Boersma takes a win at GRIDLIFE MIDWEST!!!

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.

Chris Boersma Gridlife

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.

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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!!!

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…

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.