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The 10th S2K Challenge event was held on October 11, 2009 at the Willow Spring International Raceway "Big Track." The 2.5mile course consists of 9 corners which combines speed with turns and elevation changes to offer a unique challenge.
Weather: COOL. The day’s high temperature was only 76F, perfect track conditions. Unlike summer trackdays, participants' lap times kept improving throughout the day’s practice sessions. Nonetheless, the S2K Challenge participants still enjoyed our dedicated garage area:
Speedventures ran a dedicated S2K Challenge Time Attack Session at the end of the day. Cars were gridded based on qualifying times during the day; the standings prior to the time attack session were extremely close. Only 2 seconds separated the top 6 participants during qualifying…all hovering around the 1:34 mark. Unfortunately, due to a few mechanical issues and one crash, several of the S2K participants DNS.
The day's final lap times were much faster than at our two prior WSIR events, primarily due to the cooler weather (and of course seat time). At the end of the day, an awards ceremony was held. Podium finishers were given special plaques, thanks to Cobblestone Realty in Palmdale. Prizes from our awesome sponsors were also given out. Congratulations to all the winners!!!
Street Class was dominated by Nam Yoon this time around. With his Street Class S2K, he was on par with the top Modified Class competitors with a 1:35.1. Excellent performance!
Ben Rigaud and Joel Perez came in at 2nd (1:38.2) and 3rd (1:40.7) place respectively. Ben is unofficially known as a contender for the “most improved” driver in Street Class, and Joel is posed for a podium shot at the end of the year.
It was a tough battle in Modified Class, with less than 2 seconds separating the entire pack. Si Tang, our “three-peat” winner has placed 1st at WSIR for all three of our events held there this year. An amazing accomplishment with a blazing 1:33.5 and a true master of the high-speed track.
Ed Lee had his best performance of the season, with a second place finish at WSIR. Personal best laptime of 1:33.8.
It was the first podium finish for Michael Tsay (aka Mr. Duct Tape) at WSIR, who came in with a 1:34.0, also his personal best.
Running solo in the Unlimited Class, the Harman Automotive S2000 driven by Time Attack driver, JC Meynet did a 1:32.7, but was hitting 1:30's during qualifying.
Nam Yoon (VitaRenovatio) 64
Emilio Cervantes (949racing) 50
Joel Perez 38
Dustin Dessero (ddess) 22
Eddie Hsu (susuki1220) 18
Dino Antonov (antonov) 17
Charles Ng (MiataCharles_HK) 16
Ben Rigaud (Ben22) 15
William Chen (bellwilliam) 13
Filip Craciun (kinchu007) 13
Paul Asterline (SDRACING) 10
Tom Liang 8
Mike Skowron (S2kfrog) 8
Kevin Lui (terahertz) 6
Chris Lee 6
Joel Lepoutre 5
Kenny Tuey (innovation) 4
Anthony Schifano (MADANT15) 4
Jonathon Hayag (End You) 3
William Jou (spikej) 3
Jonathon Lee (subtledreamer) 3
Charle Walsh 3
Samuel Jih (samsam5886) 2
Adrian Torres (dorima) 2
Steve Barry 2
Justin Chou 2
Jason Paul (jp555sovl) 1
Wytt Lusanandana (Wytt) 1
Kiwook Moon (kiwookster) 1
Mike Kang 1
Modified Class:
Mark Tsai (colakitty) 64
Michael Tsay (dipstick) 64
Si Tang (nsxtasi) 48
Yuyen Huang (jaku) 43
Edward Lee (600rr_rocket) 30
Kangwoo Park (ted park) 25
Emilo Cervantes (949racing) 14
Alex Peng (momofolio) 9
Mat Mueller (autoxgti983) 9
William Chen (bellwilliam) 8
Ivan Hung (smile) 8
Matt Feng Zhu (windforce) 6
Daryl Chan (darylcha) 6
Mark Sundberg (markhsz) 5
Paul Asterline (SDRACING) 4
Blue Santamaria (-outkast-) 3
Kevin Lui (terahertz) 3
Paul Flores (smirfs2k05) 3
Emilo Cervantes (949racing) 2
Kevin Courtney 2
Brandon Lee 2
Chris Elders (F20Kills) 1
Greg Wheat (05TurboS2k) 1
Unlimited Class:
JC Meynet 10
Rylan Hazelton (krazik) 10
Tim Kuo (stinkytofu) 10
Owen Guo (Owenxguo) 10
Mark Tsai (colakitty) 10
Rob Walker (maxrev) 10
Robert Burch (rob.ok) 8
Robert Choo 8
Please join us for our LAST event of the 2009 Series on Saturday November 7, 2009 for S2K Challenge #11 at Streets of Willow. It’s a close race for the end-of-the-year podium standings…the last event can determine it all!!!
After years of experience on street tires, I FINALLY upgraded to R-Comp tires (NT01s). Let’s just say I was extremely surprised by the night-and-day difference I felt with the additional grip that the R-Comps provided. The ability to brake later, corner at higher sustained speeds, and the ability to last more than 2+ laps. I achieved my PB with a laptime of 1:33.8. Here is my blurry time attack video (1st lap 1:34.1 and 2nd lap 1:33.8):
Definitely time left on the table. My data logger does not have theoretical lap times, but I’m guessing that with some more practice, my car is capable of achieving at least 2 seconds faster. Here is my data logger graph:
Turn 1: On street tires, I would have to downshift into 4th gear on corner entry; from the additional grip that the NT01’s provided, I experimented with only a quick downshift into 5th. Given more practice, I think I can maintain in the high 80’s if I can find the right braking zone and if take more advantage of the banking.
Turn 2: This is the one turn that I am most confident with. No braking into the turn. Slight lift on turn-in and flat out the whole way until turn 3. I never dip below 90mph. The G-force feels nice…
Turn 3: Argh, I can never seem to get this one right. Every lap I try to find the optimal line but to no avail. Just based on my hot lap data, looks like I am scrubbing off way too speed on this turn…gotta find the optimal line somehow…
Turn 4: Darn this corner…this is the turn that determines your top speed going into turn 9… On street tires, I found myself understeering this corner. On R-Comps, I found that I can brake much later, but I still struggle with finding optimal exit speed and the right line to setup turns 5-8 perfectly.
Turn 8: Flat out. No braking no lifting. Yet why is my top speed so low before turn 9? Other S2K’s hitting 120+ I have no power mods…maybe it’s my crappy line into Turn 4?
Turn 9: Average speed not bad. High 90’s. I think with heavier brass balls I can average 100-ish. But my top speed on the front straight is dismal. Is it the lack of power mods? 95+ is pretty good for turn 9 right? I dunno what it is…
Conclusion: Improve turn 1 speed, increase average speed through Turn 3, find optimal line through turn 4, and consider some power mods and I should be able to hit lower 1:30’s…
I have an integra that gets really unsettled from the washboard bumps in sweeper turn 8. Do you non-winged s2000's hug the inside there without stability issues?
Again a very nice S2K Challenge event! Aside from a couple of mishaps (which I think will be covered in Ed's writeup), the event went really well. I missed the first session, but thought there was plenty of track time.
Sharing the big track with the big-HP Corvettes was a bit interesting. They were competing in their own Corvette Challenge, which was done by Fastest Lap of the Day. So they were fast and aggressive, but mostly kept to themselves and shared the road well.
I had a J's rear BSK installed and aligned by Kel at Evasive the Friday before the Challenge. I was very skeptical about all the rumors about BSKs being so useful, but when Emilio reported his findings, I couldn't ignore the rumors anymore. I have to concur that a BSK is a must-have for AP1s. It made the car's temperament at the limit turn from lion to pussycat. Well... I wouldn't say that the car went from "Spin 2000" to "Evo X," but the change is quite noticeable.
I was able to trail brake harder without unsettling the car, and I was able to put power down out of corners so much earlier. Before, when the car started to slide, I would have to immediately countersteer and reduce throttle input to get the car to stick. With the BSK, the slide is so gentle and progressive that I can correct it by slightly reducing the steering angle with little or no reduction in throttle.
Red = with BSK (10/11/2009), Green = without BSK (6/27/2009) Click For Full-Size
Above is the GPS MPH plots from my G2X Datalogger. This meant that although apex speeds and lateral G's remained virtually the same, I could carry more speed into and out of the corner. As you can see, minimum (apex) speeds were pretty much the same, but average cornering speeds were much higher. Also, since I was more confident about the car's handling at the limit, I was able to push harder on Turn 9 (which made up much of the 3.3 second difference in the two laps).
I really wanted to break into the 1:34's yesterday and my best chance was during the Time Attack laps. I drove rather conservatively on the first lap to clock in a 1:35.109, and decided to really go for it on my second lap. Everything was going well until I gave it a little too much throttle coming out of 9 that the car started to slide. Had I more balls I would have been more aggressive and let the car slide out a bit into the dirt, but I decided that my life was more important than getting that 1:34. Here is the data from my Time Attack session. Red = 1st lap (1:35.109), Green = 2nd lap (1:35.129).
GPS MPH Plot: Red = 1st Lap (1:35.109); Green = 2nd Lap (1:35.129)
Lateral G Plot: Red = 1st Lap (1:35.109); Green = 2nd Lap (1:35.129)
Lap Time Difference Plot: Red = 1st Lap (1:35.109); Green = 2nd Lap (1:35.129)
Note in the last graph that I had a .2 second lead going into T9, but that was erased by me pulling back when the car started to slide.
Thanks William! But actually it was quite cool this weekend, with temps in the 70s. The car was still fastest in the morning, where I saw top speeds of 122-123mph. In the afternoon, the car was only hitting about 119 despite me exiting T9 3-5mph faster. I'm afraid there will be no next time, since Street Class will turn into Spec-CR, with 225/255 street tire regulation.
Besides, Mod guys are so much more competitive now! Ed really needs to hurry up with his writeup, so you can see exactly how close the competition was in Mod. Before the Time Attack, everyone's fastest lap was within less than 0.5 seconds of each other!
Originally Posted by gen2gsr,Oct 11 2009, 10:50 PM
Who drove the s2000 on Saturday?
this pic is from Sun...but I was the lone S2k amongst the Subiefest-ers on Sat.
There were 5 SV sessions with 15+ laps per session (due to the rather random Subie-fest schedule... )
With much cooler temps, my Sat. AM times were a tic faster than my Sun PM time attack run.
Nam, I had a "Turn 9 moment" Sat PM, last session, slid off of 9 sideways...both feet in, slowed me down right away...scariest off I've had in a while.
to some of the most competitive driving all season!
10-11-2009, 08:42 PM
S2K Challenge #10 Results 10/11/09 - WSIR
Here is the data from my Time Attack session. Red = 1st lap (1:35.109), Green = 2nd lap (1:35.129).
