The GTA Pro/Am Tour hit the halfway point this past weekend, with Round 3 at historic Willow Springs International Raceway. It was a busy month for the Foximus Motorsports team since Round 2 in Buttonwillow, with the team making a large upgrade package to the car. Phoenix rolled into round 3 with a completely new brake system, some slight tweaks to her engine, and a brand new transmission with upgraded final drive after losing the old one in testing the week prior.
Rd 3: Photo Credit MCV Imagery
Unloading off the truck Saturday morning, hopes were high for a solid weekend. “The upgrades we had done since Buttonwillow were huge. The addition of the Brembos and the G-Loc pads give the car the stopping power and quickness it needs” said driver Chris Hofmann “I know I can toss the car into a corner late, and get on the brakes hard and get the response I need. Again, bring G-Loc on board has been a massive gain for us in getting quality pads of the proper compound. And I am super thankful and proud of Trevor and Steve for the fast turn around after we grenaded a transmission last weekend. We put the final drive out of the HHR in the car now, and it has made a bigger difference than I could imagine.” The first session started good, but 2 laps in things got squirrely for car 501. The left front axle popped a boot, throwing grease everywhere and ripping out the ABS Harness, and the Cobalt is a car where unless you have a complete pedal box conversion, you want ABS. The team set down a solid lap, despite only getting one flying lap, coming back to the garage to swap out the axle and harness for spares kept in the trailer. “I think we cooked the axle at Buttonwillow when we overheated the brakes. Thankfully we keep spares” said Chris.
Photo Credit: Speed District
Getting back out for the second session, the team went nearly a second faster before trouble would strike again – in the form of a shift cable popping off. The GM F23 Trans uses a plastic clip in a ball and socket configuration to act as linkage between the transmission and the shifter. Going for 4th gear on the backstretch the cable popped off. A quick fix was made and the car got back out, with new cables ordered to replace these. Going off of what damage was seen to the old transmission, its believed these were improperly routed before and might be stretched. So there will be new linkage in the car for round 4. The 3rd Session of the day, as temperatures hung above the triple digit mark, would see the team go a little faster, but be forced to park the car for the day. “It seemed fine” said Chris “Nothing odd on the gauges, went into turn one and suddenly the car just whipped around. I think we lost the front main seal. Oil went everywhere, and I feel bad for the people behind me on track that got caught up in it. Not what we wanted to do at all.”
Photo Credit: Speed District
Still, it was a good day, with an official time of 1:37.214 showing us going 3 seconds faster than our last outing here in 2015. There is more on the table for sure when we come back next time, but we managed to take top spot on the podium for the second straight race, moving us solidly into 1st place in Street FWD Points.
Rd3 Podium: Photo Credit MCV Imagery
We will just keep our heads down and keep digging. We take some satisfaction in that we keep finding new ways to break the car. We try to remind ourselves that we are doing something that really no one else (aside from the factory GM program) has ever really done, and so there isn’t a guide or resources out there. It’s frustrating to not get the chance or the results to show what we are capable of, but we are getting stronger every time. We hope to have the car repaired and ready to go for the July 16th race at Fontana as the team looks to build its points lead in Street FWD, and as always we could not do this without the great help of all our sponsors standing behind us and supporting us.
A1 Higher Graphics – AEM Performance Electronics – Clutchmasters – Crate Engine Depot – Design Engineering Inc – Federal Tire – G-Loc Brakes – GoPuck – Kendall Motor Oil – Ogio International – Paul L. Whitney & Assoc. – Pit Posse – R1 Concepts – RockwellTime – Slick Products – ThatGMPartsGuy.Com – TJPerformance – TrackSpec Motorsports – ZZPerformance
