This past weekend we competed in our first door to door racing event at the SCCA Regionals at Sebring International Raceway. The IPG ITA Integra debut went smoothly for the most part and ended with the drive to be more competitive in the future. Piloted by Russell McMullen the Integra worked nicely over the weekend as we found some strengths and weaknesses that we will address in the near future.
An engine failure in the final race on Sunday has expedited the process of putting a fresh, built to the rules engine into the car for the next scheduled track day with the car. We qualified 8th out of 23 cars for the first race. 2 Caution periods during the first 30 minute race put a damper on getting a flow going for Russell and he fell back into the 11th position at the checkered flag. The 2nd race proved to be the end of the weekend for the team. Russell immediately noticed the car down on power during the 1st lap and pulled into the pits on the 2nd lap to realize an overheating and non-running engine. Towed back to the pits the engine now makes nice broken part noises when it is turned on. Not to worry, since we had already sourced a new engine core 2 weeks ago we are ready to build a fresh engine that will actually make us more competitive as we create more horsepower.
We couldnt' ask for more in the 8th place qualifying postion. That gives us the confidence we need to continue to progress with the road racing program. Our next scheduled event will be in March at Roebling Road as Louis Murphy is planned to take the shake down laps with the new and improved ITA Integra after our planned rebuild at the PBOC event while also taking on instructing duties. Here is a quick video from the weekend that we captured. We are excited about continuing to get the ITA Integra to the top of the class.
Next ITA Integra Scheduled Events:
March 25-27th, 2011 at Roebling Road (PBOC Event) April 16th-17th, 2011 at Daytona Intl Raceway (SCCA Driver's School) May 7th-8th, 2011 at Daytona Intl Raceway (SCCA Regional Races, Enduro)