Phoenix International Raceway - 1/9/00: NASA
4 new videos at the bottom! Check them out!
This time I decided to run on Sunday vs Saturday. I heard that there are a lot less cars and no school group. There were definitely fewer cars but there was also still a school group for students who wanted more practice than just Saturday. Still though, Sunday seemed to run a little smoother from less cars/people not to mention the track was a little safer from traffic being less congested.
I got to the track around 7:20am, which seemed to be perfect. The sun was barely starting to come up and people were preparing their cars. It was still very cold with temps in the mid to lower 30's! I was very careful to avoid any low hanging cable fences this time as I found a nice spot to pit! Before registering I got all my stuff out and organized, changed wheels, adjusted the shocks, and ran a few final checks on the car. Registration was a breeze since I faxed in my form. My sticker and papers were all filed and all I needed to do was tell the nice lady my name. So far the day was going great.
By this time I'm walking back to my car and Brandon is parked next to me. A few minutes later we find each other walking around and we setup his camera equipment in my car. While in the pits another guy with a 95 GSR comes up to us and introduces himself. Apparently the guy in the red Prelude I met last event (Chris Brinson) told this guy about my car and me so he wanted to say hi and chat a little. I find out that his name is Mark, he's from California and came out here just for this event. His car is completely stock besides some different brake pads and Dunlop tires. Mark turns out to be a really nice guy, easy to talk to, and from what I could tell from his first session he was doing very good in the student group. They announce my group will be up next and Brandon asks if he can ride with me. I have no problem with that except that he doesn't have a helmet. Mark is nice enough to loan his helmet to Brandon and we are off.
Apparently the officials don't want us getting crazy while our tires are cold because they make us do 2 or 3 full warm up laps. After that is done we really pour on the heat. I'm tearing the course up and making Brandon real nervous every time I get the car a little sideways or too close to a wall (hee hee!). I forget as a passenger the ride feels totally different because you can feel what the car is doing. Out of the corner of my eye I can see him tense up and straighten his legs for most of the corners. A few cars pass us and I pass a couple myself including a newer Porsche Carrera 4. All in all a very good session and I seem to fit well in green group (advanced street cars).
The next session I start as far in the back as possible so that I don't have to get passed by the really fast cars. This seems to work out well. What was really surprising to me is that there is a Viper in this group and I was actually able to pass it! Through the twisties I am right on his butt and even briefly pass him through turn 7. By turn 8 he takes the lead back but in turn 9 I pass him under braking, make sure I get an awesome exit speed and he can't catch back up to me on the straight before the next turn. The rest of the session he just kept falling further and further behind. Too cool eh? Now I'm not going to let this go to my head because obviously a Viper should be quicker than my car but the point is, the person wasn't a beginner because they were driving in the advanced group so my super ninja (as Brandon would say) driving skills are obviously getting that much more refined since I'm able to take out cars that are considerably faster than an Integra. Later in the run I had oil pressure problems and ended the session short.
So we're sitting in the pits watching cars and waiting for my next turn out on track when I hear a really loud noise. I look at Brandon with one eye lifted and a puzzled expression. We simultaneously both stand up to see what it is. Unfortunately the noise we heard was the sound of our new friend Mark in his Integra hitting the turn 1 wall. DOH! I guess I have to stop talking to people at the track and giving advice! The last time I met another import driver was at Firebird and that guy ended up hitting the tire barrier! I remember telling Mark right before he went out for his session not to hit his brakes in turn 1 when you hit the transission. I also told him that if he did and the car started going sideways the best thing to do was to try and correct it initially but if he had doubts aim it for the outside oval and let it drift safely across the grass and up on to the oval. Well apparently he got a little too confident in turn 1 for braking and came in a little too hot. When he could tell he was taking the turn too quick he pressed on the brakes harder. This reduced the weight on the rear tires and put his car into oversteer with the front end facing the wall. He said he corrected but apparently it wasn't enough because he ran straight into it, deploying both airbags. When the car came to a stop there was a LOT of damage. Both fenders, hood, radiator, core support, motor mounts, headlights, turn signals, bumper, and the unibody cracked and wrinkled up near the driver side front suspension. Plus who knows what else that wasn't obvious. Luckily Mark was okay. The only injury was a slight rash on his arm (probably from the airbag) and a small cut on his cheek (from his helmet) when the airbag hit it. I guess later that night he said he thinks he suffered a slight concussion but is okay from it, just dizzy for a day or so and sore.
So now I'm not only worrying about oil pressure dropping but I keep thinking of how I could very easily wreck my car too. This didn't help my concentration at all but I still drove pretty good. I was only able to go 5-10 minutes into the 3rd session before the car started loosing oil pressure again. I had no choice but to pit and call it a day before I spun a bearing. Brandon also said that he thought my car was smoking a lot more than "usual".
We're all packed up and ready go leave by 1pm but we have to wait until the current session is done to leave from the infield. Meanwhile Mark and his girlfriend have come over and started chatting with us. They have the tow truck taking his car to Scottsdale Acura where they'll hold it until they get instructions on what to do. So I offer them a ride back to their hotel and they gladly accept. After that I follow Brandon back to his house and we watch my racing video which surprises us both because most of my quick laps (1:18:xx) are 4 seconds faster than my previous best (1:22:xx) and even most slowest laps are still the same as my fastest. Goes to show I'm definitely learning and getting faster with each race!
So for now I'd like to explore the possiblity of getting my bottom end rebuilt or just slapping in an ITR shortblock to remedy my engine problem(s). I have a feeling it's an oil pump or clogged oil screen but since it could use a rebuild anyway I might as well just take care of everything at the same time. For now though I'm going to have to chill out with road racing until I can identify what the problem is. I had no problems on the drive home or the past few days so it's fine for now. I just hope I won't have problems with autocrossing since I have a couple races coming up before I can really take a look at it.
VIDEO (4.0MB). Running in the advanced group (NASA) I can generally keep up with most cars and pass a few, but there will always be a few cars that highly outclass me. Here is a prime example as three (as Brandon and I call them) "Monster Porsches" blow past me. On the video you can tell they are loud, but "loud" doesn't really describe them well, "ear rattling" says it much better. :)
VIDEO (3.4MB). These cars were a bit slower than most in this group, but don't let that take away from the importance of line and exit speed. I had to take a tight line to stay in the inside which slowed me down quite a bit. I did however, manage to nail the apex on this lap just about perfect. As a result, even though my exit speed wasn't the greatest my line was good enough to blast by these two cars pretty easily.
VIDEO (5.3MB). Nerves of steal I tell you! :) The video doesn't do the actual speeds much justice but the cars in this group enter the sweeper at over 90mph and exit even faster. With smooth hands and an even smoother handling car I was able to pass this 911 as if I was on the interstate.
VIDEO (8.8MB). Here is just about a full lap of me following a Camaro SS. This car highly outclasses mine especially in the power department. Unfortunately (for him), because of his "less than perfect line" around the track he couldn't pull away from me!
Here I am slowly closing the gap between myself and this ultra high horsepower Viper. We are heading for turn 5 and by the hairpin (turn 9) I was able to catch up to him enough to be able to pass under some really loco LATE braking.
My late braking tactics just about put me into the wall from not slowing down enough, but I did have a good enough exit speed to hold the Viper off until I could make it to the sweeper (turn 10/11). I took this much faster than him and I was never repassed.
Here is a lap sometime after passing the Viper. Notice how far behind he is? As you can see horsepower is not everything!!!
This lap he is even further behind. Hee hee!
Just a really nice clear picture.
NOTE: All pictures/video taken by Brandon Smith of autocrossing.com.
VIDEO (3.4MB). These cars were a bit slower than most in this group, but don't let that take away from the importance of line and exit speed. I had to take a tight line to stay in the inside which slowed me down quite a bit. I did however, manage to nail the apex on this lap just about perfect. As a result, even though my exit speed wasn't the greatest my line was good enough to blast by these two cars pretty easily.
VIDEO (5.3MB). Nerves of steal I tell you! :) The video doesn't do the actual speeds much justice but the cars in this group enter the sweeper at over 90mph and exit even faster. With smooth hands and an even smoother handling car I was able to pass this 911 as if I was on the interstate.
VIDEO (8.8MB). Here is just about a full lap of me following a Camaro SS. This car highly outclasses mine especially in the power department. Unfortunately (for him), because of his "less than perfect line" around the track he couldn't pull away from me!
Here I am slowly closing the gap between myself and this ultra high horsepower Viper. We are heading for turn 5 and by the hairpin (turn 9) I was able to catch up to him enough to be able to pass under some really loco LATE braking.
My late braking tactics just about put me into the wall from not slowing down enough, but I did have a good enough exit speed to hold the Viper off until I could make it to the sweeper (turn 10/11). I took this much faster than him and I was never repassed.
Here is a lap sometime after passing the Viper. Notice how far behind he is? As you can see horsepower is not everything!!!
This lap he is even further behind. Hee hee!
Just a really nice clear picture.