TCI Engineering & Drive Auto Collision make SCCA history by being the first to win CAM-T at a SCCA National Tour event in a Truck.
In an effort to increase Muscle Car attendance, SCCA came up with a class called CAM (Classic American Muscle) in 2014. There are 3 sub classes within CAM, S = Sports Car (Corvettes, Cobras, Vipers etc), C = Contemporary (5th/6th Gen Camaros, ’05 & newer Mustangs, G8/SS etc) & T = Traditional. The rules for CAM-T are pretty straight forward. Vehicles must be front engine, rear wheel drive (no electric) original body vehicles manufactured between 1948 and 2000 (all years of 4th Gen Camaro & SN95 Mustangs are allowed). Participants must adhere to a list of 200 treadwear tires, weigh at least 3180lbs with driver, & minimal aero upgrades are allowed.
A few months back while browsing the @sccaofficial website we found online results for all previous National Tour events. At first it was just a casual curiosity search. Maybe we would get lucky and find some #TCIequipped vehicles we weren’t aware of. As we browsed thru the results it became abundantly clear that trucks have never finished well in CAM-T or even CAM in general at National level events. In fact, in nearly 11 years of National Tour CAM-T competition the only time a truck finished on the podium (in 3rd) was when there were only 3 vehicles registered.
This sprouted the idea of getting a truck to win CAM-T at a National Tour event. At the time the SCCA had not dropped the 2025 schedule yet so the idea would have to wait. A month or so later the schedule was released. There would be two possible somewhat local opportunities to accomplish this goal. February 22nd & 23rd in AZ and also at Crows Landing (NorCal) in May (more on that later hopefully). We floated the idea by Alfredo aka #FastFreddy at http://driveautocollision.com/ builder and owner of the #BananaHammock5. He was 100% down for trying to make history at the AZ event. #BananaHammock was certainly more than capable of putting up a good fight. Freddy’s Blazer had won the Duel in the Desert Shootout at the Scottsdale Goodguys a few months prior. More on the build here.
Fast forward to Friday February 21st. The plan was to have Tommy (TJ) Tomlin and Jason Wilcox co-drive the truck. Which would give us two chances to achieve our goal. We arrived at Arizona Motorsports Park (AMP) around 10:00 AM on Friday. First things first, we had to get the truck through the very strict sound test at AMP. The truck failed the first attempt at passing by 2 decibels. A quick trip to the local parts store to procure components that would bolt on easily and help quiet it down. Second attempt got us the stamp of approval from the officials. So TJ & Jason headed to grid to get some Test-N-Tune laps. Jason was up first, now keep in mind this course is just a test course, it would be completely redesigned for competition on Saturday. The Test-n-Tune session was just to get acclimated to an unfamiliar surface. Jason’s first test lap was very chaotic with a bunch of tail wagging oversteer. Jason’s practice laps, 2, 3, & 4 were more of the same. In those 4 laps there were more than 10 cone strikes. The rear of the Blazer just wasn’t happy. A quick call to Sal Solorzano, our VP, for some tuning suggestions. We made some adjustments to help settle the back end of the Blazer down. By now we were running out of time. TJ had been riding shotgun during Jason’s laps and made more than one comment about Jason “overdriving” the Blazer. TJ hopped in the Blazer for his turn. He also kicked a bunch of cones but also dnf’d from a spin. The spin put us face to face with course worker and our local CalClub/SDR region buddy Mike Dismuke. Judging by the look on his face it surprised him just as much as it did TJ. TJ would only make two laps due to his frustration with the oversteer. “This isn’t the same truck I drove last year”, said TJ. Explaining that what was once a very predictable and easy to drive vehicle was downright hard to drive now. It seemed like our plan was crumbling. All the preparation and planning only to fall short the day before was not where we wanted to be. Luckily, Freddy kept the faith and pushed them both to continue with the plan.
Saturday Competition
The National Tour events are designed to prepare you for Solo Nationals in Lincoln. These National Tours are regional events drawing high volume attendance. The same 3 laps each day format as the Solo Nationals. With 133 drivers in attendance in AZ, 11 of which were in CAM-T the pressure was on to get things done in only 3 laps per day. No practice, just walk the course and make it happen in 3 tries. Given our lack of confidence in rear lateral grip this would be quite the task.
Jason would be first out and TJ would go out 2nd. Per the rules in a co-drive situation there must be 5 minutes between laps. The game plan was to just get a good solid, clean lap out of the way and then just chip away at improvement. All CAM-T cars would run together sequentially all day. Sitting about mid way thru the group we got to watch some of the competition do their first lap before we had to go out. As Jason lined up for his first lap the only CAM-T car that had run a sub 60 second lap was Daniel Hipskind in his DSE equipped ’66 Mustang. Jason’s first lap out he clicked off a 58.598 putting him in 1st, which was short lived. About that time Matt Leon came through the lights in his ’78 Monte Carlo with a 58.304. Unfortunately a late cone call came in which made Matt’s lap a 60.304 after the 2 second penalty. TJ was next up to bat. His first lap you could tell he was being cautious after his excursions from the previous day. His first lap would be a 62.161.
We could hear the announcer Sam Mayorga (also a local CalClub/SDR member) talking up the close competition in CAM-T. It was anybody’s game so early in the weekend. On Daniel’s 2nd lap he threw down a 58.571 putting him in 1st place by .027 of a second. It was getting interesting and stressful fast! One after another the AZ CAM-T group came across the line with big improvements. 4 drivers all jumped into the bottom 59’s on the 2nd lap. Jason lined up for his 2nd lap and clicked off a clean 57.759 putting him back in 1st. The Blazer was working pretty well. There was still some driver hesitation mid corner due to the oversteer. It was a balancing act of aggression & patience. Moments later Matt comes across the stripe in the Monte Carlo with a clean 58.588. So now 2nd & 3rd place were separated by .017 & Jason had a solid .8 lead. TJ strapped in and went out for his 2nd lap. You could see the added aggression in the truck’s demeanor. Unfortunately, he got a little too aggressive and tank swapped through the slalom. In spite of this he still picked up nearly 2 seconds with a 60.667.
Final lap of day one. Daniel would continue his improvement streak and laid down a 58.1. By now Jason is getting acclimated to the tail happy tendencies of the Blazer. Feeling all the pressure to hold onto the lead. On his 3rd and final lap he knocked another 6 tenths off running a 57.206. Matt came through the lights on his final run with another 58.3 and once again he gets a cone penalty. This is why the 3 lap deal is so stressful. You have to push hard but also keep it clean. Jason would end up jinxing TJ on his 3rd lap by telling him “You can push the Blazer a little harder”. Literally on the first turn TJ spun out costing him his final lap. No other driver would dip into the 58’s on their final lap.
TJ’s 3rd lap spin
Day One Results
1st 57.206 Jason
2nd 58.100 Daniel
3rd 58.588 Matt
Sunday Competition
To find the event winner for each class the fastest lap from each day is added together. We would have to run the course in the opposite direction on Sunday. After a course walk it seemed like it was going to be a little more forgiving of our oversteering issue. The starting line would definitely favor the rear weight biased and powerful Blazer. This time Jason was early in the line up so he would have to set the bar. The one thing he couldn’t do is cone away the lead. Jason’s first lap looked composed and clean but also conservative. That lap, 55.839 was quickest of all other CAM-T first laps. However, Daniel in the Mustang and Matt in the Monte Carlo were within striking distance. Plus now we had Mike Carroll in his gorgeous ’67 Nova & Michael Hitt in his killer ’70 Chevelle picking up steam. This was going to come down to these final 2 laps but it’s always a balance of risk vs. reward. TJ decided to sit out the rest of the weekend. He felt it was nearly impossible to overcome the 2.5 second deficit from day one and there was no need to abuse Freddy’s truck. This helped with tire temps as now we wouldn’t have to spray the tires between drivers. On lap 2 Jason knocked off another .7 running a 55.167. “I overdrove it in two areas and gave up some time”, said Jason. Daniel in the Mustang dipped down into the 55’s with a 55.856, Matt jumped into 2nd for the day with a 55.707 in the Monte Carlo and now John Tindle entered the chat in his stunning ’64 Nova with a 56.187. This put Jason about .6 ahead for the day and about 1.5 seconds for the weekend. Jason was starting to feel a little relief from all the stress. Maybe even some excitement that we could actually pull off the win. With a very close group of drivers chasing him it seemed like the pressure had transferred from his shoulders to the other drivers. There was just one lap left for everyone. Jason would go out on his final lap and pick up almost another second running a 54.254. Which put us in a very good position for the overall. All we could do now is sit back and watch the rest of the group run and hope no one pulled off a Hail Mary lap. While Matt did throw down a super fast final lap (55.015), it wasn’t enough for the win but was enough for a .3 advantage to take over 2nd place. Unfortunately, Daniel (who was sitting pretty solidly in 2nd until Matt’s last lap) pushed a little too hard and dnf’d at the finish line. That lap of Daniel’s was looking like a solid bottom 55 second lap which would have put him in the #2 spot. We can’t thank the AZ CAM-T group enough. These guys & gal know how to have a good time and were so welcoming to us SoCal transplants. Thank you!
The last thing we had to do before claiming victory was head to the scales. The Blazer is over 3800 lbs with driver so we knew even with a ‘happy’ scale that we would be over the 3180 lbs minimum weight for CAM-T. We had done it! We put #TheBananaHammock5 into the winner’s circle at a National Tour event. We can’t thank Freddy and the crew from Drive Auto Collision enough for this great opportunity to make SCCA History!
