Karwan won STR – a class populated by almost all ND Miatas – by less than half a second in a car owned by Jen Fox, whom he thanks for the support and feedback on the setup. Speaking of setup, he’s happy to share his secrets, and four other drivers in the eight places that earned trophies listed Karcepts on the sponsor line.

“I share my whole setup with anybody who wants it,” he explains. “We have found this car loves a lot of front camber, so I make these camber bushings … we run a little over four degrees of front camber and it really helps the chassis turn. When you add the front camber … we just kept going up and up on front swaybar rate. As you achieved more front grip with the extra camber, you could run more front swaybar to keep the car stable in transitions. With a big front swaybar, you can really attack slaloms, but not limit the car’s rotation in bigger sweepers, which would typically dictate a softer front swaybar.”

Other things he’s found is the ND1 engine really benefits from a four-into-one header to increase torque in the upper rev range, and that the chassis is fastest with some form of rear swaybar to make sure it has the proper amount of rotation on throttle.

Karwan is looking at competing in a different class next year, likely Street Modified with a different car. Regardless, STR will always hold a special place for him, not only for being a class where he won an SCCA national championship title, but also because he has many friends and customers in the class succeeding through the use of his products.