This weekend the STWA Ford Focus piloted by Andrew Gillis headed out to Infineon Raceway for the second round of the USTCC Championship. The crew worked on the car all week to get it ready for the event. A new engine was put in on Friday, but issues with the engine forced the team off the dyno and a proper break in was never achieved. The team packed up and headed to the track knowing that Saturday was probably going to be mostly break in for the engine.

 

Saturday the Team got to the tack bright and early (around 7:00am). Our first practice was at 8:00am, so the crew worked on the car to get it ready as soon as we got in the gate. Andrew took the STWA Ford Focus out and warmed it up. Everything seemed fine but the tune was a bit off. Andrew also wanted to change to sway bay, to go a little softer because the car seemed twitchy and loose. The next session was at 9:50am and the team got the car already and Andrew went out again. After the session the car was much better handling wise but the tune still seemed off. A suggestion was made to run more camber in the rear for a little bit better wear on the tires, so more rear camber was put into the car and a new tune for the teams last session. The third session everything seemed fine. The camber helped the cars handling even more. The power still wasn't there but the team knew that it was still breaking in so there was no real concern. The team changed the oil to a synthetic race oil to get it ready for the race on Sunday.

 

Sunday the got up bright and early again at 7:00am and prepped the car for its first session at 8:00am. The team was excited to see what the car had in it. Andrew took the STWA Ford Focus out for the first practice session. Andrew took his time getting the car up to speed, but by the end of the session the car oil temperature was over 300 and oil pressure was dropping, so Andrew took it in quickly. The team was worried and confused. The crew decided to cut the bumper out so that more air could get to the oil cooler. When the crew looked at the oil it had metal flakes in it and everyone knew that the engine was letting go. Everyone decided that it would be best to see if cutting out the bumper helped the oil cooler or not, so the plan was to run a few laps and save what was left of the car for the race. Andrew went out in qualifying and took 4 laps and the oil stayed cool. To all of the team surprise Andrew qualified second less then a second off the leader. The team was excited and wanted to put more timing in the engine to see if the car would pick up some more horsepower for the race, so the tune was adjusted again and car was prepped for the race.

 

The race started at 1:10pm with the traditional USTCC standing start. USTCC was also grouped with performance touring class putting about 14 cars on the grid. Andrew placed second on the grid and poised for a good result. At the drop of the flag Andrew got a bad start, spinning the wheels off the line. Andrew dropped down to forth going into turn 3 Andrew regained 3^rd place and had his sights on second and  first. By the time the group hit turn 10 Andrew was passing second and closing in on first. The car was noticeably slower down the straight-aways then the rest of the cars, but very fast in and out of the corners. By lap 4 the group was already in traffic. Andrew made a move on First place coming out of turn seven and they went side by side through the next turn where Andrew had to give up the position being on the out side of the turn. Andrew held second for 7 laps or so then the black with a red circle flag was given to him (Mechanical flag) for sound. Andrew flew into the hot pit and was very frustrated with the flag. The crew looked at the car and sent him back out. Andrew built such a large lead over the rest of the group that he was still in third and that is where he finished. A great result for the team bumping Andrew to second in the points and first for the rookie of the year award.

 

Thanks to all of our sponsors Save the Worlds Air (STWA), McLeod Ind.,B&M, All Auto Body and Frame, Supertech performance, Air Gas, F2, Dusty Rentaria, Miller Vinyl, and  also to all of our Crew Morgan, Paul, Jerry (MIA), Alex, and Brent.

Pictures will be up soon  

Gillismotorsports is proud to announce the press release of their racecars picture in the May issue of Grassroots Motorsports Magazine (on page 135). Driver Andrew Gillis said this about the coverage " I'm very excited to get our STWA Ford Focus in Grassroots Motorsports Magazine. The team has worked very hard this season and we are expecting great results in the future. I would like to thank Grassroots Motorsports Magazine, all of our sponsor, and my team for all their support". Our next event will be this weekend at Infineon raceway with USTCC. Please come out and support our team.

Thanks,

Gillismotorsports

Redline Time Attack April 28-29

 

This weekend Gillismotorsports headed out to Button Willow Raceway located in central California. The team used the event as a shake down for the upcoming May 5 USTCC race. The team was planning on building a car for time attack events, but do to some unforeseen financial restraints, we do not have the budget to complete the car yet. Stay tuned on that.

 

The team spent to whole week preparing the car and installing a new engine. We got the car on the dyno Wednesday when a mechanical issue caused the exhaust cam to spin, which bent all the valves on the exhaust side and also contacted all the pistons. With our back up engine at the engine shop being rebuilt, the team had to use an old head off of a test engine. The engine was torn out, put back in with the test head, and on the dyno by the after noon on Thursday. The engine was down on power, but seemed to be good enough for what we wanted to do. The team really wanted to not only test the new Gillismotorsprots front sway bar, but also test some of the new team function procedures at the track.

 

Saturday was a track day and shakeout for the Time Attack participants. Our team manager made the decision to take our time getting down to the event and to skip the shakedown. The reason was because of the questions concerning the longevity of the test head. So the team packed and loaded the car Saturday morning and headed out. We got to Button Willow Raceway around 4:00pm and unloaded and prepared the car for Sunday.

 

Sunday started bright and early at 6:00am. The team stayed in Bakersfield and had about 45 minutes to get to the track. We got there in time to get the car teched, warmed up, and double checked before the Unlimited class went out. The whole weekend it had been very hot and Sunday was no different (90 to 95).

 

First session out the car was working well. Andrew went out in the STWA Ford Focus for two warm up laps. The crew then check over the car and found a brake cooler dragging, so we quickly fixed it and Andrew went right back out. The car was loose out of the corners and a bit unstable in the corners. Also during the session the brakes on the car started to fade, which caused Andrew to have to pump them every time he used them. After the session the team made an adjustment to the rear toe of the car and bled the brakes and the car was ready to go.

 

The second session the car was running much better and was much more settled in the corners. The teams was surprised to see that we were in top five in our class on time and were in contention for a podium finish, but during the session something didn't seem right with the engine, so the team decide to call it a day. Everyone felt good with the progress the car and the team made and felt it was best to save the equipment and not push the engine to failure. We also feel that this weekends test prepared us for the upcoming USTCC race where we expected good results.

 

Thanks to all of our sponsors Save the Worlds Air (STWA), All Auto Body and Frame, Supertech performance, Air Gas, F2, Dusty Rentaria, Miller Vinyl, and  also to all of our Crew Morgan, Paul, Jerry (MIA), Alex, and Brent.

 

Pictures will be up soon  

Gillis Motorsports Race Report #1 March 10-11, 2007

 

Open round of the United States Touring Car Championship was proven to be a great opportunity to showcase Gillis Motorsports talents and capabilities on and off the track. After 2 years of development Gillis Motorsports released it 2007 four door Ford Focus Race car. Here is how the weekend went for us.

 

The weekend started out bright and early at Thunder Hill Raceway in Willow California, 7:00am to be exact. 8:00am was first practice and our first chance to see how that car would perform after being tuned by Dusty Rentaria from Dinan and to try out the new Hankook racing slicks that the series is now running in 2007.  Andrew had not been to this track in almost four years and has less then 35 laps logged at Thunder Hill total, so some learning of the track and feeling out of the car was expected in this first session.

All went well in the first session for the STWA/Gillis Motorsports Ford Focus except for a little off road excursion by Andrew and a little bit of tuning issue all was thought to be well.

 

Second session started with a new tune on the Motec system and some tire pressure adjustments, the STWA/Gillis Motorsports Ford Focus hit the track. Right away there seem to be a problem with the way the car was running and after 5 laps the crew decided it would be best to bring the car in and see what the problem might be. Once again a close look at the tune indicated it was very lean in some areas and rich and others, so Andrew adjusted the tune and hoped that it would be good for the practice race.

 

The third and final session gave the STWA/Gillis Motorsports Ford Focus a similar result to the last session. The car was suffering from a stumble in acceleration and was progressively getting worse, so the team pulled the car in and called it a day, or so we thought. We knew and expected to be able to test and tune two more times on Sunday, what we didn't expect was the cars clutch to go out. As the team was pulling the car in the trailer the clutch would not disengage. The team knew we had to get the transmission out and take a look at the clutch; the easiest way to do this with the car is to take the engine out. A few members from the crew went and got lights and pans (for fluids) and everyone went to work. The engine was out in about half an hour. Our worst fear was the clutch was gone, but it wasn't. Apparently the plastic around the clutch springs had melted in between the flywheel and clutch. The crew resurfaced, cleaned, and reshimed the clutch and put it all back together. The engine was in the car around 10:00pm and the crew was back at the hotel and asleep at 12:30am.

 

Sunday stared out with the team missing our first race session. We were not in a rush to waste what little life that we had left on the clutch on a morning practice session. The team did know that it was essential that we qualified, so we waited to do that. With the clutch now back to par and another new tune the team was hoping that all will go well for qualifying.

 

Qualifying turned out to be more of the same from the tuning of the engine and at this point there was a lot of question to there being something wrong with fueling system of the car or the ignition of the car. Right away the spark plugs came out and cylinder one had a fouled spark plug. As soon as the team saw that the fueling system came apart. What we found was not only contaminates in the fuel, but also aluminum in the fuel injectors. The team replaced the injectors and flushed the entire fuel system. We also strained all the fuel in hope to resolve the issue. A major decision was made to run the car one last time before the race to make sure that the car was working correctly and to try to get the tune right, but with the clutch in poor shape, it was a hard choice to risk not at least starting the race. Everyone decided to take a chance and see how the car was going. As soon as the car stated up we knew that the problem was resolved, but we also knew that it was only a matter of time before the problem would resurface. Andrew ran the car for 3 laps and we knew it was working well and that we were as ready as we were going to be for the race.

 

The race started with a standing start, which place the STWA/Gillis Motorsports Ford Focus in the 5^th starting position. The STWA/Gillis Motorsports Ford Focus had a great launch and gained two position right from the start. Andrew was following the Go Go Gear Civic Si, for three corners when he made his move for second place. The past was executed and completed before the bypass and the STWA/Gillis Motorsports Ford Focus was in second place. The car looked to have great torque, but not a lot of horsepower, which kept the race for second, third, and fourth very close. Andrew held the Mini USA Mini Copper off for three laps and slipped back to third. The team noticed right away that there was a miss in the engine that Andrew was dealing with. The fight for third was on and by lap fifth lap the Go Go Gear Civic Si got by Andrew. A few laps later the car got loose coming on the straight away and hit some safety tires, knocking the mirror right off the car. Then the next lap heading up to turn 9 the car shuddered causing Andrew to lose control and hit a curb. This collusion with the curb wrecked the wheel bearing. Andrew knew something was wrong and brought it in to the hot pit. The crew quickly inspected and saw that the car was not going to be able to race, so we held Andrew until the last lap and sent him out to finish the race.

 

All in all it was a good weekend for the STWA/Gillis Motorsports Ford Focus. Although, the race did not go as planned, all of the information that was gathered and the fact that the car could compete for a top position left the team with a positive feeling going into the next round. The STWA/Gillis Motorsports Ford Focus will be at California Speedway March 17-18 for the Ford Focus gathering called Jet Fest. Please come by and check out this amazing Ford Focus.

 

Thanks to all of our sponsors Save the Worlds Air (STWA), All Auto Body and Frame, Supertech performance, Air Gas, F2, Dusty Rentaria, Miller Vinyl, and  also to all of our Crew Morgan, Paul, Jerry, Alex, and Brent.

 

Pictures will be up soon

Welcome,

This Blog will be dedicated to updating everyone interested in Gillis Motorsports. We will be providing race write ups, new product release information, team information, race schedule, pictures, and videos. You are welcome to leave comments or send us PM at any time. If your interested in helping our team and have some background in working on cars, taking pictures, video editing, or web design please contact us.

Thank you for your time,

Gillis Motorsports