The H-production X1/9 went Heartland Park Raceway in Topeka Kansas for the last SCCA 
National Race of the 2006 year. This was a critical race, as problems early in the 
season threatened our ability to qualify for the Runoffs in October. It was a 
chance for us to check out the new site of the Runoffs and get familiar with the 
track. It was a heavily subscribed event overall, with nearly 300 entrants. 
There were 40 cars in our race group including many top dogs in E, F, and G-Prod 
as well as 10+ cars in GT-Lite. H-Prod was lightly subscribed for some reason, 
only 4 cars starting, however the defending national champion was there in his 
Triumph Spitfire. The weather was great all weekend, mid 70’s and sunshine for 
every session. 
 
The first session ended with a car running hot and a nearly flat LF tire. The 
temps were somewhat expected, as we’ve been having problems with cooling. The 
flat tire was a surprise. No wonder the car didn’t want to turn right!
 
Before the afternoon qualifying session, we installed a nice two-row custom aluminum 
radiator into the car, hoping that would help the temperature problem. Help it did! 
During the qualifying session, my temps were a rock solid 205 water / 160 water,  
the first time in years I wasn’t flirting with 200+ water. Yeah! I managed to 
find a bit of time but was a bit disappointed with my qualifying time, a 2.02 and 
some change. We were qualified second behind the Spitfire.
 
The region hosting the race offered individual 10-minute warm-up sessions per race 
group on Sunday AM, a novelty that I have never seen before at the east-coast races. 
I managed to get 5 or 6 good hot laps with little traffic and found more time, 
creeping down to the 2.01s. 
 
The race was a good clean one for me and most of the prod cars in general, in spite 
of the track being incredibly tight. I got a decent start and closed right up on 
the rear of the Spitfire for a couple of laps, but started getting passed by higher-power 
cars on the straights that were gridded behind me. Once that happened, I couldn’t 
repass them, and the Spitfire started creeping away. My fasted lap of the weekend was 
on lap 2 of the race, at a 2.01 and change. Midway through the race, the track really 
got greasy, and the car’s handling went bad. I had a pretty wild high-speed off/spin 
at a very fast corner, and another 4-wheel-off adventure a couple laps later, but 
wound up bringing the car and driver home in one piece, learning a lot about the track, 
and accomplishing everything we had set out to do.
 
Results at MyLaps: http://www.mylaps.com/results/newResults.jsp?id=405577
 
The next and last race of the season will be the SCCA Runoffs. Our race is Friday, October 13: http://www.scca.com/_FileLibrary/File/REVISED-PER-SOM-2006-Schedule.pdf
 


-Matt Brannon
M-x-M Racing
#22 H-Production X1/9