Party Race - 2009/11/15

Party Race 1 hour endurance race was held yesterday. Deki-san qualified in my car and did a 1'09.6 to take 6th on the grid. Kato-san got pole with a 1'09.1.

Driver order for the race was Deki - 21 laps, Fujitomo - 9 laps and Tom the remaining 18 laps. Race start was delayed nearly an hour so my stint was going to be rather dark. Not dark again!!! I was excited to try Tsukuba in the dark though as I knew it was mostly decently lit.

For the race start, the cars were lined up against the pit wall. Starting driver was in the car
and I had to run from the opposite side and touch right hands before he could lower his right hand to start the car and go. while thinking about this, I forgot to start TraqMate!!! Damn.

Deki got a good enough start but not good enough to pass another car. I watched as he went into the first corner and saw another car try to go up his inside. It didn't seem possible from where I was standing and I heard a bang. Deki didn't come around with the leaders as he had been hit from behind and spun out on the first corner.

He finally appeared quite a bit back from the group but he rounded the last corner at full speed so I knew the car was mostly ok. Another car pitted. It was a fellow DTR team mates and the right front was bent in.

Meanwhile Deki drove like a man inspired and lapped mostly doing 1'10s and had a best of a 1'09. What a driver! When he pitted we were about 6th but he did a long stint so our real position was further back as other teams had likely already stopped for their required 1 minute pit stop.

Fujitomo was quick into the car as Deki got out. Both needed cushions as my seat is setup quite low. As Fujitomo was belted in I remembered TraqMate and reached over to press it on. Meanwhile the 1 minute pit stop had only seconds remaining. I pushed select 3 times instead of 2 and that's all I could do as I got out of the way as she wheel spun down the pit lane and out onto the course. Unfortunately, We'd get no data again as TraqMate was now asking if we wanted a "new start/finish line" instead of recording data.

Fujitomo did a great job and was very fast considering it was her first time driving the car. Deki was on the phone giving her support for the full number of laps. I had complete confidence in her as she has done a lot of formulae driving and has also won a Clubman 1 party race a year before I did in a Mazda Press car. Watching from the outside she was very smooth both out of the last corner and braking into the first corner. She scored a few 1'11s to put me to shame :-) Well done Fujitomo!!! Great driving!

As she pitted, it was my turn. I hopped in fixed the harness and seat. Got TraqMate started and was off on time. I came out of the pits right in front of car number 8 in 6th position. Wow! Great job team! I was confident that we could hold onto 6th and I wasn't going to let anyone past.

I drove steady the first lap to check the car while keeping the car behind me. Brakes felt better than I expected, but the overall balance of the car was a little weird compared to normal. I put it down to strange tire pressures. It was more than manageable though.

Braking into the 2nd hairpin, something hard came flying into the footwell. I tried to kick it out of the way with my foot but for the rest of the race it would come play with my peddles and me under braking. Quite dangerous but not much I could do except keep going. I found out at the end of the race that it was the official time sensor. The pin holding it to its base where it was taped on the door had somehow worked its way loose and it had fallen down.

On the 2nd lap before Dunlop, I noticed the clutch slipping for the first time. It was the first time, I'd ever felt a clutch slip and I had no idea how best to handle it. After Dunlop and into the second hairpin it went again and such was my puzzlement that I got the car a little sideways on the exit onto the back straight and two cars got past. The clutch made it very hard to pass the cars back again as I would just lose them on the back straight.

Another car came out of the pits in front of me and stayed there for the rest of the race. One more car would get by on the back straight as I fought the clutch for more speed. I tried to up my lap times with more speed around the last corner but I wasn't entirely happy with the cars handling to push more. I was lapped by a very fast car 50 who went around the outside on the last corner with some fantastic late braking. He was unbelievable fast and amazing to watch as he also easily past the two cars infront of me like they were standing still. Maybe a slightly lighter car than ours considering our fuel load where we went a little over board. I managed to score mostly 1'11s which is not bad I think on a bad clutch and handling I wasn't entirely happy with.

We would finish 10th in the dark. I'm quite proud of our team "T3" for getting up as far as 10th considering the clutch and the accident at the start of the race. "What if?" does spring to mind though and leaves me wanting more next year!

After the race when the car was being checked, the officials noticed some oil around the diff. Driving home also felt very weird as the rear end of the car seemed to float around behind me. I wonder if the diff is gone or going too? Perhaps the last accident when my wheel was hit in the last race may have weakened the diff a little? There is definitely a smell of oil if I accelerate around a corner also. I will get that checked.

So! What an exciting weekend I had. Car got another battle scar. I got to race with 2 wonderful team mates. Thank you Deki and Fujitomo! Kato was also in action for DTR in car 27 and they managed to get 4th place. Congratulations guys! Congrats too to all of the other DTR members who finished their races. As for car 100 - I can't believe you had the nerve to hit Deki in the back! I hope the car is not too bad and doesn't cost so much to repair.

I'll try to post some photos later when I check my camera etc. I still haven't taken any photos of the damage of the rear nor seen it in day light. Maybe I'll get up early tomorrow morning to have a look at it.