Visit to Crawford Race Cars

[Sput]

This week I was able to visit Crawford Race Cars / Crawford Composites in North Carolina. I would like to thank Trudie & Jan Crawford, along with everyone at the shop, for their hospitality once again.

Below are some of the photos I was able to take. In addition to their main business, manufacturing of composite materials, mainly for the racing industry, the other two significant sections of their facility are the Crawford Race Cars area, where they manufacture / build / assemble / repair the Daytona Prototype and GT chassis, and Howard Motorsports (Rick Howard). These photos are from the Howard Motorsports area, where crew members were currently doing some repairs and maintenace to three of the Daytona Prototypes, the #2, #20 & #16.

Both the new G35 Infiniti GT's were there. The first car, which tested at Daytona, was in between steps of maintenance. The second car, still in it's black carbon fibre nekkidness, appears close to completion. I would hazard a guess that items being tweaked, developed, & finished on the first car will be completed before the second car is finished.

At the Daytona testing, Team HLM experienced the new car problems everyone would face with a new car & team, and worked well to overcome a great deal. Currently it appears they will be trying to make the Miami-Homestead in December, but if some of the corrections and upgrades can't be completed in time, it is possible the next test session for the Infinitis won't be until the January 2007 Daytona test. I won't be able to get to the Homestead test, but Jacob & I are planning to get to the Daytona test days.

ENJOY!















Sput

[audtatious]

Great pix Dan. Are both G35's built the same or are they configured for different course types?

[Sput]

When to comes to these types of teams & cars, the hopefull plan is to run a two-car team at every track at every race. So while each car may not be truly 'identical' (variations in upgrades, driver preferences, set-up), they are for most purposes the same.

All we need is a significant sponsor or two to provide the funds necessary to complete the building and testing and multiple drivers, and then go racing.

In GARRA, the cars are flexible enough to be run at each track. There aren't different cars for different tracks.