Kitchener, Ontario’s James Houghton headed south to the famed Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course with lots of anticipation. The long Canadian winter allowed the K-Tuned supported team to make many changes that Houghton expected would drop lap times in 2017.
Never having run at Mid-Ohio before, Houghton had prepared for the event by watching YouTube videos to learn the track. He told noted driver coach Ross Bentley (on hand at Mid-O for Gridlife sponsored seminars) that the videos did not do justice to the elevation changes of the track itself but he liked the track and its challenges.
Never one to run every lap available in a session, Houghton did just enough running in each session to lay down a time for others in the class to challenge. The team would then analyze the data provided by the recently installed Racepak IQ3 datalogger dash and make the changes required to match the theoretical best lap in the next session. “Every session saw improvements but it was not all plain sailing”, Houghton said, “The increased downforce and lateral g-forces put a strain on the splitter brackets and issues with it contacting the track. Eric, Neil, John and Kevin fixed it in a manner that allowed us to run the rest of the weekend without any further issues. I really have the best team out there, nothing seems to stop them. The diet we put the car on during the winter as well as the aero upgrades made a huge difference and I must thank everyone who helped for all their hard work over the winter.”
He went on, “I was pleased with the 1:26.169 as I did not really know what the car would run here, considering it was the second session on the tires I am confident a ’25’ would be attainable. We came away from the event second overall in the championship to Brian Faessler and his super quick Mustang, took the Unlimited FWD win and track record. It was a great first outing to see how all the upgrades worked and with the Racepak we have identified a few more places we can improve. 2017 is going to be a good year. I want to take the opportunity to apologize to all our supporters, the lack of time before we left for the event did not allow us to get all your names on the car. We do appreciate all the help we get from you and could not do this without you.”
About Gridlife
Gridlife is a series of annual Music and Motorsports festivals held at Gingerman Raceway (since 2014) and Road Atlanta (since 2016) GRIDLIFE events feature daytime events such as road racing, Time attack, drifting, car shows and concerts with contemporary EDM, Hip Hop and Alternative music in the evenings.
Upcoming Race Events
Houghton’s next event will be the Global Time Attack event at Road Atlanta on May 12/13.
Press release by Ian Rae, MotorWerks Media. See the original post here.
Antigravity Batteries proudly sponsors James Houghton! Catch his action on Facebook.
