Pakistan Express Racing Team

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

The winner of our first Refer And Win t-shirt giveaway is Brian Garfield of Mount Airy, Maryland.

We’ll be autographing Brian’s limited-edition Pakistan Express t-shirt at Grattan Raceway before we send it to him. Wear it in good health, Brian!

Thanks to all who participated!

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.

Catching up on some old SPEED Report shows, we were shocked to see this HANS device on Helio Castroneves.  What the heck is this thing?

Is that a HANS device or are you just happy to see me?

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.

What do we do between on-track sessions?  We find innovative ways to make our cars go faster, of course.

Super Secret Go Fast Switch from brianmakse on Vimeo.

Here’s a look into who really makes the magic happens with our quick little race cars.

Meet The Pak Exp Racing Team 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.