Z Jam and Autofair at Charlotte Motor Speedway

The Carolina Z Club Z Jam at the annual 2010 Autofair turned out great! Charlotte Motor Speedway was again a great venue for Autofair and thousands of amazing cars were as far as the eye could see, but the best of show was definetely the 30+ Z's and G's off of the Turn 4 grandstands. With a great crowd of cars ranging from 1970's 240's that look like they just rolled off the floor to fully modified race ready 350Z's and G35's there was nothing but high quality cars that all looked amazing! For more info on the Z Jam and future club event go to there website here - Carolina Z Club . Below are some photos and videos from the event, keep checking back.

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-

SWDrift Autopalooza Time Attack @ ZMax

Before I even begin to talk about how great of an event SWD's Autopalooza was, I have to thank everyone who made this race possible, Mark from GT Spec, Tex and Dave from BRE Motorsports, Dan from Assaultech Performance, Todd from Street Wise Drift, Tony from Motordyne and everyone at Computech! Wiithout you guys I wouldnt have such a good car to go race with, thank you all for everything.

Now for the recap of this awesome event. Street Wise Drift always knows how to put on a great show, and Autopalooza 2010 at ZMax Motorsports Park was no exception! The race weekend started late Thursday afternoon when I received the new parts from Mark at GT Spec, after taking the chassis braces out of the box and seeing that beautiful blue powdercoat I immediately called up Tex at BRE Motorsports to see if they had an open lift I could use and I went down there and put them on with some help from Dirty Dave. And wow, BRE has an amazing shop with fully built drag cars and drift cars all over, it was a beautiful sight and they all made me feel at home, thanks guys! After checking out all their new projects I went out and test drove the car and wow, the car felt amazing and I couldn't wait to test in race mode. Friday I gathered all of the new decals thanks to Computech and did final prep for the race in the am. Saturday morning was a quick excited drive from uptown Charlotte to ZMax in Concord. Once we got there the drifters were in there drivers meeting and we got teched in and began to walk the huge course that SWD set up, and boy was it big and fast! The drifters started practice on the course directly next to the time attack course and they were tearing it up with awesome 100+ mph sideways entries! If that doesn't pump you up to go fast, I don't know what does. Once all of the drivers got there, I realized this event would be a good measuring stick for the setup of the G and my driving skill, there was a fully prepped G35 with rollcage and coilovers and 370Z and a bunch of other cars with similar modifications to me. We started the time attack with a parade lap around the course noting all the decreasing radius turns and the double up, we were all ready to race and we knew it would be fast. We would get two runs in the morning and three in the afternoon. My first run surprised me by how fast and smooth the track really was, SWD set it up to allow for 3rd gear 8 grand turns after huge straightaways, it was an awesome course that kept the driver and car on the edge the entire time and with the new setup on the G I could drive it harder than ever, sticking to the line like glue way above redline in 3rd gear, those GT Spec braces were gonna pay off for this race! My morning runs were pretty consistent with two 74's which put me right next to the fully prepped G and Z. With 100+ degree temperatures we took a lunch break and got out of the boiling sun for about an hour and then went back to racing, with everyone eager to drop there times. Coming out on the 3rd run I knew I could drive the car harder in a couple spots and had to hold the throttle in the perfect spot slightly below 8 grand being aware of the engine but knowing there was room to go fast, my third and fourth runs began to drop time with a 74.0 and then a 73.5. Approaching our final run I was confident with my times in the Street Touring class with my 4th run but was still behind the completely prepped G35 and his mid 73 sec lap. I knew on the final run I couldn't hold anything back and had to push the car to the limit on every spot of the track, after hazing the tires around every turn and braking as late as possible I knew it felt like a much faster run and when I pulled into timing and I came through with a 72.3! No official results have been posted yet but once they are I will update this with official times and results. After having a successful raceday thanks to everyone who helped out and mentioned earlier I would have to say that the GT Spec braces were truly put to the test and they passed with flying colors, the car felt amazing and remained consistent and composed in every situation I put it in, thanks again GT Spec! Done racing, we got to check out the awesome Pro Am Drifting that SWD is all about, and boy was it impressive, amazing cars and amazing drivers on a very fast course! SWD you put on yet another great event and I cant wait for the next one.  Here are some photos and videos of me racing and later I will update with some coverage of the rest of the event.

Thanks to JP Sarton for the great photos!

Carolina Motorsports Park Monster Memorial Time Attack

Ive been waiting for this CCR points race since the day I saw it on the schedule in the beginning of the year, Carolina Motorsports Park is about an hour and half outside of Charlotte in Kershaw, NC and ive wanted to race there since I moved to NC. Unfortunately most of that excitement went out the window in the middle of the drivers meeting, the skies opened up and the downpour began. Just as usual we race in any weather and of course I was in the first run group so we had a soaking wet course in the rain. On the first run I probably didn't clean off the tires well enough on the launch and the large puddles in the first two turns the car slid coming into the first slalom and pitched back and forth three times before I could straighten it back out. The track might as well have been iced over for the first three runs, but finally on my fourth run it was dry enough to get a good time. Unfortunately immediately after that run the downpour started again and the lightning followed, and sadly the event had to be called off after waiting in the rain for hours. Here are some photos and a video.

Sideways-