04/20/2026
Here is a summary of our weekend at Gingerman with ChampCar Endurance Series!
Friday was amazing. Everyone got to test the car and do some laps. We failed tech once due to a blown fuse. Fixed that and passed. At the end of the day, we found that a nut off the upper control arms backed off causing some terrible vibrations and a dangerous problem. We thought our weekend was potentially over. Thankfully another Miata team had the parts we needed. We bought them and installed them on the #812!
Saturday Morning was rainy and nasty. Ryan started the race on a wet track. We started in the rear of the field, he passed over 20 cars. The track began to dry out in the latter part of his stint and he ran the fastest lap of the weekend.
Josh was second. Unfortunately, he pushed wide on exit and clipped some curbing causing the whole front of the car to nose-dive. The splitter and air dam were destroyed. After a closer look, so was the radiator. Thankfully the same Miata team had an extra. After 90 minutes we were back on track with our older, used-up tires.
Tyler was the test dummy, the old tires were heat cycled out and terrible so he had some lockups causing some flat spots.
Austin and Eric’s stints were pretty uneventful, just lapping. We were too many laps down to catch anyone. We finished 4th in Class and 23rd! We were happy with the result after our damage but we're hungry for more.
Sunday morning. The temperature was just above freezing which is always worrisome with warming tires and brakes. We put our fresh tires back on!
Austin was set to start the race in 7th overall. After pace laps, he held up well against the huge pack behind him wanting his spot. He clicked off consistent and quick laps while battling slower and faster cars.
Eric got in after Austin to run for about 30 minutes before the break at 10am-Noon for a local church.
Noon came and Ryan got back into the car. He was flying and holding position but (we believe) the half shafts started to make terrible noises so we decided to dial the pace back. Unfortunately, 4th place was running great times and catching up.
Ryan pitted and we checked the car over, and Josh got it. We decided to keep pushing and try to hold 3rd no matter if the car would break down. Josh ran a great 2-hour stint but only one problem, P4 was still catching and our least experienced driver was due to finish the race. Somehow we had a perfectly timed caution right when we needed fuel. 4th place didn't take this caution.
Now here's where things got interesting and stressful for the whole team. Tyler, with only an hour worth of wheel-to-wheel racing had 65 minutes to keep 4th place behind us. Spoiler alert, he did just that. He jumped behind the wheel and started throwing down faster and faster laps for himself. New personal best after new personal bests. He even beat Austin’s best lap time for the day by .05 seconds!
It's not easy to get a top 3 in endurance racing or even finish at times. Proud of the guys and the car.
Austin Gordon
Tyler Gordon
Jason Gordon
Ryan Baker
Clayton Kendall
Josh Lee
Eric Gambill
Saturday- 4th in A Class, 23rd overall
Sunday- 3rd in A Class, 12th overall
The car needs a new radiator, splitter mounts, a splitter, air dam, axles, and bushings. Time to focus on track days, car upgrades, and Sidechick with Team Oversteer!
