What differentiates Steeda Autosports from most other manufacturers, distributors, and retailers of performance parts and accessories is that we are on the racetrack almost every weekend - actively testing and validating our parts and vehicles and showcasing that at Steeda - Speed Matters. From racetracks, to dragstrips, and even "unofficially" at the occasional stop light, we believe that you have to actively need to live and breathe motorsports to have the credibility one needs in this business today to design, manufacture and sell performance parts and accessories.
Proving this point, this past weekend was just one example of how on most weekends, racetracks all around America are filled with with Steeda prepared vehicles, and with vehicles that use Steeda performance parts. Additinally, many of our close friends and our employees are out there racing, showcasing that we indeed are very serious about Ford performance.
The NMRA Spring Break Shootout this past weekend at the Bradenton Motorsports Park in Bradenton Florida started the 2013 drag racing season with plenty of excitement and fanfare. With perfect weather and packed stands, Scott Boda - Steeda's Director of Manufacturing took his red Steeda equipped 1990 Mustang LX to Bradenton and ran the fastest time ever in his car, 8.79@155mph with a 1.34 sixty foot on the back tires!! There was no doubt that the Steeda suspension system was definitely working out there this weekend as Scott's times were good enough for him to finish in 1st place in the 9 second bracket and 4th overall in Tremec True Street against some more powerful cars. It was the largest True street field ever for Bradenton with 117 cars!
Also at the NMRA Event, Steeda customer Chris Parisi stated the season perfectly by winning the Tremec True Street Class with his 2007 Steeda equipped V6 Mustang. With over 149,000 miles on the odometer, this car is Chris' daily driver and he races it whenever he can in the NMRA Series. Over the years, Chris has been able to sharpen his skills and greatly improve his consistency in competition. An example of that is his killer launch times of .014 in qualifying and .012 in the first round. Suffice to say, Chris is starting the season strong by winning his class and we are hopeful once again this year that Chris will also win his class championship one more time!
Steeda/Nitto Tire driver John Urist of Albuquerque, New Mexico was competing at the NMRA event in the Street Outlaw class. Running a 94mm turbo in the nose of his car, he was able to make it thru three rounds of eliminations, going into the final round. When all was said and done, John had an amazing run of 7.424 at 192.06mph, but even that was not good enough as he finished a very close second by a blink of an eye.
Palm Beach International Raceway in Florida was also very busy this past weekend with The Florida Region of the SCCA racing and also the South Atlantic Road Racing Championship' (SARRC) Series there with a 'double event". Each morning had its own qualifying session, followed by a 30 minute race in the afternoon.
There was also a separate 90 minute Enduro Race on Saturday afternoon that featured mandatory pit stops and driver changes.
For SCCA event, our own Steeda Sales Professional Rod Wiliamson brought out his Steeda equipped 1994 Mustang Cobra for a weekend of racing excitement. Competing against other Mustangs and Camaros in the American Sedan Class, Rod was able to finesse his car and finish in 1st place in his class on Saturday and also 1st place on Sunday. Not bad for the cars first season outing of the year!
For the Enduro portion of the Palm Beach International Raceway event, our own Glen Vitale, Steeda Autosport's Vice President of Operations was there to represent Steeda. Glen is no stranger at the racetrack, he has been racing for over 24 years and when he is not directing the operations at Steeda, he is usually behind the wheel of one of his cars. This time he left his Steeda Certified GT500 and the Steeda Q650 race cars in the barn, and took out his Steeda prepared 1990 Mazda Miata out for some enduro fun around the challenging track. In qualifying he realized that he was spinning the right rear tire on hard right hand turns causing him to lose some drive coming out of the corners hurting his speed on the ensuing straightaways - a sure sign of a differential problem. Even with this problem, Glen and his car were still good enough to qualify not only 1st in his class but 1st overall for the endurance race.
Glen knew going into the 1.5 hour race that he could win not only his class but he could capture the overall win if the cars differential stayed together. When the race started he maintained his lead on the start and led the pack for the 1st lap. On the 2nd lap the 2nd place car, trying very hard to match his corner speed, ended up going off track, hitting the wall and destroying the left front corner of their car. This brought out a caution to clean up the remnants of his car and allowed Glen to take it easy on the wounded differential. When the race went back to green he managed maintained a steady pace, 1st place in class but he fell to 2nd place overall. With 30 minutes left the 1st place overall car ended up on the side of the track broken, and a car spun causing a full-course caution. With the entire pack now on Glen's bumper, when the green flag dropped, it was a dash to the finish with the lead he had built up essentially gone. Suddenly, his battery light was on indicating that the alternator was not charging. Turning off his cool suit and race radio, he conserved his electrical load putting all available juice to power his ignition. When the checkered flag dropped - Glen was 1st in class and 1st overall - beating 21 rivals and making him undefeated in his class at PBIR for the last four enduro races held there.
Congratulations to all of the racers that fly the Steeda colors and trust us for their performance needs.
Steeda - Speed Matters