Knestis to Debut Jetta TDI in STU @ VIR Majors

[Knestis]

Tristan Herbert Racing is very pleased to introduce their 2013 entry in the SCCA U.S. Majors Tour - a 2008 VW Jetta TDI to be driven by longtime regional club racer Kirk Knestis of Syracuse, NY.

The car is an after-hours collaboration of Cameron Conover, Tristan Herbert, and various crew and support staff loosely affiliated with Herbert's Brimtek Motorsports SCCA World Challenge Touring Car program. It is built to STU rules, applying expertise developed building and running TC cars to a pile of parts accumulated in the shop over multiple seasons.

The team and driver are particularly excited about the technical aspects of the effort, as it breaks new ground with clean turbo diesel power; dual-clutch, direct-shift gearbox technology; and a sophisticated anti-lock brake system in amateur road racing.

The program is being supported by Malone Tuning (high performance diesel tuning products), germanautoparts.com (online parts retailer), and Dynamic Fuels (maker of renewable synthetic fuels). Knestis will run for additional contingency support from Volkswagen of America, Hoosier Tires, and Hawk brake pads.

The car will debut at the Virginia International Raceway double Majors event in April. Additional appearances at the Summit Point and Watkins Glen Majors events are planned, as is an entry in the VIR 13 hour enduro in October.

Astute observers will notice that the beautiful blue and white paint scheme is complemented by the number 42, in tribute to Pablo, Knestis' ITB VW Golf that was lost to a serious racing incident in mid-2012.

Anyone interested in additional information may contact Kirk Knestis at [email protected]

[RSTPerformance]

Looks like you have a very fun April lined up! Good luck, see you a few days later!

Raymond

[JLawton]

That is awesome Kirk!! Congratulations! Very, very cool!

[gran racing]

Good for you K! See you at the Glen.

[Ralf]

Is this a scratch build car or a former TDI Cup car? And, what did VW do with all the TDI Cup cars? Sitting in some warehouse?

[Greg Amy]

Is this a scratch build car or a former TDI Cup car? And, what did VW do with all the TDI Cup cars? Sitting in some warehouse?

I tried to get one of the TDI Cup cars a couple years ago, and VW was very adamant that these cars would not be made available to the public.

Cameron and Tristan have been building cars from scratch for the World Challenge series for a couple years now (Brimtek Motorsports) and no doubt have access to cars, parts, and technology that quickly exceed that of the TDI Cup series cars... - GA

[Terry Hanushek]

Ralf

And, what did VW do with all the TDI Cup cars? Sitting in some warehouse?

I believe all (or most) of the TDI Cup cars are at NJMP. The apparently belong to a third party who intends to run 'arrive and drive' schools. I'm not sure when these schools are scheduled or how many are scheduled.

Terry

[zchris]

I remember the first TDI cup race I watched. It was at NJMP and it had just rained or was raining and it was the biggest smash up derby I had ever seen. I was thinking how body shops were going to get rich over the series. And more importantly how the VW execs were saying to themselves WTF have we gotten into. Probably not the best advertising for there product as not many stayed on track.
Chris

[Ron Earp]

Very nice! Congratulations with the new race car and I hope you enjoy it. Way to bounce back!

[Knestis]

I can't thank Tristan and Cameron (and the others who put time into the car) enough. I'm thrilled for the opportunity.

K

[Flyinglizard]

Good luck, go fast.
MM

[stevestratton]

Nice looking car! See you at VIR,
S2

[Rabbit07]

Saaaawwwweeeeeet!

[StephenB]

Love it! Tristans was really fast and I am sure this one is as well!

On a side note, what are they doing with the old cars from last year?

Stephen

[Knestis]

Tristan will be running WC Touring again. I don't know about a second car or team mate, I confess...

K

[Simon T.]

This is very cool.

[Ralf]

Congrats on the second place finishes.
How about a recap of the weekend?

[Knestis]

"Nothing went wrong."

The car never missed a beat. Changed ride height to address binding the dampers, put in a more aggressive brake pad to give more initial bite, put Dynamic Fuels synthetic sauce in it, and drove 10 sessions.

We entertained ourselves in the paddock finding bits to remove in an attempt to lose the 250# of excess weight involved.

Turned out we were about 5 seconds off the fastest STU car there and 10 faster than the rest so we concentrated on learning the car and not chucking it off of South Bend. It's got a long way to go but the potential is huge.

K

[Matt93SE]

Sounds like a good weekend overall and a good platform to start with!

If it's like any other VW I've seen, there's about 3/4 of a ton of crap under the dash that can go away.. I also see lots of glass. And door skins? There's 100+lb right there.

[Knestis]

Doors are gutted, although maybe not as aggressively as might be possible. Plastic windows are on the to-do list. We want to retain the defogger and the HVAC unit is apparently *very* messy, with all kinds of interlocking ducts and valves and junk. Cameron will be back in there, however. We haven't gutted the hood or trunk lid, not being 100% confident how to apply the more-permissive-than-IT allowance of removing "unnecessary" stuff (I think that's the word), but there IS a lot of metal there...

K