Prather’s tribute to Tom Thrash – building the best example of a first-gen E Production RX-7 – is making progress
Jesse Prather embarked on an ambitious project, one that combined creating the ultimate E Production first-generation RX-7 and a tribute to his longtime racing friend, Tom Thrash.
“This car was completely stripped down to the bare chassis. Every single component I’ve installed on this car has been lightened, made of better material or had extra thought and design processes put into every little detail. People are going to be blown away,” he told MazdaMotorsports.com in March. He finished the car and put it on track at Heartland Park Topeka in May, but the debut did not go well and he didn’t start the second race on Sunday.
Prather was undaunted, however, continuing his work on the car. He brought it back out to Heartland Park when the SCCA Mid-States Conference U.S. Majors Tour returned to the track in August. This time, things went much better.
“It’s one of the best weekends I’ve had in a long time simply because the car reacted so well and showed really good speed as the weekend progressed,” he reports. “With all of the new ideas on this car it’s taking a little bit of extra tuning on the setup to get it where it needs to be. I fought a lot of oversteer on corner entry and mid-corner for a lot of the weekend but was able to tame it down a bit and learn a lot about what this car wants in terms of setup and driving style.”
Prather finished second and fourth at Heartland Park. He also discovered in the process that it may need some softer springs in the rear. As he noted back in March before the car’s debut, “It might take me a few races to get it all the way up to speed.” The weekend left him feeling like he has a good car capable of doing well at the 2017 SCCA National Championship Runoffs at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
“All the components are working perfectly, and with a little bit of work and prep before the Runoffs, I think we are looking really good for a successful week at Indianapolis,” he says.
Certainly, Prather has to be considered a contender for the Runoffs victory. Later, we’ll take a look at how he and some of the other fast Production-category racers might fare leading up to the SCCA National Championship Runoffs that take place Sept. 25-Oct. 1.