AMS/Nos Energy Drink Super Lap Battle Race Report

November 11, 2009
Buttonwillow Raceway, CA

After attending last week’s SEMA Show in Las Vegas, AMS Performance and the AMS/NOS Energy Drink Time Attack EVO X made its way further west to the Superlap Battle Finals at Buttonwillow Raceway.

A number of mishaps early on prevented the team from completing a strong finish at the event. During the practice session, the car experienced a power steering failure. The team scrambled to fix the problem before the race. Luckily Mike from Etnies Shoes allowed the team to borrow the hard power steering line needed from his personal EVO X.

With the AMS/NOS Energy Drink EVO X back up and running driver Paul Gerrard managed to complete the first session of the Superlap Battle Finals with a time of 1:46.829. During that session another power steering line burst causing a fire in the engine bay. The fire suppression system on the AMS/NOS Energy car extinguished most of the fire, but some was still evident near the undercarriage where the nozzles couldn’t reach.

Paul managed to get to the Marshall station where he quickly got out of the car, ran to the booth to get their fire extinguisher. As he pulled the trigger he realized their extinguisher was empty! The team looked on helplessly looking on as smoke billowed from the car waiting for the track’s emergency crew to extinguish the fire.

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When the car got back to the pits the AMS/NOS Energy Drink Team was relieved to see the damage was not as bad as they thought. After assessing the damage Chris Rado of World Racing (Driver of the dual winged Scion) offered his shop and resources to get the car back up and running for the Redline Time Attack Finals just days away. The team packed up and followed Chris back to his headquarters and the wrenches were flying late into the night and the next day. Thank goodness for plenty of NOS Energy Drink on hand!

With the generous help of Chris Rado and Rob at World Racing and Team sponsor Mitsubishi North America the car is back up and running and ready to compete in this weekends Redline Time Attack. Although the aero work is damaged and cannot be used the team is hoping to make a podium finish and claim the title of Unlimited AWD Champion of 2009.