A Classic Mini

Surrounded by tires and a light smell of fuel with a Gatorade in one hand... discussing the recent radiator leak we found, a flag station crew casually walked over to our pits and half jokingly asked "a couple teams complained about an aggressive mini... is it you guys? first time I heard somebody complain about a mini on track"...


I smiled, we looked at each other, we knew who it was... but we kept it quiet, and laughed it off.
It was a 60's Austin mini... a right hand drive, a first for me... on my local track, the famous ridge motorsports park. A dream come true...

I would be racing with the famous Mr.Spank who brought a two British car team for the Pacific Northwest Lemons race. While the team won #1st in class C with an Austin America, the mini came in class 3rd, due to some radiator problems. More coverage here on Car and Driver lemons blog.

More of mini racing action later in the video.. which probably will give some hints on how my 2 hour stint really was, but racing with Spank was a unique experience in its own that deserves some attention.

Lemons is widely known as a place where old and shitty cars retire in the hands of teams, drivers who have poor judgment... that's for sure, I would know as I'm one of them.... Costumes, great bbq's, odd penalties...and personalities, cars and creations that make no sense what so ever are raced for hours at a time... worked on days if not weeks prior...

Why do we spend this much energy, $$$ and time in crap can racing... I will never know, I'm only here for the race.. for the drive, that's what I'm good at. But there are quite a few personalities, talented individuals.. who otherwise could have spent their talent inventing, curing diseases or even improving other peoples lives...

Spank is one of them, a talented.. an interesting, a deep, humble fellow... who is well known in the mini cult, but more known in the lemons quarters, for his crazy creations... During Saturday, a Top Gear spin off conducted some interviews by the pits, and I captured some of that with my go-pro... lets hear it from Spank himself on his latest creations... then we'll top it off with me "spanking" some faster cars in a classic mini, enjoy :)

The "36"

It was 2:30am, when somebody knocked on my window...
That was a first, being woken up in a parking lot, wearing a full racing suit, in a rental car.
For a moment I had no idea where I was... then quickly realized, it was finally my turn...turn to race.

I would be racing with Team Paul Newman's Revenge at the infamous "36 hours of Spokane" Chump Car race :) This was a well run machine and quite the contrary to a junk car...it had great attention to detail all around.

The madness would start in the dark, Friday at 10pm... span across 2 nights... and end Sunday 10am under a bright sun. But I arrived Friday early and met Jonathan and Joe, an analytical and in tune father son duo. They had a great operation, years of experience and great amount of know how.

I also wasn't the only new driver, met some really cool and passionate people on our team and also got to see Beach Dudes Racing captain who I had raced with last year!

But walking to the pits, putting on my helmet, none of this was on my mind... I only had one thought .... "its dark". I would be driving a Nissan 240SX for the first time on a track that I never raced before and at night, yet again another first... and I was more worried about night than the car or track. All cars had huge spotlights... but trying to learn a track blinded by 50 other cars was one experience that I will never forget.

I had a scary but clean stint that night... really scared the shit out of me. But the next day, under the bright sun, really felt the car and experienced a 90 minute long blitz.. this car can out-brake and corner consistently like nothing else... Was a pleasure to drive.

Our car flipped, we blew the transmission, I believe twice... ripped 2 tires on track, a few contacts. Not to mention all the mayhem and wrecked cars from the 50 that started... I think a bit less than half were running at the end... an amazing race, thank you Jonathan and Joe for the seat!

Btw, its a shame, half asleep I forgot my GoPro, and have absolutely no footage...what so ever. As my wife likes to say ... Idiot!

One Year

What can I say, has been quite a busy start to summer. Only a few days ago, I  realized .. one year. One year since we moved to Seattle.  I came to this year "fully committed"...but yet uncertain.  Now only a reflection of it in my mirror I'm already too busy aiming for the next one. Like I said its been quite busy.. can't complain :)

It all started with a race I couldn't make, the great  24 Hours of Lemons - New Hampshire , later to learn our car was kaput anyway, well until the last hour of the race. Which got Tom the well deserved and prestigious "heroic fix" award. 

Tom believes this track has cursed us all along. 3 races and 3 mechanical failures, how can he forget that? But I still remember the first one, the one we witnessed the arrival of Andre Gomes, at his first wheel-to-wheel race, destroying our lap times for his first ever outing and as-well as the engine later on that day :)

Now Andre, as I had covered earlier has already started winning races in his first Skip Barber championship. He is either or 2nd or 1st in the points and IMHO will win this! I'll continue to cover his journey here.

Recently, one of my childhood friends Tamer and I decided to dive right into 4-stroke karting. The cheapest form of karting (besides rental leagues ). We both got used karts, engine packages and finally put together our karts and started getting our hands dirty with a few local races, test/tune days and playing with setup.  First race came 3rd, but have to be honest...still a lot more work to do on setup and tuning. I have a feeling this will be a great way for me to learn this part of racing...which I have no knowledge today.

Here is a fast lap from a recent test day:




Tamer also recently got a yellow Lotus Elise.. so I have a feeling both our hands will be busy this summer with karting and track days! :)

24 Hours of Lemons - Sears Pointless Race Report 2013

Its quite ironic that my last post was at a airport getting ready for the first race of 2013 and now i'm yet again listening to crying babies at another airport blabbing about that very same race... the circle of life they say, perhaps... :)

But, what a race that was...! I was very happy to see Jerry and Colin, the mighty RX7, Ozer and his family as-well!  Here is a pic from Sat pre-race meeting with the one and only Mr Lemons Jay, figure out who is who  :)

As I had mentioned in my earlier post this would be Ozer's first race... and i have a feeling it will not be his last! :) He did a great job by staying out of major trouble... had a few moments but we all did when we started racing, those were baked and expected in the plan. I look forward to him joining us for more races in the future in different tracks, in different cars...

Also last December the RX7 had losts its racing virginity with some glitches but Jerry really pulled everything together this time and the car ran very strong the whole weekend. Out of 175 cars maybe 20-25 cars had an edge, rest was fair game! :)

We did have some minor brake issues on Sunday which we sorted out afterwards.... losing brake pressure was an interesting experience, it had warnings.. i had to pump the brakes a few laps, then a few more pumps... but I kept on going, was having so much fun...why stop?! :)

As always, here is some racing footage, first 5 minutes of Sunday morning race start, unplugged. The RX7 was a blast to drive, very rewarding closer to the limit... a true mid-engine experience...

Some Unfinished Business :)

Yet again, here I am, at a another airport waiting for my next adventure. This time I will be heading to 24 Hours of Lemons – Sears Pointless.

This will be my 2^nd race on that track, same team, but different car…we will be driving the mighty RX7 with Team Wankle Grumpy Nerds!.  The team made their debut race at Lemons Chuckwalla last December, and let’s just say we ran into some technical glitches and couldn’t complete much laps, but we had a great time at the track and I sampled some racing with the mighty spitfire which was the teams 2^nd car that weekend.

But this weekend will be special, we have some unfinished business! Also it will be special because my childhood friend Ozer, which I had mentioned in my earlier post will be joining us for his first ever lemons race! A quick flashback to my first race almost 3 years ago, I remember the butterflies in my stomach, and I almost couldn’t get out of the pits…as the race cars were not slowing down for me! J I’m really happy for him to taste this.. I’m sure he will be hooked! And I hope he doesn’t blame for me it in the future!

 On other news, as I have been gone for quite a while, a great update! one of my fellow racer friends, who raced with us at lemons races back in the east coast, Andre Gomes has made huge news by winning the 2012 Skip Barber INDYCAR Academy Shootout! You can find more information here : http://www.indycar.com/News/2013/01/1-29-Andre-Gomes-wins-inaugural-Skip-Barber-Racing-School-INDYCAR-Academy

 I’m really happy for him, as I always knew that one day, he will get the opportunity to show his true, raw talent. I suspect this will be the beginning of his new career, and I also suspect he will be very successful, I have no doubt that we are witnessing the birth of a new star!

 This wasn’t easy for Andre however, he almost made it to the VW TDI Cup Iracing had sponsored (which kick-started Wyatt Gooden’s career), but got a DQ for a qualifying incident at the last race. He later on made it from millions of users to the top tier in GT Academy shootout, went to Silverstone, kicked everybody else’s asses (including the instructors) but got eliminated because he was seen as a devil in disguise J But like they say… 3^rd is the charm, and he nailed this one! I am happy to be see him get the opputunity he deserves, and hoping one day when he gets to big leagues sends me a paddock pass ;)

 Anyways, that’s it for now.. I have some more interesting bits of news, but that shall come next round!

Childhood Memories and a License

 When I finally made the move to Seattle from Boston, almost ~5 months ago, I wasn’t entirely coming to a new town without knowing anybody. As they say, the world is really small sometimes. My childhood friends Ozer and his brother Tamer apparently had been living in this rainy town for quite some time, and that was something to look forward to.

Although I haven’t seen them since I was 14-ish, a re-introduction was not necessary. We were in some sense the same people but a bit larger, a bit fatter perhaps but also wiser, and we had larger and faster toys now J It was also great to see them as huge petrol heads and track bugs… carrying the Corvette flag. Bikes, cars… and now also a cute little baby girl J

Since all of us had smelled racing fuel one way or the other, it was time to get the racing license out of the way. Although I had been racing wheel-2-wheel for quite some time, that crap can racing did not require SCCA licenses. I definitely plan to race something more in the future,, not sure what,, but I know the license was the natural next step for me.

All three of us signed up to ProFormance racing school, operating from a local “old time” track, Pacific Raceways. The school owner Don Kitch was great, he covered all fundamentals and on/off track exercises with his team in the condensed 2 day school, compared to other school’s which require 3 + 2 days + $$$ to qualify for SCCA licenses.

While walking in the pits, I also met his cute dog ‘GT’.  A great name, for a racing family dog… but as I looked at him closely, I noticed quickly that he was the dog, whose picture is on the best seller book “The Art ofRacing in the Rain”. A bit of digging and talking to Don reviled that the book author Garth had used Don’s racing school content “Art of racing in the rain” as inspiration for his nove and the picture of his dog on the book. This is an amazing and emotional book(especially if you are into pets) and highly recommended…  trust me you will not be disappointed.

Anyways, sitting in the class room, and petting GT, and feeding him my sandwich… I was thinking of the mock-race we had planned for the end of the school. I had already qualified with a ~2.5 second margin on pole… and my heart beat was elevated,, GT definitely was keeping me calm.  Hey this was a proper race with equal cars,, and I would be racing with my 2 childhood friends,,, it doesn’t get any better than that…  ‘nough said, here is that video, enjoy J

 

 

Racing a 1971 Datsun with Beach Dudes Racing

It was still dark when we arrived at Ridge Motorsports Park… foggy.. and a bit cold. Driving around the pits looking for my team I wanted to be as quite as possible and  not wake anybody up in their tents….hey it was only 5:30am, only 3 hours to green flag. I was already ready to race…! How could people still sleep…? Still baffles me…

 Anyways, I would be racing a 1971 Datsun station wagon with team Beach Dudes Racing. The car deserved that name with a surf board on top, although none of the drivers were surfers. Perhaps a contradiction… but so was the car. Under the hood it had a Nissan Pathfinder V6 engine delivering a healthy 210 HP to the rear wheels. Weighing only ~2500 pounds I knew this was a going to be a great combo… but little did I know about the track, the Ridge.

 Over the years racing with different teams, different cars on tracks I had never been on.. I came to expect challenges. But Ridge was different, it was a maze of technical high speed, low speed and off camber turns with massive elevation changes. Youtube videos do not do justice for elevation changes(nor iracing).For example the most dramatic is the last turn in Road Atlanta of course.. a true roller coaster ride, but on the videos it always looks like a small hill top.

 I would be starting the race, a 2 hour stint to be exact. I literally had to learn the track the first few warm up laps before green flag dropped… and to be honest it took me at least 20 minutes to figure the damn track out. I took it nice and easy at first as I discovered the car had massive but predictable over steer. I think it was ~30 minute mark when I radioed-in that I would be opening her up… and off she went.

 I don’t remember much after that to be honest… I remember being radioed in to pit in which felt like 20 minutes but was actually 2 hours, getting out of the car and asking where the mechanic of the team was,, and I remember congratulating him for that engine. The brakes and handling struggled but the engine made it up for anything…I mean anything on the track. I don’t think I got passed the last 90 mins of the stint, and surely could have gone even faster if I had bigger balls. Regardless I set the fastest time for the car with a ~5 second margin.

 Thanks to Beach Dudes Racing for giving me the opportunity to race with them and I hope I get to join them for future races… They really have  a great operation, a first in junk car racing, a fully dedicated pit crew, mechanics and the best food on the track!

 Oh.. and of course Coco… the team mascot J

 

 

The Helmet

It was about 8pm or so when we parked in front of a unfamiliar house in the suburbs. Felt a bit odd and awkard place to pick up a piece of art, a helmet to be precise,,,it was also getting a bit dark too.
I was super excited to see my new helmet for the first time... I did not know what to expect, but had been thinking about this moment all day at work.

It was a few months ago when I met Jerrett @ the local kart track during one of the league races. We briefly talked about his helmet designs and some of his earlier work... a racer designing racer helmets! I knew i had found the right person for the task!

We exchanged contact info that day and a few weeks later i received the first sketches of the design. I was super excited to see this in my inbox, as i knew he was onto something...something special, special for me.

 

The design had all the characteristics of an era of Lotus Racing which i had been a HUGE fan off since i was a kid.  The black & gold JPS Lotus livery had been used extensively in the 70's and 80's,  a golden era for Lotus F1...  The cars between 1972 - 1986 ran these colors and won multiple championships and races, driven by the racing gods of those era's. This was a special time for the Lotus team...and the car looked beautiful from every angle.

 

So as a big Lotus fan boy, i knew exactly what type of helmet design i wanted. It had to be dedicated to that time, that era, to Chapman's team and their success! and with such a great color combo i knew this helmet would pop...and stand out, and most importantly give me a warm feeling every time I looked at it.

 

But a vision is nothing if you don't have the right hands, the right tools and the right eyes to craft it.

I knew I didn't, but Jerrett did. Just check out his website, his previous work... you'll get a sense that he is not just painting helmets for racers as a racer himself, but painting pieces of art that you wear during the most intense experiences and moments of a drivers life.

 

Strong and intense experiences allow people to connect and bond with the things they are attached to in those moments, and a helmet is no different. Each race, each "oh shit" moment, or the few, the rare victories... all help strengthen the bond of a driver and his helmet. These helmets don't just protect your head but can inspire you as a driver, be a visual trigger to endless racing memories...moments you can look back and remember. For others they are just pretty objects, but for us its much more then that...and Jerrett, the racer, knew this.

 

Long story, long story... I was happy like a kid when i saw the helmet that night, in his garage, on the desk he painted numerous other helmets. It was beautiful, crisp and to the point... and it had every single detail and the great lines that capture the essence of a JPS Lotus F1 car from that era... I'm a very happy customer, and look forward to working with Jerrett in the future again...and also racing against him! :)

Here are some pictures I took last night, enjoy:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

End of Summer

How can something end, if it hasn't even started..?

Looking at my friends Facebook summer vacation pictures in a office with no windows... i tried to remember last time sand was stuck in my shoes. :)

It has surely been a interesting summer so far, a lot of challenges, a lot of learning... and learning that i need to learn more. But looking back at the early days of summer, i had no idea what was in store for me.  If i had to describe my summer in a few words, probably would be "A bit of a discovery...".

It was also a bit of a discovery, when i finally took the drive 2 hours up North to the Canadian border last weekend to a new karting facility, Sima Raceway. I would be driving a 30HP 125cc Parilla non-shifter kart for the first time on ~1 mile track. (With top speeds ~80mph)

Compared to the rental karts I have raced in F1 Outdoors/Indoors(Boston) and PGP(Seattle) which come with ~9HP... 30 HP was a true "discovery" for me.

I still remember, the first time getting out of the pits, on the front straight... the sheer force of the acceleration, just felt endless... as i approached the first turn, i noticed the brute force of the brakes, discs all around and the amount of grip those tires had. The G forces were absurd... i felt like i was about to fly off the kart as i picked up speed.

The sensitive pedals, required respect... A skidding, bouncing kart, would cause my feet to modulate the pedals even more, and cause even more bounce.... in the process destroying ones rib bones. Luckily I had my new rib protector, which saved my life.... well until my neck,couldn't take it anymore :)

My instructor, who is a sponsored pro racer from Italkarts, David Jurca was great. We walked the track, went over different approaches one takes for driving a kart at speed, and he showed great patience,,, with my in-patience :)

I think he was a bit concerned at first, with my lack of cautious approach, he had to call me in a few times and ask me to take it easy :) But i have to say, not one spin, not one wheel off... we both figured out i could handle it at the end of the day... but the weakest link was my neck.

Watching kids 1/2 my age take on 20 minute stints, while having to pit after 5-6 laps was embarrassing to say the least. But apparently a common expected outcome for average joe stepping in a kart my instructor said :) So i guess, i need to get in shape.... this winter for next season :) Not sure how to improve my neck muscles though...

Here is some on board action from my last session:



On other news, i will be racing at 14 Hours of Chump Car @ Ridge Motorsports Park with Team
Beach Dudes Racing :) A 1972 Datsun 510, with a V6 swap!!! :) More to come on this later... But here is the sketch of the car from the team:

Getting my hands Dirty :)

Yes, finally I can sit down and put my thoughts, and words together.

It has been a bit more than a month since I completed the move from Boston to Seattle.

It has been completely crazy in so many different levels… moving to a new town, finding a new place, getting used to a new job… a whole new job, which is both exciting and demanding. It is no exaggeration when I admit that I have been working probably 60 hour weeks since I got here…from day #1.

I joined the new job at a time when a lot had to be done, a lot was expected,,, and I knew I had to get my hands dirty, and dirty fast…and break all mental and emotional barriers that will slow me down, and focused on getting up-to speed right away….  Am I there? No…but my hands are dirty…and each day I am learning, improving, and understanding my new purpose in life J

The thoughts of leaving so many things behind also adds a bit of spice on top…but life is a bit like racing, you have to stop looking back, the things you have passed… and look forward.

Just like I dived head first into the new challenge, the new job… I decided to jump right into to some racing action… to help with stress J I found a great outdoor karting track(Pacific Grand Prix), which either run’s bi-weekly league’s or 90 minute enduro’s every other week. So I signed up to both events … the first weekend I arrived here J

Pacific Grand Prix track layout supports multiple config's and the great thing about this place,,, outdoor track,,, in Seattle it rains… and they are using made in china, cheap hard slick tires J So expect some great rain action from me.,, when it starts to rain of course, I’ve been honestly waiting for it to rain…where is the $@$@$ rain in Seattle?!?

I have already started winning races in the league’s which consists of a 15 minute x (practice + qualifier + heat #1 + final race).But I have found myself attracted to a greater challenge, the 90 Minute Enduro…in the Ironman class, which means while most people race in 2-3 people teams and switch drivers during a 90 minute race,,, I race with a select few crazy, hard core karters who go 90 minutes solo…rain or shine J We all know each other by name… J

My first enduro,,, and I was leading 80 minutes of the race, until when I was re-lapping somebody, who took both of us out and also fractured my rib in the process… I continued the remaining 10 minutes of the race with tears in my eyes… while losing -5 seconds a lap because I couldn’t turn left anymore,, and came in second. Right now,, I’m waiting for a new rib protector in the mail, and also waiting patiently(!) for my ribs to heal…so I can go out, and kick some ass!

But in the meantime, here are some pictures from the events & podiums from the league race which I came first, and a video of the final race. (I will be recording more videos from enduro events in rain, when i can heal & and can race again :) )

Here is some racing action, i had qualified 5th, and finished 1st :)

Coast 2 Coast

So I've got some big news! I'm moving to Seattle. The land of umbrella's,rain boots and of course rain tires... here we come :)

I look forward to this new challenge and adventure..but also feel sad that i'll be leaving so much
behind. Instead of racing with Team FarFrumWinnin mid June @ Summit for the
3rd race of the season as initially planned, i'll be packing and moving boxes! This also means i'll be missing out on rest of the season. I'll be updating the team's races on this blog going forward regardless.

I already have a few plans when i hit the ground on the rainy hills of Seattle. A childhood friend and his brother (which we united years later) lives here, and they happen to be major petrol heads as-well. So expect some planning,building and racing from us very soon :) More to come on this later...

So lets get back to the main story, last Saturday, under a sunny ~80F degree weather I met up
with Andre Gomes and Ryan Field @ Devens airfield for my last autox in Boston. It was good
to see Andre, i had last seen him kicking ass @ Summit last year during the 24 Hours of Lemons race where the car he drove won in Class C.
This was Andre's first autox, and he would drive his stock miata on old and useless tires. As expected
he set the fastest time in Novice class. The most impressive part was majority of his runs were clean, no cones, no off courses...all clean.Which is a challenge for many people when they start as it is very difficult to read the course and stay out of trouble at speed.

On the other hand Ryan was much more aggresive but still smooth as expected, and he was able to
set some really fast times. He had a 78.x with 1 cone, compared to my 76 clean on a Lotus! That is
a respectful time from a miata. He also looked like he dialed in the car much better with his recent suspension upgrade.

Although i'm leaving town for good, i'm really happy Ryan and Andre finally met,and i look
forward to both of them kicking ass in the autox scene in New England... perhaps even in SCCA one day!

Time to catch my next flight!

24 Hours of Lemons - NHMS - Race Report

As I was driving the Fox slowly in the pits Friday afternoon i said to myself  "Noo not....again!!".
It had just started to rain.

Rain and NHMS, we had some unfinished business.. a moment stuck in time, a moment stuck with me. The moment when i tried to overtake another car last year at the same exact event on turn 12, under heavy rain, under braking. To be more precise I lost, and found myself in the grass... Yes that was my first rain experience, and I had a lot to learn, and I still do...

Since then I had a bit more seat time in the wet, including karts on slicks, and most notably the recent race in Infineon with Team Sex Pistons and the mighty Spitfire with no windshield wipers driving blind with 172 cars on the same track :)

Lets be honest, the car also had some recent upgrades, a stiffer rear suspension to be exact. If it did not feel like a gokart before, now it did. In the rain the car was nervous, a bit twicthy at the rear.
I was suprised by how easy it was to save. As i was sideways on turn 7 with full opposite lock i was bummed to not have my camera with me :) . But personally maybe it was meant to be an experience just between NHMS, rain and me this time.


As I pulled back into the pits after my brief 20 min practice stint, I had really good feelings for the car, and the track... The track which had cursed us last time, when last year we blew the engine a few hours before taking our first victory... felt like it was on our side this time.

WRONG!... Saturday green flag followed 4 black flags for us. Our craptain Tom got rear ended, then got a pass on yellow. I then got taken out on Turn 1 by a blind driver, and last but not least our
family dentist Steve had a pass on yellow. So we had to park the car the rest of Saturday.

However i did capture some videos of those incidents, enjoy :)


And as usual here are some race highlights from my perspective:


So not a really good weekend for us, however now its time to lick the wounds and prepare for Summit next month!

24 Hours of Lemons - NJMP Race Summary

One either needs the time to come up with an excuse or a story... There are no lazy options available for a blog owner. Maybe a bit of an excuse, a bit of a painful fact.. I have been on the road almost everyday last month. It is only now I have a bit of free time, which means I have plenty of catching up to do...

3am Thursday departure meant we would arrive for Friday practice at NJ by10am.
I was also quite excited to see the team in our first race for the season. However the first practice session turned out to be a complete disaster. We blew the head gasket!

Usually starting Friday practice with a blown and warped head can mean its time to pack and go. Instead of throwing in the towel, the team came together. We found a place to shave the head, got the parts, put it all together before midnight just before Saturday's green flag.

The heroic fix during those 24 hours is forever captured in this:




We focused on optimizing our pit strategy, which paid off with the average 4 minute pit stops compared to last year's 7 minute stop. Also all the drivers drove exceptionally well and we quickly found ourselves in 2nd place. Chasing a first place car which is far more quicker than us, working in the pits, checking the time was a nail biting experience.

At the end, although we couldn't take first place, we came 8th overall out 102 cars ( in a VW FOX!) and 2nd in class B. We also won a honorary 24 hours of Lemons "Lemons Lifetime Achievement Award"! :)

Here are some action shots from my point of view:



Next up is 24 Hours of Lemons - New Hampshire Motor Speedway, which turned out to be far from perfect...stay tuned.

First Autox of 2012

Last weekend I had the opportunity to do a proper shake down of the recent changes on the Elise
at Devens Airfield. As in my previous post the car had undergone significant suspension changes
during the winter, not to mention a new race seat + harness to keep me connected with the car
and road.

Ofcourse as one of the disadvantages of New England i woke up to a light snowy day, a bit of a late
april fools joke! The situation did not get any better as we were forced to autox in almost freezing
temperatures, but atleast the light snow had stopped by early morning.

But luckly i had some good company with me. Ryan and Ian (fellow iracers) were also at the
event, and this time Ryan had brought his new miata he had recently purchased this winter to its
first event. I quickly found out that Ian also had replaced his miata with a much better one as-well.
So it was a bit of a shakedown for them as-well...with their new cars.

Both of them did a great job. Ryan was getting comfortable with his left foot braking and his new car, while a few ride alongs with Ian showed the "smoother" side of Ian... with a bit of aggresion he was
easly able to do 108.x on his last run but he took out a few cones. It sucks because i had mounted
my camera on his car during that run but later we found out the battery had diea.

Anyways getting back to suspension changes, what i wanted to do the first test day was to keep the suspension at baseline as suggested by Nitron, but through out the day i really could not get a good feel for the new setup as the cold temperatures made it almost impossible to generate any tire temps to allow for any grib. My tires are barely street legal and quite soft which makes them like a brick in the cold...

With the cold tire temps, the car had significant understeer...compared to before.Also i think next time i will try softening up the front sway bar a little bit, as with the new stiff suspension the car is completely flat on any corner! :) Which means i really can't do proper weight transfer...

Not to mention, because the suspension is soo stiff now, i also struggled putting enough weight
on the front tires under braking, which did not help with the understeer.

My plan is to perhaps soften the sway bar, and do another test day when the temperature is not
freezing, this will allow me to see the true potential of the baseline setup. Then from there i should
be able to fine tune further.

Here is the 102.8 run from that day:


Tomorrow, i'll be heading to 24 Hours of Lemons @ New Jersey Motorsports Park and will be
racing the mighy 95hp Fox...! Looking forward to seeing my team mates,which i have not seen since last year! More to come on that after i get back...

Back from Infineon - 24 Hours of Lemons

Had a great time with Team Sex Pistons and the nimble 1978 Triump Spitfire last weekend.
The Spitfire comes with only 65 hp but sticky handling allows it to keep up with the big boys
on the technical parts of Infineon.

I have to thank the team captain Colin for the seat and oppurtunity, they have a very solid operation
and a great bunch of people! Not to mention the team had extra parts for almost everything, engine,
transmission, you name it.. But the car was well kept and ran like a clock the whole 14 hours
considering old British cars are known for being a pain in the $@#$#@!

Also the most crowded race in Lemon's history was to take in heavy rain on Saturday.I was
really looking forward to experiecing 172 other cars on the track racing in the rain with me.. :)
But as it turns out our car had no wipers. Having a plastic windshield also meant RainX would
not work, and we were left racing on Saturday under heavy rain almost blind. I got some footage of
that at begining of my video to give a idea...it was quite scary as we could not see where we were going
and i actually had to count between turns in my head, memorize and turn-in blindly..! :)

But after a penalty free wet Saturday, Sunday the clouds cleared...and we had dry tarmac ahead.
The Spitfire came to itself in the dry and we were dicing with some of the Class A and B cars all day.
I have to say the team kept it clean and the momentum going...which ultimately led to a 4th in Class
position at the end of the weekend. I hope to be able to race with Team Sex Pistons again in
the future...!

Some video, mostly Sunday from my perspective dicing with traffic: :)




Tomorrow I'll be taking the Lotus for its first shakedown autocross after the recent suspension ugrades.
Since i live in New England, i just found out freezing rain and snow is expected...so it's going to
be a interesting day for sure with my cold tires :) More to come on that in the following days...

The Black Art of Suspension Tuning

Recently i had the pleasure to work with the Services Director Steve from Aston Martin of New England & Lotus Motorsports dealer which happens to be only 3 miles away from my house. Considering that there aren't many Lotus dealers in the country, i can say i am quite lucky...and more lucky to have these guys in reach for not just the quality & timely work they do on the cars, but because they are also very reachable and responsive to any sorts of questions.

And plenty of questions did i have :) My plan for 2012 season was more local autox and track days. The biggest item (both from budget and proabbly bang for the buck) on my todo list was to get a Nitron 46mm Race Pro 3-way adjustable racing suspension upgrade.

Although the Elise comes with a proper "sport" suspension, it still is not up to par with it's brothers (Exige and newer Sport pack Elise). Furthermore i know from my friends who regurarly track their Lotus's that a proper adjustable suspension is needed to take full advantage of the chasis.

Ofcourse adjustability is a double edged sword... You have to know what you are doing. That's why some call it the "Black Art of Suspension Tuning". There is no magical recipe, one needs to adjust and fine-tune the suspension not just for the track, but also for the conditions and even the driving style. Having 3-way adjustable settings per each wheel + ability to adjust the height of the car means only one thing = i'm proabbly way over my head :) But that is fine..this is a great way to learn.

Steve was kind enough to send me pictures of the upgrade process. We also reached out to Nitron folks in UK, and got base-line settings. I was suprised how responsive Nitron was to. Working with Steve & his team has it perks,, they spent a good hour explaining and demosntrating the tuning mechanisms, diffrent knobs, etc as-well...

(top: stock, bottom: nitrons)

I also replaced my current seats with Tillett B5 racing seats from UK(carbon + handmade). But they only had one in stock, the passenger seat is on its way. Steve also went the extra mile getting the seat fit in the Elise, as there was some design flaws from Tillett factory which made it impossible to install... So they had to manchine a few parts for this! But now i think i'll be more connected with the car for the first autox of the season which is coming on March 31st :)

There was a few more upgrades to the car...but this is the time i have for now. Next weekend i'll be racing in 24 hours of Lemons with Team Sex Pistons @ Infineon, CA...so need to focus on that :)

Back from Road Atlanta - Chump Car Series

It all started last Friday when i woke up dead early in the morning to catch a flight to Atlanta at 6:00am.
A million thoughts were going through my head... "like did i pack everything i need?", "will my
luggage and all my gear get lost if i check-in?", "did i charge all my gopro camera's batteries?"..etc..

I was also excited to meet the new team,, Car #33 Team "GrabYerJunk" to be exact :)
The team chief, Chris works at Iracing...his son Dusty is also one of the drivers and he also
uses Iracing... Car owner and chief mechanic Keith he is iracer as-well.. So i knew I was in great company..
surrounded by people who understand that sim racing is not just a great  learning tool but also a
great way to bring people together...

We also had a 4th driver John, a SCCA club racer and a track day instructor,, who was not very familiar with
iracing,, nor Road Atlanta. It was during that weekend that we realized the effectiveness of prepping
for a track on the sim actually pays off.. John struggled through out the weekend in trying to learn the track and the car...
while we only had to focus on learning the car,, as after 100's of virtual laps i already knew the braking zones, the different lines,, (preferred, defensive, etc), sections of the track which is tricky to pass, or easy to pass...and where to carry the most momentum to shave off lap times.

It was a surreal experience, a bit of dejavu...as I had never been on this track, but in a sense i had.
The laser scanned version of Road Atlanta was right on accurate,, every bump, every curb, every turn-in was already in my muscle memory...all i had to was get used to the elevation changes (which were quite scary) and the car...and just go out and have a great time.

And that is what exactly I did... During the stint on Sunday (which was only a 4 hour race, Saturday was 10 hours) i diced with a Miata for a good 20 laps.. We had a great battle that felt like it lasted forever,, we kept changing positions, but respected each other and made sure to give enough space... After my stint, i had to meet that driver,, shake hands/hugs ...love it..that was a proper battle :)

Here is some racing porn...the battle intensifies towards the end of the video...



I have a ton more video's to edit for all the team members, stay tuned for more action...

2012 - Tzolk’in Race Calendar

According to the Mayan’s, “end of time” is scheduled to happen sometime in December 2012 but like most people I disagree. However what I do like about the Mayan’s is their famous Tzolk’in calendar which is actually 260 days compared to 365.

260 days, or roughly ~ 8 months…surprisingly is identical to my race calendar for 2012. Usually for the people who live in the northeast ~4 months out of a year is wasted under snow/ice and salt… a bit of winter hibernation, and a bit of being stuck indoors… So who knew … if I use the Mayan’s calendar, I’ll be racing all year instead of 2/3’s of it.. :P

Mayan's aside… for the 2012 calendar there has been some exciting new developments…
Although I want to cover every single detail of each news like a kid…I think I’ll keep it at a high level for now…with more details to follow in later posts.

Team Farfrumwinnin - Introducing the P1800 v2.0

I had mentioned earlier about Team Farfrumwinnin's 2nd car that Phil had acquired recently. I even had posted pictures of giant rust holes on the body where you can see asphalt down below... lets just say the car was exposed too the elements to much over the years... :)

I don't know how Phil pulled this one off...but he actually got rid of the rusted P1800 with minimum loss and found a great, structurally sound P1800 which even has a built-in roll cage.. Shipped from the west coast...Just look at this beauty

Considering that Phil has built plenty of "racing machines" in the past.. i think this car as-is... is a perfect "white canvas" for him. We are hoping to plan a few working weekends to help out sanding and prepping the car...More updates to follow soon...

Team Farfrumwinnin - FOX Test & Shakedown NJMP Track Day

While Phil is sharpening his tools...and making extra space in his garage, we just got word from Craptain Tom that the test day for the FOX on the Lemons friendly Track day at NJMS has been postponed to Feb 24, 25.

For the test day currently the driver line up is : Craptain, me, Steve, Chris and Phil. I am really looking forward to this event not just because i am excited to freeze my ass off on February in Jersey, but also to see most of the team members..it's been quite too long since i got to hang out with 'em.

The FOX still has some head gasket and cooling problems, luckily cooling won't be a big problem in February with the avg temp ~43 F...but time will tell. Chris has some connections to help out with the engine...more to follow...


Intro - Team Sex Pistons (24 Hours of Lemons)

I was fortunate enough to get in touch with Team Sex Pistons captain Colin who operates out off the west coast.. Colin and his chief mechanic father code name "Magpie mini" have been in the lemons & chumpcar scene for quite some time.

Their theme is inspired by the famous English punk rock band Sex Pistols which i think fits the character of car perfectly. Magpie also has many years with working with old Brit cars including triumph, classic mini's etc..check out his previous toys

For the ones who don't know me, I'm a big British car fan being a proud lotus owner my self...and the moment i learned that they were racing a 1978 Triumph Spitfire 1500 i had to some how get involved :) I know its going to be slow... but whats the hurry??..when you can enjoy lap after lap close racing on a British legend :) I think it is very cool how old cars like these somehow still manage to inspire and get us excited like little kids :)

Just look at this beauty:

Currently the team is prepping the car for the 2012 season, with 1 confirmed race which will be in March 24-25 @ Infineon Raceway. I will be joining them, and i am really excited for my first west coast race...on a spitfire, @ infineon(which i will be using Iracing to practice) with a really cool bunch of people who like to wear pink mo-hawks on their racing helmet! :)

I've got 1 more important piece of news...but that will have to wait until next time... :)

Team Farfrumwinnin -- Preps for 2012

I’ll have to admit, I’m really not looking forward to another brutal northeast winter... it’s not just being surrounded by mountains of snow, ice and salt but also the fact that it’ll be months of winter hibernation not just for us but also for machines that we love and look forward to racing.. in 2012.

But before the snow comes in to stay, the team was busy with installing Phil’s new custom fabricated front suspension on the Fox.

The initial test at a local autox event turned out to be great, as it was reported that the car has now more confidence, lesser under-steer and is more predictable. I really cannot wait to try it for myself… as there are plans for a shake-down at a test & tune lemons track day in February at NJMP that we plan to attend (weather permitting of course). Here is an action shot from Rich on 3 wheels despite the mods to the car. Which is great as we are known as the “3 legged fox” and it would have been a shame to lose that.. !

On the other hand, despite Phil’s crazy work/travel schedule last weekend Rich & Tom met up with him to check how bad of a state the Volvo was in.. let’s just say for a car that last run in 1992, and left alone to rust for ~20 years, it sure did show it’s age. The rust is so bad that you can literally see the pavement below:

It’s no question that it will surely almost an impossible task to make this car race ready for 2012… but when the time comes, and if it comes.. I am sure the team will do justice to this car… have it go out with a bang!

Ohh… before I forget…although a bit late, Lemons HQ finally announced the 2012 race calendar, and looks like they killed Stafford(which we did not race last year, and did not want to race any more) and added NHMS twice… The 2nd NHMS race is actually on the same day as Halloween, and I have a feeling this will surely be a day to remember as “gasoline meets Halloween”

Here is our team’s calendar events we have signed up for as of right now:

14-15 April NJMP
5-6 May NHMS
16-17 June Summit Point
27-27 October NHMS again on Halloween!!! :)

Updates to the car and a few fall events...

Stuck at a hotel in Orlando for a conference with a bruised rib or maybe cracked (I’ll find out after a xray tomorrow) i said to myself "well...what better thing to do then to catch up with my blog...!" :)

Oh.. how did i hurt my ribs...? well i had presentation at 3:30pm and after that i found myself with a bunch of co-workers deciding to hit a local karting track close to the convention center.

And...what a great track that was! Especially the fact that they let us race even when it started down pouring... may i remind you it was dark, lights on the track and a crazy rain fall...! we got completely wet as we hit giant puddles of water...no rain tires of course either. As the rain intensified the puddles got bigger and bigger... at one point one of the hairpin turns was completely under water, and hitting those turns drifting was a great experience... the fact that it was dark, and we had to wipe water off our helmets visor almost every 5 seconds to see where we were going...was an intense experience...definitely a day to remember! :)

But lets get to mods/updates i have done to the car since my last autox event in July... well the first thing i tackled was to actually get rid of the skinny 175 front tires (which meant understeer) and replaced them with 195s. Doing so i also changed the rubber on all 4...and went with A048 which is the tires that come with the sport-pack Elise and all the diffrent flavours of Exiges out there.

I have to say, the tire changes alone...almost gave a me a totally new car. Overnight the understeer was a thing of the past... the car became very balanced and predictiable. "These tires are amazing....!" i said to my self when i hit the last autox of the season with Track Club USA at the end of September.

Since i had more grip now on the front, i stiffened up the sway bar to make sure the new grip did not bring snap-oversteer (Blackwatch autox sway bar 2/5 to 3/5 stiffness setting )

During the autox, i tried diffrent tire pressures, and actually found that 26f/29r (hot) seemed to provide the most predictiable grip... and the higher rear pressure allowed me to rotate the car with throttle easier. During the event we had 2 more Lotus's (a 2007 Exige S, and 2011 Evora)...

Now keep in mind the Exige S has the same tires, better suspension, and ofcourse a supercharger (240hp compared to my 190hp)... and i was ~3.5 seconds faster at the end of the day :) Ohh... the Evora was slow as expected with 6 seconds diffrence.

Here is the helmet-cam fastest run for the day:



Prepping for first track day

After the autox...i decided to prep the car for its first track day :)
The stock Elise out of the factory, has know issues that absolutely needs to be addressed before a track day.. So i focused on the most known issues (thanks to LotusTalk.com forums)

Oil starvation issues : gPAN - Baffled Oil Pan
Toe link failure : RTD2brace
Broken gear shift cables : SSC Cable

Once i got the car a bit more prepped for track use, i signed up to a HPDE event at NHMS (the event was for South Oval - Road course) via COMSCC which i had heard great things about from my autox buddies. Not only are they cost effective, but they provide a instructor for rookies(like me) for the full day for a very low price for 225$.

Also if this is your first event, you get a $100 discount...!

They also have time trials the second day, but i did not sign up for that because first you need to get a license(signed by the chief instructor) and i was told that usually takes a couple instructor sessions/days.

The day is very nicely planned... you arrive at 7am, if rookie get a student log book, get assigned a instructor (they specifically picked a instructor who also drives a mid-engine car for me)...and switched between 20 minute class-room sessions and 20 minute-track sessions (with instructor riding along with you).

I found the class room sessions pretty useless at first as all i needed was more seat time. But the class room sessions in the afternoon had a interesting nice suprise. While we were out on track, another instructor (without letting us know) actually followed us in his car, and recorded our line and our actions from his dash...which we went over during the class room... definetly helped with lines/and pointers! Great stuff!

Anyways, because i was in run group 4... i found my self stuck %80 of the time behind traffic, and had to wait for "point-bys"...lets just say not everybody checks out their mirror!... but i was able to get a few clean laps in, here is a video of that (this time not helmet-cam, but mounted to the car)



At the end of the day the instructor fills out the student logbook, and makes recommendations for further improvements... in my case i got all flying stars and was recommended for a license pending demonstration on improving my heel-n-toe next time... which was spot on,, as that is one area i need more practice! :) Well atleast i got promoted to a higher run group for next time... now time to go to bed and hopefully my ribs feel better tomorrow!