Folis Jones Racing

Last weekend the FJR team was divided between two circuits, Carolina Motorsports Park in Kershaw, SC and Summit Point, WV.

Due to issues with our car (# 57 Birkin SS) all year we elected to sign up for the Friday track day to sort it out. However, on the way down whilst on I-95 we experienced a catastrophic blow out on the right rear outboard tire of the motor home. Control was no issue and we made a safe stop on the wide paved shoulder. Utilizing GEICO’s roadside assistance we were on our way in about three hours and proceeded to a truck tire facility and replaced all four rear tires for safety sake.

We arrived late Thursday night, once at our site we discovered there was no 30amp power, this neccessatated a moonlight ride on my bycyle to pay for this additional power.

The weekend went extremely well, no problems of any kind with the car and we had beautiful weather too. There were many friends there including one I had not seen in over forty years, yes I was stationed with him in Memphis when we were both Navy Chiefs. I gave a couple of people rides during track sessions, including the Hawk Brake representative. All in all it was a great weekend, it was our third with our motor home and the first with our new 20 foot enclosed traile. Sunday I managed to lower my lap times from earlier this year by 5 seconds.

This winter we will be installing new Outlaw rear brake calipers and doing a thorough inspection of the car and all it’s systems. We will also be outfitting the new trailer and finishing off the interior. I am planning on getting the ChaseCam option for the car that will superimpose a speedometer and tachometer on the video image. This should be a good tool along with the video image to assess how well I am driving.

I would also like to introduce Dicky and Kyle Spruil as new members of the FJR family. Kyle drives a really nice Pontiac TransAM and does a great job with it.

Looking forward to next year

Kind regards to all, and stay safe!

Folis

But look on the bright side….I have a good list of stuff to do over the winter now….

–Doug

Well the Summit prep is almost done. Gave the car a spot on alignment so I can hopefully avoid the understeer that was beating me up at VIR. I’ll make sure to keep everyone updated on the progress!

–Doug

Well the final full NASA Mid-Atlantic event of the season went pretty well.

There will be a full update later tonight.  For now just a few teasers…

–Doug

So what’s been going on? Well a lot.

The Honda will have the sway bars reconnected at VIR in two weeks to see what the other extreme of the suspension is like and to see if those sway bars will do the job. Right now there is just too much weight transfer and it’s causing the front to lose grip. Unfortunately I need to stiffen the front and the back for this one. The only way for me to get the car to rotate like I want is stiffness and I’m hoping I won’t have to go with a custom front sway bar.

What about Folis and Maggie? Well Maggie is running great an I think we will get everything dialed in at VIR. Nothing really new just fine tuning what Folis has built.

I look forward to seeing all of our friends at VIR in a few weeks and as always happy motoring!

–Doug

We at Folis Jones Racing would like to introduce the new members of our fleet to the world. We present you with “Pooh” and “Tigger,” AKA “The Roach Motel.”

Well, the weekend went pretty well in my opinion.  I came in 3rd from last in the UTCC with a 2:32 laptime which was better than I had hoped for.  My goal for this was to just not come in dead last.  To top the day off, I decided to switch from my driving shoes to my tennis shoes and on the way to the awards presentation I noticed a burning sensation on my right foot.  When I took off my shoe and shook it a wasp came out.  Racin’ Jason Lisner used his quick feet to smote the nasty little thing…  Thanks J….

Thankfully, my sister took all the alergies in the family so I had no reaction to it.

Saturday would prove to be a bigger challenge by far.  I was instructing and competing in the NASA TTE class.  Saturday I managed a 2:29 lap which was good enough for 4th place in class.  The only cars ahead of me were all fully prepped race cars.  My student continued to improve all day and turned out to have met me a few months prior asking me a bunch of questions about NASA.  He really turned out to be a great student with a lot of great potential.  It definately helped that he has 20 years of stock car racing experience.

Sunday would prove to be a great day as well.  I pulled out a 2:28.4 in my second times session which would be good enough for a fourth place finish for the day.

All in all it was a great weekend with a lot of improvements in the car and myself as a driver.  Thanks to NASA Mid-Atlantic, Grassroots Motorsports, Hankook Tires and last but not leat my teamates from Folis Jones Racing.

Now, to bring it all a home a little video from the weekend….

VIR July TTE Run from Douglas Arcidino on Vimeo.

Well the prep for the UTCC is coming to an end. Most of the work is cosmetic as there is just no money in the bank for performance improvements.

I installed the new 15″ Ultrashield race seat. Got that from another racer for a little discount. Since I used up my already used RA-1s it looks like I will have to run my rain tires for the UTCC. Days like this make me wish I was funded by a family member…

More to come as the event gets closer…

I will be representing the team at this event.  This will ocuur on the Friday of that NASA weekend.  Folis, Evelyn and Jason will be assisting me in my runs as crew.  Even though I am the only FJR member in this event, it will take a full team effort to make this happen.

Looking forward to it though!

–Doug