BRT's Daniel Szwarc Grabs Podium in New-Build Z as Martin Szwarc's Supercharged Civic Succumbs to Unpredictable Engine Failure

BRT had tremendous highs this past weekend, but also some of its lowest lows. Rookie driver, Daniel Szwarc made his debut in USTCC this weekend at NJMP Lightning in the newly built, TC, 370Z.

The brothers, Martin and Dan, spent much of the last 4 weeks turning this street car into a fully built racer. From stripping the interior, to bending and welding the cage, to engine maintenance and finally painting, this build was a long shot to even make it to the starting line. Turns out, with a lot of planning, late nights, Red Bulls, and some help from some friends like StudioVRM’s Roger Maeda, anything is possible.

The team was able to get an alignment and trailer the Z to NJMP while the paint was still drying and applied the stickers at 11:45PM the night before the race with Mike from Mike Tries Motorsports, another friend, competitor, and RV neighbor at the track. Dan qualified 3rd in TC on Saturday with an off-road excursion early in the session.

“The grass looked a little long on the outside of turn 7 and I just wanted to help out the groundskeepers.” Dan continued on to place 3rd in the first heat race, behind Brandon Lewis in his Ford Fiesta. After reviewing data with ST racer Anthony Piselli, Dan found more time throughout the course and managed to place 2nd in TC, behind fun runner Patryk Tararuj in his ST5 prepped BRZ.

On the other side of the coin, Martin suffered some engine complications during his first session on Saturday morning. Originally the team diagnosed a bad negative terminal wire as a possible culprit after the Civic cut out in pit lane. However, during session 2, a similar problem resurfaced from Summit; a VTEC solenoid failure. After going down the rabbit hole, the team found that in reality, an oil squirter banjo bolt had backed itself out of the engine block and destroyed much of cylinder 3 on its way down to the oil pan. It was decided to retire the Civic for the weekend in hopes of salvaging what we can in order to make the next race at Summit Point in July. What was supposed to be the debut of the newly installed and tuned supercharger turned into a huge disappointment for the two brothers.

BRT looks to further improve the Z with aero and a LSD before the next race, while also repairing the damaged Civic’s engine. Keep an eye out for the two BRT machines at Summit in July!