The C West/BC Honda S2000 Time Attack Team set off to Super Lap Battle round 2 at Willow Springs Raceway last weekend. We went to this event to defend our title from last years event where we won overall and set a new Unlimited Class track record with a 1:23.36.
We unloaded the car with many new updates on the car. The Design Craft guys re-designed the front splitter and rear diffuser which should gives us more overall grip. BC went through the motor from the last event and has helped us get more power from our stroked 2.4 motor. Kaas also hooked us up with a new diff, which should help me get the BC power to the ground better. So, with all these improvments our goal was to beat the track record and win overall.
We went out for our first session on Saturday and the car felt great but the car started to over heat on our out lap. We decieded to take the car behind the wall to figure out what was causing the car to heat up so fast, which ment that we missed the rest of our session. Design Craft did a couple of mods to try and get more air to the radiator in hopes that was the issue. We went out for our second session on low boost and I was able to do one flying lap before it started to over heat again. I did a 1:24.28, which is 1 second off the track record. We flushed out all the fluids and tried a few other things to sort out the heating issue. I went back out on low bost and on sticker tires but there was no change with the heat issue so I was only able to do 1 lap again. I was able to get under the track record by 1 second with a 1:22.23 but at the end of that lap the head gasket blew in a big way just after start finish. The Design Craft guys did a great job to change the head gasket quick but for some reason it was not sealing because we were getting a lot of oil in the water. Game over.
I was only able to get 2 timed laps on Saturday but luckly at Super Lap Battle they count your laps on both days so our time on Saturday was good enough to take the overall victory and a new lap recod. This was a good test for next weekends Redline Time Attack at Willow Springs. I plan on breaking my track record next weekend!
After our first event with the Falken Tire 350z in Long Beach, I’ve been very anxious to get some testing in so we can show up to Atlanta with a competitive car. It’s been 2 years since I’ve run at Formula D Atlanta because last year my motor blew and was unable to compete. So, I’m excited to get back to the ATL with Team Falken!
We showed up to the Atlanta practice on Thursday with many changes to the car, which pre event testing proved to be the right direction for us to go. During the practice, we made a few minor changes to our current setup simply to adjust to the grip level that Road Atlanta provides. The Falken Tire 350z ran flawless and I was feeling very comfortable in the car and ready for Friday qualifying.
We had an hour practice before qualifying starts, which we planned to do but my car had something else in mind. It would not start nor could we push start it. The ASD guys soon realized that we had a bad cam sensor. With the spare sensor back at the shop in Charlotte and none to be found locally, practice being over and qualifying about to start, I soon realize that may event may be over before its even started. I made my way up to the judge stand and started to watch qualifying. I can’t tell you what was going through my mind at that point but they were bad flash backs from last year, not good .As I’m watching qualifying with a blank look on my face, I hear JRod on the PA telling me to head to the Falken pit. Darren McNamara just laid down a run which put him first at the time and pretty much put him in the event. Darren and I run the same motor so Falken went to Darren and asked him if he would be willing to give up his second run, so they could put his cam sensor on my car and give me an opportunity to lay down a run to get the car in the show. He said yes, which says a lot about Darren as a driver and team mate. The ASD guys are thrashing at this point to switch the sensor to my car and did so with a few cars to go before my second qualifying run. I lined up for my qualifying run and realize that this is my first run of the day since we missed practice and my first qualifying run. This one run is my only shot to get in the event, no pressure at all! Trying to avoid any mistakes, I lay down a conservative run that puts me 13th for top 32. Not bad for my first and only run of the day. ASD took the Sensor back out of my car and back into Darren’s so he could do the night practice and I was back to watching, which is OK with me at this point cause I’m in the event.
My cam sensor was delivered Saturday from Charlotte and my car was good to go. I was matched up with Essa for top 32 and he did a very god job but I was able to move on to the top 16. Next up was Ruji Miki. I followed him closely but made a little correction in the horse shoe so I felt he had an advantage. When I led, I drove as hard as possible and he dropped wheels in the horse shoe and I moved on to the top 8. Next would be the battle of the vert Z’s with Chris Forsberg. We talked before and agreed to use the pass cone, which would put on a better show. When I followed we both had a clean run and I tried to close up on him but could only get as close as a car length. It was my turn to lead. I go to leave the line and stall! Much to my surprise Chris stopped to wait. That was awesome of him because he could have taken off and my event is over. We had another clean run but he was closer to me so he moved on. I ran over to him and thanked him for waiting at the line. He said that happened to him once but the other driver didn’t wait, and he told himself that he would never do that to anyone. Pretty badass of him to do that!
It was a good event for the Falken Nissan 350z. I learned a lot at this event. We have made a lot of progress with the car but still have room for improvement. We also got good points by making it to the top 8. Most importantly, I learned how awesome people are in drifting. Big Thanks to Darren for helping me out to get in the event, and thanks to Chris for putting the show first. Actions like this make drifting so unique and different to other motorsports. I’m proud to be part of this sport!
Although we didn’t have the result we wanted in Long Beach, we are happy with the devlopment progress of the Falken Tire Nissan 350z but know we have some work to do to get up front.
I came out to the home base of the ASD shop in Charlotte to test the 350z before we head to Atlanta. The ASD guys have made a lot of changes that we wanted to try before going to RD2. After a few runs in testing, we knew our new direction was going down the right path. We ran out of time but we are making more big changes that we will try at Road Atlanta. One issue we still have is Smoke! Yes, smoke in drifting is a good thing but not good when it causes you to not see. ASD is going to make some changes to the cockpit to keep the smoke out… I hope. Atlanta is fast and long and when you come back down the hill it produces a ton of smoke so we need to fix that issue.
