Meet John Freund – John campaigns a monstrous Mitsubishi Eclipse turbo in time trials. John was an early RaceCapture/Pro adopter and is using it to step up his game. Read on!
What’s your racing history?
I started out as an HPDE junky back in 2000 after I moved to VA out of college and have been addicted ever since. Like many folks I moved up through the HPDE ranks, and as I became a better driver I of course wanted more and more speed, to get closer to the limit, which led to my car evolving along with me. Eventually the car evolved so far that I knew to really explore its limits I needed to move into a competition environment, and so in 2012 I began racing in Time Trials and have been doing so since.
What region / location / tracks do you currently race at?
I live on the east coast. Currently I drive primarily at Summit Point Raceway and Virginia International Raceway. I’m hoping to add NJMP to my roster of tracks soon, and maybe even Road Atlanta next year.
What car do you currently drive and what class do you compete in?
I compete in NASA Time Trials in TT2 for now. Once I win steadily in TT2 I will switch turbos and move up to TT1 or TTU. The car is a 1999 Mitsubishi Eclipse GSX.
What are your future racing related plans?
Future plans? WIN! My last two seasons were really teething for the car as I discovered short comings and tackled them. Last season I was already competitive with full air conditioning/heating and a stereo system with no roll cage, and no telemetry. The car is going through some heavy weight loss right now, as well as chassis stiffening and some other various tweaks, and with that plus finally having some real data acquisition through my Race Capture Pro I feel I am poised for victory this coming season.
Any previous race cars?
This is and has been my one and only “race” car. It evolved with me really, going from a street car with bolt-ons, to street/track car with aero, to now a 100% track machine. The potential of this platform was never really explored in this environment and I love pushing my car to its limits, as well as surprising the naysayers with just how far those limits are.
In what areas are you using RaceCapture/Pro to fill in those data knowledge gaps (engine, driver behavior, etc) to help you drive faster?
I am currently focusing on using the Race Capture Pro to improve driver skill. The system opens up my eyes to exactly what I’m doing and how that translates to lap times. Things like throttle control, brake control, g-forces, yaw… those are things my buttometer is just not calibrated to see all that clearly and my mind is not so versed in memorizing. With how fast I am going and how complicated the car has become I knew I needed clear insight into just what was happening with everything. With Race Capture I have the missing information without any guessing and that is wonderful! I’m pretty much the mechanic and driver behind my “race program” and so the quicker I get to real data (and ultimately answers) the faster I solve problems which ultimately makes me faster and more consistent out on the track.
In the future I plan to take advantage of the myriad of sensor inputs to also help evolve the car, with sensor for ride height measurements (key for tweaking my aero), wheel speed sensors, and various engine diagnostics, all to get the car performing at its best and staying that way. It’s really an exciting platform and I’m happy to use it, be a part of it, and grow with it!
If you were any race track in the world, what race track would you be?
Nurburgring. It’s a track almost universally agreed to be the best for testing a car’s limits- and that’s what I like to do with my car 🙂
