What an action packed year it has been for the Micro’s Workshop racing team!
We really broke through some barriers this year, including taking 1st place for the Milwaukee Region SCCA Street Modified FWD class, as well as our first Nationals Competition in Lincoln, Nebraska. Overall we couldn’t be happier with the results. We also learned quite a bit.
Chief among these things is the disadvantage we had racing in the SMF class. Locally we had no problems, but on the national level the competition is obviously much more intense, with competitors developing their cars over a period of years, not months. At the National level, this class is dominated by the Honda Civic CRX for several reasons, the main one being a weight advantage of about 500 pounds over our car! To give you an idea of how well-loved these cars are in the circuit, 12 of 14 cars in this class were Civics! For this reason we have decided that the best move would be for us to jump up into a new class, F Prepared.
The Prepared class is comprised of cars that are highly modified. The cars in this category are no longer street legal and generally have completely gutted interiors with roll cages and super-tight suspensions. One could say that the cars in this category are proper race cars; nothing that you would ever drive on the street, and well equipped to deal with the rigors of racing.
Moving into this category is a big jump for us. The competition is generally quite experienced and the amount of time and resources required is much higher. The positive aspect of doing this conversion is that once everything is complete, the car will be set up to run in the prepared class for 2-3 years. There will always be wearable items like tires, brake pads, and fuel, but for the most part getting set up in the way we’re planning will allow a good 50-75 events before the car will need to be freshened up in a major way.
The major engine and suspension components we are installing now should last well beyond this point, this is a good thing as we are anticipating the project to take about 400-500 hours of labor total. Somewhat of a big deal! Thankfully our new headquarters is all set up and functioning now, that’s a big help. We have a big shop, a brand new 9000 lb car lift, and room for 6 vehicles, so needless to say we’re thinking about the future.
One great thing our team has going is that we already own an extra motor and transmission for the car, so we can do our heavy mods on the second motor as time and money become available, using the existing setup until we are ready to do the swap. Our race motor from last year tested at 251hp at the end of the season, so we have plenty of room to take our time with it. We are planning on building a motor that will win championships, plain and simple, so we want to take our time. Overall we are extremely excited for what the new year will bring, both in terms of challenges and rewards...thanks for keeping your eye on us!
The home page of Micro's Workshop Racing and Paul Stephan. Feel free to browse through our race videos and check out the schedule so you can come see us race in person!
