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Mike Burroughs -vs- World Time Attack Challenge 2023
VOTE FOR MIKE’S FERRARI TO WIN THE 2023 HALTECH HERO OF THE YEAR HERE
From building a car in his shed to shipping it across the world to compete in the world’s most prestigious time attack race. This is the unexpected dream come true for Stanceworks‘ Mike Burroughs. But as with all things racing. Not all went according to plan…
In today’s world of car builds, it’s not easy to conjure up a truly unique concept for a car.
Although when Mike decided to create his one-off K-swapped Ferrari 308, he got as close as anyone could after pouring so much money, time, blood, sweat, and tears into this epic 2-year project.
The car proved to be a very polarising project. And with this attention, it pushed Mike and his Ferrari into the forefront of the international car community. With the interwebs buzzing, it was a no-brainer, we had to see the car at the World Time Attack Challenge in Australia and decided to offer him the chance of a lifetime, to come and compete.
When the time came to send his car across the world, Mike handed his Ferrari over to be packed away. A few long months later, when the container from California dropped onto the tarmac in Sydney, the anticipation and nerves could be felt from everyone of Mike’s crew as the doors swung open.
Bestowing the utmost trust in the international shipper, the car was safe and sound and ready to be unloaded and cleared by customs before setting off to Haltech HQ.
The team thought it would be a good idea to give the car a health check. So the car was loaded up and brought to the workshop at Haltech. The car had been expertly tuned to run on VP110 leaded fuel by Haltech staff member, and tuner Andrew Molina at Animal Auto in California. However, leaded fuel is banned in Australia, even for racing purposes. So the team filled up with some drums of VP109 and our in-house tuning expert, Scotty, took a look over the tune. Andrew had done a great job, and the car was singing – That meant Scott could concentrate on helping set up gear position detection and flat shifting on the Haltech dyno.
2023 was the first year since the world was locked down, the World Time Attack Challenge saw international competitors make their way to SMSP. A huge international contingent graced our shores from the USA, Japan, and New Zealand to take on the best Australia had to offer, and everyone made sure to bring their A-game.
Mike experienced a couple of hiccups on the first day of the practice sessions but was very excited to make his highly anticipated Aussie debut in the very competitive GCG Turbochargers Open Class.
However, pure heartbreak struck. Mike’s biggest nightmare became a quick reality, breaking the transmission on the first competition lap of the day. The Ferrari’s second gear was completely gone and it no longer wanted to shift into first or third. The Quaife sequential is an extremely rare race-only item, and finding spares, or better – a replacement, was going to be near impossible.
“When you’re on the other side of the world trying to compete in a race and your car breaks, you feel as far from home as you really are.”
When it seemed Mike was down and out for the count, his luck changed. Against all odds, he managed to find an identical Quaife transmission, complete with the same gear ratios at JDM Yard, just a short drive from the track. Mike and the Stanceworks crew decided to take the opportunity with both hands, a deal was struck for the new gearbox, and a mad overnight thrash was on to get the old gearbox out and the new one installed.
It was all hands on deck in the Stanceworks garage. The team pulled the K24 engine out of the Ferrari along with every other component, the manifold, the turbo, the exhaust system, the dry-sump system, and the oil tank as everything needed to come out in order to remove the broken transmission.
The team worked tirelessly, putting aside all other responsibilities to get the Ferrari ready for the second and final race day. Thankfully they got it done.
With his laptop WiFi connected to the Nexus R5 VCU, Scotty was able to make on-site calibrations for the gear position sensor, allowing the new transmission to shift flawlessly.
But just as the team was getting ready to fire up and send the car out, they were confronted with yet another setback. Stanceworks found a critical error that would keep the car from going back out on track. The internal threads on the slave cylinder clutch line had somehow stripped and the fitting disintegrated in their hands. You can’t operate your brand-new transmission without a clutch, so once again it looked like the weekend was over.
Miracle Mike received a text at 3am local time from a buddy saying “Call this guy right now. He will help you out.”
Mike reached out straight away, calling his last chance, and explained everything.
On the other end of the phone was Shane from Motorsport Connections, who had the parts and know how to fix Mike’s problem.
Shane showed up first thing in the morning, cutting the ends off the hydraulic lines and installing new fittings to them minutes before Mike needed to go back out. With the green light on, the team had the car back together and running with no time to spare. It was time for Mike to lay down his first flying lap at the World Time Attack Challenge.
On his first time on Australian soil and in a car that was virtually un-tested. Mike managed a respectable 1:43. Good on ya, mate!
“My team was incredible in making all this possible. This was an amazing event. I’m looking forward to coming back… I gotta come back so I can go faster… But experience behind the wheel of this car will come with time, and it’s time I am indescribably eager to spend with it.”
We’d like to take this opportunity to thank Mike and the whole Stanceworks crew for making the trip over to Australia to compete in the World Time Attack Challenge. We congratulate you all on a successful week. Watching you overcome the adversities faced was truly amazing to see and an inspiration for all.
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