National Ad Campaign for Fireball Graphix

Messenger Racing is proud to announce that Jay and his Van Diemen Sports 2000 are going to be featured in a new national ad campaign for Fireball Graphix. The crew at Fireball helped Jay design the "look" of the Van Diemen and it has certaily caught a lot of attention everywhere it has raced. The ad will be featured in Grassroots Motorsports magazine and website.

MX-1 has successful test at Sandia

Sandia Test Report 9/1/08

The car drove well. I was running a temporary seat and having to work a lot on shifting technique. The paddle shift system will be installed over the winter but I wanted a solid mistake proof system for initial testing so we are running a converted FC shifter with rods similar to a shifter kart. Being 6'2" and having long arms, it is a bit awkward but I am adapting.

You will also note the car still has the FC wing instead of the wide Dauntless wing that is sitting in my living room - don't ask my wife about it - I told her it was her Christmas present. The MX-1 ride height was high for this first test so that nothing was tore up until we figured out the roll and dive angles of the bodywork. Everything cleared easily so it can be lowered significantly. In addition, I had the outboard edges of the tunnel floors raked upward slightly and they will be lowered down to closer to flat. The front to rear rake will most likely be increased as I was running stock FC rake which was our baseline setup. BTW, that baseline setup was good enough for 6th in FC at the runoffs in 2006 for my donor 98 Tatuus. We also have not gone through the range of attack settings for the front wing. Just set it at a good middle of the road setting and drove the you-know-what out of the car to see what fell off! So far - nothing - - - - - - - - - - - big sigh of relief!

Now the car will spend some time on the setup pad before we take it apart again. This time, it will get the GDRE runoffs motor, carbon bodywork and then back to Sandia in late September for the pre-runoffs test. Of course having the car debut at the Runoffs was not the plan but assembling a car by yourself while still keeping a day job and a marriage causes delays. Anyway, I have conservative plans for the car at the Runoffs. But that being said, I will be very dissapointed if they don't know we were there by the end of the day. I am a driver first and going fast is the only reason the car was built - well besides keeping my children from inheriting all my money.

Check out this video from the test:

MX-1 Dauntless sports racer bodywork update

Does it say something about the how busy we are if I post an April race report in August?

Anyway, the project is coming along. The DSR/CSR homologation certificate for the MX-1 Dauntless is now in hand. I had the car dual homologated so it is actually homologated in FB, DSR and CSR!

The tunnel floors, front fenders, side pods and rear fenders are all mounted and I am working on radiator tunnels and plumbing for the cooling system. The rear wing, rear tunnel extensions, rear bodywork extension and front fender pontoons are still to be delivered. All of these body parts are in fiberglass and as each piece is fine tuned we are ordering up a duplicate set of carbon bits from Dauntless. The air scoop in the photo has been removed so the engine cover is a hacked up version of the FC unit and once finalized will be moulded and created in Carbon. But, that may not happen until after the Runoffs.

The header and exhaust are a problem due to the tunnel height but I have high hopes that Mike Devins and Clark Lincoln's new project will help me out there. George Dean is prepping a full race 08 GSXR for me but I will continue to run my 07 GDRE motor for testing. The Runoffs motor will be wetsumped while my initial motor is drysumped. I am entered for the HPT Labor Day race but it will be close and assuming I make it, will really be nothing more than a very public test drive.

Ignore the dust in the photos, I live in west Texas and not only has it been over 100 degrees for several days, the wind occaisionally blows!

JM

MX-1 F1000 debut

In April we finally got to try this new beast out on the race track. I have homologated the car with SCCA as both an Formula B (or Formula 1000 if you prefer) version which is shown in the picture above and the D Sports Racing version with the full ground effects bodywork. This outing was in the formula car version. The Sports Racer bodywork continues to be developed and will be tested later in the year.

I took the car to Pueblo Motorsports Park in Colorado. Pueblo is a track where I have good experience. The first order of the day was to get the SCCA technical inspectors to look over our creation and decide if it was suitable for a log book and tech sticker. This is usually a routine process but always requires a more detailed inspection when a new design is involved. Luckily, or maybe by design, we received nothing but praise for the MX-1 and the level of interest by all onlookers was very rewarding after all the long hours of work.

Our goal for the weekend was to prove the MX-1's reliability and general characteristics on Saturday during the first race. I planned on running the car at about 80% during the Saturday events. On Sunday I would run the car at a more aggressive 95% while still trying to be cautious and observant of any problems that might crop up.

The SCCA Double National Race weekend saw one of the new Speads FB cars also entered. This car has been run for a couple of sesaons, had home track advantage, and was driven by a very competent driver, so I knew it would give us a good benchmark for our performance. The race went well with the Speads driver leading the race but finally dropping out due to a battery failure. I ran the full distance at a conservative pace and was rewarded with the 1st place trophy. My lap times were slow but I was very excited about the performance of the car.

On Sunday we would run the second national race and I was able to out qualify the Speads while he continued to pursue an electrical gremlin. He got it fixed for the race and we had a good race. I knew he would be coming hard so I aired out the MX-1 for several laps to see what she would do. Here is a photo from the race:



Was I ever impressed by the GDRE GSXR power. I decided to go with George Dean because of his willingness to work with me and his long history of producing big time power in these motors. We weren't lacking for straightline speed. And the car had great pull out of the turns. This was my first experience with the Lee Williams designed WRE differential. The car never had wheel spin. I was amazed!
Lee custom manufactured the diff for the MX-1 which allowed us to mount the sprocket closer to the centerline of the car and didn't require us to make suspension geometry compromises like some of the other designs.

Anyway, back to the race.......I was never threatened by the Speads but eventually all good things come to an end and we lost the drive chain while leading the race. I later found that an aluminum bushing we were using as a spacer was too soft and had ground down allowing some sideways slop on the sprocket and most likely causing the chain to jump off. But once we got the car back and decided the damage was minimal we were cheered up by the official results which showed we had obtained a fastest lap on Sunday which was within a few tenths of the Speads' fastest lap of the weekend. When I looked at the lap times, considered how much more I could have pushed the car, reminded myself that we didn't even have time to put the diffuser on the car and were running a very restrictive muffler - I was pleased.

Now the car goes home, will be stripped of the formula car bodywork and the long process of converting to the DSR full ground effects bodywork with tunnels, massive wings and lots of carbon fiber begins.

Stay tuned for updates!

JM

Messenger MX1 Flies

I know it has been a long time since I published any updates. Working a full time job and building racecars full time doesn't leave much time for typing!

Here is the latest:
The Tatuus 98 RC donor chassis with the Messenger conversion has now been accepted for SCCA competition and is homologated as a Messenger MX1.

The MX1 made its first test runs over the last 3weeks at an undisclosed top secret, Area 51 location!

The car ran well, it is scary fast! I came home with a list of small things to change and went back out last weekend for some high speed runs. This was the first time we had the motor to its maximum 13,000 rpm. Man that George Dean GSXr 1000 screams at full song. I have posted a quick video on youtube. You can check it out at:



You will notice that the sidepods, tail section, wings and diffuser are not on the car for the test. Our next step is to finish mounting those items and take the MX1 to a real race track for some serious laps. The plan is to make a series of reliability runs at Motorsports Ranch, Cresson, Texas in the next 30 days.


Looking for a second driver and F1000 Prototype plans:
While I am building the car to ultimately become a D Sports Racer, it will be first tested as a F1000 car and may even run a national or two as a F1000 car to help those class participation numbers. Next year I hope to run in both classes. I have found a second donor chassis and hope to soon start construction on the second MX1 which will be a purpose built F1000 car! I am looking for a second driver who is interested in helping with the development of these prototype MX1 chassis. If you have interest in developing one of these cars with a goal of top level national and Runoffs competition, contact me immediately.

Hopefully the main work on the car is over and now we can begin the fun stuff: testing, bodywork modifications, more testing and finally RACING!

Thanks to everyone for your interest.

JM

November Sports Racer Build Update

As you can see from these photos the Messenger SR is finally beginning to look like a car again. Mike and Cecil at PDG have been hitting it hard - there is just a lot to do in order to build one of these things right!
Here is a photo showing the now completed engine bay and rear subframe. The next step is the final mounting of the WRD differential. Once everything is assembled Mike will do a rigidity test and decide what, if any, additional braces will be added. If you look closely you will see the intricate detail necessary to retain the unique geometry when mounting to the subframe assembly.

And, of course, the other bits list keeps everyone busy. Shifter linkage, dry sump tank, header, sprocket dimensions for our tracks. But the biggest issue is what color to anodize the whole mess! Don't call me shallow...................

Here is a photo of one of the Dauntless undertray/diffuser assemblies. You can see the splice in this piece which represents how much larger we are able to make the exit area over a standard Stohr application. We believe that this additional tunnel area is one of the big advantages to a wider and longer Tatuus donor chassis. Once this piece is test fitted the final molds will be made from it and the carbon fiber set will be produced.

2007 Runoffs Report - 5th Place in Sports 2000!

Only 4 more years to go.......................or at least that is what one of my "buddies"pointed out. I finished 6th at the runoffs in 2006 and 5th this year so only 4 more years until an overall win!

Our Runoffs started one week before the race when Chris Goebel, Mike Messenger, Wayne Panter and myself made the 10 1/2 hour drive to Heartland Park Topeka. Chris is new to my team this year. He has autocrossed with our local club, and his dad has been involved with the local club for many years. Chris just finished college and is a car nut. He made every event we ran with the Lola this year and worked as lead mechanic on the car. Mike Messenger, my older brother, has been with me since it all started in 1980. Recently his job has kept him from making many races, and it was good to get him back involved with the program. He, like Chris, is a great all around mechanic, supporter, gofer and he is very patient with me! Lastly, my dear friend Wayne Panter made the trip again. Wayne is in his 80's and still working harder than anyone else on the team. Wayne and I have probably traveled 50,000 miles together since the mid 90's. He has made just about every race I have run in that time from the Pro Sports 2000 races in Daytona, Mid Ohio, Sears Point, Irwindale and many others to the Legends car races, shifter kart races, stock car races and anything else I could dream up to drive. Wayne worked as a race promoter for Al Sweeney of National Speedways in the 50's and 60's taking the up and coming young drivers like Bobby and Al Unser to state fairgrounds for midget car shows. He lives and breathes racing although he still has doubts why any racecar would ever need fenders, roll hoops or wings, but that is another story.

We arrived Satuday, found our paddock, made friends with the neighbors (a critical step in the week long stay at the race track) and started preparing for the Sunday test day. I knew the test day would be very crowded on track and that turned out to be the case. I had some learning to do even though I had driven on HPT the previous year. The track had been modified to increase the speeds on the front and back sections which significantly changed the characteristics of the track.

The new turns were exciting and it only took me about 4 laps before I was bouncing across the grass in the back straight at over 100 mph in search of the all important "proper turn in point"! But, once that was out of my system we ran fine - the only problem was the lap times were slow due to traffic and I had no real idea what a fast lap with no traffic would yield.

Qualifying Monday morning was rained out and so we waited until Tuesday to see where we stood versus the big boys that had come from both coasts loaded for bear this year. At the end of Tuesday qualifying, I was in 8th position. Wednesday's qualifying was interrupted by a black flag due to a couple of cars coming together so I only ran 4 laps and none of them were clean. A few people did get one flying lap but luckily I was able to stay in 8th position going into the final day of qualifying. One fun thing that happened Wednesday being featured in the Speed Channel TV shoot. This was the second year in a row I have been featured and is a great way to repay the sponsors that have helped me.





Here is a photo while I was "posing":





As I looked at my Pi data system after these two days of qualifying, I was able to see from the predictive lap summary that the car was readily able to run times that would qualify us in the top 5 up to that point. With that bit of news in hand, I was confident going into the last day of qualifying. The weather was ideal. I was able to get 4 clean laps in a row just when I needed them and was able to run a time equal to 3rd on Wednesday's grid. The only problem was everyone else went faster too! By the time it was all said and done, I had qualified 7th at a 1:35.550. By comparison, 3rd on the grid was a 1:35.147! Many people commented that this was one of the closest Sports 2000 fields the Runoffs had seen in many years. This was evidenced by the fact that 3rd through 11th on the grid were all qualified within 1 second of each other.

I had come to the runoffs with two goals: qualify in the first third of the field and finish in the top 5. Depending on how you do the math I was close or one short of goal 1. Goal 2 would be determined on Friday.

Race day dawned with pleasant but cool weather. The car was ready and so was I. This sitting around for a week to run one race really drains me, and I have to work to keep my energy level and mental game sharp. I have a routine that helps me get ready for the race. Once I am strapped in and sitting on the grid, I pray for peace, I thank God for the blessings in my life, I pray for protection for the other competitors and for a clear focused mind. It works! We pulled out for the pace laps and I was ready to rock and roll!







On the grid between Michael Scully and Bart Wolf:










Mike and Chris standing by as I go through my pre-race routine:

The pace lap showed us our first surprise. A morning warm up session had resulted in a major oil down of the track from turn 2 through turn 4. The track was covered with a fine white silt that was a different kind of oil dry than I had seen before. The oil seemed gone, but the fine dust was everywhere. I was surprised they started the race, but with TV coverage these big events get where there is little scheduling flexibility.

Anyway, at the start - as you can see in the previously posted lap one video - I stayed close enough to not leave a gap but far enough back to keep from getting caught in some other idiots screw up (yes all racers are idiots on the first lap of the national championship race). The first two turns were a dancing act because Bart Wolf didn't get the memo about letting me lead and we went through those two high speed turns two abreast. (BTW, Thanks Bart for running me clean through these turns - a great guy on and off the track.) The real surprise was when we hit the speedy dry. My camera on the car was mounted about 8 inches above my eye level and made things look easy compared to what I was actually seeing. ZERO visibility on the straight and the same again in turn three except for the dark rear corner of Michael Scully's Swift. Thankfully, he kept his foot in it since I wasn't lifting.

Somewhere in all that, I got past Bart and was able to settle into a normal racing line for turn 3-4 complex. By turn 6 which starts the back straight, I had caught Scully and was having to brake early to avoid hitting him. By the end of the back straight I was able to pull by and pass him easily. The next goal was Hardyman who would take a few laps to run down. If you haven't watched the video, do so, the link is in the post prior to this one, it says it all a lot better than I can - but I can assure you it was very intense!

After lap one the race settled into a battle of keeping my head down and running each lap better than the last. It took me about 6-7 laps to get a really good run on Hardyman, and I was able to pass him entering the fast turn 3. From this point on - I expected to pull away from Mark - but like Bart earlier - he didn't get the memo. He hounded me every corner for the rest of the race. I was faster in the high speed sections and he was quicker in the low speed sections. He raced me as cleanly as I have ever been raced. He is another one of the great folks in Sports 2000. When the checkered flag dropped I was still holding onto 5th with two or three cars within striking distance and no opportunity to relax. I was pumped!

Now its time to celebrate - right?

No! I come into the pits only to hear that there is a dispute between the leaders about body contact on the last lap. I talked to some pretty upset people. I did learn last year to get my cell phone to a crew member so I could call my wife, Sally, immediately. She was excited and so was her junior high class. She was wearing her Messenger Racing T-Shirt that day in school! I listend to their congratulations and then told her students to get back to work!

The podium ceremony was subdued, but one bright moment was Mark Mercer thanking God for the day and the race - a refreshing jolt of reality in the sometimes selfish, me-centered world of motorsports. Then to impound. No problem right? Wrong - 8 hours later we're finally released. The cars weren't the problem, but the last lap rough driving was, and they held everyone of the top 6 until all of the courts could decide the issues. In the end, they let it stand as it did on the track - I haven't talked to a person that saw the incident yet that agrees with that call. I didn't see it, and therefore have not taken a side on the issue.

Sitting in impound with Michael Bautz - 4th and Mark Hardyman - 6th place finisher:

All in all - it was one of the best runs of my life. I know there was more speed to be found. A test day with less traffic would have allowed us to get to that level before the race, but that wasn't possible. At least not and keep the major sponsor happy (my employer who provides my paycheck).

I want to thank the other sponsors and helpers for the successful season. Bruce and Tim at Hoosier Tires, Bell Racing, Jim at Continental Motorsports, Curtis Farley Engines, Mark Mercer for the shocks and other Lola whizzy things, and all my buddies who come by every year at the runoffs and work on my motivation: Peter Agnell, Dan Taylor, Craig Mendenhall, Terry Johnson, Rodney Whitney, Chris Goebel, Mike Messenger and Wayne Panter. I am sure there are others, including many of the S2 community. Two I should mention who couldn't be there were Josh Shelburne and Jeff Maddox. Both were with me last year, and both couldn't be this year. Josh is in Africa touching lives and making a difference working with Aids orphans, and Jeff has spent the last year working on the Motorsports Simulators that are being marketed to many of the big name pro racing teams.

The racing may make it fun, but the people make it worth while!

This may be my last Sports 2000 race. The car is sold and I am building the DSR. I have been in Sports 2000 since 1993 and it is a tough change. I have talked to some people about making an appearance in Sports 2000 next year - it seems some people think I have a shot at a podium and are willing to help me get there! But, time and God will decide those things.

Thanks to everyone.

Jay Messenger
Muleshoe Texas USA