Even though Sacramento's Evil Genius Racing might be best known around these parts for its role in the Black Metal V8olvo LeMons car, owner John "Evil Genius" Pagel actually spends most of his time building nice race cars. You know, the kind that cost more than 500 bucks, go fast, and tend to hold together for long periods without any need for duct-tape/beercan intervention. In this case, Evil Genius has assembled three Miatas to take on NASA's 25 Hours Of Thunderhill race next month. I've seen and heard these cars in person, and I plan to be at the track to watch them run on December 6th. Make the jump for more photos and info.
Here's what John has to say about his past experiences and future plans in NASA endurance racing:
I’ve been competing in the NASA 25 hr race since its inception as a 12 hr back in 1995.. Usually with a first generation RX7.. last year we raced a Miata and the old warhorse RX. Some simple math says that that RX has 1500 hours of racing on it… that is a huge amount of time for a racecar… it has been put into semi-retirement, it is now eligible for vintage racing and will probably be used for just that.
This year we are going after the 25hr in a big way, two brand new ITA spec 1.8L Miatas and a third Spec Miata 1.6. Three cars, yes, I’m crazy. We’ve teamed up with Miller Motorsports, a team that has been a perennial contender for the E-2 class win, as we have been. Rather than race against them, we’re racing with them this year.
Our build up started back in June, we bought a 200,000 mile 1.8L Miata on Craigslist, acquired another one from one of my customers and started stripping them down. I’ve always liked the Lotus green/yellow combo. So we painted them half and half, then mixed up the parts. So the cars have a yellow/green—- green/yellow mashup. Our first test of the new cars was at Thunderhill at the end of October. We had many issues, no oil pressure in one car… some loose nuts and bolts, but in the end our drivers got us a 1st and 6th in the ITA race, a 3rd and a 6th in the 4 hour enduro and we won the Improved Touring cup, as the fastest Improved Touring (IT) finisher in the enduro. This past weekend we tested at Thunderhill again, both cars are down on power, so as I write this the engines are coming out, we are hunting for more power… let’s hope we can find some………. I will update you guys at Jalopnik as I have time.
If you can, come to the race. The start is quite a scene, with F-16 flyovers, bagpipers, and lots of other pageantry, and of course you can cheer for us boys and girls from Evil Genius. It is only $10 to get in as a spectator…… 11:00AM on Saturday Dec 6th is when it starts, ending 25 hours later at noon on Sunday.
Related posts:
- Here are some of the best cars coming out of American right now.
- Opel’s “Brazilian Soap Opera” Roars to a Climax
- Short Term Memories: the Pontiac Solstice and Saturn Sky say Goodbye
Related posts:
- Saturn Vue 2 - The #1 Hybrid?
- Cars.com Review Roundup
- Penske Wins Saturn; Castroneves Wins Indy
- Two 1950's show cars up for grabs at January RM auction
- Saturn launches blog and social networking web site
0 коммент.:
Отправить комментарий