April 30th, 2005

DaliRacing.com held a track day this past Saturday. It was suppose to be the very first group to run on SMMP with the new track extension...

Well, due to a lot of red tape, SMMP was still the 2.2mi road course we all love to hate.

If you haven't been in awhile, the first thing you'll notice is they have offices BEFORE the gate. Amazing! and they now have an actual bathroom! Plumping coupled with standing buildings is AWESOME! Rupert is a chode for not having these before.

My experience with this event started roughly two weeks ago when i was trying to sign up for the event. After trying to submit my "application" over DaliRacing.com's site, i had to mail it into the organizers.

Then, i get this email:
oiy.

So, I get to the track and see a handful of Hondas at a gas station just before the mountain pass to Pahrump. I grab gas and see that most of the cars are from Arizona. Cool! I didn't say much cause i was anxious to get to SMMP and unpack the car. i get impatient and anxious until i actually get to where i'm going... weird.

45mins later, arrive at Pahrump... the only trip i was thinking: "damnit, i forgot my MP3 player."

Unpack the car and set up the tent. Chad, a local vegas Impreza STi owner, sets up camp next to me. It's the second time I've met him, but the first was very informal. I also have JD, a local NSX owner, and Niels, a local Lancer Evo owner, park with us as well.
Also had Al, another local Impreza WRX owner, hang out with us for a bit. Jim in his Lotus Elise grouped with us as well, until his job...and a muffler coming loose, ended his day early. All the guys I was with were running in the advanced group. There were only two groups, advanced and beginners... both offering seven or eight sessions, at 30mins each.

I borrowed Fabrizio's Ultra-Lap timer, so i began to set that up and try to figure out how everything works, and began my 1st session.

Session 1:
Best Lap - 1:57.92
Laps - 4

The first session was testing mainly for me. I recently purchased some SPSS Koni race shocks and i was trying to figure out what setting to set them to, as well as the Toyo RA1s i would be running on for the second time ever. The car would plow into a lot of the turns and push a lot.

Session 2:
Best Lap - 1:54.88
Laps - 12
Changes made: adjusted tire pressure to 26psi fronts, 28psi rears.

This session felt better, but the car was still pushing out of the turns. typical for a front drive, but it felt worse than ever before. Plus, i was having a lot of fun trying to catch Jim in his Lotus. he's gotten so much quicker...easily clicking off 1:52s in his relatively stock Elise (he drove it to the track, removed some luggage, and ran it).
He gave me a ride during the B group's session. what an awesome car. amazing how well it sticks...
I also learn that STi's come stock with 140 treadwear tires... jesus!

Session 3:
Best Lap - 1.54.88 (...)
Laps - 6
Changes made: disconnected front sway bar, increased shock firmness.

Jesus.... i need to learn how to tune the suspension. I read a lot about how CRX guys remove the front sway bar... so, i tried it. did nothing for my times, but the car was just harder to drive at higher speeds. The car felt loose, danced around on the bumps. scary, really. but, it pulled out of the turns much better. This is also the session i found the DaliRacing NSX and passed him. That felt good, considering I was gonna get lapped 10 times per lap driving a CRX HF.

Session 4:
Best Lap - 1:54.77
Laps - 4
Changes Made: Tried different lines thru turn 7 and 8.

Blah, i was following Niels in his Evo... then, thru turn 1, booooog. apparently, the fuel pick-up is on the RIGHT side of the gas tank.

Session 5:
Best Lap - 1:54.61
Laps - 7
Changes made: none.

Getting tired. Somehow got a 1:54.61 out of it.

Session 6:
Best Lap - 1:54.71
Changes made: less gas...

Here i was working on consistency and placing traffic at the passing zones, rather than catching up to them as fast as possible and being held up thru the slower parts of the track. Paced myself as best as I could.

Session 7:
Best Lap - 2:06.11
Changes made: ran in Group B, with the slower cars. holy christ... there are a lot of cars and only one lousy passing zone.


Some other highlights of the day...
- I won the Litening Aluminum Race jack that daliracing gives away at every event. At first i was like: "oh, neat... a jack." Then the other guys were like, "holy crap, that's awesome! I'll buy it from you for $100." then someone told me it was WORTH $500. Yeah, i'll keep it, thanks!

- meeting and/or hanging out with Jim, Niels, Chad, JD, Preston (he showed up a little late, but, hey, HE SHOWED UP!), Al, and another guy who i didn't get his name...but he signed up and ran with us!

- Getting the car a bit more consistent. The shocks definitely helped i think... i was turning 1:54s on victoracers (50? treadwear) and the old Koni yellows. now i'm doing it on 100 treadwear toyo RA1s. they were squealing like a bitch too!

- meeting the handful of Arizona honda guys. it was cool to actually see that many FWD cars at an event. I'm usually the only one.

- watching the stock Neon base model being tossed around the track

- being so freaking scared of Spec Miatas cause their drivers are usually very good.

- PASSING A RADICAL! HA! Econobox FWD Honda passing a purpose built racecar! ha!

- not dying.

- getting SEVEN, THIRTY MINUTE run sessions for $160. that's 3.5hrs of track time. can't beat that.

I'll be back out with DaliRacing in December...

 

Nice times! Another 2 secs and you're as fast as a stock S2K on r comps with AC/radio/interior

I wanted to go to this but when I looked at their site it looked like the event was sold out.

You want to go to the PDC thing in 3 weeks?

 

my friend matt was there. i can post pics tonight if you guys want. he had fun.

 

Sounds like fun!
Thanks for the report Kam