USTCC Round 3 - MX5 Hooked Up and Driving Through the Field

Race Report June 24 2025 - Andy Chittum - Mad Man Motorsports 

The June 20somethingith NASA weekend event has long been a staple of fabulous conditions and a legendary track coming together bringing the most epic racing action of the year.  United States Touring Car rejoined NASA Norcal the Weekend of June 21st for Round 3 of the 2025 season, and the teams came ready to bring every ounce of speed to reach the top step of the podium. 

Mad Man Motors, fresh off their victory in Round 2 at Laguna Seca 3 weeks earlier lined up for qualifying with the rest of the teams Saturday morning with hopes of setting a PR at the twisty 2.52 mile course, but it would be a challenge given that USTCC would running a combined qualifying session with the NASA C group, sharing the track in a mixed class session would make it harder to find room for a clean lap. 

Chittum managed the traffic masterfully though, and after diving to the pits was able to find a clean bit of track and on his second hot lap set a 1.50.4 lap time, his personal best in the Hankook-equipped Mazda SMX MX5, .2 seconds from USTCC Sportsman lap record of all time, and legitimately fast for any non-aero 2 liter NC MX5. 

Sunday afternoon, Chittum lined up on pole position surrounded by k24 equipped Hondas, BMWs, and the other Sportsman competitors and with the drop of the green flag, the typical USTCC standing start launched 15 cars up the hill into turn 2, two wide all the way through to turn 6.  Chittum managed a good start, and was initially overtaken by the more powerful cars, but once the field was up to speed, he was able to pass several faster class TC cars on the inside of T3 and outside of T6.  Finally, he passed the GogoGear FK8 Civic going into T11, and came into clear air with the top two TC cars well down the road.  

Chittum then settled into long term speed mode pushing for the fastest speed possible while keeping the Mazda in its temperature performance limits, dropping into steady low 1.51s and high 1.50s while working to reel in the faster TC and GT cars ahead.  Six laps later, the powerful yet heavy TC cars were slowly coming into view, and finally by lap 9, Chittum had caught them and drove on toward the front of the field.  Finally, the sole GT car still leading the race came into view.  

While BMW M4 had earlier in the race been much faster, it appeared to be having some tire issues late in the race, and had slowed significantly allowing Chittum to catch up just as the white flag flew.  Even though Chittum was able to poke the nose of the MX5 around the M4, its driver was able to take advantage of its 2.5x power advantage and steam head 1.6 seconds ahead of the MX5 to the checkered flag.  

Race Highlights Video: 

https://youtu.be/PiVFQHdzz9g

Join Andy Chittum and Mad Man Motorsports for Round 4 of the United States Touring Car Championship August 31st at Thunderhill Raceway, where the team once again will race a 2.5 hour endurance contest for victory! 

USTCC Round 1 - 2.5 Hr Enduro Win

  Press Release May 11th - Andy Chittum - Mad Man Motorsport

The 2025 USTCC Season kicked off May 10th and 11th with a 2 1/2 hour endurance race around the iconic 2.52 mile course that twists through the hillsides and offers some of the most challenging corners on the schedule. 

Saturday found Chittum in the distinctive bright orange Mazda MX5 ready for warmup and qualifying.  Having practiced in March at the twisty track, the team was ready, however, the team was surprised to find some minor rubbing with the meaty Hankook F200 tires in an area of the MX5 body that had previously been repaired, and the team quickly jumped to action to clearance the area and have the car ready.  Given the issue, Chittum was limited to just 3 hot laps in qualifying lest a tire be compromised, but still managed pole position ahead of former series champion Tom Lepper driving GogoGear's powerful engine swapped EG Honda Civic. 

The beefy Hankooks needed a just little more room than the previous spec. 

Finishing the work and prep Sunday morning just before the grid closed, Chittum managed to slowly pull away from the Sportsman field, balancing speed from the grippy Hankook tires while keeping gas consumption low on the 2 liter Mazda engine.  A few yellow flags and other broken cars helped at the beginning of the race, but Chittum settled in for a full 40 lap stint aligning gas consumption perfectly with the end of the pit window toward the end of the race. 

The Mad Man Motorsport team gave Chittum a clockwork pitstop with 10 gallons of fuel, a quick check over the car, and discharged him back to the fray just 5 seconds over the mandated pit stop time.  

Once back on track Chittum found himself approximately 27 seconds ahead of second place and was able to cruise the last half of the race to victory.  

Victorious team - Chittum still squinting from a Champagne blast to the eye.  Will work on that technique next race.

Andy Chittum and the Mad Man Motorsport team will return with the Mazda MX5 at round 2 of the United States Touring Car series at Laguna Seca on May 24th.  Stay tuned to USTCC.com and Chittum.net for more hard charging race action! 

2019 Spec e30 Season Finale

The NASA Norcal Spec e30 Championship blasted into Sonoma Raceway October 26th and 27th for a no hold barred double points smackdown of a weekend, consisting of qualifying and three races with the usual suspects, as well as a few ringers that showed up to try to take a win away from the usual suspects.

Saturday!

In the morning meeting, series organizer Nick Theimann pointed out that Andy Chittum was the points leader for the season, leading by a formidable 117 points, but with 600 on tap for the double points weekend, one misstep could shake up the order significantly.  Just to prove his point, Thiemann, in second position for the season then went out for qualifying and set a fast 1:56.8 lap on the twisty technical 2.52 mile course a good 8 tenths faster than previous round winner Chittum. 

But it was veteran Spec e30 racer Scott Clough that did Nick one better with a 1.56.3 that initially set the pace until local race hero Tim Barber stepped in with a legitimately fast 1.56.0 to take pole position.  Brian Shiflett, and Forrest Cook filled out the top 6, and the rest of the field fell within the 1.58s, just behind the leaders.

At the drop of the green the roared off the line without a single bauble on the standing start, but the right hand side of the track seemed to be slightly faster, with Clough getting the jump on Barber and Chittum just edging ahead of Theimann.  By the time the field poured into T4, the side by side had worked its way out and they filed into T6 in that order.

But Chittum missed a shift coming out of T6, allowing Theimann to come motoring by, and the rest of the field right on his bumper into T7.  Chittum got his act back together narrowly got out of the reach of the field, and chased down Theimann, while Barber took advantage of his speed advantage to sneak back by Clough with an over-under into T7 and making it stick in 8.  By the end of the first lap, the field had mostly settled down, except for sometime Spec e30 hotshoe Aristotle Balogh who had missed qualifying and making up nearly half the field on the first two laps.

While Barber slowly pulled away from Clough, Chittum caught up to Theimann and began pondering how he could make it by the fast #21 car.  Initially, Theimann proved difficult to figure out, but with Balogh free of the rest of the field, and starting to bridge a 6 second gap up to 4th place, Chittum began to push harder.

With a fast run through 10, Chittum made it through 11 just inches from Theimann's bumper drafted down the front straight, then cut inside, overlapping in T1 and up into T2.  But Theimann still held an advantage, and was able to stay ahead in T3.  Next lap Chittum did the same thing, but this time doubling up in T2, and was able to get up the inside of the exit of T3, making the pass stick.  Slowly, Chittum was able to pull ahead, just as Balogh reached the battle.

With Barber and Clough checked out, Chittum got a good gap, and was able to hold it as Balogh made his way around Theimann.  The two held even for a few laps, but with lapped traffic, Balogh was able to catch Chittum and make it past just before the end of the race.

Sunday!

With a hard fought race on a oddly greasy and difficult track the day before, cooler temperatures were forecast, but higher winds, which were sure to produce the battle of the year.  Unfortunately, due to nearby forest fires, NASA was unable to secure Emergency Ambulances for the Sunday event, so they were forced to cancel the event.

Season Points!

With a 117 point lead going into the final weekend, Chittum then retained the lead at the end, and pending official results becomes the 2019 NASA Norcal Champion.  This is Chittum's 3rd Championship, but 1st as a solo driver, previously teaming up as Team BTM Motorwerks and winning in 2011 and 2012.  Nick Theimann, while leading for much of the year held on to second place overall, and Forest Cook was able to make up enough points on JP Cadoux in the final race to hold on to third.

NASA Norcal Spec e30 will return March 14-15 2020 back at beautiful Sonoma Raceway for a whole new season, stay tuned for more!

Hot Hot Hill

The NASA Norcal Spec e30 racers slid into a seasonably warm and toasty Willows, California to contest Round 5 of the Championship August 3rd and 4th.   With temperatures forecast well over 100F and Spec e30 running the legendary track in the reverse direction for the first time in years, the event promised for thrills, chills, and some unexpected results.

In practice Friday a number of cars already suffering from the heat with Nick Theimann's car breaking a rocker, Round 4 winner Scott Clough's car's transmission mysteriously seizing up, and other various brake issues.  Teams worked through the evening, and the entire field of 15 cars made qualifying Saturday morning.

Saturday

Bennett McMicking set the early time to beat with a speedy 2:08.8 on his first timed lap, and Nick Theimann came back next lap dropping a 2:08.5, but perennial pole sitter JP Cadoux dropped a 2:08.1 on his third lap which looked to be the fastest any e30 would set the entire weekend.  Behind the fast 3, Andy Chittum, Forest Cook, and Scott Clough, and Rina Balogh took up postion, with just around 2 seconds covering the top 8.

Race 1 took off with an incredibly long hold on the green flag, but the field tore away toward turn 15 after it finally fell.  The front of the field funneled in to the T15-14 complex in order with Cadoux, McMicking and Theimann.  Chittum, and Forrest Cook came out side by side on the exit of 15, with Chittum edging ahead by T12.  The front then consolidated into a train of 4 cars with Cadoux unable to drop the group, but nobody able to pass.

Crazy.  But that's how it goes.

At the back, the excitement started early with Team Unibrow CEO and driver James Gouvia getting a great standing start, while ahead of him Rina Balogh missed a shift.  With the slightest of scrapes, he made it by on the inside between the wall, and joined teammate John Lothrop's car side by side into the 15-14 complex.  Balogh quickly caught up, and the three battled the next lap.

James G's Start Video!

"We had a good battle going for a little while, then she got our number, took off, and we never saw her again."  Said Lothrop after the race.

James G's Race Video!

Lothrop and Gouvia continued the battle with multiple passes and re-passes until finally Gouvia pulled ahead just at the checkered flag.

Back at the front, the train continued.  McMicking had managed to put his nose around Cadoux early on in the race, but had settled into second.  After the halfway point, Chittum started attacking Theimann as well, overlapping in several places.  But the turning point of the race came about 8 laps in when coming down super fast 9 - 8 - 7 back straight Theimann made a move up the inside of McMicking.   In video review Theimann called the move 'somewhat overly optimistic' - braking from over 110 mph into the tight T6, he put two wheels on the dirt, then caught air off the edge of the inside berm, then nosed into McMicking's rear quarter panel.

Crash Lap Video! 

This resulted in McMicking spun on the inside of T6, Thiemann crossed up sliding to the outside and Chittum neatly driving through the hole to take over 2nd place.  McMicking and Thiemann were both able to continue, but mixed into the rest of the field.

Post-race, two cars were found to be over power on the dyno including Cadoux, which handed the win to Chittum, 2nd to Forest Cook, and 3rd to Uwe Druckenmuller.

Entire Race 1 Video From Andy's Car!

Sunday

Cook challenged at the start.

Race 2 of the weekend started with Chittum and Cook on the front row, followed by Rina Balough and Uwe Druckenmuller.  The start proved to be exciting with Cadoux, McMicking, Thiemann, Scott Clough and Ari Balogh all at the back determined to charge though the field and make Chittum earn his pole position start.  This time the standing start went relatively uneventfully, aside from Lothrop taking a high-speed weed-whacking tour on the outside of T14.

Chittum, Cook and Rina Balogh ended up 1 - 2 - 3 for the first few laps while the back and midfield sorted itself out.  Slowly, Chittum pulled ahead while Cook fell back with braking issues.  JP Cadoux moved up quickly, but touched Rina Balogh on the outside of T9 - both ended up spinning off the outside of the turn and falling back down the field.

Bennett McMicking and Ari Balogh proved to be the most deft at making their way through the field cleanly, and made it up to 2nd and 3rd with Theimann, Clough and Druckenmuller close behind.  Chittum managed to keep ahead of the fray and pull in his second win of the weekend.

Race 3 saw the highest temperatures of the weekend, with ambient just over 101, and the track temperature suitable for most forms of cooking.

The group blasted off for the final time of the weekend, and while Ari Balogh was able to get by Bennett McMicking, most of the rest of the field ended up about where they'd started.  The one real challenge was JP Cadoux starting from mid-field again, still with the fastest lap times at his command - could he get around the cars around him and chase Chittum down for the win?

Chittum's challenge was steady and fast, while keeping tires alive.

The lap chart shows the top 10 positions covered by just 1.3 seconds of lap time, with JP putting down a few laps a half-second faster than Chittum.  With about 4 laps to go, JP cleared the rest of the field, and started to bridge the 4 second gap Chittum had built.  On the fast west side of the track, JP had a few ounces of secret sauce to spend and made up time, but across the technical eastern section, Chittum seemed to have saved some tires to hold off the charge.

At the flag, Chittum held on by 2.240 seconds to take his 3rd victory of the weekend.

The exciting 2019 season will conclude October 26-27 at the legendary Sonoma Raceway, where we'll be once again hoping for a little rain to cool down the warm summer.

See you there!

-A-

Just Slow Enough to Succeed

Losing Our Head

Last weekend USTCC Round 4 took place at the Utah Motorsport Campus, and I was really excited.  Not only would I be back in Rich Petersen's outstanding MINI, but the car was in really great shape after a promising podium at Laguna Seca in Round 2, and a dangit-could-have-passed-that-guy result at Sears Point in round 3.

The MINI had been to the engine doctor, tuned, re-tuned, had a minor miss and an ever so slight vacuum leak fixed, and looked to be really competitive compared to the rest of the USTCC TC field.  The other more powerful heavy RWD competitors were sure to be good on the long drag race from a standing start at UMC's 3500ft front straight, but fresh optimal tuning, forced induction, a base elevation of over 4000ft, previous experience on the track and the possibilities looked quite good for the little car.

In fact, morning practice on Friday went well - in the midst of a busyish NASA Utah practice session, we dropped down to 2:14s during those first few re-discovery laps.  Given the allowed mods and power to weight ratio for the TC class, this looked pretty promising for the following day's race.

But in the second practice session, the car had difficulty starting, and didn't want to stay running.  A problem with an improperly mounted tire brought the car right into the pits, and then a small coolant leak surfaced.

After some diagnostics in the paddock, it became apparent the small coolant leak had been letting just enough water out of the engine for just long enough to not set off any major bells or whistles, but to cause the engine some serious problems.  The old 'turn it over with a spark plug out' test produced a perfect geyser of clear coolant right out of the cylinder 1 spark plug hole.  Not good.  Need a new head gasket.  At least.

After a few minutes of consideration (we'd come a long way, the field was reduced in size, some other cars had issues as well, good opportunity to score points) Rich began the intricate process of removing the head gasket, and I scoured every auto parts store from Tooele to Ogden looking for the right head gasket.  If the car could be just patched up to finish half the laps of the race, we could salvage some of the trip.

After locating the part in Napa Auto Parts of Salt Lake City, I hopped into my rent-a-Prius and motored away, made the 74 mile round trip, and returned to the final unveiling of the head as it came off the block.

Brad from BTM Motorwerks applied his expert eye to the cleaned up head, and few things became apparent at that point.

1. There was about an 8 thousandths gap between two cylinders.
2. The valves weren't sealing properly in their seats anymore.
3. The MINI would not be racing this weekend, at least not with that head.

Plan B

There are a number of top notch motorsports shops and race teams headquartered at the world class UMC facility, and between talking to anyone that would listed to me, and touring the paddock for anything that would remotely fit into the USTCC Touring Car class (this discounted the race-prepped Lamborghini Rich found for rent) three reasonable options:

1. Tatum Racing's beautiful Martini & Rossi liveried Porsche Boxter.
2. Another team's professionally prepared 350z.
3. A Touring Car B Spec Ford Fiesta.

The Boxter seemed like the best option, but there was some question as to how close to legal I could get it in the short time I had before the Saturday race.  The 350z owner quoted me $3000 plus tires rental fee.  =:-o

Pass the Nachos - we're having a Fiesta!

The Race

The first thing you notice while sitting in a grid of legit touring cars making between 220 to 300+ hp at the wheels is how competitively quiet a TCB car is.  I was also glad I'd chatted with the driver of the USTCC Sportsman class e36M3 that was gridded behind me, so he was aware I would be doing my best, but proceeding from my standing start in my 120hp Fiesta, it would not be a breathtaking procedure to say the least.

I did manage to keep the back of the field in touch for the first lap, but once the field hit UMC's main straight, they basically disappeared, and I set about the business of proceeding as fast as I could manage.  One area the Fiesta has going for it is a really outstanding braking system.  But I quickly found in my first few turns that if you used more than about 50% of it for more than a fraction of a second, then you'd slowed down way too much.

Sometime later, the GT and Super Touring leaders came through at what seemed like FA-18 passing a pigeon speeds, and finally the TC class cars.  BTM Motorwerks' Mike Shawhan's e46 328 was closely followed by Speed SF's Patrick Chio's 350z and Gogo Gear's Gary Sheehan's Hyundai Genesis.  Looked like if I could just keep it on the track for a few more laps, I'd end up a respectable 4th.

But a few turns later, I passed two huge clouds of dust, one on each side of the track - I couldn't tell at the time, but I'm told the Hyundai was in one of them.  I came around for a white flag, finished the race, and learned I'd managed to squeeze out a podium from a weekend where we'd completely lost our head.

I can't thank the fine staff of NASA Utah, Dave Kizerian for helping me scope out rental cars and especially Cheri Miller for loaning me a great little car...that went just fast enough.

USTCC will be back at Sonma Raceway at Sears Point Oct 29th and 30th - stay tuned to USTCC.COM and FinalDrive.tv for all the hard charging action.

USTCC, WTCC and the BTMMINI

September 21-23 the BTM Motorwerks of Campbell tuned MINI Cooper S build by Rich Petersen of RM Petersen Construction is racing at Sonoma Raceway! Stop by the BTM Motorwerks paddock area for a tour of the mighty MINI.

In addition to the US Touring Car race, FIA World Touring Cars are racing, along with a number of other series.

Keep track of the weekend's action by following Andy @mmmotors on twitter, and come on down Saturday and Sunday to root for the little car!  And get a MINI T Shirt!

The MaxQ Review

The first product I’ll review on Racecarnolgy will be the MaxQ VeQtr system by MaxQData (www.maxqdata.com). This system is an interesting package for the Racecarnologist because it uses mostly off-the-shelf parts available to the average nerd to accomplish something that previously was only done by expensive, dedicated hardware.

The system I received came with the following:

• A high quality 20Mhz Bluetooth GPS
• An Asus EeePC 901 loaded with MaxQData Software
• A higher and a lower quality webcam
• Various cables and a slim low-power power inverter

Essentially, the concept is the GPS and the PC are connected through Bluetooth, you plug the webcams into the PC, start the software and hit the track. The software determines when you’re moving, starts the timer, then extrapolates power, braking and lateral G’s from the GPS data. The intention is, since EeePC has a solid-state drive, the goal is for it to be rugged enough to survive inside the race car while recording everything realtime, and that even saves a step from having to download the data to analyze it. The idea and the workflow is good in theory...but more on the practical side of this later.

What’s also nice from a do-it-yourself standpoint, is it’s possible to assemble the individual pieces yourself, GPS, laptop, webcams, etc, and buy a copy of the software to get them to all work together - MaxQ makes a license for their analysis and data capturing software available starting at $29 for basic 5Hz Bluetooth compatibility to $149 for 10Hz GPS unlimited data comparison and video overlay. The ability to mix and match pieces, particularly given many of us might have a laptop, some webcams or a Bluetooth GPS laying around might really be MaxQ’s secret super power. The whole $1300 system with 20Hz data is all-inclusive, but rivals the cost of entry level versions of the popular Race-Technology DL1 data logger, or the higher-end Race-Keeper SE Video Data System.

Here’s a sample video with the high-end 20Hz system mounted in the BTM Motorwerks BMW 328ti, during a practice session at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana:

BTM Motorwerks 328ti Cal Speedway Fontana Test from MadManMotors on Vimeo.

Preparing to race at Fontana with USTCC, some video footage showing the track with light NASA traffic. Driver, Andy Chittum, video overlay MaxQdata

What we liked:

One of the really nice parts of this system is the ability to add an external mic (again, don’t we all have a cheapo one just laying around?) or grab sound from one of the cameras. The main camera in this setup is mounted right in front of the rearview mirror, showing an excellent view and getting wind-free sound from up by the windshield. The second webcam is mounted by the passenger door to give a full view of the driver in action. Up to 4 cameras can be added to the system.

The MaxQ’s QView view of the data does a nice job of showing acceleration and braking in blue and red respectively, as well as wider rectangles for lateral Gs. It’s easy to see where I wimp out going into NASCAR T1 and lift slightly, as well as a few other areas I did well, or needed to work on - the more intense the color, the more dramatic the input.

The Chart software in general allowed for most of the standard comparisons one might want to see - comparing lap to lap or sector to sector with different runs, calculated hp, typical power curves, and in general is a completely serviceable way of analyzing data, with both typical plots for the data or the marching rectangles you see in the data overlay in the video.

What we didn’t like:

While the MaxQ’s strengths do lie in its modularity, some of its downfalls come from that as well.

Workflow - While there are some newer systems available to mere mortals that can update more often or realtime, typically the engineer descends upon the returned car wtih his laptop, downloads the data and looks at it with the driver. The MaxQ system relies on its included netbook to perform all functions, and it’s not designed to copy the data to another system. This leaves the team to first mount and supply power to a netbook in the race car, then get to it quickly after a session. But instead of a larger screen and more processing power that one might have in a laptop suitable for the paddock, all analysis, data processing, and video processing is done on one tiny Asus Eeepc 901.

In fact, a number of issues arose around the use of this netbook as the system brain:

- The system would start recording automatically as designed when leaving the grid, but when stopping for a standing start, it would stop recording, freezing while saving the data recorded thus far. The system would sometimes realize it was running again and start up invariably just after the typical early-race shimozzle, sometimes not at all. There is a setting to force the system to wait for a period of inactivity after stopping (say 5 minutes) but in practice we couldn’t reliably get the system to handle standing starts.



- While the Eeepc is rather rugged with its included 12GB SSD and withstood the odd bump and jiggle of racing, it did not withstand the heat of a typical race car (120+ degrees) very well. Hotter events in Sonoma and Fontana saw the system either shutdown and leave the team with a corrupt data / video file, or leave just a .asf file that would need some conversion before being useful. Certainly, a team could design a cooling system for the laptop in the car along with its mount and power needs (and we did have some success with this), but this is yet another detail that a small team would likely rather not deal with if necessary.

- Processing the video and data into the combined view seen above would have to be done on the Eeepc. While it was functional, there are certainly faster processors than the basic 1.6Ghz Atom for doing this. MaxQ could help this issue by allowing their software to be used on more than one PC at a time, but the release we tested only allowed one PC per copy.

- And lastly the UI. There are some environments where a simple friendly UI for the office just doesn’t quite cut it. A typical racecarnology reader might find Windows XP a very easy way to interact wtih a computer while sitting in the office, but as has become more obvious in the past few years, tablet based OSs, whether iOS, Android, WebOS or other are much more suitable to an outdoors, ‘I just want to punch a few buttons and have it work’ type of activity. The last thing that an engineer or crew chief needs to be doing when prepping the car for the track is booting up a PC, clicking icons, making sure USB and Bluetooth devices are connected and troubleshooting any of that.

The original versions of MaxQ did apparently run on Windows Mobile 6.x, but even Microsoft won’t admit to that OS anymore for the same reason - an epic fail in terms of a mobile UI. Many of the UI elements in the QView software could likely be adapted to a simple touch interface on, say, a 7” or 9” tablet. I don’t know about the reliability of such a device in a hot car, but it would be much better way to interact with the data, certainly. Perhaps an added benefit there would be mounting such a device in a way to provide dashboard-like feedback, laptimes, etc.

Accuracy:

Our engineer noticed some discrepancies with the measured HP values in a few different situations - it appeared the MaxQ did not take elevation changes into account when measuring horsepower. So - looking at max HP on the run out of the carousel up to T7 at Sears Point looks a bit different than the front straightaway at Thunderhill, but Ed at MaxQ pointed out comparisons like this are still valuable day to day, if not track to track.

Another issue we weren’t able to confirm, running with USTCC (who use the system to police max HP on cars) the naturally aspirated cars’ HP values appeared to read high compared to the forced induction ones when we ran at Miller Motorsports Park, which is 4400ft elevation. The telling thing was nearly the entire field was impounded and run on a dyno - it was the two naturally aspirated cars that appeared to read high by comparison. Once we returned to Buttonwillow the following month, the readings followed the same distributions we’d seen previously at other near-sea level tracks, such a Sears Point and Thunderhill.

Neither accuracy issue are particularly deal-breakers, particularly with an affordable system, but worth noting.

Expandability:

Lastly, it’s worth noting that the Chart software takes video inputs via USB (up to 4 cameras) and external GPS inputs via Bluetooth, but no additional channels of data appear to be supported. For the processing limitations related above, we tested with a maximum of two video cameras.

Summary:

Overall, the MaxQ set of products are a nice way to begin analyzing data that a beginning or amateur racer might generate with his or her car, looking for trends, and beginning the process of visualizing in data the hundreds of factors that lead to a fast lap time. Given some of the limitations of the system, it’s likely going to suit a driver or team that have more time and ingenuity than outright cash, and as such could be a valuable part of a low-cost system. But before spending more than a few hundred dollars on the various components of the system, the up and coming racer that will eventually want more should definitely investigate the systems that begin in the $1200 range and see if it make more sense to buy the entire VeQtr ™ system from MaxQ or go with the entry level offerings of a higher-end manufacturer.

Picture by Head On Photos, driver Andy Chittum

Little Cars, Big Fun, Could be Huge

We had a fantastic weekend racing at Infineon, BTM Motorwerks' Spec e30 was able to pick up right where we left off last season, right on top. While Brad was out in the #91 car on Sunday and the #92 car still a few steps short of track-readiness, I perused the NASA paddock looking for interesting things, and happened to run into Jim Jordan, from Mazda USA.

He had brought out their B-Spec Mazda 2, and with some introduction, a discovered shared love of the Mazdaspeed Protege, and proof I was indeed a card-carrying NASA member, Jim had me signed up to take the car out in the last session of the day.

Hopping into the little car, even with the stock dash and race equipment, everything falls right to hand, and taking off was indeed a bit like heading out to get groceries. Just with all the safety equipment and going via a few hilly laps of Infineon Raceway along the way. What's really great about this car, is what they didn't have to change to make it completely competent on the track. Stock suspension mounting points, stock engine and transmission, and otherwise off the shelf parts to build this car. Also especially neat is that so many new cars' electronic systems get very fussy from having parts removed, but Jim explained they'd just pulled a few parts out, and went racing. And this was the very same car that had been out for the 25 hours of Thunderhill, had done every single track session at the NASA event that weekend, and who knows what else in between.

And it was great. The stiffness of the suspension and chassis were very complementary and wherever you pointed the car, there it went. It didn't wallow around in some of the more technical areas like exiting the 3a-3b complex, and it was credibly stable through the faster areas like exiting the carousel T6, or just breathing off the throttle to make T10. Even the ABS kicked in predictably pushing a braking zone to the limit or avoiding slower traffic. Certainly, the power isn't anything that's going to bend anyone's mind, but setting up much more powerful cars on the brakes or just plain driving around them on the inside of T7 or outside of T2 kept me giggling the entire drive. All too soon, it was over, and I had to give the car back to the team to pack it up for its ride home.

Musing a little about the drive, I imagined some kind of not to distant world, where perhaps forty of these cars might show up to race in support of some larger series...particularly on a street circuit...some kind of crazy 'Keystone Cops do Monaco' event would be tremendously popular with race fans. Sure, a typical fan comes out to see the big boys race, the Rolex or ALMS or other sports cars, but a supporting series with cars that aren't just silhouettes, but real honest cars that they use for the mundane everyday movement, particularly two, three and four wide through the first few turns -- that is something that a race fan will really delight in seeing.

That also points too to the future of the series - it's great to have an easily accessible chassis, parts and support. And it's also great to drive a fun little car around for the day, something that's a joy to toss around, is light on consumables, but I personally think the future for building a car that's on sale now has got to be some lower end Pro series. Even just a little money and TV coverage could get quite a lot of these cars out all over the country, and not just from Mazda but any other manufacturer that have a sub-compact car they even remotely hint might have some performance.

In the meantime, Mazda is really leading the way with this. Particularly to be able to spare the time to bring their car out for just anyone to try out, is just amazing. Even further to have a chance to hear Jim talking about calling the race for the #40 GT Rolex RX8 at the 24 hours of Daytona, and describing pulling every trick in the book to hold off the might of TRG Porsche...I had to pinch myself a few times. That's a company that cares.

So, thank you Mazda! We'll be definitely keeping two eyes on this one.

Photo from Mazdausa.com

Clean Sheet of Paper

Racecar Engineering last night published a brief article on the all-new John Player Specialesque Renault Lotus-ish F1 R31's exhaust treatment. Started last May from a clean sheet of paper, the car was designed by engineers with free reign to do something drastically different in the name of an advantage. Renault Technical Director James Allison said, "I believe we have chosen a direction which is on the brave end of brave."

It looks like, quite possibly, Renault been quite brave indeed.

Blown rear diffusers or rear wings have been on and off F1 cars for several years, the simple view is that you point the exhaust pipe of the engine at a sensitive areo area of the car, either to increase airflow in one area or to decrease airflow in another, and one supercomputer of advanced math later, you have increased downforce when you need it...just enough to make that difference in a highly completive race series.

We can't easily recall other areas of a race car getting the exhaust-blown treatment, but pictures seem to indicate the RB31's exhausts actually travel forward and exit toward the front of the sidepod, perhaps enabling better airflow over the floor right around the midsection of the car. This is particularly neat, because, should it actually work, they'd be getting additional downforce around the midsection of the car, which should give even more flexibility than just more downforce at the rear as with the 2010 cars using that setup. Which could lead to a significant advantage.

However, some serious challenges with heat come to mind - not only with running the exhaust pipe forward near the driver, but KERS returns to F1 this year, and that means another component in the car that needs extra cooling. And the tradeoff between cooling and areo efficiency is a very tight balance as well.

So will this thing work?

I'm reminded of another clean sheet of paper design released in June 2007 by a small computer company that had just 5% share of its market at the time. The main press thought they just might be on to something with their radical approach...some neat new features but glaringly lacking in others. Brave engineers too, and things have worked out quite well for them.

The Renault R31 needs to be ready to race March 11th. I have a feeling we'll know pretty quickly thereafter if the old John Player slogan 'Something Very Special' ends up referring to the R31's pace, or its ability to light up and burn at one end.