TORONTO (Dec. 1, 2009) - GRAND-AM's 2009 KONI Sports Car Challenge Street Tuner Championship-winning team, Compass360 Racing (C360R), today announced the first of its season-long driver pairings by signing Ryan Eversley and Zach Lutz to drive one of the team's Honda Civic Sis.
"C360R is extremely pleased to welcome two great drivers to our team in 2010," enthused Team Principal Karl Thomson. "I've wanted to have Ryan on our team for some time, and know he'll be a great co-driver for Zach, who really stood out as one of the great talents in (Ford Racing) Mustang Challenge last year. We're going to once again bring our A-game to defend our championships, and these guys are a key part of that effort."
Lutz, who impressed in his first season of Mustang Challenge competition last year, started racing in Quarter Midgets at the age of five. In his teens he moved up to Legends, and then shifted his focus to road racing with NASA in a variety of cars, including an Audi TT, Mustang Cobra and finally at GTS-2 BMW 325is. He won two Grand National Championships and the TT-D Championship in 2007. He rounded out last season with his best result of the year, fourth, at the season-ending race at Miller Motorsports Park in Utah.
"I'm so excited to have the opportunity to move another step up the ladder and to compete with a top team like Compass360," Lutz noted. "It's the next logical step for me, and I'm looking forward to getting on the podium and fighting for the championship next year."
Eversley, meanwhile, is no stranger to the GRAND-AM paddock. His career started as a mechanic with Archangel Motorsports in 2001, which quickly led to a ride with the team in their ST cars. He drove a handful of races with Kinetic's E92 M3 program last year, leading the season-ending race at VIR with just minutes go before being taken out by a competitor in dramatic style.
"I'm so excited to be able to join Compass360 in 2010!" Eversley exclaimed. "Everyone in the paddock knows they are the team to beat and hopefully I can help them keep that reputation. My dad once told me to succeed in life you must surround yourself with the best people and for 2010; that's exactly what Zach and I have done."
Compass360 Racing made history last year by being the first team to sweep the podium, with a dominant performance at New Jersey Motorsports Park. Not only did they win the team, driver and manufacturer championships, but also took third in both the driver and team points, once again being the first in the series ever to do so.
"We really had an amazing season last year," Thomson said, "and it's going to be hard to top that. But we've been pretty consistent over the past three seasons, and I know we'll be up to the fight with Ryan and Zach."
Lutz and Eversley will take to the track in their iconic orange-and-black liveried Honda during GRAND-AM's test days at Daytona in early January, and at the first race coming shortly thereafter at the Rolex 24 At Daytona weekend on Jan. 29, 2010.
I don't even know where to begin with this blog update! With a season filled with numerous highs and lows it was fitting that our final race at Miller Motorsports Park in Tooele, Utah was such an awesome event! For this event we decided to team up with TC Motorsports for paddock support and coaching and I can honestly say it was such a privilege to be able to work with such a great team. TC Motorsports gave me everything I could have asked for in a team.
Miller Motorsports Park is a daunting track by any measure with a 4.5 mile, 23 turn layout it's super fast and super fun. Just like almost every other track we ran at this season it would be my first time on the track so I checked out a couple videos of the event last season to prime myself and talked to Ted Anthony Jr. about key points on track. This would prove to be very beneficial in the long run. I took to the track nearly instantly and began laying down quick laps right off the bat during the Thursday test day. Throughout the first two sessions I was consistently setting top 10 times out of 26 cars and in the last session of the day I ended up P5. This was a HUGE day for me as it would be the first time in the season that I would have such good practice times.
Friday brought an easy day for us as we only had one practice session. Again, I ended up with a top 10 time, P8 to be exact. Dad and I decided to ride our motorcycles around Utah for a little that evening and we had a great time exploring our new surroundings on our bikes.
Saturday would be a great day for us. We had a small practice session before qualifying in the morning and I went out to warm up and get a feel for how the track would feel for qualifying. The track felt great and so did the car so I pulled off after only one lap. The great crew at TC Motorsports had the setup nailed perfectly on the car so we slapped a set of new BF Goodrich tires on the car and waited for qualifying. Realizing that qualifying is such an important part of a spec series like the Ford Racing Mustang Challenge has been something I've been determined to improve on throughout the season and I knew I had a lot riding on this session. Preparing for the qualifying session with TC Motorsports team owner Carlo Sparacio, the crew and the rest of the drivers proved to be a huge leg-up for us. Going through the data and video from previous sessions I felt totally prepared to lay down the biggest flyer of the weekend. Upon completion of the quickest lap I would turn all weekend I radioed in to see where I stood. P5! I was sitting in P5 for most of the session until one other driver set a lap just a few hundredths faster. I had just qualified P6. P6! POSITION 6! Such a great feeling to be in the front of the pack.
The race... Wow, what a race! Starting outside row 3 was the closest to the front of the pack I had been all season and being able to see the points leaders just ahead of me was so awesome! I had a really great green flag call from my spotter, J.R., and was able to get a great run down the front straight and enter turn 1 in P4. Behind me I noticed some cars going wild, but that was the least of my concerns at this point. Holding on to P4 was going to be tough with the competition being so close but I knew I had to keep it.
Behind me a few positions back a couple of cars got tangled up and after a few caution laps with the pace car we were back in action. Mike McGovern and Andrew Hendricks were P5 and P6 respectively behind me and I knew my main goal was to keep them there and retain my P4 spot. I held them off nearly the whole race until the last few laps when Mike McGovern was really giving me a run for my money. Mike would stick the nose of his Mustang in on me every chance he got but I was able to shut the door on him nearly every attempt. On the last turn of the last lap McGovern ducked inside and we drag raced to the start/finish line with the #33 inching him out by about 8 to 12”! I had just finished P4! What an amazing race!
I want to give a HUGE thanks to TC Motorsports for providing me with such a great car and great team all weekend. Trever, John A, John Z, Clint K, Carlo, Ted, Rick... I couldn't have done it without you guys. J.R., thanks for the spotting, it was fun having you on the radio.
Without my Dad providing support I wouldn't have been able to compete this season, so a huge thanks to him and JC Concrete. Thanks to David O'Dell for working with us throughout this season and helping me grow as a driver.
The biggest thanks of all goes out to the Mustang Challenge and Grand-Am officials. Candice Bailey, Lynda Randall... This series wouldn't have been the same without you two. “Jamie Slone here with Inside Track!” brought so much fun to the series with your interviews... Thanks so much. Wes Duenkel, thanks for all the amazing pictures of the season. Of course I can't forget our series partners, Austin Hatcher Foundation, BF Goodrich, Compass360, Ford Racing, GoPro Cameras, Grand-Am and HD Theater.
Well, what started off as an event that had me a little worried as to how I was going to do, ended up great and left me with a strong feeling of accomplishment. Read all about it here!
Wednesday – My Dad and I decided to drive to Illinois rather than take a quick flight so we left relatively early and made the drive up through the endless fields of corn from Georgia to Illinois in about 12 hours. We checked in to our hotel and promptly searched for a delicious Chicago style pizzeria or restaurant… and ended up at Applebee’s. That seems to be the case with us and I see no problem with that! Knowing that the next morning was going to be a pretty early one we headed back to the room and turned in for the night.
Thursday – This was my first day on track and even though I had watched videos and studied the track map it takes a few laps to learn 3.56 miles and 21 turns! For the first session we tried some pretty drastic setup changes on the Mustang and combining those with learning the track really gave me a handful that left me disappointed. We made quite a few changes to the car getting it back to the setup I was most comfortable with and went out for the second session. Session 2 went much better than the first one and I was happy to learn the track some more and feel a little more comfortable in the car. After a long day at the track we had a fun night at the event kickoff at Harrah’s in downtown Joliet, Illinois. Good drinks, good food and good people at the party.
Friday – Moving onward to the second day of practice we continued making changes to the car to nail the setup. In the first session I was struggling with over-driving the car and being too aggressive which was leading us to think the car wasn’t setup as well as it could have been but the times weren’t TOO TOO bad at 2:45.602 but I knew I still had a ways to go to catch the front runners. After the first session I talked to Scott Maxwell extensively about the track, went over some data, video and the track map. This led me to go back out for the second session with a few new tips and tricks to try. Apparently it worked because I picked up half a second of time from the first session at 2:45.108. We were all super pleased with how the day turned out and looking forward to qualifying on Saturday. Dad and I decided to go to a local restaurant and after driving around for a while ended up at Nick and Vito’s Italian restaurant. It’s always good to head to local places and see what they have to offer.
Saturday – Qualifying was at 4 in the afternoon on Saturday with nothing really to do before hand so we just took it easy all morning, had some eggs from McDonald’s and headed in to the track around lunch time. I had several things I was going to try on the track after talking to Beaux Barfield the afternoon before so I was pretty excited to get out there and set a quick lap. I guess the advice I’d been receiving all weekend from the super talented drivers and coaches ended up paying off as I lowered my time even more and set a blazing fast (for me) 2.43.981. That’s a whole second and tad off from my times in practice yesterday. AWESOME! This put me starting P11 which we were all pretty happy about since that put us super close to having a top 10 finish for the first time all season. We went out to celebrate at Aurelio’s Pizzeria… Talk about some good Chicago style deep dish pizza. I’d recommend it to anyone in the Chicago area.
Sunday – Oh boy! Race day! The plan was to take it easy and be super aware the first couple of laps just to make sure I didn’t get caught up in anything in front of me since I was starting a few rows back in P11. Good thing I was paying attention because two cars collided about two rows up from me going in to turn 2 on the first lap which put us under caution for about 15 minutes. At this point I was in P9 closely following Andrew Hendricks when the green flag dropped again after they had cleaned up the track. With about 20 or 25 minutes left to go in the race I knew I had to be smart and just work on making clean passes as I saw them pop up. A few laps after the green I saw a perfect opportunity to duck under Hendricks going in to a sharp 90° right hand corner. I stuck the car in on the inside and really drove it in the corner hard and made the pass stick. This put me in P8 following Pratt Cole. I was on his tail for the majority of the rest of the race until Hendricks got his chance and passed me back. His lead over me didn't last too long though, going in to the same turn where I passed him the first time he ran in a little too hard and went off track thus putting me back in P8 albeit a little bit back from Cole. There wasn't too much time left in the race at this point so I just kept my sights on Cole and tried my best to catch back up. Finally the checkered flag flew and I was in P8! BEST FINISH OF THE SEASON!!! Not only did I finish well, but I picked up another second from my qualifying time (2:42.950). I'm fairly certain that if I had qualified with this time and started a few positions up I could have been up there racing for a top 5 finish.
It's all about progress though and I really feel like I've progressed so much this season in my driving capabilities. We'll be running at full force in Miller Motorsports Park in September!
I'd like to give a big thanks to JC Concrete, Jacky Jones Ford and My Dad. David O'dell, Bruce O'dell and Billy O'dell for all the help. Scott Maxwell, Beaux Barfield and Ted Anthony Jr. for the on-track tips. And last but not least all the FRMC crew, Ford and the workers at Autobahn for making this event happen!
I was going to write up some long drawn out post for this event but the more I think about it, the more I realize this past weekend just wasn't that interesting. A quick overview of the weekend should suffice.
Thursday was a test day and all was going well. It was my first time on the famous Mid-Ohio sports car course but it didn't take me long to pick it up as I was P8 the first session out. After a few more practice sessions I had a pretty good grasp on the track and the day was over. We packed up, went back to the hotel and got cleaned up and then headed over to the local watering hole... Applebees.
Friday morning brought rain... and lots of it. First session out on Friday was POURING down and only around 10 brave drivers went out. I'm pretty sure most of us spun at some point. Puddles and streams don't make for good track time.
Shortly after our first session the rain subsided and we had one last opportunity to go out before qualifying. The final practice session went well and I was excited about trying to throw down a huge "flyer" in qualifying. We bolted on a new set of BF Goodrich tires and got ready for the session. I went out and for the first time this year I actually set my quickest lap (1:37.7) on the second lap beating my previous times by almost a second. This put us at P12 for the race, although the times between P3 and P12 were only separated by 7/10ths of a second. We were all prepared for some super close racing come Saturday.
Saturday was our race day and I was super excited for the race! Our race was at around 12:30, so we had to play the waiting game for a while in the morning but as soon as the time came around we were ready. I signed a few autographs for some kids, hopped in the car and got all situated for the race. After we all grid up on track and take the green things seem to be going well, except for the high speed understeer the car picked up between qualifying and race time. I ended up racing with Leo Capaldi for 12th spot and we had some great action back and forth for a few laps until some unfortunate contact caused Leo to spin on the crest of turn 5. This caught Grand-Am's attention and they deemed it necessary that I come in for a drive-through. I understand where they were coming from in making that call, but it's just a bum deal because after the race I talked to Leo about the incident and we both agreed it was just racing and anywhere else on track it would have just been a little "rubbin is racin!" Oh well... I get back out on track after the drive-through, raced with a few guys and just cruised around until the end of the race. I ended up in P12 after all... at least I didn't come in behind where I qualified.
Thanks to everyone who made this weekend possible and to those who came out to enjoy the races!
I suppose I should update my blog with what's been going on with my adventures in racing with the Ford Racing Mustang Challenge. We've run at two events since I last updated, New Jersey Motorsports Park and Laguna Seca. Neither event left us with a good finish... sometimes things just don't go your way.
New Jersey Motorsports Park
Thursday - This was my first time running at New Jersey Motorsports Park and I'd watched several videos before getting on track the first time just to get the track layout in my head. First practice session gave me a great feel of the track and I didn't plan on laying any fast laps down this session but the track really came to me and I ended up with P6 times. Second session comes around and I let Ryan Eversley, my coach, drive for the first half of the session. Our times were about the same, with Ryan about 3 tenths faster than me. This put us at P5 for that session. Great day... everything seemed to be fitting into place.
Friday - Friday brought another day of practice for us at NJMP. We opted to continue to run on the old tires rather than put on a new set like several other teams did. This didn't hinder our times compared to everyone else too bad. The first session brought us in with a P10 time, made sense though considering the new vs old tires. The second session evened out the field once again and gave us a P7 time. Not a bad last session before qualifying.
Saturday - Qualifying always seems difficult for me and I'm still trying to work out the kinks of laying down a HUGE lap right off the bat. After having such great practice times I went out and could only muster a P12 qualifying time. It's not that bad, I'd just have to work my way up during the race and shoot for the BF-Goodrich "Take Control" award for gaining the most positions.
Sunday - RAIN, RAIN, RAIN! So much rain on Sunday. After debating all morning about what the weather was going to do it was pretty clear right before the race... it started to come down pretty hard. Awesome, I thought, a rain race. This is going to be fun. We bolted up the BF-Goodrich all-weather tires and prepared to get into line. We went out for our out-lap and I saw a few cars ahead of me Dan Aweida spun out going into the turn 3 chicane. I knew it was going to be slick out there after seeing that and the only way to do well in the race was going to be patience and car control. As we pull on the front straight all the cars bunch up waiting for the green flag to drop, I hear Ryan give me the call over the radio that the green had dropped... I couldn't see a thing. The rooster tails from the cars in front of me had my vision down to about 10%. I relied on Ryan to let me know if I was clear for turn 1, he didn't let me down, we all made it through turn 1 just as clean as could be. After all the cars got into single file and started to spread out, the rooster tails went away and I was finally able to see. I started picking off positions as I saw able and got up to 8th after a few quick laps. Things got a little bit tricky when I was punted in the rear by Andrew Hendricks which sent me spinning off the track between turns 7 and 8. This put me back into the last position. Not so bad, I thought... I just worked my way up from 12th to 8th, I should be able to do it again, I've got plenty of time. So, again, I start picking off cars as I catch them and eventually work my way up to 6th place with about 10 minutes to go in the race. I'm really excited at this point thinking I'm about to get my career best finish in the Mustang Challenge... IN THE RAIN! All of a sudden, going in to turn 4 the wheels lock up under braking and I go sliding off the track extremely fast. The ABS went out. THE ABS WENT OUT. IN. THE. RAIN! Of course, I lose all my positions trying to get back on track. This basically put an end to my race as I was unable to gain any positions back since I was just limping around the track with no ABS until the end. I ended up finishing in 13th place, but had the ABS not gone out I think we could have pulled off a 6th, maybe 5th place finish.
Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca
First off, I just want to say Laguna Seca is the kind of track racers dream about driving at some point in their racing careers. It was truly amazing to finally get on the track that I've driven countless hours on in Forza and Gran Tourismo.
Thursday - Our first day of practice at Laguna Seca gave me a great chance to learn the track, given we had 3 sessions out. My first session was a great learning experience, going through the corkscrew was a whole new experience for me... I didn't realize how much of a blind corner it is! I couldn't see anything on the right side of the car after making the first apex. I talked to Joe Foster about visual points to look for to make the corner and found out that all I needed to do was point the car towards the third tree to the right and give it some throttle input and I'd go right on down the hill. Sure thing, next session I go out and aim for the tree and wouldn't you know, I make it through the corkscrew just about perfect. All three practice sessions went well and I ended up being P11 in my fastest session. Not too bad for my first day on track.
Friday - One more practice day before qualifying, time to really get some quick times and work on the track some more. The first practice session didn't go so great. The inside apex at turn 10 has the motorcycle curbing on it... raised, red and dangerous. I clipped the inside apex down there after turning in a little too early and bent the panhard bar which put an end to that session. No serious damage, just had to replace it before the next session. After getting it fixed, we went out for the second round of practice and everything went smoothly. Ended up P11 with my fastest time of the day. Not bad... New BF-Goodrich tires should help us pick up some more time for qualifying.
Saturday - Qualifying! Not my forte, but I'm working on it. Focusing on laying down a huge lap right off the bat, I went out with a brand new set of BF-Goodrich tires and the determination to qualify well. I pulled off a huge lap (for me) right off the bat which was about 4 to 5 tenths faster than any of my previous times... A career first for me, setting a quicker time in qualifying than any previous session. I considered this a victory even though I still only qualified P11.
Sunday - The race. The big day. Man, I was excited. The race starts and is going well, I picked up a position or two and was working on picking off more when another car went off and got stuck in the gravel trap. This brought out a full course caution and had us all get in to single file behind the pace car waiting for the green to fly when the track was cleared. Two laps go by while we slowly pace around the track. Finally we pull through turn 10 and the pace car pulls in the hot pits. We're good to go after hitting the front straight after turn 11. We all bunch up on the front straight and wait for the flag to drop. I hear the call over the radio that the green flag was waving and I immediately go to full throttle hoping to be able to pass some cars going in to turn 2 coming up at the end of the front straight.
Here's a video of the restart and then we'll get back to the story...
A "stop and go" penalty was awarded for "initiating a pass before the start finish line." As you can clearly see, I was avoiding creating a much larger accident by pulling out instead of nailing the back of Andrew Hendricks' car because of the check-up that someone started several cars ahead of us.
This "stop and go" penalty caused me to lose a potential top 10 finish, which would have been my best finish of the season. We also have to replace the hood, front bumper, headlight and right-front fender due to this incident.
Not too much happened after the restart and "stop and go" penalty. I just pushed out a good clean race until the end. I ended up finishing 12th, but looking back at the times it looks like I could have finished around 7th or 8th had all gone well throughout the race.
All in all, I feel like these last two events have been great learning experiences for me even if everything hasn't gone my way. We'll keep pushing forward, learning more and hopefully getting some good finishing positions along the way.
THANKS!
Again, I want to thank my Dad, David O'dell, Ryan Eversley, Bruce O'dell, JC Concrete, Jacky Jones Ford, all the FRMC crew, Ford and the crews at New Jersey Motorsports Park and Laguna Seca!
So, I was watching the Audi documentary, Truth in 24 and came across this quote from Allen McNish (Twice 24 Heures du Mans Winner, 1999 & 2008) and I found it so inspiring that I sat down and wrote it out as I listened to it.
"I, personally, do not believe in luck. I think luck is an excuse for people that have failed in their mission to do something. If you do your preparation correct, if you do the work, if you think about things, if you make the correct judgments on the risks that you take and if you stay out of the pits, then you win the race... and that's not luck, that's hard work."
A controller of his own destiny on the track, Allen McNish truly put in to words what I, along with many other racers are striving for. After this past weekend at New Jersey Motorsports Park, I felt like lady-luck wasn't quite on my side when we had car troubles that all but put me out of the race, but looking back it was still a great learning experience that I can hopefully build on as a racer.
I'll have a full run-down of what went on at NJMP this past weekend pretty soon... I'm still trying to dry my feet out, it was awfully wet out there!
Oh, boy… What an awesome weekend with the Ford Racing Mustang Challenge series. Where to begin?!?! For our 3rd and 4th races we found ourselves at Barber Motorsports Park for a Double-Header weekend. Being the 45th Anniversary of the Ford Mustang, the place was packed with fans and SO MANY Mustangs and guess who was the main attraction? We were! The Ford Racing Mustang Challenge was "The Place to Race" and "The Races to Watch" at Barber! Needless to say, Barber is one of the most beautiful racing facilities I have ever been to, the whole compound is awesome. Ranging from the rolling green grassy hills to the weird spider statues holding motorcycles, it is just amazing. The track is so much fun to drive, with so many little intricacies, it's just awesome.
THURSDAY
Thursday was a rather uneventful day... Birmingham, Alabama is just a short two and half hour trip from Lawrenceville, Georgia. We arrived at the track and I think my Dad, David and I were all in shock at how many Ford Mustangs we saw. The place was packed! We pulled into the paddock and set up the trailer and got everything ready for practice on Friday. After scoping out the track we decided to head back to our "hotel" for some rest and relaxation for the big practice day on Friday. We checked in to our awesome condo on the Coosa river right outside Birmingham and called it a night.
FRIDAY
Our first on track excursion was at 8:00 am and we were ready to go... or so we thought. I got in the car to fire it up just to make sure everything was in working order before heading over to pre-grid and noticed a little bit of hesitation with the engine. David, my Dad and Jeff from Ford Racing were all digging around under the hood to try and get things straightened out. They tried an Oxygen Sensor and we thought that got it going better so off to the track we went. Nope, not any better. The car just had no power and was limping around the track. I pulled in to pit lane hoping something would pop up on the computer when Jeff checked it out. Nothing we didn't know already... so my Dad popped the fuse box open and found a blown fuse, replaced it and lo and behold it got it running in 100% shape. This left me with about 10 or 15 minutes of track time. Ryan Eversley, my coach, helped me get used to the track and setting some decent times. After practice, Ryan and I went over the video, determined to get quicker.
The second practice went much smoother than the first. No engine problems what so ever, the car was running great. This gave us the full hour to work on lines, braking points, feeling out the track and letting David tweak the set-up. We set some decent times and gave us a good feeling about throwing some brand new BFGoodrich tires on the car for qualifying the next morning and throwing down some huge fast laps.
SATURDAY
Saturday morning brought another 8:00 am track time for qualifying. With a new set of BFGoodrich tires on the car, I was ready to go out and run some great laps! We pulled out and had some great clean laps and ended up qualifying Position 12 with a 1:40:161 out of 23 cars! Man, I was stoked for the race with such a great qualifying time like that.
Race time! The start of the race goes great, everything seems to be in order... I hold my position up until turn 13, up and over the hill on the backside of the track. This is where things go bad. The rear end of the car lightens up and kicks out just enough that I start to spin and head towards the inside wall. Both feet in on the clutch and brake and the car comes to a stop on the inside of the track out of harms way. I waited for traffic to clear out and put the car back on the track knowing I had some work to do to catch back up to where I was since no caution was thrown. I decided to just push my way forward and not let the spin affect me too bad. Unfortunately for me, there was no cautions the entire race so I had no chance to close the gap up to the front runners. I pushed and pushed and pushed and ended up in P17 at the end of the race. One mistake on the first lap cost me quite a few positions but it did teach me quite a bit so it wasn't a total loss.
Saturday also brought one of the coolest things ever for me... an autograph session! All the drivers lined up at our tables at the Mustang Challenge trailer and signed fans autographs for an hour or so. We signed posters, hero cards, shirts, hats and anything people brought up to us! It was a blast getting to meet all the fans of the series and of Mustangs.
SUNDAY
Sunday morning brought a practice before qualifying. Sunday morning also brought rain... that was fun! We slapped on the BFGoodrich rain tires and went out to see what the track was going to be like. It was slippery but fun! I was P3 on the board for quite a long time out there during practice until it started to dry up and the boys with slicks picked up some better times. This left us hoping for rain for qualifying and the race.
By the time qualifying rolled around the track had dried up and the sky turned blue... no clouds to be seen. Another new set of BFGoodrich sticker tires and off to qualify we went. The car felt great, but we couldn't seem to get and super quick laps out of it, this left us starting in position 16 for the race. Not too bad, I'll just have to work my way up.
Race time! This time I told myself I wasn't going to spin it on the first lap and keep it going straight so I could start picking off positions as I saw able. The car was feeling great and I just kept pushing my way forward. I picked up a few positions throughout the first half of the race until we had a caution thrown when a car ahead of me hit the wall on the backside of the track. This brought the pack all together and proved to be quite a good opportunity for me. Soon we all saw the green flag flying and everyone barreling down the front straight right in to turn 1. I saw an opportunity to huck it in to turn 1 super hard and overtake some cars gaining two positions before turn 2 was even complete! This put me in position 10 which I just had to hold off until the end of the race. It was such a great race and I was super happy with finishing in the top 10 after Saturday's disappointing race.
THANKS!
I want to give a big thanks to all the Ford Mustang fans for coming out, my Dad, David O'dell, Ryan Eversley, Bruce O'dell, JC Concrete, Jacky Jones Ford, all the FRMC crew, Ford and Barber Motorsports Park.
I'm just going to start this post saying I had blast on this trip. The Ford Racing Mustang Challenge crew sure put together an awesome weekend for us. Homestead Miami Speedway is an awesome track, great combination of super technical turns and huge "go big or go home" turns. Great top notch facility that I'd love to go back to any chance I get.
So, my Dad, David Odell and I made the 12 hour drive down Wednesday in the LMI truck and trailer and dropped it off at the track not really knowing what to expect, as this was our first adventure to race in the Ford Racing Mustang Challenge series. After checking in to our hotel we made our way to the dinner choice of champions... Golden Corral. Yum. Enough about hotels and dinner choices, let's move on to the good gritty racing stuff.
Thursday morning rolls around, promoter test day, my first day on track. EXCITING! Not really knowing what to expect from the track, except what I've done on iracing.com and read on trackpedia, we decided to take it easy the first round out and sort the car, the track, and my brain. Everything went smooth and I started getting used to everything. My times weren't super great but I was learning and having a blast (the most important part!). Thursday night ended at Applebee’s, always fun with David and my Dad.
Friday… My main goal for Friday was to put down some good times in practice and then lay down a super quick lap in qualifying. Two practice sessions left us with some decent times, I ended up being 7th quick in the session before qualifying. Great, I thought, I'll get some new tires on there for qualifying and end up top 5 maybe? With a brand new set of BF Goodrich tires on the car I went out and knew I had to lay down a super quick lap within my first lap or two and I just couldn't make it happen. The whole "go super fast for one lap and pull in" strategy is new to me. I ended up not taking any time off my previous session out... but everyone else did. I ended up Qualifying 16th. Ok, I'll just have to work my way up the pack during the race. It'll be more fun. We had such a good time at Applebee’s the last night we decided to go again, this time we had one more crew member join us. Justin Stauffer flew in earlier to help out for the weekend and we all had a great time at dinner.
Alright, Saturday! My first Ford Racing Mustang Challenge race! The first practice session of the morning went great, knocking a little more time off of yesterday. I’m so excited about my first race that I can’t hardly contain myself. We go out and make our warm-up lap and return back to grid. At this point I’m so excited for that green flag to drop I’m about to lose it. The Grand Marshall sounds off and everyone fires their engines up. It’s great. I’m ready for this. We make our way around track and on to the front straight where the green flag flies. The first couple laps go great and I’m starting to get into the groove of things. I start looking for opportunities to make passes when all hell breaks loose in front of me going into turn 10. Two cars make contact and start to spin. After analyzing the situation in my head I saw that the inside line was going to be my best bet for avoiding contact. The car in front of me slid from track left to track right and I tried to jet through but unfortunately that same car didn’t stop and continued back inside to track left making contact with my left front fender. After shouting in my head for a second, I regained my bearings, told the guys over the radio I made contact and pulled into pit lane. David examined the front end and found the Lower Control Arm and steering rod were bent and it was unsafe to go back on track. That put a quick end to our day. I must have watched the video of the accident 100 times that night to see if there was anything I could have done different. In the end, I think it was just an unlucky situation. David and Justin spent a few hours working on the car getting it ready to go for Sunday. It might not be as pretty as it was when we showed up, but they got it together for me to go race the next day. Big thanks to Hyper-Sport for coming over and helping out with the LCA!
Sunday, Sunday, Sunday! The last day of qualifying and racing. The last day to redeem myself! First practice session we go out and set some decently quick laps putting us at 11th of 18 cars. Not bad. So we throw a set of new tires on for qualifying and I went out and turned my personal best lap of the weekend, a 1:39:931. Great for me, but still only putting us at a 13th for the start of the race. Better than Saturday and this time we’re going to try and finish the race! After a quick morning rain shower the track was a little damp for the start of the race, but not enough to warrant rain tires. Everything about Sunday’s race was fun. I was able to pick off two positions and finish up 11th over all. I had a great time racing with Dan Aweida in the 17 car, we had several back and forth laps which was a TON of fun.
I was also very honored with receiving the GoPro ‘Setting the Standard’ Award. I was given a great big oversized check for $250 and a GoPro camera. This award was given to me for my sportsmanship at the track and dedication to the FRMC series. I just want to say thanks to FRMC, GoPro, BF Goodrich and everyone who made it possible to be at Homestead this weekend!
Cool, got a shoutout on the new update at the Mustang Challenge Website.
"Some new names are also on the list for Homestead, including former karting champ and sprint racer Zach Lutz, who will be making his Mustang Challenge debut at Homestead"
Awesome, Let's get down there and have some fun! Can't Wait!
Well, the car is in the trailer. The trailer is hooked to the truck. And I'm sitting here at the computer waiting to go testing tomorrow. We'll be up at Road Atlanta in Braselton, Ga at an SCCA test day trying to get some more hours withe me in the car on a track i'm familiar with. It'll be nice to have some times to compare to... If I can match last years times I'll be very very happy.
Well... After a little over a month of staring and drooling over the car sitting in the shop we finally got to take it out for some testing at the NASA Winter Meltdown at Carolina Motorsports Park. We finished up getting the stickers put on the car Friday morning just before we packed up the car and started heading up to Kershaw, South Carolina. Friday was rather uneventful, I drove the truck and trailer up while Dad slept in the passenger seat, David O'Dell followed us up with his truck and trailer which held Dad's Panoz. Friday afternoon we arrived at the track, went through registration/tech and got all settled in. Friday night consisted of quizno's subs, heading back to to the hotel and hitting the sack early.
Saturday morning rolls around and of course I wake up at 4:00 AM 'cause I'm so anxious to get out on the track. I toss and turn a few hours until it's time for breakfast at the Colony Inn. We get to the track, attend the all hands meeting, pull the cars out and check them over one last time. Then finally... it's time to drive the car. The moment of truth. First time out on track is Thunder Practice. Cold morning, cold tires, cold brain... but AMAZING. The Ford Racing Mustang is quite the performer. We get a good 6-7 laps and I'm just starting to get a feel for the car before they throw the checkered flag. I come to the garages and get a debriefing from David, my crew chief, and then it's back to the waiting game. Next couple sessions out is Time Trials, no pressure, just getting some more seat time. Car felt great again, David made a few adjustments and loosened it up for me. Thunder qualifying comes up and I qualify first in the Miller Cup class, 3rd overall. Lunch time rolls around. Again... I have to wait to drive. GREAT.
Saturdays Thunder Race went great. Set some times that we're happy about and ended up 5th on track behind some pretty quick cars. Over Time Trials went well too, final results put me at 4th fastest of the day behind some porsches and vettes.
Sunday brought the same events as Saturday, Time Trials and Thunder qualifying/races. Time Trial session one was just getting the car warmed up and myself warmed up for the day. Thunder qualifying came around and I was determined to get some quicker times out of it so we tweaked the set up a little and went out to see what we could do. All went well and we knocked about 1/2 second off of our lap times from Saturday. This put us on the pole of the AI/AIX/CMC/Miller Cup starting pack. Thunder Race rolls around and all goes extremely well. Ended up 11th on track but second in the pack I started with.
Overall, we had a great weekend. I was super stoked about getting to drive the car so much at a track I was familiar with. I can't wait to get out there and run with some other FRMC cars at Homestead-Miami coming up in March.
I've got videos and pictures of the whole weekend I'll get posted as soon as I can.
Lawrenceville, Georgia (Friday, February 13 2009): Zach Lutz of Lawrenceville, Georgia will start his professional auto racing career by competing in the 2009 Ford Racing Mustang Challenge Series.
Only 23 years old but already with 18 years of racing experience going back to championships in Quarter Midget competition (1998 and 1999 Quarter Midget Grand National Champion), the 2007 TT-D NASA Champion, Lutz will be making a run for the Rookie of the Year and an opportunity at the For Racing Mustang Challenge Series Championship in 2009.
The Ford Racing Mustang Challenge is a new professional racing series co-developed by Ford Racing and Miller Motorsports Park. Utilizing the new Ford Mustang FR500S and sanctioned by the Grand American Road Racing Association, the Mustang Challenge Series is a support series to major professional road racing events across North America.
“I am looking forward to the increased competition level,” an excited Lutz states. “I would like to see where I stand with other professional drivers and the Mustang Challenge Series is a great opportunity to drive equally prepared machines against other professional drivers.” Lutz also exclaims, “The Mustang Challenge gives us every opportunity to match our skill level with other teams. I am confident that we will be competitive, professional and a championship contender.”
Teaming with Bob Lutz, Owner of Lutz Motorsports Industries and Crew Chief David Odell the team is built with Championship Caliber as Bob Lutz won the 2008 Panoz St-2 Series Championship and Odell, a veteran crew chief, who guided Mike McGovern to third in the 2008 Mustang Challenge Series championship.
Lutz will be piloting in Chassis #6 of 77 factory built Ford Mustang FR500s.These cars are custom built for the Ford Racing Mustang Challenge Series. This car won the first ever competitive race at The Pot O Gold Rush at Road Atlanta in March 2008. Chassis #6 saw more podiums than any other car in the Mustang Challenge, including a win in Mid Ohio.
The Ford Racing Mustang Challenge Series will be making their 2009 stops with double header races at Homestead in Miami, FL on March 14-15 and Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, AL on April 18-19.
New Jersey Motorsports Park in Milleville, NJ on May2-3. Then LMI will make its way out to the world famous Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca in Salinas, CA on May 16-17. Lutz will cross the northern border to compete at the Mosport International Raceway in Bowmanville, Ontario in Canada on June 13-14, then back down to where Chassis #6 has won before at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington, OH on June 20-21. The Autobahn Country Club in Joliey, IL on July 25-26 and finishing the 2009 season at The Miller Motorsports Park in Toole, UT on September 19-20. Completing the 2009 season with a 10 race journey across the United States and into Canada.
To learn more about Zach Lutz and the Lutz Motorsports Industries Team and to inquire about sponsorship opportunities for the 2009 racing season, please contact either Justin Stauffer at (678) 725-3733 or Bob Lutz at (678) 725-3541.
