Last Fuji event for the year !

After a long absence from Japan's circuits (almost a month) I thought the last track visit for the year should belong to Fuji Speedway!


Mt Fuji overlooking the circuit

23rd was a public holiday so Tom, James and Simon (and his NSX crew) we all decided we'd give it a go. Seeing that it was a holiday we were worried about having to compete with too many cars on the track but in the end it wasn't too bad.

Tom and I wanted to start the day by attending the first 2 early sessions but when we proceeded to buy tickets we were told that these 2 sessions were for beginners only and one wasn't allowed to exceed 180km/h on the straight and have a faster lap time than 2'30''! Bummer !! Tom decided to skip these sessions and join the S4 instead(faster cars with roll cages etc) and I decided to sit them both out until a proper NS4 session at 1pm came up. I didn't last long. Seeing that I woke up at 6am to enjoy the day I wasn't going to sit on the sidelines and twirl my fingers so I bought the remaining beginner's session ticket and went out there.


DC5 in front of the main straight

It was a drag ! Drivers were truly inexperienced and I was forced to brake on the main straight just to stay above the lap time limit. The only good thing that came out of it was I'd been experiencing a lot of oversteer in that session and upon return adjusted my rear suspension damper which made a world of difference in the NS4 session later in the day!

My goal was to beat 2'11'' and I was truly going to push for 2'10''! As the video below shows I beat my personal best and arrived at 2'09''55 on 2 laps which were relatively traffic free ! I was extremely happy ! What a way to end the year !


Capturing the achievement here on my way home


Tom's Mazda next to yours trulys


The irishman who got me hooked up on racing !

It's been almost 12 months since I started going to Fuji. I came here and got my first ever lap time of 2'29'' something. Back then it was something, 12 months later I am down to 2'09''! I've learnt a lot ! I've experienced a lot ! And as Tom rightfully observed I was no longer just rocking up and tracking my car but spending a good hour or so prepping my car before a session, a sign of a truly dedicated racer he said ! :)

Hope you enjoy the video ! 2010 will see me tracking more at Fuji and Tsukuba and hopefully improving as time goes on ! I'll try to steal a lesson and a drive from one of them GT300/GT500 drivers to see what they can do in my car and attend some driver training here and there !

Happy New Year !

Bad tyre damage

I noticed these deep holes with chunks of rubber missing all around the outside edge of the front tyres. I've counted about 5 on each side already ! I'm not sure when this happened and whether my last run off in Tsukuba had anything to do with it.




Perhaps it's time for a new set of NEOVAs !?

An intro from Sony Vegas

Any thoughts ?

Endurance race video is out !

Video

Tsukuba finally claims me !

Here is a short video of a small "incident" in one of the afternoon sessions I attended on Nov 18th. The video had a suitable background song to go with it but YouTube removed it due to the song's rights being owned by some music label to which I wasn't paying royalties and so I was forced to mute it unfortunately !

As a background to the incident, I went out in the session and immediately felt my brakes were acting strangely. Under heavy braking I was hearing noises similar to "marbles stuck between the pads and the discs rolling around" which worried me a lot and I ended up spending a majority of the session off the racing line and driving very slowly. It was towards the end that things improved (so I thought...) and I pushed for a best lap. Unfortunately on the entry to the last corner I lost brakes and ended up going off.

Glad I installed those towhooks which were used to pull me out of the sand though :)

HKS TV Japan with yours truly !

If you remember my earlier post on how I conquered Tsukuba !!, here are some links to HKS TV where I was "featured" (please endulge me :) ) in a Driver Briefing taught by 2 professional SuperGT drivers.

Part 1
(Jump to 2:05, I am the one wearing a white T-shirt in the top-left corner)

Part 2 & Part 3

Super Taikyu in Ebisu - endurance race report

It's been a very, very busy week for me with work, family and life in general but I'm finally ready to write up a few words about this event.

On November 22nd (sunday) together with Tom, James, Mike, Miguel, Sumi-san and Dan I headed out to Fukushima preferecture, some 400kms north of Tokyo to participate in Ebisu's extra endurance event, this time the 6 hour one to wrap up the racing season for the year!

The link above is a direct link to the post-event feature where not only our man Dan is featured with 2 beautiful race queens (!) (and a microwave!) but also our car got a prime mention ! (By the way I am still puzzled by what it was we did to win a microwave :) )

That weekend (21st and 22nd) also happened to be a so called all-you-can-race Matsuri (festival) when anyone in just about any kind of car could drive on any of the Ebisu's 4 circuits (east, west, north and south) to their heart's content for a very nominal price. As we arrived there on the afternoon of the 22nd to practice, our circuit was packed with believe it or not mainly Honda's but also a few Nissans, Suzukis, Mazdas and others.




As we prepped our car, we all got a chance to try it out with the new suspension, lighter mass, newer tyres and more. I personally found the car to be significantly faster than in the 12hr event but I also found it a lot bouncier especially in the rear. Of course after getting my own car's suspension upgraded recently I am a lot more sensitive to these things hence the impression I got but the bounciness is a result of a lot stiffer rear springs coupled with a harder damper settings. Nevetheless the car felt great, more robust, more responsive and overall a much more competitive package that what I had experienced the first time around.



Pity we were having some issues with our practice rubber shredding excessively on the left outer edge (we thought due to some excessive understeer or incorrect camber) and so our practice session had to be cut a little short.



With air temperature getting very low reaching some 2 degrees C around 6pm we packed our equipment back into the race car, left our car in its designated pit for the next day and left the circuit to grab a bite to eat. Just before we left one of Miguel's mates offerred to take us to a local performance shop for a bit of a "suprise" and so we went !

WORLD's EXCLUSIVE (carbon fiber Time Attack Evo)

This place has Japan's fastest, most expensive time-attack EVO's you'll ever see but it also has the world's lighest, carbon fiber fitted exclusively EVO currently under going a build. These pictures are exclusive to TGR and racingInJapan !



RACE DAY

We got up at 6am and headed out to the circuit. This is what it looked like at 6:30am ! The circuit is way up in the mountains and was surrounded by clouds at lower altitudes! Bloody awesome if you asked me !



It was a cold cold morning and after readying the car for our practice Tom went out there and drove like there was no tomorrow landing us in a very sweet 8th place out of 13 ! Well done !



Then it was Dan (a very dedicated Mazda Roadster and Subari STI enthusiast) who started the race with a rolling start, Mike (whose Lotus racing experience makes him a driving force to be reckoned with), Sumi-san (who drove consistently only to experience a puncture which forced him into the pits), myself (for the first time ever I experienced a safety car situation which was a drag but at the same time an interesting experience as far as teams tactics are concerned), James (whose desire and determination to improve and understand every facet of racing impressed me the most) and finally Tom who drove the car home in one piece at the end of the 6th hour ! And then there was Miguel (our event's team boss), who listened carefully to every driver's impressions and tried to improve the car right there and then, whether it was suspension, tyre pressures or the racing line he was right there for us to answer our questions. I also want to say that watching Miguel work on a car taught me a lot even though I didn't get my hands dirty as much as the other guys and this kind of learning is invaluable if you ask me !

I won't be go into more details as my fellow teammates wrote very good accounts of their experience on TGR's own site so I encourage you to read those !

And to finish off and probably what you all have been waiting for...

RACE QUEENS



I admire them for keeping a smile on when it was soo BLOODY cold !! :)

For all photos I took on that day go here http://www.pbase.com/roliradr/ebisu_6hr_super_taikyu

Videos will come soon

My 2nd official race event [6hr endurance race Ebisu]

I'll be leaving Tokyo tomorrow morning to head out to Ebisu for TGR's 6 hour endurance race.

We're planning to spend half a day on sunday practicing and getting used to our race car which I am told has been significantly improved and on monday our race will take place !

Looking forward to driving in Ebisu in winter !
Stay tuned !

Mugen Challenge, a new toy and Ebisu 6hr Super Taikyu

Mugen Challenge Nov 2009

A week ago, Mugen (translation: "Infinity"), a very famous Honda aftermarket parts manufacturer (both locally and worldwide) held a quarterly circuit challenge at Tsukuba TC1000 course.

The day was full of all types of Hondas running in all types of events ranging from beginners' first time on the circuit to seasoned drivers in time attacks.

On the day Mugen offerred some lucky few a ride in the Mugen DC5 and Mugen FD2 driven by famous Super GT drivers such as Tetsuya Yamano (see right). Not only did they get a chance to feel the ride driven by a pro but also had an opportunity to ask for and receive advice for their own driving and cars.

My tuner Seeker had a very strong presence at the event ! Pity I couldn't participate this time around but it was fun to watch !

















More photos at www.pbase.com/roliradr/cars



New toy!



Been thinking about it for a while and finally did it.
Today I bought a 2nd hand Racelogic PerformanceBox (GPS based data logging tool). Haven't had the time to read the manual nor use it so stay tuned for my reviews in the upcoming posts

Ebisu 6hr Super Taikyu



Here we go again !!

On November 23rd I will once again drive for Team Gaijin Racing (TGR) in this month's 6 hour Super Taikyu Endurance race held at Ebisu Circuit !
The guys have improved the car significantly with a new gearbox, LSD and suspension upgrades !

Read all about it on TGR's website!

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Results will be posted !

Making the most out of a clean car