Taking Lap Times Seriously

(posted by The Brake Room Staff)

For most, competitive driving conjures up images of whipping around a track wheel-to-wheel or bumper-to-bumper with other cars. The truth is that for most, at some point it’s just going to be you and the car. On most track days, your only bragging rights come from your lap times. For full on races like the SCCA SPEED World Challenge, you first have to get through the qualifier where you are ranked by lap time.

For some, landing a good lap time is part of the overall competition. The recently completed One Lap of America comes to mind, where competitors literally raced across the country with stops along the way for driving challenges such as Hot Laps.

For a select hardcore group of competitors, the lap time is the only true pure measure of a racer. You’ll find many of them in the Redline Time Attack series where head-to-head driving simply isn’t on the menu. It’s a one track, one driver, one car system where drivers get to make timed runs and keep the best lap time at each stop along the series.

The “brake late, finish first” mentality is in full effect at these races with no other cars to bang into, or be banged into by. There’s literally nobody to blame for a blown turn. If you find yourself up against the clock you might want to consider the 75/25 braking strategy that earned the StopTech CEO pole position for the SCCA season opener this year in Sebring.

StopTech-equipped racers are faring well this season with a pair of victories. One at Willow Springs and the other at Thunderbolt. The next stop will be in Nashville on July 25 & 26 if you want to get in on the fun and start tracking the series, or even register to participate.

Harman Motive sets The Record Straight at Willow Springs

posted by The Brake Room staff

Harman Motive raised the bar over the weekend with the record-setting performance of their StopTech-equipped 2006 Subaru STi at the Redline Time Attack at Willow Springs International Raceway. Sporting StopTech's new Trophy BBKs they managed a 1:26.417 in the Modified Class, AWD Division and set a record for both.

You can read the press release here but we found a video recap of the team's weekend on vimeo...

Check it out!

May Madness for Team StopTech

posted by The Brake Room staff

While we were focusing on all the fun at this year’s grueling 5,000 mile One Lap of America, where the Active Autowerke BMW E46 M3 claimed third place overall and first place in its class AND Team Iron Butt placed 8th overall with their Audi S4, Team StopTech dialed in an incredible month of May.

Jason Saini rolls into June with the Drivers Championship point lead thanks to a pair of May podium visits on the SCCA Pro Racing SPEED World Challenge Touring Car series. The month started with a first place finish at round three in New Jersey in his Tri-Point Motorsports’ StopTech MAZDA6. He was back on the podium by the end of the month with a third place finish during round four at Mosport International Raceway. Saini’s was joined on the podium at Mosport by Charles Espenlaub, who finished second in his Tri-Point MAZDA6 on StopTechs.

Turner Motorsport stepped up during May and made history as the first E90 chassis BMW to win in Grand Am racing. In only its fourth racing appearance ever, the Turner Motorsport ST class BMW E90 328i with StopTechs piloted by driving team Don Salama and Will Turner claimed the checkered flag at Round 4 of the Grand-Am KONI Challenge at Laguna Seca Raceway. The team got a leg up after Salama earned a pole position start during the qualifier.

Next for Turner Motorsport was round 5 where the driving team of Matt Bell and Bill Auberlen took their StopTech-equipped BMW for a spin, literally, and still managed a third place finish at the 2009 Lime Rock Park Road Racing Classic.

It may be hard to believe but we are almost halfway through the racing season already. The Brake Room wishes Team StopTech good luck as we roll into the summer. Team StopTech, which is itself not an actual race team, consists of the select production based race cars from the Tri-Point Motorsports, GMG Racing and Turner Motorsport teams competing on StopTech performance brakes in the Grand-Am Koni Sports Car Challenge Series and the SCCA Pro Racing SPEED World Challenge Series.