MidWest Festival: Throwing Punches With the Big Guys

MWF is always a little different.

The GRIDLIFE “Super Bowl” brings together some of the strongest competition of the season, and this year it came at a good time. Coming off a P1 and a track record at Road Atlanta, confidence in the FRS was high heading into Gingerman Raceway.

Gingerman is a track that's easy to figure out but hard to master. That makes Club TR exactly what it has become known for, a fight from the first lap of the weekend to the last.

The expectation coming into the weekend was simple: the FRS had a real shot at winning, and at the very least, a podium was within reach.

The car was feeling good.

The setup was dialed in.

And after the result at Road Atlanta, there was plenty of reason to believe the FRS belonged in the fight.

Early sessions only reinforced that feeling.

The car was working well, and there was still room to fine-tune things. One of the biggest discoveries of the weekend involved the Delta ABS unit and how much the car's grip could change with the adjustment.

There was just one problem.

The adjustment knob wasn't exactly where it needed to be.

With the harness tightened down and the driver strapped into the seat, reaching forward to make the adjustment was difficult. By the end of the weekend, the decision had already been made to move the knob somewhere it could be reached much more easily.

It's a small detail, but that's what Club TR racing is about. The cars are constantly being optimized, and the smallest changes can make a difference when the field is separated by thousandths of a second.

The FRS was also benefiting from the work happening behind the scenes.

Myles at Race Comp Engineering had been instrumental in getting the suspension dialed in, while Graham at Boosted Performance had the car running strong. The result was a car with plenty of grip and a setup that was giving the driver confidence.

The more laps went down, the more comfortable the FRS felt.

And that's exactly where it needed to be.

Club TR doesn't give anyone much room to relax.

The competition is there from the beginning of the weekend, with fast drivers constantly looking for another tenth and finding ways to optimize their cars. Staying at the front requires pushing the entire time.

That's part of what makes the class so much fun.

Photo by Kim Bailey

The Podium Sprint

The weather threatened to add another variable to the weekend.

Thursday brought a major storm, but conditions settled down afterward. The Podium Sprint looked like it might be wet, but by the time the cars went out, the track was in good shape.

Then things got complicated.

The leader spun in front of the FRS, bringing out a yellow flag and ruining the lap. An additional lap could be requested after the checkered flag, but the process didn't unfold as expected.

When the car came in, the driver was told the additional lap had already been given.

Back on track, the expectation was that the checkered flag would come after what should have been the third lap.

It didn't.

For a driver trying to stay completely focused on a session where every fraction of a second matters, that uncertainty was enough to become a distraction.

Looking back, it's one of the things that needs to improve.

Not the driving.

The focus.

Because once something unexpected happens, it's easy to let it bleed into the rest of the session.

And in Club TR, there isn't much room for that.

The driver doesn't know what's happening around the track unless he sees it. From inside the car, the focus is on the next corner, the next braking zone and the next lap.

By the time the checkered flag finally fell, the biggest feeling wasn't celebration.

It was relief.

That particular kind of relief that comes when a stressful session is finally over.

The result was P2.

On paper, that's a great result.

In Club TR, it absolutely is.

But this one felt different.

There was controversy surrounding how some of the situations during the Sprint were handled, and that left the second-place finish feeling a little less satisfying than it should have.

The frustrating part wasn't simply finishing second.

It was knowing how close the field was and how little separated the top positions.

A few thousandths, or a few hundredths of a second, can be the difference between standing on the top step and standing somewhere else on the podium.

And there was a simple truth underneath all of it.

If the FRS had been just a little faster, there wouldn't have been anything else to talk about.

One More Lap

The final lap also brought another change to the record books.

The FRS's lap record was gone.

And surprisingly, that wasn't necessarily a bad thing.

Seeing lap records fall is part of what makes the competition fun. The front-wheel-drive cars still hold the fastest overall times, but the rear-wheel-drive cars are steadily closing the gap.

That's exactly what competition is supposed to do.

Of course, there is always that thought:

Just give me one more lap.

Time attack has a way of doing that.

There is always another tenth hiding somewhere. Another corner that could have been cleaner. Another braking point that could have been just a little later.

Everyone thinks the next lap might be the one.

Throwing Punches With the Big Guys

Despite the frustration surrounding the Podium Sprint, the bigger takeaway from MWF was a positive one.

The FRS is no longer simply hanging around the podium because someone else isn't there.

It's fighting for those positions.

The car is up there throwing punches with the big guys now.

That's an important shift.

The results are starting to show consistency.

Road Atlanta: P1 with a track record.

MWF: P2.

And the pace is there to fight for the top step.

For a class where the front of the field can be separated by mere thousandths or hundredths of a second, simply getting onto the podium is an accomplishment.

Finishing second at MWF was no different.

The result may not have been the one the team wanted, but the car gave the driver everything he asked for.

The FRS is working.

The setup is working.

And right now, the confidence in the car is higher than it's ever been.

There was also another accomplishment that mattered just as much as the result: the car finished the weekend, rolled back into the trailer, and made the trip home without a problem.

Sometimes that's a victory in itself.

Still Learning

If there was one thing MWF made clear, it's that the car isn't the only thing that continues to evolve.

There is still work to do behind the wheel.

Staying focused when things don't go exactly according to plan is part of racing. You can't control what happens around you. You can control how you respond to it.

And in a class this competitive, the goal is to eliminate every possible distraction and make sure the next lap is better than the last one.

MWF showed that the FRS has earned its place at the front of Club TR.

The team isn't showing up hoping to sneak onto the podium anymore.

They're showing up expecting to fight for it.

And that's a pretty significant difference.

The weather may have been wild on Thursday. The Podium Sprint may have been stressful. The final result may have left the team wanting more.

But when the trailer doors closed and the car headed home, there was still plenty to feel good about.

P2 at MWF.

Not the result we came looking for.

But another podium against one of the strongest fields of the season, and another reminder that the FRS is now throwing punches with the big guys.