Party Race 08/11/16

The last Party Race of the year took place on Sunday. I competed in the Emblem 1 hour endurance race with a fantastic co-driver who goes by the name Kanepee. Kanepee-san wrote up a nice race report in Japanese on his blog.

Kanepee-san's first taste of Tweety was about two weeks ago when I picked him up after work and let him drive home. The next time he sat in the car was on Saturday when he drove it around Tsukuba at speed for the first time. On a light fuel load, he managed to get a 1'10.2 which beats my best time so far around Tsukuba! You are awesome Kanepee! I drove the second session after putting some more fuel in but could only get a 1'10.6. Turns out we'd only about 1.5mm of pad left on the left side pads so the brakes were a little hard to use.

After swapping the pads and washing the car, we were ready for Sunday's battle.

Sunday morning was wet but the rain fall had actually stopped by the time it came to qualification. It was very slippery and I the car was moving around a lot even when I wasn't making too many mistakes or being overly harsh. 80R saw a couple of cars spin and I can understand that as I went sideways there more than once. It was hard to string a lap together and I was pretty satisfied when I got a best of 1'18.2 on my last lap. It was only enough to get me 14th on the grid out of 17 cars though. I'm not quite sure how anyone pulled a 1'15 in those conditions. I guess I need to work on my wet lines to find more traction or something.

The race start was Le Mons style except that the driver got to belt up and wait in the car while the second driver waited across the track for the sprint to the driver. Kanepee-san outperformed my wildest hopes as he dashed towards me, touched my raised right hand which I dropped to the key to start the car and I was off. A great start too as I passed 3 cars before the first corner and grabbed the inside line. I got a 4th car down into the 1st hairpin and did my best to maintain control of my still cold tires.

As the laps rolled by 2 cars were all over me, but I was determined to not let them pass down my inside, as anyone I could delay (without blocking) might mean a better position later on. If they got along side me on the straight I'd do my best to out brake them but I'd hold my lines. I was pretty relaxed but then on the exit of the 2nd hairpin, I missed 3rd and by the time I'd grabbed it, I'd lost 1 position as one guy easily passed me with the loss of speed. The other guy was right on my ass now too. I put up a pretty good fight for another two laps or so and then I found myself on the exit of the 1st corner in 3rd gear with no torque instead of 2nd. Flustered I grabbed 2nd as the guy went past on my outside. Drat. Momentary loss of concentration I guess due to the added confusion of talking to the pits on the phone at the same time. Well that was 2 quick and harsh lessons learned. When I looked at the video later, I basically seem to just drop from 4th to 3rd and didn't even go for 2nd.

Car was handling excellently though and I was quite happy with my driving. During the first stint I actually managed to nail a 1'10.9 line and that was with a full tank of gas. The car was slow on the straights though and I don't know but that might also be my chosen line through the 2nd hairpin or it could be just that some of the other cars are faster or have lighter fuel loads and drivers.

After 20 laps, the car was still great but it was time to come in and hand Tweety over to the very capable Kanepee-san. The pit stop involved an enforced speed limit in the pit lane of 40kmph and a completely stopped car for the duration of 1 minute. This kept things safe as it gave the drivers lots of time to change, belt up, do seat adjustments etc. We had fantastic team support in the pits with the guys from D-Technique helping out on stop watch and tire pressure duty. Kanepee-san took off a minute later to start his 20 lap stint.

It's funny but I didn't think about Tweety's well being for one second while in another drivers hands. I have complete faith in his skill so that was very relaxing. I only wanted to do our best and to get back out there myself for more laps. I took the time also to grab some fluids and relax before I'd head back out. 5 laps before Kanepee-san came in I focused myself again by kitting up and preparing for action. Kanepee-san pitted coming in from 5th place.

Getting back in the car again was easy. Kanepee-san reported back that the brake feeling was bad so I was wondering how bad exactly as the minute was up and I shot out of the pit lane in front of another car. Brakes were very squishy which made them hard to read and meant that I had to brake earlier than usual and hope for the best each time. The guy behind me got by 2 laps later on the entrance to the last corner. Drat. 1 lap later, a car spun on the exit of turn 1 as I exited but I was able to maintain speed and hop down the outside without much thought. I managed to keep the white car in my sights for the remainder of the race but he was always pulling away from me.

We finished the race in 10th position but 1 car was demoted because one of the drivers did too many laps and we were promoted to a very well deserved 9th place, 5 places up from our 14th place start. At the end I was hyper and would have loved to gone on for another hour or so. I learned a lot for having so many clear laps and so many faster cars around me. I can't wait for more :-)

The other D-Technique team - Kato-san and Izumi-san drove a great race in car #123 and finished a spectacular 3rd place. Well done guys! You did a great job. RTE Team Ranman also did a great job to finish in 6th place. Well done to you too. Major thanks to all the guys at D-Technique for their support and guidance and to my awesome co-driver Kanepee for being such a hero in Tweety.

The Race Results are finally up also so be sure to check them out also.

Preview of 1 hour Endurance Race

Sunday is nearly on us. This Sunday is the last Party Race in the series for this year and finishes with a 1 hour endurance race. Poor Tweety! Fortunately, I am not allowed to race the hour alone and must race with either 1 or 2 other drivers as my partners. I was hoping to have the opportunity to race with 2 of my local heros but as fate would have it, one of the guys can't make it this time round. I do get to race with the other guy though and he is very good!!! I'll announce after the race who he is :-)

My partner will get to drive Tweety around the Tsukuba for the first time this Saturday to practice for Sunday. I'm very excited as it's practically the first time I've handed her over to someone else on their own for a session and I'm also looking forward to seeing some speedy times set while trying to save what's left of the tires for Sunday :-O

If you have time, come see us race on Sunday. Qualification is at 11:20 and the race starts at 15:20. I've a feeling the Sun is going to be quite low and bright on the last corner...

Tsukuba Weekend Attacks

I had two days of 2 x 30 minute sessions at TC2000 this weekend. Saturday, my goal was to rotate the front right/left tires to spread some wear on to the lightly used front right tire. This proved to be very exciting as the car under-steered drastically on corner entry. Other places it was hyper-sensitive like the start/middle of the 80R and the final turn where I had a rather large over-steer moment. So while I did well to get a 1'11.08 it was a little insane to try perhaps. Still - nothing like testing your reflexes. Rotated the tires back to their proper sides Saturday evening. I put the times down to trying hard to brake properly and hit the apexes.

Sunday, I didn't know what to expect but regarding the tires and if I would have similar excitement in the other direction. It was also drizzling rain but not really wet. So when I got a few 1'10s I was very happy with my driving. I actually had a half tank of gas at the end of the day also so I guess I can be faster if the car is lighter. Best lap time was a 1'10.564 which beats my previous best. Happy days! Looking at the best sectors, if they had all been on the same lap, I would have got a 1'10.3 so there is more speed there also. I feel a 1'09 is not all that far away.

Here are my top 5 times:
____________Sec 1__Sec 2__Sec 3__km/h
1. 1'10.564 28.838 29.181 12.547 144.869
2. 1'10.614 28.727 29.270 12.617 144.850
3. 1'10.666 28.766 29.270 12.630 145.337
4. 1'10.708 28.909 29.283 12.516 146.421
5. 1'10.911 28.964 29.326 12.621 144.212

I think I'm a little slow at the speed-trap. I noticed other NCs on the Result Sheet are getting 149.896 which is quite a big difference to me. Hmmmm. Guess I have to work on my 2nd hairpin exit still.

Karting at F1-Miyazawa Lake

Went to this tiny kart circuit in Saitama called Miyazawa Lake with some guys from my work. We signed up for an endurance race which was 7000 yen for 5 mins qualification and a 40 laps race.

The kart was capable of 60kmph. It was the fastest kart I've ever tried as the few times I've gone before I have been only doing about 20 to 30kmph. So this was quite cool.

Qualification turned out to be wet as we had a small shower. That was fantastic fun as it was next to impossible to drive around a corner without opposite lock. In a kart this turned into pure fun and I forgot about getting a fast lap so I ended up 3rd on the grid. Not that I would have gone faster anyway but sliding was huge fun.

We did a reverse grid at the race start which was also good. I spun out on the last corner the first two laps and got stuck in the corner on my second lap. Damn. Already 1 lap behind. When will I learn?! After that I just drove faster every lap. I had a lot of problems with the last corner though as I'd either drift it and lose speed or I'd go too slowly and lose speed. Funnily enough going slower lost less speed than drifting though. Interesting.

I was going rather well when I was passing a friend on the outside when he bumped me off the track. That hurt. Still have the bruises! Took 85seconds to complete that lap as I had to get out of the kart to get it back onto the track. Those things are quite heavy when you are trying to push them!

Finally lost the race and finished in 3rd place, 2 laps behind our perfect leader and 1.8s behind 2nd place. Just shows if you are consistent, you don't have to be fast sometimes to do well. One of the guys put up this cool web site of the results

So - why do I bring up karts... Well it dawned on me when I was driving them just how much they have to offer in terms of learning about the basics of being smooth and using your tires properly. It's so easy to think you are going fast when you are drifting around the last corner but then someone goes and passes you on the inside... Huh?! Yes that just happened. Makes you think more about what you are doing wrong.

The other nice thing about karts is they are small, speed is less than a car and you feel everything so you are really aware of what is going on. The kart had no diff for example, so when taking a wider line around a corner vs taking a narrow line kept the engine running better, it dawned on me that my inside tire was slowing the engine down. I always knew what a diff did in general but experiencing this made them really make sense.

Another thing you learn is brake bias. Brakes are only on the back so its hard to brake when you are turning. Even more so in the wet. Back just comes right around unless you have a fine touch. Amazing. Its useful for adjusting mid corner though if required.

I was only really figuring out all this towards the end of 40 laps. It was really worth going though and I'm going to try go again and perhaps apply some of what I learn to my circuit driving.

Time for new fluids

Last Sunday the 5th, I had my engine, diff and gear oil changed. I had 9072km on the car. Wow, I only got the car in April! I remember my first year with my RX-8 I drove it 4000km altogether that year. Can't quite believe how much I have driven it although I guess 9000km is nothing for most people outside of Japan.

I also picked up another spare set of MazdaSpeed brake pads. At the rate I go through those pads it always makes sense to keep another set around.

Party Race 08/09/20 - Video

Finally I managed to get the time to get the video of my last race out of the camera and up on the Internet. I learned a lot from this race and even though I was at the back it was one of the most enjoyable races so far. I made a huge amount of mistakes as seemingly all of my smooth driving was forgotten and replaced with a mountain of under and over steer showmanship. If anyone was behind me they probably would have been scared out of their mind at the rate my back went out during these 20 odd minutes. The only reason I made it around in one piece is because the roadster is such an awesome handling fun car. Well done Mazda and well done D-Technique on setting it up for me. Now I just gotta fix my driving and go faster :-)

So without further ado, Enjoy the show!

Lake Okutama Trip

Went on a small trip to lake Okutama with some good friends. Had a great day driving and chatting. Took some photos but not that many as the car was filthy after lots of rain last week. It was good to stretch the legs though.

The road to Okutama (411) has a bazillion tunnels on it where you could hear the different exhausts whale off of. Very satisfying with the top down. Superb day of driving although a little burnt perhaps :-O

Party Race Photos

Russ over at GT-Roadster took some cool photos of the race and the day in general. Feel free to click on the photo and go have a look! Thanks Russ. They look great!

Party Race 08/09/20

Jumping up from Clubman 1, entry level roadster racing, to Emblem (top level) was always going to be a challenge. Looking at the qualification timesheet I knew that my best ever time in the roadster around Tsukuba was going to put me at the back of the bunch. That's of course assuming that I can equal my best time which I didn't. I qualified 14th out of 15 cars with a time of 1'11.5. The three top grid positions all got 1'09s and the everyone else got 1'10s. These guys are fast!

I mucked up the race start again with too much wheel spin. Gotta stop doing that! By the first corner I was back up with the boys though and following on down into the first hairpin when most cars were side by side. It was messy down there and one of my mates drove off into the grass when late braking left him no space. As he wobbled and weaved in the grass, I cautiously passed him and headed into Dunlop with him on my left. Cleared the 2nd hairpin and headed up into the final corner. He was hanging out just on my left rear side so when I braked into the last corner, I neglected to drop the car into 3rd and suffered the consequences when I finally got around to dipping the clutch on the exit. By the first corner he'd got up my inside so I gave him the passing space he deserved and took the corner the best I could on the outside.

After that, I really enjoyed myself as I battled to keep up with the guys. I made all kinds of mistakes under braking and had lots of over-steer issues as my tires managed to get themselves out of whack with my normal running pressures. After the race the the pressures were: FL: 270, FR: 260, RL: 260, RR: 250... Yikes. It seems I messed up my initial pressures. Just not used to 15 laps flat out around Tsukuba it seems.

Anyway, it was highly entertaining. Probably the most fun I've had since... well actually, all three races have been fun in different ways but its definitely the most balls out race I've run so far. I think the video captures it quite well also so look forward to getting that up here again.

Also like to take this time to give a huge thanks to Russ over at GT-Roadster for all his help during the day. He was there early with me for registration, car prep, shaken and even cleaning off the tires at the end of the race. Thank you so much!!! Next up, big thanks to D-Technique and their support team. Everyone helped a lot and made the day more fun as always. Congrats to Ishikawa-san on winning Clubman 2, Kato-san on winning in Emblem and Kanepee-san for winning the final race in the RX-8 masters series! Also thanks to some of the SDIJ guys for coming up to watch the race. Hope you enjoyed the show :-)

Another set of brake pads

Not much to do this time round. Saturday I ran at Tsukuba for 2 sessions. Monday was a holiday so took the opportunity to wash the car and check the brakes. Pads seemed a little on the thin side so I thought I'd have a look at them again after some errands. Picked up some new wiper blades as the old ones were useless and bought some tape etc at D-Tech. All ready then...

Err, no. Forgot the damn pads. Definitely not advised to skimp on pads so tonight I had another look at them after work. Looking at them through the spokes of the wheels, it's always hard to judge so I stared at the buggers deciding what to do for quite some time. In the end, I decided that they were probably past their race safety date and went off to get my tools.

Glad I did because when I pulled off the front left side the outside measured 8mm on the outside and 9mm on the inside. Hmmm. The backplate is 6mm so that's only 2mm of pad left. Good man Tom. I seem to have cleaned off another set of pads in two months. Changing them by flash light in my car park was fun, but I'm getting good at it these days so pretty soon I won't need any light at all.

Only thing remaining now is to give my glass some attention as there is a possibility of rain for this Saturday's race. I've saved that work for tomorrow morning when its light out. Car currently has just over 8000 kms on clock.

I should also add that I felt pretty good with this batch of pads verses the previous 2 batches. Either my braking has improved, I've got used to the car or the actual pads were better even though they were the same maker...

Party Race Report

The Party Race Report is finally out. Wish I could read more Japanese! Anyway, some nice photos there along with what looks like a nice write up.

The next Party Race event is September 20th. This should be fun. The 4 hour media endurance race is also held on the same day and that is always a pretty nice event. Wish I could race in that too! But I guess, I get to race this weekend in Ebisu in the 12 hour endurance race in a Honda Civic so that will just have to do :-)

Motegi Active Safety Training Park

Today, I attended a Kuragonbeya course at Motegi's Active Safety Training Park ASTP. It was my first time at ASTP.

The day didn't start too well as I woke up at 7:40 having somehow switched off the alarm. I was due in Motegi by 10am latest so I just grapped the few things I needed and hoped in the car without breakfast. Luckily, the roads were not so bad so I was able to make good progress and arrived at 9:50. Whew! My navi initially had me arriving at 11:10 when I first got in the car at 8am!

The first task was skid control. They have this very slippery surface covered in water which you have to drive towards at 40kmph and then once you go over a little piece of metal with the rear tires, it jerks the car sideways and you basically have to try recover the skid or stop safely without hitting the water fountain. 35 kmph was easy, 40kmph was still doable but I didn't get 45kmph and spun. When I started spinning I was trying to do a 360 but the Honda guy gave out to me for not doing full brakes and stopping even though I was pretty aware of everything around me. So strict! I guess he was thinking more of safety than car control and having fun which is what I was looking for.

Next task was to drive onto the slippery surface, brake in a straight line and then turn right to avoid some fountains. Again, 35 was easy as was 40 but 45kmph eluded me. Kuragon-san also tried my car at 45 but said that 40 was probably the limit due to car/tire combination so I didn't feel so bad when he spun out the same way. I tried 45 again one more time but same thing happened again. Reverting to 40 was easy. Amazing the difference 5kmph makes!

Next was a timed course of 4 different surfaces of varying slipperiness. I quite enjoyed this until I noticed that my time was quite slow. Damn! How could that be? I was modulating the accelerator to navigate around the first part which was great fun, but then I noticed in some places I had zero traction. I finally got the point of speed and instead of modulating the throttle to steer, I tried to keep it constant which worked much better and my time improved from there. I was still not as fast as I should have been though and ended with 42 seconds. I was too careful on the other surfaces it seems and not carrying enough speed.

So interesting day. I think I learned a lot but mostly, I got to play a little and re-affirm which I had already picked up. Ok, time to watch some F1!

Party Race 08/07/27 - Video

Ok, finally edited the video from the Party Race. It shows the formation lap through to end. Enjoy! Not much to see this time though as I had a pretty uneventful pole-to-win victory :-)

Party Race 08/07/27

It's taken a while to get over just what happened on Sunday at the second round of the Party Race. Three words sum it up nicely though - Pole-to-Win!

The race started on Saturday for me. I drove up to Tsukuba where I had a 30 minute slot starting at 2pm to see if I could remember how to drive :-) My goal was to do about 4 hot lops; followed by perhaps 2 practice starts at the end of the pit lane; followed by tire cleaning. Four laps in though I was very unsatisfied with my times and my driving. I did 1 race start and that seemed ok, so after checking my pressures I went back out and kept trying to figure out where I was going wrong. After 20 minutes, I think I'd got as low as a 1'11.8 at which point my car would just involuntary over-steer around all the corners even when I was taking it easy. Not very encouraging for the next day. A quick check of my pressures revealed that my right side was 0.1kpa lower than my left side so perhaps that was causing it the over-steer. Bemused, the session ended and with it I thought my race hopes too. Still, tomorrow is another day and I'd give it my best shot regardless.

I did everything right on race day. I got up early, left the hotel early, was in the registration queue early, got my car race-checked early and was first out on the track for the 10 minute qualifier. Qualification was held in a misty drizzle so we ran with the top up. As I was first out, I was basically driving blind at speed into the various corners but I'd decided that it didn't look so slippery out there so I'd just give it hell but
try and stay smooth. It paid off. I knocked out a 1'11.35 which got me pole by about 0.8 of a second. Unfortunately for me, I didn't get any of it on camera though as I guess I was a bit distracted going out on the course in the rain. Damn!

When race time came, I gave my mate Rod a ride around in the parade lap so he could see what Tsukuba was like. I was mid pack so had to make my way up through the grid to pole position. I made a stupid error and took the inside wall up along and probably picking up lots of rubber on the way. Silly me. I'd been driving the line all the way around only to do that! Still the formation lap was to follow so it would probably clean up.

Sitting on pole, I wasn't so nervous. I knew the engine should be turned on at the minute mark, and I could lead the pack around when the green flag came out. I took the opportunity to try another start and all seemed to go well again. Maybe I'm getting the hang of these starts :-) I basically just drove around on the line without much thought for warming the tires up. I figured keeping them cooler longer might help them last longer in the race.

Back on the grid again, I watched as cars lined up behind me. I heard the announcer say the green flag was out, 5 second board appeared and it took an age for the red light to appear. I watched it hungrily and as soon as it appeared, it pretty much went out. I took off.

I had a little bit of wheel spin but I managed it well. When I looked to my left, I saw that second place was along side me but he wasn't gaining anything after that and I had the inside line to the first corner. From the corner of my eye, I saw him brake first as I held out, braked and blipped it into second before popping out in 1st place with a good exit. Down then into the first hairpin where I braked a little early but got a nice exit before leaving the cars behind at Dunlop. By the time I rounded the 2nd hairpin I had a nice gap and saw it widen as I exited faster. From there on, I just drove as fast as I could without risking anything. The gap opened further every lap and I took it upon myself to keep opening it curious to see how far I could get.

On the 6th lap, I started to find the first hair pin a little slippy and had some opposite lock through Dunlop as a result. So I just decided to take the 1st hairpin a little easier to keep the risk down but keep pushing everywhere else. At the end of the 8th lap I caught sight of another car in front of me and smiled as I caught up and passed at the start of my 10th and final lap.

I took lap 10 just as hard as my earlier laps and tried my best GT flashing lights impression as I came over the line. What a feeling! Driving back to the pits before being told to park on the circuit in-front of the podium was very cool. I was quite nervous about opening the champagne for some reason so I forgot to jump around as much as I should have :-O

Everyone was there to congratulate me. My name was called out and I couldn't believe that it was my place to go and stand on the podium in-front of the crowd. 2nd and 3rd soon joined me and we were presented with trophies followed by the bottles of bubbly. While I was unwiring the top, it just flew off. I shook the bottle and sure enough, it started to spray so I pointed it at 2nd and 3rd place :-) They dutifully drowned me back.

In the end I won the race by 8.5 seconds. I'd got pole, the win and the fastest lap. Happy days! I hope my luck continues! Next up I move up a class to Clubman 2 so things will get a lot harder from here.

Pre-race Health Check

The Party Race is next weekend the 27th, so it was time to spend more money on fluids. My oil level was just above the low marker so a change of engine oil and filter was in order. I also decided to change the gear oil again as I'd missed 3rd once recently and didn't like the sound it made so better to have nice fresh oil. I also got my brake fluid and coolant flushed completely. On top of this I washed the car and swapped out my wheels and removed the SLD which is not allowed in the race. So car preparation wise I think I'm ready. Currently got 5,487kms on the clock.

RIP Another set of Brake Pads

Another set of Mazdaspeed pads getting a bit low so time for a change. Would have liked to use them for the Brains session this week but it would have been pretty tight after 3 sessions I think. There was 9.5mm left on each pad including this back plate. That's about 3.5mm of pad. This time I had pretty even wear left/right side.

So, these pads lasted 2 months or 5 events. Not so good me thinks. I am tempted to try Endless pads on my next pad change.

Also checked the oil and its just above the 50% mark so I need an oil change before the next race for sure. 5188 kms on the car at the moment.

SLY Video 08/07/05

Here's footage from my last session on SLY. After an easy out lap, I found Dai-san in his AE86 drifting around the outside of the corners for a lap or two before giving him a little more space and also dropping back so I could get a fast lap in. Some where along the way between fast and rest laps, I found Aki's Mines GT-R R33 behind me with Sunako-san at the wheel. I left space on the inside on the last corner and sure enough, he popped through and the chase was on. That GT-R is fast! I probably pulled one of my fastest laps trying to keep up and it was great to watch as the machine buried into the road ahead and left me for dead. What a cool way to end the day. Btw, sorry Miquel - I would have tried to follow you for some footage too if I had of realized it was the last lap of the day as I was trying to take an easy lap...



Anyway, here's the footage. Enjoy!

Sports Land Yamanashi 08/07/05

Had to be at SLY around 7:30 so it was a pretty early morning leaving Tokyo at 5:30. If the entrance to the course was anything to go by, this was going to be one tiny circuit. Still, good, goods in small parcels as my mum used to say.

Aki-san had organized a great day for us under the guidance of one Sunako-san who is a GT driver here in Japan. We started the day with some elementary exercises, practicing braking and a one corner attack and then getting feedback on how we did. It was great to review this. I found the one corner attack pretty hard as when you are out of rhythm its hard to just line up and attack it each time from a standing start. That was very interesting and I wanted a little more practice but I think we probably had too many cars on the track at once lined up so it was hard to get the most out of the time.

After this we need a free run where Sunako-san watched from the outside and then gave us feedback later in class. His comments for me were that I was too consistent and didn't try enough variations to see if something else would work better. I didn't quiet understand the relevance of this at the time, but later in the day when he drove my car, I saw how he tried different things each time to get the most out of it - changing gears in different sports etc.

When Sunako-san drove my car, I was impressed again how a pro can pivot the car where I couldn't. I decided to ask him later how he did that but one of the other things I noticed was how he changed down in the 1st. I never thought that was an option but I guess when you think about it, it is just a lower gear after all. Mentally it seems, I'd always just associated 1st gear with starting the car off. Another lock unlocked!

When that in mind I went back out on the track and experimented some more, trying 1st gear etc. All of a sudden, the car pivoted around the bends just like it had done for him. I must have attacked quite a few fast laps after that and with it, my rear tires started to lose more and more grip as I was using them more and more to rotate the car. It was super fun and I got a little carried away perhaps as rounding the chicane, the back went way out and left me skidding backwards and sideways towards the pit wall. Luckily enough, the tires took off most of the speed and I stopped in time. Whew.

Next session, I'm currently uploading as a video. Hopefully, available soon. Next session I broke into the 43s time frame which was pretty decent I think. I tried just doing a lap or two and then taking some time out to let the tires recover. I probably could have gone faster around the first corner/second corner section but the car always felt a little light there.

I learned lots during the day and realized why I always seem to have trouble when I leave the car in 3rd going into the hairpin at Fuji. Thanks Aki!

Next Party Race 7/27

Well, last night I signed up to the next Party Race which takes place on 27th of July. Can't wait to learn more racing technique. Racing is somehow a greater freedom that a track day as instead of worrying if someone has seen you, you can just make the move and he better have. Not sure if that makes sense, but it does somehow to me :-) Wish me luck!

Tsukuba TC2000 08/06/21

Had a run at Tsukuba just over a week ago on the 21st. Was on new RE11 rubber so was taking it mostly easy. It was actually a very frustrating 2 sessions as there were fast cars that were slow on the bends taking part so it was hard to knit a lap together for the most part as there was always someone either on me in a corner or right in front of me slowing me down. Hmmm.

Used the two sessions mostly to try to get rid of under-steer around most of the corners by turning in earlier. I think it worked for the most part but it did mean I was corner more with the rear so the rear was a little nervous on the exit unless I timed it right. Very interesting how the behaviour changed.

I also tried a few different things on the last corner but nothing really worked. I have an image of how I want to take the last corner but putting the image into practice is scary. I know I can do it but making the jump is not so easy. I think I need more mental training on that one.

As well as new rubber I also go new wheels which are exactly the same ones that I already own. I also bought some Endless pads which I still have to put on the car to try out. I'm not happy with the Mazdaspeed pads at all on the car at the moment so I'm going to give the Endless pads a try and see if I want to go back to MS :-) Apparently the feel of the pad is not so good but at least they probably won't be prone to fade. I'm thinking to install them before the 9th when I have a Party Race practice session so I guess I'll install them next weekend.

Fuji Speedway 08/06/07

Ran two sessions at Fuji yesterday. The main idea was not to attack the course and get a new best lap but to actually not worry about lap times and just try a few things out. The track was also very crowded particularly in the second session so it would have been hard to get a clean lap anyway.

Yesterday I tried out left foot braking for the first time. I found the most difficult part of left foot braking is getting your left foot to actually come over to the brake peddle. It's so far away and not something you usually do so it took major effort to get it over. Once over, I found pressing the peddle also too major commitment and had to fight off imagines of spinning out and wondering how to stop the car with left or right foot etc.

Once I did brake though, I found it was easy enough to modulate the brake. People say the first time you try it you tend to slap on it like a clutch but I found it ok. I guess this is because I usually left foot brake in GT. The hardest thing was when to brake. I kept braking too early and defeating the purpose of the exercise of carrying more speed. As I would brake earlier, I'd slow earlier, then visually, I'd see I was going slower than my image of the corner so I wouldn't brake at the proper place an under-steer off as the car wouldn't rotate as it does when you get the braking just right. My main problems were at the hairpin.

Left foot braking seems to work well at Corner 13 though so will work on it more there in the future I think. I had about 5 different off track experiences while trying all this stuff out but Fuji is definitely a good place to practice this as the track runoff is so big.

Anyway, my next run seems to be in Tsukuba in 2 weeks. I'm a bit worried about the amount of thread on my left front shoulder though. Its pretty worn at this stage. Hmmm.

Also no video of these two sessions unfortunately as I switched the damn thing off by pressing the remote twice to turn it on/off :-( Oh well.

Fuji Speedway video from 08/05/30

Finally got some footage online from last Fridays session at Fuji. The video shows 4 laps altogether. The first two laps are from the 1st session. Although I managed to get a few 1'15s in the first session, I was under-steering quite a lot mostly because of turning in too late. The next 2 laps although on a damper track, show the same lap times but with improved turn in leading
to less under-steer. These laps are from the beginning of the 4th session before my video cut out. The tires are probably making a little too much noise so I probably have to work on silencing them a little perhaps. Hmmm. Can I find 3 more seconds? How many more seconds are in there I wonder. Going to be fun finding them! Enjoy the video!

Fuji Speedway 08/05/30

I love Fuji speedway. There is so much on offer. Every corner is a battle to get right not to mention all in the same lap. I'm not approaching the limit of the car yet but I am banging off my limit right now without thinking about things a little more. Every second from here is going to be pure joy.

So, its no surprise that I should desire to take Friday off even though it was a rather damp morning and head to the mountain. I had high hopes for a great day, rain or shine.

My R-34 GT-R buddy was already there when I arrived at Fuji's car park. He was easy to spot because of the bright blue color and the fact that the car park was nearly empty. The day was looking good. There were 6 x 30 minute sessions at available at Fuji on this particular day. I decided to do 3 or them.

First session was 9:45 and it was pretty dry. I managed a bunch of 2'15 times which I was pretty happy with as my best in the RX-8 was 2'14.81. Second session it started to rain a little but I still managed to keep most of my times
around 2'16 or so. The RE-11 tires were very inspiring.

Third session and my S2000 mate joined in the fun. The surface was pretty dry again, but it had been about 2 hours since I'd been on the track so the tires were cold. I gave it a little too much welly on the exit of the last corner and spun out on the first lap! Opps... It was totally savable too but I guess I hadn't got in the swing of things yet after that large curry I had for lunch... A good spin always wakes you up though and gets you in the mood so I got my best time of the day shortly after that with a 2'14.75 beating my RX-8 best time! Kewl!

Unfortunately, I also ran out of fuel about 4 laps later and had to head in for gas. What a waste as I had about 10 minutes left in the session. I thought I'd do a forth session to make up for this since the S2000 had only just arrived anyway.

It started raining lightly again in the 4th session and unfortunately my video cut out on me as the battery died. I did another 2'14 time again on the last lap in the rain. I think the rain helped because it was easier to turn the car on corner entry as the back was looser. The RE-11s were very progressive and confidence inspiring again. I'd really love to have had that extra footage though as I was obviously driving a lot better as my speed were down slightly in the 100R because of the rain.

Some lap times for the record:

1. 2'14.75
2. 2'14.91
3. 2'15.08
4. 2'15.27
5. 2'15.32

Wish I could have sector times for Fuji. I must check whether my lap timer can do this next time or I'll need to invest in a GPS data logger of some sort to figure things out.

Anyway, I'll try upload some footage at some stage. Stay tuned!

4th to 5th clunk

Gear oil change has made things quite smooth. The oil heats up faster and gear changes happen smoother quicker after a cold start. Previously, it took a little patience to get it in gear if the gear oil was cold. Anyway, that seems improved now...

However, one of the reasons I got the change for in the beginning was a kind of a spinning noise and a clunky feeling/vibration when changing from 4th to 5th. This is most noticeable when changing up to 5th at about 2500 revs or so and shifting relatively effeciently into 5th before the revs dropped so much. I don't mean, snapping it in quickly, just a normal shift really. If I wait for the revs to drop a little with the clutch in, it shifts into 5th very smoothly.

After talking to D-Tech, this happened because I hit the 5th gear gate at high revs when changing up from 2nd to 3rd. Hmmm. Is this transmission really that weak that this happened just because of one shift miss?! Anyway, I've decided to drive it as it is for now and get more practice in on this box before fixing the problem under warranty. It shouldn't damage anything else I am told and I don't really need 5th at Tsukuba although I do at Fuji.

Btw, the gear oil I'm using is Motul 75W140 Competition

In other news, I'll be in Karuizawa this weekend at the Roadster meeting. Should be fun!!!

Pit stop for gear/diff oil

As I missed 3rd a few times over the qualification and race, I decided it would be best to change the gear and LSD oil again seeing that I'm nearly also at 3000 km. I've changed gear oil at 1000, 1800 and now 3000 already. Both oils needed changing as it turned out so I'm glad I did it again. The gear change has become noticeably smoother again.

I also bought a fire extinguisher which is required for TC2000 touring class runs, another set of spare Mazdaspeed front pads and some spare brakefluid. Money flying out the window again. But money well spent I think. I need to buy a little floor mat or something now to stick the fire extinguisher to in the car.

Party Race 08/05/05 Video

I finally had the time also to cut the video of the race and add some comments. Feel the pain with me as I stuffed the start and got passed by 5 cars before the first corner. Yikes... This video shows the formation lap, followed by the 10 lap race. Enjoy!

Party Race 08/05/05

This post is a few days late. It's taken time to recover from all the preparation, the two consecutive days at the track in Tsukuba and the race itself.

On Sunday I did 4 sessions on TC1000 including a dummy race. I was second on the grid in the dummy race and did a near perfect start to take first by the first corner. I led then pretty easily for 3 laps before I had brake problems on the first hairpin and shot off straight. This was explained later as ABS kicking in. Apparently the ABS is the roadster is not very clever and can lead to air in the brake lines if over used. I guess I was leaning on it a little hard. The ABS on the RX-8 was so much better. I never had any trouble with brakes. I'm having trouble every run now with brakes it seems. I'm trying desperately to perfect it but its hard as its really tough to tell when ABS is actually kicking in. There is little to no feedback in my opinion. Anyway, after running wide, I ended up third after the 5 laps. Good experience.

I changed my front pads that night and put on some fresh Mazdaspeed pads with the help of some mates. I also put gum tape over the wheel weights as required by the regulations.

Race day started early.. I woke up at 4am, downstairs by 4:30 and at was at the circuit by 5am. Some last minute prep and then I was signed up and the car was checked and weighed by the officials. Qualification was from 8am.

Qualification was really frustrating. 21 cars were each trying for their best times in the 10 minute time frame. I was running a little faster than most so found that I was always catching someone at a crucial moment in my fast lap. It was either that or I'd make a mistake such as not being able to engage 3rd gear for some reason or go a little wide. I did manage to kick off one fast lap though - a 1'10.777 which is a personal best in the roadster so far. When I got back to the pits, I was told I had done enough for position 2 on the grid!!! What the hell was I doing there??!!! I was so excited and happy. Izumi-san got 1st on the grid so that made me even happier. That's one and two to TCR2000 cars!

People kept telling me not to be nervous. I actually wasn't so nervous though and felt pretty relaxed. I took my girlfriend around on the parade lap and she kept telling me to go faster which was funny as she never actually wants me to drive that fast on the road. We kept it slow and waved to the crowds enjoying our little bit of celebrity.

After that I parked in P2 on the grid. Nobody in front of me, the first corner lurking. It seemed pretty easy. Only thing that bothered me was that the light was difficult to see as the side of my roll cage was in the way. Green flag came and I practiced a start. Got the revs wrong and burned rubber. Well at least that should make the real start easier...

Back on the grid again. Waiting for the 5 second board to show. Rev'd the engine to 4000 and stared at the light. I noticed my rev's climbing to 5000 so looked down at the crucial moment to put them back to 4000. But when I looked up the light was gone. Izumi-san was already away. Shit! I dropped the handbrake, popped the clutch and hit the throttle in panic trying to get going as quick as possible. Big mistake!!! Terrible wheels spin, revs banging off the limiter and I got it in 2nd gear. Two cars already shot by me and there was another on my inside already. By the time I reached the first corner, 5 cars had got by and I was down to 7th place.

I remember thinking to myself something like, well there goes all the hard work of qualifying, but also thinking to myself that now the pressure was off and I could just enjoy the race and try to pass someone.

At first, I was pretty shocked at how close we all were. I tried to pass on the 2nd hairpin but had to brake to avoid the car infront of the car I was trying to pass mid corner and lost my pass. 3 laps in I misjudged the brakes of the leaders again who were a little slow on the same corner and came close to diving up the inside into them. I'm not sure if they knew how close I'd got to hitting them. I honestly don't know how I managed to get around the corner except on instinct. That episode gave me the confidence to push hard after that and I was no longer afraid of hitting any one under brakes.

I ran a close race to the car infront of me. Tsukuba is so tight that I lost a lot of speed in places trying to avoid him on acceleration out of the corners. It was very frustrating. I was faster but couldn't pass. Lacking experience I guess. On the 7th lap I pushed a little too hard and lost the back on the exit which cost me some time trying to recover it and thus went my passing chance. Luckily there was nobody close behind to capitalize on it. I ran the last two laps trying to play catchup and came up a very happy 7th place.

I really enjoyed the race. I learned so much about myself, my driving and how important a good start is :-) I also learned how hard it is to pass at Tsukuba. I'll have to remember this well so that when I qualify 1st next time, I don't even have to bother looking in my mirrors to defend my place. I know I have the speed to win in Clubman 1 at least. I just gotta make it happen.

Special thanks to all that made the day happen for me. D-Tech for the great car; Juergen, Ako and Ishida-san for the great photos; Simon, Gill and Kaneda-san for their help in the pits; Richard for his handy soldering skills; Aki for all things clean and for those of you who came to watch on the day.

Ready, steady, go!

My good friend helped me out big time on Tuesday. The man is an Internet of knowledge on car detailing. In all we spent about 6 hours together preparing the paint with washing and claying. The car was already pretty clean but it soon became super clean.

After the prep was done, we moved on to waxing and adding different coats that I couldn't pretend to understand. We used various Zaino products that my mate had imported all the way from the US. He kept feeling up the car as he went, admiring his work until it felt like the inner thigh of a beautiful women. Gotta love his imagery but I think it was suitable for when I touched our work, the smoothness put a huge smile on my face. The touch became more of a caress. Yummy.

The man didn't stop on the body though, nor just the stuff on the outside. The engine bay also got it's protective coating as did the wheels, top, and pretty much anything he could see. Something for everything - a real Mary Poppins.

About 9pm at night on the 5th hour, he thought we were done but I took out the stickers that I needed to apply for the race on the 5th. An hour later, they were all in place and we were both hungry and tired. So we headed off for food.

Next day before running to work, I had to run 3 minutes down the street to where the car is parked to admire it in the daylight. These photos don't really touch how lovely it looks and how slick it feels. Its a shame, I can't park the car inside and I can't see it every day in the daylight during the week.

Anyway, thank you - I'll try and keep it clean and the panels safe!

TC2000 08/04/22 - video

Here is footage from the 5th session of the day. Track was open so was able to attack and learn as much as I could. The RE11 tires do very well. I still have a lot of work to do on most of the corners but now that I'm getting used to the car again, I should be able to concentrate more on my lines and driving technique. Anyway, here are a couple of laps... Enjoy!

TC2000 08/04/22

Had a great first day on the track at Tsukuba. The first session was a little intense. The tires were cold and the car felt very different to how my RX-8 used to feel. It felt light and torquey. It took a while to brave up to this and to learn what kind of grip the RE11 tires were generating. All the time being passed left right and center by the rest of the pack. I got a best of 1'13.332 on the last lap (lap 15) of the first session. Hmmm. long way to go!

Before the second session I got a ride with a pro in a Mazda supplied car. This was amazing and gave me a good feeling for how the car really worked. So back into my car again and out for the second session. Not many passed me this time and I got a best lap of 1'12.254. Big improvement but I was under-steering on important corners so lots more time in there.

I had 3 more sessions with D-Technique after that and as the petrol load got less and I got used to the car, I got a best of 1'11.740 in the first session, a 1'11.639 in the 2nd and my best time in the final session - a 1'10.897 - errrm right before getting fuel cut and deciding to head back to the pits.

Including all sessions, top 5 times for the record were:
1. 1'10.897 - 28.961 29.274 12.662 - 146.124 km/h
2. 1'11.028 - 29.089 29.175 12.764 - 147.059 km/h
3. 1'11.437 - 29.074 29.686 12.677 - 146.124 km/h
4. 1'11.639 - 29.011 29.629 12.999 - 146.223 km/h
5. 1'11.703 - 29.228 29.621 12.854 - 147.259 km/h

Looking at the best sectors, that's a virtual time of: 1'10.658. (I got a 28.821 on the first sector on a different lap). Hmmm. A 1'10 will hopefully become a more common occurrence once I sort the car out and wear down the tires a little bit more.

I'll try get some video footage up sometime soon.

Cockpit Camera

I got a Xacti to record the goings on in the cabin as it works with an SD card and is quite light. Oh it also works with a Mac which was another plus for it. My last camera only saved ASF files which were not very Mac friendly.

Only problem was that since the camera is mounted so far forward in the roadster that the angle wasn't wide enough. Unfortunately for me, the Xacti I bought didn't support any lens attachments! Yikes! After a bit of looking about on the net, I found a .45mm magnetic lens that would suck to the camera. This also had its drawbacks though as the magnet was not strong enough to withstand a little shake or two. No way to use it for driving. Hmmm.

Seeing as this was my only usage for the camera, I decided to take a drastic measure and attach the lens to the camera with silicon seal. The silicon has nice flex in it so that it shouldn't break under the rattles of driving unlike perhaps super glue. I'll probably add another layer of silicon around the edges once I see what its like in the car. That was the advice at least of the Feather King :-)

Anyway, here are the results so far.

The cockpit view:


Xacti side view:


Xacti from a different angle:

Tsukuba License

Since I needed to insure myself for at least 9million yen for the upcoming race, I decided to get a Tsukuba circuit license which provides this cover. It was the same price (36,000 yen) as just buying insurance from the Party Race organized one but this one lasts all year and gives me cheap track time too. Well worth it me thinks.

So my one and only practice day at TC2000 is coming up on the 22nd in two days time. Quite excited by that. I'm wondering what kind of time I can achieve. Previously I was thinking I should be able to get a 1'10 at least. Now, I'm kind of left wondering. The main issue I have with the car is braking. I can't seem to brake consistently into a corner where I need to toe and heel unless I'm stomping on the brakes. The effect is weight transfer back and forth leading to unstable entry meaning I slow down too much. This is just impressions from running at Fuji last time where I found the amount of weight transfer to the front uncanny compared to my RX-8. The RX-8 of course was equiped with an after-market suspension which was easier to control under braking. In effect, I think I'll be happy enough with a 1'12 if I can get that the first day out and be really happy with anything faster.

Anyway, this is a good thing in a way as controlling it will make me a better driver. The RX-8 was a little to easy in this respect perhaps. So looking forward to getting back on the track again and seeing what this baby can do. Go 73!

Number 73

Received my Party Race number in the post yesterday. Its number 73. Go 73!!!

Meet Tweety

I finally got my yellow TCR-2000 last week. It had 5km on the clock. I've since driven it 1800km. I changed all the oil at 1070km after the initial break in period.

The TCR-2000 is a car built by the good people at D-Technique. Its name comes from the Tsukuba Circuit 2000 course which it is tuned towards. It's based on a standard NR-A model roadster which is only available here in Japan.

I hope to take part in the Mazda Party Races this year of which there are 4 races. I don't expect to win but I do expect to have lots of fun trying. The first race is on May 5th.

I previously drove a Mazda RX-8 which I had called Roxy. I guess you could say that I like Yellow cars :-)