Todd you did great out there! Thoroughly impressed.... You kicked ***... Great seeing you compete in person, you really showed everyone what an Evo is capable of! Wilwood took the win home with Brian and his Corvette!

 

I really wish I had some time that day to meet you but it was hectic throughout the day... Very cool to see a Evo come out on top of a GTR! PM me if you'd like some better brakes/rotors for the upcoming racing endeavors! Whether it is better replacement rotors or a full BBK.. I can definitely help you out... I would love to give you that advantage and help you win the STOP challenge Or better yet, be the overall winner!

 

Good job man. The car look fast on the road course. Didn't get a chance to see you in the autocross but I did see you in the start/stop challenge. Having an evo 9 and racing with that group of cars before is lots of fun and they are a good group of guys. It's good to see how good you did against all them cars. I wouldn't be upset about placing 6th overall with the type of cars and drivers that were there.

 

I finally got a chance to sit down and write a little bit about this awesome event!

I will explain the tire fiasco first. If you don't want to read my rant, feel free to just skip this part.
Here is what happened:

• I ordered a set of BFG Rivals through TireRack in hopes of getting them in time for the event. Got a call from our sales rep and he said that they would be back ordered until December!
• So, I just settled for the Hankook R-S3's in their new 200 treadwear. I made it super, super, SUPER clear that I MUST HAVE the 200 treadwear version. He assured me that is what they had and what I would be getting.
• The tires arrived and looked awesome on the wheels. Now, here is where I made my first mistake. I assumed that I received the 200 treadwear tires. That is what I ordered, that is what he said I was getting, so I just trusted him.
• Just for fun, KevinD and I checked the tires on Monday morning at 3am in the middle of nowhere on our way to Vegas. And guess what, sidewall said 140. We immediately emailed our salesman and explained our problem.
• He called us the next morning and said he couldn't take them back because I had already driven 50 miles on them
• So, I bit the bullet and purchased another set. This time, I made it super, SUPER, SUPER SUPER clear that I must have the 200 treadwear.
• Got dozens of assurances from him that is what I would be getting. I called him 2 more times to make sure. Each time, getting the same response that they were 200 tread.
• Well, Friday at noon, I received a phone call from the tire place where they were delivered. And guess what? They were 140 tread!!!! I couldn't believe it! TireRack had somehow managed to make the same exact mistake again.
• So, what did I do next? I called our guy and yelled dozens of dirty words into his ear as we panicked and ran around SEMA. I just couldn't believe that he didn't just take a minute and get somebody to check the treadwear before sending out such an important set of tires. Now I have 8 tires that I can't use and 5 hours before all the tire stores shut down.
• KevinD and I spent the next 4 hours scrambling to every tire booth at SEMA and calling every tire store in Vegas. Amazingly, nobody had anything!
• After hours of searching, we were able to source 4 245 tires from 2 different stores that would work. They weren't very good, but at least I could compete.
• Rant over.

Here are the results of the event:
http://www.optimabatteries.com/us/en...car-invitatio/

As you can see, I got 0 points for the design challenge AGAIN. Can't seem to figure out how to make this car look good. Custom paint, custom wide body, custom color wheels/brakes just ain't enough to cut it.

I was way off my game at the autocross. Just couldn't get the car under control and was fighting understeer the entire time. This was the first event that I ran and I think my nerves got to me. I wasn't able to walk the course and didn't take the time to watch anybody else run it. I just wanted to get in the car and drive it fast (but I tried too hard ). I should have finished much higher in this event, even with the crappy tires.

Next was the BFGoodrich Hot Lap Challenge. This is where the tire fiasco really affected me. I was a full second SLOWER this year than last year around the track. This is what happens when you set up the entire car together (aero, power, tires, driver) and then remove one piece of the puzzle. I had plenty of seat time in the car and just couldn't adjust in 3 laps to the new tires. Entry speed was too high, throttle inputs were too early, steering inputs were too quick. Just a total disaster out there. Everybody said that it looked fast and awesome. I think it was because I was barely able to control the car.

The Wilwood Speed Stop Challenge was my shining glory again this year. And, just like last year, I was in second by less than 100th of a second Bret Voelkel got my by about .003 last year, and Brian Hobaugh beat me by .008 this year. I completely botched the launch on my third run, otherwise, I'm confident that I would have won the event. Video to come later.

Here are some pictures taken by a giant that they call Optima Jim.

Chatting while waiting to park the car.



Showing off the Mac tool set they gave to all the drivers.



A few action shots!





Getting interviewed by Goldberg.



Shot with all of the Optima umbrella girls! We were so excited that we completely covered up the car and gave RPM Hot Rods some free advertising.



I still have plenty of videos to comb through. Just need to get back to Dallas and onto the desktop for editing.

 

what tires did you end up using?

 

Ended up with some 245/35/18 Michelin Pilot Sports PS2's. They are a 220 tread wear but don't feel nearly that sticky. And the tread blocks are very small and super thick. Sidewall was pretty stiff, though.

I let my bad attitude about the whole situation get to me. I was just really bummed that we spent so much effort getting the car ready and had so many sponsors step up to help out, just to have the whole thing ruined because Tire Rack's inventory system was incorrect.

 

yeah that's too bad. hopefully TR makes it up to you, everyone I met there were super nice.

Whats the next big thing/event for you and the evo?

 

Since they messed up so bad, they are letting me send back both sets of incorrect tires.

I'm competing in the Street Class at Global Time Attack in Buttonwillow tomorrow. Going to be interesting to see how I stack up against these west coast peeps.

 

Sometimes things happen to us that are beyond our control. It's how we handle these adversities that make us stronger

 

Nice meeting you Todd at GTA / Super Lap Battle. Sucks about your radiator mishap! Hope you guys made it home safe.

 

Time for an update! It has been an interesting year for us at My Shop Assist and Evolution Dynamics. We are meeting tons of really cool people and getting even more ingrained into the car culture.

Well, Global Time Attack Super Lap Battle didn't really go as we hoped. Coming off a amazing 6th place finish at the Optima Ultimate Street Car Challenge, we were pretty confident we could hang with the rest of the AWD Street Class cars.

We were wrong. We made the last-minute decision to re-mount some year-old Hankook RS-3's that were not looking too good. But I was so frustrated with the crap tires we used for Optima, that I had to make a change. Every other car busted out a sticker set of street tires...we knew we were hosed.

TO make matters worse, I had very little time to study footage of the track. But I figured I could learn it fine by the end of the day. To help me on this endeavor, Robert Fuller (RobiSpec) offered to ride along and give me the line. You can see him riding shotgun in this picture.



Here is what I learned during my few laps of instructions:

• This track is weird
• The corner burms are slippery as ice
• There are absolutely ZERO markers on the track (no trees, no power poles, no buildings, not even braking cones)
• You need to memorize the track to go fast
• When you go off, which you will (and I did), you will be cleaning fine dust particles out of your nose for days
• It is bumpy

All-in-all, "good luck" he said as he giggled and exited the car.

I made a few more laps by myself for qualifying before coming in early because the car was overheating.

I pulled into the pits and you could hear the steam escaping through the radiator. Our custom recirculating dump tube finally wore a hole in the radiator. We were really hoping it would make it through the day, but it just wasn't going to happen.

So...out came the radiator. One of the other teams was kind enough to lend us their JB Quik and Kevin set out to alleviate the problem.



After missing the 2nd session, we were pretty confident that the patch would hold up. I mean, it passed the "blow into the radiator as hard as possible and see if it leaks" test!

Again, we were wrong. I could make it halfway around the track before the windshield was covered in water. There was so much dust out on the track that I couldn't even get the windshield clean fast enough.

Disappointed and frustrated, I tried to limp around during the warm-up lap then attempt to get a hot lap in. But that never happened. Temps spiked and I just didn't want to risk it.

I was happier to get last place in a running car than to run faster and melt everything.

All this mishap being said, it was a blast going out there! So many cool cars and even cooler drivers/teams! Next year, we are going out a day early to learn the track and dial in the AST coilovers.







Thanks again to all the sponsors who have helped me get this far!
Evolution Dynamics - building such a great competition car
Garrett - the best turbo out there
Enkei - super light and super strong wheels
ETS - harnessing all those wonderful gasses
Whiteline - helping keep all that power on the ground
FIC - spitting that sweet, sweet E85 all day
Recaro - keeping my butt in place
Comp Clutch - handling all my fancy downshifting footwork
Optima Batteries - Making sure the engine will start with E85 in 40 deg weather.

Looking forward to new things in 2014!

Here is a little hint of what is to come.

 

Sorry to hear about the end of your season. Good thing is, you know what you need to do for next year.

What's that sexy door panel made of?

 

It is actually the stock panel under layers of bondo, primer, and paint. It will be used as a mold for a carbon fiber panel we are making.

We are going for maximum points in the Design Challenge of the new Ultimate Street Car Association (USCA) series

 

Here is my video from the OUSCI event. This will give you an idea about the format of the events.

 

I saw the USCA a little while ago on facebook. I was considering whether or not to participate in the Portland event.