W.O.W. Motorsports recently ran the Titan Mk-6 b Formula Ford on the far side of the country at Road America’s Vintage Weekend and VIR’s Heacock Classic Gold Cup. The Titan is powered by an Ivey Engines built, 1.6L, inline 4, twin-cam, Ford 1600 making 117 horsepower to the rear tires. The W.O.W. team began in Southeast Wisconsin at Kettle Moraine Preservation & Restoration where the car has stayed since last year’s event at Road America. Here, along with the aid of seasoned mechanic Paul Jay, Mitchell Holmberg outfitted the Titan with a Solo 2 DL, an upgraded electronic tachometer, and a quick carburetor tune to account for a more evenly biased two-barrel progressive carb setup. By the end of the Titan’s treatment at Kettle Moraine, it was left as one of
the most advanced, cleanest, and tech-savvy vehicles to be seen in its class.
Following these days of race prep and a several hours drive, W.O.W. arrived on the scenic grounds of Road America, the heart and soul of Elkhart Lake Wisconsin. Elkhart Lake is a town rich and abundant with racing history and its track’s scenic backdrop to the open curves and shaded straights eloquently proves that the location is worthy of its title, “The National Park of Speed”. The first day and a half of racing at Road America were halted by a severe vibration on the Titan. Whenever the car was driven at speed the entire vehicle shook violently to the extent that it was undrivable. After a day of troubleshooting by mechanic Mitchell Holmberg adjusting the camber, toe, and caster on the car, the decision was unanimously made that the problematic member had to have been a poorly manufactured Hoosier tire. After bolting on a fresh set of wheels and tires on the final day of racing, the car’s handling seemed to have improved, and driver Wes Wigginton was finally able to open it up on the famous, tree-lined asphalt of Road America. By the end of the weekend, Wigginton had proven to have made up the lost time on the first two days as he took second in class with a 2:48 lap time. Such a result displays true expertise and the high level at which this small team is capable of overcoming problems on the fly in addition to Wigginton’s ability to lead the pack and come out on top despite all odds.
Following the end of this successful weekend at Road America, W.O.W. Motorsports strapped up again and set off for Virginia International Raceway. Upon arrival on Thursday, the Titan was immediately taken in by Sasco Sports for assistance and insight into the suspension setup following its temperamental weekend at Road America. With some quick tests, the team at Sasco diagnosed warped wheel hubs and spacers as the cause of such pronounced vibrations when at high speed. This talented group of mechanics proceeded to fix these components onto a mill and resurface them on the spot to ensure a perfectly level connection between the wheel, spacer, and hub. With the wheels properly secured to the car. The addition of in-house corner-balancing and a precise suspension tuning by Sasco left Titan handling and running at the peak of its capabilities, ready to take on a weekend of racing at VIR.
And down came the rain. Friday was a day of puddles, hydroplaning, and hiding under any cover you could find. For the sake of experience and fun, Wigginton went out on track despite the unfavorable weather. Considering that Wigginton was the only car on track during his session, he took first place in this race (yay!). Despite the weather, Friday was an undeniably fun and productive day for the W.O.W. team. Come Saturday morning, the Titan experienced an unexpected (and unintentional) fire bottle test. The system worked like a charm but left the car unable to participate until the bottle was replaced. After a brief cleanup, Mitchell Holmberg and I made the 5 hours round trip to North Carolina to get a new, charged, fire bottle. With the quick fix completed, Wigginton brought the car back on track that same day for a successful first race at full speed on a (somewhat) dry track. The car performed extraordinarily well following its treatment at Sasco Sports and Wigginton held well with the competition. While on the false grid for the second session that day, however, the rear-mounted oil cooler began to rapidly leak oil onto the ground. The leak provided W.O.W. with a late night at the track as we sat in the pits and wrenched on the car by flashlight. Thanks to some consulting with other teams, the decision was made to pull the oil cooler, bypass the entire system, and run the car anyways. Due to the crisp, fall, Virginia air, oil temps were kept safely within operating parameters and this solution proved to work exceptionally well. Sunday morning came along with heavy fog that delayed the track schedule for several hours. This offered Holmberg the chance to finish up any fine-tuning left on the car and for Wigginton to study his lines and drink his morning coffee. The sun eventually burned through the fog exposing a beautiful dry, prepped track, accentuated by the cool Virginia morning air and the vast wooded landscape. At last, after two straight weeks of troubleshooting, improving on, and solidifying the car, Wigginton was finally able to lay it all out on the track for our final day at VIR. At the end of this successful day of racing, Wigginton layed down a 2:21 taking first place in his class. Sharing this scenic track with F1, LMP, and 1000hp Trans-Am cars was an incredible experience that was appropriately crowned with a gold medal to seal off the trip. While W.O.W. returned to Texas with some new connections, an optimized car, and a podium finish at VIR under the belt, there is always room for improvement.
Due to the Titan’s lightweight build and 117 horsepower rear-mounted engine, it is optimized for momentum-based cornering and skate steering. With some more experience and learning the limits of this car at our upcoming events at Hallett, Laguna Seca, and COTA, Wigginton backed by W.O.W. Motorsports will soon be dominating the class and be fully capable of leaving blisteringly fast laps from coast to coast.
Media coverage by Cavan Bennigson
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