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About Sonic Race
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About us
Sonic Race & Machine Ltd opened its doors for the first time in May 2006 when owner Mike (Bic) Anderson made the decision to move from Auckland, returning to his roots, in the Bay Of Plenty. Mike had spent the last three years in Auckland working for Paul Manuell, and was heavily involved in Manuells Orix sponsored New Zealand V8 Touring Car racing program. Mike had built the very successful VZ Holden Commodore Manuell had used to take several pole positions, top five race results, and best presented car awards.
Prior to his time with Manuell, Mike had spent an exciting six year period in the United States, in a multitude of roles, with some of America's top racing teams. This began in 1997, with Team Scandia, as Lead Mechanic on the teams Indy Racing League (IRL) cars. He worked on all aspects of the cars, including upright overhauls, driveshaft maintenance, wiring maintenance, fuel cell work, and a number of other jobs, including race car set-up. In 1998, he moved across to the hugely successful Riley & Scott, where he worked as the sole mechanic on the teams back-up IRL car. In November that year, he was promoted to the team Crew Chief.
1999 saw a new challenge as Mike moved across to Beck Motorsport, as part of their Indy 500 program, where he helped build and race prepare the teams car as Lead Mechanic. Following his time with Beck Motorsport, Mike became Crew Chief at Conti Racing/Energizer Motorsport. This was a new team to the IRL, having previously competed in Formula 2000, Atlantic, and Super-Vee, so Mike played a key role in bringing them up to speed with the challenges involved in competing in the IRL.Mike then built a similar chassis fixture for the new Riley & Scott Trans-Am car, and built the first two complete customer cars for Tom Gloy Racing.
From there, he moved back to Riley & Scott, where he was in charge of the teams assembly shop. His role covered all facets of the chassis builds, from a new tub, through to completed cars. When Reynard pulled its funding from the IRL to focus on Champ Car, Mike became Crew Chief on Riley & Scotts Cadillac Prototype Sportscar program. The following year, he was moved across to wind tunnel testing of the teams new R&S Mk3C Prototype Sportscar. He built the 40% scale model chassis and suspension, and assisted in the five day 90 hour wind tunnel test to finalise the body style for the production cars. He then built the chassis fixture and all the necessary attachments to be able to build a run of identical chassis'. From there, he built the first four customer chassis'. Upon completion, he would follow each chassis through to the assembly shop, where he would oversee the build-up to a complete turn-key car.
From there Mike got involved with running the R&S Mk3C Prototype Sportscar for Jim Mathews Racing. In testing, the new car broke lap records, and was leading the Rolex 24 Hour Daytona race comfortably before being slowed by a broken header, and faulty alternator, dropping it to second at the end. At Sebring, the team finished 3rd behind the factory Audi's, and at Le Mans, were running well inside the top ten at the halfway mark, when the engine suddenly failed.
Prior to his time in the US, Mike ran Whakatane Tuning, which specialised in dyno-tuning race and road car engines, electronic fuel injection, fault diagnosis, race engine design, machining (including extensive cylinder head porting and modification), and assembly and maintenance.
It was during this time Mike also got involved with Terry Sims on building the famous Sims/Anderson Ferrari Top Doorslammer drag car, which won the NZ Nationals, taking number 1 qualifying spot, winning every round, and taking out the finals, along with a new national record of 7.5 sec
Track
We can build you a turn-key race car from the ground up, or we can fine-tune an existing race car. We can fabricate new items, or provide advice on getting the best from an existing set-up. Please visit our Projects page to see some of the work we have carried out for other customers. more info
Road
So many modified and hobbyist road cars suffer from poor tuning, be it engine or chassis tuning. We like to focus on what we call 'driveability', ie, nice throttle application, carburettor, and chassis tuning.
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