IXNAYXJ
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- Wherever the next race is.
Last weekend I took the Petty Cash Racing road race XJ to Laguna Seca to compete in two 7 hour races. This wasn't a 24 Hours of LeMons event as we've raced in the past, rather a more serious series for "real" race cars. We were pretty out gunned by a bunch of the car there, but we put up a helluva fight, finishing 4th overall out of 40 cars both days. It was our first time at Laguna and a lot of the other teams we were competing with were locals, so home team advantage to them. We were only half a lap out of 3rd on Sunday, the second race and had some bad luck with a restart. The moral of the story is we should have podiumed at least, but hey, that's racing.
The "LSxJ," as it's come to be known, really likes the on-camber, slightly banked corners of Laguna; with stick axles and primitive suspension, the added grip due to Gs pushing the tires into the tarmac is huge. As usual, we were on 255/40R17 Falken Azenis RT615Ks that worked amazingly well all weekend, and still have enough life left for one more race. Pretty phenomenal considering how hard we were pushing. Another huge advantage we had was in brakes; we contacted Black Magic Brakes early on in the Jeep's career (2011) and have been running their 16" brake kit ever since. It cannot be stated just how amazing the kit is and with the combination of the proprietary pad compound we had the best brakes on the track. If you've got bigger/heavier wheels and tires on your Jeep, you really should be addressing brakes too. It's an often overlooked area, but an very important one.
One of the best parts about road racing a Jeep Cherokee is the initial impressions of fellow racers; when we unload our trailer we've got all of our race gear, spare parts, fuel jugs, spare tires, etc all stuffed in the back. We call it the "Self-Contained Racing Unit." A lot of guys in the paddock will sneer and look down their noses at the now worse for wear '87 XJ. After a day of racing, the lines of people who want to know just "what the hell have you done" to make it go so fast is extremely satisfying. It's also fun interacting with current and previous Cherokee owners. We hear a lot of stories about an XJ being somebody's first vehicle and how great it was, passed down from parent to siblings over the years. Almost everybody has great affection, just like all of here do.
That's all well and good you say, but what's it really like? Go for a ride, click here!
And here's the last few laps of the race, which were the fastest of the day. Like I said, we were still learning the track when the checkered flag flew
Hope you enjoyed sharing in our continuing adventure, follow us on our Facebook page for the latest info about what we're up to. Thanks
for being an early supporter of the team and providing priceless technical knowhow. Cheers!-Matt
Petty Cash Racing
P.S. How about some more pics?
