Hello Everyone!

Mike here standing in for Ed...

S2k Challenge #4 was held April 11, 2009 at Thunderhill in Willows, CA. The long distance from SoCal and the Easter weekend did affect turnout.
However, we did get many Bay Area S2000 drivers and had a blast driving one of the premier tracks on California!

Thunderhill is SCCA's home track in Norcal so the facility is great : huge canopies for shade, gigantic paddock, real bathrooms, timing building/meeting room/burger grille...only thing missing is the grandstands.
The track itself is really quite spectacular at 3 miles long, new pavement, curbing all nicely maintained.
This was my 2nd time here and I'm still amazed at how technical and fast it really is.

Saturday's event weather was clear and cool, topping out in the low 70's, with a light breeze.
Participants started to fill the paddock around 7am.

First, we ran into Owen Guo (Owenxguo, #7). He was running UNLIMITED class in his white AP1, a veteran of Redline and various other Time Attacks.
Mike Skowron (S2kfrog, #323) and Paul Asterline (SDRACING, #121) were our two STREET participants, both in lightly modded S2's.
Matt Feng Zhu (windforce, #73), Ivan Hung (smile, #18), and myself (dipstick, #877) rounded out our MOD category.

Since we were not doing a time trial format, Aaron told us that only sessions 2, 3, and 4 would "count", sessions 1 and 5 would be discarded.

As sole UL entrant, Owen had 1st locked up.
However, he was still able to run the fastest S2000 lap of the day with a 2:05.5 during Red 2 - on par with the fastest Red group cars

In MOD, Feng Zhu was able to run a 2:14 in Black 4 for 3rd place.

Ivan and I rode in each other's cars to compare notes and while we had similar lines, he struggled a little with his non-staggered setup (getting some understeer in the highspeed sweepers).
He tried dialing down his wing a little but couldn't strike the perfect balance as that seemed to unsettle the rear.
Still, with some smooth driving, Ivan was able to bring in a 2:12 in Black 2 for 2nd in MOD.

Since S2k C#3 @ Streets, I did a new alignment, upped the front camber to F -2.7 (R still at -2.3), zero'd out the twitchy toe-out, left the toe in at the back (1/8" for less tail happiness).
I also reduced the AOA on the wing which had ended up tweaked extra high at Streets to band-aid some looseness in back.
During Red 3, I was able to run a 2:06.3, good for 1st in MOD.

In STREET class, newcomers Paul and Mike were running similar times all day.
Mike Skowron was able to bring in a 2:25.5 in his nearly stock Laguna S2, good for 2nd.
However, Paul Asterline pulled out a 2:23.8 in his last run for 1st place in STREET!

Prizes were generous including:
1st place $100 gift certificates from Hardtop Guy (www.hardtopguy.com)
2nd place Baffled Oil Pans (and 1/2 off labor) from R&D Factory (www.rndfactory.com)
3rd place $50 gift certificates from Mike

 

Thanks Mike for results and pictures, after a long trip.

here's my video http://www.vimeo.com/4127761

btw, Feng's best lap should be 2:14 on timing paper, and my car is AP1 not AP2

 

Seem like most of you guys are struggling a little bit with the car or the track as those posted times are on a slow side. Totally stock AP1, semi-aggressive alignment, ra1 and a small rear wing is good for under 2:10 with the cyclone but either way congratulation to all of the drivers. Keep it up...

 

HI Owen, thanks for the video!
You were gaining on me at quite a rate ...guess that's the only way to get in your video!
BTW, corrections have been made to the post...

march2000, sorry, no one was running ra1's.

Owen, Ivan, and I were running NT01's, a few Federals (Feng), and others had OEM.
Mine were pretty bald and I expected them to cord but they held up great and we'll see if we can squeeze another day out of 'em at BW!

 

Good write up Dipstick. Nice video Owen.

My modifications were hardtop, soft top removal, Carbotech brakes. I also went with the tire of Dealer choice on used Hondas, BF-Goodrich G-Force "sport" tire, with a quality 340 treadwear rating. No adjustment to stock suspension settings.

 

good writeup.
were most SOCAL drivers ? 3 Miata Challenge unlimited class drivers were under 2:05s on the same day. usually a mod s2k Challenge class winner is ~4 seconds faster than Miata Challenge unlimited (at Buttonwillow) at a high speed track (~2 seconds at a low speed track).

at last BW event, Street class s2k were turning about same lap time as unlimited Miata. I am surprised you (Dipstick) did not kick their butts, were you sandbagging again ?

 

My last event was in Sep 08, the weekend after they refinished the track surface. Much better track condition at that time, I was able to hit 2:07 flat with only power mod header back exhaust, buddyclub RS coilover and RE01R.

Here's another video of 3rd session, was trying to keep up with Emilo's miata, but tires overheated, spun out at turn 4, I think Ivan had same problem and same spot too. Can't really say NT01 is not good, my line was messed up in few turns, extra load to tires.

http://www.vimeo.com/4127782

Anyway, great weekend, glad too met all you guys there.

 

Good job Bro! Great video Great improvement since back then, I am proud of you and REN Motorsports.

Charles

 

Thanks Charles, you helped a lot

Owen

 

Congrats to all! I wish I could have made it out there!