PittRace ranks as one of my favorite race tracks. It’s not just a great technical layout, but has multiple configurations, usable curbs, and great facilities. I was lucky enough to attend the final ever wheel to wheel race there, and the final ever event. Neither went to plan.
Out with a whimper
The final race was with Lucky Dog Racing, an endurance racing series that I really enjoy. Like AER or Lemons, they divide cars into brackets based on speed. But the cars must be 2006 or older, and there’s a speed cap (minimum lap time) to discourage and eliminate really fast cars.
The car I was set to drive is the same Miata I took to the wind tunnel. It’s one of the best built Miatas you’ll ever see, with a stoker crank, 85.5mm pistons, big cams, Skunk2 intake, Haltech ECU, and a Quaife sequential gearbox. Look around the car you’ll see an attention to detail that is second to none. Aim dash, Chill Out driver cooling system, you name it, it’s got it.
It lasted about 10 laps.
The problem was a rookie mistake, which is normal for a rookie team. The owner and builder was chasing more power, and installed new cams before the race. This required claying up the pistons for valve-to-piston clearance, and then removing the head to measure that. In the process, Phil reused the head gasket, and that was probably not a good idea.
Head gaskets are typically single-use items, but since this Miata runs 2.5mm over the standard bore size, it’s much harder to find a 85.5mm head gasket. I guess there wasn’t an extra for testing valve clearance, and there certainly wasn’t an extra in the spares box. You win or you learn; we learned.
That’s the way to goes sometimes, and it was at least fun to be at the track, talk to people, and watch the racing. It was a good opportunity to see how other teams use (or don’t use) aero, and that lead me to doing a podcast episode on Garage Heroes in Training on aero for endurance racing. Thems sour grapes, but grapes just the same.
Strike three for MSHD!
This race was also strike three for testing the MSHD wing. I had previously loaned a wing to Alyssa Merrill for testing at Watkins Glen, as she has a 9 Lives Racing wing. I also loaned her an original WingLogic to test. But she had assorted car troubles and wasn’t able to do any extensive testing on the wing. She was able to try the new MSHD vs the 9LR, and concluded that the new wing made the car more stable (more downforce), but there’s no data to go with that.
Then I gave the MSHD to Steve Leo to test at WGI versus the old WingLogic on his Subaru. The wing supports are the same distance apart, so it was easy to use the same wing. Unfortunately Steve had car trouble, and wasn’t able to test the wings back to back.
So this Lucky Dog race was also supposed to be yet another wing test, and this time I brought my MSHD set up as a dual wing, to test versus the 9LR dual wing (which is what is on the Miata now). But obviously none of that happened.
All said, I didn’t get to run any of the back to back tests I had envisioned at the end of 2025, and so it looks like maybe I’ll hit the wind tunnel first and then do the track tests in early 2026. One thing is for sure, me planning to track test aero ends up breaking cars.
Out with a bang
So if the Lucky Dog finale was less than eventful, the Hooked on Driving finale was eventful in the wrong way.
I signed up to instruct, but HoD didn’t have a novice group. Instead, I would have a low-intermediate solo driver, who I’d be instructing and evaluating. My student knew the track, in fact it was his home track, and during the pre-drive interview, we commiserated on the loss of this wonderful track, and discussed where he’d go next; Mid Ohio, or Nelson Ledges perhaps.
His car was a Shelby GT350 with 522 hp at the wheels. “At the wheels,” I echoed back, and he nodded. This is about what a stock GT350 has at the crank, and so it had been breathed on a bit. The car was on Michelin Cup 2 tires, which have a reputation for heat resistance, but they do take a few laps to come in.
So I asked about traction control and stability control in the drive mode he selected, and he said no to the former and yes to the latter. I should have stopped him right there and made him put on the traction control.
We started the session with two laps under full course yellow on a cold (40F) and wet track. This is not enough time Cup 2s to get up to temperature. I think you see where this is going.
We got stuck behind someone who clearly didn’t belong in the Solo group for being slow giving point bys on the wrong side, and then we went into T13 and my student got on the gas just a little too much. Like a tiny, tiny too much.
The rear wheels lost grip, we went into a slide, and then hit the grass at about 25 mph. If it was dry, we’d have come to a stop and laughed about it. But the wet grass was like ice and we picked up speed going sideways, straight into the Armco.
What’s absolutely wild about the incident was I was completely calm the whole time. I saw the wall coming and knew for sure we were going to hit the wall on my side. The driver was freaking out at this point, “oh no, we’re going to crash!” But I was loose and totally calm.
If you follow the blog, you know I was hit from behind by a fire and rescue vehicle earlier this year. So when you’ve seen a 7000-lb vehicle run into you from behind at 60 mph, and watched it coming the whole time, a 25 mph crash is fucking nothing.
Except that it was a pretty sudden stop, very loud, with plastic shrapnel and airbag chemicals in the air. My back and neck are a little sore (again), and my arms have scrapes and bruises. Enh, I’ll certainly walk it off, but FFS! This was definitely not how I saw 2025 ending, or my final two events at PittRace going.
Still, I feel oddly fortunate for getting to experience something (anything) at PittRace, and walking away from another accident with a smile, and a story to tell.
Occam's Racer 