So the weekend went pretty awesome.

I'll post up the videos when they're done rendering/uploading.

Small Recap:

There were a total of 5 people in class for all of the races. I qualified 1st in the open qualifying session (fastest lap sets grid for qualy race), started the qualifying race in 1st and was able to walk away because the rest of the people in class were busy battling for position, finished in 1st place. So I started the main race in 1st place (picture below is at the green flag) but I was on the outside. Two other cars in my class got a good run on me on the start, the red Civic hatch got past me but I went two wide into the first chicane with the white FB RX-7 and came out ahead of him. I battled with the red Civic for awhile until he made a mistake coming onto the main straight, we had a dead nuts drag race down the entire straight, but I was on the inside line and I mega late braked for the pass. Went on the take 1st place in the main.

For Sunday, we had a pretty good isolated downpour in the morning at about 8AM, got everything soaking wet but the weather cleared up and it dried out pretty quick. Open qualifying was a little damp but I still qualified in 1st. For the qualifying race, I was having trouble getting strapped into the car, my head and neck restraint was not sitting nicely and I had to get take extra time to make sure it was all correct. I didn't make it to grid on time so I didn't launch with the cars. I had to wait for them while they were on their parade lap, then they let me out behind the pack, so I was in dead last with cold tires and cold brakes, when I got onto the track at the back of the pack I went around one corner and then the green dropped.

I had to cruise the first lap to get the tires and brakes up to temp, then in the next couple of laps I passed a Miata that was not in my class, then three cars in my class, a VW Rabbit and two FB RX-7's, but by the time I caught the leader, there was only a handful of laps left and I had overheated my tires playing catch up. My tires suddenly went away and I went 4 off and shortcutted a corner, the red Civic pulled away a bit, then coming onto the main straight I couldn't slow it down in time using my usual braking point, and went 4 off on the exit which killed my exit speed, and I didn't catch back up until the checkers were out.

So that means I started the Sunday Feature race in 2nd place, the Civic got the lead again, and he had on better tires so it was more challenging to get around him, but eventually he overshot the corner onto the front straight, which allowed me to drag race him, but I missed 3rd gear so he started pulling away but I mega late braked like the Saturday race and took the lead. It was definitely tougher to pull a gap that time around and I drove flat out for almost the entire race but ended up taking 1st.

So with those wins, I was able to win a full set of Hoosiers, a $125 gift card to Winding Road Racing (their contingency is awesome) and a $100 coupon towards my next event. Oh and some bitchin' trophies lol.

About the heatshield thing, we ended up installing a 3' one and a 2' one so a lot of the exhaust is shielded. They work pretty good. They smoked like crazy on the first session the first time they got hot, but after that no problems. And the gas cap venting worked fine as a temporary solution. I never filled the tank over 3/4, there wasn't any pressure in it at the end of sessions and the top of the cap was only a tiny bit damp in the center so I don't think it puked any fuel at all.

 

First video done uploading. This is the Saturday Main Race.

 

If only there was a site for making your miata faster in a straight line....

miatasupercharger.net? miatanos.net? no thats not right.

I'm sure someone knows the link.

 

lmao.

I'm only like 10 or 15HP away from being maxed out in class, and there's nobody in the class above me. I'll stick with the lower power class where there's free **** to be had lol.

 

I like free **** too. I just couldn't resist.

 

I definitely laughed, good **** lol.

But yeah that's why I might give E85 a go. The Adaptronic ECU can do flex fuel no problem so that would be the cheapest way to tack on some power.

 

Sunday Race.

 

Picked up some new gloves with my Winding Road Racing contingency monies. I've had the same set of AlpineStars Tech 1-ZX gloves for years now. They were finally starting to come apart at the seam near the wrist.

These ones are the 2015 Tech 1-Z. I like that they're slip on instead of the velcro, but I liked the external seams on the 1-ZX better. Either way, free gloves **** yeah.

 

Nice nice.

Did the heat shielding help?

 

Yeah it definitely helped but not as much as I thought it would. I suspect that most of the heat being put into the trans tunnel is from hot air coming from the engine bay area. Knowing what I know now and what impact they had on how hot my aluminum seat gets during a race, I would still buy them. I think they would make a bigger difference for someone who doesn't already have a ceramic coated exhaust.

 

So it made your seat scorching hot, instead of "holy **** the devil is below me" hot?

 

Yeah basically went from "**** I'm for sure going to have a ******* first degree burn by the end of this ******* race ******* THROW THE WHITE FLAG ALREADY" down to "This is pretty hot but bearable."

 

So I went to New Orleans for Global Time Attack at the NOLA Speed and Style event. I was there at NOLA Motorsports Park getting some video to produce content for the series, it was a pretty badass trip. When we weren't at the track, we were partying on Bourbon Street and the French Quarter. No open container laws, it was nuts. That place goes to 11 every single weekend I don't know how they do it.

Anyways, I actually came across a nice looking Miata at the track and it had an MT.net sticker on the rollbar. Turns out it was FrankB who was running with the HPDE group there and I got to chat with him for awhile. His car is pretty wicked and it was cool to run into someone from here while I was on the other side of the country.

Oh also the 25 hour drive out there sucks ***.

Here are a couple pictures. Video content coming soon. And I also bought a new head and neck restraint just to try it out. If anyone wants to buy an original NecksGen let me know, still an awesome piece, just wanted to try something new for the hell of it since I got a deal I couldn't pass up. Oh and found a photo from my last race, threw that in there as well.

 

Yeah, Frank's really good people.

I may be interested in the HNR. Please contact me with some details.

 

Sure thing, I'll shoot you a PM.

 

Track event is this weekend at WHP West Course with ProAutoSports.

Went over to Injector Dynamics to use their tire machine and shoot the **** for awhile. Good times. Their operation is thoroughly impressive and they know their ****, if you ever buy injectors, spring for a set of ID's.

Anyways, popped off the 8 heat cycle 245mm Maxxis RC1's to put back into storage and put on the tires I won from last race just in case I need them. The current 205 R7's that are on the car are at 12 heat cycles, still looking good on wear. Grip is still good but they are getting a smaller window of "wicked" grip levels. If I overdrive them I can notice them falling off towards the end of a 25 minute race, but still fine if I am able to conserve them. I expect the lap times to start getting slower soon, maybe at 16 to 20 heat cycle range.

My tire strategy is to use the fresh ones only for main races and only if I think I need them. Hopefully I can win another set this weekend, but that depends on whether or not enough people are in class, and also anything can happen, I've found that winning races consistently is MUCH more difficult than winning time trials type fastest lap competitions.

 

Good luck!

 

Thanks man!

 

Ugh jealous. I wish I had a way to change my own tires. The $60 a pop starts to hurt.

 

60 bucks to get 4 tires swapped out is actually a pretty smoking deal.

My issue is that most places hear 205 on a 9" wheel and don't want to even look at them. Most of the time I can get most tires to seat normally by pulling up and rocking the tire around but have had to use a tire cheetah on one of them in the past.

Make enough friends at the track and maybe one of them will have a tire machine that they are nice enough to let you use lol.