Racing Through Time (The Sisu Racing Team History)
The Sisu Racing Team was formed in 1989 when driver Kirk Dohne attended the first of the required two SCCA racing schools. That first school showed how far we had to go to get where we wanted to be. The ideal at that point was to be involved. We had no concept of what level of preparation was required to perform to the level that would eventually make us a competitive, winning team. We started with, in retrospect, a woefully ill-prepared car that contained the required safety modifications but not much more. That car was an uncompetitive Honda Accord. A 1981 Accord that performed like all early 80's Hondas. Slowly. Honda's performance reputation really began with the introduction of the Honda CRX in the 1984 model year but that is getting ahead of the story. After that driving school the team went about slowly making the modifications to car (and driver for that matter) which would generate the successes of the future.
The history of the team is a story of the development of driving ability and technical ability. Those early years saw more than a handful of back-of-the-pack performances that allowed the driver's ability to develop slowly. The speed developed quickly but the racing ability took time. Racing is an artform, it takes not only speed but finesse. The speed is usually there or it isn't. The car may not be there and that was definitely an issue with Sisu Racing but driver speed, the ability to perform to the potential of the car, has never been an issue. What those early years began teaching was finesse. The ability to take advantage where possible but yield little to the competition. This ability began to show itself in the ability of the driver to always improve position from the start to the finish of the race. In fact, from 1997 until today the team has only finshed farther back than it started in ONE race and that was due to a mechanical DNF (did not finish).
Those early years were lean. It took time to learn the ins and outs of car preparation from the ground up. The finishing position of the team and the performance of the driver really began to pick up in 1995 when the team took a Honda CRX to the National Championship (titles the Valvoline Runoffs at the time) and finshed well up the order. Finally, in 1997 we settled on a series to run for the long-term and a preparation level that we were comfortable with, the Sports Car Club of America's Improived Touring class. In 1997, Radius-Tech built a Mazda RX-7 for the Improved Touring S class. The RX-7 performed admirably until 2000 when the E36 BMW 325 was classified and began to dominate the class. The peak year was 1998, when Sisu Racing was in the championship hunt until the last weekend of the year and ended up finishing in third overall. After seeing the beginning of the end for the competitiveness of the car, we began to look for other avenues of success. The aforementioned BMWs were an expensive option and expensive class-killers are so titled because when the costs go up the number of competitors usually comes down. To stay with rear-wheel-drive, we moved to the Improved Touring A class (ITA).
The late 90's ITA class was dominated by the second-generation Honda CRX Si. However, on paper the Nissan 240sx seemed a good choice and it maintained the rear-wheel-drive layout preferred by the driver (front-wheel-drive has inate weaknesses that compromise the ultimate race-ability of the platform). We began to build the car and quickly discovered that the car's weakness is the lack of performance parts meeting the rules of the class. Determination took hold and we began to use our years of experience to fabricate parts to bring out the potential of the car. The additional effort delayed the introduction of the car to the third race of the 2002 season. We had an inauspicious start, the DNF in that race came due to a $40 part that remained from the original street-car. We took off the following race to ensure that the car was correct and ready to go. That second race showed potential and surprise as we reached the podium with a third place finish. The remainder of the season saw us building on our success and refining our car in preparation for a full assault on the championship in 2003.
The 2003 season saw the domination of one car; unfortunately, it was not the Sisu Racing Nissan. We worked throughout the year to build the speed and refine the car with greater success coming towards the end of the year. Winning the last race of the year, the first win for the Sisu Racing Nissan 240sx, allowed us to come close to clinching second in the points championship. Finishing third in the championship and first in the last race set the stage for a great 2004 race season.
The 2004 season brought us our first Championship. The Sisu Racing Nissan 240sx ran flawlessly throughout the year. Starting with a fourth place, followed by a third, then a string of three wins that placed us solidly in the lead of the race. We had one letdown in a rain race where our poor tire choice stranded us in the midpack. Then finished off with a tough 2nd place over our season-long challenger to settle the Championship.