OUR STORY...

OUR ORIGINS

As a successful and winning driver in SCCA National Club Racing, Racers Edge Motorsports founder Jon Mirachi realized that other competitors were increasingly seeking his advice on both race driving and chassis setup. Working with drivers, he found he enjoyed sharing his knowledge and experience with others and as more and more drivers became interested in his expertise, he recognized that there was an opportunity to provide these services full time. As a result, Racers Edge Motorsports was born, providing race car preparation, chassis setup expertise and driver coaching services.

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1990 – 2000

Racers Edge Motorsports was a dealer/distributor for racecars and a race team running two different tube framed, mid-engined sports prototype cars with fiberglass bodies; the Spec Racer and the Sports Toyota. Both were powered by 4 cylinder engines; one used either a Renault or a Ford engine and the other used a Toyota engine from the MR2 sports car. Our team successfully ran these prototypes and established our brand, with arrive and drive programs competing in club racing as well as, lower level professional series, winning many races and four championships. Working with these cars, we provided first class car preparation and development, however these were single make type series with rigid technical controls. Accordingly, we focused on excellent preparation, reliability and great chassis setup, but because these were tightly controlled single make series, we had to be clever, yet follow the rules, with any development.  

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1997 – 2003

We were a dealer/distributor and a race team running a tube framed chassis formula (open wheel) car with a Mazda Rotary engine; the Formula Mazda. Here we were now doing mid-level professional racing in another rigidly controlled single make series. Starting in 2001, we focused on this professional series exclusively and using the same development and preparation principles we perfected at the lower levels, we really made a name for our brand in both North and South America in this popular series, winning 12 races and 2 championships in 3 seasons. We did all work in house including damper tuning, gearbox rebuilds, and any fabrication required. Everything except engine rebuilds. Engines were sealed units that came from a single supplier to the series. This series was popular with South American drivers as well as North American drivers because it was a step on the ladder to Indy Cars. Our 2002 Champion was Guy Cosmo from the US and our 2003 champion driver was Luis Schiavo from Venezuela, which developed our brand recognition in South America. It was in 2001 that we began working with MoTeC and collaborating with them, a relationship we continue today.

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2004 – 2006

Dealer and distributor and race team for a carbon fiber tub open wheel Formula car with a Mazda Rotary engine – the Pro Formula Mazda. We raced and developed these machines, (our first carbon tub car) that was the US equivalent to Formula 3 in Europe. We won races in 2004 and 2006 and continued to solidify our reputation as a top professional team. As before, these were single make chassis with sealed engines. We handled all work in house including full servicing to the Hewland sequential 6-speed transmission and chassis tuning with push rod/rocker suspension and Ohlins dampers. This series was covered on TV in many countries and we were featured in a few special stories the television production company did, including one where we explained how race teams use data acquisition information to improve both the driver’s and the car’s performance.

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2007

After our successes at lower and mid-level professional racing, we were looking to move to top level Sports Car Racing and greater challenges. Our reputation earned us an opportunity to run a GM factory supported, Pratt & Miller built, tube framed chassis, Pontiac GXP.R in the GRAND-AM Rolex Series. We competed our first season working with GM Racing, Pratt & Miller and Katech engines. The Rolex cars had MoTeC dash/data systems and Bosch Engine Management, so we started collaborating with engineers from Bosch and became experts at their software. We worked closely with Katech and learned to trust their expertise and capabilities. We did all service work in our shop except for any internal work on the engines from Katech. We did everything else including all servicing work on the X-Trac sequential 6-speed transmission. During our first season we perfected our endurance racing strategy and developed great techniques for fast pit stops. We led some races, but did not win in our first season.

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2008 – 2011

We switched makes, choosing to reunite with Mazda for Rolex GT Series competition for 2008. We began to flex our muscles and experiment more and more with the car’s technical development. The Mazda GT was a Riley Technologies tube frame chassis with a carbon fiber body and an EMCO 6-speed sequential transmission. It used the same Bosch engine management and MoTeC dash/data system as in the Pontiac. Initially we ran Ohlins dampers and worked with Ohlins engineers on their 7 post rig (shaker rig) to tune the suspension. In 2010 the series lowered the minimum ride height by 1 full inch and using engineering software our staff did the re-engineering work in our shop to relocate the suspension mounts to preserve the correct suspension geometry. The Riley chassis did not have adjustable control arm mounting points, so our re-engineering involved cutting off existing brackets, designing, re-making and re-welding them as needed. Our suspension re-engineer was hugely successful and in 2010 we had the fastest of the 7 Mazda GT cars in the series. We had 6 pole positions that year, some podium finishes and helped Mazda to win the Manufacturers title. Also during the development of the Mazda GT program we began collaborating with Brembo, working closely with the North American Director of Motorsports, Mike Messina to develop a lightweight “sprint race” brake package for the car, which we used for the races under 3 hours. Mike has remained a friend and valued collaborator for our team to this day.

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2012

We put together a program to build a Dodge Viper tube frame car for the Rolex series and get the car approved. In only 90 days we built a car, worked with the GRAND-AM Rolex Series technical staff and got the approvals to run the car. Through the Dodge Motorsports folks, we were introduced to Arrow Racing Engines who was the factory’s chosen builder of the Viper V-10 racing engines. Another professional operation, Arrow proved to be a great partner and was instrumental in helping us get the big V-10 cleared for competition in the series. We presented the car for the ROAR Official Series Test at Daytona in January and the car performed reliably and finished only .5 seconds off the fastest GT time at the test.  Then, after a disappointing outing at the first race (the Rolex 24 of Daytona) and despite the so much promise and lots of hard work, the support for the program went away and the project dissolved. On the Viper we used Moton dampers, Brembo brakes and a MoTeC dash and data system, continuing our collaboration with World-Class suppliers and technical partners.

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2013

A program was put together by a group of drivers from Mexico to have Racers Edge field a car for them in the Rolex 24 Hour race. We took our Riley chassis Mazda GT which had not run for a year and prepared the car for the 24 Hour battle. With a small budget to work with, we concentrated on meticulous preparation for the required reliability necessary for the 24-hour race. The bright red machine ran virtually trouble free for the 24 hours and finished 16th.

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2010 – 2015

Simultaneous to our Rolex programs, Racers Edge was competing in the Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge Series with factory supported Ford Mustangs. Another rigidly controlled series where technical development was limited by the rules, we worked with engineers from Ford Racing and engine builder Roush-Yates to develop and field competitive cars. Once again, we had another professional engine builder who was a fantastic partner to work with and we enjoyed a successful collaboration. Our team cars were equipped with MoTeC and Brembo components, as we once again drew on the expertise of our technical partners to field competitive and reliable race cars.

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2016 - 2018

Looking to the future, we felt that GT4 cars had the right balance of performance versus cost and would be one of the fastest growing classes of racing in the coming years.  We felt it would be a good fit for our team and began the process of researching the market.  After reviewing the specs on each of the eligible GT4 cars, we chose the SIN R1 GT4. It had stylish, exotic, good looks, a race bred chassis and great performance potential. Our experience was put to use as we helped with the final development of the impressive SIN R1, turning it into a reliable, race winning GT4 machine. After 3 seasons of intense competition in the Pirelli World Challenge series, our GT4 customer racing program has collected 10 wins and 21 podium finishes!

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2019

After multiple successful seasons in GT4, we set about looking for our next challenge, so for 2019 we entered the GT3 Pro/Am class of the Blancpain SRO GT World Challenge America Series. With the series having been revitalized for the 2019 season, now featuring international rules and an exciting new race format, it looked to be an exciting new challenge! We needed a new race car for the new class, so looked at different GT3 machinery, ultimately choosing the Acura NSX GT3 Evo and forging a new relationship with Honda Performance and Development (HPD) and Acura Motorsports. Our partnership was successful immediately, winning a race our first weekend of the season and when it was over, we had concluded a great season, with 2 pole positions, 3 race wins, 9 podium finishes and the championship! Our 30th racing season and we’re still winning championships!

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MISCELLANEOUS 

In addition to these programs, we’ve worked behind the scenes as sub-contractors for other high-level professional teams who could benefit from our skilled personnel, well-proven systems and methods. From the ground-up rebuilding of IMSA Tudor Championship Series Porsche GT Americas, to extensive preparation and servicing of Pirelli World Challenge GT3 Lamborghini Gallardos, to safety and performance modifications of private clients’ track day cars, we can and have done it all. After 25 years we can truly say that we are experts at all aspects of race car preparation, development, service and repair. We are extremely proud of our highly skilled staff and of our ability to collaborate with world-class suppliers and interact with sanctioning bodies.