There are many aspects of the Spectre 341 Challenge which make it an unusual race. Everything from the surrounding town (which seems straight out of a spaghetti western) to the race course itself (which seems to have been cut right out of Germany’s Nürburgring) makes a run at 341 different from the normal track event.
The most amazing thing about 341 though isn’t the wooden sidewalks or the off-camber turns, but rather the fact that every participant has an equal chance at glory, because this isn’t a racetrack you can memorize, it’s a real road, and the landmarks and surface change every year.
No one better demonstrates the egalitarian nature of racing 341 than 2010 driver, Jeremy Kappus. A Reno native in a self-tuned ‘06 Mitsubishi EvoIX RS, Jeremy shocked everyone on the first day of racing by turning a faster time than any other racers on the grid, including big names like Millen, Gigliotti and Gillies. While the high horsepower cars eventually claimed the top three spots, Kappus stayed close by and finished with amazingly consistent results in the mid 3:25 range. Pretty impressive!
Jeremy is coming back for 2011, and we caught up with him to get his thoughts on race cars vs. street cars, why driving is the best way to tune a car and what new 341 drivers should expect from the Virginia City hill.
What do you do (day job)? For the last 3-4 years, I’ve been working on cars, specializing in mainly Evos, doing everything from regular maintenance to track prepping and performance part installs (clutchs,cams,turbos etc). Along with mechanical work, I also tune Evos, Subarus, Nissans and the occasional unusual project. I’m currently helping (fellow 341 participant) Adam Auerbach tune his GMC Syclone to run on E85. I specialize in tuning stock ECUs.
Have you always liked cars? I’ve been working on cars since I was a teenager. I originally was in to stereo systems and lowriders, but it wasn’t terribly fulfilling, and the first time I saw Rally racing on Speed TV, I knew that was a direction I wanted to go in. Seeing those 4-wheel drive 4-cylinder Turbo cars was exciting, those cars are insane!
How long have you had the Evo? I bought the Evo new in 06 after getting frustrated with my previous project. I had learned a lot about tuning on a pretty extreme Subaru build, which, like many projects, had gotten way out of hand. It had a full turbo kit and a programmable ECU and at that time in Reno, you couldn’t just throw it on the dyno at a local shop and get a good tune. I had to teach myself, and mostly by ear. Try something, drive it, if it rattles, back it down…it wasn’t the best way to build a car and it was especially difficult to get all those aftermarket parts to work together properly. I got tired of blowing it up and rebuilding it, and I had read that the 2006 Evo offered a fully programmable stock ECU, which I found intriguing.
What are some of the modifications from stock? The Evo is such a good, solid platform that you can do great things just by refining and blueprinting the stock package. I felt like people rarely drove or tuned these cars to their potential. The motor has never even been out of my car. It has upgraded Alcon brakes and KW coilover suspension and I did change the cams and springs but the turbo is stock, and on these cars, the turbo is really the powerplant. I wanted to see how far I could take it with the stock turbo. It’s actually pretty amazing, even in mostly stock trim, the car is fast enough to scare me.
I did change the seats to racing seats, trying to stay in the seat during a turn by holding on to the steering wheel isn’t how you want to race!
What was the first competitive driving you ever did? I’ve only been driving on a track for maybe four or five years. I started out by going to the drag strip with guys to help tune their cars, and then a friend took me to Reno Fernley Raceway. There I was, on the track in the Evo, hanging with trailered Porsches and I knew that I wanted to keep doing that kind of driving.
Driving on a track is so different from driving on the street. Even the most aggressive street driving is only maybe 75% of what you can do on a track. On the street, in the back of your mind, there’s always the concern of cross traffic, of speed limits…on the street you always have to think, “How am I going to save it?” And the thing is, you can’t.
Racing a closed course allows you to clear your head of normal thoughts and 341 is even more fun than a racetrack.
Why did you run the 341 Challenge in 2010? I believe that it’s really important for people in the car community to support racetracks and race events, so when I saw on the forums that someone was doing another race on Hwy 341, I wanted to make sure I did my part to support it. Also, the entry fee is incredibly cheap for that much track time.
What did you think about the event last year? I ran the Ferrari club hill climb early in 2010 and it was really fun. Racing the Spectre 341 was interesting because it was a first time race and because of the other participants. Racing with Lou (Gigliotti) and Steve Millen was cool. You can’t bench race it. You can’t practice. Driving up at 45 mph in one lane is totally different than driving the same road at speed. I genuinely had no idea how I’d do against those guys, and really, neither did they. It was the first time for them too.
Why do you want to return to 341 this year? This kind of racing is the best ever. After a few runs, you blank out the cliffs and it’s all about the actual road and corners. Each corner flows, compared to the race tracks I’ve been on. There’s no slow corners, no bumps.
From what I’ve heard, racing Hwy 341 was almost a cult in the old days and that makes sense, it’s really really fun, it lets you test your memory, your driving skill, your tuning skills. It’s just a perfect test of driver and machinery.
Do you have any recommendations for the new entrants this year? Make sure your car is fully functional and reliable before you get to the hill. It could ruin your day if you waste your runs due to mechanical problems. If it isn’t mechanically sound, you can’t tune it, and if it isn’t tuned, you can’t drive it.
Go to have fun, let go of all your expectations and just see what it’s all about. Don’t go to compete with anyone else. It’s all about you and your car. Look at yourself, see how you can better your own driving. The cars are all too different to compete with. Don’t let someone else push you off the cliff!
Any last thoughts for readers? This is what I like doing. I just want to see what my car can do. Racing shows you where you’ve cut corners in the build, and I want to do things right. Road racing makes you a consistent driver, and it reminds you to keep all the fasteners tight. My advice to new racers: Use a torque wrench.
