SWD Time Attack #2 at ZMax

The Street Wise Drift Series came back to ZMax Motorsportspark for their Round 6 of the ProAm Drift competition and held their second time attack. Once again the race weekend started earlier than normal with the arrival of a new R1- T Exhaust thanks to Exotic Speed and Dan from Assaultech and also a rear strut bar and air diversion panel from Mark at GTSpec. I took the new goodies to BRE Motorsports again and installed them and man was I suprised at how beautiful the both were and how perfect the fit was for each. The strut bar felt great and the exhaust sounded amazing and gave a noticeable gain on the top end after a quick reflash of the AP. After getting everything installed on Friday the event was finally here. For the first time at these events there seemed to be more racers than drifters and there was plenty of competition with good drivers and fast cars. After the drivers meeting and the parade lap the morning practice started around 10am. I was very familiar with the surface at ZMax since ive raced there so much and the course was also very similar to the previous course setup, fast and smooth with the addition of a 180 degree turn in after the crossover. After taking two runs in the morning and being only a couple tenths of a second behind the fastest lap I decided to park the car and save the tires some knowing I would have plenty of runs in the afternoon. After talking to a couple drivers about strategy around the course and eating lunch we began the afternoon session and our 5 timed runs. This session lasted from 1- 5pm and you could space out your 5 runs as much as you wanted. I chose to let the course warm up a little bit and then ran 3 runs back to back, adjusting tire pressures and trying a few different shifting points and lines. After the 3rd run I was 1st in Street Touring and 2nd overall for the day with my 71.254 so I decided to park the car and let the tires and brakes cool off. I then went up to the time tent and watched alongside Todd from SWD as Chris Ulman in his Street Touring Evo X beat my time with his 71.043 sec lap. After that I lowered the pressure of the tires slightly all the way around and went out on my 4th lap and had a slightl line error on the large sweeper and came through with a 71.587 sec lap, a far cry from my best lap and 1st place. On my fifth and final lap I the tires and brakes were up to temperature and I was ready to push the car as hard as I could. After pushing as hard as possible and driving the perfect line the GTSpec/ Assaultech/ Computech/ Exotic Speed #144 Infiniti G35 came through the timing lights with a 71.036 sec lap giving us the win in Street Touring and 2nd overal for the day behind Mike Licursi's Street Modifed S2000. Here is a video of a mixture of runs ending with the winning run.

CCR AutoX #5 - Tyvola Coliseum, Charlotte

Central Carolina Chamionship Autocross #6 was held at the old Tyvola Coliseum parking lot in Charlotte. This was the first time the club has used this lot and it was medium sized with a few bumps and cracks in the surface and overall slick and dusty. The course layout was a fun but a very slow and technical course that challenged even the best autoxer.  This raceday was an interesting one for me since I was pulling double duty, racing points in FStock in John's Camaro and also running the G35 in Pax- STX/STO. Coming into the 6th event of this series I have won every race in the G35, except the last one at Michelin that I did not attend, so I had asked 2nd place in points John Clark to co drive his Camaro and he agreed. When it came time for Heat 3 John and I had to hot lap the Camaro due to the small run group and the street tires were very warm due to the Camaro sliding all over the dusty track. When it came down to our 4th run I opted out because the tires were too warm and John and I's 3rd runs would be our fastest. The end result was him beating my fastest run of 51.670 by .003 seconds to hand me my first defeat of 2010. Thanks John for letting me drive the car and if there was anyone I would like to lose to it would be you for sure! After points racing it was time to have fun and see what the G could put down on the new track. With a few tire pressure adjustments and trying to avoid certain bumps on the course I finished the day near the top with a 47.945 sec. If I had been running points with the STX class in the G35 that would have been 1st place for the event. Here is a video of my last and fastest run-

Central Carolina Kinghts Series #2

The CCR Knights series is always a fun and layed back series that usually allows for a lot of runs on a small course, and of course its at night making visibillity interesting. Knights Race #3 was no exception, the course was small and tight and this was the first time I have come here since the new round of modifications so I was worried about be overpowered and too stiff... and I was right. The pavement was dusty with small pebbles and it made it difficult to pin the throttle and get traction but with 6 runs I figured it out just enough to win Street Touring Extreme by .03 seconds and was top 10 in raw times, despite the lack of traction. Here is a video of my fastest run-