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...