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Ford L.A.
Street Race Sept 5-7, 1998
The Road Race Mitsubishi Eclipse entered the PRO Racing
sports car race at
L.A. The car was driven by Robert Tallini and sponsored by Road Race, JemFX and
Roger George Studio Rentals.
Each day had an enduro race scheduled. Because of brake woes
we missed
qualifying and had to start in the rear of each race. The start of each event
was a Lemans style start!!! This worked out great for us because in each race
we managed to pull off some MONSTER starts passing 18 to 20 cars in each
start that weekend. The Road Race owned and sponsored Eclipse truly held it’s
own among the Porshes, NSXs, and BMWs. We proved to be fast but perhaps a bit
unprepared. We worked our way up in each of the races even led our class in
the main event on Labor Day but, we had brake and overheating problems after
our scheduled 3 minute pit stops. This caused an inordinate amount of heat to
build up, causing us to make extra lengthy pit stops which dropped us back in
class.
We learned some valuable lessons though about preparing
brakes for a street
course as well as some tricks to keep from overheating. Next stop Mexico.
Grand Prix of Ensenada Sept.
18-20, 1998
With L.A. fresh on our minds and the appropriate
modifications made, we
entered the “Black Eclipse” in Group A at the Grand Prix of Ensenada.
Practice
and qualifying went well. In fact, Tallini managed to put the Road Race, JemFX
car on the pole, beating the open class cars for the honor.
The engine seemed to be working well but, the brakes were
acting up a bit and
not to our liking. We worked on the brakes and fabricated additional cooling
ducts for them. They were still very sensitive to the heat but proved to be
adequate.
Starting from the pole, Saturday’s race was uneventful.
Tallini managed to
lead wire to wire, holding off the next two cars, both of which happened to in
Open Class! The Saturday win insured us the pole for the longer distance main
event on Sunday.
On Sunday the story was similar. The Road Race Mitsubishi
started on the pole
and never gave up the lead. Open class cars were taking some stabs at us but
couldn’t pull off a pass. They couldn’t keep up the pace!
It is great to win in Mexico. They love us down there. Thanks
to all that
helped out; Mike Welch, Robert Garcia, Tony Vu, Bob Berk and pit chicks Gloria
and Lisa. PISTA LA CHUNCHLA!
