16 replies to this topic

[tylerbrown]

Hello Everyone, I have been on Mazdaracers for a long time (haven't posted much) and have been around Spec Miata since around 2009. For those of you who do not know me, I am Tyler Brown, son of Tom Brown, who you may have seen around the track once or twice before, and I am 18 years old. My dad has ran in the Northern Majors series and northern region for a longtime. I have been going to the track since I was a young young boy around the age of 4, my dad and I would always go up to Road America and watch the June Sprints and then ChampCar as well as the American LeMans Series. When he started racing I was always at the track with him, and have always had a blast being at the track and watching my dad race. Recently he has also allowed me to start doing some of my own racing

 

In 2009 we joined the Spec Miata world and have been running since then. We have ran with Advanced Autosports for a long time, and I was able to help out on race weekends and do some small things, and then over the past couple of years I became interested in working more on these Spec Miatas so I started to learn how to do more a more things with them. After gaining the knowledge of helping out at the track for a couple of years and having wrenched on my own personal street car Miata, while my Dad and I were discussing what we wanted to do for this year, he asked if I would be interested in trying to build a car. I was very excited to be given this opportunity, so as of last year November my dad and I started looking for a donor car.

 

Since I attend college at the Milwaukee School of Engineering, I would come home every weekend and work on the car, and then head back to school. I kept a log of all the hours and actually kept a build log on our Facebook and Instagram pages showing pictures of progress and what not. After coming home every weekend of school from the first week of December all the way through the second week of March to work on the car I completed 230 hours of work on the car. After that, we were ready to take it for its first test/shakedown weekend. We ended up going to the NASA event at the National Corvette Museum (Awesome Track) and the car performed great! The only issues we had was a leaking diff axle seal as well as an alternator failing on the warm up lap of the first race, but the car was great all other sessions and was able to keep with the top 3 guys that were there. I think one of the coolest moments in my life so far was watching the car I built racing out on track!

 

The next weekend we are planning on doing with the car is this weekend at Blackhawk Farms, and I am very excited to see how the car performs at the top Majors level. The name of the car my dad has ran in the past was named "The Blue Beast" so to keep in tune with that, we named the new car "The Silver Savage". My dad and I are planning on running some weekends together this year running both cars, with thie first being this weekends race at the Blackhawk Farms Raceway Majors Event. 

 

I have some pictures to show the car below, there are some people that I have to thank, so here goes:

-My parents, without them, there is no way I would have been given this amazing opportunity

-Advanced Autosports, for teaching me everything I know about Miatas, and for welding our roll cage, as well as supplying the parts for the build, as well as the support given while building the car

-East Street Racing for the Pretty Pro Built Motor

-All the people who we called for help on misc. things from the immobilizer box I did not know about to the tips and tricks for removing/installing parts

-Winding Road Racing

-Our local vinyl shop QuickSigns for the vinyl on the car

-Our local paint shop for the beautiful paint on the car!!

 

This has been one of the coolest experiences of my life and I am so thankful that I was given the opportunity to build this car. Now I'm looking forward to seeing it on the track more! If you are interested in following our racing adventures follow our Facebook page Brown Father/Son Racing!

 

Also, not very sure how to post many pictures on here, how do I go about doing that? I have a good number I could post, just want to be able to post more than two.

 

Before Picture

 1-19-2016 211 - Copy.jpg   67.77KB   0 downloads

 

After

 Snapchat-6312936465361170239.jpg   139.43KB   1 downloads

 

[Richard Astacio]

Hi Tyler, 

 

  The car looks sweet, this is cool stuff. I have two boys and I hope they both get into the sports themselves, I have a 17 year old and a 12 year old. 

Make sure you let he old man win a few times....Good luck! 

[Michael Novak]

Tyler,

 

The car looks great....   Congrats on the build with all the hard work that went along with it.  See you this weekend at Blackhawk.

 

Mike Novak

[Erik Hardy]

Tyler are you involved in FSAE? 

[MotoFusi]

I met Tyler and his Dad at NCM. Great people and a great job on the car. I plan on Tyler building my next car!

[Bench Racer]

Cars looking great. For those that have not met Tyler, really a great young man. 

See you at the Farm this weekend.

[Jim Drago]

Looking great! Good luck this weekend

[tylerbrown]

Hi Tyler, 

 

  The car looks sweet, this is cool stuff. I have two boys and I hope they both get into the sports themselves, I have a 17 year old and a 12 year old. 

Make sure you let he old man win a few times....Good luck! 

Doing this with my dad has definitely brought us very close, I am so glad that we are able to do this together, so I hope your sons get into it as well! And Thank you, I'm still trying to get up to his speed level but well see how it goes this year! 

 

Tyler,

 

The car looks great....   Congrats on the build with all the hard work that went along with it.  See you this weekend at Blackhawk.

 

Mike Novak

Thanks Mike, We will see you this weekend. We have 38 miatas signed up as of now, which is the most miatas I've ever seen signed up for Blackhawk, should be a good weekend, just hoping it doesn't rain a bunch!

Tyler are you involved in FSAE? 

Erik, I was planning on getting involved with Formula SAE as I know others in the program and that was something I was interested in doing when I decided on coming to MSOE. Although I did go to a few of the meetings I did not get very involved in it yet because this car building opportunity came about. The way I set up my schedule I am taking 19 credits and I have all my classes on Monday through Thursday, so that I could get more work done to the car on the weekend, and now that we are in racing season, so that I can be at the track on Friday if I need to be. So all in all I ended up not getting very involved with it this year because I do not have time during the week to go to the meeting because I am doing the work for my classes, but I do not feel to bad about it, because the knowledge and experience that I gained from building this car is huge and I am so happy that I was able to do it all.

 

Thank you to Randy, Bench, and Jim for your comments. See you this weekend Bench!

[tylerbrown]

I think I found a way to post more pictures of the build

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[tylerbrown]

[Brian Linn]

Tyler-

Thanks for sharing your story and your car looks great!  I too grew up with a dad that raced SCCA and loved being there from the beginning.  It's been one of the greatest joys in my life to have this common bond with my dad.  He started racing Bugeye Sprites (the Miata of 40-50 years ago?) and I followed suit.  I raced the HP Sprite for many years, went to SM for a few, followed by a FP Miata and now back to a MG.  My dad and I are headed out again for a weekend of racing at Buttonwillow and looking forward to it.  He may not be as active at the track as he once was, but it's always great to have him around.

 

Embrace these times, as when you look back on your life they will likely be some of the best years you can remember!  

Thanks again,

Brian

[Erik Hardy]

I think this deserves a.....fudge Yea!!

[Bench Racer]

Tyler, do you have quick change tire decals?

 

Tyler, have you ever viewed the Mid Western Council "Sherriff's" car at the Farm? Presuming your paint scheme is by Tyler, maybe you could sell your services to your engine builder.

[Richard Astacio]

Thats it, hes going to win...He has a East Street motor! 

[Bench Racer]

The couple times I've seen the young man on track, he does well, with this proper car and a bit of seat time he'll run better than well. Can't pick a group position because that's not fair to him.

[tylerbrown]

I will be running in the older "Blue Beast" car that my dad has ran the past couple of years, and my dad will be running this new car.

 

But I ran last weekend at the Blackhawk Double Regional and Finished fifth on saturday and third on sunday. I had a pretty good race with Jamey Randall for the first half and then Evan Pecore for the last part of the race, sadly it was cut short so I didn't get an extra chance to try to get around Evan but it was still a very very fun race. Here is the video if you want to watch it!

 

https://www.youtube....h?v=QnshS_ZY-7Y

[FTodaro]

Good Job on the car Tyler, your dad has been keeping me posted on the build from time to time. Will be looking forward to seeing you guys this weekend.