3 Races, 3 Wins, 1 Lap Record: John George Wins at VIR March Madness!

[Dave Smith]

Factory Five Challenge Series driver John George won impressively at the Virginia International Raceway March Madness 3-hour endurance race! Almost as impressively, John turned in a fast lap time of 2:05.265! That is a SICK fast time for a 320 HP Factory Five Challenge Car.

Race report from John George:

The 2015 race season started with VIR March 20-22 in the NASA MidAtlantic region. Friday test/tune, 3hr Enduro, Sat/Sun sprint races sets the stage for great racing. Factory Five drivers included John George, Paul Arnold, Roger Fusse, Paul Kaiser, and John Kabacinski driving his flat black LS3 powered GTM. Factory Five customer Austin Nally brought his bright red FFR Challenge car with a massive engine and big brakes and worked the weekend as NASA instructor.

Friday’s test/tune saw wet track conditions early on drying in the afternoon. The test/tune sessions were uneventful with drivers learning the track and making sure their winter modifications were without issue.

John George participated in the 3 hour enduro with qualifying around lunchtime on a damp track setting the fastest time securing pole for the start of the race. Helping John fuel was John K, Paul A, and Roger were setup in the pits as the green flag dropped starting the enduro. John’s strategy was to have scheduled to come in every 1 hour taking 15 gallons of fuel. Leading the race early on, he settled into a comfortable pace running 2:06-7’s until the first pit stop. Ratchet Head Racing were running 2 BMW ES cars going for the overall win, and they were leading after John’s first pit stop. He turned up the pace running them down battling for a number of laps eventually passing them on track and improving his fast lap to a 2:05.3. The second pit stop was a repeat of the first, with John’s black and orange Factory Five Challenge Car chasing down the BMWs making for some excellent racing. John was able to win the checkered flag in a very close 3 hour race! John started on the pole and won the race overall as well as the EO class, not bad at all!

[Dave Smith]

Saturday, Paul Kaiser arrived early at the track opting out of running the Friday test day and was lucky enough to find a parking space for his monster 48ft trailer across from our paddock area. Qualifying for Saturday’s race saw John on pole, followed by Paul Kaiser, Roger, and Paul Arnold who had transponder issues showing no time (later to be diagnosed as a bad ground!). The start of the race was fierce with Paul Kaiser shadowing John through the early traffic but unfortunately his engine was not up to par forcing him to retire early from the race. John George won the Saturday race, Paul Arnold and Roger finished 2nd and 3rd with Pauk Kaiser 4th.



Sunday morning qualifying again saw John George on the pole, but this time setting a new lap record of 2:05.265 for Challenge Series cars at VIR.

A great weekend had by all, weather was perfect, 70 degrees during the day, and cool 50-60’s in the morning. The next event is on May 1-3 at VIR and will see more FFR Challenge Cars getting practice time in for NASA Nationals held at VIR beginning of September.


Factory Five Challenge Series racer enjoys the mild weather before race time.


Five Factory Five racers showed up to race. The #5 car from Paul Arnold above.


John Kabacinski raced his LS-powered flat black GTM.


Factory Five Challenge Series racer Roger Fusse ran the #7, er… #17 Challenge Car.

[johngeorge]

Dave, my car makes 320hp at the wheels

[Dave Smith]

Thanks for the correction John. BTW: RESPECT! Great driving. That is a very serious time for VIR in any car, but jeeez! 2:05!! Big congrats on the win man.

[dallas_]

Very impressive indeed!!

[Garry Bopp]

Well done, John!

Garry

[65 Cobra Dude]

Great report Dave and awesome job John!

Henry

[kabacj]

One thing to point out. John George drove that blistering pace for three hours. It was so much fun to watch him out there running down the leaders when they were ahead because they had not pitted yet and running away when they were on the same pit sequence.

Second place had a dry break dump can and we had normal gas cans and a funnel. John spotted second place a few mins with the time it took us to fill the car.

In the closing stint John made up the time lost in the pits for the win. It was great to watch.

[metalmaker12]

So when's the 818R running at VIR

[FFR-ADV]

Well Done!!!

[D2W]

So when's the 818R running at VIR

I think the bigger question is why doesn't John run an 818

[Dave Smith]

The reason is the Challenge Series. If we had a series for the 818 I have no doubt John would be at the head of the pack. The 818R is alot faster than the Challenge car. John ran a 2:04 in warm-up in the 818R. We've run 56 sec at Lime rock and Challenge cars are closer to a minute. It's weight, aero, and chassis. The Challenge cars have been on the track racing in literally 1000's of hours since 2000!! The 818 will earn it's stripes on the track. As soon as this winter passes we'll have the 818R back out and running fast. Lastly, the reason John runs with our guys often is that they work well together and John gives very good feedback to the engineers. The boys were down at NCCAR all day yesterday testing a new design with John and the results were very exciting. We'll announce them at Open House.

[mhoward1]

Hmmm, I am not far from NCCAR at all, that would have been a fun watch. As far as the 818R, it should fit nicely in ST2/3.

[Dave Smith]

We rented the track for the day and brought down 2 cars for track testing. Really happy with the results and I'm really stoked to pull the wraps off this work. Time enough for that and soon for sure. Still, it bears worth mentioning that at every turn and push forward of our company evolution there seems to be customers helping along the way. John George is emblematic of the entire FFR community and so much richness and passion for what we do. I could write a book about real collaboration between a company and customers, but the truth is we're too busy doing it and living it to write about it! There will be a time for all that. Right now it is sufficient enough to recognize some impressive talent. John George and the Challenge Series drivers at VIR last weekend are exceptional in that what they do benefits the company and entire community… and watching the driving helps you realize how far these cars can be taken when a talented driver at the helm.

[avgjoe]

Good Stuff! You and Kaiser remind me of Cates and Elam 10 years ago.

What happened to the RP Purple suit? Nobody rides for free?

[metalmaker12]

Put a comparable weighted LS in the 818 and call it a day

[R Thomas]

John has posted a lot of in car video on his site. Take the time to check it out if you want to get the feel of racing your Cobra with out actually being on track. I happened to be at VIR for the Saturday race it was a good battle til Paul had to retire. What amazed me most is John's consistency, he has a great car, but he has far from the best of everything in it. More than anything its his driving that gets the wins, he is an awesome driver. Also he has some videos of the 818 test runs there as well.

[johngeorge]

wow thanks all for the compliments Im flattered by it all, I just drive..

Joe, was too lazy to change to it, had the old blue for the enduro and kept running it all weekend. Dont worry you'll see Barney soon.