After blowing our turbocharged Miata up at both races with the ChampCar Endurance Series Presented by RVA Graphics & Wraps that we entered last year, we’ll be honest: We were terrified of failing at Daytona again.
But we weren’t going to let fear keep us from the track. We entered the Marathon Coach Daytona Beach Enduro with a simple goal: Finish the race. We even added a few lights to our Miata, since the 14-hour race ends well after dark. We upgraded a lot of things behind the scenes, too, completely upending our team and our race preparation so we could confidently say we were ready to race when we pulled into the track. That story is in the next issue of Grassroots Motorsports, and you can subscribe right here to read it.
So, how’d we do? We did great! After 14 long hours, we finished the race second in class, meaning we’d finished above and beyond our goal. Everybody had fun, the car (mostly) held together, we aced our pit stop strategy and we drove clean, consistent laps. In short, we finally figured out how to endurance race.
Of course, finishing second doesn’t mean everything went perfectly. Our car still runs hot–over 230 degrees on the banking–and our waste gate fell off a few hours into the race. We’ll tackle those issues back at the shop, before we return to the track chasing an even higher finish.
We’d like to thank the following companies, all of which make quality parts that support our race effort:
Advanced Autosports
Bridgestone
DIYAutoTune
Energy Suspension
Flyin’ Miata
Fuel Injector Clinic
Koni
König
Nerdie Racing
RunCool Hood Louvers
Safecraft Safety Equipment
Speed Seat Factory
Sunoco Race Fuels
Treasure Coast Miata
Very Cool Parts
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