Monday, August 24, 2009

Great BT Representation @ Honda Challenge Thunderhill

What a great event it was for BlackTrax Performance. They had 4 cars representing: Liam and Graham Downey from Team Redstone Motorsports H2, Brandon Kraus from Roger Kraus Racing H1, Andrew Leach TT and Jim Markarian HPDE.







This was Brandon Kraus' 1st shakedown weekend. He won 1st on Saturday against Prima Racing's Andrie Hartanto. On Sunday there was another great race between the two of them. Unfortunately Brandon did not finish due to an oil pressure gauge problem which led him to pit. All in all it was a successful weekend for Brandon as he hit a 2:00.1 lap time, just about 1-2 seconds shy from his personal best with his original 4th gen Prelude. With the help of Andrie lending Brandon higher rate springs, Brandon was able to shave off another second off his lap time. We have high hopes that once this Prelude it gets dialed in, it will be a strong competitor against the K series engines in H1.



With the new addition of a adjustable wing, Andrew found was able to settle the rear of the car down but logged a slower lap time when he installed the front splitter. Removing he splitter, Andrew did his personal best of 2:06 in TT in his ~200hp full bodied 5th gen Prelude.

Jim Markarian had us set him with with Wicked Tuning front pillowball LCA's, new wheel size and offset with Enkei RPF1's and new Toyo R888's. Graham Downey and Jim took turns shaking down the car. "that car handle's great now" says Graham Downey.

Saturday, August 22, 2009

Stephan Verdier wins Round 6 of Formula Drift

Photo by Steve Demmit
The final round was going to be a solid battle between Ken Gushi in his RWD Scion TC vs. Stephan Verdier in his Subaru Impreza. Ken leads and straghtens out right before the apex. The car appeared to be damaged. Gushi with what looked like a lost cylinder, forfeits to Verdier and Ryuji Miki takes third in his well tuned FD.

Photo by Steve Demmit

Photos by Jei Chang




Darren McNamara demonstrating tire blistering torque in his V8 powered Saturn Sky.

Dai Yoshihara posing with BC connecting rod in his hand.

Bay Area local Calvin Wan's FD.