USA's Cale Aronson flying in for Pro Stock team.
Cale Aronson will make the nearly 10,000-mile trip to Sydney to work with the Australian National Drag Racing Association (ANDRA) Pro Stock team of Emilio Spinozzi.
His driving exploits and business, Aronson Motorsports, have even taken him overseas to the Middle East.
None of it compares, though, to an upcoming trip that will be Aronson’s most ambitious to date.
The talented Aronson, who has been to two ADRL finals, will race in the next two ADRL events, next week at Maple Grove Raceway and on June 1-2 in St. Louis before he and his fiancé, Tinzy Smith, board a plane to Australia.
Aronson will then make the nearly 10,000-mile trip to Sydney and to work with the Australian National Drag Racing Association (ANDRA) Pro Stock team of Emilio Spinozzi.
“It’s my first time going down there and it’s going to be really neat. It’s going to be an opportunity to be hands-on with people I’ve dealt with for a long time,” Aronson said.
“This is something we’ve been excited to do for a while now and I’ve always liked working with new companies and expanding into the international zone. We’ve been able to see a lot of gains just working over the phone and through e-mails, so we’re excited to get our hands dirty, do some real-time tuning and work on the race car.”
Spinozzi, the driver on the family-owned Spinozzi Racing team, have been customers of Aronson’s for some time, getting consultation on clutches, gearing and set-up among other things.
A former comp class driver, Spinozzi and the team made the move to Pro Stock and invited Aronson and Smith over as the 2012 comes to a conclusion.
Aronson and Smith will spend close to two weeks in Australia, traveling along the eastern part of the country and attending the final race of the 2012 season, the ANDRA Winternationals at Willowbank Raceway on June 8-11.
There, Aronson hopes to get Spinozzi and his small block 400-cubic inch Pro Stock Pontiac GTO quicker than the 7.04 at nearly 194 miles per hour it went at the last ANDRA event in May.
Considering the current record is 7.022 at 195 mph, Aronson thinks there is record-breaking potential for Spinozzi, currently eighth in points.
“When Tinzy and I go down, we’ll go through pretty much everything we can to make it more efficient and help them get the most of what they’ve got,” Aronson said. “Being there, it will allow me to do some real instruction and analyze all the info right there.
“Their engine builder, Rino Conte (RC Racing Engines) has been working hard and doing a lot of development and hopefully we can help him with some stuff.
“Their making a lot of power on the dyno, we just have to figure out how to use it and find what the car likes. They are a strong team and I’m just hoping to give them a little improvement in hopes of clicking off some 6-second passes.”
Getting the car fitted with better technology has been a huge help as well, and Aronson has worked hard to help them improve their clutch technology, along with an abundance of other areas.
It’s also benefitted Aronson, too, allowing him to tap into a market and offer products and services not previously available to ANDRA racers.
“Emilio and his team are right there and hopefully taking them to the next level would be pretty cool to see,” Aronson said.
Aronson is planning on going back to Australia for a more extended stay once the ADRL season finishes in October, which is when the 2012-2013 ANDRA season begins.
For now, Aronson is preparing for the hectic upcoming schedule. Currently seventh in XPS points in the ADRL, Aronson will return from Australia just days before the ADRL races at Virginia Motorsports Park on June 22-23.
“I might show up in Virginia with toothpicks holding my eyes open,” Aronson said.
Most likely, though, he wouldn’t have it any other way.
Article reproduced with permission from CompetitionPlus.com.