Pakistan Express Racing Team

It’s official!

Pakistan Express Racing Team has won the 2009 NASA Great Lakes Performance Touring E Championship. At Putnam Park this past weekend, we ended the racing season in style–we set fastest lap in qualifying, won both races and set fast lap in both races.

In our first full season, we chalked up:

- 10 wins
- 5 poles
- 4 track records

The team won races and holds track records at every track on the schedule.  In fact, as we developed both PakExp Honda Civics throughout the season, both cars, 786 and 787, have won races and earned track records.

Matt Johnston added another two Time Trial wins to his growing list of victories, finished second in the Time Trial E Championship and also earned Rookie of the Year honours at the NASA awards event this past Saturday evening.

It’s time to give a shout out to Old Faithful, 787.

787 started life as TC Kline’s #12 Firestone Firehawk series race car and has been driven by some famous sports car names like Randy Pobst and Andy Pilgrim.

Last year, this car was purchased to form the basis of the Pakistan Express team as car #786 and debuted at Putnam Park with a limited amount of preparation.  That weekend, we led the first race to finish second on the first day, then suffered mechanical issues that we chased all season.  Here’s a pic from that debut weekend:

From there, 786 was repaired, painted, developed, raced, crashed, repaired again and developed further. In the off season, an all-new 786 was built, so the car was renumbered to 787 and, we thought, relegated to B-car status.

Little did we know that all the development work that went into 787 over the last year really was the ticket. Straight out of the shop, 787 won all three races at Mid-Ohio in April and finished first and second at the May Putnam Park event.

As we recently discovered, 787 also earned track records at both Mid-Ohio and Putnam Park.  We expect those records won’t be broken until next year at the earliest.

So, it’s time for some 787 love.  Here’s 787 in action at Putnam Park, en route to another race win:

Photo Credit: Dave Everest

We have one seat available in our #787 race-winning and championship-leading car for the upcoming NASA Grattan race on June 5-6, which features tons of seat time and 3 sprint races.

This car holds track records at Mid-Ohio and Putnam Park.

This is a complete arrive-and-drive weekend, from help with membership/licence through to vehicle prep, we look after it all.

Contact us at fahmad ~at~ pakexp ~dot~ com.

Here’s what NASA had to say about our race:

“Once again, our strongest PT class was PTE. This class only promises to
increase if the rumors are true. (Another Miata and an Acura driven by a couple
of unrelated Smith’s?) We will see. For now, Honda seems to be leading the
season. Saturday’s race started behind a Spec Miata melee which spread the
field for the entire time. Green Baron Racing’s Jack Baruth came out of the pile
first and held on for the entire race. The Team Pakistan Express car, driven by
Brian Makse, followed for second. Eric Waddell, Bob Keller and Faisal Ahmad
finished in respective order after dealing with their own ”issues” during the race.
Sunday brought perfect racing weather – hot sun and cool air. Makse brought his
“A” game and took the win. The E4 Safety car, driven by Waddell, came in
second followed by Keller’s Miata. Baruth and the second Pakistan Express car,
driven by Ahmad, had to bow out early.”

Here’s a direct link to the full Performance Touring report. Take heed, it’s a PDF.

We’re introducing a new feature, Meet The Competition. Debuting here is Bob Keller, a quick and too-tall-for-a-Miata racer from Toledo, Ohio. In fact, Bob lives too close for comfort to our tuning shop, Pure Tuning, and he probably spies on our cars when they’re on the dyno.

Meet The Competition - Bob Keller from brianmakse on Vimeo.

WARNING: This is the full length race video. Watch at your peril. We’ll edit down this long clip into a highlight reel soon.

NASA Putnam Park May 17, 2009 PTE Race from brianmakse on Vimeo.

Performance Touring Series Director, Mark Bardes, had some kind words for Pakistan Express Racing Team in his race report, as noted in a previous post.

We took that inspiration and created a limited-edition t-shirt. Here’s our presentation to Mark:

PakExp.com Mark Bardes T-Shirt Presentation from brianmakse on Vimeo.

The next event in the NASA Great Lakes series is almost here. We’re rolling in to Putnam Park road course early in the morning this coming Friday for a full day of testing with 786 and 787.  We’re excited because we have a full complement of talent joining us this weekend, including the best crew chief in the business, Sam Myers, the best fabricator and talented shoe, Tinman, and the PakExp team court jester, Rob D.  We’ll also be doing some driver coaching and data analysis to ensure we’re getting the most out of each car.

Thanks to Hoosier Tire and their contingency program, we have some new tires to heat cycle in our first session Friday morning.  Following that heat cycle run, there remains some development work to be done with 786.  Since the last event at Mid-Ohio, we’ve updated the chassis (sorry, competitors, we’re not revealing those changes here) and need to find our race set up.

787, on the other hand, is rock steady, refreshed and ready to roll in that same multiple-race winning shape that we saw at Mid-Ohio.  For fun and excitement, we anticipate filming this weekend’s activities with multiple cameras in both cars.

With some luck, we hope to see the periwinkle Plymouth Neon from Green Baron Motorsports, piloted by the no-longer-welcome-on-FerrariChat.com Jack Baruth, take the green flag with us this weekend.

Watch for race updates here at PakExp.com, on our Facebook Page and on Twitter.