Do you think more or less than 10k for a non grandam race, just curious.

 

Hello,

Here's a new pic of one of the cars, that we took yesterday. They're starting to look like cars! But as you'll see, they're not quite ready to hit the track

I don't think we have any plans to attend non-grand-am races, but that type of planning hasn't really happened yet. For GAC races, we also haven't finalized plans, but I would expect a seat to run for something in the $12-15k range, though I'm talking out of thin air - we haven't worked it out yet.

Joel

 

Let me know if you guys do any events or test and tune days in the South East. Would love to see the car and pick your brains.

Any good ideas how to get more weight out of the front end of the car?

 

Man Mike - I think Patty would get mad at you if you drove another race car!

 

Selling seats is tricky. You can either move to the front of the pack or toward the back depending on how good your drivers are. Most of the guys buying seats arent that good or they wouldnt be buying them. If you want to win races or run up front you need the best available driver regardless on how deep his pockets are. Even if you have to pay him. You also have to consider your sponsors and how they feel about putting money into a team that marginalizes their chances with poor drivers.

 

Hey Joel,

Are you the guy that likes to taste automobile fluids and lifts Suby engines with your back and extension cords?

 

Hello,
Hahah... John! yeppers, that's me! I'm a little out of practice, I've noticed... I can no longer identify brand of oil by taste, but it's mostly because I'm no longer experimenting with flavors - I mean brands. It's been a long time since we last met up at the track...

Merlot - that's true (re sponsors) but we've kept that option open to us. Don't forget what the story is, here (as described in the C&D link). We're taking a club racer (the team owner) and bringing him up into the major leagues. He hasn't had years of pro-racing experience and neither have the magazine editors who will be sharing the seat with him. So although all the pro-newbs on the team are excited about the potential of winning pro-races... those of us who are here to provide the reality check certainly are not gunning for top honors during our first year out with these cars AND drivers. We're here to learn together, as a team, and we'll approach the season the way Turner does - it doesn't matter if you podium, consistent good, but not top, finishes, and a steady climb in the overall championship is the better goal.

We're up front about this story with all of our sponsors and they're all excited to be a part of this project, regardless of how well we can do. And if renting seats out is a good way for a club racer with a solid race shop behind him to make pro-racing more affordable... well, that's an interesting story to write about. We've got cars that certainly have the potential to win races and we've got drivers who are certainly at the top of their non-pro games.

And most importantly, we're all a fun bunch of guys who are just about always going to be grinning and laughing and having a damn good time!

Joel

 

I can vouch for that! Missed you guys at the last OTC. FYI... I bought a 2006 350Z and am going to do the Rusty Old Datsun thing with it over the next couple years. Probably run it in ITR in 2011 if I haven't wrecked it by them. Congrats on moving up as a crew chief, must be a big change from USTCC to Grand Am.

 

Hello,
Well... you probably did better without us kicking your butt Hahaha... *I keed, I keed!*
If you're going to SEMA, feel free to come on by and chat. You're probably a couple steps ahead of us, in terms of setup, since I haven't even taken a stock 350Z to a track yet. Heck, I haven't ever opened the hood on a stock 350Z: I joined the team right after the teardown (what a daunting image - two empty chasses and a MASSIVE pile of parts, mostly, but not entirely labelled.
USTCC for a few years, then chief technical steward for USTCC, then Grand Am Cup ST, and now GAC GS. GAC is definitely a large step up from USTCC, but it's also a large step up in price. A 1-car ST team costs $12-15k per race, with an all-volunteer crew, and not including the car and building it, and test days, etc. (about $2-5k less than that when it's in your backyard). I think that's more than the annual budgets of many of the USTCC teams! A GAC-GS effort, with two cars, is unimaginably more expensive than the 1-car ST team, especially if you want to build, test, and setup the cars "the right way."

The advantage to doing it the right way is that I love setting cars up. We spend inordinate amounts of time simulating everything and calculating every last detail. Once we have the cars track-ready, we'll spend dozens of hours on the track each month, using the latest DoE (Design of Experiment) techniques to extract the best performance out of the car that's possible. Kid in a candy store...

All-righty. I'm done with my "break" at the doctor's office (I'm here for something else, but they're eye-ing my welding burns, grinding spatter marks, missing skin from several knuckles, etc. - I think they think I've got a problem!). Time to get back to our last day of prep work on the 350Zs.

See everyone at SEMA. I'll post up where they put us, once I'm there and I see where they put us. Gotta love EVDO...

Joel

 

The Z was always my first love, just can't race it anywhere I can afford

 

Hello,

Quick update - we're in the North Hall Lobby, outside the Electronics area, right across the walkway from the Car and Driver radio booth. The two 350Zs are quite obvious - we have classic American cars on all sides of us, in "normal" one-color paintjobs, and then there's our loud, painted, stickered up cars.

Come on by, take a brochure/flier, etc.

Joel

 

Joel,

Looking forward to catching the cars at VIR next year. Hopefully you'll have some decent shoes in one car.......

 

Grand Am just announced a name change from Grand Am Cup to the Koni Challenge. Our cars were there for the photo op. Great PR for Nissan!

http://www.grandamerican.com/Home.asp

Rich

 

That is somewhat of a shock to me since most of the GA cars are running Motons.
I wonder if teams will change over to koni's to be part of the new points series?

 

No pun intended, right?

 

I saw the cars last night, they look real good

 

wow Joel - long time no speak - looks like things are going great for you, congrats!

 

Hello,
Adam! Yeah, it's certainly a small world, eh? Thanks for the congrats...

Joel