PATRICK PATTERSON
takes it to the track
HIS 2005 Mitsubishi Evolution IX doubles as a standout competitor on the racing scene and as his everyday vehicle that takes him to and from his nine-to-five, affording him the best of both worlds.
Patrick Patterson told Automotives, “It’s the car that I drive on the road every day, [I] drive it to work and drive it home. When it comes to race time, you do some little alterations – cover the headlights and all that – and race the car.”
The vehicle has been owned by him for approximately nine years, sporting a twolitre turbocharged engine and about 400 horsepower.
For Patterson, knowing the potential of the car, coupled with an interest in driving faster, pushed him to start racing competitively. He said, “I refused to drive fast or race on the road as we all know that is not safe, and being involved in motorsports administration, I decided [to] try racing at Dover.”
He summed up, “I’m able to drive fast. I’m able to do what the car is supposed to do in a controlled environment, so I am not bringing pedestrians or other motorists any risk at all. So, the opportunity came. We had some training sessions for persons who want to race some street cars at Dover, and I went to the session. I enjoyed it and I started racing in 2016 officially at Dover.”
Performing well
“The car has been performing very well,” Patterson revealed. “Over the years that I have been racing, I have got a number of first-place wins in races, some second-place races, and the car is always super reliable. Everybody wants to beat the Evolution, everybody wants to drive the Evolution.”
He recalls a downtime in his short career. “One race meet in 2017, I was racing at JamWest Raceway, and I ran a little low on oil, and the engine got damaged. But it has been super competitive.”
Certainly, he has had to make modifications to the vehicle over its lifetime. He explained, “Some of the modifications included putting in a bigger turbo in the car, meaning bigger than what it comes from the factory with; putting in some bigger injectors so fuel flows easier and you get enough fuel to feed the engine based on the programming that’s set on the car; and changing the exhaust system a bit – that helps to boost the performance.”