Event Recap | Good Guys Lone Star Nats

While not the first event on the Good Guys of the year, it was the first Good Guys Ridetech could make. Our team brought down the events trailer and broke out the event displays while Jason Brady and Josh Petry rolled out the Fox Body race car and began prepping it for participation in the Street Machine autocross class. 

Street Machine is designed for production vehicles from 1987 or older. Three weight categories are aimed at keeping things fair based on engine design.  

• 8-cylinder engine: 3,200 LBS.
• 6-cylinder engine: 3,000 LBS.
• 4-cylinder engine: 2,500 LBS.

Vehicles are limited to 200 treadwear tires and a 285mm max front tire width.

‘Street Machine’ is one of six racing classes within the Goodguys Autocross series and aims to provide a competitive yet enjoyable experience for a variety of drivers and vehicles. 

Ridetech’s Fox Body is a relatively recent build. Assembly was completed in the middle of 2024. Testing and final fit and finish to the body and livery took place in late 2024. Wheelman duties fell to 20+ year Ridetech Marketing Specialist Jason Brady, who has piloted a number of Ridetech equipped cars to podium finishes over the years.

This time he would pilot Ridetech’s 1985 Mustang, a car that came into company ownership as a literal test-fit shell. Since that time it’s received the new lease on life that other vehicles could only dream of. If you’re interested in learning more about what it took to transform the car into the one you see on track, here are a few links to our past blog updates. 

We took a few minutes to catch up with Jason post-event to capture his thoughts going into and during the event. 

Jason: “The week’s lead-up time was all prep. Like most races, this week involved several last-minute updates. Since this was the car’s first autocross, we knew data acquisition would be critical to improving the car’s performance throughout the weekend.

Tire pressure gauges, temp probes, air tanks, torque wrench, laptop, and car setup sheets were a few items that would ensure a great weekend or racing. We also worked with our friends at Haltech for some last-minute remote tuning to set us up  with a few recently released software features.”

Day One: “Off the trailer, we started with the basics: tire pressure, lug nut check, fluid check, and shock valving adjustments. After getting the car teched by officials we warmed  the car up for it’s first lap. The initial setup proved to be a fairly loose. The second lap felt better after dropping tire pressure, but was still a bit on the loose side.

We started with most of the shock knobs set in the middle of their adjustment range, so we softened up compression and increased front rebound. The Mustang responded nicely to those changes, with substantially improved rear grip. Now it was time to focus on driving. Several laps in we found ourselves sitting in the number two position in our class. The rest of the afternoon saw some slight shock compression/rebound adjustments and had us feeling comfortable.”

Day Two: “We began enjoying fairly consistent lap times from yesterday’s  adjustments. I concentrated on a few of my slower areas on track. The car was spinning the rear tires on corner exit. Softening the rear sway bar  made a noticeable difference in putting the power down out of the corners.

We repeatedly swapped the second place position back and forth with Patrick in his 63 Nova throughout the day, and both of us found a second over day one. Patrick laid down a 39.4 versus my 39.5 to put us third in class. During the Street Machine Shootout, we secured a second place finish, with Patrick winning the Shootout. Overall, I was very happy with the car’s performance for it’s first event. There is much more in the Ridetech Fox Body, and with all we learned, I can’t wait to see what happens at the next event!”

Now that we’ve got the car through it’s first event of the year, we’ve got several notes to take back to the shop with us and apply to the car to ensure it’s ready for the next found of Good Guys competition. The next Good Guys stop for the car will be Good Guys Heartland Nationals in Des Moines, but before that the car will spend some time on one of America’s most well-known courses. Hyperfest at VIR takes place May 16-18th and we look forward to sharing how far the car has come since it’s last Virginia outing. 

Thanks to all of our partners that made this build possible incuding: Haltech, Kumho Tire, Willwood Engineering, Forgeline Wheels, Bowler Transmissions, Engler Macine & Tool, Ultimate Headers, DeWitt’s Radiators, Retrobright (a Holley Performance brand), If you’re interested in seeing how the rest of the competitors fared over the weekend, check out the following link for live timing results.