Ozarks International Raceway isn’t your ordinary racetrack. It is 3.97 miles of relentless elevation changes, blind apexes, and high-speed off-camber turns—usually all at once. And it just so happens to host the September 2025 944 Spec National Championship. Which means it’s time to make the pilgrimage early in the season to learn the track.
And because my return to 944 Spec has been a mountain of sorts, I would expect nothing less than constant issues, before, during, and after the event. Following the theme that has pervaded the season thus far, my difficulties would start days before I left for Ozarks.
This one’s a story, and if you want to jump directly to my first impressions of the racetrack, click here.
Prepping the 944 Spec Racecar
Before leaving for the Ozarks, I wanted to address all of the car issues from the previous event (Hardly Racing: Safety Challenges and Weather Issues at NCM), specifically focusing on the suspension and balance of the car. Little did I know that even starting days in advance would still not see me on the road on time. And would become a stark reminder of why working on these cars can really suck sometimes.
The plan was simple: replace the worn struts, inspect and regrease all bearings and joints, and rebalance and align the car. I immediately hit a snag on step one. The front strut inserts were indeed blown, and the front driver’s side was stuck in the strut housing. No big deal—wrong.
To remove the seized strut, I tried vice grips, a slide hammer, and an air hammer; none of these attempts budged the strut. I met this resistance with the torch and mallet, where I unknowingly bent the spring perch. However, all of this gave me a momentary glimpse of victory when the strut released from the housing, or so I thought. Instead, the internals let go due to the extreme force, leaving the insert’s outer casing stuck to the housing. At least it was progress, even though there was much less to grab onto now.
After getting to this point, I called it a night and woke up with a solution. To remove the casing, I drilled a hole in the base of the strut housing and used a rod to hammer the casing out. Afterwards, I worked a wire wheel along the inside of the housing to ensure the next strut insert doesn’t seize. Fortunately, I could still use this housing as the 944 Spec ‘coilover’ upgrade rests along the center of the spring perch, not the outside.
But this was not the only issue I would encounter. The upper spring perch would break on this side during reassembly, a failure I had never seen before, and likely the result of the slide hammer.
Regardless, I continued, almost a day behind schedule, where I would finish the corner balancing and alignment the morning of departure. And for those that know, let me say this, I was supposed to leave on a Thursday morning to embark on the 10-hour journey. Instead, I was reindexing torsion bars at 5 am and wouldn’t start the trip till 2 pm.
Prepping the Driver for Ozarks International
This brings me to a whole other series of incidents. You see, Ozarks International is long, fast, and complex, and I wanted to get a little sim practice in. The track is available for download in Assetto Corsa, so I fired up the sim. After downloading the track and getting everything working again, my trusty Sim Wheel of 10 years experienced a terminal failure. During the first lap, I might add.
I was beginning to think I was cursed.
Traveling to Ozarks International
But the fun doesn’t stop there. With Thursday’s late departure, I decided to stop at my parents’ house in Memphis, TN, instead of driving throughout the night. That part was, fortunately, uneventful. I enjoyed the few hours of downtime. But that also meant I would leave at 3 am the following morning to reach Ozarks. Just in time to start the test day.
So I am going to keep them coming because there is definitely a theme here. I avoided disaster several times, going to and coming from Ozark International Raceway. At 4 am on a dark Arkansas highway, I would lose the pin that secures the tires to the tire rack. This would allow the 8-foot rod to work its way over four feet out of the tire rack. Meaning I am driving down the highway, in absolute darkness, with a steel rod hanging in the air horizontally four feet from my passenger’s side. I fixed the issue at an early gas stop and am extremely lucky it didn’t hit anything during this time.
I would continue on and arrive at the racetrack with 30 minutes to spare.
Ozarks International Raceway First Impressions
The online videos and my half-lap in the sim just don’t do it justice. I excel at technical and flowing courses, and this course isn’t that. It is fast, blind, and almost always off-camber, rewarding the adrenaline-seeking drivers much quicker. Which means I had my work cut out for me.
To compound the issue, the racecar decided to begin cutting out. This would be a persistent issue throughout the weekend, but the engine has good compression, and I would hammer it regardless, just with fewer horsepower on tap.
But over the weekend, my opinion of the track slowly changed from WTAF to a moment of clarity during the last race, where I realized that this track, with all of its shortcoming (and there are quite a few) will make me a faster and more complete racecar driver with it’s relentless onslaught of turns I am uncomfortable with.
The Races
I am only posting a video of the last two laps of race three this time. The races were mostly uneventful, with my underpowered, stumbling engine making it difficult to chase on the long straights. So, I set goals for the weekend, mainly to run a sub-3-minute lap. I would finish Friday’s test day at a 3.11, Saturday at a 3.06, and Sunday at a 2.58.
For perspective, p1 would run a 2.54 Sunday with the rest of the podium at 2.59 and 3.01. P1 is all that will matter for nationals, and after the fast times I ran in race 3, I can definitely get the 944 Spec back to the pointy end of the field. Based on sector analysis, the suspension is working well again, as I was faster than or matched the field in the technical sectors. Now I just have to address the engine.
Here are the two laps that matter, and I will be studying them for the next test weekend this summer. I already see several seconds, even with the equipment as is.
The AIM SOLO Failed Me
Talking about sector times that I was able to pull from myLaps reminded me that the AIM SOLO gets a big fat red x for the weekend. Ozarks International Raceway was not in my AIM database, so I had to set the start/finish manually. I didn’t know that the AIM functions as a lap timer ONLY when doing that, and records no telemetry data. Even though the sensors are still there and I am driving a closed loop. Very disappointing, as that data would have been invaluable throughout the weekend.
The Journey Home
The trip home would once again include a stop in Memphis. The last race wouldn’t end until 3, and I would discover a flat-spotted trailer tire on the way home that looked very concerning. I would also lose my tongue jack pin somewhere along the way, and by some miracle, it didn’t dig into the asphalt. Instead, the base jumped up and down with the road, smoothing the underside a little and avoiding trailer damage.
Conclusion
Join me in 944 Spec, where any 5-minute job is one issue from becoming an ordeal. I must acknowledge that I am racing a car that is probably older than I am. Furthermore, I chose this path, and I chose to continue. It’s a long road, but with constant progress, I will be back on the podium in no time. Now that the suspension is mostly how I like it (aside from the cartoonishly tilted steering wheel), I am focusing on the engine for the next race, hopefully with a lot less drama next time.
