About Advanced Autosports

Racing Season NEWS . . .

April 2008

Don’t worry – this is not an April Fools Joke . . .

The snow is almost melted up here in Wisconsin. It’s almost time to go racing Vroom~Vroom. For our local friends, this coming Saturday is “Tire Wall Day” at Blackhawk Farms Raceway. Everyone is invited to come out and help restack tire walls and re-bag tires. Food and beverages will be provided by the new track owner. Time and weather permitting, track touring will be allowed at the end of the day.

On Saturday, April 12^th, Advanced Autosports will host our 3^rd Annual Tech Day for Midwestern Council. Bring your car and have your annual tech inspection done in a relaxed atmosphere. Food, drinks and plenty of bench racing are in-store.

On April 19^th, we finally get to “Turn Money into Noise”. Blackhawk Farms will be our home for 5 out of 6 weekends up to Memorial Day. Driver schools are scheduled for both Midwestern Council and SCCA, (2) SCCA National Events and ending with a 3-Day Midwestern Council Event.

This issues “Tech Tip” is about torque wrenches. The place that we use a torque wrench the most would be on lug nuts. Miata lug nuts should be torqued to 65-70 ft/lbs. Many of us will use a socket extension and adapters with torque wrenches. This is a bad practice, as every joint will decrease the torque applied to the nuts.

Many people will pull quickly on a torque wrench, creating a jerk or snap effect. This will also result in inaccuracies. Pull steady ~ NOT jerky. If you use a power tool to install the lug nuts prior to hand torqueing, pay attention to if you actually tighten with the nut with the torque wrench. Power tools often over torque the nuts. Over torqueing the nuts will increase wear on the nuts and studs.

May 2008

Up here in the North Country, we finally started racing.

Our first event was the Midwestern Council Drivers School and race at Blackhawk Farms Raceway. Congratulations to our new Competition License Holders; Greg Scrine and Roger Pogo.

Tom Roberts debuted his 475hp ASA Stock Car Conversion. After running as high as 2^nd overall, Tom finished 3^rd in GT1. Tom got down to competitive lap times by the morning qualifying session. Seeing the big grin on Toms face was worth all the effort the Advanced Autosports team put into preparing the car. And that grin may not have warn off yet!!

The very next weekend was the SCCA Double Drivers School and Regional Race at Blackhawk Farms.

Lon Blaser and Jon Iwata earned their SCCA Competition Licenses on Friday and Saturday in Sundays race, Ray Kollock earned his first ever pole position in a strong SM field. Ray Kollock led the field to the green.

Today tech tip isn’t about tires or torque wrenches. It’s about fun, something many drivers forget about. As drivers, we spend 10, 12 or more hours at the race track to get 1 hour behind the wheel. The remaining hours need to be enjoyable too.

The camaraderie of the Advanced Autosports Team is what makes a day at the track unforgettable. Whether it’s experienced drivers helping the rookies find speed or watching the future racers playing in the grass, everybody has fun.

Ray Kollock gets a lot of good natured kidding over his pink and black argyle color scheme. To honor Ray all the Advanced Autosports drivers at the Midwestern Council Race ran with pink stripes on the nose of their cars.

June 2008

I know I am late getting another Newsletter together.

Today I want to discuss safety and the bad side of racing. Last week at Road America we had a very hard crash between two Spec Miata’s. The first car spun in Canada Corner (Turn 12) came back across the track and was T-Boned in the passenger door by a second Miata.

Fortunately both driver’s walked away. They will be very sore for a week, but otherwise unhurt. Both driver’s had HANS Devices on. I wouldn’t want to imagine what the outcome could have been, had the 2^nd driver not been wearing some type of head restrain. “Buy one – Wear one”! If not for yourself, for your wife and kids.

The second issue is how did the safety equipment built into the cars survive? The impact was estimated at 70-75 mph. The force was strong enough on the second car to push the motor into the firewall, pushing the trans and driveshaft back hard enough to break the diff housing!! The first car got hit square in the passenger door so hard that it bent the NASCAR bars back into the car.

Fortunately this car had a dash bar. A piece of tubing running from the left side to the right side of the roll cage. Without this bar, the car would have collapsed into the drivers compartment. Had this happened, more serious injuries could have occurred.

Take a look at the attached pictures and think about if your cage would have held up as well as this cage did.

Note: The bent NASCAR bars on the passenger side.

The bent “LEFT” hand cage side from the force applied by the dash bar.

Look how far the rocker panel is pushed in when using a board from tire to tire.

Yes, this is an Advanced Autosports cage. In fact it is one of my very early cages built back in 2002. No welds where broken.

And Yes – we are building a new car to replace both damaged cars.

New from Advanced Autosports is an aftermarket Rear Filler Panel. The plastic panel that goes between the tail lights on a 90-97 Miata. I have used several of these and found them to fit just like the more expensive factory piece. Regular Retail Price will be $199.95 we have an introductory price of $179.95 good through July 31, 2008. Available in gloss black only.

Remember we do this for fun! “Play Safe”!