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.