Riding with Rado V1.0

Recently Carbon8 was given the chance to spend a few weeks on the road with one of the industry’s most influential icons. We were invited to witness the madness that is Christian Rado and his Scion World-Racing team in action, so naturally we jumped at the opportunity.

It all began when we rolled into L.A. during a time when most would assume should be dedicated to a little R&R. After having just finished a sleep deprived week in the desert attending the SEMA show, all of us were in desperate need of some down time that we soon realized we wouldn’t get.

For most, the SEMA show isn’t all about partying.

For most, the SEMA show isn’t all about partying. This year it gave Chris and his team the chance to meet with both current and prospective sponsors to showcase their accomplishments in ‘07 and their plans for the upcoming ‘08 race season. As most already know, Chris Rado is renowned for his drag racing background and his accomplishments in the sport. Yet what you might not know is that relatively new to his racing repertoire has been the challenge of “Time Attack” lap battle racing. Rado’s track ready Scion tC is to be not to be taken lightly as it has already set a front wheel drive record in the series. Unfortunately, a blown motor spoiled things a few weeks prior to the Virginia Time Attack event and it needed to be fixed quickly as the Super Lap Battle at Buttonwillow, CA was taking place just days after the ‘07 SEMA Show closed its doors.

On the Saturday after the show, Chris and his team jumped into their cars for the long traffic-heavy drive back to sunny Long Beach. Chris’ newly built motor was scheduled to arrive at his shop on Monday afternoon leaving ample time to drop it in and check her tune before heading out to the track. Sounds simple enough right? Let’s not forget we’re talking about car racing here, a sport where the best laid plans can fall through; this case would be no exception to the un-written rule of “whatever can go wrong, will”. Chris found out that his tC’s power plant wouldn’t be showing up until the following afternoon which was cutting things close…real close.

With the motor finally arriving at his shop on Tuesday evening and the race beginning the next morning at 8am, Chris and his team would spend most of the night thrashing on the engine and making sure everything was set for the next day’s trial by fire.

At around 3AM the car’s motor roared to life. The tC was then quickly loaded onto the rig and was on its way to Buttonwillow Raceway to do battle.

After getting just a few hours of shut eye, Chris was ready to peck away at the Front-Wheel-Drive competition. The Scion was running great and the rest of his team had set up their rig so that should any problems arise during the event, they could be taken care of promptly and efficiently. The call for the second qualifying group was made and Rado hopped into his wide body tC and was ready to rock. He completed a few laps and when he arrived back he told the team that on the second right turn the car felt like it wanted to slide out from behind him. Popping off the rear tires the crew noticed that the tC’s rear sway bar was binding or bottoming out on them. A hasty sprint over to the onsite shop got the team some new end links and they were back in action just in time to make it out for the next session.

With confidence, the team ran to the pit wall to watch Chris leave the start gate and proceed around this very technical road course. During one of the very few sections of track in which the car went out of site, it took Chris way too long to pop back up on the straight – something must have gone wrong.

A few minutes later the tC appeared again. Broken and battered, it crept into the pits for some medical attention. At first glimpse the car looked as though it might have flipped completely over but after talking with Chris and examining some of the in-car video footage, we realized that didn’t happen. It turns out that at speeds in excess of 120 mph’s, the car’s rear hatch had ripped off like the top of a sardine can and it had taken the rear wing with it. The instant loss of stability caused the car’s back end to be violently and uncontrollably thrown out to the right. Rado, not knowing what had happened and unaware that his actions could not save the car, immediately tried to correct the tC from its inevitable spin out into the dirt, narrowly missing one of the concrete marshalling stations.

Disappointed with the outcome but glad he wasn’t seriously injured, Chris gave the go-ahead to pack up the rig and head back to L.A. where they would drop off the car to for repairs so it would be ready to rumble at the next Time Attack event. And if Rado’s legendary determination has anything to do with it the next time we see that Scion it will be better and badder then ever.