The dedication required to become a successful competitor in any motorsport is daunting. The long hours, hard work and the fact that most participants will never see a return on their financial investment may cause many to burn out or quit entirely. However, for those who forge through the drawbacks and build on their determination to win frequently succeed. Mark Berry is one of the lucky few whose devotion to the sport has spawned into a career-and a winning one, at that.
Mark's current pro career really got going with his R32 GT-R, a build assisted by his current sponsors Hi Octane racing, and between '05 and '08 a common site at the sprints and Dutton rallies of eastern Australia, where it has dominated the leaderboards. Don't know what a Dutton rally is? Mark had to clue me in, too. "It's a three-day event-hill climbs, drag racing, 800-meter runs, everything." When asked about the apparent lack of a rally in Dutton rallys, Mark said, "Any event not on a racetrack is a rally."
Mark's winning career with his R32 continued until the Nissan reached its limit at Japan's infamous Tsukuba circuit in 2007-finishing 20th out of 60 cars on its virgin run-and Mark decided at that point it was time to retire the R32 and move on to bigger and better things. "I always liked Nissans-they're a great platform-we just needed something with more power out of the box, so we decided to upgrade to the R34." Before they left Japan, Mark and his team at Hi Octane were already planning the R34 build-up path.
"The [R34] GT-R's got inherent problems-understeer, for one," Mark said. "We thought, first thing you need to do is get the understeer out of the car to make it quicker. And they're too heavy, that was the next goal." Mark and his team got the GT-R on a strict diet, and after the car had been stripped to a shell, seam-welded and outfitted with a chromoly rollcage, Mark started hanging new body panels. The team at Hi Octane replaced as much as they could with a lightweight alternative; the hood, trunk, doors and wing are all dry carbon fiber, and the front bumper and rear diffuser (courtesy of Kagotani), gave the car an even more aggressive look and rounded out the newly slimmed exterior. To match the GT-R's new sleek body, the dash and door cards were carbon wrapped to match, and all the glass was upgraded to lexan for safety and weight reduction. Replacing the pair of front seats with a single Momo Corse carbon-fiber bucket and the steering wheel with a suede wrapped Sabelt alternative got the interior race ready.
Understeer isn't usually a problem easily addressed, so Mark contacted Murray Coote at Proflex suspensions and had him custom build a set of shocks specifically for the GT-R. "We lowered the car, which made the center of gravity lower; but [that] sacrificed handling, so we had to custom make the front suspension." Mark's custom-designed front suspension, matched with a set of Ikeya formula rear arms, made suspension tuning a breeze.
Enjoyed this Post? Subscribe to our RSS Feed, or use your favorite social media to recommend us to friends and colleagues!