The “Fix” – Kelsey Rowlings Recaps!

Posted on September 5, 2019September 5, 2019 by Konig Gfx

Kelsey’s drifting for August 2019 – The “Fix” is in!

August was another busy month of drifting for team Drift Chick. First up was Round 3 of Formula Drift Pro2 competition. Having developed a new method for mounting our power steering pump, and having finally identified and resolved our round 1 crash related issues, we were optimistic heading into the event.

Formula Drift St. Louis

We arrived in St. Louis August 6, ready to head out to the World Wide Technology Raceway for Formula Drift. The team felt good with the new power steering set up as we had a chance to do some quick, but short, testing before we departed and all appeared to be good. The new set up, which we reviewed in the June/July newsletter, dramatically reduced power steering pump speed and should make a big improvement in pump reliability.

After checking and prepping the car Wednesday, Kelsey started the first of two practice sessions early Thursday afternoon. With all drivers seeing the new St. Louis track layout for the first time, everyone was taking it easy in the early runs, feeling out the new course. Kelsey looked OK her first run, but upon returning to the hot pit she noted the steering had stiffened up. We were all quite disappointed with this turn of events. Given two practice sessions were scheduled, the team decided to forgo the rest of the first session to head back to the pits to more thoroughly check the car. Given the pump seemed to be working we were at a loss as to the cause of the stiffness. We changed the steering rack in the event that was the problem and carefully flushed, bled and rechecked the system.

Kelsey headed out for the second practice session. For her first run, the steering was fine, but suddenly it stiffened once again. At this point we realized the problem was heat related, but were still not sure the cause. So we improvised. After each run Kelsey shut the car down once back to the starting grid. The extraordinary crew happily pushed the car all the way to the start line. When ready to go, Kelsey fired up the car and took a run. The bandaid solution to manage heat was working and she managed to get in a few more practice runs. But, on this new course, we feared missing the first practice session would be a real disadvantage.

Early Thursday evening it came time to qualify and we continued to manage the heat problem as we did during practice. Unfortunately, the loss of a critical practice session was evident as Kelsey failed to qualify in the highly competitive field.

On Friday we spent more time investigating the heat issue. We now had a theory and we removed the steering shaft assembly to test it. Sure enough, we found that as the steering shaft heated the shaft would bind in the bushing that holds the shaft in place. After Round 2 in May we replaced the shaft and bushing asthey were impacted by the severe Round 1 crash. It may well be the new shaft was just ever so slightly larger than the steering shaft we replaced and heat from our exhaust manifold now heated the shaft just enough to expand and bind in the bushing. Kelsey attended two other events after the shaft change, prior to St. Louis, and experienced this very problem to some degree. Not realizing the cause, we assumed we still had pump problems during these events. We even changed pumps at these events, which did not help once the car heated up again. We also thought significant change in pump mounting we made priuor to St. Louis had solved the pump problem (it did). Little did we know it was the bushing.

The steering fix is in!

Upon returning from St. Louis we implemented a few changes. We slightly enlarged the bushing to allow more room for thermal expansion. We also removed an exhaust manifold and applied a ceramic thermal barrier coating to help reduce heating of the shaft. After completing these steps we then tested the car at Orlando Speed World. During the test we allowed the to car idle while changing tires between test runs to simulate competition conditions and to provide the maximum heat input to the steering shaft. The results were good. No binding. But, the ultimate test before competition would be the Grid Life event.

Gridlife South

Next up was the GRIDLIFE South 2019 Music & Motorsports Festival held August 23 through 25. The event was held at the beautiful Road Atlanta in Braselton, Georgia. With a tremendous crowd on hand, a number of different motorsports were brought together with a broad array of musical talent to again create one of the best festivals in the U.S. Of course, most fans came to see the drifting. And, with a number of amazing drivers, the drifting did not disappoint.

Over the three day event Kelsey had a few sessions each day to drift the car. This was a great opportunity to really test the changes made to steering set up. We are thrilled to report the issue seems to have been resolved as Kelsey had no issues whatsoever with the steering bind we experienced in St. Louis. Overall, an excellent weekend and excellent event!

Moving Ahead

Next up is Round 4 of Formula Drift Pro2 which will be held at the Texas Motor Speedway September 12 through 14. This will be the season finale and we are looking forward to finally having the car working well for the event! Preparation is now underway with the primary focus being placed on our transmission which we just removed and inspected. We determined some gears will need to be replaced to help assure reliability. We are hoping hurricane Dorian, which is headed our way, won’t affect parts deliveries or our ability to complete repairs and maintenance before we depart for Texas on September 10.

Looking Good

Kelsey’s Voodoo Ride S14 always looks great for photos. How do we do it? Prior to and during each event the car gets some much needed TLC from a number of the amazing Voodoo Ride detailing products. The Crew Chief is quite impressed with the spray detailer and glass cleaner. Check them out at VoodooRide.com.

As always, we will continue to get out there to compete hard and to constantly learn and improve.

All the best to each of you!
Kelsey (aka Drift Chick) and Dan Rowlings

www.driftchick.com
www.facebook.com/KelseyRowlings
https://www.instagram.com/kelseyrowlings/

Kelsey is running Konig Hypergrams in 17×9 et 25mm front and 18×9.5 et 25mm rear. The Konig Hypergram is Flow Formed.

Mechanical Advantage runs into issues at GRIDLIFE Alpine!

Posted on August 1, 2019August 1, 2019 by Konig Gfx

Not all race weekends go as planned. Normally these experiences fly under the radar for teams. Often with today’s social media influenced society, only the best experiences are documented and projected to the rest of the world- which we are guilty of as well, however this time we wanted to make an effort to show just what a “real” disaster racing weekend could look like. Our team, Mechanical Advantage Racing made a season plans to campaign 2 vehicles, the K24 swapped unlimited class Mazda Miata known as the ‘Ultra Miata’ and the unlimited class Subaru known as the ‘Slumdog Millionaire’.

Our goal was to run the Miata in the Gridlife series to try and contend with the Unlimited class points series just as we have in the past with the Slumdog. Our plan with the Slumdog this season was to run in other series including the new SCCA Time Trials program, in addition to the Speedring, and the new Colorado Gridlife Event “Alpine Horizon Festival”.

We began prepping the car this winter installing a new X-Shift sequential gearbox, a 2.7l Callies performance products engine equipped with built cylinder heads filled with Brian Crower valve train. By March all the hardware was in place and the car was off to performance electronics to be completely overhauled with their millspec wiring harness, their electronics and some neat paddle shifting hardware.

The car was finished a few months later and it was time for testing! We brought the car to our local airstrip and were able to begin tuning and taking data. After working through a handful of initial build issues we gave the ok to tow the car out to Colorado to see the tuning guru Harvey Epstein at his shop The Boost Creep Ltd. As predicted, the car made great power and worked awesome on the dyno needing little attention finishing with a final power number of 620whp.

With all boxes checked, it was time to finally head to Gridlife Alpine Horizon Festival. Upon arriving we located our fellow racers, parked the rig and began to unload the car and assemble the aero. Once the car was 100%, we put the car on air jacks to run through the gears and get everything up to temp making sure there were no issues. While going through the gears something gave, and a loud series of noises ensued, the car was then shut down. Underneath the car was a pile of parts, including pieces of bellhousing. The clutch had exploded, and exited the car through the side of the transmission.

The aggressive ignition cut sequence to reduce gear-shifting time had abused the clutch disc and broke the springs from the hub of the disc initiating the series of events that scattered the parts across the ground.

Without setting a single lap time we were determined to get the car fixed. 3 local shops, JC Fab Works, RPM Performance, and TGA Performance all out of Colorado Springs stepped up to help us out in a pinch and were able to get us something to at least go around the track with. They found an Unsprung ACT 6 puck clutch (cant break the clutch disc if its all one piece!), an OEM flywheel, and a starter. Once all the parts were located the process of pulling the transmission and replacing them began. Roughly 4 hours later, the car was back up and running!

Friday qualifiers were finished, so we would go into Saturday with no experience on the track and be gridded in last position. Once on track the car seemed to be performing well, with both the car and the driver settling into the roval. After 3 laps, the car had reached 205 degree coolant temps and required a cooldown lap, of which many other vehicles needed seeing how hot ambient temperature was. During the cooldown lap the lower radiator hose had blown, as result of a weakened hose from the clutch failure (lower coolant hose runs below the bellhousing to the trunk mount radiator). When the hose blew, all coolant (water in this instance) had left the engine leaving the coolant temp sensor exposed to only air. As with many vehicles, these sensors are not designed to read air temperature, so it registered the engine as resuming 180degree coolant temps. This is what led to the inevitable end of our weekend, when the car continued to hotlap with no coolant. It took nearly 3 minutes for the temp sensor to begin actually reading an overheat scenario, at that point it was brought back to the pits with a failed head gasket.

We began packing everything up and organizing repair parts to get the car ready for the next event, not dwelling on the misfortune we were dealt. As debilitating as a weekend like this can be to your motivation it does change the fact that it’s part of the sport. Racing is what we do, and component failures will not hold us from achieving our goals, it’s as they say; ‘Just keep racing’

The UltraMiata is running Konig Dekagram in 15×10 et 25mm squared in Semi-Matte Black (Good-Win Racing exclusive wheel). The Konig Dekagram is Flow Formed.

The Slumdog is running Konig Dekagram in 18×10.5 et 18mm squared in Semi-Matte Black. The Konig Dekagram is Flow Formed.

Boersma Racing Returns To GridLife MidWest Festival!

Posted on June 14, 2019June 14, 2019 by Konig Gfx

Boersma Racing Returns To GridLife MidWest Festival!

The 2019 season continues with the team making a stop at GridLife Midwest Festival. This event has become one of the premier motorsports events of the season and the team came in with a slew of improvements to the car hoping for good results.

Taking everything they learned from Road Atlanta, the team spent the few weeks between events addressing some of the issues they encountered. The biggest issue was to figure out how to keep the aero off the ground and get rid of the suspension undulation at high speeds. The team threw a bunch of changes at the car in hopes of getting everything resolved and just finished everything before having to leave for the event.

The first day of the event starts later in the afternoon so the team had time to button up a few last minute items before heading out on the track. The first session the team wanted to focus on ensuring the changes they made had fixed the suspension issues, so the power was turned down, final checks made and Chris headed out on the track. Immediately Chris was on the radio, giving the team positive feedback that the handling was much better in the car and after turning 5 laps he brought the car in to review data and debrief. It seemed like the issue was fixed, a great success for the team! The team spent the next 2 sessions on Thursday testing out a few other changes on the car, preparing for Friday and Saturday.

Friday kicked off and the team was ready to start attacking. The car’s power was turned up and the first session saw Chris start to improve on his times, but the team was still way off the pace compared to years past. With the power increased the car became difficult to drive and increasingly pushy. The team worked to go through the data after the first session and decided some changes to boost delivery in lower gears and some traction control changes would help.

Chris headed out in the second session with the changes and reported a definite improvement to the car and he managed to knock 2 seconds off his previous best time. Unfortunately, they were still 1 second off the rest of the field’s pace, but the team was happy with the results as it showed they were heading the right direction.

The last session of the day saw Chris improve his times again with some more changes to the car. Chris said, “I’m really starting to get comfortable in the car and understand more what it’s going to do. This car is so different from anything I’ve driven in years past and it’s taking me time to figure out exactly how to drive it. We started off with a rocky relationship, but we’re starting to figure each other out and get on the same page!”

The final day of competition saw some rain, but also dry sessions. The team was focused on making small improvements to the car and Chris’s driving to improve the lap times. With these changes Chris was able to run his fastest time of the weekend a 1:35.2, however, the rest of the field was still moving faster and that put him squarely in 5th place. As the day went on another car managed to push Chris into 6th position, as the team wasn’t able to improve on their lap time.

The team was happy with the results for the weekend. They wanted a record for sure but knew based on the issues they had faced at Atlanta that just getting the car headed in the right direction was more important than anything and they achieved that goal. GridLife Midwest was another spectacular event with tons of fans, media, competition and things to see. The team was happy to be part of this amazing festival again this year and can’t wait to return in 2020 to reset their record!

Boersma is running Konig Hypergram in 18×11 et 15 front and 18×9.5 et 35 rear. The Konig Hypergram is Flow Formed.

GRIDLIFE Midwest breakdown w/ Mechanical Advantage!!!

Posted on June 12, 2019June 12, 2019 by Konig Gfx

GridLife’s Round 3 marked the second time this year that Mechanical Advantage Racing’s UltraMiata has taken to the tarmac competitively. The MAR North team made the trek from our base in Dayton, Ohio to South Haven, Michigan after work on Thursday. The rains from Thursday cleared as we made the 5-hour trip north and we arrived just as the sun was setting on Thursday at Gingerman Raceway. A quick unpacking of the car and trailer gave us time to catch up with some old friends and to make some new ones of the neighbors around us. The weather outlook for the weekend appeared to be, as it normally is at Gingerman, unpredictable. Initial reports showed no rain Friday, Rain Saturday, sunshine Sunday, and ideal temperatures all weekend. All in all, this was shaping up to be a great weekend out for the Miata and the team!

UltraMiata with Grant’s custom Helmet at Gingerman Raceway

Friday started off with some minor prep work for the first session (2nd session for GridLife on the weekend as we missed 1 timed session Thursday night due to traveling). The morning was brisk yet sunny and quickly warming up as we approached our 10:00 am the start time for our first session. The set up for this session was essentially identical to what we had way back at Round 1. We were running our same alignment on our Fortune Auto Coilovers, Avon Slicks on Konig 15×10 Dekagrams, Borg Warner EFR 7163 Turbo, Tial BOV, built K24 motor, MAR designed front splitter, rear diffuser, and rear wing. Minor changes for the build from Mid-Ohio only came as countermeasures for the issues that ended Round 1 early for the Miata. The exhaust was now re-routed through the passenger wheel well to allow for more clearance due to the larger slicks and it was now made of stainless steel since apparently Aluminum and high Exhaust Gas Temperatures don’t mix well… Additionally, a new fitting and higher temp line were used for the oil return line for the turbo to prevent the near-failure experienced. As it was all fixed up and sporting the parts listed, the Miata was lined up in Group E for the first session as it had not had a time set yet so we waited for our turn and lined up on the Grid around 11:30 am for the first run at GridLife Midwest!

New Stainless Steel Exhaust to fend off those pesky Exhaust Gas Temps

The first session was underway as the temperatures started to soar past the alleged high predicted for the day. Grant was positioned towards the middle of the pack and it was immediately clear that the Miata needed some room to run to get a good time in. Thankfully, going into the second lap (and last recorded lap for that session as it was cut short due to delays earlier in the day) he had a small clearing and ran the fastest time in the group at a 1:40.612! This was a good enough time for us to jump to Group B and hopefully have a competitive crowd that would allow us to reach our time goals for the course.

UltraMiata headed onto Track at Gingerman. Picture by Turbo Tara Media

Although it was a very short session, we were still able to get tire temperatures in the hot pits and evaluate how the car handled around the course. We learned that it was pushing through the corners pretty aggressively so we needed to address the understeer condition keeping the team from really attacking the corner entry and exit. To do this we tried to loosen the front anti-roll bar to help keep the wheels in contact with the road. We also noticed that our rear tire temp distribution was skewed pretty heavily towards the inside of the tires and visually we could see that we had uneven wear favoring the inside. We made the decision to remove some of the negative camber in the rear to help even it out and ensure we have maximum tire contact with the road throughout the race. We adjusted the camber ourselves to an average of -2.1° on the rear and left it there for the rest of the weekend. This change definitely helped even out our temperatures and wear pattern and added no oversteer instability on track. After the changes, it was time to wait for the next session to start at 2:00 pm.

Grant Focused on…. something? Probably the race. Yea, the race.

Session 2 for MAR came about with the Miata taking to the Grid with Group B. Unfortunately, due to issues on the track, the Group was red flagged into the first hot lap and sat idle on the tarmac while the issues were being resolved. This ate into the run time once again and allowed for only 1 true hot lap when all was said and done for MAR. Grant did his best to make the most of it by running a 1:40.634 proving he is a very consistent driver! As the checkered flag came down we were still in the low 1:40’s and not quite where we were aiming for. Regardless we did our same hot pit checks and re-grouped at the trailer to prep for our last session later in the day.

UltraMiata waiting on Grid at Gingerman Raceway

When we all returned to the trailer we deliberated on what we could take from the last session. Grant shared that the car was still pushing through the corner and may have felt a little looser in the corners so we made the decision to return the anti-roll bar to its previous setting. Instead, we decided to lower the air pressure in the tires cold all around to see if that would help improve the grip conditions. The turnaround from session 2 and 3 on the day was pretty quick so we were back in the Grid for Group B before long.

Konig Dekagrams wrapped in Avon Slicks definitely fill out the wheel wheels on the UltraMiata

The final session of the day was slated to go to Grid at 5:00 pm. We lined up in what felt like GridLife south’s heat beating down… In Michigan…. In May. The day progressively got hotter and hotter which, in turn, also made the track temperatures hotter and less ideal for faster times. Knowing that tomorrow was supposed to bring rain and not ideal conditions we knew as a team this might be our best bet to really get after our goals for the weekend. Grant was fortunate to get 3 hot laps in a row with a cool down before coming to the Hot Pit for checks and an eventual exit of the Grid. In those laps, he was able to run a 1:40.495 which was an improvement over his times on the day! Although we were not reaching our overall time goal we were running consistently and in every session which is a great feeling for anyone with a new build.

Another great shot of the UltraMiata tearing up Gingerman! Picture by Turbo Tara Media

We had one final pow-wow for the night before heading out to see what GridLife Midwest Festival had to offer. In that meeting, we found that we were running our tire pressures much higher than most on slicks. Unfortunately, none of us there had experienced first-hand running tires like this so we were all unaware of optimal tire pressures for this set-up but after talking to some of our friends who also run this tire on a K-swapped Miata (Thanks David!) we decided to drop our cold tire pressure set point for day 2. We were hopeful that this change point would be the cure for our new-found understeer condition that was limiting our ability to push the UltraMiata. Another small change we made was to flatten the second wing element to help reduce downforce on the rear and try to even out the balance on the car. We thought that the new addition of the wing may be causing a slight imbalance on the higher speed entries so we simply used the adjustment holes in the endplates to rotate the element flat to shift the aero balance forward. Once all of this was complete, we lowered the tent on the Miata for the night and went out to see Midwest after the track fell silent and the stage roared to life.

Grant and our friend Chris Bickford waiting on the Grid

Saturday welcomed all of the drivers with a relatively mild morning. Once the track went hot it was partly cloudy and decently warm at about 64°F with no rain falling yet. The first session on the day mimicked that of the day before with a start time of 10:00 am. Group B went to Grid at 10:15 am but unfortunately had to sit idle while the crews were clearing a car from Group A. In this time, the rain that was predicted for the day began to roll in. As Group B finally got the green light to go out, it was beginning to rain and slowly picking up pace. Even though we only had the Avon slicks packed for the event we decided that we would attack the course until the weather deemed it unsafe wherein Grant would return to the pits until the next session. He made his exit after 3 hot laps and 1 cool down lap as the rain had become enough that most cars with wipers still installed turned them on. We did our normal routine in the hot pit after Grant had completed a 1:42.954. At this point, we could make a few changes to continue to counter the understeer being exhibited but we were also at the mercy of Mother Nature for the last 2 Sessions.

Starting contest with the Ultra Miata in the Paddock

The second to the last session of Time Attack for the weekend was scheduled to be at 1:20 pm but so was the rain. We made a few final changes with the hope that the weather would pass for this session like lowering the air pressures again in the tires. As Session 2 approached the tropical Michigan weather showed no signs of slowing down so we decided to wait it out for Session 3. We took this time to try and enjoy some of the other racing events taking place during the weekend. Spectating at these events is one of those things that normally we can’t do. If we are not out on track we are usually going over what the last session held, improving our set-up to be as ideal as possible, or just getting things ready so we can be back out on track in time. It’s amazing how fast the time passes when you are constantly in the mindset of trying to get the car to use as little time as possible on the track. But with an extra few hours, we had the time to just be spectators and watch some of the Touring Cup Series and Drift Series.

Buzzing by all the spectators at Gingerman. Picture by Turbo Tara Media

During the drift session, as some reading this might know, there was an unexpected pause in the action. We along with our friend Chris (who won his Street GT Class this weekend!) were standing between turn 1 and turn 2 enjoying the shredding of tires from the insanely powerful drift cars roaring by. GridLife organizer Adam was past the spectating fence talking over the loudspeakers about the events taking place. During a yellow flag, he turned to the west and saw a wall cloud moving our way. I may be paraphrasing what was said during his realization but it went something like, “We have a big storm moving our way, we’re going to go cold (on Grid) until it passes. Please find shelter and wait for it to pass.” At that point, most were looking west and saw the mass of dark skyrocketing towards the track. Some were walking away and some were running, but with every moment passing it was clear this was going to spell bad news for anyone who had a tent or awning not attended to. We all started running to our trailer which was close to the south entrance of Gingerman. We made it to the trailer as some tents began to gain altitude and come raining back down on the cars around the paddock. Our team along with a few others took shelter in the trailer over the course of the front ripping through. It didn’t bring much rain and was over in roughly 90 seconds but during that short period of time, quite a bit of damage was done to those camping and the racers in the paddock. Thankfully for MAR, the only thing we suffered was a derailed trailer door as the wind forced it to shut. All in all for us we were back to normal in half an hour or so and again waiting for the final session of the day.

The only picture we got of the impending doom that roared through South Haven

The final session was set to go at 5:00 pm and, to our surprise, the previous weather report of rain from 3:00 pm to 1:00 am Sunday was now partly cloudy with 0% chance of rain! After the cell past over and wreaked havoc on the Festival, the sun came out and began to dry the track. By the time Group B went out for their final assault on the track, it was not completely dry, but it was close enough for the UltraMiata to get one last chance at breaking past that 1:40 mark. Grant again was able to run 3 hot laps and 1 cool down before deciding to bring the Miata into the pits. Although we were set up with good conditions, we were unable to improve our time. The understeer characteristic was still present and the car felt down on power so gaining time in the straights was out of reach. All in all, though ending this session on our own will marked the first event on the new build that we ran successfully through to the end which is a big step for the new build! We ended the weekend with the best time around Gingerman of 1:40.495. After all, is said and done we do have a few things to address. Obviously, we were not able to obtain our time goal but running 5 out of 6 sessions (due to weather) and ending the weekend with a car we could drive to the next track and run is exactly what we wanted to get back to. The NA setup last year ran very reliably but was not at the level we wanted. As builds become more and more powerful and chase more aggressive goals things are bound to be beaten on close to their limit or even reach the point of failure. We saw this at Mid-Ohio with a few items. We returned home, addressed the situation, counter-measured the issues, and returned to the track for the next event. The cycle will repeat until we have, in our eyes, the car that we originally envisioned. This time we will be going home with a roughly 10-week break before Road Atlanta and the GridLife South Festival. Some of the takeaways we will be working on from Midwest is to get the car on the dyno to continue tuning the new turbo set-up and the grip up front being less than what we experienced at Mid-Ohio. This is the first time anyone on MAR North has designed/built a turbo set-up so naturally, there are areas we will have missed and will need to fix to resolve the issue. As for the understeer we were experiencing, we believe the slicks that we were running may have reached their use limit. We will still perform an assessment of the front suspension geometry to make sure we didn’t miss something that may have caused it. Along with these items we have a few things that have been on the list needing to be done that will also be addressed during our short downtime but we hope to return to Atlanta stronger as we did here at Gingerman.

Team photo in front of the UltraMiata. Picture by Turbo Tara Media

If we had to choose a word to recap Midwest, it would most likely be “Bittersweet.” We had some victories with the setup and reliability but also experienced misses in overall time and results. Even though we didn’t reclaim our 3rd place finish from Round 1 at Mid-Ohio, we will walk away knowing what he has brewing right past the horizon when we make some adjustments and learn our set-up. These larger events always bring the best to track both on and off the tarmac. During our few days there we saw some amazing drivers and competition which will only make us better on the track. Off the track, we met a lot of new friends in all lines of work related to the racing industry and got a chance to meet quite a few new faces that may be racing the car right behind or ahead of us (for now!). We had a chance to do a quick shoot with Turbo Tara and talk with her about the car and we got to know Hunter, Jesse, Wooley, and Mike from S3 Magazine. They came out to get an interview with Grant and the UltraMiata and were a great group of guys that were a lot of fun on and off camera. This kind of shared passion for the racing community is what makes these events. The time, effort, though, and frustration put into all builds is shared and appreciated by many and it shows when we come together as a community and celebrate what we are able to do. This is a driving force behind MAR and what we do. We strive to show what can be done as a group of enthusiasts. A group who saw a stock, daily driven, NA Miata in the garage 2 years ago and decided to take it straight to the fight in the unlimited class. A group who has been building a monster Subaru GC since before the inception of Mechanical Advantage Racing LLC. We are not only building 2 racecars, but we are also building a team to help drive the racing community into the forefront of motorsports. With every design we come up with, every failure we find and fix, every wild idea that takes shape and helps drop our lap times, we are helping show the current and future generations what can be done in your average garage. We are showing what can be done when a group of friends and colleagues team up and simply share a passion. We may not be the fastest yet, but that isn’t going to stop us from getting there, only fuel us. For now, it’s time to regroup and come back stronger for GridLife South Festival at Road Atlanta August 23rd-25th!

Eyes on the next event! See you all at Road Atlanta!

If you want to stay up to date on the progress being made before that race make sure to check out our Instagram Accounts or Facebook Account.

The UltraMiata is running Konig Dekagram in 15×10 et 25mm squared in Semi-Matte Black (Good-Win Racing exclusive wheel). The Konig Dekagram is Flow Formed.

The Slumdog is running Konig Dekagram in 18×10.5 et 18mm squared in Semi-Matte Black. The Konig Dekagram is Flow Formed.

Boersma takes a win at GRIDLIFE MIDWEST!!!

Posted on June 13, 2018 by Konig Gfx

BACK TO OUR RECORD BREAKING WAYS

After a difficult start to the season Chris Boersma and the K-Tuned Honda Civic team headed to Gingerman Raceway in South Haven for GridLife MidWest Festival. The team worked diligently to address the issues they had encountered in Atlanta and were hoping for a much smoother event at Gingerman.

Chris was fast right off the bat on Thursday in the Time Attack sessions, getting very close to his overall record last year. The team worked overnight to make some setup changes including a bump stop change to dial the car in for the Friday morning session and the team reviewed data looking for every bit of time that was out there. On Friday morning, in the very first session Chris shattered his previous record by over a second running a 1:33.493. With more 3 more sessions in the day, the team was confident that they’d be able to go faster.

Unfortunately the racing gods had some other plans. Chris attacked a little too hard in his second session going off track, luckily with only minor consequences. In the third session he was on a tear when the car caught on fire. Chris got the car off track safely and managed to extinguish the fire with a handheld extinguisher. The fire was quite small, resulting in very little damage to the car.

With that the time attack event was over and Chris had secured the TrackMod FWD record besting his previous record. The team prepared for the Bracket Battle on Saturday where Chris would run against the other top 8 time attack cars from TrackMod. Rain in the morning made for an interesting bracket battle that started out wet, eventually leading to a dry track. Chris and the team decided to switch their setup to a full rain setup just in case the weather returned.

In his first battle, Chris faced off against Mike Lee in his potent S14 on a damp track and managed to win his lead battle and the follow battle advancing to the quarter finals where he faced off against Michael Puglisi in Mitsubishi Evolution. Chris won the first round as the lead car, but Michael took the second round meaning both cars had to battle it out in a one-more-time final shootout. Unfortunately with the now completely dry track Chris’s rain setup was out gunned and Michael managed to squeak out a win the finals. This left Chris in the 3rd place position in the Track Battle.

Chris and team were very happy with the results taking 1st Place in Time Attack event, breaking their own record and securing a 3rd place finish in the Track Battle event on the Saturday.

The next event for the K-Tuned Honda Civic team will be the second round of the Canadian Sport Compact Series at Toronto Motorsport Park in Cayuga, ON, on the 24th of June.

Boersma is running Konig Ultraform in 18×10.5 et 25 front and 17×8 et 35 rear. The Konig Ultraform is Flow Formed.

Ding takes on Mio-Ohio for #GRIDLIFE – Track Battle Rd1!!!

Posted on April 27, 2018June 1, 2018 by Konig Gfx

GRIDLIFE – Track Battle Round 1 – Mid-Ohio | April 14th and 15th

Mid-Ohio has always been a demanding and tricky circuit to tackle, and for this year’s Gridlife TrackBattle season opener it proved to be no different. However, for Fiona and I, just making it to the event was a victory all by itself…

Rewind to a weekend before Mid-Ohio, we arrived at Gingerman Raceway for a shakedown, to make sure both my highly-reworked S2000 and Fiona’s new-to-her E46 M3 would work as intended. Much to our surprise, everything that could go wrong, DID go wrong. My S2000 experienced some major oil pressure problems that left the health of the engine in serious doubt, while the M3 suffered a pretty serious fire after an off. Most of the driver-side wiring were toasted, as well as a couple of sensors for the engine/trans and some bodywork, but luckily the car survived mechanically and Fiona escaped unharmed. At the end of the weekend, we were left with two barely working cars and absolutely exhausted, but there was little time to breathe.

Calling the week that followed “hectic” is an understatement. Not only were we caught up in school commitments and exams, but we had to find a way to resolve the issues and ensure they are ready to race before the weekend. Huge thanks to our sponsor Brian of BaoHouse Racing, who was able to squeeze in a last minute check for both of our cars, as well as Mikey of Xenocron Tuning, who helped analyze the issues with my F22C engine and reassure me that it was luckily okay. Although there remained a few issues, we were out of time and had to set off for Mid-Ohio.

Pokemon onesie is now the official TeamARF team wear, because Fiona said so…

As we arrived at the track, we quickly realized that the weekend will be defined by a single factor: the weather. Every source suggested that the weekend will be filled with rain starting right around our first session, and Mid-Ohio itself is notoriously difficult in the wet. If we were to be successful this weekend, we would not only need a fast lap time, but to set that fast lap as quickly as possible.

Saturday morning, and the news was good. The track remained dry, but the forecast was not pretty. The pressure was on, and I came up with a sneaky plan… You see, in time attack, traffic is the worst nightmare. You can be 2 seconds faster than your previous best, and one slow car at the wrong point on track will completely ruin your efforts. In order to get as many clean laps in as possible, Fiona and I lined up early to be at the front of Group B, just behind Levi Brown in his incredibly fast TrackMod Civic EF Hatch. The strategy proved invaluable, as many of our competitors ended up stuck in a train of slower cars. With Mr. Brown ahead of me acting as a target and Fiona behind chasing me down, I settled down and gave it my all.

My lap was far from perfect, and the tire pressure setting had skyrocketed during the session, but we still banged in a 1:39.098, obliterating the old Street class record and a stunning 1.9 seconds faster than the next fastest car in Street, a Corvette C7. In fact, that lap would’ve landed me in a podium spot in any RWD category, whether it be StreetMod, TrackMod, or Unlimited. I was happy with that result, but not with the my lap. I knew the car had plenty left in it and I could’ve improved to a 1:37 by the next session or two. Fiona, meanwhile, went faster every lap as she got to grips with the M3 and Mid-Ohio, and managed a 1:48.372, 8th fastest in a highly competitive 17-car Street RWD field and also the fastest E46 M3 out of 3 entries in Street.

Unfortunately, our fun was cut short just before the start of the second session, when a light drizzle began to fall. However, it quickly turned into a monsoon that soaked the whole track and buried the hope of any dry running for the rest of the day. Sunday was much of the same, and although we had a lot of fun slicing and dicing in the rain, the time charts remained unchanged. I walked away with a victory, which was my goal right from the get go, but doing so before the others got a chance to does make it a little less enjoyable. Fiona, meanwhile, is also unhappy with the outcome. As much as I told her that it was a very valiant effort and a great first showing on a new track with a new car, she couldn’t help but feel disappointed, as she had prepared so hard for the event in the months before.

Overall, it was certainly a perfect start to the season for me in terms of results, gaining a lot of valuable points on the competition at a track we expected to excel at. Fiona’s performance is also getting better by the weekend, and we can’t wait to head down to Road Atlanta in three weeks for Global Time Attack!

Jackie is running Konig Dekagrams in 18×9.5 et 35mm all around in Semi Matte Black. The Konig Dekagram is Flow Formed.

Hard Times Racing hit the track at GRIDLIFE Mid-Ohio!

Posted on April 23, 2018April 23, 2018 by Konig Gfx

HARD-TIMES RACING AT GRIDLIFE TRACK BATTLE ROUND 1

2018 GRIDLIFE MID-OHIO | APR 14TH & 15TH

RACEDAY

“The first event each year is always the Hardest…”

After a 7 hour drive to Mid-Ohio, we unloaded all the cars and gear, made sure all the cars got through tech inspection, then we set up camp and got prepared for the next morning. Everyone knew we would have one, maybe two session to lay down a respectable time before the rain came, much easier said than done, the team was basically shaking down their new cars, Lester had never driven this track so he really had his work cut out for him. Sitting in the Silvia I had multiple concerns with over-heating due to the new front mount and ducting, I wasn’t sure if the wheels and tires would rub under load, was the grip going to be there? had I done everything right to have a safe car? I would soon find out the answers to all these questions, and as team captain my thoughts were about all my teammates and that they were going through the same thought process. As we started our out lap Mark led the team followed by Mike and Les as I brought up the rear. My goal was to load up the car a little bit more every lap, lap two Mike and Lester gave me the point by and I bumped the car up to about 65%, constantly checking the gauges, trying to put heat in the tires and listening for odd sounds or tire rubbing. About 3 laps in I felt a wave of relief fall over me, the car was working! A quick look at the solo showed that I had cut a 146.08 not a fast time but all things considered it had felt like I had just won! And with the gas gauge showing I was on fumes I pitted with a huge smile on my face! parked the car and anxiously awaited for my teammates to finish up and come back to the pits, One by one they started rolling in, it was hugs and high fives all around! I was one proud man. After the track high subsided a bit we started looking at times. We knew our street FWD guys we looking good and boy were we right! after one session Lester was sitting in first place with a time of 156.55 followed closely by Mike with a 159.34 putting hard times in 1st and 2nd. All eyes would turn back to the radar as the rain was going to hit sooner than later. During the cold track lunch break the rain started to fall. I was on slicks and knew that my day was over, Mike had also decided to leave his car in the pits for the rest of the day. Rain is a funny thing at race tracks, after it had poured for hours it was apparent the the dry times would stand for everyone that weekend, Leaving hard times on top of street FWD. The end of Saturday would see conditions improve from soaking wet and standing water to a damp track, and with this street FWD would see the late entry of a brand new civic type R, a car known in this class as a ringer car, Anthony Cuthbert would end up bumping Mike and Lester down to 2nd and 3rd. The sun set and some hard earned beers were shared as we all swapped war stories. But once again all eyes were glued to the radar. It was pretty clear that Sunday would see more rain and with more rain we knew the times from Saturday would stand. Lester and Mark would go out and practice their wet driving skills as the rest of the team watched. Then it would be time to collect some hardware and hit the road back to Chicago.

All in all it was a great weekend and even though we only had four of the seven Hard Times car out the tone had been set. Gridlife Mid-West will go down in history for us as it will be the first time that all 7 cars hit the track together, as always there is a ton of work to get done between now and then. I have said it before and I’ll say it again. You gotta be there to win!

Hard TImes Racing drivers list for Round 2 is as follows

Lester-Street FWD -Integra

Mike -Street FWD -Integra

Mark- Street AWD r32 GTR

James- Street RWD Mustang GT

Ben- TrackMod- RWD Mazda RX7

Sam-Unlimited RWD s13 180sx

Charlie- Unlimited RWD s13 silvia

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Hard Times Racing is a supporter of the GRIDLIFE event series. Konig is proud to provide quality wheels for part of the Hard Times Racing team!

Charlie Ensslin 240SX is running the Flow Formed Konig Dekagram in 18×10.5 all around w/ et18mm offset. The Konig Dekagram is Flow Formed.

Make sure to follow Hard Times Racing on INSTAGRAM!

James Houghton Sends It at Gridlife Track Battle Round 1!

Posted on April 19, 2018April 23, 2018 by Konig Gfx

JAMES HOUGTON AT GRIDLIFE TRACK BATTLE ROUND 1

2018 GRIDLIFE MID-OHIO | APR 14TH & 15TH

The weekend of April 14/15 saw the K-Tuned Time Attack Integra head South for the opening round of the 2018 Gridlife Track Battle series. As last year, the season opener was at the famed Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.

But it was not an easy 2018 debut as James noted, “It was a very busy offseason for the K-Tuned Time Attack Integra. We always try to accomplish a lot of modifications for both speed and reliability but this winter/spring was definitely one to remember. We set many records in 2017 so we largely focused on improvements in reliability for 2018. With the many improvements were made to both our engine package, our wiring and electronics we were very excited to get out to our first event, even though it would be without the benefit of a track test beforehand.”

Mid-Ohio saw James once again compete in the Unlimited FWD class where he set the record in 2017 on his first visit to the track. Watching the weather forecast on the week leading up to the event the Kitchener, ON based team came prepared with rain tires as well as full complement of slicks just in case the called for rain did not arrive. After tech inspection, the weather radar was forecasting a dry first session and maybe the second. As this could be the session that would decide the whole event, the team discussed the options and agreed to go for it on slicks.

The slicks were mounted on the car and got in the zone for the first session. Although he didn’t beat his record from 2017 James put down a solid lap time of 1.28.9 which held up for fastest in class (Unlimited FWD) as well as Fastest Overall for the event.

Later that day the Gridlife team announced that they would start keeping track of wet track records as well as regular dry records in 2018. As the team had brought their rain tires they mounted them as the rain fell before the second session. James ran one of the fastest wet times of the weekend with a 2.00.0 and the fastest wet time in Unlimited FWD by a large margin! Houghton was excited after seeing photos of the K-Tuned Time Attack Integra in the wet, “I would never have believed the rooster tails that were coming off the car. We could see on the pit straight and from various photos taken all around the track that our aero was really working. I have to thank the guys at Professional Awesome for their input and my team for their execution of the Professional Awesome’s ideas!”

James continued by saying, “With all of our improvements to the car working well at Gridlife Track Battle 1 we can focus on more small changes leading up to the Global Time Attack event at Road Atlanta next month. To that end, we will be testing at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park in a little over a week to help further dial in the suspension and aero package. Thank you very much for the support in the 2018 season, we definitely couldn’t do it without you! James”.

The team was very excited the Monday after the event when the newly announced Gridlife partnership with Autoweek published the first event report online with the team’s Acura Type R as the lead photo. View the article using the link below.

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James Houghton is running the Flow Formed Konig Dekagram in 18×10.5 front and 17×9 rear w/ et40mm offset. The Konig Dekagram is Flow Formed.

Make sure to follow James on INSTAGRAM!