Time Attack Battle 2010 - Video

Here is a video of one of the 5 sessions I did on the day.
It isn't of the fastest lap though but of one probably about a second slower.



-Rod

Time Attack 2010 Battle Victory !

I've been meaning to complete this post for over a week now but time just wasn't on my side and so here comes what I've written so far ...

Last friday night under the cover of lights at Barbagallo Raceway Raventech Racing held its 2nd TIME ATTACK BATTLE for the year ! The event was very well organised, ran surprisingly smoothly and included a wide range of cars ranging from your every day street-stock types right through to race-built purpose cars.

I'm proud to say I won 1st place in Limited 2WD (up to 2-litres) category !

The event was broken up into Street, Limited and Unlimited classes and within each they were broken down further into 2WD (up to 2-litres), 2WD (over 2-litres) and AWD.

Out of a maximum of 30 cars which were allowed to enter the event, my overall standing was 18th with a time of 58''70 with the fastest being somewhere in high 51''s recorded by a Mitsubishi Evo X RS.
Full results can be found here if anyone's interested.



Live results

and this one with a touch of color :)

It was a pretty cold evening of low 10Cs and right from the start I was struggling to get my tyres up to their optimum temperature with just 1 warm-up lap and 2 hot laps allocated. I presume everyone had the same problem since no one was allowed to use tyre-warmers and so this disadvantage was wide spread. Nonetheless I pushed for whatever I could get out of those tyres.

As far as the car was concerned, it was very well prepared. I was unfortunate enough though to have a full tank of fuel which added extra, extra (!) weight to my car throughout the entire evening! Even after completing 5 sessions of 1-2-1 laps I still ended up with over 90% of the tank full ! I didn't have a fuel can so I couldn't go light and I learnt my lesson badly ! I should have run with just under 30% of the tank as others did and topped up whenever needed. Ah well, there is always next time ! I didn't do so badly though did I !?

The car was definitely very competitive still being in its stock form and all with the exception of suspension and tyres. I can easily slash another 2 seconds off of my best time recorded that evening but I'll need more practice on the short circuit. I found it very hard on the engine and transmission, with running through the "shortcut" in 2nd gear at very high revs until the entry to the back straight didn't do my MT any good. Other than that I prefer the long circuit better.

Oh and where were those race queens I am so used to seeing in Japan ???? :) Nothing makes us go faster than the subconscious desire to impress one of them right ?! :)

Here are some snaps from the evening

Some competition

Waiting to be scrutineered

And some more better funded folks !

Another angle

Next door neighbours

The only other honda at the event.
The guy was very quick !

Transponder

Waiting for my 1st run of the evening

Thoroughly enjoyed the event and the barbacue ! Thanks to my friends Steve and Mikey for showing up and lending a hand pre and post. Perth needs more events like that, Perth needs more motorsport everything to be honest :)

Now it's time to thorougly service my car before my next event which is when well I don't know yet. I just got my hands on very cheap (!) MOTUL 300V engine oil here in Perth and I'm just waiting for my MT OMEGA gear oil to arrive. It's all about the wait now ....

-Rod

Time for a lift !

How do you like my new racing lift jack ?

1.5T capacity, very light (!) and super low (!).
In fact it weighs only 12.5kg and its minimum height is just 8.5cm !!
After trying it out it clears my front bumper by just 1cm !!!

The profile of my tyre is higher than this jack !
Anyway a real bargain !

Routine maintenance

It's time to flush my RacingGear DOT 4.2 brake fluid, a brand I've been using for over 2.5 years with a newly acquired and relatively unknown (to me) CASTROL Response Super DOT 4.
This should improve the overall brake pedal feel and performance and hopefully perform a little bit better than RG as CASTROL's dry and wet boiling points are higher than those of RG's.

I've also been pondering whether I should continue using MOTUL 300V. MOTUL's price of $109.99/4L bottle is a little bit of a deciding factor when compared to MOBIL1 which goes at $94.95/5L bottle. Mobil1 is no MOTUL by any stretch of imagination but it is recommended by Honda mechanics in Japan especially for DC5s.

The other remaining fluid to be replaced is my MT transmission's one which at the moment has OMEGA 690 in it. I REALLY like this gear oil especially when it comes to extreme circuit performance. My only option at the moment is shipping it from Japan but I am not yet sure whether it's allowable for shipment to Australia (dangerous, flammable goods and all...). What other options do I have ? A friend suggested REDLINE ...

Stay tuned ....

Couldn't stay away !

Today was WASCC's last tuning day for the month. I wasn't originally planning on going but when I woke up this morning somehow I had this urge to drive and so I packed my gear as fast as I could and drove out there !

When I reached Barbagallo circuit I was greeted with very strong and gusty winds. After purchasing my session pass for a mere $60 I grabbed a pit and started preparing.

There were only a handful of cars, 10 tops so it wasn't too crowded but the wind was such a nuisance !!

I went out on a track around 10am and did about 5 laps before returning back into the pit lane and adjusting my tyre pressure. From 220kPa all around I went down to 180kPa for the front and 190kPa for the rear  (thanks Ryo for your advice here !)

Immediately after that I recorded a couple of 1'12''s and 1'11"s laps (wohooo !!). I was definitely very excited but I felt there was much more to be had. Firstly I still had more than 3/4s of the tank so was carrying extra weight around plus my rear damper was too stiff for my liking resulting in some minor fishtailing. I decided to give the car a short rest before heading out for my final stint around 11:30am.

My final stint was perfect. I changed the rear damper setting down a notch and waited for a clean track to give this new setup a go. It didn't disappoint ! I recorded my new best lap of 1'10''20 !!! What's even more interesting is that after reviewing the data in CircuitTools my best lap was also my virtual best which meant I drove every sector of the track to its maximum !

Needles to say, I still feel there are about 2 seconds to be slashed off of that time. Maybe I am not pushing hard enough ?! I'm pretty sure I got the racing line just the way I like it, my time is lost in my slightly early braking into the 1st corner, back hairpin and the last corner. Will work on that later and maybe that's where the sub 1'10''s are hiding ?

A word about my newly fitted Project Mu's HC-CS pads !
An interesting pad ! It grips to its full potential much later than Level700s, but nevertheless feels very comfortable and the feedback from the pedal is very good. It's very street friendly but after a few hot laps at Barbagallo I am seeing a bit of excessive burning on the edges which makes me think it can't handle high temperatures of a hard-on-brakes circuit like Barbagallo. I have mixed feelings about this pad. I might go back to Level700s perhaps ? Time will tell I suppose.

And lastly, here is what my tyres looked like in the end :)

No video this time, couldn't be bothered.
Oh and on the way there I got caught for speeding ! F*king WA speed cameras ! Revenue raising bulls*hit !

Hope you enjoyed this article

Rod