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Meadesports – Pikes Peak 2010 – Hitting the Road

Their rental truck/buy a beater truck plan fell through and Jeff was getting ready to drive the car to Pikes Peak and rough the weekend without a truck and trailer. I cant imagine running the event like that so we offered up the Dodge shop truck for towing duty.

The next day, Wednesday, it was off to GT Fabrications (ebay name evo05) for our new Hans helmets and hans devices, collected the truck, dropped the rental car off, picked up the rented trailer and headed back to Road Race Engineering to collect and load the evo.

Loaded up we headed up to northern Los Angeles to meet up with good friend Brendan, another good steak, quite a few laughs and then we crashed at his house for the night, but not before we dragged poor Cath through some photo albums at Brendans’ showing some of my old race cars I used to run. Brendan is the drivetrain engineer at Honda US race team HQ, running the Acura’s in ALMS series and at Le Mans. So when you watch the ALMS series and see the Acuras’ kicking butt, know that that is Brendan’s work, along with a team of course. Brendan is an early Datsun afficiando, having an early 510 wagon and 240Z at his house.

We are now somewhere in Utah, a small town called Richfield, and with 550 miles down, and 510 to go to get to Colorado Springs we will be on the road again tomorrow. Right now, we are off to have dinner and a cold tall beer…

On the road again….

June 16, 2010 | Categories: Blog | Tags: , , | Leave A Comment »

Meadesports – Dyno Tuning

Got up and had wonderful waffles this morning, and then called my close friend Jay Jones (aka Jaybird) and arranged to have lunch in the middle of his hectic schedule. I can’t begin to tell you how much I enjoyed being in his company again. Both Cath and I had a great 4.5 hour lunch.

Then it was onto Road Race engineering, these guys are pure pro’s and like MEEK in Sydney, there isnt much they dont know about evos. Once the workshop was cleared, we moved in to grab a lift and work on installing the new K&N intake system from i-autosport (iautosport.com.au for all your aftermarket needs, both European and Japanese brands).

When we finished this, Scot Gray the ECU guy showed and we set about getting a reading as a baseline on 98 octane (91 in the US). Once it was confirmed all the perimeters were set, we had a run, and with Meek hot side piping, Meek ECU flash, 272 Cams, turbo outlet, and the intake, it made 229kw at the hubs. Pretty impressive!

Then we drained the fuel and refilled the tank with E85, and RRE started to dial up some pretty impressive and continually growing numbers. Final result was 285kw, (380hp) and we could’ve stayed with 300+ but kept it down to keep it under control, with the older clutch and all best work within a cautious range for now.

June 15, 2010 | Categories: Blog | Tags: , , , | Leave A Comment »

Meadesports – RRE Pikes Peak EVO

At the port

We are helping out the Australian team from Meade Sports at Pikes Peak this year. Jeff Denmeade is driving, if his name is familiar to you, he has one of the first EVO Coupes down in Australia and has been rallying all over the world for quite some time. He contacted us for dyno tuning on US spec E-85 and we went from there. Great guys to hang out with (even though they talk funny ;-) )

I love Pikes Peak and everything about it. The first time I went I was helping out Rod Millen’s team when he ran the 3 rotor tube frame RX-7. RRE ran customer cars in 94, 95 and 96. In ’95 we beat Rhys’s new Supra with his old Celica All-Trac. In ’96 we beat Rhys’s Supra with a FWD Eclipse GS-T. In 2004 we won the Rally class with Stephan Verdier’s WRX.

I’ll be posting pics and notes from their blog here from now till the race on Sunday the 27th.

The car is fairly stock. They are running in the AWD Time Attack class. It is a US spec 2003 EVO 8. They have a 10.5 hotside, HKS 272 cams, cam gears and a LICP. For the E-85 tune they added 1000cc injectors.

Mike W

 

We arrive in LA at 6;15 in the morning on the 14th of June, which is the same time and date we left Sydney. Cool huh! We clear US Border & Immigration and grab the rental car (after what seemed like a very long ride to the rental company we used), then we rounded up the paperwork for the evo and head out to Long Beach to US Customs and Importations, once we found their office we walked in and were met by a young Customs Agent, and proceeded to do the evo clearance. Handing over tons of paperwork: title, rego papers, export docs, etc etc, we take a seat as they start the process of clearing it for us. After a short while we realise what we need is a big shot of red bull and some food, so I go in search and find some fried rice from down the road, bring it back and we shove some carbs down our throats, and suck on some Red Bull caffeine.

After a short while we are waved to the counter, we go there and we hand over the last bit of paperwork, and are met by an older well dressed gentlemen behind the counter who says “so about this car, it’s a rally car?”, “yes sir!” I reply, his immediate response was ” you have a log book?”, our answer, “yes sir, two of them!” and hand them over with our Cams and AASA licenses. He looks at us and says, thank heavens someone does it right, and proceeds to tell us horror stories about people trying to import cars, ie; rally cars, and they have no Logbooks, or even race licenses, etc, he then spends the next 1/2 hour thanking us and congratulating us on being legit racers, and welcomes us as the car is quickly cleared, hand shakes and huge thanks on their behalf for making their job easy and uncomplicated. He then brings out his photo album of the cars he used to rally in the 70’s, and it was a old Mitsubishi. This older gent also turned out to had been a master artiste and painted cars for a living on canvass etc, he showed us some of his work and we are in awe of his talents.

With clearance in hand, we then head off to Collect the evo from the dock yards, and despite a bit of running around (to be expected) we are taken to it sitting out on the docks, but then we are slightly delayed when we realise they have locked the keys in the car out in the middle of the dockyard and we wait for the mechanic to show with the slim jim and a few other items to unlock the car. Once these guys find out we are headed to Pikes Peak they can’t seem to help us enough, wishing us well with huge smiles. We pull the evo pull it out of the docks, and drive it up to Santa Fe Springs to the great guys at Road race Engineering.

Now, we are fortunate to have been in racing and rallying for going on 30 years now, we’ve raced on three continents and we’ve met and gotten to know many a great person, as time goes by you realise we are all connected by the passion of motorsports and hard facts. Whether we are dealing with the great guys at MEEK automotive, or Road Race Engineering. And between these two groups, there is nothing that is not achievable, or doable with evos.

We deliver the evo up to Mike Welch at Road Race Engineering and he is pure pro. He builds some of the fastest race evos in the US, and tunes 2-3 a week to E85. His yard is full of evos with stories. Such is Mike’s work schedule he works on and tunes evos well into the early morning hours most of the week, a car showing up for a tune at 11pm at night is an often occurrence. ‘Dedicated’ comes to mind. As MEEK and RRE work closer to bring the best of development to Australian evos, your going to see some great stuff in Australian Motorsports with evos. The top few images are from RRE’s activities with evos.

After dropping the evo at RRE, we set off for what had to be one of life simplest nicest pleasures, a HOT SHOWER, which after 45 hours in the same clothes, and a 15 hour flight, and running around half of California, was simply the best thing in the world at that point. Then it was off to the second best thing, a nice juicy incredibly well cooked steak and a bottle of Red Wine, which we got at the Outback Steakhouse near our hotel, and oh man it was juicy and nice.

Visit RRE at www.roadraceengineering.com and check out their site.

Tomorrow we share the latest updates with the tune from RRE. – JD

June 14, 2010 | Categories: Blog | Tags: , , , | Leave A Comment »

Modified Magazine – 2008 Mitsubishi Evolution X – Uncorking More Power

With An AMS Intercooler And A Cobb Tuning Turbo-Back Exhaust, The Evo X Is Finally Able To Unleash Its Real Horsepower Potential.
From the June, 2010 issue of Modified Mag
By Peter Tarach
Photography by Peter Tarach
Project Evolution Last month, with just an intake and a Road Race Engineering tune by Mike Welch, the EVO X picked up a solid 51 whp and 35 ft-lbs of torque over stock. The final peak numbers came in at 312 whp and 318 ft-lbs, but Mike said there’s more horsepower to be made by freeing up the exhaust flow and providing adequate and consistent cooling with a better front-mount intercooler. I had my homework assignment and got right down to it.

After doing some research and comparing brands, my intercooler of choice was the AMS unit because of its cast end tank design, excellent fitment and 80 percent increase in flow area over the stock intercooler. The bar and plate core measures 12.4×20 inches wide and is 3.5 inches thick while flowing 1,250 cfm. Plus, it’s the same intercooler AMS runs on its 750-whp time attack EVO X – meaning you’ll never have to upgrade it again.

To go along with the FMIC, I also picked up the AMS upper and lower hard piping kit. The factory piping consists of many rubber pieces that tend to expand under high boost pressures and can become prone to popping off as the rubber deteriorates over time. The AMS four-ply…

Read more: http://www.modified.com/tech/modp-1006-2008-mitsubishi-evolution-x/viewall.html#ixzz1VBJGU9NW

June 10, 2010 | Categories: Blog | Tags: , , | Leave A Comment »

Matt Denisson – RTA – Auto Club Speedway Rd.4- Recap

Here is Matt’s race report from the Redline Time Attack this last weekend. Good job Matt!

What a weekend…! A podium finish by a mere 1/10 of a second on my final time attack lap, huge support from Kyle and Eric of NWautoevents.com, a track that was running 2 seconds slower than my last outing, and not to mention my turbo failure here last year in the back of my head. So I didn’t know what gremlins to expect.  Where am I, you ask. I’m at the 4th round of the Redline Time Attack series at the ever exclusive high speed track we call Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California. With speeds of 200 mph by NASCAR standards, you can only expect us competitors to try and muster up a top speed of the like. The weather was bearable, but the winds with gust of 30+ mph were the trouble.

My last outing here in November was a bitter sweet moment. I placed 1st in my class, claimed the Enthusiast Championship, but had a turbo failure that sidelined me for the rest of the day. Luckily the later happened after I had completed a single fast lap in the first time attack session. That lap was fast enough to hold for the entire day, securing a 1st place victory. So now we’re back in 6 months time for the 2010 season. With a new turbo set-up, several new sponsors and old, such as Road Race Engineering, RobiSpec, NWautoevents.com, GT Spec, and Mil.Spec. I was sure to put up a fight among some of the fastest Street Class cars. And a fight it was in an all new class for me.


With the weather being much warmer this time of year and the mix of high winds, I was well off my fast lap time of 1.53:2 of yesteryear. Mother Nature was keeping it fair for everyone, but the track was an easy 2 seconds slower with the given conditions. The COBB STi and the StopTech Evo 10 were both running in the low 50’s. Given my budget compared to theirs I would only hope that they would be the top dogs of our class. So 1st and 2nd are easily given to both camps. Now this is where the fun is for me, the fight for the last podium position. I would be going head-to-head with Jon Drenas of HBspeed and Mauricio Calderon of Massimo Power. I was running a consistent .55 all day and so was Jon, but he had me by several tenths before going into our first time attack battle.

Going into the Time Attack sessions, it seemed as if the StopTech Evo 10 ran into a problem and was not able to get a timed lap and would not be able to compete for the remainder of the day. The COBB STi ran an impressive 1.49:7 and HBspeed ran a 1.52.7 taking 2nd  place. Massimo Power had me beat for 3rd place until my last flying lap where I nudged him out of 3rd by a mere 1/10 of a second with a 1.54:7, to Mauricio’s 1.54:8!

The weekend was exciting as always and even better to see long time friends, not to mention making new ones. As competitive as it is, I have already accepted the fact of not placing on the podium this year due to the ultra competitive nature of the Street-AWD Class. But it just goes to show, don’t ever give up…!

-Matt

Thank you to all my sponsors for the support…!

Road Race Engineering
RobiSpec
NWautoevents.com
GT Spec
Mil.Spec
JLB Motorsports
SPY+optics

June 7, 2010 | Categories: Blog | Tags: , , | Leave A Comment »

Kerryann De La Cruz Interviews Rob Tallini Interview OwleTV

Watch live streaming video from owletv at livestream.com

May 31, 2010 | Categories: Blog | Tags: , , , | Leave A Comment »

Modified Magazine – Evo X AEM Intake – RRE Tune

Netting A Massive Gain Of 51 Whp And 35 Ft-Lbs Of Torque, The EVO X Proves Very Mod Friendly.

From the May, 2010 issue of Modified Mag
By Peter Tarach
Photography by Peter Tarach

 

Project Evolution
The EVO is one of those cars almost everyone buys knowing that they will eventually modify it. With the older-generation EVO VII and IX, you’ll be hard-pressed to find a stock one for sale. Almost every one of them has some type of aftermarket part on it, but the X is a bit of a different story. Being a brand-new car on the market, owners are a bit hesitant to mod them because the chance of losing their warranty is high.

I can agree with that argument for about 10 seconds. Then I step on the pedal and a surge of 50-plus wheel horsepower over stock pushes me back into my seat, and I can’t find any reason why an EVO X owner would putt around stock. It’s just so easy to unlock so much power for so little money while never worrying about reliability…

Read more: http://www.modified.com/tech/modp-1005-evo-x-aem-intake/viewall.html#ixzz1VBGiqfpl

May 10, 2010 | Categories: Blog | Tags: , , | Leave A Comment »

EVO of the Day

My friend Gerald’s EVO IX MR SE tuned by Scot at RRE and suspended by Muellerized…

This is the EVO that made me want an EVO over all the other cars in its class!

Gerald, Vacum your ride before the photoshoot next time!!

May 5, 2010 | Categories: Blog | Leave A Comment »

Ed Nazarian @ Buttonwillow Raceway April17-18 2010 – NASA Super Touring 2

Ed Nazarian racing his RRE Super Touring  EVO 9 at Buttonwillow #13CW, on Saturday April 17, 2010.  At this weekend event Super Touring was mixed with a bunch of lower classed cars.  Typically ST2 is mixed with SU, ST1, ASC, GTS, AIX and AI.  This time around GTS was in a separate group with BMWCCA, so a bunch of lower classed cars were mixed with them instead.  Ed’s group consisted of Super Unlimited, Super Touring, Honda Challenge, Performance Touring, and Spec E30.  Basically, most of the cars in his group were significantly slower.  On top of that they had a really big group, nearly 50 racecars.  So maneuvering through traffic played a significant role that weekend, which resulted in slow lap times.  Ed was also held up quite a bit by a Super Unlimited FFR GTM-R prototype when he was battling one of the Mazda GTs.  By the time Ed got around that SU racecar he ran out of time.  Ed got 6th place on Saturday out of 10 ST2 racecars.

Unfortunately we couldn’t get the camera to record on Sunday so this race from Saturday is all we have to show.  It’s really unfortunate because this Saturday race fails in comparison to how intense Sunday’s race was.  On Sunday Ed and one of the Mazda GTs were battling intensely.  They exchanged positions many times throughout that race, while maneuvering through traffic.  Ed was able to pass that Mazda GT towards the end, and ended up passing another Mazda GT in the meantime.  He caught up to the leaders and had them in sight, but ran out of time.  He ended up getting 5th place on Sunday out of 10 ST2 racecars.

 

Ed’s Full War Story:

 We were racing at BRP last weekend, April 17-18, on configuration #13CW.  The last time we were racing at BRP was this same event in 2009, so it’s been a year since the last time I raced there.  I felt rusty at BRP and never really got into a groove, but at least I wasn’t busy this time fixing/wrenching on my racecar like I was at ACS because my front end didn’t get coned this time.  Even though I’ve driven ACS significantly less than BRP, things seemed to click better at ACS.  We rolled with the punches and finished 2 more 35min races totaling 6 that we have finished this season, with a total of 14 races since our last years debut.

Before I proceed with the results, I want to say thank you to a few people.  Thanks to Mike Welch and his guys at RRE for helping fix the damage my car sustained from ACS.  New Griffin IC, lip, undertray, fixed my side skirt and front bumper.  A few months ago Mike also sourced some Carbontrix CF replacement headlights.  Mike installed those also.  Yes, Mike actually works on my racecar.  Want to thank Martin Meade from Girodisc for shipping me some ST43 brake pads.  Also want to thank Robert Fuller, aka Robi from RobiSpec for providing me trackside suspension tuning for both races.

This weekend I set some blisteringly fast lap times in my ST2 races, and qualifying sessions…not.  The BMWCCA was racing with us this weekend, so the groups were changed up a bit.  Typically, the group we race in consists of SU, ST, ASC, GTS, AIX, and AI racecars.  This time GTS was in a separate group with BMWCCA, and the AIX/AI drivers skipped this event because they have their own West Coast schedule.  Therefore, our group this time consisted of SU, ST, and they added HC, PT, and Spec E30 with us.  Basically, most of the racecars in our group were significantly slower.  On top of that, we had a really big group, nearly 50 racecars.  So maneuvering through traffic played a significant role that weekend.  Other than that you just needed to get lucky.  The weather was a little on the warm side also, but we managed.

Saturday Qualifying

I couldn’t set a fast lap in qualifying if my life depended on it.  Just way too many lower classed cars out there.  Drivers usually cooperate in a race, for the most part, but the Qualifying sessions seem to always be every driver to himself.  Everyone is trying to set a fast lap, and since there were nearly 50 racecars out there you’re basically hitting traffic pretty much every other corner.  And sometimes one corner to the next.

Saturday Race

Out of the 10 ST2 racecars, I qualified P8 and finished the race in P6 for ST2.  I thought since we had 10 ST2 racecars, we would get our own rolling start.  But we didn’t.  Instead, we were mixed together with SU, ST1, and a solo Orange AIX Mustang.  So given our mixed rolling start, I was in P15.  Mixing us with those other classes ruined the ST2 race.  Because instead of having the opportunity to battle with other ST2 drivers as a whole from start to finish, we ended up getting scattered all over the track because we had SU and ST1 drivers in between us.  And on top of that, we had to deal with traffic, which scattered us even more.  I was pretty upset with that because as a higher class series, ST2 had the biggest field that weekend.  And we had the potential to have a really close and exciting race from start to finish.  I think it was such a big time waste to have not given us our own rolling start.

As for the race, I’m not sure what happened at the start, but something appeared to get mixed up because I was supposed to be on the left side when we were in formation, but I ended up on the right side.  Beyond that, since we got scattered I only had the opportunity to battle one of the Mazda GTs, Mark Montoya.  Unfortunately, a Super Unlimited driver in a FFR GTM-R prototype held us up quite a bit.  At one point Mark passed him, but I got stuck behind that SU prototype.  Not sure why he wouldn’t just let me by because he was by himself.  I finally got close enough to him at the buttonhook and made a move on him.  I took the inside line and was around his RR.  I was gradually pulling on him and at one point he for whatever reason turned into me a bit and almost drove me off track to the right.  I decided it was now or never so I kept my foot in it and maintained my position.  I passed him at the entry to cotton corners.  You can watch my in-car from Saturdays race to see it all unfold.  Mark then had an off after the bus-stop and I passed him.  If he didn’t have that off I may have never caught him again because that SU prototype had held me up too much.

Sunday Qualifying

It was the same deal as Saturday.  I was a bit more lucky with traffic, but still couldn’t set a fast lap.

Sunday Race

For Sundays race, out of 10 ST2 racecars, I qualified P6 in ST2, and was P12 for our rolling start.  I finished the race in P5 for ST2.  Sundays race is probably my most exciting race thus far because I was having a major battle with one of the Mazda GTs, Thorpe logemann.  We exchanged positions I don’t know how many times.  But what kills me is that I couldn’t get my GoPro camera to start recording.  Pretty ironic when I think about it.  It’s really upsetting to not have that footage.  And unfortunately, Thorpe doesn’t have any in-car either.  There were many incidents in the race, so on top of trying to deal with traffic, we were also trying to deal with yellows, and double yellows.  At one point I thought the race was going to end under double yellow, but it finally restarted.  At one point I passed Thorpe around the buttonhook and I got lucky with traffic while he got left behind.  In the meantime we passed another Mazda GT.  I caught up to the leaders towards the end, and had them in sight, but I ran out of time.  My in-car from Saturdays race fails in comparison to how exciting this race was.  In fact, if I had in-car from this race, it would have been at the top of my list.

Saturday Qualifying times:

1. 1:54.474 – John Gordon #30 Porsche 996
2. 1:55.123 – Jon Van Caneghem #00 Mazda GT
3. 1:55.557 – Josh Carroll #35 Mazda GT
4. 1:57.001 – James Wagaman #98 Mazda GT
5. 2:00.879 – Thorpe Logemann #3 Mazda GT
6. 2:01.225 – David Beatie #6 Mazda GT
7. 2:02.970 – Team Howard Racing #70 Mazda Rx7
8. 2:03.781 – Ed Nazarian #415 Mitsubishi Evo 9
9. 2:05.787 – Dan Miller #34 Mazda GT

Saturday Race results:

1. 1:57.059 – Josh Carroll #35 Mazda GT
2. 1:56.183 – John Gordon #30 Porsche 996
3. 1:57.122 – Jon Van Caneghem #00 Mazda GT
4. 1:59.024 – James Wagaman #98 Mazda GT
5. 2:01.333 – Thorpe Logemann #3 Mazda GT
6. 2:02.241 – Ed Nazarian #415 Mitsubishi Evo 9
7. 2:03.594 – Dan Miller #34 Mazda GT
8. 2:02.180 – Mark Montoya #50 Mazda GT
9. 2:04.318 – Team Howard Racing #70 Mazda Rx7
10. 2:08.885 – David Beatie #6 Mazda GT

Sunday Qualifying times:

1. 1:54.575 – John Gordon #30 Porsche 996
2. 1:56.350 – Josh Carroll #35 Mazda GT
3. 1:56.596 – Jon Van Caneghem #00 Mazda GT
4. 1:57.349 – James Wagaman #98 Mazda GT
5. 2:00.739 – David Beatie #6 Mazda GT
6. 2:01.596 – Ed Nazarian #415 Mitsubishi Evo 9
7. 2:08.111 – Dan Miller #34 Mazda GT
8. DQ – 2:01.724 – Mark Montoya #50 Mazda GT
9. DQ – 2:02.603 – Thorpe Logemann #3 Mazda GT

Sunday Race results:

1. 1:56.538 – Josh Carroll #35 Mazda GT
2. 1:55.877 – John Gordon #30 Porsche 996
3. 1:57.852 – Jon Van Caneghem #00 Mazda GT
4. 1:59.194 – James Wagaman #98 Mazda GT
5. 2:00.536 – Ed Nazarian #415 Mitsubishi Evo 9
6. 2:01.518 – Thorpe Logemann #3 Mazda GT
7. 2:00.800 – Mark Montoya #50 Mazda GT
8. 2:08.655 – Dan Miller #34 Mazda GT
9. 2:02.502 – David Beatie #6 Mazda GT
10. 2:04.062 – Team Howard Racing #70 Mazda Rx7

April 20, 2010 | Categories: Blog | Tags: , , | Leave A Comment »

Ed Nazarian @ ACS Roval 3/13-14/10: Super Touring race results

Write Up by Ed Nazarian (driver/author of stories in boldface)

Snippy comments and edits by James Singer (slow driver/book reader)

We were racing at ACS last weekend, March 13-14.  Last time I raced at ACS was this same event in 2009, so it’s been a year since the last time I raced there.  Since I used our Super Touring season opener in February at Big Willow mainly as a shakedown event, I was ready to start pushing it progressively at ACS.  Despite all my efforts, it turned out to be another weekend of struggles.  However, it ended on a completely unexpected result.  I will get into the details accordingly, but for starters I want to say a quick thanks to Mike Welch from RRE for showing up and helping out, and also to Robert Fuller from ROBISPEC for providing me trackside suspension tuning for both races.

[all the crazy cars Ed has to race with lined up in a row.  The first time I attended a NASA event, I was blown away with how much diversity there is in his field.]


Thus far I have tried to be as patient as possible with mods for my racecar.  I have been patient long enough, so I decided it was time I upgraded something.  One of the mods I’ve been considering is the TRE rear-diff.  I contacted Jon at TRE and we set everything up through RRE.  Being the cool guy that Mike is, he gave me an extra rear-diff and then shipped it to TRE.  This way we can keep mine as backup.  Thanks Mike!  TRE Jon shipped it back to RRE and the guys at RRE installed it for me.  Thanks guys!  Since [forum-restricted] does my suspension tuning, we will be setting up the car from track to track as things progress throughout the season.  I’ll post a separate thread regarding my initial impressions of the TRE rear-diff coupled with [forum-restricted]s suspension tuning as the season unfolds.  But for now I’ll say that driving my car with the TRE rear-diff feels like I’m driving an entirely new car.  And I’m looking forward to seeing how we can develop my car with it.  Beyond upgrading to the TRE rear-diff, Martin from Girodisc sent me a new set of front 2-pc rotors.  My second set had run its course, so it was time for another set.


[note that in the group Ed runs in, they trade paint.  This isn’t for pretty boys.  Every single time I have been to the track, this group gets rough and tumble with each other.  Look at ST2 cars and you will see battle scars]


(Saturday Qualifying)
I noticed right away that the track was setup a bit tighter than last year, especially the last set of turns leading onto the Roval, T16-21.  Since that section leads us onto the Roval, it decreases our exit speed, thereby decreasing our speeds onto the Roval.  I gradually pushed it more and more from our Practice session, to our Qualifying session.

Before I proceed with anything else, I want to give a little welcome to an Evo newcomer, John Hsu.  I think John approached me on Friday while I was getting situated.  He recently purchased an Evo 9, and decided to race with us that weekend in Super Touring 2.  He’s a Honda Challenge driver, so he’s not new to racing, just new to Evos.  He was racing his Integra in H2, and his recently purchased Evo 9 in ST2.  I hope he continues to race his Evo 9 with us in ST2 because it will be really cool to see another Evo out there.  Other than us 2 Evo 9s, there was Scott Howard with his white Rx7, Ryan Cashin with his white Vette, and a guy named John Gordon in his blue 996 Porsche.  The Mazda GT guys skipped this event.

[See Ed’s eyes in this picture?  Dude is intense.  What is going on up there?  I have been trying to figure it out by having him ride with me and riding with him in my car because when he gets this look on his face, he is about to destroy the earth in his EVO.  Super intense focus!!]


(Saturday Race)

We were part of race group B, which consisted of SU, ST, ASC, GTS, AIX, AI, CMC, and FFR racecars.  Most of the classes didn’t have enough cars, so our rolling start was combined including SU, ST, ASC, AIX, and AI.  And they set our grid according to the overall lap times with respect to each rolling start, not lap times within each class.  So despite qualifying in P2 for my class, I was in P10 for our rolling start.  That meant we had out of class cars in between us which made things a bit difficult.  For whatever reason, there is always one or more out of class drivers that end up racing other drivers.  They hold you up by drag racing you down the straights.  There were plenty of those guys at this event.

Some guys botched the start so a bunch of cars passed me through T1 and T2.  After watching my in-car, 8 cars passed me, 3 of which were my competitors (Vette, Rx7, Evo9), and 5 out of class cars (2 AI cars, 2 AIX cars, and 1 ASC car).  I was held up quite a bit and had to overtake several of those cars.  But my biggest challenge occurred early in the race on lap 3.  On the first lap someone knocked the cone that’s in between T10-11 into the middle of the infield straight.  In lap 3 I was nose to tail with Scott exiting that chicane.  I stepped out to pass him and that cone ended up eating my lip, my entire undertray, and some of my IC.  I didn’t know any of that until the race was done.  After hitting the cone I could hear something dragging around my RF, and I thought it was part of that cone.  After the race I found out it was my undertray.  The entire undertray was hanging by (1) zip-tie the whole time!  I somehow finished the race in 3rd place.  A pretty good result considering my struggles in that race.  Unfortunately, my camera shut off about 8min into the race.  Therefore, you won’t be able to see the out of class cars that were drag racing me the whole time, who btw had none of their competitors around them.  Don’t worry, you’ll see plenty of that from my Sundays in-car race footage.

As for the cone that ate my lip, undertray, and some of my IC, my friend Mark was able to help out.  Mark drives an Evo 9, so he loaned me his lip and undertray.  Thanks a bunch Mark!  On Sunday morning Mike brought me an extra undertray, lip, and a whole bunch of plastic clips.  Mike helped me finish up the rest with some zip-ties.  Thanks Mike!

[wing envy.]

(Sunday Qualifying)
Mike and my friend, Scott Pennock, helped out by checking my tire temps and pressures.  The undertray and lip felt fine so I pushed it more and more, and it felt like things were progressing.  Unfortunately, I found out afterwards that I forgot to mount my transponder so the officials had to somehow time me manually.  I didn’t get a good qualifying time because of that.

[I am secretly scared to run on this track as a n00b.  I know Ed has the skills but ACS is FAST! Look at Ed Go!  Blurry fast is faster than just background blur!!]
(Sunday Race)
For some strange reason, this event had a whole bunch of drivers who were flat out horrible.  Drivers drag racing out of class cars, incorrect/late grid formation, start jumping, and who knows what else.  It has never been this bad, so I’m a little confused as to what happened.  One in particular was an Orange AIX Mustang.  We were all over him in the braking zones, and the corners, but within a few seconds he would become a dot down every straight.  Then we’re all over him again in the next corner.  Not sure why he wouldn’t just let us by.  There was only 1 other AIX Mustang in that race and that driver was days behind the Orange one.  He was all by himself, and wouldn’t let us by.

As for the completely unexpected result, I won on Sunday.  That race on Sunday is by far my biggest come from behind win, while trying to get around more out of class cars that were drag racing me when they didn’t have any of their competitors around them.  As if that wasn’t challenging enough, the car that took 2nd place, Blue 996 Porsche, hit me on the last lap.  Fortunately, I was able to save a potential spin/off and maintained the lead for a completely unexpected win.  The Porsche was on my tail at the finish line trailing me by .152 seconds.  Meanwhile, the Orange AIX Mustang almost ruined my lead again.

I don’t know how I caught the Porsche in the first place.  I felt like I was so far behind that catching the leader never even crossed my mind, let alone having a chance at winning.  You have to watch the entire race to understand why.  As for getting hit by him, it happened at the apex of T4.  He went in too hot into T3 and nearly drove off track.  I passed him on the inside of T3 and was in front of him shortly.  I was then already turned in and committed to T4 and he came crashing into my right-rear.  Sounds like he went for a last minute out of control pass because you can hear his car slide into mine as his tires lock up.  I’m not sure what actually happened to him, but my best guess is that he went in too hot into T3 and lost control.  And then maybe he was a bit over-zealous and thought he could save it while nearly off-track, and also regain the lead with a last minute pass.

[look at this pic.  Getting on this track IS NOT intimidating to you?  Are your scared?  You will be!]

Saturday Qualifying times:

1.  1:48.848 – John Gordon #30 Porsche 996
2.  1:50.331 – Ed Nazarian #415 Mitsubishi Evo 9
3.  1:51.720 – Team Cashin In #32 Chevrolet Corvette Z06
4.  1:52.079 – Team Howard Racing #70 Mazda Rx7
5.  1:52.567 – John Hsu #2 Mitsubishi Evo 9

Saturday Race results:

1.  1:49.222 (in lap 3) – John Gordon #30 Porsche 996
2.  1:49.358 (in lap 8 ) – Team Cashin In #32 Chevrolet Corvette Z06
3.  1:50.144 (in lap 10) – Ed Nazarian #415 Mitsubishi Evo 9
4.  1:50.794 (in lap 6) – Team Howard Racing #70 Mazda Rx7
5.  1:55.052 (in lap 3) – John Hsu #2 Mitsubishi Evo 9

[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/10477595[/vimeo]

Sunday Qualifying times:

1.  1:50.799 – John Gordon #30 Porsche 996
2.  1:51.688 – Team Howard Racing #70 Mazda Rx7
3.  1:52.618 – John Hsu #2 Mitsubishi Evo 9
4.  1:53.986 – Ed Nazarian #415 Mitsubishi Evo 9

Sunday Race results:

1.  1:49.913 (in lap 11) – Ed Nazarian #415 Mitsubishi Evo 9
2.  1:50.558 (in lap 4) – John Gordon #30 Porsche 996
3.  1:52.660 (in lap 3) – John Hsu #2 Mitsubishi Evo 9
4.  1:50.652 (in lap 3) – Team Howard Racing #70 Mazda Rx7
5.  1:50.192 (in lap 3) – Team Cashin In #32 Chevrolet Corvette Z06

[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/10264004[/vimeo]

Watch out for Ed at the track.  If you are a n00b like me, you can learn a lot from a guy liek Ed.  If you are a sponsor, well, what are you waiting for?  Shout outs to John Gordon and Team Howard.  These guys also rule.  I have shared garages and parking spots with them and they are all really good at being supportive to me even when I went off and got a tidal wave of dirt in my car on my first weekend

 

March 13, 2010 | Categories: Blog | Tags: , , , | Leave A Comment »

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