3 - 2 - 1 - Nationals!
  

May 30, 2008- It has been a very busy May for us at Fusion. In addition to everything going on at the shop we have been very busy on the road. As this is being written, Dennis is flying to Saskatoon to support an ARCA West race as part of our Racing Radios distributorship and Titus is in the shop getting David Barr’s (our Georgia dealer) chassis ready for powder coating.

 

As most of you know, the month started with a 2500 mile promotional trip to 4 California tracks in 6 days. And boy did California roll our the red HOT carpet for us. Little did we now but they were setting records down there. The hottest temperature we saw was 122 deg on the trailer thermometer…what a great time to bombing around in a racecar!

 

The first stop was the always fun Thunderhill Raceway in Willows CA. where we met the guys for Speed Style Magazine (www.speedstylemagazine.com) and took part in an open practice day with the Nitro Lube/ShopFactory.com sponsored Fusion. It was a mild 101 degrees here and boy did we appreciate the electrical hookups in the paddock. It was fantastic to be able to cool off in the AC of the motorhome in between lapping sessions. Thunderhill was a big success for us, the Speed Style folks were a pleasure and we will have some big news coming out of the visit soon.

 

Next on the list was Button Willow for the SCCA National and even more heat. This is where we saw 122 degrees. It was a last minute decision to take the car to the event so we were very happy to come away with a 3rd in our first National with the Nitro Lube/ShopFactory.com Fusion FRC-14. Again we met some great racers and had a lot of interest in the car. One thing we were extremely happy with given all the heat was operating temps. The car never went above 208 deg for water and 240 for oil. In that kind of heat it was amazing to not have a single issue.

 

Next stop was Infineon Raceway in Sonoma where had meetings lined up to show the car. Unfortunatly it was a Kawasaki motorcycle track day so there was no chance to get out on the track. Our final visit was another stop at Thunderhill for a meeting and then the long trip home.

 

Hot on the heels of our successful California adventure, and with a healthy car, Dennis and Titus decided that the double Nationals in Seattle the following weekend would be a good idea. So with a quick inspection of the car and a re-load they were of to the races 3 days later. It was another great weekend where Dennis brought the car home with a 2nd place in race one and 1st in race two.

The Seattle race also gave us a good indicator of our aero efficiency. The car was in a mixed group that included some Formula Mazda’s who are also 180ish HP, weigh less and have a much smaller frontal area. We were happy to see the car could stay right there with them on the straight away and in fact gain distance on most of them.

 

We also had the good fortune to paddock beside the dynamic duo of Mark Jeremko and Lee Stohr. A great group of guys and a car that is amazingly fast. Mark even lapped the formula atlantics.

 

In closing, it looks like the summer is going to be very busy for us as we continue to get cars ready for delivery and expand our product lines. You can also look for us in a support role at the ARCA West Mac’s Series and the western events of the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series.