Go and check out the write up that Dave Stevens from Forward Motion did on Markos' 06 Wrx.
http://www.aforwardmotion.com/markos-mylonas-2006-time-attack-snail-performance-wrx/
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![]() Last week Global Time Attack traveled to Texas Motor Speedway for Round 5 of the series. With the middle of the year lacking in West Coast events, we decided to pack up the team and head down to the state where building signs are the size of trucks and sweet tea flows like water. Now, anyone who has ever driven through Texas knows that once you hit the border, to be prepared for endless hours of zero scenery. Regardless, Wednesday after the shop closed, we loaded up the trucks and trailers and set off for Fort Worth Texas. The plan was to drive straight through until we hit the track and that we did. About 16 hours later we found ourselves on the infield paddock of the gigantic Texas Motor Speedway. After unloading the cars and making a few laps on the pit bike we headed in search of food and sleep. As with all Global Time Attack events drivers are split into A and B groups. B Group drivers would start the day Saturday and break the track in. Markos Mylonas, new to the Enthusiast AWD class and special guest Dale “Bauce of the Sauce” Barnes in Enthusiast RWD were first up from the team to head out on track. Normal configurations of this track include the roval however for this event the 1.3 mile 8 turn track would be utilized. In true Noah Levy fashion I threw my arm out and began taking times. In his first few laps Markos was turning mid 43 second lap times which with nothing to reference we had to assume left room for improvement. Next up to run was the A group. Travis Barnes and myself strapped in and went out on the benchmark of Mylonas’ 43 second time to see how the classes would space themselves. Travis had a relatively easy session while I found myself off in the dirt in my second lap. Combined with a burst PCV line and oil everywhere I came off track with some repair needed. A quick trip to the parts store had the car fixed up and ready for the next session. ![]() Friday Ended with most times stacked right in the 40-42 second mark for multiple classes. Each of the team’s drivers had some improving to do on Saturday. Both Markos and myself found ourselves within tenths of a second with the Evo’s from Evolution Dynamics in our respective Enthusiast and Street Classes. Travis was sitting in 2nd place Unlimited AWD with time to cut on track. Special guest Dale Barnes was sitting in the 50’s and looking to improve his time. Considering he has never been on track before, let alone in his 2011 Ford Mustang with a few Whiteline compliments this was not bad at all. Saturday was the last day to make magic happen. The team continued bettering their times throughout the day. Markos’ chase behind the Evolution Dynamics Evo X was proving more difficult than he thought. Every time Markos improved; ED found a way to do just the same. Curious to the cars full potential, Travis handed the keys to the Snail Racer to Jeff Westphal, driver of the GST Motorsports Impreza L. Travis then used the data provided to improve a few seconds off his time. Unfortunately by this time Tony “Hawt Kawk Sriacha” Szirka from UMS Tuning had worked out all the bugs in his EVO, including installing a new oil pump, water pump, and gear shift linkage repair. His times were extremely competitive in the recently revamped EVO VIII and Travis was unable to match his times. After watching in car video of Westphal in the Snail Racer I found a few placed to improve my own times. In the afternoon session I set out to improve my times further. Despite a number of “unofficial” times my transponder died on track and I had no data for the session. Dale also continued to improve and dropped his times in the 49’s. When the final session presented itself, each of us on the Snail team were out to secure our finishes. Dale Barnes deciding to do one last session for “fun” and trimmed a solid 3 seconds from his time to secure 3rd Place Enthusiast RWD. Markos continuing to chase the Evolution Dynamics EVO narrowly missed his success and a tenth of a second would mean 2nd place Enthusiast AWD. Equipped with two transponders so as not to miss my times once again, I went out and secured a 40 second lap good for 1st place Street AWD. Travis went out and gave it all he had but was unable to match the sheer power of the UMS Tuning EVO and finished 3rd Place Unlimited AWD. In the end it was four of four Snail cars with podium finishes and champagne in hand. Each of the cars drove back onto their trailers and are ready for the next event which we will call a success. With Global Time Attack Round 5 over, the trek back west began which meant GTA Afterhours Truck Attack was to begin. With Snail, UMS, and GST we had 5 Trucks hauling back west. That is until GST ran out of gas and the UMS tow rig became unhappy. Musical trailers occurred on the side of the road and we were back on the road. 20 hours later we arrived back in Arizona with only hours before each of us had to open the doors to our shops. Mike Warfield in his Australian English British something confusion decided to keep driving on to California. We want to thank everyone that continues to support the Snail Performance Team. Thanks to Whiteline Flatout for providing the best in grip activating suspension components. Turbosmart USA maintains all the teams boost needs. LIC Motorsports is the go to for analysis and suspension perfection, along with supplying some of the best Subaru Specific components on the market. Wheeldude.com makes sure the team rolls in style with the latest shoes for each car. Finally, we welcome Turbos Direct for building and supplying the team with the best turbos on the market. Next up for the team is the Global Time Attack Season Finale at Buttonwillow Raceway Park in Bakersfield California. We only have a few busy weeks before the event. Until then, be sure to stay up to date with all of the coverage from Global Time Attack Texas found online. Be sure to keep up to date with the team!
Snail Performance Facebook.com/SnailPerformance Photos By: Amanda Gift of Snaps Studio Photos By: Aaron Hiar ![]() Global Time Attack's Recap from Rnd 5 of GTA at Texas Motor Speedway. John "NADS" Naderi of course was showed in champagne and wash off by a big bucket of cold water. Big thanks to all of our sponsors for helping us make this event awesome: Turbosmart USA, Whiteline USA, LIC Motorsport, Wheeldude.com, and Turbos Direct. GTA Recap Round 5 ![]() Big thanks to Noah and Adam over at LIC Motorsports for all of there help and advice on setting our cars up for Time Attack. With out them we would not be where we are today. You can check out their post about our win's at Global Time Attack in Texas and the current LIC products we run on our Time Attack Cars at the link below. Supported Team Snail Performance podiums big at GTA Texas! ![]() MotoIQ made the trip to Texas Motor Speedway to see what all was going down. Wes Dumalski and Sarah Forst were on scene to see what all the talk was about at Round 5 of Global Time Attack. Here is a link to the write up. Global Time Attack - Round 5 - Texas Edition ![]() Turbosmart review from Global Time Attack Round 5 in Texas. We cannot thank then enough for all their support this year. Turbosmart USA Review ![]() The whole crew heads to Texas for Round 5 of Global Time Attack. Travis will be running in Unlimited AWD, Taylor is running Street AWD, and Markos will run Enthusiast AWD. Be sure you come and check it out if you are in the area if not there will be a live stream from the track. Go and check out Global Time Attack for more information. A full recap will follow the event. ![]() What an awesome weekend for the Snail Performance crew at Willow Springs Raceway for the first ever Global Time Attack event. We were honored to be invited to come out and run with some of the big names in time attack. The Snail Crew packed up and headed out on Thursday night to get to WSIR for the Friday test and tune day. Friday morning I, “Travis”, got a text from Noah Levy of LIC Motorsports to let them into the hotel room we took over because they were running behind. After everyone was cleaned up we grabbed a bite to eat and then headed up to the track for some testing. First things first, we got our paddock all set up before unloading the car. Markos checked out the Snail Racer and also changed the oil in the car as we didn’t have time to do it before we left. With the car ready to go we hit the track to get a feel for it again as we don’t get to run WSIR but about once a year. The car was running great but the front grip on the car wasn’t where I wanted it. We decided to make a few adjustments to the car to hopefully get the car to stick in the front some more. However, nothing seemed to work for us and the best lap I could pull off was a 1.31.xxx for the day. ![]() Saturday rolled around and while talking to Noah about the car he said I could use some of their take off NT-01 tires to see if the car would like them. So Jerome and I loaded up the truck and headed off to get the tires swapped around. We got back just in time to get the wheels put on and get out for one of our GTA sessions. The car felt a little better on the other tires. The front was gripping better and I was able to pull off a little faster of a time for the day. For the last session of the day, Tony from UMS Tuning asked me if I could go out on track with him to show him the line I take at WSIR as he has never ran this track before. So I took the opportunity to take the LIC car out on track to get a feel for this car since I had been following the buildup on it in the Underdogs all last year. Noah and Adam are really great at what they do, the car felt awesome on track. Even though I was only driving the car about 70% on low boost I did a 1:34.xxx in the car. I would love to get in the seat of their car again and go at it at 100% to see what it can really do. Thanks again to Noah and Adam for letting me drive the car. After the event full day it was time for some (BTA) Beer Time Attack. ![]() Sunday morning, last day at the track, time to hit it and give it everything the car had. So we filled the car with fuel and hit the track for the morning session. I pulled off a 1:30.656, best time of the weekend so far. Last session of the day for the fast group I was able to get the car to lay down a 1:30.383 putting us in 3rd place in Limited GT AWD. After that session we all started to pack up so we would be ready to roll back to AZ after the award ceremony. 5 PM the whole crew headed down to the AFI trailer for the award ceremony. We took home 3rd place and a set of steak knives “good thing is we love steak”. ![]() In the end the Snail team had a blast at the first ever GTA event and looking forward to running in some of the upcoming events. Big thanks to John Naderi, Jason Dienhart, Mike Kenny, and everyone that helped make GTA happen. You guys did a great job!!! See everyone again soon at the track. ![]() With the week before the Modified Tuner Shootout becoming such a blur, it is difficult to decide where to start when talking about the work that was done. It began Wednesday, the 30th of March at 7PM. Taylor’s motor was sitting on an engine stand and the 2003 WRX Snail Racer rested in the garage waiting for one of many turbo applications to be selected and put on for the weekend race. We got right to work on the Snail Racer after having finally decided on a boost application. After just a few short hours the car came to a roaring start and was ready to do battle with the other racers come Saturday. After buttoning up a few last things, the Snail Racer was loaded into the trailer and the second project of the night was underway. It was now 2:00 AM and we loaded Taylor’s motor into the back of the truck and made the trek down to TAYKO Garage to install the freshly built Snail Performance motor into the 2009 WRX. It took only a few hours before the motor was in and besides some small parts, was ready to fire. The team took a quick break for some much needed rest while Taylor finished the last of the installation. By 8:30 AM the car was waking the neighborhood for the first time since last season and ready to be tuned. The team packed up both cars and headed down to Snail Performance Tuning headquarters. Within a few hours both the Snail Racer and the Snail WRX Hatch were ready for the weekend. Only one last thing was left to be done as the Snail WRX Hatch was dropped off at AZ Auto Graphics for its overnight installation of the Snail Performance livery. ![]() Friday morning we headed down to UMS Tuning for the dyno portion of the Modified Tuner Shootout. The dyno testing went well considering the Snail Racer’s engine was a little tired from all the racing, but we were happy with the results. We cannot speak about the results of the day so be sure to pick up the August issue of Modified Magazine to see how the Snail Racer stood up against the other competitors. We stayed at UMS for the rest of the day meeting and greeting everyone at the event and watching the rest of the cars run on the dyno. Travis was interviewed by John Naderi from Action Live Media at the dyno to give everyone a quick rundown on the car. After all was said and done at UMS Tuning we packed up and headed down to Firebird International Raceway for the 1/4 mile drag portion of the Modified Tuner Shootout. Being back at the drag strip was an interesting change as I (Travis) had not been down the ¼ mile in years. However, it took only one sprint down the strip and I regained my old confidence and showed what the Snail Racer was capable of. It took all 3 runs to get a pass we were happy with but all was well as the car was still in one piece. After the drags it was time for Beer Time Attack qualifying sponsored by AFI Turbo. ![]() Saturday morning we got to the track and had the Snail Racer ready to go for the Modified Tuner Shootout Auto Cross event. I took it out for the practice and the first timed lap. I then gave the reins to Markos Mylonas, driver of the Snail Performance RS, to take over for the last two runs. Markos did pretty well for his first time auto crossing the car and for not having a lot of seat time with it. Once the auto cross was over it was time to get the rest of the Snail cars ready for the NASA AZ night event. This year’s event was going to be awesome as we were going to be running Firebird’s West track in the morning, followed by Firebird’s Main track that afternoon/night. Later that night the UMS Tuning Time Attack Series Round 4 was set to be underway. Taylor, Markos, and Jerome hit FIR West track. This was Taylor’s first time back on track this season. With a freshly built motor there were some kinks to be worked out but soon the car was running like a champ and ready for the Main course. Thanks again to Chris from Race Photo Labs for loaning some parts to Taylor from off his personal photography mobile. Jerome and Markos’ cars were running fine so they kept hitting the track and getting faster throughout the day on FIR WEST. ![]() I got to take the Snail Racer out on FIR Main for a slow run to get a feel for the track before practice opened up for the Modified Tuner Shootout participants. When practice opened up I hit the track to start learning the Continental tires that they supplied us with for the event. After a few laps and adjusting the tire pressures I got the hang of them and was ready to go for the Modified Tuner Shootout Time Attack. Later we all gridded up for the Time Attack for the shootout, the car was running great allowing me to set a pretty good lap time. Finally all the competitors were brought together to get the results from the Modified Tuner Shootout. Once again, we cannot talk about the results; let’s just say we are happy how everything turned out. Just make sure you pick up a copy of the August issue of Modified Magazine to get all the results. ![]() Later that night is was time for the UMS Tuning Time Attack Series. We had over 30 cars signed up to run the event. Snail had all four cars back in action for TA. I place first in TA-C and first Overall in TA while also setting the new UMS Tuning Time Attack TA-C track record with a 1:05.849. Jerome ran a 1:08.186 for 4th place in TA-C. Taylor pulled off a 1:09.321 putting him in first place for TA-B and also setting a new UMS Tuning Time Attack TA-B track record. Markos ran a 1:17.449 in TA-A in his Subaru RS (Markos wants to add: “26:1 power to weight”) “no turbo ;( soon to be changed though”. So to sum it all up, the NASA AZ Night Event, Modified Tuner Shootout, and UMS Tuning Time Attack Series were an awesome time and we all can’t wait until next year. Big thanks to all the guys at Modified Magazine and Continental Tire for providing all of us with tires for the event. To top off the night AFI Turbo restocked up on beer for the Beer Time Attack finals. It was great meeting everyone the list is too long to list everyone but you know who you are. Hope to see you guys at the next event. We are planning on going to the next NASA AZ/UMS Tuning Time Attack Series Round 5 at Inde Motorsports Ranch May 7-8 followed by Willow Springs International Raceway for the first Global Time Attack Event on May 21-22. Hope to see everyone there! |
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