Team Superlite Wins Super Unlimited Class at 2011 NASA Nationals at Mid-Ohio

On behalf of our entire team at ISIS Power, we extend a hearty congratulations to Fran Hall and his team at Race Car Replicas.  Over last weekend, they won the National Auto Sports Association (NASA) National Championship for the Super Unlimited Class.  Driven by Ryan Ellis, they didn't only just win, they dominated this class for the entire season. 


We're honored to be a sponsor of their SLC 01 Race Car.  Fran and his team wired this car with our ISIS Intelligent Multiplex System.  Our ability to handle abuse, heat, dirt and water helped them take this victory.  You can see the RCR press release on the ISIS system at this link. 


The SLC is an amazing car and you can find our ISIS system standard on it.  The best part of this car is its versatility.  It can be your daily-driver super car with all of the creature comforts.  It can also be your gentleman's track car for the weekend race warrior.  Also, as shown this season, it can be a powerful track car that puts everything else out there in its place.  The choice is yours.   


You can learn more about Race Car Replicas and their full lineup of vehicles at http://www.superlitecars.com/. 


Thanks to SLC crew member Will Campbell, here are a few extra facts about the SLC track car and its history this season. 

• In all the races the SLC has entered this year, it sat on the pole 11 times – every time the car got to qualify, it sat on pole.
• Ryan Ellis drove the car to a first place finish in every race it finished. 
• The car only ran two short test sessions and 4 race weekends - including the National Championships weekend- yet still managed to completely dominate the field in every race it entered, including most importantly, the National Championship race.  They had their share of new-car teething issues, but it is very unusual for a new car to be so fast right out of the box.  It’s almost unheard of for a new car to have both the pace and the reliability to win the National Championship.
• The Superlite Coupe went to two tracks this year in NASA, and shattered the lap records at both tracks.  How often does a new car unload from the trailer and go immediately to breaking lap records at every track it sees?  We still hold these records, incidentally.
• The SLC was fast in all conditions, usually taking the weekend's fastest lap time in the dry, but was equally fast in the rain.  On Thursday, Ryan drove the SLC in the rain to a pole position for that days qualifying race that was 6 seconds faster than the rest of the field, and took the fastest lap time of the day, across all classes, including a TTR Radical and even the open wheel Formula Mazdas.  In a series where qualifying can be won or lost by tenths-- or less-- this was massive, and a portent of what might be to come. The car was so good in the rain that Ryan asked everyone to do a little rain dance for the Championship race.  For those who understand the dynamics of fast, high-powered mid-engined cars, this is surprising, and more than a little unusual, and speaks volumes about the confidence Ryan has in the handling ability of the SLC in wet and dry conditions.  The takeaway is that the SLC is benign at the limit in all conditions, which is essential to fully exploit the potential of the car.
• The Superlite Coupe didn’t achieve the records it has by just throwing a big HP number on the wall.  In fact, we gave up several hundred horsepower to some of our competitors, and won instead on superb driving, and a car with unmatched handling.  Ryan was able to put the car anywhere on the track he needed to, which is especially important when working traffic.  This year we competed against Porsches with 700+ HP, a 1200 HP Mustang, several stockcars with ex-NASCAR SB2 engines with around 800 HP, and a Lister-Corvette with a reputed 850 HP.  We ran the SLC with 525 HP to the wheels, which was around 600 HP at the crank.   Next year Fran promises to find more power, which should bring us to parity with more of the rest of the field.
• The Superlite Coupe didn’t arise from a modern factory in Zuffenhausen surrounded by hundreds of man-years of race car design and development resources, or in some hallowed ground in Maranello that has spawned decades of successful race cars, or even from a company devoted to making pure racing cars, but from a small shop just outside of Detroit led by a person with a vision to produce insanely great cars that are actually attainable, and a few craftsman that helped to achieve it.  The significance of this is hard to overstate:  the SLC, in its first months of racing, conquered very mature race cars from Porsche, Ferrari and others that had massively more time and resources devoted to their development.  It’s a classic David and Goliath story, with a local Detroit twist.
• The factory-built SLC that won the National Championship race so convincingly (it had lapped almost the entire Super Unlimited field, some of them a couple of times) shares almost everything with the standard SLC kit that anyone can buy.  And the race-specific parts are readily available, and on the shelf, for those customers who want to buy a clone of the 01 car.   This is in distinct contrast to some other manufacturers that don’t actually race what they sell, despite appearances.