TiC Twice Takes Tennessee

[TURNinCONCEPTS]

July 28, 2009 – This past weekend TiC competed in their second Redline Time Attack, and pulled off two podium finishes with two cars.

Placing first overall in the street class category was Tony Wiesenhahn in the same WRX that placed fourth overall at One Lap of America, and first overall in class at the Redline Time Attack Round 3.

“We made a few changes to the car for this event,” stated Tony W.

Tony Barber, Co-founder of TiC was able to elaborate.

“We were forced to change transmissions on the car. Actually, we changed it a few times. We blew second gear in the built 5MT about a week before the event. We were lucky to have a spare six speed in the shop, but when we put it in the car we found that it had a bad center differential.”

With very few options and time running out, they were forced to make a rash decision. Pulling the TiC R&D 08 STi into the shop, they ripped out the transmission and installed it in the WRX.

“There were a few difficulties in the swap. It made for a few long nights, but we were relieved to get it sorted out in time for this round.” Said TiC’s other Co-founder, Clint Boggess.

In order to get the STi six speed to work in the car, TiC had some help from Subarupartspro.com for the driveshaft, and DCCDPro.com for a great center differential controller.

“These guys were really a big help, and able to get us the parts quickly, with no problems. Without their help I don’t think we would have made it here.” Said Tony B.

Tony W. filled us in on the rest of the changes for the car for this event.

“We changed the front rotors to the Stoptech 332x32 two piece rotors. The guys at Subarupartspro.com were nice enough to provide the rotors and calipers for the Subaru 2-pot rear setup. We also decided to try some new tires and max out the size for the class we were running.”

While wider wheels from Wheeldude.com were a big help, the new tires just didn’t work out. Lateral traction was not there, and braking really suffered.

Clint filled us in on that.

“We decided to try some new tires for this event, and sadly it was a mistake. Fortunately, the two Tonys were smart enough to bring along the old, faithful Dunlops from One Lap, and Round 3. We knew they were totally shot, but we had to try something.”

Just throwing those on netted a practice lap time 1.25 seconds faster than the best lap on the new tires. That made the decision, and the guys from TiC begged the on-site tire jockies to change the tires over to the new, wider wheels.

Despite the last minute changes, and very worn out tires, the WRX driven by Tony W was able to pull off a class victory with a 1:07.543 lap breaking last year’s best class times by about four seconds.

Also, running the TiC banners on his personal, daily driven car was Josef Newgarden who placed third overall in the same street class with a 1:09.766.

“Josef heard what we were doing, and was so excited he flew into town from working over in England to join us for the weekend.” said Tony B. “He’s a heck of a good driver, and really wanted to see what his personal car would do on the track.”

Josef has been a TiC customer for a long time and had all the setup done on the car by TiC so it was a very big deal to Tony and Clint to have him come out and show what even a daily driven car can do at the track.

“The two cars aren’t all that different really. They are both running the TiC specified ASTs, Swift springs, albeit at different rates, Whiteline bars and suspension parts, and the entire compliment of TiC developed parts. Power comes from a few different things, but Jorge at P&L Motorsports did both tunes. This really shows how a balanced approach to performance can not only perform well at the track, but also be reasonable to drive on a daily basis.” Said Clint.

When asked what is next for the TiC team, Tony W said that they are really looking forward to Round 5 at Carolina Motorsports Park, and promises to have new tires that they know will work.

TiC/Turn in Concepts is based out of Fairfield, OH, and carries a number of fine suspension and driveline products for motorsport or daily driven applications. They can help you enjoy your car, and can be found on the web at http://www.turninconcepts.com

[TURNinCONCEPTS]

Practice session 1 from Sunday:
YouTube - Redline Time Attack Nashville Superspeedway Practice Session 1

Morning time attack session:
YouTube - TurninConcepts - Redline Time Attack Nashville Superspeedway Session 1

Afternoon time attack session:
YouTube - TurninConcepts - Redline Time Attack - Nashville Superspeedway - In car with Tony Wiesenhahn