Details involved in preparing, choosing and competing in various wheel-2-wheel events mainly in the Midwest both in my previously owned 2006 Mitsubishi Evolution IX and other racecar rentals!
As I've noted previously, prior to our last event, GP Racing took the car for an array of upgrades, updates and maintenance.
One of the big updates involved a new custom brake ducting solution. This involved sourcing some Fiberglass headlight deletes and running larger ducts down to the upgraded brake duct inlets. Everything came out looking great too!
Along with the headlight deletes, we also removed the front crash beam (14+ lbs) and relocated the front tow hook.
Probably the most time consuming update was a corner-balance. As seen here, the fire suppression bottle was relocated to the trunk area and several plates were fabricated and bolted into the spare tire well to help with ballast and weight distribution.
All very time consuming efforts, and all aiming at pulling weight off the front of our AWD beast.
Found my camera and pulled the pics from my last weekend at Mid Ohio.
Pics of the fitment from running 265/35-18 BFG R1's on my 9.5" Volk LE28 rims. First set of
BFG's I'd ever tried. Tight fit; ended up rolling the front fenders
after quals.
I went to the BFG R1 - like a lot of other NASA racers - because their
contingency is now a ton better than Hoosier if you're racing. BFG
offers nothing for TT though, but I hope that will change as I think more people would run them and would try the brand new stickier BFG R1-S which is supposed to compare to the Hoosier A6.
Hard to believe, but the #929Evo is currently for sale. It has been a tough year to find time to get it out to the track with some crazy family issues taking up a lot of time. Throw in the fact we are trying to start a family and there just is not enough time throughout the year and something has to give - let my loss be YOUR gain!
Let this post serve as the official FOR SALE listing. You can select the '2012 car setup' link to the right or click HERE to get a solid description of all the aftermarket upgrades currently on the car. Beyond that, please contact me (pitchn at gmail dot com) for further information, pricing details, spares, truck/trailer combo's etc. The vitals are a 2006 Mitsubishi Evo IX with 25,000 miles, caged and ~390whp @ 3000 lbs for $23k. Email: pitchn at gmail (dot) com
After qualifying on the pole with a decent 1:34.2, we had another long
break until the race; 3+ hours I think. I took the time to drop in the
Hawk DTC70 front pads I had just picked up as I wanted to see if they
would hold the brake system hold up better throughout the race. They
are a touch high torque than the DTC60's I've been running mainly for
the past 3 years.
Besides setting the ballast & fuel load, there was really nothing
else the car needed. I started to pack up what I could as I'd be
heading the 7+ hrs home right after the race and the day was heating up;
already well into the 90's.
At the noon driver's meeting I got to stay behind as I was 1 of the 3
pole-sitters for the 3 waves we'd be having. A first! Being on the
pole, I was told to maintain the speed of the pacecar after it pulls off
all the way to the green flag - which would be 35mph. This is a very
difficult thing to do with all the anticipation around you too! The plan after Sat was to be more aggressive with passing and lap traffic - although there were already some close calls during the warmup & qual sessions!
The Race
Coming out of the keyhole after the pacecar pulled off we were in the
35-40mph range as expected. I had just downshifted to 2nd but was
pretty high in the rpms, and as expected our speeds started to creep up
just a little. I didn't want to touch the brakes and 'brake-check'
anyone (maybe I should have) so I was trying to decide if I should shift
into 3rd or not - right about the same time the green dropped and I was
NOT ready. So I got a horrible jump; and would be chasing once again!
Just like the previous day, I was right on the tail of the leader and
got a good run out of T1 (1:30 in the vid) only this time he blocked the
inside line so I couldn't get in there to pass. I jumped outside
instead to try and preserve all the momentum I could, but was definitely
out-braked and gained nothing.
I'm not sure what the difference was, but for the first several laps I
would be fighting some 4-wheel skidding; mostly started from understeer
and backing out of the throttle. I'm not sure what caused this, the
only difference was I had a bit less ballast in the rear since I came in
50lbs over my min after the Sat race. This definitely didn't help my
chasing cause and led directly to an off in T11 that lost me a good bit
of time.
Around the 6th lap my pedal started getting long. I pushed really deep
into T1 at one point before it caught and caused ABS to kick in I think.
I then did some quick pumping on the next straight to bring it back -
same on the backstraight. On the next lap or so - #8 I think - I was
weaving through traffic and around a cone going into T2 (aka The
Keyhole) and not sure if I braked a bit later than normal since I was
offline and couldn't directly see my brake point or what, but the pedal
just wasn't there. If you brake too late into this corner, you miss the
uphill section and then it transitions to downhill through the corner -
and I couldn't slow down enough to make the turn. This is about where I
ended the video as the next part wasn't good... Offtrack, through the
sand to the right a bit and the rearend caught the tirewall. DNF. With
damage to the driver's side of the car, most predominant in the rear
quarterpanel. Sucks.
It also turned out the lead PTA car in front of me - that was ran off between T1 & T2 (9:30 in my vid; on the far left) had cooling issues from that off and had to nurse it around to the finish, so I would have gotten around him quite easily. Sucks too; Traffic!
For an idea on closing speeds into some of the corners, check out the 6:25 mark and tell me WHEN you seen that car!
This is vid from Qualifying on Sunday morning with the camera out back. Love the audio on this! Buschur tuned and catless Buschur exhaust with their small rear muffler.
We were gridded for quals based on our warmup times - which I had a high 1:35x and was slotted first. We leave the pits to an immediate green flag, so I run about a 7/10's lap trying to heat the tires and maintain a decent gap but w/o catching the rear of the field. Nailing it right away on the BFG R1 tires wasn't ideal, but I didn't really have a choice with 50+ cars in the field there was never going to be clear track. I had a skid right away in T1 that cost my .7 seconds in looking at my data.
I think the first lap was a 1:34.2 - if not for the skid in lap #1 it'd been a mid 1:33; and a low 1:33 had I not had to let off right at the end to dodge the black car. Lap #2 was worse; a 1:35x so I pulled it in after that. Man how I was missing the open track of TT at this point! My time still took pole position by a 1/2 second.
As I've noted previously, prior to our last event, GP Racing took the car for an array of upgrades, updates and maintenance.
