In what is surely one of the strongest showings from a grassroots-level team in the Redline Time Attack series, Professional Awesome took another victory at the world famous Sebring International Raceway. Along with the team’s first place finish comes the title of East Coast Champions and an invite to the final race November 12-14 at California’s Auto Club Speedway. Dan led the Street Tire class with a very impressive 2.25.113 lap, beating out his nearest competitor by over 2 seconds, braving the 3.7 miles of challenging curves of the legendary Sebring racetrack. Sadly, yours truly was unable to attend, so I can only speculate on how incredible the experience must have been, so we’re going to shake things up a bit and let Dan step up and take us through the event.

The Professional Awesome Evolution, living up to its name. Photo credits to Abby Jons.

How to describe this weekend? Perhaps a few numbers would help.

2,208 Miles traveled.
110 Degree in car temperatures.
60 Gallons of E85 Fuel used.
3 Car crashes into the wall. (Thankfully not ours! -Alec)
1 East Coast Championship secured.

My feelings about this weekend are tough to put into words. Here we are, a race team with a car built in a townhouse garage, our first true year of motorsports competition, on the halo’d ground of Ferrari, Porsche, Gurney, Andretti and countless racing legends.

Sebring at sunrise. I get chills just thinking about all of the greats who have raced here.

I’ll start at the beginning. Mike Lewin and Grant Davis trailered the #777 Evo from our base in West Lafayette, Indiana straight down to Sebring. In the processes of their 20 hour drive a wheel bearing failure on the trailer caused the wheel to come perilously close to falling off. Seriously within a few millimeters. No big deal for arguable the best amateur race crew in existence. 3 Hours later the wheel bearing was fixed and upgraded with better than Taiwanese parts and 17 hours of smooth sailing later all was well.

I (Dan the driver) was lucky enough to fly down to Florida. Due to timing and budget we were almost out of our Amsoil Brake Fluid when Mike and Grant left Indiana and apparently there are some sort of TSA regulations against flying with Brake Fluid in your carryon luggage. After meeting with two of PA’s great supporters, Mike Fleege and Jordan Gilsinger, a massive search of Ft. Meyers for more Fluid commenced. Luckily we found a sweet motorcycle shop that carried exactly what we needed, little did we know how important this fluid would end up being.

Taking to the track, about to make history.

Once we were all at the track on Friday the last remaining car prep was finished up. This included alignment, additional cooling ducting, fluids and the usual check over of the car. This left a little time to sit back and soak in the greatness that is Sebring. We also tossed the Duke (it’s the house football, for those not in the know – Alec) around, mandatory if you know me.

First on the track and last off is a sign of good preparation (or being inefficient as Fleege says) so PA was up and at the track at 6am Saturday morning. The car started out strong and quite quickly I became comfortable on the track. A few thoughts come to mind about the track. Narrow, lots of walls and just a tad bumpy. The KW Suspension proved its worth by handling everything I threw at it. Between flying off the curbing, 130mph-40mph in braking zones that feel like the surface of the moon and 80mph drifts across slabs of concrete, the car felt very stable through it all. One side note, we could use almost 10 gallons of fuel in one 25 minute session (6 laps)… This is an incredible rate of fuel usage for us, just staggering.

The only issue with the car could have been a big one. A brake caliper cross-over tube becoming loose and started leaking brake fluid. At this point of the track I was doing 130mph. Luckily I had plenty of run off and stayed calm and brought the car to a controlled stop. After carefully making it around the track and back to the pits Grant quickly diagnosed the issue and from then on the car was problem free and our car was the quickest in Street Class by a good margin.

I wish I could say the same about our competitors in Street AWD. Our good buddy Justin Matthews had rod bearing issues. Fortune Auto had a massive crack on both or of their brake front rotors. There were additional car crashes and our bro mates at Turn-In Concepts snapped a crankshaft in half! I don’t even know how that happens.
Sunday is were all the preparation and hard work paid off. Fast and reliable is how I would describe the car. A slight alignment tweak and the car was a rocket. I spent most of the practice sessions just going 7/10s to dial in a good line and cracked off only a few fast laps to ensure our position as first on the grid. We got our best time of the day at a 2:24.547  Our first timed session I over drove the car a bit and times weren’t as fast as in practice, but I did lap 3 cars and in the process secured the first place finish with a 2:25.113! Fortune Auto had a vacuum tube issue and couldn’t lay down a fast lap. This worried us slightly as we thought they might be able to pull a Hail Mary lap in the second session and beat our time.

We bumped up the boost controller in the final timed session to ensure we wouldn’t leave anything on the table, but issues cropped up with it feeling funky so I had to turn it back down. I drove consistently in the final session and the cheers from the pit as I drove by let me know that we had done it. Secured the fastest Street time of the day and along with it, the East Coast championship.

Only the Super Session was left, the wheel to wheel 5 lap race that always proves to be exciting. We were grided 4th place and even though Grant and Mike wanted me to take it easy, I had decided long ago that I was going to drive 100%, they were displeased. I passed Doug Wind in his SRT-4 and Fortune Auto’s Mod class Evo (both cars did have issues) on my way to a solid 2nd place finish.

The PA Evolution in the winner's circle. We can definitely get used to this!

After two bottles of champaign, a trophy and a few pictures with the models (Average day for us – Alec), talk was already to Autoclub Speedway in California. It never stops at Professional Awesome.

I wanted to thank Mike Fleege and Jordan Gilsinger as well as Lewin’s Mom and Grant’s parents for helping with not only support, but food and manual labor as well. I’d also like to thank all the sponsors, for all their help in making this year possible. And of course Redline Time Attack for putting on a great event.

And again a special thanks to our sponsors

The O' Donnell Champaign Charge, a move that is getting closer and closer to perfection.

Modern Automotive Performance
KW Suspensions
Blox
AmsOil
Exedy
T1 Race Development
GiroDisc
Cosworth
5 Zigen
Sparco
Zeitronix
JM Fabrications

(I second the many thanks to our sponsors, we couldn’t have done it without you! – Alec and the rest of the Professional Awesome team)

The results are in! After our win at Autobahn Country Club, we’ve leapfrogged the field and found ourselves tied with the Cobb Tuning powerhouse. This puts PA at a very comfortable position just a week before the Redline Time Attack event at Sebring. If the team keeps up its momentum, we should find ourselves out in California competing against the best of the best in the time attack world! First things first though: Sebring is next week and you’d be just downright wrong to think that the team would be sitting around doing nothing – the palatial Professional Awesome compound has been filled with activity as the team works to keep improving the Evolution.

I will never pass up an opportunity to use this picture.

On the Professional Awesome-designed side of things, Grant and Mike have finished a one-off headlight deletion kit and Mike has made a solution to remove Mitsubishi’s fake NACA duct on the Evolution’s hood. The headlight deletion solution involved a great deal of patience and skill as well as a good deal of fiberglass-ing know how. The factory headlamp assemblies weigh in at over 7 pounds each, which on its own doesn’t sound like a great deal of weight, but it’s important to keep in mind where that weight is located. The further that the weight on a car is from its center of gravity, the greater the effect it has on the car’s handling; in the simplest terms, consider holding 15 pounds of weight on a ~7 foot lever arm. Suddenly that 15 pounds of weight has become equivalent to 105 lb-ft of torque (Torque=Force*Length of Lever Arm) acting on the car. Having this weight at the outermost point of a vehicle creates a substantial amount of resistance to change in motion – this is what all of those engineering types refer to as a polar moment of inertia. By creating a lightweight fiberglass shell of the headlight profile, the polar moment has been effectively lowered, which, as you may have guessed, is a very good thing. On a side note, they just look cool too.

The official PA! Headlight Deletion Kit. Nifty, isn't it?

On Mike’s end he decided to stay true to removing anything that doesn’t have a valid function and the fake NACA duct fell squarely in his crosshairs. Bear in mind that the Evolution does act as a homolgation car for Mitsubishi’s racing programs, which means that to legally compete in various rallying/road racing programs, Mitsubishi had to make a production car that shared the majority of its architecture and feature with its racing car. This is why we find fake NACA ducts on cars. On Mitsubishi’s rally cars, the NACA duct serves duty as an air inlet for the intake due to radiator and intercooler location under the hood. On the production Evolution, the radiator and intercooler find themselves at the front of the car, just behind the bumper, which allows for a more traditional intake tract, rendering the NACA duct useless. Lewin being the man he is and an opponent of useless things on automobiles, decided that it was time to remove the NACA duct and make a smoother hood for the Evolution. In the racing world, NACA ducts rely on acting as an obstruction to airflow so that they may channel air into the engine bay (or into the cabin, towards braking systems, etc.) and their very specific design guarantees that air will be directed to exactly where the engineers would intend. In our case, we aren’t looking to redirect our intake plumbing to make use of the NACA duct so blocking off the duct actually works in our favor. While this may not be the single greatest enhancement to the car, we’re all staunch believers in the “every little bit helps” philosophy when it comes to building cars.

Speaking of airflow, brakes are also huge fans of getting lots of air. Having an intimate understanding of the needs and wants of braking systems just happens to be one of Grant’s strong points, which is why he has decided to create a brake ducting system for the Evolution. Grant has developed a system that uses the factory dust shields as a template to which he has added a generous amount of ducting to keep the brake temperatures within a reasonable realm of operating temperatures. For road racing, the importance of keeping your brakes at proper temperature can’t be stressed enough – asked me how I know… Here’s a hint: it involves the same car you see here taking a trip to the beach up at Gingerman due to overheated brakes. Not fun. With guaranteed high track and ambient temperatures at Sebring, it was imperative to ensure that the brakes stay in a healthy operating temperature range to make sure that Dan can bring the car back down to speed without risking a close encounter with the cement walls that make Sebring so treacherous.

This should do well to keep our brake temperatures where they belong.

As far as the custom fabrication at Professional Awesome is concerned, that about sums it up for now and I would like to take the chance for a shameless plug now : everything you see on our site can be part of your race car build! Feel free to contact us and let us know your goals for your track car and we’ll happily design and engineer a solution just for your car and needs, with the attention to detail and quality that you’ve come to expect from Professional Awesome.

On the sponsor-provided side of things, MA Performance has stepped up their game and provided Professional Awesome with some very high quality upgrades. While our old exhaust system was adequate, we couldn’t help but think that it could be done better. Knowing this, we contacted MAP and they designed and fabricated this beauty of an exhaust system. While it may not be a “streetable” exhaust, if you’re looking to extract the most power out of your car, this is a very worthy upgrade. The quality of the welds and materials used is second to none – the guys at MAP really know what they’re doing!

What a fine, fine piece of exhaust this is. Much better than our old muffler shop hack job exhaust!

MA Performance didn’t stop at the exhaust though – they gave use a full intake porting treatment as well as full thermal coating on the intake manifold. The ported intake tract will provide a smoother and more laminar flow, which will aid the combustion process, giving us (you guessed it) more power! The thermal coating will also keep out intake temperatures lower; cooler air is dense air and dense air allows for more fuel, more fuel leads to (again, I’m sure all those smarty-pants readers out there have guessed it) MORE POWER! Where the Evolution was no slouch before, there’s certainly no harm in adding more goodness to our race car. We can’t stress enough how good MA Performance is – go ahead and give them a call, you’ll be amazed at the service, knowledge, and quality of the products they sell.

The MA Performance Ported and Coated Intake Manifold. Can't wait to experience the added performance!

Sebring should be a great event for the team and we look forward to seeing our fans out there!

So I never thought I would have the honor of writing press releases for a winning race team, but life always has a way of surprising you, doesn’t it? Here it is kids: the first official press release from your favorite race team!

Chicago, IL, June 13, 2010

On the one year anniversary of the founding of the Professional Awesome race team, the 4-man operation saw its first victory at their home track, the Autobahn Country Club during the 5th round of the Redline Time Attack series. Professional Awesome!, based out of West Lafayette, IN consists of driver Daniel O’ Donnell, Mechanics Grant Davis and Mike Lewin, and team coordinator Alec Cervenka.

Dan, doing what he does best - going fast!

“This is our event.” remarked Mike Lewin, weeks before the race. “This is our event, there is no way we are going to lose.” Mike’s words rang true with Daniel driving the PA Evolution 7 to an overall Street class win, with a scorching 1:34:727 lap time, destroying the previous year’s record of 1:35:708, set by Turn In Concepts. Along with Professional Awesome’s class win came a true upset, with several teams favored to win the event trailing Dan’s lap time. When Dan crossed the line, the Redline Time Attack announcers and fans alike exploded into cheers and applause and at that moment the team knew that their time had come. “I truly have to thank our sponsors, our friends, and the team for all of their support. There’s no way we could’ve had this win without them!” Dan said following the event. “It certainly wasn’t easy,” Alec told a Redline correspondent. “but it really just goes to show that with the right combination of a skilled team, top-quality parts, and outright determination, you can achieve great things.”

Catching a word with Nads, the voice of Redline Time Attack.

The day was not without drama, with the drivers battling continuously varying track conditions due to bursts of heavy rainfall followed by intense heat and humidity, which wreaked havoc on a number of cars. The Street Class session alone claimed four cars, with a three-car accident due to a engine failure and subsequent oil slick just before Autobahn’s main straight and an engine fire for another competitor at the opposite end of the track. Thanks to the PA Evolution’s excellent preparation and Dan’s decisive driving, the team escaped the session unscathed and poised for victory. Moments before the second timed session, the unpredictable Midwest weather drenched the course, removing any possibility for an improvement over Professional Awesome’s already impressive lap time.

With a victory in the Time Attack session, the team decided to sweeten the victory with what amounted to a lapping session for the afternoon’s Super Session. With a wet track and the recent crashes in the earlier sessions, no other Street Class competitors went to grid for the Super Session, allowing Dan to take several victory laps and pad his hard-earned victory with even more points to put the team in line to take an overall east coast division championship.

We still need to teach him proper champagne uncorking technique...

The next event for Professional Awesome is round 7, at the Sebring International Raceway, home to some of the best road racing in the world. The team is beyond excited to be able to race on such hallowed ground and is confident that both the team and the Evolution are more than up to the task.

Professional Awesome would like to thank their sponsors, KW Suspension, Modern Automotive Performance, T1 Race Development, 5 Zigen USA, Sparco USA, BLOX Racing, Zeitronix, Cosworth, GiroDisc, JM Fabrications, and AmsOil. Additionally, many thanks to our fans and the Redline Time Attack staff, who have helped the team achieve this impressive feat. The team is incredibly grateful to be partnered with such an impressive list of manufacturers and can’t wait to make them proud with another stellar performance August 14-15 at Sebring!

The best team photo we have on file and I still look goofy. I'll work on the face.

For a full report from the event, refer to MotoIQ.com’s article here:
http://www.motoiq.com/magazine_articles/articletype/articleview/articleid/1602/redline-time-attack–round-5–chicago.aspx

For more information on Professional Awesome, visit:
http://professionalawesome.com/
www.facebook.com/pages/Professional-Awesome/308953760692
Or follow the team on Twitter @ProAwesomeRace

Photos courtesy of Wes Dumalski, MotoIQ

That’s right everyone, the time has finally come. No more ugly html and css coding, no more random spacing of pictures and text, no more limitations on media embedding. We’ve upgraded!

Imagine that piece of bar as the internet and the die grinder is my keyboard. It's a bit of a stretch, but it's still a fair analogy of me working on the website.

After some long nights and days, I present to you Professional Awesome! 2.0! Since switching to a new web designing program, we’ve unlocked a whole mess of potential to not only bring you more content (with live updates at the track possible) but you the loyal reader will also be able to get more involved with the site! All of your favorite classic PA! posts will be carried over to our new setup, though it may take a little time, so be patient! In the meantime, take a look around, let me know what you think of the look and feel of the site and feel free to comment away! But my work is never officially over, just like the rest of the team, so I’m going to keep plugging away at this coding business! If you have any suggestions for what you would like to see on the site, let me know and I’ll do my best to accommodate, because I live for the fans.

This about sums up how excited we are about the new website. I'm sure you're all jumping at you computer right now too!

Enjoy!

Some of the more attentive readers may have noticed a distinct lack of updates on the site… I would have to agree that there has been a lack of updates that you can all see, but worry not – there’s been plenty of work going on behind the scenes.

Very soon we will be rolling out an all-new website that will be better, faster, more aesthetically pleasing, and best of all, easier for us all to update and interact with you, out fans. So keep your eyes peeled on our Twitter and Facebook pages for the time being, as we can give you quick updates, such as our FIRST PLACE VICTORY AT AUTOBAHN COUNTRY CLUB THIS WEEKEND.

Dan, celebrating his victory at the Autobahn Country Club. We still need to teach him proper uncorking technique, but at this rate, we're sure he'll learn quickly.

That’s right kids, PA! had its first taste of champagne as Dan stood proud in the winner’s circle this weekend, with his time of 1:34.727 putting him ahead of the rest of the Street Class, breaking the old track record in the process. One year ago, PA! was founded at Autobahn CC, so it’s only appropriate that we claim victory at our home track.

Did I mention that we took first place at Autobahn this weekend?

Take a look at Redline’s debrief of the weekend and check out our Facebook page – I’d love to give you a better rundown, but I have to get the new site up and running! Expect a very thorough and full-bodied race report to christen our new website. Until then, click through the links for more info!

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Professional-Awesome/308953760692
http://redlinetimeattack.com/ti/rl/content/3fSrwjwk.html?id=uIXtWCBk
http://redlinetimeattack.com/ti/rl/content/blog.html
Also, did I mention that we’re in the running for an east coast championship?

Last week, the Professional Awesome! team decided it was time to find out exactly how powerful the Evolution really is. After hearing good things from fellow racers, the team loaded the Evolution onto the trailer and headed north to Komet Motorsports in St. Charles, IL.

The brute force of the Evolution made our camera man tremble

While Komet specializes in the European brands such as Volkswagen, Porsche, and Mercedes, their expertise in tuning and service certainly still applies to cars with an American or Asian origin. Shortly after we rolled the Evolution off of our trailer, Kurt, of Komet, quickly had the dyno all set, with our car securely strapped to the rollers. When I say securely, I mean it – the Evolution wasn’t going anywhere.

Before the first runs, Grant changed out spark plugs for a colder set so that we could safely turn up the boost without damaging the engine. Then the fun began.

Grant, running through his "Let's Not Destroy Our Car" checklist and ensuring that the Evolution is ready for the dyno.

The first run was a bit of a surprise at 290 horsepower; lower than we expected, but that makes our performance at New Jersey (story on that is coming soon) all the more impressive. Then Andy Stevens, resident combustion cycle mad scientist, was let loose on the fueling and timing maps. After a few minutes with a laptop, Andy had given the Evolution a healthy bump in power to a more respectable 350hp. For a 3000lb car, 350 horsepower will certainly make quick work of long stretches of track, but we’re not complacent types here.

Andy and Dan, seen here poring over every detail of the combustion process.

After more time adjusting timing, fuel delivery, swapping out bypass valves (BOVs to you auto forum-types out there) we landed at a number that we can be happy with: 400 horsepower and 398 ft-lb of torque. At the wheels, of course. As soon as we get a chance to scan in our printouts, you can all admire the power and torque curves with us, but for the time being, just imagine a nice broad torque curve and power curve that increases all the way up to redline.

The Evolution, on its way to the 400 whp mark.

Overall, the day was a success, with a new tune giving us a whole mess of reliable power and we can’t wait to go toe to toe with the rest of the Street AWD class at the Redline Autobahn CC Event this June! We also give Komet Motorsports our much-admired and desired seal of approval – if you are looking for someone to help you reach your insane power goals or if you just want some new parts installed, call them up and tell them we sent ya!

We like to leave our mark wherever we go. This trip was no different.

Komet Motorsports
630-584-5400
www.kometmotorsports.com

“From our garage.” we all replied.

The first Professional Awesome splitter attracted a number of fans during our testing session at Gingerman.

Ever since our debut at Gingerman last weekend and after posting images of the track day, people have been asking all about our splitter. The splitter was designed and built by Grant and Mike in the PA! Garage using a combination of high quality materials, some engineering know-how, and desire to live up to the team name. Dan and I both can vouch for the splitter’s effectiveness, as we were able to conquer the higher speed sections of Gingerman with a level of stability that we had never experienced in the Evolution.

Our splitters are designed to be both very stable and easy to remove so you can easily work on your car.

While I can’t comment entirely on the process and materials used (that’s proprietary stuff now!) Grant and Mike may chime in later when they feel that the aero package for the Evolution has been perfected. What I will say is this – the process is repeatable, the materials are high quality, and the splitter is definitely working. During testing, the splitter was developing enough downforce to where the turnbuckles would become loose after high speed testing. This, of course, has been remedied, but still serves as a good illustration of the level of force that the splitter is developing.

Grant, working on the splitter well before (3am the morning of) our first testing day.

Currently, Grant and Mike are developing the PA! Rear Diffuser to work in combination with the front splitter. Progress is coming along very well and it looks like the PA! Evolution will be a very stable car this season. Be sure to come take a look at their handiwork at the New Jersey event! If you like what you see, check our Products section and contact us to discuss your own aerodynamics package!

Looks like all of those sleepless nights paid off! For testing, we were running ~100 less horsepower than we were running last season so that we can safely break in the car. We were faster than we were last season.

How is this possible? Let’s take a look at how far we’ve come with the Evolution: last season, Dan was piloting what was a nearly stock Evolution VII with some minor suspension and power modifications. This year, we’ve added a world class suspension setup, thanks to KW; completely stiffened up the chassis with Cartel’s roll cage and seam welding; added our own Professional Awesome! front splitter; upgraded our brakes with Girodisc-recommended Raybestos pads; gutted the car as much as legally possible; reinforced the engine with a combination of help from Cosworth, JM Fabrications, Blox Racing, MA Performance, T1 Race Development, and Zeitronix as well as our Professional Awesome! mechanical know-how. Overall, the Evolution’s been through a lot these past months.

The first day at Gingerman found Dan facing a very wet track and cold ambient temperatures, much less than ideal for testing a race car. However, we dedicated the day to ensuring that all bolts were tight and everything worked as it should. The lower level of stress was also welcome for Grant and Mike who had been awake for at least 48 hours finishing the car. For the record, when Mike doesn’t have sleep, he randomly bursts into fits of hysterical laughing and psychobabble, which provided entertainment for everyone.

Sunday, the racing gods smiled upon Gingerman Raceway, giving Professional Awesome! perfect testing conditions. The track was dry, the sun shone, and temperatures were steady at 70º all day. Dan took the car out in the morning to really give the car a workout. Within a few laps, we were consistently seeing times that were significantly faster than last season’s. on new street tires. with less power. This speaks volumes of the car’s progress, the quality of the parts used, and the aptitude of our mechanics.

As the storm clouds left Gingerman, faster lap times started to roll right in.

The Professional Awesome! front splitter also proved its worth, drawing admiration from both Dan and I, who love the fact that high speed kinks and turns do nothing to upset the car, and others in the paddock, who consistently drooled over the splitter and asked repeatedly “Where did you get that splitter?” Happily, and with a bit of a smirk, I would reply “Our garage.” Massive props to Grant, Mike, and Jordan for their work there!

After Dan’s morning session, I got behind the wheel after a year absence from tracking the Evolution. Never before have I felt a car with so much grip, I constantly found myself having to reprogram my brain to match the Evolution’s abilities. Where the past cars I’ve raced would require a very careful and comparatively cautious approach to driving, the Evolution demanded that you forget everything you thought you knew. Every lap, it would tell you to brake deeper, to carry more speed; it demanded that you turn off any notion of fear or hesitation, the car can and will perform like a true track star. After adjusting to the fact that this car will enter the corners at least 20 mph faster than any other car I’ve raced, I was able to see how much potential there is. Call it bias, but the Professional Awesome! Evolution will be able to compete with the best this season.

After the first day and a complimentary wash from Mother Nature, I treated the Evolution to some glamour shots.

Speaking of which, the official start to our season is this weekend at the New Jersey Motorsports Park! We are all excited to get back into competition mode and we expect great things. Keep an eye on the site for updates from the track!

Also, thanks to Anthony Mason Pitts for the ride and his help at the track! For more pictures, check out the Gingerman 04/2010 Gallery below!

2.59 AM, First Day of Testing, Leaving at 5 AM… I’d say that it’s going to be a long night, but we’re already well into the morning…

Ours was the only light on in our neighborhood. Sleep is for the weak.

It’s a rarity in the grassroots motorsports world to have a car finished well ahead of its track debut. In fact, it almost seems like poor practice to have a car ready more than a day before its first outing. It wouldn’t be a proper race car if it wasn’t constantly being work on. This isn’t to say that the Evolution hasn’t been seeing a constant stream of activity for the past several months; just take a look at our build gallery to see how far the team has come!

Though, on second thought... Maybe sleep wouldn't be such a bad idea after all.

The final touches are being finished on the Evolution, with the completion of our front splitter (‘effin baller status), seat brackets (stout and “Mike Perfect”), mounting of the tires on our new 5Zigen wheels (“‘effin titty sprinkles”), final wiring, harness bar, and a whole list of things that escape my sleep-deprived mind.

Fresh tires on fresh wheels: Grant getting fresh with aforementioned wheels and tires.

All and all, tomorrow today should be a great day up at Gingerman Raceway and we’ll finally see how all of this hard work has paid off. Of course, we here at Professional Awesome! would also like to thank our sponsors for all of their effort and support, we certainly wouldn’t be as far along if it weren’t for them! So do the right thing, go to our Sponsors section, click on each each link, buy lots of stuff and tell them we sent you! As much as I’d like to say it’s nap time, I’m heading back to the garage now. Keep an eye on our Twitter tomorrow for updates as the day progresses!

Some of our loyal readers out there may have noticed the recent drought of Professional Awesome updates and may have wondered why there was the sudden drop off. We can explain, I swear.

As expected, building a race car demands a lot of time and because of this, we haven’t been spending any real amount of time on the computer. Since it’s my sworn duty as webmaster, I feel compelled to update you all on the status of the Evolution.

To some, a roll cage is just necessary precaution. We here at PA! decided we should have a little fun with our safety.

It’s on the ground after ~5 months of being propped up on jack stands, it has a choice green roll cage, Dan has a new Sparco Evo 2 Plus seat, the interior is all installed, the engine and transmission are ready for action, and we are on schedule for testing this weekend.

Today saw the last big purchases take place as we finally ordered tires (big thanks to Jim at Discount Tire – your shirt will be ready soon) and I finally stopped dragging my feet and ordered my racing gear from Sparco (awesome service there, and awesome products!) so we should be all set come Friday. Grant and Mike have been working at a frantic pace to get the Evolution all set for track duty and it looks that the long hours have paid off! It looks as though these guys know what they’re doing when they’re building a race car, which is nice.

All that’s left is to mount the tires, make a seat bracket for yours truly, make a front splitter, put on the doors, fenders, and hood, buy a van, buy a trailer, break in the engine and transmission, and mount our newly powdercoated wheels by Friday.

It was a shared emotion when we realized how much work was left to be done by Friday.

…Considering how much work we had ahead of us last week, I say we’re right on schedule.