February 11, 2018 - Steeda has a long-standing relationship with Mustang racing. It's why we were founded, it's why we come to work each day, and it's why we know our parts are the best in the market! This past weekend served as a warm-up race for the 2018 SCCA Majors season, allowing us to delve into the vehicle dynamics of our T1 Yellow #20 S550. The T1 class ran in Group 5, along with a LeMans Prototype 3 Ligier JS P3, several GT2 Mustangs, and several other impressive vehicles.
The Central Florida SCCA event was extremely organized, with Saturday's practice and qualifying sessions operating smoothly throughout the day. The morning practice session went well with Steeda President, Dario Orlando, behind the wheel. He pushed the car quite a bit, testing the suspension and engine to ensure that things were functioning properly, as well as trying to pinpoint areas of improvement. The session was only 20 minutes, so it was back to the paddock until the afternoon.
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Qualifying for Group 5 began around 3 P.M. but was short-lived as the car was pushed a bit too hard on the Turn 7 hairpin in lap two. With worn tires, the car was not able to sustain its grip on the track going into the sharp hairpin at over 40 mph. The rear end swung out and the traction error caused the PCM to cut power to half the cylinders, meaning the car had to come back to the paddock. After further inspection, it seemed everything was fine with the vehicle, other than the rear tires, which we replaced with a new set. Since Dario completed a lap in the qualifying round, we were good to go for Sunday's two sprint races.
Steeda VP, Glen Vitale, did double duty on Sunday, piloting his 1990 Spec Miata in Group 3, as well as the Steeda #20 in Group 5. Starting further back in the pack due to the shortened qualifying round, Glen quickly maneuvered his way forward, catching up to one of the GT2 Mustangs by the end of the 30-minute sprint race. With his impressive effort, he captured first place in the T1 Class. Having moved higher up the grid, the afternoon race looked set for another exciting race with the challenge of running with the GT2s. However, the race was black-flagged due to several separate incidents in just the first few laps.
Overall, the weekend was a large success, as we learned more about roll center correction and damper tuning, and took home the title as the fastest production Mustang out there.
Stay tuned for further race updates as we head to PBIR on March 2nd and 3rd for our next race, and remember #SpeedMatters!