region at one of the greatest runway sites in the country, Fort Devens, Ayer, MA. Come see where you rank with some of the best in the country. Register now HERE.

2012 SCCA Solo Season Goes Hot

By: Jake

This morning the green flag is waved at South Georgia Motorsports Park starting the 2012 Tire Rack SCCA Solo National Tour "Road to Lincoln" with the Dixie National Tour event. Announcer comments and real-time scoring can be enjoyed courtesy of Chase Cam at the links below. Super Stock, Street Touring R, Street Touring X and, my favorite, Super Street Modified will be among the most hotly contested classes.

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/SCCASolo

http://sololive.scca.com/

2012 SCCA Meadowlands New Jersey National Tour Canceled

By: Jake

The 2012 Meadowlands National Tour event was canceled due to scheduling conflicts with the NY Giants - damn Champions think they can bully the SCCA. An addition to the 2012 National Tour schedule, to satisfy northeast drivers, will be hosted by NER SCCA at Fort Devens Air Base in Ayer, MA. This is unfortunate for many NYC area racers looking for a relaxing event close to home. On the plus side, Fort Devens site has super-high-grip asphalt and the total length of the course is over a mile - not including the added distance from squiggly turns and slaloms. See you at the fort, soldier.

For complete 2012 National Tour event information visit: SCCA

2012 National SCCA Solo/ProSolo Schedule Released

By: Jake 

Well folks, it's the time of year when you should sit down with your boss to explain, once again, why you will be away from work for sporadic days throughout your 2012 work schedule. The hard part is getting "that look" from your boss when you tell him or her that you'll be driving a big clunky trailer through the middle of nowhere on a day you are supposed to be at work. You know "that look". It's the one where you know he's thinking, "This guy is nuts." Without further delay, below please find the 2012 SCCA National Solo and ProSolo Schedule:

3/10 Dixie National Tour – Adel, GA
3/17 Texas National Tour – College Station, TX
4/14 Maryland ProSolo – TBA
4/21 Mineral Wells ProSolo -Mineral Wells, TX
4/28 San Diego National Tour - San Diego, CA
5/5 El Toro ProSolo – Irvine, CA
***CANCELED***5/19 New Jersey National Tour- East Rutherford, NJ***CANCELED***
5/25 Lincoln ProSolo – Lincoln, NE
5/27 Lincoln National Tour – Lincoln, NE
6/8 Blytheville ProSolo - Blytheville, AK
6/10 Blytheville National Tour - Blytheville, AK

***NEW EVENT***6/16 Northeast Devens Air Base National Tour - Ayer, MA***NEW EVENT***
6/30 Packwood Tour - Packwood, WA
7/7 Packwood ProSolo - Packwood, WA
7/14 Colorado National Tour – Fountain, CO
7/21 New Mexico ProSolo – Farmington, NM
7/28 Toledo ProSolo - Toledo, OH
8/4 Peru National Tour - Peru, Indiana
9/1 ProSolo Finale – Lincoln, NE
9/4 Tire Rack Solo Nationals – Lincoln, NE
10/27 Tri-States Championship – Blytheville, AR

More details at www.scca.com/solo

2012 NNJR SCCA Solo National Tour - Date Released!

By: Jake

The Northern New Jersey Region SCCA and the SCCA National office have booked a National Tour event at our favorite local proving ground for the 2012 season! The Meadowlands (aka Met Life Stadium) will host a tour event, rather than a ProSolo, this year, on the weekend of May18-20, 2012. I am sure the region is looking for volunteers to help plan and organize the event. If you are interested, please reach out to the NNJR SCCA core workers. See you there!

Wrench, Weigh, Race... 2010 SCCA Dixie National Tour

By: Jake

It was 4:30am, I was covered in garage grime from head to toe, and had a meeting for work in less than four hours. I had never felt better! The car was reassembled and the off-season improvements were complete. As an "e-mechanic", this was the longest project in which I had ever entrenched myself. It was rewarding to say the least.

The ambitious goal for 2010 was to build my RX7 for Super Street Mod (SSM) class from it's current state as an ASP car. The rules are very flexible in SSM, but my imagination and innovation is limited. I ended up simply improving on what I had, not yet going for the pre-requisite upgraded turbos and/or motor swaps.

My off-season goal was three fold; 1) Lower under-hood tempertures to optimize the factory turbos, 2) Lower overall mass towards SSM minimum weight 2500lbs, 3) Make it grip.

To address the temperature issues the car got a new thermostat, larger intercooler, custom insulated intake & intercooler piping and ducting, heat-wrapped 3" downpipe & midpipe, and a new OE radiator fan.

The car diet started with the rear end. A used Greddy titanium catback exhaust, weighing only 7 lbs, replaced the heavier Racing Beat Dual tips, saving approximately 20 lbs. '93 RX7's twenty gallon fuel tanks have notoriously weak baffles and mine broke late last season. To fix this issue a '95+ spec fuel tank, which has reinforced and re-engineered baffling, was installed. This enables the car to be run below a quarter tank without fuel starvation issues. Net fuel weight savings of approximately 60 lbs. To counter all the rear end lightening - and make room for the aforementioned intercooler - the mini Deka battery was relocated from the engine bay to the hatch directly over the rear axles.

Next on the agenda, make it stick so hard that the asphalt rips out of the ground it was laid over. What better place to start than with the tires? Second hand rubber in the form of 295/35/17 Hoosier A6s were snagged up off a corvette owner for a song. These black donuts were shoe horned onto a set of 17x9" wheels that I had laying around. Final fitment was made possible by 0-60 Magazine, thanks to a borrowed fender-roller out of their project car garage, also know as "The Gayrage".

The final stages of the "grip" improvements came from a corner balancing compliments of my '09 National Championship co-driver, and fellow hamfist, Dave Corsaro. The night before leaving for the 2010 Dixie National Tour we put the car on scales at his workplace, Johnson Scale. Not famous for their automotive application, Johnson Scale handles general weighing, force measurement, material testing, and scale inspection, calibration, service and scale rentals. Perhaps they just found a new market niche. By midnight we had the car at a perfect 50:50 cross weight, however not without incident. We spent about 2 hours adjusting perches and deciphering nonsensical corresponding weight changes. It wasn't until Dave scratched his head and murmured with deep concern "I should have been taking better notes" that helping hand Elena discovered our major blunder. The left-rear and right-rear scales were placed at the right-rear and left-rear corners, respectively...

To be continued...

Jake - 59.XXX - Run 1 Day 2 Dixie National Tour (Spin)


Jake - 59.XXX - Run 3 Day 2 Dixie National Tour

Middle Finger Lakes National Tour

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By: Jake

With Finger Lakes National Tour over every attendee is now mentally reconciling their driving, setup, and performance from the past weekend. Many wonder where they left time on the course (Saturday or Sunday). Some wonder why they were not looking ahead on one particular run at one particular moment, knowing full well that was exactly where they lost the time. Others just wish they hadn’t gotten that cone penalty on their fastest run of the day. Only a select few are content with way the events unfolded. I, personally, have mixed feelings about how the event unfolded...

Friday began with an early morning road trip. The Hamfist Racing caravan was only 2 cars deep but we made it to Seneca Army Depot without incident. On the way we passed one hitchhiking redneck, five state troopers pulling speeds with lasers, and many tractor crossing warning signs. We dropped off the camping gear across the street at Sampson State Park and shot over to the event just in time to squeeze in one test and tune run. The surface felt loose and slippery. After tech and car prep Hamfist Racing headed back to the campsite.

Grid Presence

That night we did our best to cook a decent meal in order to be properly nourished for Saturday’s race. That proved to be quite difficult given the extremely humid conditions and wet firewood. It took all the “cowboy juice” I had to get the fire going and after that I needed to get creative to maintain the flame long enough for the chili to cook fully. Anybody with a turbocharged car knows the benefits of forcing additional oxygen into combustion. After nearly passing out from orally blowing (insert perverted comment here) on the fire, I broke out the air mattress pump and invented the world first campfire turbocharger. See tutorial video.

Campfire Turbo Video

Saturday morning, 5:00am; cue the crows. I think that was the earliest I ever showed up for an autocross in my life. The weather report looked questionable and run groups can consider themselves lucky if they had consistent conditions for all drivers on all runs. Dave ran first thing in the morning in his A-Stock Honda S2000 CR Edition. The weather held dry for his Saturday and Sunday runs. Despite being on R888 Toyo tires, Dave managed to consistently run times within a second or so of the A-Stock top drivers on Hoosier A6’s. A cone penalty on Dave’s fast run Sunday would later come as a surprise and drop him down to 13^th in class of 18 drivers.

Cone-age

The La Rosa’s were not the only ASP RX7 in the running at Finger Lakes. In ASP there was a bumped Super Stock Z06 corvette and another 1993 Mazda RX-7, both with two drivers per car. Elena laid down the fastest RX-7 times on Saturday and Sunday and finished 3^rd overall. Despite having coned away her fast time Saturday she was determined to beat the Corvette drivers, which she did on Sunday, but not by a big enough margin to cover the cone on Saturday. Regardless, her performance was stellar and I hope she enjoys that Mazda contingency prize money.

La Rosa - Concrete Sunday

Meanwhile, STU ran the same heat as ASP. The class was nearly two times the size of ASP but not quite as large as A-Stock. My mentality beginning the race on Saturday was to secure a clean run no matter what. As a result, my first run was a remarkable slow 60.XX second run. I was driving completely contrary to the Hamfist Racing mantra: “Balls to the Wall.” I managed to pick up some decent time on run #2 Saturday and 58.602 would stand as my fast time of day. Note, I only have videos of my 2 slower Saturday runs due to technical issues associated with running video for the first time.

Saturday seemed to drag on forever with rain sweeping in later just in time for our work assignment. I was sitting in a neutral 6^th position of 11 in class so I had a lot of ground to cover Sunday. Not more than 5 minutes after we all got back to the campsite and I was out… cold.

After an 8 hour power nap I woke up and realized there was nothing to lose, being that I was sitting in 6^th place. It was either spin or win. My first run Sunday was a real eye opener with regard to traction. I realized was simply over braking in the offset gates Saturday. Enter each offset with more speed than the previous and realized all I hard to do was turn harder and earlier. No brakes! Run #2 was more of the same with a slight improvement in time. Over the speakers, I could hear the announcer call me in second place with a time of 55.422 seconds.

Jake - Concrete Sunday

Waiting eagerly in the grid I hear more over the sound waves. Adam Fuhs knocks me out and then Josh Luster squeezes into the number two spot. Too much pressure… Breathe… I crank up some Bob Marley to drown out the announcing regarding STU pole positions as I worked my way up to the start line. None of what the announcer was saying mattered. I just needed to relax and prepare my nerves for the most hamfisted run of my life. I tell myself, “just look ahead and keep the go peddle to the floor”.

Letting Bob Marley Soothe My Nerves

The last run started out great! I didn’t lift through the fast section heading out and I managed to get the downshift just right entering the slalom before the turnaround. However, in all my downshifting glory, I managed to overlook the last slalom cone and turn-in a moment too early. The loud, familiar, sound of a pylon hitting my fender well resonated through the driver’s cabin. The only thing I could do now was make up for the 2 second cone penalty. The rest of the run was even more hamfisted than the beginning. My tires were hating me as I came screaming out of the concrete pad in 3^rd gear. At the finish everyone was clapping and the announcer called the run clean. I looked at the time slip confused and I was only looking at the decimal places. I ran a XX.625. Slower than my XX.422, I thought, and dirty, I insisted. As everyone was complimenting my time I made a quick double take at the slip. The time was a 54.625 and was 2 tenths faster than Corey Ridgick fast time of the day Sunday and 8 tenths faster than my second run.

1st Place STU - Ridgick

However, for 10 minutes I insisted to all who commented that the penalty audit would reveal a cone. When the paper came in I was astonished. No Cones! Later I found out that the cone I hit, cone #309, was completely flattened by my inside tire and miraculously popped up right inside the box. Thanks to John, the corner worker, for being on top of checking the cone. My final position was 2^nd place in STU, 7 tenths from Corey Ridgick’s top spot and 6 tenths ahead of Luster. My pax position was 35th of 232 drivers.

Lucky Cone #309

Later that day I bought I Pick 3 lotto ticket with the numbers 309. It didn’t win. Cone 309 wasn’t good for a 1^st place win at Finger Lakes and #309 wasn’t good for a lotto jackpot. Go figure.

Not-So-Lucky Lotto Ticket #309

Final Results: http://scca.com/popup/raceresult.aspx?event=13672&file=768

Pax Results: http://sccaforums.com/forums/storage/16/365186/FingerLakesTour.PAX-RTP.Final.pdf

PREPARATION-H.amfist

By: Jake

SCCA DC ProSolo is in less than two weeks and Finger Lakes National Tour is this week. For many, Team Hamfist included, preparation is in full swing – preparation of equipment and preparation of drivers. Aside from making sure we get seat time every chance we get, including this weekend's NNJR SCCA autocross on the Raceway Park road course and last weekends 2-day Holbert Memorial, we have all begun working on some minor tweaks to get the cars closer to the maximum performance potential of each of our classes.

I am not about to let those STU boys get the best of me. For me personally, that meant spending a little time wrenching and a little time running erands. Neither of which was uneventful.

The STU Competition

A week or so ago myself and a couple other Hamfists decided to pull the trigger on new rubber. Between all of us we ended up buying twelve new tires; including, 4 Dunlop Direzza Z1 Star Specs, 4 Toyo R888s, and 4 Hoosier A6s… drool. The Hoosier A6’s are 275/35/15 and are set to be run on the La Rosa’s 1993 Mazda RX7 R1 – an ex-Super-Stock car now nicely prepared for ASP competition.

Awaiting fresh stickies (Top Right: La Rosa Rx-7; Top Left: Jake Rx-7; Bottom: Jake STi)

The R888 rubber, while sticky and technically and R compound tire, is more of a compromise between street and race. This rubber has been mounted to an A-Stock 2008 Honda S2000 Club Racing Edition owned by Hamfist co-founder, Dave Corsaro. (There will be much more on both of these autox beasts-drivers and cars-in future posts here so be sure to check back.)

Holbert Memorial Autox (Top Left: Jake STi; Top Right: Corsaro S2000)

Co-founder Dave performing the official Hamfist salute

The Dunlop’s are for the Subaru STi. Dunlop Direzzas are one of the fastest tires available for ST* competition in SCCA solo racing. Despite the Bridgestone RE11R being the tire of choice for most of my divisional and regional competition I decided to stick with a tried and true tire. This decision unfortunately eliminates me from contingency sponsor prize eligibility with Bridgestone, obviously. However, the upfront cost was a couple hundred dollars less buying the Dunlops than buying the Bridgestones.

Our Hamfist fieldtrip to Wal-Mart for a low buck race tire mount ($3.50/tire) yielded some funny pictures. One of which is the Bronco full of wheels and tires, sixteen to be exact.

And a business was born... Acme Tire Transport Co.

I guess that old hunk of steel serves a purpose after all. The other interesting thing to note was the car-nage that occurred right before our eyes upon pulling into the Wal-Mart parking lot. A Honda Accord came barreling out if its parking spot over a mulch median and plowed into the side of a shiny Civic parked 30 feet away. I thought that the throttle might have gotten stuck on the Accord, that was until the Accord backed up 10 feet and threw the car back in drive for another crunch session. Repeat. This guy was obviously nuts!

Wal-Mart carnage aftermath

We hamfisted the Bronco out of there in fear of being the next target on this guy’s rampage. Once the heat died down we check back with the scene of the crime and snapped pictures of some of the aftermath. Apparently the driver had a stroke and was clueless as to the carnage he was causing. He ended up in a telephone poll separating the parking lot from the major road. Lucky he didn’t cross over.

Back at Wal-Mart the tire mounting grease monkey decided to hook me up with a custom "polished lip" on one of my Rota DPT bronze wheels. What do you expect for $3.50 per tire? Team Hamfist is sitting on fresh rubber, now.

(Picture soon to come)

After the Holbert weekend and NNJR autox passed I started looking around at some parts I have accumulated over many months that I have yet to install due to a severe case of procrastination.

More Holbert Memorial Photo's by Perry @ Autox4u.com (2nd Place in class trophy: Bottom; Running: Top)

These parts include NGK iridium spark plugs, COBB shifter bushing, and a COBB post-MAF intake hose, and a custom Meineke axle-back-delete dump pipe.

Custom Meineke Dump Pipe

Additionally I have been piecing together some stock parts that have broken or fallen off, possibly as a result of rallyx, including a turbo heat shield bracket and a front passenger side fender liner. Most of this gear went in without a problem. However, while swapping the spark plugs I needed to remove the airbox; at which time I discovered that my K&N panel air filter was 95% caked in rally mud. When I say caked I mean CAKED. It looked like I baked a cake out of mud on the dirty side of the filter.

Source of the mud pie - Poughkeepsie Sports Car Club Rallycross '08 (Photo By: Robert Plafta)

They only part of the filter that looked to be allowing air to pass through must have been no bigger than a Ritz cracker. I have been autoxing like this all season! I proceeded to wack the panel against the ground ten or so times and it was all clean... relatively speaking. In my last effort to shave every tenth off my time and every ounce off my car I removed my rally armor mudflaps and rear aero-skirts. Not only does all this cosmetic hardware weight critical ounces but I imagine that they protruded off the car sufficient enough to clip unnecessary cones.

Next on the agenda is a stop at Sunoco for 5 gallons of my favorite automotive beverage, GT100 octane, and then I am off to Finger Lakes. Team Hamfist, I'll see you there. In the meantime don't forgot the secret Hamfist mantra... "Balls To The Wall."