The snoring had begun long before I even thought of getting the camera. I was awaken by this snoring while I was dreaming that seanjay had beaten everybody in miatachallenge and won all prizes (weird dream i know). I then realized it wasnt seanjay who was making the noise because he sat up and started looking around as I was doing the same to figure out what was making this noise. I look to my left and it was my sister's friend who had stayed over from sandiego.
Sean said,"this has to be a joke". I said,"Goddamn we have just one hour to go dammit". :'(
Sean and I began throwing pillows at him and pushing him pretty good, but the noise continued. As a last resort, I shook his pillow pretty damn good and lmao'd tears of joy. He continued to snore so I decided to wake up and just get ready. We went to Denny's for breakfast and got home just in time for everyone to meet up.
We got to the track at 7am sharp. As planned, we had enough time to unload and setup and still make it to the front of tech inspection line.
Miatas were first to hit the track. About 24 of them ranging from street, modified, and unlimited class roamed the track. A black NA with carbonfiber top was amazingly quick. William's red NA was probably the most well balanced miata i saw out there.
I was already encountering problems from the first lap out. The front splitter I just made began to rip the car apart. I had to put to fix the problem. I used a ratchet strap to hook the front of the splitter over the front bumper onto a frame brace. Out on the track again, the sagging was gone but at high speeds the splitter started making woodpecker sounds. So through trial and error, splitter = gone.
In my 2nd session, I managed to run a lap at 1:26.7. That is now my PB at streets of willow. Without the splitter, the car does tend to understeer at higher speed where a splitter would come in handy. I'll probably make a better designed splitter when i have done more research. After targeting the understeer, I replaced the front tires (195/55/15 r888) with my older set of 205/50/15 ra1.
I felt tired from the long day I already had. I was already satisfied with the time I set. But I went out for the 3rd session. Immediately I noticed a difference in stability but it still did understeer. This session was by far the worse. Coming out of the bowl is a long straight where 100mph is easily achieved. At the end is a set of chicanes where if targeted correctly, you can go through without turning. I targeted my braking point and aimed for a little bit further. I laid on the brakes just a little bit too late and ended up flying off straight into the dirt at about 60mph.
So I pulled in to inspect the car for damage. The only thing I noticed immediately was the front brakes smoking up. That's a good sign that it's working :p. By the time I was ready to go again, the next group up was already being announced so I just stayed in. Good thing though. I opened my engine lid, and the oil cap was missing. Oil was all over the engine bay. This had to happen during my offroad excursion because there wasn't a pile of oil on the ground where I parked before. This put an end to it for me for the day.
Driver Taka Aono was kind enough to let me use his oil cap to get home because his car was being trailered home. He is a lifesaver.
In the end, I placed first in 1.6/1.8 liter class. I'm very happy that I made it this far and did so well.
winning lap:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RF7euNd3lBE
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