DeltaWing to Forego Detroit, Focus on Further Testing

The DeltaWing Racing Cars team will be skipping the next round of the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship season at Detroit on May 30, as the team continues to test new components on the DeltaWing DWC13 coupe.

The Tim Keene-led team had made its street course debut at Long Beach in April.

Plans are in place for a three-day test at NOLA Motorsports Park from June 9-11, the team confirmed Monday, which will see the team continue the development of the car.

The biggest change ahead is the integration of a new tub, to replace the existing tub, as well as testing other new components, Keene told Sportscar365.

“The main thing is going to a new tub after the Mosport fire last year,” Keene said. “We haven’t got it in the rotation yet with everything else going on.

“We have to get the new tub in the rotation and put all new air lines in. The tub that we’re replacing, we’re leaving it as together as possible to bring it back into the rotation quicker if need be.”

“We should shed a little bit of weight by doing that as well. Right now, we are about 60-65 kilos overweight. On this car, that’s a big difference.”

The newness of parts – gearbox, electronics and the rear end of the car – are coming together. But Keene said teething issues have presented themselves at the track after going well without incident in testing.

“The thing that’s frustrating is we have no issues in testing, then in first five minutes at the track something pops up that you’ve never seen before,” he said.

Keene said new team engineer Catherine Crawford has immediately got up to speed and gelled with the program.

“To even have her want to do it in the first place, that’s not a challenge that everyone is wanting,” Keene said. “For this to happen after the season started was really a blessing for us. She gets along with everyone. She has good wit and personality, is a lot of fun and refreshing.”

Keene confirmed that missing Detroit is a one-off, with the NOLA test hoping to serve as a baseline for the remaining road courses on the schedule from Watkins Glen onwards.

NOLA also presented the team a rare chance to test three days in a row, something that isn’t available at most road courses.

“Looking at the rest of year beyond Detroit, it’s real road courses that favor us more than 100 minutes of racing at Detroit,” Keene said.

“We wanted to go to Watkins Glen, but that was only for a day or half a day. Mid-Ohio or Road Atlanta was about the same. We needed a place with three consecutive days to just run. Yeah we don’t race there, but there are a lot of different corners and some bumps.”