Eating breakfast next to the track.
It’s Saturday morning, 5AM, and Yim is at the door. Time to go! We head back over to the shop to pick up our cars. It’s not even 6AM and Ferdie is quick detailing his car; no comment. We’re all sorted and hit the road. Maybe 40 minutes later, we’re at the Chevron in Rosamond, only 2-3 miles away from Willow Springs, maybe longer, I don’t know. Let’s just say 5 minutes away. We all stop to eat breakfast at Jack In The Box and Andrew happens to show up at the perfect time to join us.
I think I had some sort of burrito, something like that. We go to the driver’s meeting, pass through tech inspection, and prep our cars before the first session of the day. You always want to check your oil, torque down your lugs, adjust your tire pressures, and empty your interior. I have Schroth Profi III 6-point harnesses, so I usually have to spend a minute or two to get my anti-sub straps ready since I don’t use my harnesses in daily driving. I also brought my video camera mount in hopes of learning from my mistakes.
Vince tore his RE-01R to shreds.
The first session wasn’t anything out of the ordinary. You’re never going to set your fastest laps in the first session; warm up your engine, your tires, and your wits. You’re not going to be going into turn 8 flat out your first lap, at least I hope not. But the second session, Vince tore up one of his tires pretty good. I was having cooling issues again and just as I was exiting the track, I saw Vince push out on 9 when he got on the throttle. I didn’t realize how scary that was until I saw it on video. Nuts.
EVO X, GRB STi, GRB STi, Legacy, GRB STi, EVO 9, GRB STi, GRB STi.
It’s a good thing he pulled off before anything real bad could happen. He ended up having to throw Ferdie’s spare Enkeis in the rear and moving his CE28 rear to the front. It’s a damn good thing we’re starting to bring real spares instead of those donuts they throw in your trunk. Vince ended up having to go all the way home to pick up his Toyo R1Rs he bought from Dusty at NNI Racing and mounting them the same day. He didn’t make it back until 6PM later that day.
Legacy, GRB STi, EVO 9, GRB STi, GRB STi.
Meanwhile, my brakes were acting kind of funny. I felt like they were faded or the rotors were warped, getting a lot of modulation under semi-hard braking. I wasn’t sure what it was at the time, but don’t worry, I later found out, the hard way. Ouch. My coilovers were also making weird noises, I guess from the heat expanding the metal. Fortunately nothing bad happened there. Still severe cooling issues, which we later concluded was a result of bubbles in the system. Too bad we didn’t get them out until last night (Monday)!
Amy, Andrew and Yim at basecamp.
Andrew was absolutely dominating me in his stock EVO 9. I’m absolutely confident that he could’ve took first place in Redine Time Attack for Big Willow if he had a fresh set of tires, some KW coilovers, and TBE. Hell, even with just tires, he might be able to do it. I was so impressed with his driving ability. Watching Andrew and Randy drive is seriously encouraging me to get into autox in the very near future, once I get some scheduling sorted out.
Well, all in all, it wasn’t too bad of a track day, although half the team walked away with mechanical issues. I’ll talk about what went wrong in all of our cars next time. That’s racing for you; the best of the times and the worst of times.
