Well our road to Superlap began in the beginning of October. Our Silver Car from last year decided to give up and throw a rod out the front of the block ending its life spilling its guts out all over Craig Peyrons wind screen.. lol
Our silver car, which we set the record with last year, was dead and the Owner did not want to continue with the project. So at the last minute we decided to bring my white car back to life. It had mods which did not fit within street rules so we had to mix and match parts from the Silver Car to the White car to make the best package possible. A week and a half later we were ready to test out at Willow Springs.
First time out at WSIR we ran a 1:29.0 which our Qstarz counted as a 1:28.8. It was amazing considering the fact that our turbo gasket failed during practice and were only pushing about 22psi ( 28psi is our Tune ). With the data gathered from testing we were able to estimate some times for Buttonwillow and were extremely pleased with what we saw.
So we went out for 3 test days at Buttonwillow with nothing but testing and tuning in mind. Each practice, our driver, Brian Bengali, became more comfortable with the car. Every day was a different story as far as trial and error but by the Final practice day we were on record pace and ready to defend our record.
Superlap Battle:
Throughout the weeks between the moment we chose to run Superlap and the day we finally did, our eyes were solely on Mr. Mark Jager. He was the man to watch. We had as best possible surveillance on him as we could. Every track event he went to we made sure we had someone watching his every move as well as the components on his car. We made sure to know who he was and what he was running. If we had the budget, we would have a satellite tracking his times as well as a drone with spyshots when the car would be worked on.. LOL
Of course during this time we were all being secretive. We went as far as to delete and block him on popular social media. This was nothing personal its just the way things need to be when in competition. Did it pay off? We don’t know. But its funny to know these things later on when the dust is all settled.
Our Morning practice session went by very quickly but we were able to scrub in our new tires and set a respectable time to be on grid in a favorable spot. First Time Attack Session we were able to reset the Street Tire AWD and Overall Street Record to 1:53.068. We had nothing but smiles and we began with the high fives and hugs….. Our Celebration was cut short when one of us saw Mark Jager Pass the Finish line with an extremely close 1:53.100 on our Stopwatch. The time was so close we needed to go to the Timing Station and verify what just happened. Up in the Timing Station was both Mark and Paul waiting to see what they ran. It took about 4-5 minutes to get the time sheet however the anticipation made it feel like 3 hours. Once we saw our official times, we knew the battle was ON. All this around 10:30am. The whole day ahead of us was nothing but seriousness and trying to improve. Next session we went out and could not run faster than a 1:53.5 or so. The track temps were rising so we weren’t sure if it was possible to go any faster. Mark’s time did not improve either so it was a small sigh of relief. After lunch we decided to sit out our 3rd Time Attack Session because track temps were now in the 100 degree area. When the session was gridding we all went up to the pit wall with our stop watches ready to see what Mark can do. As they came around after their Warmup lap, Mark was not at time attack speed but slowing down and limping back to the pits. We didn’t know what was going on but thought possibly his intercooler pipe may have popped or something minor which can easily be fixed. When we didn’t see him come back out we were a little confused but the day went on. As we adjusted wing angle and some alignment we heard a rumor that Mark may have broken his Tranny. Not being the one for rumors we just brushed it off and focused on the last and final session. About 10 minutes before going into the final Session Mark and his Tuner Paul show up at our pit to congratulate us on our victory. They Confirmed that they were having some kind of Drivetrain problems that they could not fix. They were nothing but humble about everything and expressed their congratulations towards us very respectably. With that we felt the victory ever closer. Once our last session was over, we did not improve. With the track temp at 107 degrees it was not possible to get the grip we had in the AM. Once it was all over and the Champagne was sprayed it sunk in that we now have the fastest car and driver that has ever been around Buttonwillow CW13 on Street Tires. No one has ever been this fast in this class. More so than all, we were extremely impressed with Mark and his Team and his accomplishments this year. We ourselves were amazed to be able to stop the Freight Train that was Mark Jager of 2013.
Written by:
Mauricio of Massimo Power