Gates311 / AMS Sponsored Evo X – Etown Race Report

Event: Redline Time Attack! E-Town – August 29th-30, 2009

On August 30th, 2009, Ryan Gates wins Redlines Modified Class for the 4th consecutive time! This latest win in Englishtown, NJ at Old Bridge Raceway for Round 6 of the Redline Time Attack! Series makes Ryan 5 for 5 in 2009 in Modified Class.

After Ryans win at CMP a few weeks earlier, Ryan and the guys from AMS Performance went to work finally fitting the car with proper aero. Evasive Motorsports sent out a 1700mm Voltex Type V wing to get some much needed downforce in the rear of the car. Justin from AMS made a custom chassis mount for the Voltex wing to increase its effectiveness. To compliment the new Voltex wing in the rear, a custom 3D front splitter made by AMS Performance was fitted to the car. Heading to E-Town, we knew the track was small and tight so unfortunately our newfound downforce wouldnt be a large factor but it was important to get it on the car and make sure things worked well together.

The weather for Saturday practice wasnt ideal, it was a complete washout in the morning. The weather cleared up in the later part of the day but the track was still very wet. Ryan headed out for a session to see the track and get a feel for how things would play out with the car setup. Everything went as planned, the car ran incredibly.

Saturday practice times didnt provide any useful information about the competition so we headed into Sunday focused on our own program. With the track being so bumpy, we decided against running the brand new front splitter. It sits incredibly low and one wrong bump could destroy the brand new part. With that change and a small adjustment to the JRZ shocks, we were ready for Sundays Time Attack.

Once Sundays Practice times were posted, Ryan qualified 1st with a 1:10.6. The track was drying out and times were getting quicker. As always, Ryan played it safe in practice posting a safe laptime to get things set.

In the 1st Time Attack session, Ryan began to push the car harder now that the track was completely dry. In doing so, Ryan noticed that without the front splitter on the car, it was prone to understeer with the large Voltex wing. Even with the issue, Ryan posted a laptime of 1:09.3, the only Modified class car under the 1:10 barrier and more than two seconds ahead of the nearest competition. Ryan and the AMS Team discussed a few options to reduce the understeer and ultimately decided to set the wing to a much flatter position and make a Toe adjustment in the rear of the car.

The changes made all the difference, the car performed much better and Ryan was confident in the setup. Ryan posted a 1:09.1 laptime in the 2nd Time Attack session, faster than earlier even with higher track temps and a transmission issue. The laptime was fast enough to win the Modified AWD class, the Overall Modified Class Championship and was even the 2nd fastest time of the day, beating out all other Unlimited class cars besides AMS own T/A X.

Our next race is finally back out West, well be at Spring Mountain Motorsports Ranch in Pahrump, NV for Round 7 of the Redline Time Attack! Series on September 25th-26th. Well be doing more testing with the car before Spring Mountain race in hopes to perfect the chassis setup with the new aero even further. There will be some very strong competition out West and were looking forward to the challenge! Look for another exciting performance from Ryan at Round 7 of the Redline Time Attack! Series in Nevada.

Ryan Gates would like to thank his sponsors for their incredible support in 2009:

AMS Performance
Nitto Tires
K&N Filters
JRZ Suspension
etnies
Carbonetic
Girodisc
Seibon Carbon
Forced Performance
Double Down Motorsports
Evasive Motorsports
Voltex

www.Gates311.com

Congrats to everyone out there. Lots of very fast cars showed up, which I wasn’t expecting at this event. Also, It was nice meeting Chad from CBRD…your car looks awesome and I can’t wait to see it run balls out soon