GOTO Racing's LGT Finishes 2nd battling David Brown's EVO in USTCC Season Opener!

[RobY]

Laguna Seca, Monterey, California. USTCC Season Opening.

GOTO Racing’s LGT Finishes 2nd on Virgin Run behind David Brown’s EVO in USTCC Season Opener! Besting The seasoned GOTO USTCC WRX.

Looks good so far for the new BP/BL Legacy Chasis.

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AWD PWNZ J000!!! in the wet!

What the hell? Opposite Lock on an AWD car?

Roasting some tires…

Professional Tailgater!!!

After working hard all of the off season, for the first race of the 2006 season Team GOTO:Racing felt prepared to take on the challenges of a growing US Touring Car Championship.

Both the Legacy GT and the WRX were well prepared and freshly painted. The WRX was looking less aged than the number of track hours it has endured would have you expect. We were still a bit unsure of the Legacy’s potential as we had fewer test days than planned. We had a few bumps in the road trying to get the ECU to be happy with it’s new life in a race car rather than the Luxury Sports Sedan it was designed for, but Gruppe-S helped us to work through problems and find power from the new motor.

With a new crew for this fist race, we were confident that we had the support in the pits should anything need attention and that the crew, being an experienced rally crew, knew the importance of thorough post session inspections and maintenance.

The weather was a factor all weekend causing us to miss half of all planned track sessions and sending us out for the race with 9 minutes warning after missing the morning warm-up.

Brian had managed P-2 in the new legacy and Chris was to start at the back of the grid due to a transponder malfunction in the previous days only qualifying session. Taking advantage of the new tire rule, we put new tires on the WRX since Chris was already at the back of the field.

With no time for officials to call a wet session, the entire USTCC field went out on shaved dry tires. Of course, the rain started immediately upon the field getting set for the standing start. This was going to be a tough race, were we were to battle not only the other competitors, but a savagely difficult circuit in the wet with dry setups.

With Brian in the Legacy and Dave Brown in his new Evo, all wheel drive was going to be a major factor in this race. At the green flag the 2 cars were in a dead heat to turn 2 where Dave’s P1 position gave him the advantage intended and let him lead Brian into the treacherous and famous turn. Brian settled in and immediately started pushing Dave hard, while taking care not to spin in the rain.

After only a few laps cars started leaving the racing surface and getting stuck in the mud which is normally so well groomed at LSR. On the second restart after one such incident, Brian got the turbo spooled early, and with crew chief Steve calling the green flag, got a great jump passing the Evo in front of the main grandstands for the lead. It wasn’t long, however, that the Evo allowed Dave to retake the lead on the outside of turn 5 and pull away going up the hill into turn 6.

Meanwhile, Chris and the WRX had moved up as high as 3rd place from dead last and was battling with the Cobalt and Neon SRT for top rookie status. During the pouring rain the windshield became fogged, robbing Chris of almost all visibility.

At the checkered flag Dave and Brian both got sideways coming out of 11 and Brian crossed the finish line just a wink behind the Evo for 2nd place, even while caling over the radio to find out how his brother had done. Steve wanted to say that they were still trying to determine that, but he was too busy watching Chris come around turn 11 just behind the SRT-4. To screams of “get on it Chris!” into the radio, Chris pulled convincingly on the Dodge after Curt Simmons pushed wide on the final turn. Simmons decided to take a defensive line and block the pass. Not to be deterred, Chris moved to the right, still gaining on the Neon and again the driver changed lines to block. With the third line change, the SRT had caught the attention of the officials for blocking and Chris finished his first USTCC race in 5th place after starting from last.

Team GOTO:Racing Finished 2nd and 5th for a great start on the 2006 season challenging for both rookie of the year and the championship.

http://www.gotoracing.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=145

[RobY]

Chris Lock Discussion on LegacyGT.com

http://www.legacygt.com/forums/showthread.php?t=30216

Engine is completely bone stock. With stock uppipes downpipes.

As far as bolt on power mods, just a Helix cat-back exhaust, a COBB Access Port, and a tune from Gruppe-S in Hayward, CA. The real work went into the chassis and suspension.

DMS 50mm Rally Tarmac dampers with there progressive springs ranging from 500-900lbs depending on the circut and conditions. MSI provides our camber correction pieces, and we run anywhere between 3 and 4.5 degrees depending on if we are running the Hankook or the GAC hoosier. Hotchkiss prototyped a sway bar kit for us, which I believe should be for sale soon.

[RobY]

NEWS and offical times on http://www.USTCC.com

Dave Brown Wins Wet Laguna Seca Race

				     Dave Brown took the opening round at the Hankook United States Touring Car Championship (USTCC) race at Laguna Seca on March 12, 2006, but it wasn’t easy! Like the previous two days, rain played a role on race day. With the torrential rain over-night, the track was flooded in the morning, and the 8:15 a.m. race warm-up was cancelled. The Laguna Seca maintenance crew worked feverishly, and had the track clean by around 9:30. At this point, the track officials made a bold move to bump the start time up from 11:15 to 10:00 a.m. There was a mad scramble by the competitors to get the cars ready and set for the grid. At this point, it was relatively dry and the race was deemed a “dry weather” race. 

On the warm-up lap, the rain started to come down once again. By the time the cars reached the start line for the standing start, the front straight was completely wet. The cars lined up, the green light flashed, and the cars were off in a monster rooster tail.

Dave Brown, driving the LeMans Karting Fremont/ Works/ Goodsport Racing Mitsubishi Evo 8 took the early lead with Brian Lock second in the Gruppe S/ Subaru of America/ DMS/ Canepa Design Subaru Legacy GT. Through the first part of the race, Tyler McQuarrie gave chase in third place in the Shark Energy Drink/ Spoon Sports Opak Racing Acura RSX-R, but the car was no match for the all-wheel-drive cars in the rain. A little further back, rookie Chris Lock in the Gruppe S/ Racing Brake Subaru WRX had a great battle going with Curt Simmons driving the Cornwell Tools/ Sunnyvale Dodge/ MBO Dodge SRT-4 and sixteen year-old-rookie Auston Harris in the Team Cobalt California Chevy Cobalt.

The rain never let up. At one point towards the end of the race, it even started hailing! It became a two-car race between Brown and Lock, with the two cars swapping places many times. Brown seemed to be a little faster through the turns, with B. Lock making up gobs of time under braking using his Subaru’s ABS system. As the two came across the finish line to start the last lap, Brown held a very small lead as the two disappeared into the mist. Tyler McQuarrie was running in third by himself, but there was a big battle for top rookie honors between Harris and C. Lock behind him.

At the last corner, Brown slipped a little wide, but was able to hold on for the Mitsubishi’s win by a scant half of a second. Brian Lock was second, also in a brand new car (Subaru Legacy GT), which was in its first professional race. McQuarrie finished third, while Auston Harris won out in the A’Pex Integration Rookie battle. Curt Simmons rounded out the top five.

The rain stopped, and the clouds parted for the victory ceremony, with the A1GP cars as a backdrop.

Immediately following the race, the top placing competitors had this to say;

Dave Brown: “This was a great day to have all-wheel-drive, there was no touching this Mitsubishi today! Robi-Spec suspension built us all custom suspension, which worked beautifully today. With this race in the rain, in these cars, you need to have quick steering input, your steering has to be quick and precise. I’m glad I trained for this event with karting at LeMans Karting in Fremont. Works provided us with engine tuning and exhaust, which helped get the car to the front. The race was tough with the rain. As we started the last lap, it was my race to win or lose so I left a little on the table, just to stay on the track. I’ve also got to thank David Bongiovanni, and Goodsport Racing for putting this program together. We’re looking forward to a strong season. Special thanks to Bugformance Motor Sports of San Jose for an outstanding job of cage construction and car prep."

Brian Lock: “As soon as the rain came down on the warm-up lap, I said to myself, ‘here we go’, because I knew we were all on slicks. During the race, I got by Dave a few times and thought I could stay in front of him, but he harassed me too much and managed to get by. But, I love the sticky champagne feel you get from being on the podium, and I’m really proud of the fact that we put the Subaru Legacy GT in second for its first professional race.”

Tyler McQuarrie: “The car was awesome all weekend. We got a little held up in qualifying and I thought we had more for the race had it been in dry conditions. In these wet conditions, it became more of racing the track, and staying on the track.”

Top Rookie, Auston Harris: “It was wet, slippery and hard to keep the car on the track with dry tires! I had a little trouble getting around Chris Lock, but then once I was around him, I was able to stay there for fourth.”

Interested Observer Mr. Tatsuru Ichishima (Ichi), President and Founder of Spoon Japan: “It was a dangerous race in the rain. Last season we won the championship. This was a good start, but we need to do more testing with our new driver. We will have another good year I’m confident.”

The two pulled away from the pack running thier own race more 6 seconds ahead of the rest of the pack.

Congrats for a Job Well Done for Brian Lock and Dave Brown!