Earlier today it was the Option Land Circuit Championship at Nihonkai Maze. I put my entry in as the weather forecast was good, and sure enough it was 20degC and clear skies, perfect weather
Since last time I've done the brake and tyre upgrades so was hoping for much better than the 1min 14 I did last time.
First thing was I got the tyres put on my spare rims yesterday but had not tried them on the car. Whoops.... the RE55's have quite a sidewall bulge and the rears were too close to the wheelarch edge. 5 mins with a big hammer fixed that and bent the lips back on themselves.
First free practice was just to bed in the brakes and tyres so 3 steady laps, then 3 quick, then into the pits to let it all cool. Best time 1min 12 just bedding it in
2nd fastest overall even though I only did 6 laps of the 15 min session.
There then followed 3 20 min sessions, all timed, to set the grid for the race. I spent this time messing about with suspension settings and getting used to how late you can brake with a decent setup! Best time from the 3 sessions was 1min 10.590, 4 seconds quicker than the previous setup of std brakes and road tyres.
Looking at the tyres it looked like the front camber was about right, but the rear had too much and was not working the outside 1/3 of the tyres enough. Because I've got the std suspension arms there is not much I can do about it right now. I'll keep that in the bank for later though
It shows that laptimes come from brakes and handling first, not power. Now those 2 are about sorted I'll start looking at power upgrades for the last second or two.
I was second on the grid for the race and when the lights went green I made a flyer, but all of a sudden I realised we had not done a formation lap they talked about in the briefing. I thought everyone had started slowly on purpose, but it turned out it was the race!! I guess that just got lost in my understanding of the japanese drivers briefing. Anyway, I decided it was actually the race and got on with it having not lost any places backing off after the start
It was a 6 lap race, and I was well chuffed when I won! Best lap was 1min 10.490 so soon I'll be looking for sub 1min10. The other Japanese drivers were a little surprised/p'eed off I think as I yet again had the lowest power most standard looking car there against Imrpeza WRX's, R34GTR's, other 180's, RX7's etc etc. Also they had never seen me before as the last evenI did was a private day. Hahaha, my prize for winning was two trophies, a gallon of oil, and 36 tubs of noodles! Guess what we are living on for the next 2 weeks
So the next event is my wife driving on a test day next weekend, then on 11/11 we are going with 5 Japanese friends to Ebisu circuit for a drift open day. Ebisu has no less than 7 different circuits there and we have full acess to the 4 main drift ciruits for only 5,000yen all day! Bargain. The next Option Land race is then 12/11 at Nihonkai so a busy weekend that will be. Next weekend is more cooling and tweak upgrades.
Today is also my birthday so all in all a very good day!
Cheers,
Rich
Sounds like fantastic fun out there!
