Annual Formula High School Track Day
The annual Formula High School track day was held on April 25, 2010 at the Briggs & Stratton Motorplex. The Motorplex is located on the grounds of Road America in Elkhart Lake, WI. Road America is a world-class facility and also the largest road track in the United States. The Formula High School students are dedicated and committed. Although it was rainy and windy, the 70 students stood with their cars, proudly displaying their sponsors' logos. Once the rain stopped, the students learned the basics of racing on wet concrete. Needless to say, some teams had real-world experience with the term "understeer." Preble High School students work together as a complete team, and also as four smaller teams for their main sponsors. To determine who wins the bragging rights at the track, the average time is taken for each team from 3 different team drivers. This keeps teams from using just one good driver and also makes it more of a team event. The teams were responsible for repairing any issues at the track without teacher help. All the teams joined forces to help each other as needed. In other words, Preble students were helping out their competition so that all the students had a chance to race. Here is a link to a map of the Briggs & Stratton Motorplex, the 2010 Schedule and the track day times.
Formula High School Concept Car for Briggs & Stratton
Formula High School has been asked to build a concept car for the Briggs & Stratton Company. Initial planning called for a car less than 10 ft. long and 66 inches wide. The engine to be a factory performance enhanced Briggs twin (50-70 hp) utilizing a CVT clutch and tied to a Ford 7.5 rear axle. The engine to sit just to the right of the driver for better front/rear weight balance. Important note: this car will not be driven by any of the students. The program was going to design and build a unique body for the car, but an opportunity presented itself for FHS to purchase a body design already put together. More information relating to this body design can be found at: http://dpcars.net/. On the left side of the website, under the word PAST, there are three sections about the DP 1 prototype. The FHS program will continue to use the M5 Formula FST body for years to come in order to provide continuity and growth in the program. With this in mind the owner of the current M5 body part molds has donated them to the FHS program. We at Sugar Grove Custom Cars, LLC. continue to be impressed with the FHS program and are very pleased and proud to be associated with it.
2010 FHS Car Sponsored By SGCC
The 2010 car sponsored by SGCC is nearing completion. This is a direct quote from the Director of the FHS program, "I just took the SGCC/Gold Medal BBQ car for a spin. It sounds AWESOME and was the smoothest running student vehicle I have tested so far."
Run 'N Gun Nationals 2010
SGCC is a sponsor for the 2010 Run 'N Gun nationals, to be held at Motorsports Park, in Hastings, Nebraska, September 23-25, 2010. All registrants will receive a coffee cup decorated with all sponsors' logos, ours included.  In addition, SGCC's logo will appear in Run 'N Gun ads in Kit Car Builder during June and August.  How cool!
Kit Car Builder Magazine Features Formula High School
Formula High School is featured in the October 2009 issue of Kit Car Builder Magazine.  Read article, reprinted with permission.
Formula FST Racing at Nelson Ledges
The SGCC Formula FST team went to Nelson Ledges Raceway (Ohio) and was able to complete the weekend.  More news, pictures and video will be posted soon.  But for now here is a link to info and results posted on ApexSpeed. http://www.apexspeed.com/forums/showthread.php?p=217563#post217563
SCCA Club Racing:  Rice Debuts Mysterian at Grattan
Click here: eFormulaCarNews.com   See racing footage: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMFzV19VUao&feature=channel_page
SGCC Introduces Its New Mysterian M5 at Grattan
The SGCC Formula FST team left for Belding, Michigan on May 21st to participate in the first stop on the Formula First Driver's Assoc. National Series. Friday was a day to test and tune. Saturday and Sunday had both a morning and afternoon racing session. It was exciting to race the new SGCC Mysterian M5 for the first time. Also adding to the excitement is that it was only the second SCCA racing weekend that Jared Timmerman had participated in. So basically SGCC went to Grattan with a new car and a new driver. The new car and the new driver both survived the entire weekend. On Saturday, Jared came in 7th and had a fast lap time of 1:31.182. On Sunday he came in 6th with a fast lap time of 1:29.747. Overall Jared improved his time by 7 seconds from his slow time during the test and tune session to his fastest lap in the Sunday afternoon race.  See racing footage:  http://www.youtube.com/user/SGCC296, It was a great weekend for learning and we appreciate all the input and help that we got from other teams. We are pleased with our M5 program progress so far and will continue to move forward with the development of the M5 so we can put Jared in the seat of an even better Iowa built FST car.
Formula High School Update
Sugar Grove Custom Cars, LLC. proudly sponsors a specialized program called Formula High School. Formula High School is a program put together by two instructors from Wisconsin; Jeremie Meyer (Preble High School in Green Bay) and Mike Besel (West De Pere High School in DePere). The Formula High School program allows teams of students to build a replica race vehicle in 8 months and then test it at the track. This years' program was a great success. The schools look forward to building six new cars next year. They also hope to expand the program to other interested high schools across the nation. If you are interested learning more about this amazing program, visit www.Formulahighschool.com, the Press Release, or the Des Moines Register Article. Read a report submitted by one of the teams:  FHS Report 2009-2010 FHS Brochure
First Car Show of 2009
SGCC showed significant support for the Special Olympics Benefit Car Show that was held in Adel, Iowa on May 16th.  Several cars were taken to the Dallas County Fairgrounds and put on display as part of a total car count of 70 cars.  The event was sponsored by the Dallas County Sheriff's Office.    The 1932 Ford Roadster won Best of Show.  The 1926 Model T was selected as a Top Five winner.  And it was unanimous for Goin' Postal as it won the award for Most Likely to Get a Ticket.  Great cause, great turnout and a great day for a car show.  SGCC was pleased and proud to be a part of it. Best of Show Top Five Winner Most Likely to Get a Ticket
Getting Licensed For Competition Driving
In 2008, five drivers from SGCC completed a performance driving school put on by FAASST Performance http://www.faasst.com/.  The rest of us echo the sentiment expressed in the testimonial shown below that was sent to FAASST by Jared: "For five years I have been racing circle dirt in IMCA.  My goal in taking the FAASST Performance school was to learn how to race on a road course. This was important because I had signed up with Sugar Grove Custom Cars to drive for them on a National level.  I found the intense and complete instruction provided by the FAASST Performance School to be exactly what I needed for me to be successful. At the National Run and Gun Event I won my class. And I am confident that additional exposure to FAASST Performance through lapping sessions with more instruction will help me be successful as I compete for SGCC in 2009. The FAASST School was perfect for SGCC since it is both SCCA and NASA accredited.  The Brunton SuperStalkers are NASA approved, but are not approved for SCCA Club Racing.  The Formula First cars are approved for SCCA Club Racing.  There is now cooperation between NASA and the SCCA when it comes to licensing requirements.  However, in the case of SGCC, the car used will ultimately decide who will sanction the race that the driver competes in.  In April we plan on completing our requirements to get a SCCA Novice Permit by attending a double driving school held at the Mid-American Motorplex located in western Iowa near Omaha.  See website: http://www.midamericamotorplex.com/2006/default.asp. More info relating to getting licensed by the SCCA can be found at  http://scca.com/contentpage.aspx?content=38.
1959 Nash Metropolitan Update
The Nash Metropolitan project is moving right along.  It has been built once and now is going back together with cosmetics.  The 1959 Nash Metropolitan Photo Gallery has some recent pictures that show how the project is progressing.  More complete information will be supplied after the car is finished and on the road actually making power.
1926 Model T (update)
The pictures in the 1926 Model T Photo Gallery show how the build is progressing.  Be sure to check the "IMAGE INFO" below the large image of each photo in the photo gallery.  The car runs and sounds good.  Not much room in the dash area of a Model T, so part of the challenge has been where to put the a/c, heat, defrost, sound system, etc.  Needed because this car is intended to be a daily driver.  More pictures and information will be added as the build progresses.

Goin' Postal Update

These pictures reflect the before and after history of the custom Cobra that we call Goin' Postal.  As a red car it ran as a 9 second quarter mile drag car.  At the Run and Gun it drew attention as a blue street Cobra with a unique look.  The picture shown is on page 21 of the most recent Kit Car Builder Magazine http://kitcarclub.com/ and is shown as a part of an article on this year's National Run and Gun http://www.runngun.net/.  

As you can see, we have mounted a flag that works in conjunction with the carb linkage.  When the flag is down the car is at full throttle. When up we consider the "male" to have been delivered.  In this case the parcel was Mike "Spanky" Knorr.

The First SGCC Built Prototype M-5 Arrives from the Chassis Builder

These pictures show what the basic car looks like before SGCC finishes the build. More M-5 info.

Mystique 5.1 Finishes on the Podium - American Road Race of Champions

Doug Seim drove the Mystique 5.1 to a third place finish at the American Road Race of Champions, Formula First Grand Prix in Atlanta Georgia. The Mystique 5.1 was the very first Mystique built by Kurt LeMay who called the car the M-5 hence its name. The car is a rolling test bed for many of the newer components that will be finding their way onto the production M-5’s. These include air ducting, exhaust system, shocks, springs and chassis set up.  See more photos and read input from Doug Seim and Robert Guhde.

Preble High School to make Mystique Jr. Kit Cars

SGCC is a proud sponsor of a specialized program dedicated to preparing students for careers in manufacturing and engineering at Preble High School in Green Bay, Wisconsin (www.preblemotorsports.com).  For more information on this program, see our Formula High School page.

2008 Run 'N Gun Nationals October 8-11, 2008

Jared Timmerman, New Driver for SGCC

FormulaCar Magazine Formula First Challenge Cup Race

SGCC Provides Scholarships to Young Racers