What a week for BC Race Cars. We came into the first race weekend of the season full of excitement — but motorsport doesn’t always go according to plan. We started with five cars and finished with one.
Wednesday’s test day gave us zero laps, with cold temperatures and misty conditions keeping everyone off track.
Thursday was more productive. We ran our new club car alongside a TA car that was scheduled to compete over the weekend. Unfortunately, engine issues sidelined the TA car before the event even began. The new club car immediately showed promise, dipping into the 1:18s, but it was extremely difficult to drive. We knew there was work ahead.
Friday’s testing went much better. Despite a busy track, all of our cars showed strong potential. Rob Martin shook off the offseason dust in his TA2 Camaro, Leroy Micallef looked solid in the #40 BCR Mustang, and longtime BCR driver Misha Goikhberg jumped into our newest build to help us refine the setup.
By Saturday, we had transformed the car with major changes — revised rear geometry, front ride height adjustments, heave device tuning, and much more. Misha was immediately happier with the feedback he was getting from the car, and the results showed. He comfortably won Saturday’s race and laid down a stunning 1:16.8 at CTMP — an incredible achievement for a low-budget car running on 15-inch stock car tires. With more adjustments planned for Sunday, we were excited to see what was possible.
Unfortunately, a very cold track led to a first-lap crash on Sunday, ending our weekend with that car.
Rob Martin’s tough luck continued with an unexpected engine failure. Once we found the smashed #6 spark plug, there was nothing left to do but park another car.
That left Leroy Micallef as our final shot at salvaging the weekend. After some honest coaching, he came out determined to win in the new GTU class — and drove exceptionally well. But extremely favorable conditions worked against us, as he broke out by just 0.1 and 0.2 seconds in Sunday’s races. The penalty was a one-lap deduction, dropping him off the podium.
Now the challenge is figuring out how to slow him down.
Next stop: Shannonville at the end of the month.
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