GGS Racing

GGS Racing Will Start 6th for Tommorow's Race

2009-09-24T20:32:00.000-07:00

The third and final qualifying session had its ups and downs for GGS Racing. Starting with a damp track on dry tires, the track was extremely slick. Several cars spun on the warm up lap, so I pulled in to the pits to wait until the track dried. With about 10 minutes to go, the track looked dry enough according to others lap times so I headed out. I only had a few laps, and the car felt pretty good on the first hot lap. I got held up in a few corners on the first two laps, and then made a mistake in turn 6 on my third lap, causing me to lose time. On my final flying lap, I went way too fast in to turn three and spun the car harmlessly, although ending our session. We ended up with the 5th fastest time in the session, which puts us 6th on the grid for the race based on all of the qualifying session times. I gained about a half a second on one section of the track on my third lap, so we feel good about the pace of the car for a race distance. From 2nd place to 6th, the difference is only a half a second, so the competition will be tight. I look forward to a great race and hopefully a podium finish. Stay tuned for the race friday at 3:30pm central, 4:30pm eastern time on http://www.speedcasttv.com/ for a live internet broadcast of the race. Look for a link for the F-Production race and it will send you to the live feed.

GGS Racing in 3rd Position After Qualifying 2

2009-09-23T20:44:00.000-07:00

Today was the second of three qualifying sessions for the National Championship Runoffs at Road America. Unlike tuesday, wednesday had very good weather, the best we have had so far. It was clear and sunny when we took to the track around 11:00am. We elected for a tire compound that turned out to be too hard, as the car was really loose when I first took to the track. In fact, I spun the car on the warm up lap due to cold tires. Eventually, they came in about halfway through the session, when the lap times dropped down to the best laps we've run so far. The car was still not handling as well as the test day on monday, however I did pick up some time in certain areas of the track after looking over data from monday. We ended up in 3rd position with a 2:34.178, .056 secs out of second place and 1.8 secs off of 1st place, and .7 secs faster then we had run before. With our final session coming up at 8:30am central time on thursday, and what appears to be a dry session, we have a few changes in mind including the proper tires to hopefully improve more and move up the grid. Stay tuned for another update tommorow night, and if you want to follow the timing and scoring live from tommorow's session, follow this link: http://www.livetiming.net/SCCA/Runoffs/LiveTiming.asp

Rainy Day at Road America Tuesday

2009-09-22T19:32:00.000-07:00

Today was our first qualifying session for the SCCA Runoffs at Road America. Our session was scheduled for the afternoon, and after we got to the track in the morning the rain began to fall. It rained all day, and heavy most of the time creating wet sessions for most of the classes. We decided to give it a try and get some wet driving experience at RA, so we set the car up for wet conditions and headed to grid. As I was driving to the grid, I noticed the car had a strange miss at certain RPMs, and the car was pulling to the right when I got on the throttle. After I left grid and got on the track, the pulling got worse and it seemed like there was a few things wrong with the car, and I shouldn't be out there. So I pulled through the opening at turn 5 and drove it back to the paddock. After looking over the car, a rotor screw came loose and broke free inside the distributor, causing the ignition problem. As you can see in the pics, the screw did quite a bit of damage after it came off, it's a miracle that the car even ran. We also found the axle popped out on the passenger side. It had popped out enough to cause the pulling problem when loaded up, so that was an easy fix as well, thankfully. Today was a frustrating day, but not much was lost since dry days are ahead and the qualifying session today in the wet will mean nothing in the end. We still feel confident in the car and we can't wait for our session tommorow to see what we can do in the dry again. Our session will be at 10:55am central time, stay tuned for our next update wednesday night!

GGS Racing Completes Test Day at Road America

2009-09-21T20:25:00.000-07:00

We had a two-session test day today at Road America, WI. With several changes done to the car in the past months since the last race, the test day provided an opportunity to make sure everything ran ok, and to make adjustments to see what works best. The first session was a damp session with clouds and fog surrounding the area. We went out and ran ok for the first few laps getting up and running when it became hard to get the car into 5th gear. Eventually, it would not go in and we decided to take it back to the paddock before anymore damage happened. This transmission was recently re-freshed and was suspect of having a few parts over-looked when it was rebuilt. So we switched to the backup transmission and got it changed before the second session. We also had no data from the first session as the memory had become full. Overall, the car ran great in a straight line with the new engine, but small gremlins were causing some frustration.

The second session was completely dry and sunny in the afternoon, in fact a bit on the warm side. The car ran much better with the spare trans and we turned some very good laptimes while being able to run the full session. After the session we went over the data and found several areas where my driving can improve. We are all encouraged by how the day ended and feel confident that we are not at the peak of our potential. Tommorow is the first qualifying session of the week, scheduled to start at 2:40pm central time. Live timing and scoring of the session can be viewed here: http://www.livetiming.net/SCCA/Runoffs/LiveTiming.asp.

GGS Racing Heads to National Championship Runoffs

2009-09-19T13:22:00.000-07:00

Welcome back everyone to the Team GGS Racing blog. We have had quite a long break since our last race, but the entire time has been spent preparing and upgrading the GGS Acura Integra for the National Championships!

Our race will be held friday September 25th at 3:30pm central time at Road America, Wisconsin. On monday we will be testing and tuning, followed by 25 minute qualifying sessions each day tuesday through thursday. Speedcast will be providing an online live broadcast of the race on friday, and the race will be available on-demand on their website following the race. You can visit them at www.speedcasttv.com. SCCA will also have live timing and scoring of qualifying and the races online at http://www.scca.com/event.aspx?hub=1&event=13506 click on live timing & scoring, and then select F-Production.

Each day we will be updating the blog with the news from the day's action, along with pictures and videos when available. Stay tuned for our first update on monday, September 21st!

GGS Racing Wins June Sprints!

2009-06-21T14:47:00.000-07:00

GGS Racing took the checkered flag Saturday at the June Sprints, 1st in FP and 4th overall in a 54 car field. The day started off on a tragic note, during the final qualifying session on Saturday morning Tom Thrash who drives an EP Mazda RX-7 and is the 2007 EP National Champ, lost his life after and accident in turn 8. Tom was a great competitor and although I never had the chance to have a conversation with him, his peers always spoke highly of him and he will be surely missed.

During the session, I lost the pole position in FP to Kevin Ruck in another Acura Integra. We had very close times so I still felt pretty good about our chances for the race. We started 7th overall right next to Ruck and after the green flag came out we were neck and neck going into turn one. He had the inside line so I fell in behind him coming out of turn one and glued to his bumper for the first lap. Coming down the front straight and starting the second lap, I got a great run on him with the draft. Going into turn one I was a few inches from his bumper when he braked slightly earlier then I expected. Instead of hitting him from behind I quickly moved to the inside and moved past, luckily the car stuck and I took the lead as we went towards turn two. Out front, I got into a rhythm and just tried to hit my marks each lap and not make mistakes. Each lap, the gap grew from me to Ruck, and half way through the race it was up to about 9 seconds. The second half was all about survival and not making mistakes as I hit a lot of lap traffic and several local yellow flags came out. There was also some oil being put down on the track the last few laps so it became slick in spots. By the end I held on for the victory in the 54th annual June Sprints. It felt great to get my team a much deserved victory, they worked their tails off to prepare for this race and it paid off. Thanks again Ron, Steve and Brent! On the podium celebration, I thought of Tom Thrash and dedicated my victory to him. It sure was an emotional roller coaster of a day and I'm glad it ended the way it did.

As always, I want to thank Paul and Lynn Kilker for their support of my racing career. Also my mom and family for always being there for me through thick and thin. I would also like to thank our dedicated sponsors and supporters: GGS Technical Publications, Goodyear Tires, American Honda, Geiger Promotional Products, Apex Advertising, Graphik Masters, Henry and Diane Olstynski, Kristensen Automotive Development, and all of our other supports. Happy Father's Day and see you at the next race!

-Mark

GGS Acura Qualifies on Pole in first Qualifying Session

2009-06-19T19:06:00.000-07:00

Team GGS Racing qualified 1st in class and 4th overall today at Road America. The day started with a 25 minute practice in the morning. Our race group has over 70 entrants and about 60 of them went out during the practice session. It felt like there were 100 cars out there, however. The session was pretty busy with traffic and various cars off the track but I was able to get a few good laps in, including running with our main competitor Steve Sargis. We ended up 2nd fastest by about 0.3 seconds and 7th overall.

The second session of the day was the first qualifying session for saturday's race. Again, there were lots of cars on track and it was difficult to get a clean lap. There were also several cars who ran into trouble and were stuck out on course. With all of that going on I was able to get a lap in good enough for 1st in class and 4th overall, turning the same laptime as the morning session. We were pretty happy with the results of the day, tommorow there is another qualifying session in the morning, and I expect most of the field to go faster then today's times. In the afternoon, we will be the last race of the day which should be around 4pm central time. Stay tuned!

Interesting Day of Testing at Road America

2009-06-18T20:29:00.001-07:00

Team GGS Racing has arrived here in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin for the 54th Annual June Sprints at Road America. Today was an open test day at Road America, where we would have two 35 minute sessions to test and tune our car. The first session in the morning was to get re-acquainted with RA and also test some new setup changes that we had made before coming out here. The session was going well, getting a few laps in, when the black flag all fell bringing all of the cars into the pit lane. We made the decision to change tires on pit road while waiting for the session to resume. Shortly after changing the tires, we came to find out that the session had been cut short and ended well before the 35 minutes scheduled. Disappointed, we still at least looked forward to another session and we had learned some things in the few laps we got.

The setup changes worked well and the car seemed to handle well on old used tires. One thing we noticed was a knocking noise in the muffler. Turns out one of the baffles inside of the muffler had come loose and was kicking around. We decided it would be best to take it apart after the last session, as it didn't seem to affect the performance. So we mounted up some newer tires and prepped the car for the second session in the afternoon. As I lined up to grid I noticed I was gridded right behind pro driver Peter Cunningham in his Realtime TSX. I thought this would be a great session to go out and try to stick with him, hopefully learning a thing or two. As we left pitlane and went through turns one two and three, I did the normal warmup of the tires and the brakes. As I went into braking for turn 5, I noticed the brake pedal was a little soft and the rotors seemed to feel a little rough. I thought maybe the brakes were not warmed up yet, and needed some more warm up. I went into braking for 6, the pedal travel went longer then normal. I knew something was up so I took a little less speed through 7 and broke early for 8. Brake Pedal right to the floor! As I tried to slow the car down with no brakes I heard a loud snap noise come from the front brake/suspension area. The car did not hit anything, just an exciting ride through the grass and I re-entered the track when I heard something knocking around and the something fell off under the car. I limped it back to the pits and the guys were shocked when the saw no brake rotor on the front driver's side!! Apparently the rotor snapped off at the hub, from what appears to be a bad or defective casting. I posted a picture of the two pieces left, I had to go to the turn 9 corner station to fetch the rotor piece, and the piece with the holes in it was the only thing attached to the car.

Needless to say, I feel very lucky today. If that rotor had come apart at the end of any of the fast straightaways at RA, it could have been very ugly. There was no damage to the car, even the brake pads stayed inside the caliper, so a fresh new set if rotors later and the brakes are back in business. We also took apart the muffler and repaired the broken baffle. So all in all, it was disappointing to only get a few laps in with that much track time available, but we all feel lucky that the brake failure happened today, and we hope all of our bad luck has passed us. Tomorrow(friday), we have a practice session in the morning followed by our first qualifying session in the afternoon. You can watch live timing and scoring of all qualifying and race sessions by clicking this link: http://www.livetiming.net/SCCA/club/livetiming.asp

Stay tuned for another update tomorrow evening!

GGS Racing Finishes 2nd in VIR National #1

2009-04-18T19:21:00.000-07:00

Today we finished 2nd in the first of two national races at VIR. The car handled great but we are still fighting some problems on the straightaways. I was able to learn a lot in the race despite finishing second. I was able to experiment with different lines and focus on my driving more since I wasn't in the heat of the battle with anyone. Most importantly we finished and were able to pick up solid points for qualifying for the 2009 SCCA Runoffs. At this point, there is not much we can do about the power issue but finish out the weekend with another solid finish. We also qualified second for tomorrow's race, which could be threatened by rain based on the latest forecast. Stay tuned for another update after tomorrow's race.

-Mark

GGS Racing Qualifies 2nd for First VIR National

2009-04-17T20:05:00.000-07:00

Today was a warm sunny day in southern Virginia. We are here for our first event of 2009, the Oak Tree Double National at Virginia International Raceway. The day started well with a solid practice session on older tires. Being the first session of the season, I didn't have much for expectations other then getting up to speed and knocking the rust off, all while keeping the car together. The session ended with a concern as the engine felt like it might be down on power. Feeling like it was too early to tell, we put fresh tires on it and went out for qualifying. Qualifying went better, the fresh tires felt great and the lap times dropped, however we are still no where near out lap times from the 2008 event here. We ended up 2nd in FP and 12th overall in the session.

The car handled great, better then ever and I was very encouraged by that. There isn't a need to make any adjustments before tomorrow's race. The engine feels like it is running fine, temps and pressures are all normal, but it feels like it is down on torque coming out of the corners. Compared to last year's race(s) here, where we ran a different engine, my shift points are much later and I am able to brake much later coming into corners. Top speeds on straightaways are consequently down according to the data logged during each session.

With an abbreviated schedule in 2009, it is important to finish each race, especially the two here at VIR this weekend. Though winning is always a priority, this weekend it may be better to go for a podium and solve our engine woes later. The Runoffs race in September is overall the most important to us. That all said, racing is racing, and anything can happen in tomorrow's race. I will try my best to bring it home for GGS Racing, so stay tuned for another update tomorrow evening (hopefully with pics this time...). - Mark

GGS Racing Finishes 4th at National Championship Runoffs

2008-10-13T07:25:00.000-07:00

Team GGS Racing finished fourth Sunday at the SCCA National Championship Runoffs in Topeka, Kansas. We started sixth on the grid, and with the SPEED Channel cameras rolling, took the green at 2pm. I got a great start and pulled alongside Joe Walker making it three-wide going into turn one. In front of me, Brian Linn also made it three wide getting by Rick Harris in the Miata and jumping into third place. After turn one and two, I was up to 5th with Harris in front of me. I got a great run on him coming out of turn three and pulled along side to make a pass going into the right hand turn 4. As we approached the corner, I was well alongside when Harris turned in and we made contact. The two of us slid towards the edge of the track but re-gained grip in time to stay on the track. I continued ahead of Harris for another corner, and he re-took the position with a late braking pass going into turn 6. As he slid by, I lost some momentum and slipped back as we went down the backstretch. Hanging on in 5th for the next few laps, Walker was putting pressure on from behind. He eventually slipped by in turn 6, and we followed nose to tail for the duration of the race. A few times, I would get a run on him through turn 3 and come along side of him but not quite enough to make the pass. With the leaders still in sight, we took the checkered flag in 4th place after Linn spun mid way through the race and Eric Prill dropping out with a mechanical failure. This was my first Runoffs finish, so I am very please with the results.

As our season comes to a close, I want to thank my crew especially Ron, Steve, and Brent for another excellent season. These guys are the definition of dedication, we all learned quite a bit this season and I can't thank them enough for their hard work. I also want to thank Paul and Lynn Kilker for their continued support of my racing career. Also, all of our sponsors who support the team: GGS Technical Publications, American Honda, Goodyear Racing Tire, Geiger Promotional Products, Apex Advertising, Graphik Masters of York, Henry and Diane Olstynski, Carl R. Fraser Racing Enterprises, thank you all and stay tuned for announcements regarding the 2009 Racing Season!

GGS Racing Qualifies 6th for National Championships

2008-10-09T21:57:00.000-07:00

Today was our last qualifying session for sunday's race at Heartland Park Topeka. We went out with a few adjustments from the previous day, and a better set of tires. Car handled much better and the adjustments helped out a lot. While I did not put together a perfect lap according to the data acquisition, the car is very consistent and that should help for the race. The crew has done a great job helping me find the most speed out of the car, and we are very confident that we will be in competition for the win on sunday.

To watch live timing and scoring of our race on sunday, October 12th at 1:45pm central time, click on the link below and select "Live Timing & Scoring":

http://www.scca.com/event.aspx?hub=1&event=12416

Also stay tuned for a full race report following the event!

GGS Racing 2nd in Qualifying Session #1

2008-10-07T20:22:00.000-07:00

Today we ended up 2nd on the time sheets for our first qualifying session. The day began with pouring rain, and a nice hole in the ceiling of our hotel room. After arriving at the track and preparing for the session, the rain began to taper off but the conditions were still very wet. With a wet setup on the car, I went out to learn how to drive HPT in the wet. The session was a blast, I love racing in the rain and I turned my fastest lap on the last lap of the session. I think with a few more laps I probably could have gone quicker, but we will never know. Tommorow we have another session and it is scheduled to be nice and sunny. All times from today will for sure be erased as we go quicker in the dry, and hopefully we will be at the top of the time sheets again tommorow.

GGS Racing Hard At Work

2008-10-06T18:33:00.000-07:00

Today was an off day for GGS Racing. Qualifying for F-Production does not begin until tuesday morning, so monday was a day to relax and enjoy some other sessions on track, as well as button up a few odds and ends. The biggest accomplishment of the day was we solved our battery charging problem that plagued us on sunday. While we thought the alternator had failed causing the battery to drain, it turns out a wire had come loose after changing the transmission saturday night, and thankfully it turned out to be a simple fix. We now look forward to the first qualifying session for our class on tuesday morning, when it is scheduled to rain here in Topeka. Stay tuned...

Testing Complete in Topeka!

2008-10-05T17:18:00.000-07:00

GGS Racing finished two days of testing at Heartland Park Topeka, Kansas today. Yesterday went well getting re-acquainted with the track here in Topeka. During the day we realized that we had chosen the wrong transmission for this particular track. Luckily, we had the correct one in the trailer and we swapped it out Saturday night. Saturday's sessions were run on older tires that we had accumulated through out the season. Sunday's first morning session were through on new sticker tires and headed out. The car was running great, and handled much better. It's amazing what a new set of tires feels like. We picked up two seconds in our lap times from Saturday, turning very competitive times in the session. Unfortunately, the car shut off after the alternator went south and drained the battery. Without a spare, and a new one coming in a days time, it hurt the other two sessions of the day. We found a massive battery normally used in a boat, and bolted it in the car to use for hopefully a whole session. It lasted about five laps and the car shut off again. It was a disappointing end to a very busy day, but we were satisfied with our performance in the first session of the day, and very encouraged by the lap times turned. There is still plenty more speed to be found, and we have two days to decide what adjustments will be made before our first qualifying session on Tuesday morning. Stay tuned for a report from Topeka Monday evening...

Follow GGS Racing at the Runoffs!!

2008-09-28T18:15:00.000-07:00

Starting on saturday October 4th, you can catch all of the action as we head to Topeka, Kansas for the 45th National Championship Runoffs, where we are competing in the F-Production class. We should have an update daily hopefully with pics and a report of the day's activities. It all starts on saturday October 4th with our first day of testing from HPT. Stay Tuned!!

GGS Racing Qualifies on Pole at Watkins Glen

2008-07-12T20:41:00.000-07:00

Team GGS Racing topped the charts during qualifying for the Glen National at Watkins Glen, NY qualifying first in F-Production and second overall.

On friday, we arrived to the track to participate in an open test day. Scattered showers cost us two sessions, and with only one session I noticed the car had a strange "pull" to it, almost like the steering wheel would get yanked out of my hands when on power. After some thinking and observations, we notice the left front tire was starting to come apart on the outside. Everything else checked out, and we hoped the tire was the cause.

With two qualifying sessions on Saturday, we would find out. The morning twenty minute session went very well with good weather and track conditions. I also noticed our problems from the previous day were cured, and the car felt back to normal. We also were pretty fast, going faster then 2007 at Watkins Glen, and posting the first place time in FP and second overall.

The second session fell during the late afternoon, and the weather at Watkins Glen got very hot and humid with plenty of sun. Track conditions were totally different then the morning session, very hot and greasy. With the session being 25 minutes, we focused on a long run to simulate close to a race distance. After completing the session, we ran three laps short of a race distance and ran our fastest lap on the final lap of the session. We also were only one tenth of a second slower then the morning session, and fastest overall in the second session. Overall all a good successful day for Team GGS Racing and we will roll off second overall and first in class Sunday, where the weather is in question. Stay tuned for a full recap from Sunday's race...

GGS Racing Wins at Mosport

2008-06-30T20:11:00.000-07:00

Team GGS Racing took its fourth victory of 2008 on sunday at Mosport International Raceway. The race turned out to be anything but uneventfull. As we left the grid area, it started to rain lightly, and the track was already damp. We elected to go out on slick dry weather tires, in anticipation of a dry track for the race. As I went around the track on the pace lap, I knew this race would be a challenge because the track was still very wet and slick. I got a poor start, and really tried to focus on staying on the track those first couple of laps. In the meantime I had slipped back to second in class, but the leader was closely in sight. I followed a GT2 car for a lap or so, untill he spun off the track in front of me going into turn four. As the rain stopped about five laps into the race, I started getting closer and closer to the lead until finally I got by on the back stretch coming into turn eight. From there the gap began to grow as the track was still wet but drying quickly. About three laps from the end, as the track was beginning to dry out nicely, it started to rain on the south end of the track heavily. By the last lap it was raining again all around the course, and it got very slick again even with the tires being hot. We survived and brought home our fourth national victory of the season! Special thanks to my crew Ron, Steve and Brent for their awesome work and support. Also want to thank Preben and Joe Kristensen for their help on friday during the test day. Stay tuned for updates at our next event July 11-13, 2008 at Watkins Glen, New York!

GGS Racing Acura Takes Pole at Mosport

2008-06-28T19:36:00.000-07:00

Team GGS Racing made it three poles so far this season by collecting the pole saturday for sunday's Ontario Grand Prix National. The day started with heavy rain and fog. We headed to the grid on rain tires for our first qualifying session in the morning, but there was a long delay due to the very thick fog that had entered the area. Mosport is very close to Lake Ontario, which I am sure contributed to the fog. By the time the hour long delay was finished, the track was almost completely dry. So we headed back to our paddock spot to change to dry tires. When I headed out on the track, I noticed the track was a lot drier then it looked from the pits, good thing we changed tires! By the end of the session, the track was completely dry and I got a few good laps at the end to capture the pole for FP, a surprising second overall.

The rest of the afternoon was very pleasant with a mix of sun and clouds. Our second qualifying session was to scrub in our race tires and improve on our morning lap time. I was able to accomplish both and ran about as fast as our fastest lap in testing on friday. I didn't want to over-work the tires too much, since we have to use them in the race tommorow. We also made a shock adjustment before the session that didn't work as well as planned. There is more speed left in the car, and I am very confident about tommorow's race. We ended up first in FP for the day, 6th overall. Hopefully the weather will cooperate with us tommorow for our race, just after one o'clock.

First Day at Mosport Report

2008-06-27T19:39:00.000-07:00

Friday was our first day at Mosport International Raceway in Bowmanville, Ontario. We arrived thursday evening at the hotel where we will be staying in Oshawa, Ontario. Friday morning we headed up early to the track for an open test day.

The first few sessions were used to get acquainted with the challenging track that Mosport is. Wow, what a rush it is to do a lap at Mosport. Uphill, downhill, blind and fast corners...this place could most easily be described as a rollercoaster ride. While we got up to some excellent lap times early on, I noticed the car wasn't handling as well as it could, especially as I began to go faster. We made some adjustments that worked well, and others that didn't, so we settled for somewhere in between and we were all really happy with how we ran by the end of the day, this being our first day at Mosport ever. Tommorow brings two qualifying sessions before sunday's Grand Prix of Ontario National race.

A Week in Canada with Team GGS Racing

2008-06-27T19:27:00.001-07:00

Team GGS Racing continues its two week swing with a trip to Ontario, Canada. After last sunday's June Sprints at Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, Brent and I drove to London, Ontario where we arrived early monday morning. What we though was a nine hour drive turned into an 11 hour affair. The drive itself went smooth, just very long!

We spent monday through thursday visiting our engine builders, Kristensen Auto Development, owned by Preben and Joe Kristensen, who are father and son. Way back in the Ontario countryside is a state of the art engine and chassis fabrication shop. They do everything from race car prep to airplane engines. While visiting, we got to see our next engine being run on their engine dyno. We were pleased to see that our next engine will be a strong one, built in preperation for the National Championship Runoffs in October. Ron and Steve arrived on wednesday and we will make the trip as a team on thursday to our next race in Mosport, Ontario.

June Sprints Race Report

2008-06-22T16:39:00.000-07:00

Following qualifying on saturday, we noticed the voltage was a bit low on the car and it wouldn't start on pit road after getting tire temps and pressures. It was evident that the alternator was bad, so we gathered up our spare from the trailer. Ok, no problem right?...Well, the pulley we use is larger in diameter then stock to reduce the load taken from the engine. Our spare alternator had a smaller shaft size, so the pulley would not fit. We would have to use the stock pulley but run to the nearest parts store to find a proper belt. Got to the store just in time, got back to the track and put it in and the voltage went right back up to proper operating range when started. Our work was done for the evening, but around us there was plenty more work to be done. For the weekend, we paddocked with fellow Production competitors Robb Coffey, Roy Carrera, and Dan Meller. Robb had purchased Loshak's EP Honda Prelude, Roy races an FP Honda CRX and Meller has a HP Datsun 510. So, Robb was changing his transmission for the second time of the day, Roy was trying to figure out an engine miss, and Meller was dealing with carburator issues. All were able to finish before it got too late in the night, thankfully.

Sunday's race got off to an excellent start and I was able to get a jump on Sargis who qualified 1st in FP. By turn one, I was able to get by him and an EP car and start to gain some distance between us. Coming out of turn 3, Sturm in the EP Prelude got back by me but I was able to catch a nice tow coming down into turn 5, the hardest braking zone on the track that leads into the slowest left hand corner. Coming into the corner, I broke a bit earlier since it was the first lap and both the brakes and tires were not entirely up to temperature yet. As I turned in to turn five, I was within a car length of Strum's rear bumper and ready to get back on the throttle when Strum's car went completely sideways in front of me. I also had the rear step out a bit on turn in, it felt as if something was on the track surface. At the point of turn in, my slide felt manage-able and I got on the gas like I normally do to slow down the rotation. Well, the problem was Sturm was just about perpendicular to me just past apex. This caused me to react and lift out of the throttle causeing the rear end to snap around even more. Initially I attempted to keep my foot in the throttle hoping the car would come back around with a quick arm's full of opposite lock. The car was too far around and I was at about a 90 degree angle from the track, heading towards a tire wall. I put both feet in and the car finally bit in and came back around straight. By now about 10 cars had gotten by, including Sargis.

Come to find out later, a car had lost a drain plug of some sort, draining a nice line of Red Line racing oil down on the track. I haven't looked at my video yet, but it is my guess that Sturm lost it on the oil, and I had my half spin from a combination of avoiding hitting Strum and the oil laid down. This put us about 8 seconds behind Sargis, with a handfull of EP cars between us. I put my head down and tried to click off fast laps while I picked off the cars in between one by one. The gap remained the same for the next eight laps. Sargis was flying, and had nice open track in front of him. I had some bad timing getting around laps cars, and needed some extra effort to get around a few EP cars that really set me back. Unable to close the gap back to Sargis, we finished 2nd in FP and 5th overall behind Sargis. Fastest lap in the race was a 2:34.6, Sargis ran a 2:33.7 and demolished his old track record at RA which was previously a 2:36.0.

Disappointed about what happened there on the first lap, and no race driver likes to finish 2nd, I must say standing on the podium at the Sprints next to Steve Sargis and Kent Prather is pretty cool, especially this being my first time at Road America, and the fact that Sargis has been racing at RA since before I was even born! I feel really good about the weekend; awesome fast track, good people, and the few minor problems we had were taken care of and didn't make us work too hard. This was a first class event too, much better then I expected. There were crowds on saturday an sunday that were larger then I've ever seen at Topeka, KS for our National Championship Runoffs.

I would like to thank the Team GGS Racing team for their continued dedication to this racing program. Brent did an awesome job being the only guy with me, and our results just goes to show how far we've come. Thanks to Steve and Ron for their hard work preparing the car before this race, the long nights in the shop paid off, and I wouldn't have been able to run as well without their support. See you guys next weekend! Thanks to Lawrence Loshak and his wife Allison for their hospitality all weekend, and the brats were awesome!

Now on to London, Ontario where we will get the chance to visit out engine builders and hang with them for a few days on our way to Mosport for our next National race next weekend. Stay tuned for more updates as we continue our trip...

Qualifying Report -- Saturday

2008-06-22T16:27:00.000-07:00

Writing from the comforts of the Team GGS Racing hauler's front seat, we are somewhere in Indiana on our way to Ontario, Canada. I haven't been able to update the blog since saturday because of more troubles with our internet connection.

So, I'll start by posting about the second qualifying session on saturday afternoon. After reviewing data and in-car video from friday's qualifying session and debriefing with Loshak, we decided to make some alignment changes to the GGS Racing Acura. The session was to be 30 minutes total, so we figured by waiting 10 minutes to go out, we could get some clean laps at the end when less cars were on track. The plan worked well and I was able to get some good clean laps and start to knock down the lap time. Car ran great and was very consistent and more stable then friday. Was able to lower my best time to a 2:34.7, the fastest we had gone yet. My best time was not quite good enough for pole in FP however, as Steve Sargis came out and did a 2:34.3 in the same session. Sargis has been dominating a Road America for years in F-Production, he is the track record holder and is also a previous SCCA National Champion. I would line up 7th overall for sunday's race, right behind Sargis in 6th.

Saturday at Road America -- AM Update

2008-06-21T07:27:00.002-07:00

Finally was able to get back online here at the track. We were without internet the past few days. Had a smooth trip up on wednesday, got to Milwaukee and spent the night with our friend Lawrence Loshak. Got to the track early thursday morning for our test day. Things went really well in both of our test sessions, Road America is an awesome track! Car felt good with no issues, and by the end of our second session our lap times looked really good for only having 12 laps on track.

Friday was our first official sessions on track for the June Sprints. We had a 25 minute practice session in the morning and a 25 minute first qualifying session in the afternoon. The practice session in the morning was our chance to scuff our race tires and get some more track time around RA. The session was very busy, over 50 cars on track and several of them ended up breaking or going off track. A lot of yellow flags and not one clean lap, and to add to that the distributor failed on us on the last lap of the session. We were able to get the car back to the paddock area and we replaced the distributor, and it fired right up! Turns out some mounting screws inside the distributor decided to come out and wreck the rest of the internals.

The afternoon qualifying session went very well, and were able to get some clean laps to lay down a good lap time. Car was handling very well, and I picked up some time by driving better in certain parts of the track. There are some minor adjustments we will make before saturdays second qualifying session, however we are very happy with how the car ran. Ended the session 1st in class (F-Production) and 10th overall.

Two of our fellow competitors who are paddocked with us are having some trouble, both have to change transmissions, so I am off to help them do their swaps. More to come later today, as now we have the internet up and running. Stay tuned for the results of our final qualifying session later on today and hopefully some pics.

First Day On The Road

2008-06-17T17:30:00.000-07:00

Team GGS Racing hit the road this morning on a two week road trip that includes races at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin and Mosport International Raceway in Bowmanville, Ontario Canada.

The first race at Road America is considered the second biggest race of the year for SCCA National racing, and always features a full entry list of some of the best racers in the country. The annual event is called the June Sprints and is hosted by the Chicago Region, SCCA. The June Sprints is significant to SCCA racers as the first jewel in the "Triple Crown" of SCCA National Championships. Every year, a driver who wins the June Sprints, their respective Divisional Points Championship, and the National Championship Runoffs in October is called a "Triple Crown" winner. Every class is eligible, and very few drivers have been able to do it over the years. It is our goal at GGS Racing to go for the Triple Crown in 2008! Easy for us to say, and oh yeah, I've never driven at Road America before...

...which is why we left today(tuesday). Road America is holding a practice day on thursday and I will need all the track time I can get to learn this track. Normally, we have our full team with us at the races which includes Ron Kint, "Uncle" Steve Carpenter, and Brent Hershey. Since we have two races in a row, and we are planning on going from one to the other without returning home, it was not possible to steal Ron and Steve from GGS for two weeks. They will however join us at Mosport for the second race.

So Brent and I left GGS world headquarters in York, PA at about 8am this morning and made it all the way to South Bend, Indiana where we will stay over night and finish our trip up tommorow. I wish I could write more about our day but, well, we drove from Pennsylvania to Indiana and if you've ever been through there you know what I mean. Tolls, bumpy roads, and road construction were the highlights of the day. Tommorow we will head through Chicago and on up to Wisconsin and our final destination of Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin. Stay tuned!!

-Mark

My New Blog

2008-06-11T09:13:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone, thanks for checking out my new blog on Team GGS Racing. Keep up with the team as we go on the road to the races on the 2008 schedule. For more information on Team GGS Racing, visit www.ggsracing.com.

I hope everyone enjoys...

Mark