SG-Motorsport and Yuke's Bring Home The Mosport 3hr Enduro!



BRAMPTON, Ontario (September 21, 2009) – Smooth. That’s the word of the weekend for SG. It’s not often you have an endurance race of three hours go as smoothly as the one we just experienced. Everything from start to finish truly went according to plan, and as practiced. We had Yuke Taniguchi as the co-driver, a Japanese racing driver who’s won the Japanese Super Taikyu racing championship, raced in World Touring Car and driven some amazing Japanese Le Mans race cars. Needless to say, we had a lot of work to live up to the benchmark Mr. Taniguchi has experienced in his racing career, but he has nothing but good things to say about the team and the car which really meant a lot coming from a someone with that much professional racing experience.

We were able to qualify with a 1.28.5, almost two seconds faster than our previous record, simply by doing some small aerodynamic work, having new tires and of course, the cool crisp morning September air.

This was SG’s first time doing a tire change with nitrogen at the wall, impact guns and glued lug nuts and after a lot of late nights at the shop practicing, when it really mattered the guys pulled it off fantastically and I hardly had myself strapped in by the time they were done all four tires and fuel. We were running a great pace ranging between 1:30 to 1:33’s all race in traffic of 40 cars, most of which were GT4, 5 and 6 cars which you catch quite quickly, lapping sometimes seven or eight different cars per lap!

We were able to run the car aggressively all race, only caring for the tires as they had to go 1.5hrs without a tire change. I was driving the final stint of the race and after about 1hr 25min the front tires really started to fall off, as did my focus! But little did I know the only car in front of us, a GT1 Viper Competition Coupe, had a clutch failure and was limping around the track in 4th gear, nearly 10 seconds off of its normal pace. I was catching the car at an alarming rate and with only a few minutes left in the race, it came down to the last lap to see if we could win overall, and not just GT2. On the final corners of the last lap the Viper appeared in front of me, and I raced through corner 8, 9, 10 as fast as I could but it wasn’t enough – after three hours it all came down to just three seconds. To add insult to injury, the Viper ran out of fuel on the cool down lap and had to be towed into the pits!

Perhaps SG’s best race ever, the crew did an absolutely incredible job, Yuke was a fast and consistent driver, and the car didn’t miss a beat all weekend. Not to mention the weather, which had not a cloud in the sky all day. Just perfect! More pictures and video is to come, we have all three hours in-car on tape thanks to Mr Yuke Taniguhi, we look forward to meeting him again soon!

Dave Briggs DMCC Season Conclusion



So the season has come to a close and SG couldn’t be happier with the reliability and performance of the car. With the new Mazworx engine the car was a real weapon, however it will always be difficult to match the throttle response and torque of a V8. That being said, Dave did fantastic all season and has shown a ton of improvement to his consistency and car control. Next year we look forward to seeing Dave pushing the envelope further and aiming for a few podiums!  Congrats Dave on a great season.

SG Finishes First At CSCS Time Attack!



BRAMPTON, Ontario (Aug 25, 2009) SG always likes to come out and support local events and one of the best local events to have a ton of fun and be exposed to all kinds of motorsport has to be CSCS. SG attended with a few employees and customer cars and had a great time. Sasha Anis entered his 350z in Time Attack and took home the Unlimited RWD class with a 1.18.57 after just installing new Koni dampers and making a few other changes to the vehicle. Bing Wong, a sponsor and customer of SG won the Street RWD class with a 1.26.44 and one of SG’s own pit crew finished 3rd in Unlimited FWD with a 1.23.77! Chris Budgell, one of SG’s mechanics was entered in the drifting competition and was killing it, getting closer to the wall than anyone. Finally, both Chris, Sasha, Dan Pye (U2NDyno S14) and Dave Kaskie (SG Built 550whp 350z Roadster) headed over to the drag strip to see what our cars could do. It was a great day and we all left with smiles on our faces!

Dave Briggs DMCC Mid-Season Update



Dave Briggs has been competing since 2008, and for 2009 SG built a brand new 240sx Drift Car.  The first round of DMCC had lots of competition and the track took a toll on many of the cars. Dave unfortunately crashed early in round 1 heavily damaging the rear of his car into the turn 1 wall.  The car was fixed and prepped for round 2 in St. Eustache where Dave placed in the top 8 for his first time, with his consistently improving skill. 

Round 3 was wet, and almost every driver was having a hard time keeping their car consistent.  Dave’s car was performing well for the conditions and so he was able to qualify 4th overall!  The car was working flawlessly in the rain with a few adjustments to the suspension and boost control.  The car has undergone some minor work and will be ready for round 4 in Toronto at Downsview Park Aug 15th and 16th, come check us out at downsview! To order tickets and to get details on the event, please click HERE

SG Finishes 10th At Sundowner After A Charge From The Back!



BRAMPTON, Ontario (May 20, 2009) - Oh Dear. That's all I can say about my weather prediction skills. Sometimes it just comes down to the luck of the draw, and sometimes you should just do what everyone else is doing. In either case we were wrong this rain filled weekend at Mosport.

SG-Motorsport was entered in a 3 hour endurance race that is held anually at Canada's premiere race track, Mosport International Raceway - home to F1, ALMS, Star Mazda, World Challenge.. the list goes on.

Our first practice session was wet. Our qualifying was wet. We couldn't get the car to work well in the rain, not that we tried that hard. We should have spent time tuning on the car instead of doing our anti-rain dance, but alas it was what it was. Our pace in the rain left a lot to be desired, and that will happen any time a car is trying to kill you. Our car, without a doubt, was trying to kill us. When I say us I speak also of Sam Stuard who was driving along side myself, Sasha Anis, for the 3 hour endurance event. Back to the car's attempted murder - the reason for it was really because we are faced with a racecar without any downforce, infact it has lift. The next issue is that the ever changing weather kept us from making a large setup change, as it would have taken far too long to reverse if the skies cleared up.

However, the clouds were clearing for the race and things were looking pretty good for SG. So we started the race on brand new BFG R1s. Bad idea. As soon as we got to pre-grid the skies opened on us once again and we were stuck with dry tires and a dry setup on a soaked track. We had to pit after two laps the car was actually trying to kill me it was driving crazy. We put on rains and disconnected the rear bar and the car started driving like a dream. Half way through the race we were running the 2nd fastest pace on the track - only slower to a comp coupe viper.

We had a fantastic pit stop and got Sam Stuard in the car, new fuel and dry tires on and with 20 minutes left in the 3hr enduro we were running 5th overall, after being dead last at the start of the race! Unfortuantely the car ran out of gas with 4 minutes to go and we had to pit again for fuel, putting us back to 10th place overall. It was a great race though and the car performed flawlessly, which in itself was a huge accomplishment!


2008 - SG Qualifies First And Finishes 2,2,3 At Mosport!



SG Decided to finish off its season in style at Mosport International Raceway at the Celebration of Motorsport race weekend. Running in the Mobil 1 GT Sprints, Kels had to withstand 3 20 minute sprint races in an attempt to come out on top of the GT2 class, against cars like an ex PTG World Challenge M3 and a heavilly prepared Corvette race car. Not to mention the 3 rotor RX-7 of Can-Saf Racing.

So how did we do? Well the damp conditions helped us in the qualifying session where we managed to put ourselves on the pole, but the racing was tight over the course of the weekend, trying to keep the red corvette of Terry Fletcher behind us at all costs. It was hard. Some blocking was done (Sorry Terry!) but we were able to keep him behind us in all races but the last one, where he made a spectacular pass into corner 2 (see above). Well that isn't entirely true... He, as well as Kurt, was ahead in the 2nd sprint race, but they both spun entering corner 5. But the car that simply could not be caught was an ex PTG World Challenge M3 with what I'd have to argue is the best sounding inline six ever witnessed.

In the end Kelsey was more reliable than peice of wood, we checked her after each session but time and time again there was nothing to do. Infact the car was so good we were able to skip out early after our Saturday two races and head to Sutton Go-Kart track to race some shifter karts! Not quite Nascar level double duty but I'll take it!


SG Finishes 13th At Trois Riveres

BRAMPTON, Ontario (Sept 03, 2008) - Traveling to Quebec for Grand-Am's Koni Challenge GS race was something the team at SG-Motorsport had been excited about for months. Lots of preperation went into the car before hand, including the installation of shock pots, revalving dampers, testing multiple times at Shannnonville Motorsports Park, all to make sure SG could do as well as possible at this big GP3R race.

And what a weekend it was. Having never been to this track before the team was just estimating the car setup based on Shannonville test days, and in the first practice the car felt fantastic. The car had the perfect balance of on throttle power down grip and corner entry looseness that you need for a track with such tight corners. The team couldn't have asked for a better handling car on Friday. Unfortunately however, the brakes were a problem. It wasn't the pads themselves, no the Endless endurance pads never once faded or changed characteristic, however the issue was with the lack of ABS. An issue not easilly fixed at the track, you could imagine. Trois Rivieres being a city street as it is 51 weeks of the year, the surface was extremely bumpy and crowned, causing for a lot of single wheel lock up in the braking zone. As hard as the drivers Sasha Anis and Malcolm Strachan tried, they were unable to brake as late as many of the other competitors were.

Well the big screen caught the team's every attempt at a late brake down the main straight away, the back of the car dancing two feet either way as the rear tires locked and unlocked, just slowing down enough to turn in for the tight left hand corner. Sasha Anis, being frustrated and determined kept trying to brake later in Qualifying but couldn't find a way to make it work. After flat spotting a tire terribly and sliding right off into the run-off he tried once again, on a fantastic lap no less. Well this time he re-locked that same tire but unfortunately did not make it through the corner and took off the front of the car in the tire wall.

The team worked hard to get the car fixed for the race, using parts from the spare 350z however unfortunately without our alignment machine at the track and no perfect way to align the car, the team did what it could and drove the car up and down the paddock trying to see if the car would track straight.

And then came race time. The first pace lap Sasha could feel the car was understeering terribly to the left, knowing right away that something was not quite right with the repaired corner of the car. The car was down about one second per lap, and in Koni Challenge, one second a lap can be the difference between mid pack and back of pack. So it was.

However, being a street circuit and an endurance race, it was only natural that a lot of cars would crash, light on fire, break or have other issues that would slow them down. The team knew that bringing the car home to the finish fast and clean would be the key to a good finish. And it was. By the end of Sasha's stint the team was running well inside the top 20, and by the end of the one hour and fourty five minute race Malcolm had brought the team up to 13th position.

The team was pleased with the result, all things considered. Having the car finish the race with no mechanical failures was a great sucess, and when the car was running at its best the little 350z had the pace to run mid pack, on a track that was new to the drivers and team.

SG-Motorsport looks forward to it's next race and have to thank our sponsors for their support, Endless' brake pads were fantastic as we mentioned prior; Trois Rivieres is a true test on a vehicles heat capacity, being a tight city circuit with concrete walls that hold the heat in the track, it is harder on brakes and engines than most tracks out there. But our Castrol Edge engine oil and dyno tuning time from U2NDyno.com has resulted in a reliable engine that has yet to miss a beat.

SG Finishes It's First KONI Race At Mosport

BRAMPTON, Ontario (June 17, 2008) – It was an exciting race weekend for the SG Motorsport team at Mosport International Raceway where the crew campaigned their Nissan 350z race car for the first time in the Koni Challenge series.

It was quite the experience having never run an endurance race of this nature before, but the team did great and the car ran flawlessly all weekend, except for a tiny issue that cost them a potential top 15 finish.

Leading up to the weekend a ton of preparation was still to be done on the car, a special thanks must be mentioned to Agile Graphics for working so hard to complete all of the decals for the car as well as Endless brakes for express shipping the team’s brake equipment, both parties worked hard last minute to get the SG-Motorsport boys ready to race, and off to Mosport it was for the Thursday test day.

A lot of setup work was done to the car and with fresh tires it was working rather well, however more horsepower and more setup time is required before the team will have front running pace.

Sasha Anis qualified the car in the 22nd position with a 1.33.679, 2.826 seconds off of the leader. Everyone on the SG crew is confident they will be able to close up that gap and be within a second of the front runners by the end of the season.

The race was going great until the team was brought in for a fuel leak issue that was occurring during high-speed corners with a full fuel load. Grand-Am officials inspected the car for a leak and then released the car after realizing it was only the vent tube, this cost the team a lap and Sasha was sent out in the middle of the ST pack and had to carefully fight his way through, not wanting to disturb the ST race leaders. A yellow flag came out and Anis’ car was allowed to get its lap back, passing the pace car and re-joining on the lead lap. After spending the next 40 minutes fighting through ST cars and moving through the GS pack he handed the car over to Andrew Wojteczko now running 22nd, ironically the team’s starting position!

The crew performed a fantastic pit stop, the fueling went extremely quickly and the driver change was smooth and efficient. Andrew got out and started turning really fast laps before reporting that the seat had failed and he was literally hanging on for dear life! After a few laps of racing while trying to carry his own weight as the seat was offering no support, nothing could be done but to come into the pits and try to fix the issue. Realizing it was only a bolt that had vibrated out, a new one was installed and the guys got back out and finished the race.

While at the finish the SG 350z was many laps behind, the team sees the race as a success and looks forward to the Trois Rivieres race August 15-17 where they can take what they’ve learnt at Mosport and work towards possibly running in the top 10 at Quebec’s difficult street circuit.

SG's Wins First Race!

After a long tiring week getting the car prepared for its first Mosport outing, we made it to Mosport friday night ready to rock. The car worked flawlessly all weekend and with a little bit more setup work she is sure to be a weapon.

We had a rain practice session Saturday morning which gave myself some much needed rain practice and then got to qualifying Saturday afternoon which showed us the cars true colors in the dry at Mosport. On sunday we had two races, the first of which we won and the second very wet race we came in second.

Overall it was a great weekend and we're really happy the car came home in one peice and ran as reliably as it did.

SG's First Test With The New Z

After swapping in our race engine and tuning it on the dyno Friday night, we got the car ready for a weekend test day at Dunnville Autodrome to shake down the car. Having never driven it and wondering a whole bunch of things this test day really helped us try a bunch of different stuff and figure out what changes we'd have to make to get the car where it needs to be.

We were riding on the rear bump stops all day and had horrible pad knockback, but aside from those things and a small leak at the fuel cell the car ran fantastically. We didn't have any engine issues or mechanical failures and the cars power output was consistent and strong all day. We're lacking a little bit of grip but with some setup work and fresh tires we're sure we'll have that problem solved. We'll keep everyone updated on our progress as it happens.

SG Goes Pro For 2008

For 2008 the SG-Motorsport team has decided to take the plunge into pro racing. With the purchase of a 350z that used to run in this very series, we are on our quest to prepare it to be one of the best cars in the feild. We hope that with what we've learned in the past few years, and with the help of others we can make this car one of the more competitive in the feild.

Koni Challenge is an endurance based racing series where races range from 2.5-3 hours (VIR is a 6 hour race!) and runs all across eastern North America. Most events are televised and there is some serious competition, big names like TRG and Boris Said are not exactly rare in Koni Challenge.