Firebird International Raceway - 4/22/00: ASRA "Test and Tune Practice Day"
I've ran with ASRA one other time and found them to be a VERY laid back and pleasant group to run with. This event proved to be no different. So here's the whole story of this fun filled track day.
The entire week prior to this event I had been in Albuquerque on business. Friday afternoon rolls around and I'm excited to go home to celebrate Easter with family, see my wife/dogs and just relax. Little did I know what E-mail I was about to receive JUST BEFORE shuting down my laptop and heading to the airport. It was a short note from my buddy Justin explaining that there was an open track event at FIR with ASRA. The good part was that they needed corner workers bad! They were paying out $50 for working the entire day, or giving free track time for a half day of work. Well there's a no brainer! Money is nice and all but $50 is hardly worth standing out in the Arizona sun for 8 hours. However standing in the sun for only 4 hours to get 40 minutes of free track time is just my style! :-) I give the ASRA guy a call to get details before giving the rental car one more abusive workout on the way to the airport.
That evening I'm going over my checklist to make sure my car is ready for the romping it will see in the morning. I'm really glad I make myself check the car out before each race because a lot of the times I find something wrong or broken! This session proved to be no different. As I was checking the hubs and axles, I noticed there was a lot of "play". I pulled the wheel off and found that the upper control arm ball joint had lost the cotter pin. As a result the castle nut had loosened up and was about to fall out. The "play" I was feeling was the knuckle moving around loosely on the control arm ball joint! I tighted the castle nut back up with my impact wrench but I do need to replace that cotter pin ASAP. The other thing I found was my clutch master cylinder is going bad. Fluid has been slowly leaking into the car through the cylinder. It's not THAT bad right now but the carpet has been stained from the fluid running down the firewall.
At the last open track day with the Viper Club I managed to roast my 2nd set of Porterfield R4S pads. These pads run $100 for the front. Considering you're on the brakes for only a faction of the total time on track, they wear out extremely fast. So as an alternative this time I went to Checker and got a set of Raybetos full organic pads. They were the cheapest they had at only $19.99. What made me choose those pads over the next level up was the fact that they came with a full lifetime warranty! Granted the fade resistance would only be similar to stock pads, but as long as they worked well enough to get me through a few 20 minute sessions that would be good enough!
I met Justin at his house early Saturday morning and we head down to Chandler. We stop at McD's for some B-fast, then head off to Firebird. We meet up with his friend Joe in a B16a powered CRX and camp out next to his pit. Kyle Gilliland also showed up in his Nissan G20. I met Kyle back at the last ASRA event at FIR. He was a pretty nice guy and he was even able to keep his cool after running into the tire barrier coming out of turn 4. Luckily it didn't do any body damage to his car, just some really nasty looking black tire marks all over his bumper and hood. I believe he was just there to watch but after I told him they were giving away free track time in exchange for working, he ran off looking for someone offical to get the same deal. The drivers meeting started shortly after us arriving there, so we never got a chance to figure out our work positions or register. After the meeting we found Bob, got our work assignments then ran around in a frenzy to get registered before things got underway. Justin worked the morning session and I suited up to do my runs.
In my first session I made a complete ass out of myself. I ran in the advanced group which wasn't a problem. The thing was they changed the track but didn't explain the changes very well (or I just didn't listen very well). The other embarassing part was a new guy I met in the drivers meeting was following me to watch my line around the track. My first lap was a warm up lap, but I was still driving pretty close to the limit. Well, basically the first lap of my first session after the first two TURNS I went off track! Coming out of turn 2 at FIR there is a short straight before a little S-turn. I knew they changed turn 3 and 4, but for some reason I thought they made the section faster not slower. On the side of the fence there are numbered signs to use a braking reference points. The last time I ran at this track I was lifting or slightly braking at the end of this straight. Since they made turn 3 REALLY sharp you needed to brake a lot earlier and harder. You can imagine the look on my face when I started my braking, looked out my driver side window, realized where the track went, and then realized there was NO WAY IN HELL I was going to make the turn. I should have just gone straight through the dirt and back on to the track but I still tried to make it anyway. I think I ended up exiting the track at the opposite side of where I should have apexed the turn! Needless to say I was completely out of control when I hit the dirt and spun around 180 degrees shooting dirt and large rocks all over the track before coming to a stop facing oncoming traffic. I felt like such a moron. Especially since that new guy was following me and saw the whole thing. I bet he was thinking, "That guy was full of shit! He can't drive worth bean dip!". After that I figured out that turn, I ran some pretty good lap times and didn't have any more incidents.
The next session Joe rode along with me as a passenger and we had a blast. I had the car in a four wheel drift almost everytime coming out of turn 5 and entering 6. On one lap I had the car oversteering a lot, and judging by my speed I knew there was no way I would be able to catch the slide AND be able to make the next turn. I purposely overcorrected slightly, which I knew would cause the car to catch abruptly then immediately snap back into oversteer in the opposite direction. Did it work you ask??? The manouver turn out smooth and we stayed perfectly on the quick line, and only took a very minor penalty in lap time for the mistake. My luck ran out towards the end of the session though as I put the car into a larger slide coming out of this same turn than I could correct. We didn't go off track but we did come to a screeching halt completely sideways, which was pretty embarassing since I had already spun once that day.
On the bright side I found a much better line going through turn 12. On my street tires I was able to get on the gas sooner and the result was getting up to 120mph at the end of the straight. The last event on my race tires I was only hitting 115mph. This just goes to show the importance of "the line" and getting on the gas sooner! However because they changed turn 3 and 4 making it a much slower section my best lap times were only in the 1:16's. My previous best lap times were 1:14's in the faster configuration on my race tires. Given the same track I think I could have easily done 1:14's or better on my street tires. The next time I do this track again (in the fast) configuration, I'm going to shoot for 1:11's or better.
To my surprise, my brake pads performed beyond my expectations! Fade was minimal (definitely apparent though), but after 40 minutes of slamming on the binders they showed very little wear. Since I can trade them in for a new set it's not really an issue, but it is nice knowing that I wouldn't have to that often. After the event I also noticed a clicking noise when I turn the steering wheel back and forth. At first I suspected the rack or CV joints but it turned out to be my control arm ball joints. I'll have to add those to my "list" as well, which is currently a leaking clutch master cylinder, bad oil rings, and corded R-tires. Doh! Damn this is expensive, even with free track time.
So that was the end of my fun. The rest of the day I had to spend in turn 12. This turn kinda sucks from a workers standpoint because the only view you get is of the last turn before heading on to the straight. It's very rare that people wreck or get loose in that turn so it's fairly boring to watch from there. The other thing is you need to pay attention the entire time, to which cars aren't letting the faster "overall" cars pass. ASRA doesn't allow passing anywhere except for the main straight. Usually what happens is the fast drivers in slower cars will ride the butts of the high HP less experienced drivers through the entire back section, but when it comes to the straight the faster cars won't allow the pass. For this reason you need to show the blue flag often to let some cars know they are holding up the show!
About the only excitement for me was getting to take some pictures of that new guy's car after he put it into a guard rail in one of the sessions. This really surprised me that he would wreck, especially after him seeing how easy I lost control in the morning. The really weird thing is there was VERY little damage. Joe was behind him and said he saw the whole thing. Apparently he got loose in good ol' turn 5/6 and he overcorrected which shot him head on into the guard rail. Then somehow the car jumped up on top of it and stayed put there! It took the crews quite a long time to figure out a way to get the car off without causing too much more damage. The ironic part was when they got it off, there was only scratches on the bumper, a small dent in the driver side fender, and a small dent on the bottom side under the drivers door. Go figure???
