Successful Race Debut for new Chassis

The Debut of the new

GammaCar Racing Cars Formula 4.

In the paddock before going out for
 it's very first practice session.

Gamma Formula Cars had a successful début with their new cars at the CASC-OR Celebration of Motorsport this past weekend at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park.

Although set-backs in build delayed debuting the new car until the last event of the 2015 season, the car and team made the exciting last weekend of the racing calendar.

Right off the trailer, the cars showed glimpses of how fast it could be.  During the morning practice session, Jim Morton (owner/builder/driver) quickly found that the stock 2011 Suzuki GSX-R750 was hitting the rev limiter in top gear up the back straight, quite a bit earlier than he would have liked.  Because it was the car's first session on the track, Jim came into the pits every other lap in order for the crew to give a quick visual inspection of the engine area to ensure that there were no oil leaks.  Due to no complete flying laps, an accurate lap time was not calculated.

Changing the rear Sprocket

 After the session was completed, and a brief driver/crew discussion, it was decided to change the rear sprocket before qualifying.

During morning qualifying session, Jim Morton set the fast time of 1:25.745, the top qualifying spot for the F4 class, and starting him sixth on the grid overall for the Formula Libre race.  The team was very happy with this time, especially considering that it was the first day that the car had seen the track, the car was shod with Hoosier racing tires from last season, and the car was hitting the rev-limiter in top-gear a little too early on the back straight.

During the début race Saturday afternoon, Jim showed that the season off of racing to concentrate of finishing building the car had not dulled his race-craft, has he had a "Textbook Jim" start and shot into third position overall exiting turn 1, ahead of a Formula Renault, a Formula Mazda and a Formula 2000, right behind a Stohr DSR and a Radical Sports Racer.

GammaCar Formula 4 wins in it's first race out

Within a couple of laps the faster class cars had gotten back in front of Jim in the Gamma F4, and for the remainder of the race he fought off the challenges of original Gamma designer/builder Bob Long, to take the win.  A victory in the début race for Gamma Racing Cars Formula Four.

Exhaust coated by Redline Performance Coating
Headers wrapped in Cool It Thermo Tec

Sunday's race was not as successful.  The car was having some traction problems--specifically under-steer--and Jim was dropping positions.  It got progressively  worse, and fearing that a tire was going down, or perhaps something worse
, Jim wisely decided to retire the Gamma F4 from the race.

In the paddock, with the body work removed, it was quickly discovered that the steering rack had come loose and was moving around.  An easy fix back at the shop, but not so at the track.

Overall,  GammaCar Formula Cars considers the début weekend for the new F4 car an overwhelming success.  Considering that the race car was on last season's Hoosier tires, had the wrong size gearing, is running a stock Suzuki GSX-R750 motor with a Yoshimura ECU, on Shell 91 fuel, and has lots of development left in the chassis as well as the aerodynamics, the car promises to be very quick, and reliable.