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SANTA MONICA (November 29) - The final round of the 2007 Subaru Tsukuba Challenge at Laguna Seca was run in conjunction with the Redline Time Attack on November 10 & 11 and saw PDX Tuning from Portland beat out its main rivals, Crawford Performance and ESX Motorsports in a true nail biter. The action started with final qualifying on Saturday and was as much about furious activity in the garages, as hot laps on the track. Even the 92db sound limit came into play.
Having only committed to the Subaru Tsukuba Challenge four weeks prior to the finals PDX Tuning built a car just for Laguna. Though fast, their car experienced severe mechanical difficulties on Saturday when it blew a head gasket at 1pm. Determined to win the contest and be the first US time attack Subaru to have an opportunity to compete in Japan, PDX contacted Cosworth Engineering in Los Angeles for a replacement motor and dispatched staff to pick it up. At the same time PDX mechanics went to sleep as they knew the engine would be at the track around midnight and they'd have to work through the rest of the night to install it. The fresh motor arrived at the track as scheduled. By 6am the crew had completed the swap and at 8am the car was running and ready for tech.
Saturday proved equally as challenging for Crawford Performance, the winner of the Miller round of the Subaru Tsukuba Challenge. They could afford not to run on Saturday due to their pre-qualified status and noticing their overflow reservoir was low, decided to perform preventative work on the engine. Upon locating a shop, Crawford pulled the motor and had the heads resurfaced. Problem was that the shop could only work to domestic specifications, which was sure to cause issues, but the team figured they'd be good if they could get in 1-2 hot laps. Crawford Performance too was ready for tech at 8am.
In contrast to their main rivals, ESX Motorsports had a trouble-free Saturday and spent the day dialing in the car. However, the finals on Sunday showed how time attack cars are tuned to the limit and how the quest for that last ounce of speed often takes a toll on the vehicles. Marshall Pruett, team manager for the ESX effort describes the challenges on race day: "We had two odd mechanical problems. A broken intercooler pipe in the first time attack round, and a broken 5th gear in final practice just before the last time attack round. The entire GST Motorsports and GOTO Racing teams jumped in to help, but we ran out of time and were forced to run the broken transmission. Our hats are off to those that competed and won in the event, and we hope to return for the Tsukuba Challenge next year and have a problem-free run for the fastest time."
Crawford's gamble for a couple hot laps didn't pay off either. The team blew a radiator hose in the first time attack session without posting a time. For the second session the goal was to get in one fast lap and beat PDX, but even that proved elusive. After taking the warm up lap with no boost to conserve the engine and cooling system, the team went all-out on their hot lap attempts but the cooling system failed half way around and the car shut down. Game over.
Though still suffering from overheating problems, PDX managed to set a fast time of 1:34:388 in the first Sunday session. But their run was not without drama. Track workers misidentified the PDX car as one having broken the 92db sound limit and black flagged it. When the mistake became clear Redline event organizers let the car go out again to redo their timed run. But at the end of that sessions the water pump gave out and could not be completely repaired. PDX lined up for the second session at the last minute, as did their rivals ESX and Crawford Performance. Ready to better their time from session one, PDX sent the car out for two hot laps, but when they realized that the other two teams wouldn't beat them, they backed off on the last lap. Overcoming steep odds, PDX took the win and with it, a trip to Japan to compete at Tsukuba.
Here is how Jarrad Bowen of PDX summed it up: " We wanted a straight up fight with all the top teams, but that was not quite how it turned out. In the end we had a fight on our hands, but not a pure lap time based effort. All the teams put forth an incredible effort off the track and every one of them should be proud of what they accomplished. We took a street car and turned it into a race car in under a month, and took it to the event expecting to have some teething issues. It took an incredible effort from all of PDXTuning and anyone closely related to get this together, and in hindsight I can't believe all we accomplished. In the end we were the team that put down the fastest lap time when it counted and we are honored to go to Japan."
"I will say that the car we took to Laguna Seca is not representative of what we will take to Japan. We will now take the rough concept we showed last weekend and turn it into a refined and tested machine capable of demonstrating the capabilities and ingenuity that US tuners have developed over the years. Win or loose in Japan we will be proud of our results and expect to earn the respect of our competitors and our supporters."
The Subaru Tsukuba Challenge was an experiment for Subaru to show its support for the tuner scene and time attack and it also brought out the best in the Subaru community. Chris Escamilla of Crawford Performance summed it up best: " The challenge not only shows that Subaru acknowledges the vast amounts of Suby-junkies who modify their cars and that they support racing activities, other than rally, in a structured and competitive arena, but that Subaru is willing to step up to the plate and offer a reward truly worth winning. Way to go Subaru!"
More information and a picture gallery are at
http://www.subarutsukubachallenge.com
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