Factory Five Customer John George Wins at Palmer!
Factory Five customer John George has been busy racing this season. What makes his effort significant is that we are working with him on race testing a specific engine and suspension combination. John is working to dial-in the new Factory Five independent rear suspension combined with a Ford 5.0L Coyote engine. The front suspension of John’s car is standard Factory Five Challenge Series front.
This past weekend at Palmer Motorsports Park, John won both overall races, completely dominating the field of very fast cars and further establishing the track capabilities of the new Factory Five IRS. Here’s the race report from John George with videos and photos.
Factory Five Racing dominates Palmer Motorsports Park!
Pat McMahon, his dad Bill and I arrive at the track Thursday night, with me tired as I had to do a last minute clutch change earlier in the day due to a bad clutch disc. With me in the RV is Dad and Grandma. Doing well last year I had high hopes for this weekend as Palmer is all turns, set on top of a mountain, 190ft of elevation change, 14 turns, well suited for the Factory Five Challenge cars which do excellent in the twisty parts.
Saturday race day my family and friends stopped by, we had a great lunch and dinner and was great to see everyone. The day had me running both race and time trials. Race qualifying went well, placing me on pole and 1st overall, Adrian Wlostowski (Corvette) 2nd, Pat 3rd, Mark Petronis (Corvette) 4th, and Doug Winston (Corvette) 5th.
Adrian battling sound issues was late to grid forcing him to start last. The start of the race was good except for me mis-shifting from 2nd to 3rd, finally getting it in gear I set sail pulling away from the pact, then maintaining the gap. On the 2nd lap I see Pat stranded next to the wall, and he stayed there the whole race. An oil line popped off at the fitting causing him to spin and lightly tap the wall. Adrian was flying through the field, but was black flagged for being too loud still! The race finished under yellow due to some on track incidents.
Win #1!
After the race I started at the back of the Time Trial field and set a decent lap enough to secure the fastest time in TTU.
Win #2
Sunday first session out was time trial, cold air, perfect conditions to set a flyer, which I did the first lap out, 1:39.962
Track Record and Win #3
Sunday qualifying I repeat another flyer 1:39.999 placing me on pole again. Adrian close behind 1:40.461, Mark 1:44.3, Pat 1:44.9, and Alan Cohen (Cadillac CTSV) 1:48.5
I once again missed the shift between 2nd and 3rd at the start!! this time Adrian motor away with me hot in pursuit.
The race was intense, Adrian driving perfectly placing the car defensively in front of me so I cannot attempt a pass. I had to get creative, trying everything to get by him.. We had slight contact going into turn 4, no position change. We were both flying running a bunch of 1:41’s until a double yellow put everything on pause, we slowly following the pace car.
The incident was cleared up fast and with 2 laps left got the green. I had a good jump on Adrian but was unable to make the pass into turn 1, shadowing him the lap, then we get the 1 lap to go sign, and its on! I got a mean draft going into turn 1 and was on the right side of Adrian, broke as late as possible for the turn and as far right as possible, when we made contact. Adrian spun off track colliding with the tire wall. Not how I want to win, I pride myself on being a clean racer, and it sucks that race ended that way. Post race filling out body contact forms, talking to officials, providing incar video of the incident, talking to Adrian who was unhurt but the car needs drivers front clip and suspension fixed. The officials analyzed all the data, reviewed my video, and determined it was a racing incident, awarding me win #4.
Click here to view more photos from the weekend.
The car handled better then ever, no oil pressure issues, no tire cording issues, 4 wins and a track record is proof! I cannot thank Factory Five Racing’s Dave Smith and Jim Schenck enough for their constant support! I say this a lot and its true, these guys are the best!
Next race is August 26-28 at MidOhio Fri-Sun, then at Watkins Glen test Mon-Tues! I hope to test the car and get a great setup for Nationals end of September at Watkins Glen.
#End of John’s post.
Factory Five Racing
