ITS Ford Mustang(s) Build - Stripper Stang Part II

[Ron Earp]

Another update from the Stangwerks….

We got Jeff’s new motor in the car and running without incident. And, we headed out to VIR for the March Memories race and test day early Friday morning. On the initial session a problem reared its head, one that we’d experienced before – a driveline vibration. Jeff reported it was very bad and since the motor was new, and we knew it was properly assembled, we immediately figured it was the driveshaft. So we swapped the driveshaft from the green car, which has never had a problem, and put it into the red car for testing. Next session out the problem was entirely eliminated and the car ran well. Smooth, powerful, good water temps and oil pressure, so all was good with the motor.

So Friday noon I took the old drive shaft down to Russell at Triangle Driveshaft in Durham and they fixed it while I waited. It was horribly out of balance due to a poor balance job at a shop in Raleigh from Fleetpride. Anyhow, Russell fixed it up and I returned to VIR to install it into my car. A couple more sessions out in the red car for the test day, some adjustments to rear roll center and shock dampening, and we decided we were on for the weekend.

Saturday morning came a bit too early but we were ready for qualifying. The ECR group qualified first with Zsolt’s Acura Integra taking the ITS pole. The Mustangs were not far behind though in second and third, although the field was a bit light. The SARRC qualifying order was a bit different with Jeff G. putting the Mustang on the pole I think, but I can’t remember the rest of the field. I think I started third. Anyhow, we were pretty happy with the results although again, the field was pretty light on strong ITS competition. Jeff Young had a problem with a front wheel hub disintegrating and got no good time, Chuck Hines was not racing on competitive rubber and wasn’t running as fast as normal, and a few others had dropped out.

The ECR on Saturday was a lot of fun. Jeff G and I were in the red Mustang, Robert Mitchell and Jeff Young in the green Mustang. Zsolt’s co-driver Trevor set a strong of smoking laps at the start of the ECR. Not one, but five or six 2:14s and I think one of them was a 2:14.0 according to my RaceMonitor app. Smoking, and says a few of things – prep matters, driver matters, and FWD can flat out get it done – kudos to them for building such a fast car and driving the hell out of it. The ECR progressed with the red stang second, the green one third, and then Zolt’s Acura had a hub failure and was retired from the race. That left the Mustangs with a one-two ECR finish, but I can definitely say if Zsolt hadn’t had the wheel failure they would have won the race as we were tuning no higher than 18/19/20 in ECR trim. Also in there was a smoking fast ITA Ford Focus by Mike Sperber so the Fords had a pretty good showing in the ECR.



After the ECR we retired to the paddock to work on the TR8 which was still laid up with a bad hub. We also worked on Chris Dercole’s Mustang and trying to help him sort his oil control problem, however, it was pretty reasonably clear he had bad rings and no amount of work was going to help. Car work done we retired to the Tavern with the crew and had a bonfire party later that evening. Unfortunately we forgot about the time change and Sunday morning came quick. Ow.

The SARRC came and went pretty quickly. A sprint race ain’t no ECR and it was over too fast. At the green it was Jeff G, Ron E, Chuck H, and Russ B., but at T1 Chuck got a clean pass in T1 on me and assumed second place. Later that lap or the next, Chuck passed Jeff G and was in the lead, Jeff G second, Ron E third, and Russ fourth. However, I could tell that Russ had more power than me and was gaining on the back straight so I figured it was a matter of time before he got me. Mustangs have good brakes, great midrange, but on the top end the RX7, TR8, Acura, etc. seem to do better. Russ got by a few laps in and it was Chuck, Jeff, Russ, Ron with me dropping.

Five or six laps into the race we were all coming into Hogs Pen and someone had tracked mud and straw all across the track. It had just happened and was in a place you couldn’t see well, therefore, Chuck had no choice but to hit it first and he went off track. The other cars managed to stay on track but the mud reduced everyone’s speed through that corner for a couple of laps. The race finished Jeff, Russ, Ron – first SARRC race win for a Mustang, although not for Jeff G since he’s been racing for 10+ years. We didn’t have the fastest cars on track for that weekend by a long shot but it was reliable and most importantly fun. And, as mentioned, we were missing a lot of regulars with two of them at the track, Zsolt and Jeff Young, not being able to race because of broken or wrecked cars.



Now, what was fast was the Mazda MX5s – have a look at those times, they were running 2:12, 2:13s, 2:14s all weekend, fantastic. Now the track was fast for the March VIR race, but those cars are getting it done. At the start of the SARRC they blew away the field. Jeff and I were right behind the two MX5s when the green flag dropped. I thought for sure I'd pass one on the start because they wouldn't have power. Nope. They dropped the stangs like a bad habit and gapped us all the way to the braking zone. We managed to follow them around but they moved out on the straights.