Prior to wrapping up production Jeff Jones treated the Director and Host to their very own taste of this wild professional sport and getting them hooked.

Jeff Jones would like to thank his awesome sponsors CX Racing, Cooper Tires, EBC Brakes, ClutchNet, Apexi USA, SR Motorcars, Brian Crower, CP Pistons, KN Filters and XXR Wheels for their continued support as none of this would be possible without them.

Photograph courtesy of Steve Jones, Hatches hairpin at Pembrey 24/9/11

Alastair Boulton of STM Phoenix is hoping that forthcoming 2012 season will be as prosperous as the last two.

After being crowned as the 750MC RGB Overall Champion and Class B champion in 2010 and Class F champion in 2011, Alastair is sticking with the winning formula of using Yellowstuff pads by EBC Brakes.

Using Yellowstuff pads give Alistair a great advantage, as the Yellowstuff pads do not require warm up but do get even stronger under the heat of hard driving. Even up to truck weights these pads grip and do not heat fade. (The Yellowstuff pads, are not a low dust pad and if your desire is for a low dust premium street use pad, you should consider EBC Redstuff)

EBC Brakes have helped Chris Greenhouse to win the RallyAmerica Central Region Group 2 championship for the last four consecutive years.

That has meant thousands of miles travelled to and from events all over the United States. Chris uses his 2000 Chevrolet Express Van to tow his race car to and from events and recently upgraded to EBC Yellowstuff brakes.

My crew and I all end up taking turns driving the van when going to events. We all immediately noticed the difference between the EBC Yellowstuff Truck and SUV brake pads and regular store-bought pads. The pads have much more initial bite than regular pads and they have exhibited no fade even when towing the race car and trailer. EBC Brakes claim “Towing brings extra loads and that mushy feel of many stock or low friction aftermarket pads does not inspire confidence. EBC Yellowstuff gives you as much bite as you can get from a stock system and in most cases will give a noticeable brake improvement under loads of towing.” The crew have all stated that the new brakes give them much more confidence while towing.

Chris has already been working hard getting ready for next year and he will be back in action again at Sno*Drift Rally in Atlanta, Michigan, USA in late January 2012. Sno*Drift will be the first event of the 2012 RallyAmerica National Championship series.

I would like to thank everyone who has assisted me in winning four straight regional championships and we look forward to standing atop the podium again in 2012. And my crew is especially grateful for the EBC Yellowstuff brakes that help to keep our rig safe en-route to rally events all over the USA. Special thanks also go out to John Romero at EBC Brakes USA for keeping me well-equipped for the 2012 Rally season.

Randy Merritt and Mongo Racing end the 2011 Best In The Desert Racing Association season with a bang having used EBC Yellowstuff brake pads and EBC GD series sport rotors all season . On Saturday December 3, 2011 Randy Merritt started the Transwest Ford Henderson 250 in Jean NV with his son Randy Merritt Jr. riding in the Navigator seat. The side by side start was exciting as Merritt started the race knowing there was no pressure on him. Merritt entered the weekend securely in second for the 2011 BITD Class 8100 points championship.

Randy Merritt took the lead with the whole shot off the start, but electronic issues limited the Mongo Racing Ford F-150 to about 90 percent power for most of the first lap. After the first 80 mile lap Merritt was only 4 minutes behind the leader in second place. On the second lap Merritt was able to get full power back and make up time on the leader, but luck on this day was not with Merritt and Mongo Racing. Merritt had closed with in 1 minute of the leader when the Mongo Racing Ford F-150 came to a sudden stop from a broken drive shaft. Merritt and Merritt Jr. fixed the truck on the course and crossed the finish line of the Transwest Ford Henderson 250 in Jean NV in second place.

Brakes are a big thing in off road racing and that’s why Randy depends on EBC Brakes to stop his truck on a dime all year long.

This marks the 9th season Merritt has finished the BITD Class 8100 season points in the top 3.

Randy Merritt is looking forward to the expanded 6 race 2012 Best In The Desert Racing Association schedule with excitement. Merritt and the Mongo Racing team will be making an exciting announcement for 2012 BITD season within the next few weeks.

The Mongo Racing Ford F-150 is sponsored by General Grabber Tires, KC Hilites, Knock Out Energy, TNC Machine, Sway-A-Way, Trail Ready Bead Lock Wheels, Yukon, EBC Brakes, Optima Batteries, Master Craft Safety Innovations, Lucas Oil, UMP, Camburg Engineering Products, MSD Ignition and Mongo Made Graphics.

“One of the most important modifications for a circuit racer is the brakes. When out on track, more time can be gained or lost in the braking areas than anywhere else on the circuit. You need to have confidence in your brakes and be able to slam them on hard and as late as possible, to slow the car for the corner as fast as possible, before rebalancing the car for the bend. My Time Attack Impreza has K-Sport callipers and EBC Bluestuff NDX pads all round and it stops like you’ve hit a brick wall.”
Paul Doyle speaking back in August 2011 for Japanese performance magazine in the “tips from the pro’s” section about key modifications.

Paul Doyle’s Impreza uses K-Sport callipers but Bluestuff will of course perform in any quality calliper and even standard brake systems when bedded in properly click here to select the best pads for your race callipers.

The biggest advantage of EBC Bluestuff NDX is their bite from cold and progressive brake feel and the ability to bring a car to a complete stop.

EBC Brakes have made record speed inroads into the USA and German Markets in recent years after their clear dominance in their home UK market and are the favourite choice of brake materials for fast street and race car drivers all over the world.

EBC Brakes produce the largest range of brake pads in the world in a variety of compounds and are 100% British made with their ISO certificated factory located in Bristol UK and are part of the Freeman group of Companies Established in 1978 and still privately owned.

EBC Brakes

The GD series wide aperture slotted rotors also do a great job of hauling down trucks and one recent write up on these products is shown below

STEP ON IT

By Bruce W. Smith
EBC disc-brake upgrade gives Project Super Crew improved stopping power and longer pad life.

Brakes are the most important part of any vehicle.

You can do all the suspension, tire, wheel and engine upgrades to make your company pickup more efficient at whatever tasks you call upon it to perform.

But without good brakes those improvement are all for naught.
Add a trailer into the mix and your pickup’s braking performance advances to an even higher degree on necessity, especially when corporate insurance and liability are at stake.

Maintenance costs are also affected. ProPickup’s reader’s 30,000-miles-a-year average is almost twice what the typical vehicle owner logs.
This means the front brake pads on the typical contractor’s pickup are replaced at least once a year (60 percent of braking is done by the front brakes) if not more often.
Multiply those annual costs by 6- to 8 times during the life of the vehicle, and the brake repairs/maintenance adds up.
Improved vehicle safety and a reduction in brake maintenance costs can be reduced over the long-term by upgrading to more efficient, higher-performance disc brake pads and rotors.
Such upgrades are all about controlling heat build-up, which, in turn, reduces brake fade and brake component wear.

About Brake Fade
If you have ever done any trailer towing in steep mountains or in other situations where engine braking isn’t enough to keep the tow vehicle/trailer at a comfortable speed, you know what brake fade feels like.
That soft brake pedal slowly heading to the floor, the smell of hot brakes, and the slowly increasing vehicle speed brings chills to the body.

Stock Ford F-250 front brake assembly has vented rotor.
It’s the same feel as you get trying to bring a heavily laden pickup with oversized tires to a stop in an emergency situation.
The brakes and ABS system are trying their best to comply with what your mind and foot are demanding, but the stop is slow in coming.
The reason for brake “fade” is so much friction is being generated between the rotor and pad that the heat causes the resin in the pad’s friction material to vaporize.
As vaporizing occurs, gas builds up between the face of the brake pad and the rotor.
This layer of gas acts as a cushion, and braking resistance is compromised (think tires hydroplaning on water as they lose contact with the pavement).
Brake fade on newer pickups isn’t so much about the vaporizing of the pads against the rotor, it’s boiling the brake fluid, which results in much the same result.

With newer brake pad compounds, the pads transfer heat into the calipers once the rotors are too hot, and the brake fluid starts to boil forming bubbles in it,

explains Chris Longhurst, author of the Brake Bible.

Because air is compressible (brake fluid isn’t) when you step on the brakes, the air bubbles compress instead of the fluid transferring the motion to the brake calipers,

says Longhurst.

Voila! Modern brake fade.

The solution to controlling such massive amounts of heat during braking are pads made from higher quality materials, and rotors that feature some combination of holes, grooves, and dimples to help dissipate heat faster and give the vaporized gas someplace to exit.

While grooving the surface may reduce the specific heat capacity of the rotor, its effect is negligible in the grand scheme of things,

says Longhurst.

EBC Sport disc brakes and Yellowstuff pads address contrctor’s stopping needs in full-size pickups.

However, under heavy braking, once everything is hot and the resin is vaporizing, the grooves give the gas somewhere to go, so the pad can continue to contact the rotor, allowing you to stop.

EBC Disc Brake Upgrade
Our 2011 F-250 Super Duty Crew Cab 4×4 has a very good factory disc-brake setup at all four corners.
But as we added more weight to the truck in the form of accessories and equipment, and a much higher rolling mass with the taller, heavier tires and wider wheels, we thought it time to step up to a higher performance rotor/pad combination.
So we turned to EBC, a British company renown for their performance brakes world-wide.
EBC has added heavy-duty pickup applications to their popular Sport Rotors called the GD-Series.
The GD-Series rotors are dimple-drilled so they provide pad degassing without “Through Drilling,” which has been shown to promote rotor cracks.
The Sport Rotors’ special slots between the faces draw cool air under the brake pad and rotor interface and help cool the temperatures of the pad contact which can shoot up to well over 1000 degrees at the very heart of the brake pad during heavy braking.

Slots and dimples in EBC rotor face and special vents between faces all contribute to heat dispersion for better braking under heavy use.
These “full sweep” slots on the EBC Sport Brake rotor also help remove dirt dust debris and water from the braking area.
The biggest benefit is because of their design the rotors don’t warp, maintaining a flat and parallel pad surface throughout the lifetime of the brake pad set.

Adding Yellowstuff
The other upgrade we made is replacing the factory pads with EBC Yellowstuff.
EBC Yellowstuff pads are made from an aramid fiber compound with a very high heat range, and they work well when the brakes are cold and very well when hot.

The EBC Yellowstuff gives you as much bite as you can get from a stock system and in most cases will give a noticeable brake improvement while towing or hauling heavy loads,

says James Hallett, Vice Presidentof EBC Brakes USA Inc.

The GD7319 #GD-Series rotors with Yellowstuff pads are the best combination for pickup owners who do a lot of towing and off-pavement driving,

Hallett says.
If you are a construction worker or contractor who drives a heavy-duty pickup, those conditions should sound quite familiar.

Our Test Results
When we did the first track tests with our F-250 Crew Cab diesel, the 60mph-0 distance on Holiday Raceway’s 1/8th mile asphalt strip was 151 feet, with the subsequent back-to-back braking distance stretching to 168 feet.
With the truck sitting atop 35-inch Mickey Thompson MTZ mud tires, four-inch suspension lift, toolboxes, refuel tank and a number of other upgrades, the base stopping distance extended out to 196 feet.

Ford F-250 front disc brake assmebly fitted with EBC Sport rotors and Yellowstuff pads.
The second pass, made without letting the brakes cool down except for the drive back to the starting line, ended at 210 and a lot of soft pedal underfoot.
With the EBC pads and rotors, the first pass came in at 171 feet and the hot pass 177.
Brake pedal feel on the second pass was very similar to the first braking run.
Our inital stock-verses-aftermarket comparison shows the EBC Sport rotors and Yellowstuff pads definitely improved our big Ford’s stopping power both cold and hot.
We have also seen slightly firmer brake pedal and noticeably improved around-town braking performance during both wet and dry conditions.
The truck also tends to stop with a more level attitude than it did with the stock brakes
Here’s how Truck Supply & Outfitter’s Daniel Parker went about upgrading the front and rear brakes on our 2011 Ford F-250 Crew Cab 4×4 diesel, Project Super Crew….

Article available at http://www.propickupmag.com/disc-brake-upgrade

Photo by Christopher Stryker

Chris Greenhouse has made it four in a row.  The Weasel RallySports team driver has won the 2011 RallyAmerica Central Region Group 2 championship for the fourth consecutive year.  Piloting his Plymouth Neon with EBC Yellowstuff brake pads, he took wins at Sno* Regional, Tresspasser’s Wil, Finger Lakes, and Sherwood Forest rallies.  He also took a 2WD National victory at Susquehannock Trail Performance Rally in June and finished 4th in the 2WD National Championship series as well.

It was definitely a good year for us.  We had solid, consistent finishes, a motivated team, and a little bit of luck along the way to our 4th championship.  We had a few close battles, and we had to come from behind a few times, too.  I think, more importantly, we were able to persevere through some adverse moments and we didn’t give up through those moments.  We needed to hang in there to capitalize on the competition’s misfortune a few times, too.

Chris expects to return to the stages in January 2012 in Atlanta Michigan, USA at Sno*Drift Rally.

We have a lot of work to do in the off-season, so much so that it isn’t really going to be much of an off-season.  We have a new engine going into the Neon, and we have a few other improvements planned for 2012 also.  For now, I would really like to thank EBC Brakes for supporting our championship efforts.  Get ready, because we are coming back even stronger than before in 2012!

I was lucky enough to be part of the EBC trial for the Bluestuff /Orangestuff pads. I wasn’t too bothered which to try as I’d been very happy with EBC Yellowstuff for quite some time and I therefore had a reasonable confidence in EBC products.

I had tried the Redstuff, which were considered a fast road pad. They worked well but didn’t quite perform well on track. Perhaps this was my driving. They stopped well enough but felt strained when I was really on it. I then moved to Yellowstuff and they did exactly what I needed them to do and are brilliant for the price. No fade, no horrid noises, good feel and no judder. the only downside was perhaps that they didn’t last very long before needing replacement. But you can’t have everything at this price!

A box of Bluestuff arrived in the post and I fitted them front and rear. I bled the brakes with fresh fluid to make sure I gave them a fair test. The bedding in procedure consisted of driving the car to Spa and that was it. I had no time to do anything else really.

I hadn’t driven Spa before so I had to rely on the brakes quite heavily as I got up to speed with the track knowledge. The pads felt good from cold. Better than the Yellowstuff if I’m honest. Once warm the bite was there and heavy braking was straight and true. No noises, odd behaviour, just good braking. Nice.

I took a well known instructor out for a few laps before letting him drive the car. No complaints and quite complimentary.

The pads look like they have 80% left on the fronts and 95% on the rear. That’s pretty good. The yellows wouldn’t have faired as well. AP4 pots and Subaru 2 pots f/r if you’re wondering.

So, am I happy and would I buy again? Yes and yes!

American Desert Racers blends the old world color commentary of previous racers with new rising stars.

We’re building this reality show around 2 extremely competitive drivers and their families. Our distinguished hosts Bob Bower, Greg Foutz, & John Tuba will cover and evaluate the races and racers.

Randy Merritt is a 5 time winner of the Parker 400. He has also won Best in the Desert Baja Mexico 300, Best in the Desert 2006 Class Championship, and Best in the Desert 2011 Vegas to Reno race which is the longest raced in the U.S. Randy also placed 2nd at the Parker Blue Water Challenge Best in the Desert in 2011. Randy Merritt relies on EBC Yellowstuff high friction brake pads and EBC GD series sport rotors to stop his off road racer truck and has done for years

Our newcomer is Adrian Diaz, a rising star with a passion for this exciting sport. He did not finish his first race in Plaster City but shined when he won his 2nd race in the Primm Nevada Midnight Special. Adrian placed a tight 3rd in his most recent race, Best in the Desert Blue Water Challenge 2011.

The audience will see and experience the race on the track as well as the hard work and fun that takes place in the garages of these competitors that are mere yards from each other. You’ll witness both teams work fiercely and recognize that they are forces to be dealt with as they prepare for their next combat.

Our hosts will add to the excitement as they discuss and evaluate the techniques used by the racers. They will take you inside the desert racing world as they review the challenges of the track and how teams have dealt with similar situations in the past.

Special guests such as Ron Hall, Scott Mackenzie, Ivan Stuart, Judie Smith, Robbie Gordon will join the panel to discuss the performance of drivers along with members of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Master Craft, General Tires and Sway-A-Way.

The audience will be able to hear the conversations between the drivers and the pit crew. On board cameras, shots from the track and helicopter footage will personalize the events.

In the finale these two teams will be pitted against each other in the race to finish for the title of “American Desert Racer”. Each following season will introduce a new racer gaining the experience to attempt to overthrow our previous champion. May the best racer win.

To promote this extreme sport and the title of “American Desert Racer” will be an exciting event.

Team Yellow – September 2011 Gatebil from Team Yellow on Vimeo.

This is filmed during the last Gatebil event of 2011 at Rudskogen Racing Track in September. Ju stin Shreeve and Joe Ayala of Tandem of Die flew over from USA, this is the awesome result we got…. Best ever!!!

Team yellow are looking for a great 2012 season with help from EBC Yellowstuff, currently team yellow’s Subaru WRX runs on Yellowstuff pads on the front and rear, the Supra and Silvia have Yellowstuff on the front and rear with groove rotors on the front and rear also from EBC Brakes.

When considering full race use, Yellowstuff has been a strong favourite, these pads do not require warm up but do get even stronger under the heat of hard driving.

The reason for using Yellowstuff by EBC Brakes is an aramid fibre based brake compound with high brake effect from cold and is possibly one of the first ever compounds that can be used for STREET AND TRACK DRIVING.

It is also the choice of 90% of the Mazda MX5 Miata competitors in the UK race series and has an unblemished record as rotor friendly track pad for vehicles up to 2000 lbs weight or 200 BHP. In the USA the SCCA and NASA drivers have been testing Yellowstuff with feedback and good reports POURING in from a 543 test driver major market proving event with these groups.

For more information on Team yellow please visit http://www.teamyellow.no/index.html