GLTC Debut, Failed Perfection!!!

Official, unofficial launch to the 2023 season late in the year with GridLife MidWest Festival at Gingerman was the perfect storm to snuff out the new setup for the 2023 season. After 8 months of re-building and changes to the car it was its first time on track since securing our regional ST5 championship at NCM last fall.

Track conditions ensured a mountainous weekend was ahead of us, with 92F ambient temperatures and 140F track temp mixed with the dust and drift storm that is Gingerman Midwest Festival we found ourselves down 22HP from class with little hope to make that up with our current engine and heat enough to record pyrometer temperatures of 220F on 200TW race tires made the grip level we need in this chassis impossible to achieve.

Nevertheless, we secured a P26 start in Race 1 to a 50-car field after a very poor showing due to poor traffic management and grid spot for the qualifying session. Regardless Race 1 did not disappointed making up 5 spots to finish P21. Race 2 set an achievement of the worst performed race I have ever had, with poor starting position going into T1 stuck in the middle and running into T3 on the outside running myself out of track with no hope of coming back on track without causing an incident we ended up cutting the lawn more than we wanted and dropped 10 positions before T4 even happened. Fast forward 3 laps and some oil down the exit of T1 takes us for a loop. Now fallen back 12 positions to P33 it was a rough start to the day. Managed to climb back to a P29 finish. Race 3 only got one lap and then went full course yellow to checkered under yellow, but we managed to gain 5 positions in the first lap letting us start P24 for Race 4 we continued to battle with deteriorating conditions and tires what were beyond gone but clawed up to P21 finish to bring us full circle ending where we started.

It was a mentally challenging and frustrating weekend hopping for some better capabilities from the car, but this the deck we have and will make do for the rest of the season with the singular goal of driver development. Both in terms of race craft, but also diving deep this year in chassis development and tunning.