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...