Chuckwalla weekend recap! It was an exciting weekend to say the least! I was joined this race weekend by my beautiful and 7 months pregnant girl Tara,as well as my mom, Terri who celebrated her big 60th birthday with us. Also along for the weekend was our official NASA AZ family track dog Naudia! :) On Saturday I was fighting with worn tires again, and trying to get the last little bit of life out of a set of C91s which had been used by a couple other folks before I got them. Durng my second Time Trial session I had a IC piping coupler blow its side out, so it was idling back into the pit for me to see what the issue was and to try and get back on track to finally get a good time. I didnt have a coupler handy and wasnt able to find one before the next Time Tail session, so I attempted to fix mine. :) My patched coupler and the last breath of tire R compound held up enough to get sub 2 minute times! Sweet! My fastest time ever on the tracks CW config is a high 1:57s, so I was delighted to grab a 1:59.429. With tires cording and plenty of things to think about I called it a day and relaxed a bit. Had a great night hanging with Tara, my mom and Naudia, eating an awesome NASA AZ Saturday evening meal, watching some of the ongoing shenanigans, and enjoying our fire pit. The weather was beautiful and things couldnt have been better... well unless I had a tire sponsor. lol Sunday morning came and it was time to do it again. I made a deal to buy some older C51s from Dave Shutte, and eventually got them mounted up and on the car. With better life tires and a new boost coupler given to me by Jay Ronquillo, I got a good solid run in TT and posted another 1:59! Might just get me another 3rd for the year again in TT1. Sweet! Tara and I also presented my mom with an awesome birthday cake mae by Taras sister Teasha Barriga Moore who runs TC Cake Co. I had the pleasure of running into Jeff Westphal who was doing some driver instruction for a Lotus racing club who was also running that weekend, and talked a bit about things Skyline. I had followed his success with the GST Time Attack car and am currently following him in the Grand Am series, but I had never met him before this. Hes one very cool nice guy! There was word from Tony Szirka that he may be able to take my R32 GTR out for a few laps between his other activities and undoubtedly give me some great car feedback. The time was set and I had the car ready for him as he came of the track with the Lotus guys. As he was getting situated I was prompted to get in a ride with him! Whoa, wasnt expecting that! Sweet! We were going out in a HPDE 3/4 session so there werent going to be any transponder times from T&S, but Paul Kuzma was on the pit wall with a stop watch to get some times! Thanks Paul! The first lap out Jeff was getting a feel for the car, pointing things out, we chatted about the car some, and I already could feel the car going into some turns faster than I had ever managed! Second lap came and it was go time. Even though the car was uncharacteristically breaking up at 6,800rpm and Jeff was still talking about how the car felt, it was reported by Paul that he did a 2:00 flat. lol One more cool down lap to see if was temps blowing out my ignition flame, and we were back on it. Sadly the miss came back but we still managed a 2:00 time in my car that he had never driven before! Jeff mentioned that he had driven an R34 at one time, but wasnt really used to the left hand shift thing. lol Awesome! Back in the pit Jeff gave me some suspension feedback that Im going to take to heart and make the adjustments. Softer rear for more corner bite as well as less rear brake bias! Then I realized that temps shouldnt have been an issue because the car came in a 180 which is typical especially on such a nice day. However I did realize that the fuel gauge was on E and we were most likely just running out of fuel supply at high revs and fast corner exits. Sorry Jeff. Sorry Engine. ;) The last thing of the day to do was run in our UMS Tuning Time Attack Series. I checked over the car and made sure I added plenty of fuel. Tire pressures, check! Oil, check! Etc., check! Sitting on Grid, first in line, waiting to go out, I was thinking how unfair it was in some ways for my Snail Performance brothers who had to leave early Sunday and get to SEMA. Last event of the year, double points for Time Attack, and I was going to leap frog past Travis and no longer be running neck and neck with Taylor for 2nd... Id be in 1st for the year, easily. Conflicted, but happy to potentially get the 2013 UMS Tuning Time Attack champion jacket, we were waved from grid onto the track. I pushed it on my warm up lap hoping to incorporate a few things I learned from Jeff and see how they worked out. I was very happy with what I tried! Looking to see sub 1:58s I started off the first lap seriously hauling! Turn 1,2, then smokin through 3 lovingly steering with the rear tires, connecting the 4,5 increasing radius sweeper perfectly, dive into turn 6 carrying it wide on the exit, connecting with 7 but waiting for the right time, waiting... and now, hit the apex just where I wanted, planted the pedal and carried it out to kiss the rumble strip with the left rear. And BOOOOOOM! I just knew I hit some wrong little edge of the rumble strip and exploded a tire. First hot lap out, no time yet, could I limp it around staying out of other folks way and post a time? 3mins? Any time? The carnage sounded horrible and all I could imagine was a ruined left rear quarter panel that would only get worse. I didnt want to be fired from NASA AZ forever, so I stayed in the car while the track was hot and waited for my buddy Jon Via to eventually come collect me, all the while wondering how bad it was. I looked back at the GTR on the way to Jons car and nothing really looked too bad. Now I was confused! The day was done and the track was cold. I loaded a spare tire in my truck and headed out to the scene. I saw something I had never seen before. The tire looked fine, but the wheel exploded! Split radially all the way around where the face of the wheel meets the barrel. A clean break that wasnt too jagged at all. A NASA AZ tow truck/rescue crew member followed me in my truck back to the pits as I limped the car around carefully feeling for any other damage that couldve occurred. The car felt great! Damn it! I coulda been somebody, I coulda been a contender! As it turns out all the points in Unlimited TA-C just stayed the same from our last event at INDE in Willcox, AZ a few weeks earlier. I wind up either in 2nd place just ahead of Taylor, or in 3rd just behind him, and the Sauce Bauce Travis Barnes takes 1st as he had earned anyway. :) Last to get loaded up and leave the track as usual, Tara, Naudia and I enjoyed a leisurely drive back to our home. Im glad the weekend was awesome and Im glad that the damage couldve been worse. Have to thank Matt Meister Sevco and all the guys at MAK Auto for helping me keep such a bad ass car running so well! Reminding me that every once in a while my lower ball joints are completely shot and ready to be changed now! To find loose rattling mystery bits in my exhaust system and to be the guys to help me fix the big stuff, like when my original OEM clutch wouldnt hold up to 490WHP anymore, and to change it out with an awesome Competition Clutch upgrade. I want to thank Ricky Roth at Raw Brokerage, Inc., Inc. who didnt just find me a replacement transmission when my sincros were toast, he found me 3! And for a smoking good deal too! Thanks Ricky! Want to thank UMS Tony for always finding that perfect balance between tons of power and engine life/safe zone! Meeting and then getting to ride along with Jeff Westphal in my own car and then getting priceless feedback was a real treat, and I thank you for that Jeff! Want to thank various folks in our NASA family for running the same size tires as I and allowing me the opportunity to buy them when they dont want them anymore! Always a cheap and sweet deal! Need to thank my R32 GTR for needing very little maintenance and never being picky about anything really. She just runs and runs for being the original motor, never having been taken apart. 3 years at 490 wheel, with 120k on the odometer. Thank you Japanese people at Nissan! You did something magical. Most importantly I want to thank my family who have always been so supportive and full of encouragement! My Dad and brothers John and Charles in South Texas who I learned to race dirt track as a teen back in the day from, to my mom and step dad in Prescott who come to my events when they can, and especially to my beautiful girl Tara who is 7 months pregnant with our baby boy! Excited is an understatement! Thanks for putting up with all this car stuff baby! :) Im blessed! Now whether Ill run a full schedule next year is all up in the air as expenses will grow in new directions. Looking for additional sponsors and sending out letters Ive been. Typical response is the economy sucks, cant do it, but good luck. Well if nothing else its honest! Thank you everyone! This year with NASA AZ has been a blast!
Posted on: Fri, 08 Nov 2013 00:22:44 +0000