Jungle Motor Sports: 2021

Thursday, December 16, 2021

Custom Hotwheels

Early Christmas present for me! I commissioned https://164custom.com/ take a Miata Hotwheels and paint it up like my racecar! Feel free to reach out to him have him do other custom cars!

Monday, September 27, 2021

Track Night In America 09/24/21

Took sometime off of volunteer to be a corner worker at SCCA's Track Night In America held at Dakota Country Technical College.

Wednesday, September 15, 2021

JackPine Sprints 08/2021 w/ SCCA at BIR

JackPine Sprints with SCCA-LoL at Brainerd International Raceway 08/28~29/2021

Saturday we had our qualifying session in the rain. I did pretty well qualifying 4th out 10 other Miata's. Fell back a few positions in the race. The track had a few damp spots. Big crash between a Miata I was playing with and another car in a different class who was a lap down. A real 'code brown' moment for me!

Spec Miata drivers viewing my video of the crash via my Garmin. Not exactly sure what conversation was going on, but it must have been funny!

Photo Credit: Jessica Jonk

Photo Credit Chris Davey

I love the way the water comes off of the car in this picture.

Saturday Race from Garmin

Sunday Race from Garmin

Saturday Race from GoPro

Sunday Race from GoPro

A huge thanks to "my crew" Hannah, Cameron, Andy, and Micah

Monday, August 16, 2021

“DonnyBrooke Dawgs” August 14-15

LuckyDog Endurance Race at Brainerd International Raceway 8/14~15/21

Saturday 7 hour race: P3 over all, P2 in class. Sunday 8 hour race: P8 over all? P5 in class? Need to check that again.... Our Sunday strategy of driving 3~5 seconds a lap slower, in order to stretch our driver stints to 1hr 55min thus having to do only three pit stops vs four pit stops didn't work as well as we hoped (despite running a nearly perfect race, no black flags, no mechanical issues, no offs or crashes, and good pit stops). 1066 race miles!

My Saturday stint while trying to conserve fuel, lots of short shifting.

2021 Brainerd SpeedTour July 17~18 2021

SVRA (Sportscar Vintage Racing Association) and TransAm Pro Racing came to Brainerd International Raceway July. Part of SVRA's program was a the creation of a class called "Mazda Miata Heritage Cup" a few years ago; allowing all Miata's up to 2005.

****Draft videos to come

photo credit: Jack Hall

I got 3rd in race #1!

Carnage from one of the TransAm cars

Race #1, 3rd Place; video Garmin Catalyst

Race #1, 3rd Place; video from GoPro

Race #2, video from GoPro

Thanks to Hannah for crewing and Cameron who stepped up to be a flagger.

Sunday, July 11, 2021

SCCA LOL - Mid Summer Classic at BIR 07/03~04/2021

Photo by Chris Davey https://www.chrisdaveyphoto.com

Photo Gallery from Jerry Winker:

The car received a new Kooks exhaust, which I like as it makes the car more quiet, and the exhaust exits just before the rear bumper vs ending just after the rear differential. It was a super pain to install as I can't get it to seal where the mid-pipe meets the tail section. I am not sure if the angle of the motor is tilting too far down, or the car tub is bent is such a way or the exhaust is just a few degree off.

The car also got a fresh set of front brake calipers and a freshened up cylinder head. The head isn't really anything fancy as after studying the rule book and the head there was very little that could be done. Mostly just new valves that were cut to perfectly straight, new valve springs, and a total of 11 thousandths have been shaved off (apparently this head was serviced once before).

The car alignment was off, I measured using my DIY tools after the May race and it seemed to have lost camber; even though toe, and right height remained unchanged. Thus I didn't make it a priority to get checked out, which was a mistake. I fought understeer all weekend, as a result I made rear sway bar, and at-track front wheel alignment adjustments to help. The 95+ degree heat made the track extra slippery and greasy tires. I killed off one of the tires from my primary set. Both races I went into tire maintenance mode toward the end. Albeit I did decide to take the cheaper route this weekend and get a few more heat cycles out of my old tires. I believe my backup and primary set of Hoosiers now have 16 and 12 heat cycles respectively.

Special thanks for Cameron & Hannah for their help!

Saturday, June 12, 2021

Harvey West Memorial Day Classic @ BIR with SCCA-LoL 5/29~30/2021

This spring the car got upgraded to the regulation Penske shocks, a lot of money for not really making the car faster. Supposedly the car will handle better on rumble strips and on bumpy surfaces. They definitely are more "racecar" than the "off the shelf" Bilstein shocks.

I Finally got a water pressure low warning light. If the car looses it's water/coolant this light will come on and hopefully the driver shuts it down before any motor damage is done. Often times one can loose water/coolant but still have the temperate gauge read fine.

I also purchased a Garmin Catalyst, we will see over time if it can help me go faster. It is basically a robot driving coach.

Pictures by Jerry Winker and Chris Davey Photography; please support these folks by purchasing pictures.