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Was out at TH Oct. 21st and 22nd for the penultimate race weekend of the season. In the previous race at Buttonwillow I had blown a plug through the motor, limped my car back home and called Asura after I sourced a new head (thanks again, Ry!). Without Asura my car would still be in pieces or it would have been torn apart and put back together as an F20C ticking time bomb by some jackass. I can't thank Asura enough for all the work he did to get my car running again.
So I was anxious to get behind the wheel of my car again and scrub 4 months of oxidation off my tires.
Race #1 i qualified and finished 2nd in GT1 and 4th overall:
I wasn't too happy to be slower than a 20 year old Porsche, but I think the only thing old about the 911 was it's body style. The car was heavily modified, extremely fast and very well driven by Keith James. I got stuck behind the Daytona Coupe for a few laps (I guess he really wanted to heat up those tires before he took off) and the Porsche got away as I struggled to find a way around the Daytona in the corners. Would have been a good race, too, because the black Porsche and I were turning lap times extremely close to each other (my best a 1:59:47, his best 1:59:539).
Not sure what happened with the 911, Vette, Cayman, Ferrari, behind, but by the third lap they they all had but disappeared, leaving me with nobody to catch in front and nobody to catch me from behind.
In the end I was 2nd in class and 4th out of 10 and broke my lap record by .1 second.
Second day more cars had showed up. The two Porsche's I'd been battling with in the open sessions were getting faster and faster it seemed and I was scared I'd get beaten by both of 'em in race #2.
Here's what the qualifying positions looked like:
That's Formula Car, GT3 Cup Car, Stock Car, 911, S2000, 911, Tube Chassis Z06, Radical, Spec Miata, Corvette and I don't know the order of the others.
We did a rolling start down the front straight. As opposed to race #1 where I was forced to start at low rpms in 3rd, the cars held tightly and slowly. I was able to launch at around 7800 in 2nd when we saw the green flag. I also had a Stock car in front of me, which gave me the opportunity to floor it without fear of rear ending anyone (not that I ever really have to worry about that on the starts). I ended up on the inside of the white 911 in T1 and got a great drive to T2. Outbraked the Panoz on entry and finished the pass in T2, which put me behind the Daytona coupe and white/red stock car who were both slow until we hit T6 (they're on big fat slicks w/no heat in 'em). By the time we approached 10 this is what things looked like:
I had no idea how I had kept the Tube framed Z06 behind for a most of the first lap, but the glory didn't last long and by the second lap he was already a couple seconds in front, leaving me behind the stock car while we put distance between ourselves and the Panoz vs. 911 Battle behind (black 911 ended up spinning trying to outbrake the Panoz in 10).
After the other GTR cars pulled away I was stuck again feeling like a Miata....faster in the corners and using less brakes, but never able to get by the high HP cars.
In the end I had a GT1 lead by ~7 seconds and was and 5th overall, behind the Tube Chassis silver/blue Z06, the Formula car, the GT3 cup car and the Stock car. Blue Daytona DNF'd. My best lap was a 2:02, but I had pulled off a 2:01:xx earlier in the day, so I was pretty stoked. I think I was also the only car in the race aside from the Cayman that had been driven to the track and was running on RAs.
Going into the last race later this month. My tires are bald, so I hope it doesn't rain or my 12 point lead will get shot to hell.
Thanks to gotbluemilk for the awesome photos and thanks again to Asura for building up my motor!
Hey.. I helped put back your car too! Umm.. I cut the radiator fan housing and installed the Koyo radiator.. but I also took your Muuuugen radiator cap.
Hey Asura...yeah, I could use a few extra ponies. And I'll need Rob's superpowers at fine tuning the suspension. The front end is understeering so horribly that I have to actually drive my car like Rob:
With a few minor changes I can drop a second off, but I'm sure there's another 2-3 seconds with a proper setup.
I do have video, but I've been slammed with work...so much so that it's taken me 10+ days just to post pics.
And the radiator--I appreciate the work there even though I had to redo it, ya bastard! And I thought that 'mad tyte' JDM Mugen cap was payment enough! Paypal is ready to go if you still have those 275s, yo.
I'll be there for the next two races on Nov, 18-19. I'll have to go rain or shine, but my RA front/Nitto rears are treadless. I might have to see if my FJ will pass tech inspection if it rains.
Hey Asura...yeah, I could use a few extra ponies. And I'll need Rob's superpowers at fine tuning the suspension. The front end is understeering so horribly that I have to actually drive my car like Rob:
With a few minor changes I can drop a second off, but I'm sure there's another 2-3 seconds with a proper setup.
I do have video, but I've been slammed with work...so much so that it's taken me 10+ days just to post pics.
And the radiator--I appreciate the work there even though I had to redo it, ya bastard! And I thought that 'mad tyte' JDM Mugen cap was payment enough! Paypal is ready to go if you still have those 275s, yo.
11-02-2006, 01:22 PM
Racing Chronicles Part III
In the end it's just metal 
Wohooo! Awsome race D.
