GTA Back to Atlanta

There is one race on my schedule that I look forward to every single year; Global Time Attack Pro Series at Road Atlanta. Not only is Road Atlanta one of my favorite tracks but when GTA comes out to the East coast and shares the stage with Formula D it usually means a bunch of fast cars and a ton of rowdy fans.

This year I was even more excited to race because for the first time I can remember there were only a few changes to the car between seasons. In the past we made many large adjustments during the offseason trying to make the car faster but this season my focus was on dialing in the current setup and working to improve myself as a driver. Having said that there were certainly a few additions to the car and team this year that are still worth noting. Including a new spoiler from APR Performance, new 108 race fuel from my newest sponsor Ignite Racing Fuel, newly re-built CD009 transmission, new (back to black) vinyl livery, new Haltech tune, new race alignment and suspension setup from Z1 Motorsports and a few other odds and ends to get the car dialed in. A lot of people had a role in getting the G ready for this race and I cant thank them enough for all their hard work but I have to give a special shoutout to my dad for busting his ass on the car while I was out of town working with the Nissan World Challenge team. And also a huge thanks to all of the guys at Z1 Motorsports for welcoming me to the Z1 family with open arms and their unbelievable efforts to get the car ready to race leading up to the event and their awesome track support during the race.

With me being out of town leading up the to the race weekend it was a bit of a mad dash to get the car ready in time but thanks to the help of my father and some friends I got the car down to Atlanta a few days before the race to get the car race prepped at Z1 Motorsports. The week leading up to the race Z1 did all of the pre-race essentials and then some to get the #44 G35 ready to rock. When Friday morning rolled around we were more than ready to go, and with the first session being bright early it was a good thing Z1 had it prepped right off the trailer.

This year the GTA race format had changed a bit and the first two sessions of the day would be for practice and essentially qualifying for being in either Group A (faster) or Group B (slower). Knowing the track relatively well we used the first few sessions to get a feel for the new suspension settings and also scrub in the new Hankook TD sticker tires. After just a few laps of driving the car at speed I was amazed by the difference the new setup Z1 had put on the car. It was a night and day difference from what I had been used to and I knew that it was going to take a bit of a re-learning but in a good way. The car was way more predictable and seemingly easier to drive immediately. Also the added hp and tq from the Z1 tune was very noticeable and made the car a blast to drive. But the closer we got to the proper compression and rebound settings it became apparent the spring rate was no where near what it needs to be but we will correct that before the next race. After breaking in the tires a bit and getting some confidence in the car we ended up qualifying in Group A and began preparing for the first timed sessions.

For the rest of the day Friday we kept playing with suspension settings trying to get the car dialed in and also dealing with some odd pressure build ups on the tires. They had been sitting in my garage for a good while and this was the first time I had used this new set. It seemed no matter what we did they would build a ton of pressure equally all around after just a lap or two and never seemed to stabilize no matter how low we set them to correct the issue. I had used the same Hankook TD's tires the last season without issue but these seemed to behave a bit different. We unfortunately chased the tire issue all weekend but ended up finding a somewhat tolerable middle ground with them allowing us to get a good lap or so out of them at a time. With the threat of rain on Saturday we tried to use the last session of the day to push as hard as possible but at this point the track and car (slight overheating of engine, brakes and tires) didn't want to cooperate and left us with a pretty slow 1:39.xx to finish out the day. Knowing there was still a ton of time left in the car we made a few more suspension changes that evening and prepared for the first Saturday morning session before the rain came.

Every year it seems the Saturday morning sessions are always the fastest of the weekend and this year was no different. With the threat of rain looming all of the teams tried to push the limits Saturday morning and I was ready to do the same. Right off the bat I started to shave time in the first session thanks to Russel and Steve for getting the compression and rebound settings better than ever. The car was still rolling over more than I wanted due to the spring rates but I dealt with it and kept trying to improve, shaving time every lap.

Going into the second session I assumed it would be our last since the rain was forecast to be there any minute. I was hoping to at least get the car sorted out and my confidence built back up enough to run a 34 or 35 but unfortunately the best time I could muster before the throttle body began to fail (throttle pedal became intermittent and non-responsive toward the end of the session) was a 1:37.135. In Road Atlanta fashion the weather tricked us and ended up not coming down until later that evening after the race. With the track still dry and unsure if the throttle body would hold up I went into the final session ready to improve and more confident than ever and sure enough I lost throttle response going into the esses on my out lap and my weekend was over. I wasn't very happy to break in the last session due to the simple throttle body failure but I was still amazed by how much better the car was handling and running as a whole, leaving me excited for the rest of the season. Z1 Motorsports helped get the car to where it has never been before and with some more changes I know we can continue to improve the car and get it closer to the front runners of the Limited RWD class.

The #44 G35 ended up finishing 4th in Limited RWD which was respectable but no where near the time I was hoping for. We will continue to improve the #44 Turbo by Garrett / Ignite Racing Fuel / Hankook Tire / Z1 Motorsports Infiniti G35 this season and use the GTA East Coast Pro-AM series to prepare the car for Super Lap Battle later this year in California, see you all there but in the meantime be sure to checkout the video above and visit www.GlobalTimeAttack.com for more info.

Z1 Motorsports Joins the Team!

Z1 Motorsports is quite possibly one of the most well known Nissan & Infiniti based parts and service companies on the entire planet. And along with that bold statement I would also dare follow it up by saying that there is no company on earth that knows Nissans better than the excellent staff at Z1!

I have been good acquaintances with the guys over at Z1 in my years of building the G and attending ZDayz and ZNationals events but this year I have had the pleasure to get to know them a lot better through my work with the Nissan Pirelli World Challenge team.

This year I have had the pleasure to spend a very good amount of time at the Z1 shop working on the #07 Nissan World Challenge 370Z. The #07 team has essentially used Z1 as home base between race for a good portion of the season and as such I have been in Georgia more days than I could possibly count and every single one of those was a pleasure thanks to the great hospitality at the shop during the day and even at night with owner Russell Floyd letting me stay at his house for nearly every night of each trip.

With my experience with Z1 Motorsports I have been absolutely completely impressed with their operation from day one. I truly can not say enough about them. From their sales knowledge to the mechanical and tuning knowledge of the guys in the shop to the sheer dedication of the owners to make the Nissan community better each and every single day and of course their love for racing Nissans! I have been lucky enough to not only work alongside everyone at Z1 enough to be impressed but have been welcomed into the Z1 family with open arms and consider all of them very good friends for a long time to come.

Z1 has played such a large role in the success of our World Challenge race program so far this year so it only makes sense for me to have them be the primary tuning shop of my #44 Global Time Attack Infiniti G35 for 2014 and beyond! I am very excited for the future with the Z1 Motorsports family and know that with their knowledge and experience we will take the #44 G35 to the next level! Be sure to visit their ginormous selection of parts today at www.Z1Motorsports.com

Nissan World Challenge Crew Chief!

I am very proud to announce a new and exciting endeavor in my racing career; Crew Chief of the #07 Nissan Pirelli World Challenge Nismo 370Z driven by Brian Kleeman in the GTS class! I will be the first to admit I would barely call myself a driver before ever thinking about calling myself a mechanic let alone a crew chief but as many of you reading this know I have pretty extensive experience with Nissan Z's and Infiniti G's. So when Brian was switching teams during this off season he thought to ask me to head up the crew for the #07 370Z for the 2014 Pirelli World Challenge season. I hesitantly accepted the job offer and quickly was thrusted in to professional racing at one of the highest levels.

The Pirelli World Challenge Championship Series is the most prominent sports car racing series in North America. Running as an accompanying race across the country alongside series such as Indycar and NASCAR there are two different racing classes that bring out nearly every manufacturer in the world; GT and GTS. The GT class is the high horsepower purpose built factory cars with around 800hp and light as can be. The GT class diversity is truly impressive and quite possibly the best among sports car racing in the world with Ferrari, Audi, Cadillac, Lamborghini, McLaren, Porsche, Bentley, Chevy and too many more too list. We are in the lower horse powered more rule restricted GTS class alongside Chevy, Ford, Kia, Porsche, Aston Martin, BMW, Subaru's and many other large brands. Both GT and GTS cars compete alongside each other in 50 minute races and often double race weekends. The standing start of nearly 50 of the fastest sports cars on the planet is truly and impressive site to take in from pit lane.

The World Challenge series travels all over North America with its vast different classes but the GT/GTS schedule has us going to nearly every corner of the country and even over the border to the land of Canadian bacon. So go check my updated race and crew schedule and see if we are coming to your town this year! Also all of our races are televised the follow week on NBC Sports Network and a live stream from World Challenge themselves can be found at World-ChallengeTV.com

If you couldn't tell I wrote this article after already attending the first few races of the season as I have been unbelievably busy and haven't had time to keep up with the website. So if you cant tell, some of the photos in this post are from this season so far and are after I should be announcing this. The season has been a very interesting experience so far and I have learned more than I ever thought possible and look forward to learning more and improving every race weekend. Follow me on Facebook or Brian Kleeman like page for updates on the World Challenge side of things as I will not update for each race on this site like I will on social media.

Sparco, APR and SPL Parts Join the #44 Team

I am proud to announce a few more amazing motorsport companies to the #44 G35 team! Sparco USA will be providing my safety needs with a brand new lightweight FIA/SFI approved fire suit and their 6 pt cam lock harness designed specifically for Hans devices. APR Performance has also joined the team with a beautiful carbon fiber GTC-300 spoiler with their gorgeous carbon gurney flap and end plates. Im no artist but my god the APR spoilers are a beautiful piece of carbon fiber and should provide a great amount of downforce since we will be raising the mounts and also moving it further back on the car. Lastly but possibly most important SPL Suspension Parts has doubled down on its support for the #44 G35 and is supplying some rear arms and a few solid bushings we hadn't installed yet to complete the entire parts catalog offered for the car. It is awesome companies like these that not only make our racing endeavors possible but also help us go faster every weekend so please help them help me and visit their sites by clicking the links above and purchasing their quality products.

Back to Black!

Thats right! I have finally decided that with the fixing of the body damage to the right rear from SLB and the fact that I will now be running the car out of my own shop in MD that it is now as good a time as any to finally switch the car back to black!

For those of you who have been following the build of the #44 G35 then you know when I originally bought it and autcrossed it for a few years it was Obsidian Black. When the car was rebuilt after the wreck at Road Atlanta in 2011 I designed a pretty cool livery in SOHO blue that became pretty popular for a few years but in the end I always thought the car looked more aggressive in black. Im not quite done yet but I'm already falling back in love with the car and any second thoughts I had as I was pulling the blue off have completely gone out the window. Enjoy this teaser photo until I unveil it at GTA Road Atlanta in a few weeks!

Final Issue of Modified Magazine: SLB & PRI

Modified Magazine has always been one of my favorite magazines since I first fell in love with sports cars in high school. In fact they were probably one of the biggest influences along with Super Street and Turbo Magazine. Unfortunately I guess all great things must come to an end and this story is no different. After years of publishing a quality magazine the powers that be decided that Modified wasn't profitable enough and as of March 2014 there will be no more Modified Magazine.

Sadly the April 2014 issue below was the last issue ever printed although it is very bittersweet I am proud to say that I am in this magazine twice! Well technically speaking at least. In the last issue not only did they do a feature on the Super Lap Battle / Global Time Attack Finale at Buttonwillow featuring an image of my car in action but they also wrote a review article about last year's PRI Tradeshow and featured the Computech (family company) DataMaxx Data Acquisition System on the first page of the story. I cant thank the staff enough for the many years of quality reading and a special shoutout to Peter Tarach for the awesome placement of the DataMaxx. Also featured below is the Super Lap Battle press coverage in Super Street Magazine. It was certainly a good month of exposure for the #44 team!