We headed to Lands End Hillclimb for some testing with team members Sheldon Marra, O.P. Andersen and Cole Powelson. What would’ve been a day of data comparisons turned into some healthy competition between drivers.
Transcription:
The lands and Hill Climb fits really really good with our new cars
It’s like a true stage rally to me and it’s something I’ve always wanted to be involved in
So the main goal for us this year was to go and learn about it
My name is Sheldon Mara. We are the Grand Junction Hill Climb at Lands End with Colorado Hill Climb Association
If you’ve ever heard an f1 driver reminisce on their karting days or their grassroots racing this would be that race
It is families, fathers and sons and fathers and daughters and a bunch of good grassroots racers throughout the western United States
So it’s a pleasure to be here with these guys andto share the mountain with them
In our design process and over the last couple years, we’ve been really focusing on the rallycross set up of the car, which is kind of a mixed surface setup
So we have asphalt and dirt, and today it’s just a dirt Hill Climb
All three cars are gonna be running different suspension setups. We’re all running different tires
We’re gonna pull data from all the cars and try to figure out who’s got the best setup and try to eliminate drivers variable using the data systems on board.
“I’m here to drive” -Sheldon Marra
It’s the first time I’ve been in the seat competitively both for me and O.P. we’ve both spent a lot of time developing these cars and testing them but this is the first time we’ll be timed and honestly, we’re competing against each other.
My plan for the day is just make it to the top of the mountain, if I have to go at a grandma snail pace to the top I’m gonna do that just to make sure that I can go home to my wife and kids.
I’ll probably be the fastest because I have to be, it’s part of my status in the shop
If I’m not the fastest then O.P. is just really good at setting up cars or Sheldon took a shortcut
Who had the best tire? (Points to Cole)
Yeah, Cole.
Who had the best best wing, aero package? (Points to Cole)
So let’s not talk about him. Yeah, it’s really about us.
Which makes a life there we had 537 rookie of the year
O.P. beat me but that’s okay because if I’m gonna get beat by anybody in the shop it better be O.P.
The first session of the morning Sheldon had me by a second. So over five miles and a little over five minutes of time
We were only one second away from each other. We all consistently got faster throughout every run
“Every run was a little bit faster!”
We’re learning more about this hillclimb here, we brought a car with Pro driver last year and he gave us some great feedback so we rolled a lot of that technology into these new cars.
And so we’ve come back as a team we’ve brought all the guys out to test what they’ve been building. So all in all, it was a it was a great experience
For the team, and we got the result that we were looking for
This was the first time I’ve ever been in like a competition type setting and To drive one of these SIERRA RX3 up this mountain. It was a completely addictive experience!
It was a perfect environment for us to find out what we need to do the next time, so we come back here just to slay it!
