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
No comments:
Post a Comment