05/05/2026
Almost Race Report:
The Great Turbo Talon Cross-Country Misadventure (Champ Series Round 1) this weekend was supposed to mark the debut of the brand-new Champ-built Turbo Talon at the opening round of the Champ Series at Lucas Oil Speedway in Wheatland, MO. Instead, it became one of the most chaotic āsupport modeā weekends weāve had. The trip kicked off with a trip to GForce Racing Suspension Technologies in Tennessee, where we were getting the fresh Talon fitted with a new set of custom-built shocks (eyelet-to-eyelet custom work that added an extra full day). From there I left Tuesday evening and drove straight through to PPEI in Louisiana for tuning. I arrived around 5 AM, unloaded, prepped the car, and heat-cycled it. Erik got it on the dyno while I tried to catch some sleepā¦ only to wake up to the dreaded call: āWe have some bad news.ā During low-throttle data runs (just 16% throttle at 4000 rpm), the engine suffered a catastrophic failure. The oil filter was full of glitter. Engine was done. We explored every possible way to swap engines and still make the race, but the logistics were impossible ā 10 hours to Lucas and 16 hours from the nearest spare engine. No way to make it work in time. So we made the call to head to Wheatland anyway. At the Track: Full Support Mode Even though the #911 Turbo Talon couldnāt turn a wheel in anger, we made the most of the weekend. We displayed the car (which still looked like a million bucks), delivered shocks from G-Force for another racer, provided pit support, spotting duties, and general help wherever needed. Weāre proud to be part of the Honda Talon racer family, so we did everything we could to support the other Talon drivers: Cross Kirtchmeyer lit it up in the Pro-Stock class ā winning both races. Absolute dominance!
Tom Rutkowski made his Pro-Stock debut in his fresh Talon. Running strong on Sunday with just 3 laps to go, he caught a nasty crosswind on the big 150-ft back jump, landed sideways at around 80 mph, and had one of the most violent flips youāll see at Wheatland. Parts were scattered everywhere.
Huge relief that Tom is relatively okay ā the safety gear did its job. The car is damaged but repairable. Respect to his fab guy for building a chassis that took that kind of hit on its first weekend out.
Personal Comedy of Errors
Because one disaster clearly wasnāt enough: Dropped my phone Friday and destroyed the screen (basically unusable all weekend)
Lost a wiper arm on the toter running through severe thunderstorms in Alabama
Rode the Grom pit bike 60 miles round trip trying (unsuccessfully) to get the phone fixed or replaced. Loaned Tom the brand-new G-Force shocks built for my other short-course Talonā¦ they came back looking well, destroyed like his Talon. Near-zero sleep for days.
It was one of those weeks where sleep was optional and everything that could go wrong did. But we still had a solid weekend supporting the Honda Talon family, watching great racing, and building relationships in the pits. The new Turbo Talon will be back stronger once the fresh engine is in. No debut, but plenty of lessons learned and good work done. Appreciate all the partners and the Honda Talon community for the continued support.
.powersports
