A New Team and a NEW ULTRA 4 RACE CAR for King of the Hammers!

Last year you knew us as ‘a’ sponsor of Mike Klensin and Team Crossed Up Off-Road. This year Amanda Products is TITLE sponsor of ColeCar Motorsports LLC – including a new IFS Ultra4 race car and two UTVs.

The new IFS Ultra4 race car at Crossed Up Customs in Tucson. (Mike’s dog Bailey in foreground.)

The team’s 2015 race schedule includes the Ultra 4 West Coast Series and other opportunities, including Lucas Oil regional short course off road racing and other local and regional desert races. All three vehicles will race the Dirt Riot series. Select events will feature Amanda Products’ SEMA 2014 Jeep Wrangler with its innovative new bumper and door prototypes. The race and prototype vehicles will be transported via 38′ trailer.  Custom wraps for the race vehicles and trailer are in the design phase.

About the new team

Last year Mat Carpentier of ColeCar Motorsports offered to help Mike build a new state of the art Ultra4 race car; today Mike and Mat are partners in a new car. Mike explains, “We’ve been kicking around ideas and brainstorming since August, came up with the idea of what we want to do and created an outline. We actually started putting tubes together and building the chassis this past December.”

Naming the car

Mike says “We were just thinking of different names, wanted a fun name, not too serious and kept thinking about Timmy from South Park. Yeah, we’ll call it that. A lot of people name their cars aggressive and medieval things, we wanted something fun. We all agreed on Timmy pretty quick.”

Will Timmy be ready in time for KOH?

“We’re wiring the car and doing final assembly as we speak. Hopefully we will have a week to tune the car. In about 14 days we leave for the lake bed. Most of the work is being done by Mike, Mat and Mikey – Mike Florian. Our motor builder is Jim Murphy. He owns Calypso Automotive in Tucson. He’s also helping with a lot of mechanical aspects of the build, making sure the belts and alternator fit, stuff like that.

Jim and I will get the wiring done. That’s a big job. The Roberator is our wiring expert; he’s a big help, helping us get the right switches and relays – but he’s not able to participate as much as he’d like, he has a lot of stuff going on. Everyone is taking time off their day jobs – and businesses – to get the job done. The only downside is we won’t be able to get a tuning session in before the race.”

Mat likes that “We have three of the cars; that’s going to be a plus for the whole team because each person has a vehicle to drive.” The race car and chase trucks will be equipped with SpeedHook™ “to make it easier to help fellow competitors in need of assistance.”

Mat says “Being involved with the build is great, words can’t describe how happy I am to be a part of the team with Mike and Mikey. Right now we’re putting all the components on the car. Getting it prepped.”

Were there any surprises in this build?

Mat responded; “Going from solid axle car to IFS car has been a big surprise to all of us. When you have a solid axle car you don’t have that much travel – with IFS you have 24” of travel in the rear and 17” up front. It’s a totally different ballgame. We’ll have more clearance and the ride will be a lot smoother.”

Mat already knows how tough the ride can be. He was Mike’s co-driver at the Ultra4 American Rocksports Challenge in Tooele, Utah. He says “The ride last year was fun. My neck hurt after the race because I didn’t have the right neck restraint; but it was very entertaining.”

John Brock spotted from the pit on that race. Mike says “John offered to come over and wrench on the car. He’s been ordering parts for us too. He’s going to be camped with us at KOH.”

What to expect for 2015

Klensin says “It’s really exciting for me, the next coupla years are going to be huge. It’s a new car, a new team, we’re expecting to do really well. We’re grateful to have Amanda Products as title sponsor and couldn’t ask for a better group of people to work with. Not only are their products top of the line, but the quality of the people they have in their organization is top notch.”

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