I cannot wait to race this car! The first race weekend is April 24th and everything is in order to go racing then. The race is at the speedway at Louden NH that the Winston Cup guys use. They take out a back section of the wall so that the road coarse uses half of the oval and then goes outside the track for some elevation changes, then comes back in the infield for the completion of a lap.

Here are the details as best I know them. The car is a 94 hardtop 2.2L NA, it was purchased as salvage in 7/95 for $4700 by John and Lynn Griffiths of Menlo Park. It was brought back to life by Bob Carter's Valley Collision Center. Roll cage and chassis stress welding was done by Mike Thygeson, not sure where he is or if he is a pro. The car is totally stock, the powertrain was taken from a special purchase from the factory and engineered by Mike Stimpson. Although it is stock, the engine has had some tweaking... shaped and hardened valves and guides, enlarged intake manifold and throttle body, etc. Shhh! don't tell anyone that because I guess it is really a borderline showroom stock car and blows away just about everything in its class.

The chassis was strengthened and balanced so that it is almost perfectly neutral. It was apparently the fastest MR2 in the country according to the documentation and has been featured in many MR2 publications. It ran a 1:38.8 at Seattle, 1:27.8 at Portland, 1:28.5 at T-Hill, 2:02.8 at Sears Point, and 1:52.7 at Laguna.

As you can tell its base color is blue with some custom flames and the namesake on the front hood, they named the car Phoenix. Lynn Griffiths raced the car until late 97 when they sold it to Mike Sullivan of NH. He raced it in one race in 97 and two races in 98. The second race he wrecked which cost another $4000 in cosmetics and right rear wheel hub and bearings.

I purchased it a few weeks ago and it is now in a racing shop in NH called Ric Racing. Rick Hiland works primarily on formula fords but also has done some production car work. He will at least get me to the track on time for April 24th. I would like to take it to a shop in NJ eventually this summer who specialize in MR2 racers. There web site is http://www.sarizer.com.

That is about all I know so far about the car until I get a chance to drive it. I have no idea how it handles or how fast it is but I assume it is close to the street version since everything on the car is stock even in the suspension.

I'll let you know how things work out after the race weekend. The car has a cool in car mount for a camera so I might take some in-cars.

June '99 - The First Two Flights in the Phoenix

After two SCCA racing schools and two race weekends I do not have any exciting news that I have been victorious in either of the two races but I did have some learning experiences I wanted to share.

Actually, let me take a step back, last I told you I had taken the racer to a new shop, after paying Mr. Hiland his (expletive reference) fee of $1400 I took the car to another shop in Western Mass. (near my parents) called SnapDragon Motorsports. The owner there, Dave Brano, managed to get all of the needed work done to the car in a few weeks time while at the same time rebuilding his 2002 BMW from the ground up. Dave's tireless efforts enabled me (and his wife/driver) to get to the track for May race at Louden.

Race one was at the road course at Louden, formerly known as Brior Motorsports Park. This road course existed long before they decided to build a NASCAR track at the site. The NA MR2 races in Showroom Stock B. This particular race only had two other cars in SSB, two Dodge Neons. I qualified first in class by a few seconds, so I felt good about going into the race later in that afternoon. I was not really nervous since the entire day prior to the race day was a SCCA school which enabled me to do at least 80-100 laps at NHIS and several practice starts. The race was going particularly well and at one point I had built up a 30 second lead on the closest SSB Neon. About 1/2 way through the race the entire front end of the car started to vibrate very bad through the (NASCAR) oval turns 1 & 2. I did not know what to think except that it felt like a flat tire or something broke. What I did know was that going around a NASCAR oval turn at 100 with a wall staring you in the face and a vibrating steering wheel was somewhat disconcerting. All I wanted to do was finish and not crash the car. I attempted to nurse the car around the track but was passed by the Neon with 3 laps to go and eventually came in 2nd by 8 seconds.

After the race I inspected everything and finally deduced that the vibration was caused by tremendous rubber build-up on the right side tires. Since My race was the last one of the day there were tons of "marbles" all over the place. Once the tires heat up everything just sticks to them and they pick up all kinds of debris. Most of the debris wears off if you go fast enough but because I slowed down, it kept getting worse every lap and not better. Lesson learned #1!

Race two was at Lime Rock. I raced against an Integra, Neon, and a Miata, both the Integra and the Miata qualified ahead of me. At race start I was right behind the both of them but then was squeezed out by a few cars and ended up loosing 3 positions to cars behind me. It took me about 5 laps to repass the 3 cars but by the time I had clear track again the two other cars in my class had a 5-10 second lead on me. I managed to catch the Miata with only 1 lap to go but was not able to pass him so I ended up third. Lesson learned #2, the start is everything!

I managed to take some cool video from Lime Rock including some in-car video of qualifying and the race, if I have the chance I'll make a copy from my Super 8mm to regular VHS.

Update July 8, 1999

Another quick race update... We raced on the 5th at Lime Rock again. It was 100 with heat index about 110-115 said the weatherman. Needless to say it was tough racing and the track had little to no grip. I finally have felt what it feels like to lead my class. I had a great start, passed a few cars and was leading my class for three laps but was punted off in the right hander of the esses. The Neon that did the hitting was black-flagged so there is some justice. I did finish on the podium and received my first racing trophy for a 3rd place finish. I also had a very crowd pleasing (embarrassing to me) 6 or 8 point tank slapper which I'll have to send you of in-car video.

Lap times are improving slow but sure so hopefully a win will come soon.