Two Factory Fives Finish in Top 10 and Under 2 Minutes at UTCC!

In “Star Wars,” Han Solo says about the Millennium Falcon, “It’s the ship that made the Kessel Run in less than twelve parsecs.” Running under 2 minutes at Virginia International Raceway is kind of like that.

This past weeks at the Ultimate Track Car Challenge at VIR, two Factory Five cars ran faster than 2 minute lap times and finished in the Top 10! This is huge accomplishment, and it wasn’t done with mega-buck race cars, but with modestly built Factory Fives and great drivers.

Factory Five customer John George finished 8th overall running a blistering 1:58.985 in his brand-new Gen 3 Type 65 Coupe-R. The video above is John’s fast lap.

John George at speed. Photo by Ken Neher.

Factory Five customer Wayne Presley driving the Factory Five 818R beat the 2 minute mark by a tenth of a second running 1:59.900! Wayne’s car could out accelerate the new Coupe as it had a higher HP/WT ratio. Watch the video and you can hear the cool “Whoosh!” of the turbo.

Wayne Presley at speed. Photo by Ken Neher.

John’s Coupe was built this past winter and is the very first R-version Coupe.

Wayne was asked to prep and drive Factory Five’s demo race 818R. He did a fantastic job getting the car put together, sorted, and accomplished the tough goal of running under 2-minutes.

Factory Five customer Trevor Poquette ran a 2:01.808 in his race-prepped Factory Five Mk4 Roadster to finish 12th overall!

Customer Austin Nally rounded out four fast Factory Fives and ran a very fast 2:05.563 in his Factory Five Challenge Car.

Mark Dougherty and Brendan worked crew for all four Factory Five cars.

John George’s #48 Type 65 Coupe-R (above) and Austin Nally’s beautiful red #01 Challenge Car (below).

Driver John George (right) with crew Brendan Dougherty.

Driver, mechanic, and crew Wayne Presley who runs VeryCoolParts.com.

Factory Five Director of R&D and race head Jim Schenck.

The crew was up late the night before unloading cars, doing tech, and prepping for race day.

Final results from the 2017 Ultimate Track Car Challenge.

These are the fastest road racing cars in the country. It would be impressive enough to be in the Top 25, but being in there in a car you build yourself is remarkable! Factory Fives are capable of running with the fastest cars out there.