GST Motorsports 2012 GTA Build: The L Chronicles Part 4

Zalo doing what he does best.


It's a love/HATE relationship. Earl loves that he hates fibe......


New rear subframe by DRC Race Craft installed awaiting the rest of the rear end goodies. Product shoot coming soon.


Stripping down to work on the frame for the intercooler/splitter support frame.


Keith welding the intercooler/splitter frame mounts to the L's existing frame.


Fruit of Keith's labors.


Scary even when naked.

More AFL images of the L off season build!

"Look ma' no eyes!"


"Just give me the light"


Intercooler and front splitter support frame.


This scene lasted 37 minutes while Mike decided if he wanted baked beans or potato salad with his steak.


Closer view of the new intercooler piping by the Master Zalo.


"Its so strong it can hold someone THIS big!"- Mike


Originally a solid piece, it was brought up to have a portion removable to make it easier to work on the engine.


Yes ladies, that is the one and only Earl modeling in the fantastic Garrett sponsored work attire.


And for the fellas, yes that is a Garrett GTX turbo. Wicked isn't it?


"Damn girl, the things I would do to you if no one else was here." -Mike


Feb. 15th marked a very important date for Mike, the GST Motorsports team, family and friends. One year ago we lost one of the original members of GST Motorsports and of the Warfield Family. Even though Thugly isn't physically here with us, he has always been a part of the family and the L and will continue to no matter how many more shapes and forms the L takes on.

TGIF!!! oh and some US based series Time Attack news!!

Seriously TGIF could never be so true, I've been so sick this week it's sucked complete bollocks! Nothing like waking up stuffed so full of snot your feel like you gagging on it. Anyway enough about my personal state as to be honest who gives a shit right and not to mention there are some way more interesting things to talk about!

So I touched base the other day on Global Time Attack announcing a series championship, or more John Naderi rambling on about how they might be and so on well anyway it was legit and not just the usual Nad's "I'm hammered and going to throw out a bone with no bearing deal" So what does this mean? Well for one it's a good thing for the teams and sponsors as I stated before you can smack someone's record but you can't take away a season championship.

Confirmed Series Championship

It looks like Nad's and JD (not the drink the other dude that actually makes some form of sense down there at HQ GTA!) have put somethings in place so you don't get the bullshit that made Redline's such an epic fail, Sorry Dez no renting a 80hp slushbox shitpile for points this year mate! It looks like if you wad/blow/leave your car at home you have to get permission via a panel to switch to an alternate. It also looks like the same panel have to agree to let you switch driver.... So whoever you are on this elite panel please let me know I need to send you all some hooker and blow as we're going to have to substitute Beckham for the Hobbit for Road Atlanta due to those homo's at the LA Galaxy wanting to play a Soccer game that weekend(I can't even write that word without gagging, it's football you bunch of sceptic tanks! no not your hand egg game with the padded faggots!)

GR8

If you didn't watch the web show thing with Nad's the other day then you probably have no idea what the GR8 is. So basically on the Sunday the fastest 8 cars from the weekend are going to be invited to run in a bracket race wheel to wheel race. The first round will see 4 match ups with the winner moving forward. From what I hear this is going to be a rolling start behind a pace car setup with it being a sprint to the finish 2 laps. I kind of wished it would have been a standing start that would have kicked ass but hey I can't expect the GTA guys to get everything right now can!

It looks like there is going to be some decent coin to the winner so I expect teams to take this seriously! Not only that with some of the events mixed in with other race series it should prove to be a pretty entertaining thing to watch. I know I for one can't wait to go wheel to wheel with the car bowler Christian Rado! Christian if your reading this mate your little grocery getter better bring some bigger balls this year or your going to need binoculars to see the arse of the L!

** Late edit here! ** I think any of the cars regardless of class in the GR8 should be able to run whatever tires they choose for this, so for example if a street AWD car is the 8th fastest overall and invited to run they should be able to steal some slicks from an unlimited team and be able to run them!

Global Time Attack and Superlap Battle to combine

Well I heard about this on the MotoIQ radio broadcast last week, for some reason it was not on the GTA Web cast I heard it was something perhaps pertaining to getting everything legally dialed! I guess that would mean I shouldn't write about here but whatever I don't give a shit someone can sue me for all the pennies I have on my desk (I just want the lint back!)

Anyway looks like the season finale will be at everyone's favorite dusty shithole in the middle of nowhere, yea you got it Buttonwillow!

I am curious what the rules merge will look like but I think it's safe to assume unlimited cars will be on DOT tires but I can live in hope and November is a whiles away so something could change.

Anyway that's it, it's Friday I'm pretty much done for the week so in closing I'll leave you with this......................... wait for it.....................................................................................................................................

Yes US based Time Attackers this is who your trusting to lead you into the 2012 GTA season..

More L Pr9n from AFL!

Here's some more pic's from Aaron over at AFL Photography, these cover some of the work done during January as well as the more PC birthday pic's from mine and the fossil's (Keith's) Birthday weekend!

Who to watch out for in 2012, Part 1

Firstly this is by no means supposed to be a complete list of Time Attack competitors by any means, I apologize in advance to any teams I may miss and if any of you team owners out there feel you you'd like to be included in part 2 shoot me an email at gstmike@gmail.com

FXMD - Acura NSX


Typically this car is driven by either Billy "I stole Mike's last Corona" Johnson or Tyler "Sandbag" McQuarrie and driven very well both being excellent drivers. The car itself thanks to Andrew "Sushi" Brilliant has more Aero than Boeing and probably generates more downforce than a 400lb hooker on ride on top nights! Given Acura's already fantastic platform the guys at FXMD had a great starting point that they have now taken to the extreme. This car is now the recognized holder of the famous Buttonwillow 13CW record that all US based teams are judged by and promised to take it even further in 2012, given the whole teams passion and hard work nobody could doubt they wont just do that!

World Racing - Scion tC


Driven by the one and only (thank God there's only one of him!) Christian "Mike's my Daddy" Rado, Christian's probably improved his track driving the most in a short amount of time of anyone I have ever met. Coming from being a car bowling homo :) he's now a force to be reckoned with on all things that turn and twist! The cars setup and support is some of the very best out there with the whole wrecking crew at World Racing being like the A-List of all things fast and crazy! Be it the engine builder Gary "I need to work out more" Kubo, Fabricator Scott "I canz build anything y0!" Stanwood, Crew Chief Rob "Mike stole your nitrogen" Cordona or any of the other nutballs like Mikey, Kareem, Cobra and Co. You can be sure whatever form the Fwing 2.0 comes out in this year it will be one to watch. What I am curious about is there any other FWD car to come out and bring the heat to Captain Chaos and Co??

OMG - Subaru STI


Driven by the one and only JC "Rules" Meynet, this car probably owns more Modified class records than any other car in the US. Love him or loathe him nobody can doubt JC's skills and his cars competitiveness. The big question is can he get time off from being MotoX Dad to make the events, if he can then the rest of the Modified class better have their shit together!

LIC Motorsports - Subaru STI


Owned and operated by the Levy's! I can't say about driver as they have had a few of them lately with the most recent being Gary "I have hairy feet" Sheehan, personally I hope they stick with Gary who is an awesome driver! This car is probably the cleanest car on the scene and would not look out of place at a car show. The Levy's have some pretty neat engineering into their car and with more track time are for sure one of the car's that would push JC all the way. If they come out to the events look for them to be right up there at the top of the Modified class times!

Insane Speed - Mitsubishi Evo IX


Owned and driven by Trent "Westphal shat in my house" Choi! I think the biggest question I have on this car is whether or not Trent will finish building his unobtainium engine coupled with his Yugo 55 dry sump kit. If he does and knowing the power he likes to run this car should be a more than capable contender for the podium in unlimited.

Ok that wraps up part one, part two will be up on the blog middle of next week. Till that time remember to keep pushing the pedal all the way down!

2012 off season build, part one!

Here's some random shots of just some of the build work for the L during the off season, photo credits go to the man Aaron Lundgren from AFL Photography

Reflections on why we do this and what it takes!

People ask me all the time why do we choose to do Time Attack and secondly what does it take to do it.

Why do we do Time Attack, well firstly we kind of fell into Time Attack after building the L initially to run in the 2006 NASA 25 hour endurance race with the view to run the 2007 NASA WERC's series. What actually happened was we had a crack at the 06 25 hours but it was largely unsuccessful for us on many fronts, due in part to lack of testing and such with a new car. After licking our wounds from the event it became apparent that with the US Time Attack scene taking off it made sense for our business to have a crack at it and we essentially took an endurance built car and turned up the power and added some wider stickier tires. Our first real event was Redline Time Attack Buttonwillow early in 2007 where we got a first in class and came 2nd overall to the Carbon S2000 of C-West.

What astounded us following our first event was amount of coverage the event got be it either online or via printed media.

What has kept us doing it and why we do it now I think has evolved as much as the car has since that initial outing in 07. I think at first like everyone else we were competing for the win and associated media the results produced, somewhere along the ways the whole scene with the teams we raced against sorted of morphed into a really close knit band of people we now refer to as friends. Do we still want to kick the shit out of Ken and Co at FXMD or the lunatics at World Racing? hell yes! at the same point we'd happily yank parts off our car or from our spares to keep either one of them in contention!

Some of the parties and such at the events have been the stuff of legend! Be it the Mike Kenney sponsored pool party at the Pahrump (How many models still have toe nails falling off from Boot's jumping in the hot tub) or the nutters from Berk Technology shooting me with fireworks on the 4th July at Willow Springs, we've had some great times and hope to have many more with everyone!

We're still focused on trying to run as fast as we possibly can as always but I think we're also just happy to be out there doing what we love with our extended family of fellow Time Attackers, we push ourselves hard with the car and it's development but like the saying goes "Work Hard, Play hard!"

Ok so now, What does it take? Great question! Well there's two ways to look at it outside of the obvious (a fast car and great driver!) Firstly I think there's a couple of ways to do it and be successful. The first being have a boat load of cash, I really can't cover that one as I never have two nickles to rub together so I'll cover the 2nd option which is basically Hard work, a great team of friends, fantastic sponsors and a wife who 10 years ago must have lost her fucking mind!

Typically speaking if your not made of money your building everything for your car yourself obviously with some serious trail and error, for me I feel I am extremely lucky to have the friends I do that have put in so much hard work and time for nothing other than eating some overcooked meat I have cooked on the BBQ or "wow that looks great" What people may or may not realize is our car is basically never worked on in shop hours (it doesn't even reside at the shop anymore!)

Outside of what we are able to fabricate we're also blessed to have great sponsors without whom we would no doubt not have been able to run a fraction of the events we have in the past 4-5 years.

So in a nutshell if your not Bill Gates you need to have a great bunch of friends and some serious knee pads for chasing sponsors! I'd love to tell everyone how to go about getting help from sponsors but honestly I have no idea, I feel we have been very fortunate to date and all I can tell anyone is it's best to start doing first then start soliciting for support from companies!

I can't help you on the wife thing very much either, I am thankful daily for my wife's support in all of the hours I am away from home in the evenings or weekends working on the car with the guys. How's the saying go? "Behind every successful man is a great woman!" I'm not sure if I would call myself successful but I do have a great woman, Thank you Dionne! you truly are one in a million!