March 4-6, 2011: Ed Nazarian racing @ ACS Roval (Season Opener)

Ed is completely changing his tire setup this year going to full race slicks. Between this and changing the downforce setup with the added front splitter, this will be a learning year for Ed. He wont be going to the national championships because of some family obligations he has.

Saturday was mostly a disaster dealing with the new tires and pressures. Ed was busy again on Sunday getting his corded tires flipped/mounted/balanced, so he was late to grid again. He didn’t have enough time between his qualifying session and the race to get everything done quickly enough to make it to the grid on time. He had to start in the back again.

At the start the cars in front of him looked confused. Ed was able to capitalize on that and passed 3 out of class cars, and a fellow ST2 racer. He set his fastest lap of the entire weekend in lap 2 with a 1:48.622. Unfortunately, his tires started cording again during this race also, but this time it was far worse than Saturday’s race.

Ed’s Full War Story:

The 2011 season opener was at ACS Roval on March 4-6.  Up until last year our season opener has been at Big Willow in February, but NASA decided to cancel that event this year.  It’s really unfortunate because I love Big Willow.

Before anything I want to say a quick thank you to Mike Welch (owner of RRE), KC from APR, and Art from RRE.  Due to some personal challenges in the off season, I didn’t have time to get ready for our season opener in a timely manner.  I literally prepped my car a few days before leaving for ACS.  Mike, as usual, was extremely helpful and generous.  He even made the time to get my car on the dyno in the midst of a busy schedule to see how things were looking.  KC from APR went out of his way by driving out to ACS on Friday to hand deliver a set of risers, that he installed himself.  Since I had used the GTC-200 wing without the risers, I could feel they made enough of a difference.  As for Art, he was there that weekend crewing for someone else but made time to check up on me.  I was doing some work on my RF fender and had him come over to give me his opinion.  He ended up doing some work on the fender also.

Earlier I said that since I had some personal challenges in the off season I couldn’t get ready in a timely manner.  The major factor I didn’t have time to sort out was getting my alignment adjusted for this event.  And Robi (owner of Robispec) was going to be out of town during this event, so we couldn’t make adjustments at the track like we usually do.  I knew it wasn’t ideal but I figured it was close enough from when I did a test day in November, so I decided I was willing to race as-is.  Besides, I figured it would be a good learning experience.

SATURDAY 

Saturday was a day full of incidents before and during the race.  I qualified P2 with a 1:48.745, but after qualifying I realized I was cording my RF and RR tires.  Since our drivers meeting was after our qualifying session I didn’t have enough time to get my tires flipped, get ready, and make it to grid on time.

For Saturday’s race our group had 2 rolling starts.  Super Touring was with the 1st start, while GTS had the 2nd start.  When I entered the track both groups were long gone.  By the time I was approaching T9 the first group had already taken their start and the leaders were entering T3.  A few seconds later GTS took their start.  My only chance at that point was if there was an incident that entailed a full course double-yellow, or a pace car to collect the field.  Due to a pretty serious incident, that’s exactly what happened.  As I crossed start/finish to start my 1st lap there was a yellow issued before T3 due to an incident in T3.  As I started my 2nd lap the pace car was entering T1 with a full course double-yellow.  What are the odds?  I had to do over 2 laps to catch the pack behind the pace car.  It was unfortunate that incident happened, but it gave me what seemed like a one in a million scenario.  I was in the very back of the pack, but at least I was with the pack.

The race then restarted on lap 5.  After 4 laps I closed in on one of my competitors, but there was another incident at the start of lap 9 which caused another full course double-yellow.  The pace car was deployed again to collect the field, and our race ended as-is with the pace car.  I have in-car footage of this race but there is no point in posting it.

SUNDAY

Sunday was nearly a repeat of Saturday.  I corded my tires again during qualifying and was busy after that rushing to get my tires flipped in time for the race.  This time I just barely made it to grid in time, but as I was pulling in they were rolling out, so I had to start in the back.  But at least this time I was able to start the race with everyone else.

At the start the cars in front of me looked confused, so I was able to capitalize on that and passed 3 out of class cars, and a fellow ST2 racer.  I then passed another Super Unlimited American Stock Car on the outside of T4 totaling 5 cars I passed by T5.  So I started off pretty strong, and set my fastest lap of the entire weekend in lap 2 with a 1:48.622.  I got into a decent groove and was ready to gradually push it a little harder, but I quickly realized something didn’t feel right with my RF tire.  So after lap 2 I focused on trying to maintain consistent and decently fast laps.  Unfortunately, little did I know that my tires were starting to cord, but this time it was far worse than Saturday.  If my tires didn’t cord, I was on pace to run 1:47s all day from start to finish.  And if I had the luxury of having [forum-restricted] there with me, I think 1:46s were within reach.  At least now I know what I’m capable of doing in a race with my new setup.  Unfortunately, we will have to wait until next years March event to see what I can do at ACS Roval.  Here’s a breakdown of my lap times illustrating how badly my tires corded:

Consistent and decently fast laps in the beginning:
Lap 1:  1:54.130
Lap 2:  1:48.622 (Fastest lap of my weekend)
Lap 3:  1:48.747
Lap 4:  1:49.094
Lap 5:  1:49.022

Since my tires started cording I tried to maintain consistent yet somewhat fast laps:
Lap 6:  1:51.451
Lap 7:  1:51.376
Lap 8:  1:51.518

I could no longer maintain those lap times because my tires were cording severely:
Lap 9:    1:53.155
Lap 10:  1:54.272
Lap 11:  1:55.658
Lap 12:  1:57.688
Lap 13:  1:57.187
Lap 14:  1:58.173