tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-40589081518953700122011-12-13T19:59:52.557+09:00Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03982000132277245155noreply@blogger.comBlogger691100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4058908151895370012.post-41525672404451124152011-12-13T19:59:00.001+09:002011-12-13T19:59:52.575+09:00

Visited Sodegaura Forest raceway against this Sunday. Fantastic weather. Am really loving this track. In particular corners 3 and 4 are wonderful. Forth lap of the day I actually took 2 seconds off my previous time and ended up with a 1'21.72. After that I had some trouble with air in my brakes and I never could improve on the time as I lost some of the control over the braking - particularly on

Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03982000132277245155noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4058908151895370012.post-28432172111327338082011-11-21T23:14:00.001+09:002011-11-21T23:20:58.547+09:00

Decided that my brakes were long due an overhaul and decided that rather than hand it over to a shop to do it, I should take on the challenge myself. I just did the front brakes but I learned loads doing it. I'm going to do the rears another day. Hardest part was getting the piston out without an air compressor. That worked out to be a trip to the local gas station for each caliper. Most worrying

Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03982000132277245155noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4058908151895370012.post-60305140208389830872011-11-21T22:32:00.001+09:002011-11-21T23:11:49.981+09:00

I took the circuit license at Sodegaura Forest Raceway with some of my mates about 2 weeks ago. Fantastic day. I did two sessions. First session I drove well within the car as I drove around and tried to learn the lines etc. I think I got a 1'26.9 or something. 2nd session I drove faster each lap and ended up with a 1'23.7 but there is still loads more time there. The circuit is very interesting

Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03982000132277245155noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4058908151895370012.post-40852103885972559272011-10-18T22:12:00.002+09:002011-10-18T22:46:12.556+09:00

Well, it's been forever since my last update. I still intend to getting around to uploading the race video of the last race. Not sure why I just can't get around to it. Footage is downstairs on another machine so perhaps its just laziness.In the mean time though, you must be wondering why there is no updates. Well. I missed the next race as I was out of the country and then the last race of the

Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03982000132277245155noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4058908151895370012.post-66050578624237728502010-07-31T22:18:00.008+09:002010-08-01T17:03:41.096+09:00

It's nearly been a week now. Sorry for the delay but I've been rather busy. I'm still seriously lacking photos of the event. Hopefully, some will come in.About 10 minutes before hoping into the car for qualification, I had to run down to the toilet. Something I ate for breakfast wasn't sitting well and I was feeling rather like throwing up. After some deep breaths in the cubicle, I finally calmed

Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03982000132277245155noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4058908151895370012.post-84941756815540598202010-07-25T23:51:00.004+09:002010-07-25T23:58:33.809+09:00

More to come on this but here is a little photo of the takings at the Party Race II event earlier today.

Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03982000132277245155noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4058908151895370012.post-23247938361010689322010-05-13T17:40:00.002+09:002010-05-13T17:44:50.243+09:00

Sunday May 5th was the first Party Race of the year. This year, Mazda is not sponsoring it so, its now known as Party Race II. Some differences in the regulations also exist like the use of ENDLESS brake pads over MazdaSpeed pads and braided brake lines are now allowed. We have the option of running the MS pads until after the 2nd race, so that is what I ran as I didn't want to learn a new brake

Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03982000132277245155noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4058908151895370012.post-77938471117307833642010-03-04T00:43:00.003+09:002010-03-04T01:18:11.594+09:00

Suzuka, Suzuka, Suzuka - how have you evaded me for so long?I really wanted to try Suzuka last year but never got around to it. It's quite far down the road at 390km door-to-door and its not a cheap circuit to run. Finally on Feb 25th I took 2 days off work especially and headed down for 2 x 1 hour sessions.The weather was perfect and myself and a good friend drove down, enjoyed eel on the way

Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03982000132277245155noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4058908151895370012.post-38112555595837312652010-01-07T21:43:00.003+09:002010-01-07T22:06:54.584+09:00

Delighted to return to the track and a glorious day at Fuji with some good mates. What better way to celebrate such a day! It had been ages since I'd been around Fuji so I was very rusty in the first session and under-steered off the track on a few of the harder corners like Corner 13, Netz and the last corner. I soon got back into my rhythm though and got some decent 2'13 times.My previous best

Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03982000132277245155noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4058908151895370012.post-23611830175875710392009-12-10T21:20:00.003+09:002009-12-10T22:13:23.025+09:00

Ok... not my bum exactly but my cars bum. If you have read the previous post, you'll have noted that Tweety got hit in the back on the first corner of the first lap. I was actually watching it from the outside as I was the third driver for this particular endurance race. Anyway, its not major damage but the car is still being repaired. Here are some photos of the carnage after I got back to

Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03982000132277245155noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4058908151895370012.post-57803858817392504202009-11-17T00:40:00.007+09:002009-11-17T01:07:30.367+09:00

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

Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03982000132277245155noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4058908151895370012.post-9658392319605502552009-11-11T00:22:00.003+09:002009-11-11T00:32:19.679+09:00

2 weeks ago, I climbed in after the car had been idle for about 3 days and the car wouldn't start. It was as if I wasn't pressing the clutch. Noticed the imobilizer light was flashing. Oh dear. Called JAF who poked around in the bonnet, checking fuses etc and as if by some magic, the car started albeit with an engine check lamp.Off to Mazda who confirmed there HAD been an issue but all was

Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03982000132277245155noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4058908151895370012.post-75439562920418825462009-10-28T09:28:00.002+09:002009-10-28T09:31:24.239+09:00

After much thought, I decided to put up a short video of the incident from the last race.

Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03982000132277245155noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4058908151895370012.post-4460346434650365252009-10-19T23:30:00.003+09:002009-10-19T23:44:12.916+09:00

Just an update to say that I finally got the car back yesterday after quite an eventful end of September and beginning of October. I went to Australia for 10 days and also headed off to California to watch the season finale of the StarMazda series which my friend Deki-san over at D-Technique was racing in. Fantastic race. Fellow countryman Peter Dempsey unfortunately lost out with a very harsh

Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03982000132277245155noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4058908151895370012.post-54564489580144669292009-09-07T23:28:00.002+09:002009-09-07T23:34:07.629+09:00

I guess a few photos are due of the damage.Could have been a lot worse me thinks!Still I guess a bang on the wheel like that will mean that I should check some other things like the wheel bearings perhaps? No noise as it is right now and the car drives perfectly, so will have to see what is under there.

Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03982000132277245155noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4058908151895370012.post-70454487262423559532009-09-06T23:24:00.003+09:002009-09-07T00:03:11.197+09:00

Yesterday was the 3rd Party Race of the year. As you may have noticed from the lack of blog entries I had not practiced at all for this race since my last effort in late July. I had of course driven in the 12 hour race in a FF Honda Prelude but that hardly counts as its a very different beast.As always the most difficult 10 minutes are first. Qualification. How do you hop into the car after not

Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03982000132277245155noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4058908151895370012.post-83162566540459967972009-08-18T21:19:00.005+09:002009-08-18T21:42:03.372+09:00

They say you should face your fears so it was very natural for me to suggest that I take a night time stint in this years 12 hour race at Ebisu to see how I would get on. I was feeling rather confident as the weather was perfect with zero rain or fog forecast.Rod arrived in full of excitement and told me how great it was on the new tires and how he'd just set a new fastest time in the car.

Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03982000132277245155noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4058908151895370012.post-26122057845554158082009-08-13T19:42:00.003+09:002009-08-13T19:48:14.197+09:00

Leaving tomorrow morning to head up to Fukushima to take part in a 12 hour endurance race around Ebisu East course. To this effect, we bought and have since been preparing a car for the job. Have a look over at The TGR Blog for more details and perhaps some live updates on how we are doing. The race is being held this Saturday from 9am to 9pm! 12 hours sure does sound long when you lay it out

Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03982000132277245155noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4058908151895370012.post-78011567470230006652009-08-04T23:07:00.004+09:002009-08-05T00:21:26.252+09:00

Bringing up the rear... paddy last... Arguably my worst result in a race so far. Result yes, but I'd argue that it was one of my better performances. It's really hard to pass at Tsukuba so a race really comes down to the following formula for the most part... Do well in the Qualification, get a good start, stay clear of first corner trouble while being aggressive enough to keep or grab places,

Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03982000132277245155noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4058908151895370012.post-56794448185431608962009-07-16T21:36:00.004+09:002009-07-16T22:05:35.487+09:00

Had a great time at SSPark. I've been rather busy recently so its taken me a while again to create some footage to sum up the 2 days.The first day we worked on 3 separate areas of the gymkhana area. We had a big open area with cones where we could do anything we wanted to practice like handbrake turns, small circle drifting, figure of 8s etc. Another area, we concentrated on faster turns and

Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03982000132277245155noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4058908151895370012.post-2201856172723092972009-06-28T10:12:00.004+09:002009-06-28T10:18:32.116+09:00

Yesterday I finally got a chance to work on the car a little. I swapped out the rear pads with new new ones. It had been a while since I had replaced the rear pads so it took me some probing around to figure out how to do it. The handbrake/piston thing would back with no issues on each side. I remember doing this on the RX-8 and it was a nightmare. I guess this is how it is supposed to work. Easy

Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03982000132277245155noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4058908151895370012.post-41890542126641965762009-06-21T20:51:00.004+09:002009-06-21T21:09:19.494+09:00

Last weekend the 13th, I did 2 runs at Tsukuba. The first session, I had just rotated my front left/right tire so I was getting huge oversteer for most of the 1st hairpin until I'd shaped the fronts into their new positions. Likewise, I was under-steering around the right handers. The 2nd session, I felt more confident that the tires were working a bit better again so I set out to do a fast lap

Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03982000132277245155noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4058908151895370012.post-46409811921398475092009-06-16T23:51:00.002+09:002009-06-16T23:52:50.246+09:00

As the previous day in Tsukuba was such a disaster brake-wise, I thought I'd blog happier news first and show you all some karting photos from Sunday.We did the 8pm night race again at the New Tokyo Circuit. That place is great fun and the karts are all decent for the most part. Highly recommended!I managed to grab pole again much to the dismay of my fellow racers. K was looking pretty fast

Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03982000132277245155noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4058908151895370012.post-17512929148927020382009-06-08T08:11:00.003+09:002009-06-08T08:15:43.288+09:00

Here is another 3 laps from Ebisu as the course was drying out and I was on my own in the car so I could go a little faster.

Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03982000132277245155noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4058908151895370012.post-3734869505143297882009-06-04T01:05:00.005+09:002009-06-08T00:10:57.577+09:00

Wet/Semi-wet day at Ebisu Circuit. It was my first time there in the roadster. We had 5 sessions altogether. Only the first one was dry really. My best time of the day was around 1'14.699. Semi-wet or mostly dry it didn't seem to make much difference.Looking at the videos, I was pretty cautious through the chicane. The rear end seemed very light on turn in to the left part which was a little

Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03982000132277245155noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4058908151895370012.post-81898618663148636472009-05-21T21:49:00.002+09:002009-05-21T21:55:21.084+09:00

Ever since last year when I competed in the 12 hour endurance race in the Honda Civic, I've been dying to get back to Ebisu circuit in the roadster to see how it would like it. Finally, I've managed to hook up a date with 2 good mates and a tuner called Bozz Speed. Should prove for an interesting day out. Now if only Ebisu circuit wasn't so damn far away... Guess its not as far as Suzuka. Suzuka

Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03982000132277245155noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4058908151895370012.post-82889748063142822482009-05-20T20:45:00.002+09:002009-05-20T20:51:56.169+09:00

While I am not sure if it is totally allowed to post footage from the Party Race, I guess 2 laps won't hurt anybody and I've been wanting to show off the new RPM input into my TraqMate video setup.Anyway, here are two early laps from the rather wet race. These were not my best laps for sure but they are a little exciting none-the-less as on the first lap of the video, I just got away without

Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03982000132277245155noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4058908151895370012.post-66239914469899814762009-05-18T22:20:00.006+09:002009-05-18T23:17:03.945+09:00

As is usual, I neglected to make full use of my camera as the day swallowed me. Try clicking on the photo to find the precious few that I did manage to snap though.May 5th celebrates my 1st year anniversary since I competed in my debut race. This year I decided to compete again in the Emblem race rather than dropping down to Clubman 2. The competition is fierce in Emblem usually and this year

Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03982000132277245155noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4058908151895370012.post-51841828904601538022009-05-03T10:54:00.001+09:002009-05-03T10:54:14.184+09:00

Bit of a disaster of a day at Tsukuba today. 30 cars on the track and not all of them managed to stay on it all the time so there was quite a lot of yellow flags throughout my 3 sessions. Best time was 1'11.3 which I set in the first session even though I had nearly a full tank of gas.Anyway, Monday and Tuesday await and I'm a little more ready now. This photo shows my new helmet paint to match

Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03982000132277245155noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4058908151895370012.post-17527474195252414122009-04-30T00:45:00.002+09:002009-04-30T00:53:19.473+09:00

I still haven't found my way to TC2000 since the last race. I haven't been avoiding it... just worked out that way. I was supposed to go on the 25th but it was a very wet day so I canceled and ended up going karting on the 26th instead.Karting is such a blast particularly when you get a nice handling kart which just does what you want it do do. Even it wild oversteer moments if you are quick

Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03982000132277245155noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4058908151895370012.post-88747732840285197972009-04-23T23:44:00.002+09:002009-04-24T00:14:15.472+09:00

The TraqMate unit provides a wire whose sole purpose in life is to hook into a tachometer feed and tell you how many RPMs you are doing. By hooking in RPMs, tire sizes, gear ratios etc you also get some other info like what gear you are in, what HP/Torque your car is producing. It also makes for more entertaining videos as the rpm needle should finally move!After asking around and gathering the

Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03982000132277245155noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4058908151895370012.post-46238629825734671162009-04-09T22:07:00.002+09:002009-04-09T22:20:49.647+09:00

I've been wanting to upload a TraqMate video of March 10th at Fuji for sometime now but I thought it would be fun to show a little demo of how easy it is using the TraqMate/Chasecam combination to pull out a video of your best lap of a certain session. So here it is...Two things wrong with this video of course... One is that the video capture program that I used to capture the video from my

Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03982000132277245155noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4058908151895370012.post-69796899913811247042009-03-28T17:45:00.004+09:002009-03-28T18:14:29.448+09:00

I'm rather late about posting an update on TC1000. Needless to say I had a great time and it was great to be back in the car again and to put it through its paces. Before going though, my tires were in bad condition from the last endurance race last year. The front tires were pretty badly worn so I decided to try using 2 rear tires from my spare set on the front and to see how that went. The rear

Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03982000132277245155noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4058908151895370012.post-86343485403719242672009-02-27T00:53:00.003+09:002009-02-27T01:03:33.434+09:00

As promised in my previous post, here are some photos of the Traqmate Data Logger. I haven't got the installed photos handy right now but here is what it looks like when it arrives.This is the pizza style box it comes in. Quite nice presentation I think.And this is what's hiding inside! The Display Unit, Sensor Unit and a few other necessities.

Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03982000132277245155noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4058908151895370012.post-54828467346201927422009-02-26T22:24:00.004+09:002009-02-28T12:44:09.433+09:00

It's almost March! My first session since November's race last year will be at Tsukuba TC1000 on Sunday - March 1st. Can't wait to get back on the track.Since I've been gone, I've been busy saving money and well decided to splurge out and get a data logger. After looking around for quite a while I decided to go with TraqMate. Some cool features are:High GPS sampling rate (up to 40Hz). Higher

Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03982000132277245155noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4058908151895370012.post-15680077511682413632008-11-18T21:55:00.003+09:002008-11-19T07:22:27.639+09:00

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

Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03982000132277245155noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4058908151895370012.post-17029806527734440392008-11-13T23:22:00.002+09:002008-11-13T23:34:47.004+09:00

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

Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03982000132277245155noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4058908151895370012.post-85586268287166689512008-10-28T23:50:00.005+09:002008-10-29T00:10:54.735+09:00

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

Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03982000132277245155noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4058908151895370012.post-37911353839144916392008-10-10T23:08:00.002+09:002008-10-10T23:08:43.820+09:00

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

Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03982000132277245155noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4058908151895370012.post-73527047866937800972008-10-10T22:25:00.003+09:002008-10-10T23:09:09.442+09:00

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

Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03982000132277245155noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4058908151895370012.post-90636478982724690882008-10-06T21:23:00.002+09:002008-10-06T21:30:54.108+09:00

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

Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03982000132277245155noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4058908151895370012.post-6211444060950742532008-10-04T23:58:00.002+09:002008-10-05T00:02:05.960+09:00

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

Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03982000132277245155noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4058908151895370012.post-85122124417012071522008-09-24T21:40:00.003+09:002008-09-24T21:55:25.509+09:00

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!

Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03982000132277245155noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4058908151895370012.post-24856020118856332652008-09-21T16:26:00.005+09:002008-09-21T23:38:03.617+09:00

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

Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03982000132277245155noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4058908151895370012.post-8049518546300830132008-09-17T23:27:00.005+09:002008-09-18T00:06:45.132+09:00

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

Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03982000132277245155noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4058908151895370012.post-67339987891659319222008-08-13T09:00:00.002+09:002008-08-13T09:01:40.500+09:00

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

Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03982000132277245155noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4058908151895370012.post-68105039745656062042008-08-03T23:30:00.002+09:002008-08-03T23:49:34.851+09:00

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

Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03982000132277245155noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4058908151895370012.post-12192101997099606712008-07-30T23:54:00.001+09:002008-07-30T23:56:10.472+09:00

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 :-)

Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03982000132277245155noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4058908151895370012.post-85519935340124010062008-07-30T23:35:00.003+09:002008-07-30T23:46:05.134+09:00

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;

Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03982000132277245155noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4058908151895370012.post-47691582952656830022008-07-21T11:17:00.002+09:002008-07-21T11:25:07.889+09:00

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

Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03982000132277245155noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4058908151895370012.post-83685592318877642992008-07-06T19:30:00.001+09:002008-07-06T19:30:00.582+09:00

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.

Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03982000132277245155noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4058908151895370012.post-58769374919601367402008-07-06T18:31:00.002+09:002008-07-06T18:43:06.444+09:00

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

Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03982000132277245155noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4058908151895370012.post-58547146534404733812008-07-06T13:10:00.004+09:002008-07-06T23:13:57.507+09:00

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,

Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03982000132277245155noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4058908151895370012.post-74696794841315219812008-07-03T00:19:00.002+09:002008-07-03T00:22:10.855+09:00

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!

Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03982000132277245155noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4058908151895370012.post-77510218875690978712008-06-29T23:16:00.003+09:002008-06-29T23:28:00.066+09:00

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

Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03982000132277245155noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4058908151895370012.post-33327859693128838102008-06-08T12:56:00.003+09:002008-06-08T13:09:41.452+09:00

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

Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03982000132277245155noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4058908151895370012.post-44291610651786892622008-06-04T23:15:00.003+09:002008-06-04T23:23:26.332+09:00

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 leadingto less under-steer

Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03982000132277245155noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4058908151895370012.post-79183771475938090572008-06-01T22:37:00.002+09:002008-06-01T22:39:02.857+09:00

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

Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03982000132277245155noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4058908151895370012.post-50945925180278724332008-05-22T23:25:00.003+09:002008-05-22T23:40:53.961+09:00

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

Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03982000132277245155noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4058908151895370012.post-91708613602987617852008-05-17T18:12:00.002+09:002008-05-17T18:22:22.173+09:00

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

Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03982000132277245155noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4058908151895370012.post-66592361409720360842008-05-10T23:56:00.003+09:002008-05-11T00:00:33.018+09:00

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!

Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03982000132277245155noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4058908151895370012.post-28829603133708952812008-05-10T23:50:00.002+09:002008-05-11T00:30:30.409+09:00

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

Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03982000132277245155noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4058908151895370012.post-16961476942150682192008-05-02T21:40:00.002+09:002008-05-02T21:41:16.931+09:00

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

Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03982000132277245155noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4058908151895370012.post-15709260862223881122008-04-25T07:40:00.002+09:002008-04-25T07:45:03.215+09:00

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!

Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03982000132277245155noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4058908151895370012.post-88623895787172076422008-04-24T23:06:00.004+09:002008-05-11T00:31:06.779+09:00

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

Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03982000132277245155noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4058908151895370012.post-59989519368072818132008-04-21T21:04:00.006+09:002008-04-21T21:26:42.410+09:00

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

Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03982000132277245155noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4058908151895370012.post-9440072115833104682008-04-20T10:03:00.000+09:002008-04-20T10:14:10.282+09:00

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

Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03982000132277245155noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4058908151895370012.post-17793263615397222382008-04-17T09:38:00.000+09:002008-04-17T09:39:13.382+09:00

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

Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03982000132277245155noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4058908151895370012.post-69554398071468834732008-04-13T18:59:00.001+09:002008-04-13T19:42:37.454+09:00

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

Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03982000132277245155noreply@blogger.com0