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 5th 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 