Chapter 1 Once upon a time, an innocent little sports car discovered America. He could sense the open road and knew life was going to be totally sweet. “Bring on the curves baby–this kid was born to run!” It was 1990 and, alas, this fairytale life just wasn’t meant to be. His first owner was a 19-year-old…
Category: labRat
Less is more…
…more or less. In motorsports, the rules must change in order to fine tune the competitive atmosphere and make sure everyone gets a fair chance at the glory that is winning. If change turns against you it might feel like a cold, cruel, sideways rain on your team’s fantasy-of-winning parade. At Autosport Labs it feels like… another work party! Thanks…
Chasing in the dark
Doubt, the cold Halloween night air, and my balaclava diffusing every exhalation were resulting in the persistent fogging of my glasses (why hadn’t I thought of this?). I’m the second driver of the Autosport Lab Rats Team that’s about to be sacrificed to the night during the inaugural Chumpcar race at Portland International Raceway. The…
Memories of ChumpCar: Becoming a Racer’s Wife
When trying new things, friends are always armed with advice on whether you should go for it or not. There are also situations when people advise you when to be strong and when to be afraid. When to jump and when to stay on the ledge. And most often such advice are reflections of the…
A 24 hour LabRat!
We Finished! Battle-hardened LabRat, happy team After months of preparation we completed the inaugural ChumpCar Halloween 24 hour endurance race at Portland International Raceway! A fast and durable little LabRat was assembled by our crack team of Miata-owning autocrossers. In the weeks leading up to the race we were faced with the disappointment of having…
Welcome to ChumpCar!
Friday After months of blood, sweat, tears, and plenty of rivets, one tech inspection could make or break our weekend. Would they declare that the LabRat is a cheater car and give us 500 penalty laps? Would we have spent all this time building a car just for a “nice” weekend at the raceway, watching?…