SoCal: Time attack tuesdays

[Sales-TCI-Eng]

Sal and I went to help Don in the '32 last night. They were running the standard track layout and there were a ton of cars. The first session we were just trying to get the car to stick. There were a number of fast cars there including a couple 400WHP STI's, GT500, M6, a nicely modded EVO X shod with sticky tires, a R34 Skyline, and of course a number of Miatas.



A little back story. Don found out last week he hasn't had full throttle. A little modification to the cable and that was cured. He also just installed some 6 piston calipers up front to replace the 4 pistons he had. Between these two things the car now accelerates much quicker and stops much better. Pretty much rendering his previous experience behind the wheel useless because he felt like it was a whole new car.

The first session he came out swinging, immediately matching his previous best of mid 48's. In spite of him having a hard time controlling the power. He just felt unsettled because the car was not only power oversteering but it also had some understeer.(He had backed off on the alignment running almost zero camber) We played with the tire pressure on each set of runs trying to find a sweet spot for the new found power. By the end of the session he was starting to get acclimated to his new braking points and corner exit power-on and ended up in the top 10.

The 2nd session had 17 cars total. Don was fired up and extremely motivated to get his 47.XX pass. Unfortunately, he got a little too agressive and ended up in the dirt at the end of the first timed lap. He kept it away from the light poles but he went for a pretty scary ride. He pulled back into the pits so we could make sure everything was ok. After a quick lookover everything looked good so he prepared to go back out. Sal and I had been tracking the progress of his lap times on our phones and he was definitely on the fastest run up to the point of going off track. Don made a joke about finding the limit so now he will back off just a little bit.

He heads out once again. I clicked my phone at the start/stop point they use for the official timing. The car looks good through the tire chicane and into the right hand off camber u-turn. After that quick little S he is on the gas early and on a mission down the straight. The car sounds real good coming by the pits. He nails the brakes and manueveres through that slight right and into the left hand u-turn. He has a bit of understeer through the u-turn and gets back on the gas. Coming down the straight I hear the car bounce off the rev-limiter in 2nd(never heard that happen before). Into the long right hander and onto the front straight in front of the stands. He weaves through the back section and heads on to the back straight. The car understeer slightly around that right hander before the straight. He's on the gas and the car manages to get into 3rd gear down the straight. On the brakes hard, (I click the lap button on my phone) and he throws it through the chicane. I look down at my phone and it says.............47.53. I know there is a bunch of margin for error but then I hear the announcer say "forty seven eighty four". I was so excited I didn't even bother paying attention to the 2nd & 3rd lap. I walked up to Mike(the starting line guy) and asked him to confirm the time. He didn't have the numbers but he was skeptical the '32 had ran that fast. He said "There's no way he picked up a half second". One of the ladies standing there said "It was the Miata that ran the 47.84". I walked away with my slumped. I told Don that I was sure it was him that had ran the 47.

We headed back up top side after those laps and loaded the car on the trailer. We had to wait almost 20 minutes for them to post the results but Don did in fact run a 47.84 on that lap. The incredible thing though, he ran a 47.02 on lap #2. This put him in the 3rd fastest spot for the night.

Needless to say, we couldn't be more proud of his accomplisments. Congrats Don!

-J