Ford Mustangs crash out of World Challenge race at Laguna Seca

 

 After a disappointing tenth place finish at Miller Motorsports Park last month, Justin Bell and the rest of the Tiger Racing team were looking forward to this week’s SCCA World Challenge race at Laguna Seca in Monterey, CA. Bell is very familiar with the track, having previously won a Trans-Am race there, and he would be racing with 70 less pounds of reward weight. In addition, Tiger Racing would be debuting their second Mustang Boss 302S driven by Dane Moxlow. Bell hoped to increase his lead in the GTS points standings and Moxlow was aiming to get valuable seat time in his new ride and bring the car home safely.
Unfortunately neither of those things happened. By the end of the race both Tiger Racing Mustangs were beat up and bruised, and both were brought back to the pits on the back of tow trucks. Moxlow’s Mustang undoubtedly looked the better of the two, with the damage being mostly cosmetic. Bell’s Boss Mustang 302S, however, looked like it had been hit by a wrecking ball.
While watching the car being unloaded back in the pits, Bell told us what led to the crash:
   “At the restart we ended up with all these touring cars around us. I probably shouldn’t have been there, but it wasn’t really a problem. So coming down into [turn] 11 I didn’t want Cunningham and those guys to get away when I just had the chance to get close to them again. I was driving the heck out of the car even just to stay in fourth. I picked up a lot of rubber on my tires going down the inside, and when I went around the corner and put the gas on I had no grip. What hurt was that I got hit twice – I hit the wall and then I got hit by another car, so it was a double impact.”
We initially assumed that the damage to Bell’s Boss 302S was bad enough that it might be scrapped, but team owner Paul Brown told us that they would begin rebuilding the car as soon as they got it back to the shop. “We have to rebuild it,” he told us. “We have too much into the rest of the car.”
Below you can watch a video of the No. 50 Tiger Racing Mustang Boss 302S being unloaded off the tow truck and see detailed photos of both cars after their wrecks.

World’s fastest 2011+ Mustang V6 does the quarter mile in 11.20 sec @ 119 mph

Despite having a more-than-respectable 305 horsepower and 280 lb-ft torque from the factory, V6-powered Mustangs don’t get quite as much respect as their V8 siblings. The aftermarket especially doesn’t give much love to the Mustang V6, with companies mainly producing parts for the 5.0L V8, and performance shops generally use the Mustang GT as their base for project cars. Even so, we can always appreciate when someone takes the performance plunge on two less cylinders.
Out of all companies ProCharger has led the V6 charge, producing a supercharger kit that boosts the 3.7L mill to more than 475 horsepower. We’ve seen the ProCharger  system prove its worth more than once, with one owner netting the first 12 second 1/4 mile, and American Muscle taking that one step further with the first 2011+ Mustang V6 in the 11s.
Now a new company, Central Florida Motorsports, has arrived on the scene and is pushing the boundaries of V6 performance thanks again to ProCharger power. After smashing the record for a 2011+ Mustang V6 back in March with a run of 11.28 seconds @ 119 mph back in March, the company’s supercharged Yellow Blaze project car improved on that further last week with a 11.20 @ 119 mph. That’s fast for any Mustang, regardless of cylinder count.
You can watch a video of the impressive run at the drag strip in the video below, and can keep up to date on CFM’s Mustang V6 project over at the car’s official Facebook page.

Mustang Cobra Jet gets second straight win in Supercar Showdown

Indiana’s Bo Butner drove his supercharged Ford Mustang Cobra Jet to the winner’s circle at the American Drag Racing League’s Spring Drags III at Bristol Dragway in Tennessee to earn his second victory in two races in the Supercar Showdown class. Ford Motorsports has been a dominant force in the new series after producing a another one-two finish with Mustang Cobra Jets and earning top performance honors at both ADRL events. Butner, a past drag racing World Champion, met fellow Hoosier competitor Ray Skillman in the championship match. Skillman, a seventy year-old grandfather whose racing career covers more than fifty seasons, became a crowd favorite when he defeated the fastest driver in the series, Chris Holbrook, in the semi-finals. Butner secured the victory by a full car-length over Skillman while clocking his third straight eliminations run of 5.8 seconds over the eighth-mile distance.

In fact, Butner’s white Mustang clocked three consecutive winning efforts varying no more than nineteen thousandths of a second with a best performance of 5.86 seconds and a top speed of 117.39 miles per hour. The Floyds Knobs, Indiana, campaigner thrilled fans with huge wheelstanding launches from the white Cobra Jet sponsored by his family’s Butner’s Auto Sales.

Bo Butner Ford Mustang Cobra Jet

“This win means a lot to me and my crew but it’s really all about the Ford Motor Company,” said an elated Butner to fans during champion’s ceremonies at the renowned racing facility in the Tennessee mountains. “With the help of Brian Wolfe and Jesse Kershaw from Ford Motorsports, we made some changes in the gear ratios which produced even more performance than we had when we won the first race in Houston and accounted for those giant wheelstands the crowd loved so much. I know this car is fun to watch but I can promise you it’s a whole lot more fun to drive!”

Skillman, whose philanthropy is as well-known as his huge chain of Indianapolis auto dealerships, only qualified fifth in the field but was impressive through eliminations and shocked Butner with a sizeable reaction time advantage in the championship battle. “It was a thrill to get back to real side-by-side drag racing,” said Skillman. “I had more fun than I could ever explain. The ADRL treats us as professionals in this new class and the fans were just wonderful. This was our first Supercar Showdown event but we’ve already revised our schedule to compete in the majority of the series.”

Skillman drove the blue Mustang of his son, Bill, in the race but was joined in competition by his grandson, Drew, in a white Cobra Jet team car which qualified second in the field behind performance standout Holbrook, whose Michigan-based Varsity Ford-sponsored Mustang again led all qualifiers with the quickest and fastest run of the event by accelerating to 118.98 miles per hour in just 5.82 seconds. Drew Skillman lost in the semi-finals after the closest race in series’ history, clocking 5.87 seconds at 118.53 mph to Butner’s slightly quicker 5.86/117.39 with only 8.31 feet separating the two Fords at the finish line.

The next event in the 2012 Supercar Showdown series will be the American Drag Racing League’s Northeast Drags II presented by Penske at Maple Grove Raceway in Mohnton, Pennsylvania, on May 4-5.

Justin Pawlak wins Formula Drift

This weekend Justin Pawlak won the opening round of the Formula Drift season in Long Beach, CA for the second straight year, making it three years in a row that a Ford Mustang driver has won the event. Pawlak, who finished a close second in the overall standings last year, defeated 2009 champion Chris Forsberg in the quarter finals and eventually beat out 2011 season champion and Falken teammate Daijiro Yoshihara in the final round to win the event.

“Its just amazing to come back to Long Beach and put down another win 2 years in a row,” said Pawlak. “This is a great way to start the season and go for the championship. I have to give big thanks to the 2013 Mustang. What an amazing car and amazing platform and that is why it is back on top here in Long Beach.”

“Just being able to take one run at a time, one battle at a time and one round at a time is exactly where I wanted to be,” said Pawlak,  “I really wanted to stay focused on what was at hand and not getting ahead of myself and just staying with the game plan.  We didn’t do it at the last round last season and that cost us the title, but we are back here doing it. I felt great when I woke up today and when we cruised through the first couple of rounds I had a really good feeling in the car. In the Great 8 we went up against Chris Forsberg in his 370z and it was a really tight battle. It felt really good to pull that one off. In the finals I had the chance to take on Daijiro in the finals and get my revenge from last year. We had a couple of good runs with Dai and we came out number one.”

Pawlak’s teammate and fellow Mustang driver Vaughn Gittin Jr, who won the Long Beach event in 2010, qualified third, but was knocked out in the first round of competition. “Today didn’t go the way I pictured it would,” said Gittin Jr. “I made a really stupid mistake in my lead run in the Top 32 and I really tried hard to make up for it on my chase run. I didn’t get it done and that is drifting. Atlanta is a couple of weeks away and I am moving forward. There is no doubt I have the team in Falken and ASD and the car, my Mustang, to win a championship. I just have to work a couple of internal things out with myself and keep moving on. There are no excuses. I made a mistake and this is drifting.”

Round two of the Formula Drift championship is May 11-12 at Road Atlanta.

2012 Ford Mustang RTR by Performance Auto Sport

Back in 2010, Vaughn Gittin Jr. unveiled a very cool Ford Mustang RTR, and now he’s teamed up with Performance Auto Sport to come up with a track-based version of that very same car. This is not just an ordinary Mustang; it has already scored an impressive 1st place finish at the Virginia International Raceway, making for a total of four wins this season.

Performance Auto Sport is now a certified RTR installer because of their in-depth experience and expertise. They have announced that a very impressive street/track Mustang RTR Spec 2 package will be completed soon and customers will be able to install it on all models of the new 2013 Ford Mustang.

"Vaughn Gittin Jr. has his finger on the pulse of the Mustang community and his passion is infectious,’ says Mark LaMaskin, owner of Performance Auto Sport. "RTR knows what the enthusiast wants and gives it to them one hundred percent. The brand is always evolving and changing with the trends and needs of the Mustang enthusiast. That alone will help keep RTR relevant and successful for a long time to come."