Stokes Tire Service Racing

First of all who is NASA? This is the alternative to SCCA, Used when you race a car that doesn't fit one of the classes that SCCA has. For example, I own a Caterham Super 7 which in SCCA would have a car classification of E production, which are slower cars like Miata's and old Triumph's. My car is highly modified to run against the very fastest cars in amateur racing. So SCCA has no class for me to run in. So that's where NASA comes in. NASA stands for National Auto Sport Association. They often attract Formula Renault "open car racing," SoCal BMW club race events, and Enduro events. Like SCCA, NASA has national run offs between all regions, in the month of September in Ohio. We have gone two years in a row.

Today NASA draws over four hundred cars per race weekend split up into many run groups. Because my car is so small and light I choose to race against time, instead of head to head two or more cars into a turn at about the same speed. TTR means Time Trails, Racecars. The R class is purpose built race cars not street legal and is unlimited weight and power displacements this is where I play this game. Even though I have not seen many deaths in amateur racing, it does happen as my friends point out to me. There are no do over's in race car crashes. As I honed my skills I thought staying alive a bit longer was a good idea. However racing is like having an addiction to drugs, so next year game on.

Stokes Tire Service Racing 2010 Season Nasa Pro Racing So Cal Time Trials Driver is Jon Stokes

This Season Jon is driving the 2007 Norma M20f 1st year

• February 6&7 Willow Springs Raceway
• March 12-14 AAA Speedway Fontana
• April 17&18 Button Willow Raceway
• May 22&23 Willow Springs Raceway June 26&27 Button Willow Raceway
• July 30 -Aug 1st AAA Speedway Fontana
• October 9&10 Button Willow Raceway
• November 6&7 Button Willow Raceway

February was raining and very cold, I drive a open cockpit car with slicks so I stayed home.

2010 Time trials we finished 3rd even though we proved to be the fast team that year.

As I stated above we bought a used 2007 Norma with a worn out engine, we were lied to about the car condition, and we had a brand new team not - Stokes Tire Guys doing the race weekends for this sports racer. June 27th we lost our engine. We were heading into the time to prepare for the nationals so we replaced our engine with a highly modified 2.0 liter Honda K20 brand new engine. We brought this out to the AAA Speedway hoping for a home run. We had failed! The brand new engine had a wrong timing cover plate on it and leaked massive oil in the bank turns on top of the rear flooring of the car; lucky it did not trail out onto the right rear tire in Nascar turn one or two, we are traveling near 175 MPH there it would have been disastrous. The other problem was the throttle cable had slipped so we were only getting 80% off our available power. With no way to judge our true performance and the Nationals coming next we toss the new engine and bought a new 2.3 Stroker engine with much more power. This new engine was used just for one week at the nationals. And then replaced again with the very same. That engine only lasted 4 laps! These custom engines were about $21000.00 all in.

This was a very strange year for me lots of excitement with the new car. What was so weird was Nasa is great usually I have no issues. But this year was to change racing for me completely. Ist off with any new car it has to find the correct class to run in. This was where my trouble started. Nasa uses a power to weight format with other things like style of tire like slicks, and Aero or down force formulas to arrive at what seems to be reasonably fair. In my case this year the head of NASA got involved and walked me through the process and deemed my car a STR1 Sports touring racer, level 1 which is the second fastest class Nasa has to Super Unlimited. I started my season there

Racing 2010 Season:

Then I am informed my car is too fast for the others in STR1 So I must move to SU, This is Super Unlimited. I never have ever heard of such a move. I know cannot win in either class, because I won't have enough points for a full season in either class. I complain and focus on the Nationals only.

Notes: July 31st - August 1st This was the weekend our new 2.0 liter engine let us down. The Caterham was not prepared to race, I just did for fun. The Caterham 7 had an overheating issue, so we were just babying it along.

September Nationals were held in Utah Miller Motorsports Park. We had a brand new 2.3 liter stroker engine and were praying we would not overheat. We were enter in both Time Trials which is TTR for us. This is the fastest race cars competing like for pole. We won this event setting the fastest lap of the entire weekend in any class of any kind including racing wheel to wheel. I am very proud of that! The other class we were entered in was SU or Super Unlimited. This again is usually Nasa's fastest cars of the weekend and this was the Nationals so it involved 14 regions all over the country. We Qualified 3rd and were in the second row and we were having overheating issues. We are very light weight comparatively speaking to the field, but we only have 4 cylinders normally aspirated. The rest of the field we large block v8's and Viper 10 cylinders and Porsche turbo's. So off the slow running start we get clobbered, we went into turn one 9th Not wanting to let the front cars run away at the front of the field I was driving at 110%, by the fifth turn I was challenging for 4th place when I spun on cold tires. I stayed on the track and watched approximately 40 cars go by me. We I was able to start again I was angry at myself and drove what I think might be my best drive ever. This was a 40 minuet race, I was lucky enough to claw back to finish second in class and second overall. My engine was done after that race. I was lucky to finish due to savoir overheating. During this year I had purchased three engines each over $21,000.00. I was angry with my team's performance and billing so I fired them.

 

2011 Season I switched back to the Guy who sold us the car at the manufactures advice. This man knew all of the trials and problems I just had in 2010. Racing in general at this time for professional shops were so far off with customers due to the economy he had let his crews go. We went forward anyway with a new mechanic I had found in the off season. Unfortunately the second team was not focused and was way worse than the first team. I had nothing but billing issues, and then mechanical failures the first time I went out. I could not take this again this year. Racing is so expensive so I just took an extended break in racing for the whole year. I finished both race cars for up and coming 2012 season. Note: still taking a break in the action.

 

Stokes Tire Service Racing 2009 season Nasa Pro Racing So Cal — Driver is Jon Stokes

• March 7/8- Willow Springs
• March 27th-29th- California Speedway
• April 25/26- Button willow Raceway
• May 23/24- Willow Springs
• June 27/28- Button willow Raceway
• July 31st-Aug 2nd- California Speedway
• Oct 10/11- Button willow Raceway
• Nov 7/8- Button willow Raceway

This was our last year in the Caterham Super 7 Again we were up against a Radical SR8 Hard to believe this would be considered possible but that's armature racing. In So Cal Time Trials we finished 2nd for the year.

We did go to Miller Motor Sports Park in 2009 to compete in the Nationals. We finished 3rd in TTU Time Trials Unlimited It was loads of fun!

My 2008 season — Driver is Jon Stokes

This was a frustrating year for me. My car broke down more than I would like, and I missed the nationals. One reason was a radical sr8 sports racer came into our season and we simply were not capable of staying with this super fast car in my own class.

For the year we finished second in TTR in So Cal We tried racing in supper unlimited for the first time Nasa Management in Nasa wanted me to get a different car, they stated racing would not be safe enough in the Caterham against cars 2 or 3 times my weight traveling just as fast.