evo in grid at miller motorsports park

The First World Challenge Race of 2008 at Miller Motorsports Park

Competition Associates (CA Sport) enjoyed a successful debut of its Evolution 9 and BMW E90 racecars. Miller Motorsports Raceway in Salt Lake City, Utah held its Annual Miller Motorsports SPEED World Challenge this past weekend. The cars were engineered and built by Vesko Kozarov, owner of Competition Associates in Salt Lake City.

CA Sport unveiled their Evolution 9 for GT and BMW E90 for Touring Car that captured the attention of many. “The team literally finished putting the two cars together just hours before rolling them into the trailer and off to Miller. I was really moved to see the culmination of everyone’s hard work and all the local racers, many with cars built by Vesko, came out and supported the team as crew members. We cannot thank everyone involved enough. Now we just need to do everyone proud, it was a learning experience for the team who is busy getting the cars ready for Watkins Glen June 8,” says Lara Tallman.

Byron Smith drove his BMW and even though the car was not able to start until the Wednesday before the race, he successfully finished the race. After chasing wiring problems for days, the team was ready to give up when the BMW finally started. Byron drove in the Touring Car series last year in a Dodge SRT-4.

Neither car had the chance to test before the race week. The Evo was plagued by computer problems that caused the car to qualify 21 out of 35 cars. During the race Vesko was able to battle back, making several early stage passes, moving it into 16th position, but it was not able to finish the race.

“We were happy with the performance of both cars for our first time out. Of course we always wish we could do better but these are new cars…lots to sort out. We are moving in the right direction and making good progress from where we began on Friday. We have a long road ahead of us but we are happy with how things are looking,” says Lara. The race will be televised live on SPEED TV on Wed., May 28th.