Back to Attack-ing 2013!

2013 was a flurry of activity for me and for the first 3 months of the year there was absolutely zero chance for me to get anywhere near any serious driving on the track. Work and family concerns kept me on my toes so it was a kind of a relief to note that Round 1 of ZeroToHundred Time To Attack at Sepang International Circuit was slated to be held on the 19th of May as that would give me adequate time to prep myself and my car for it.

I decided to focus on Time To Attack as opposed to try to compete in both MegaLap and Time To Attack as I did last year for the simple reason that MegaLap had categories that gave me far less chance to win some silverware. The category I would be classified under permitted virtually every kind of car up to 4WD (4 wheel drive) Turbo cars ( including Mitsubishi Evo's and WRX's) so I would be up against the dominant FWD (front wheel drive) Civic Type R's which were both being helmed by top notch drivers and packing plenty of modifications including big power upgrades.

Seeing how my 150,000 km leaky stock engine wouldn't probably be too competitive there, I decided to continue competing in Street (only street tyres allowed) NA (normally aspirated) RWD (rear wheel drive) in Time To Attack and play to a slightly more level field.

My setup would remain virtually the same as what I used for 2012 meaning only bolt on modifications for power upgrades on my stock engine with a ECU tune to match and handling modifications such as aerodynamic parts rounded upwith suspension items like coilover suspension. The only tweak made to the car would be the replacement of my APR splitter with a splitter made by Wasp Composites as recommended by my friend Mike Kang of CounterSpace Garage.

The chassis mounted APR splitter did deliver some downforce when used at higher speeds but the lack of grip I had through Turns 5, 6, 8, 11, 12, 13 due to the higher speeds I was carrying was fairly telling as I could not step on the throttle mid-corner lest I induced understeer. My alignment settings didn't seem to be the issue as at lower speeds the car would respond well but I would experience noticeable understeer once I exceeded cornering speeds above 100+ km/h.

I decided to approach Bryan of Wasp Composites to build a splitter for me in dimensions that would keep my car street legal and despite him being a one man show, he managed to wrangle a splitter for me in time for me to use in my track day prior to the actual time attack.

The splitter before mounting.

Here it is mounted.

This is how the underside looks like. Note the various attachment points as it is important to spread the loading on the bolts evenly lest too much pressure is exerted on a few bolts which might lead them to fail early.

Here is a load testing using yours truly. This splitter is crazy strong!

The first time I got to test out this splitter was at the Nova Track Day on the 27th of April. Despite factors such as pretty heavy traffic, a partially wet track and my year old heat cycled out Hankook RS3 tyres, I still managed to eke out at 2:40 flat timing which was just 1.7 secs off my personal best timing. I wasn't very pleased with that as it was worrying that I could not exceed my personal best but further analysis of the line showed that I had significant improvement with the addition of the splitter.

Had fun with on the wet track with this very sporting Malaysian FD2R owned by Mario Lee

In the first half of the track day, I had increased my wing angle of attack in an attempt to balance what I believed to be much increased front end grip afforded by the addition of the Wasp splitter combined with the wet conditions afoot. This proved to be a huge mistake as what happened was I generated plenty of understeer and was unable to get on the throttle to maximize my corner exit speeds.

You can see the steeper angle on the wing on my car here.

As the track dried slightly towards the second half of the track day, I backed off my wing angle to my original settings in a bid to battle the understeer and thats when the setup really came alive! I now had massively responsive steering at virtually any speed and as my confidence grew, began pushing harder in the last half hour of the track day. I was now able to almost go 15-20 km/h faster than my previous cornering speeds in the sweepers and in one of the last few laps of the day was chasing down a Nissan R35 GTR by hauling him in every time a high speed corner appeared.  This lap coincided with my fastest lap of the day and jumping into high committment corners like Turn 12 with a light breathe on the throttle was now pretty confidence inspiring as the car rotated nicely in a progressive fashion.

Let me focus for a moment on the key points that I believe a splitter should deliver:

1. Stiff construction: A flexing splitter will sag from the high downforce caused in the higher speed sections of the track and cause drag thus negating significant reduction in the downforce created. In the end, the addition of the splitter is primarily to generate front grip but there is no point if the splitter material is far too weak to resist flex when subjected to the downforce at speed. This is especially important since the front edge of the splitter extends outward in front of the car so it would bend under the downforce if the material did not have adequate strength to able to handle the load.

The Wasp splitter is a extremely strong and here is a test video by Bryan showing that.

http://youtu.be/aWRSzlWLeQA

2. Proper mounting: The mounting of a splitter should first be chassis linked as opposed to attached to the bumper as the downforce generated might even force the splitter to rip off the bumper. The linkage to the chassis also means the forces are directly acting on the chassis thus giving the most direct change in handling. I constructed a mounting strong enough to withstand the increased downforce the car would experience at high speed with a frame mounted inside my bumper and a spread of mounting points to distribute the load each bolt would take.

Here is a picture of how the frame looks like.

3. Drag considerations: This is an admittedly difficult area to comment on as it is rather complex but a properly fitted splitter setup delivering good front end grip should not have significant increase in drag resulting in lower high speeds on the track. My first run on the the splitter showed that my maximum speeds on the straight remained virtually the same as they were before as when I was on earlier smaller splitter setup and tallying with someone on the Honda OEM Type S aero kit also showed me doing roughly the front straight speeds.

4. Durability: The Kevlar undercoat along with the clearcoat that Bryan uses to wrap around the splitter makes it very tough to withstand the abuse from stone chips and off track excursions. Having made two untimely off track excursions in a single event yet having the splitter look nothing like being any worse off, except for some dirt, is solid proof of the durability of the product.

Here is a shot of clearcoat still nice and clean before fitment.

After two very rapid excursions into the gravel, this is the barely noticeable damage on the splitter.

In all three considerations above, I'm pleased to note that the Wasp Composite Race splitter delivers as promised with Bryan's good customer service and a keen understanding of my needs despite being a virtual one man show. Thanks Bryan!

Sitting back and analysing the data after the Nova track day led me to believe that I was quicker in the high speed sweepers due to the added turning ability afforded by the addition of the splitter even as I suffered from worn bushings which limited my caster which should have offset the splitter benefits by some degree. Cautiously optimistic, I put on a set of new directionally vented Science Of Speed rotors together with a fresh set of Ferodo Racing DS 1.11 ceramic brake pads and prepared my car for Round 1 of Time To Attack 2013. I had also a fresh set of Hankook RS3's fitted as my year old tyres were probably already significantly hardened to a point that lap times would begin to fall.

Fresh tyres ready for the business...

Mike Kang from CounterSpace Garage was kind enough to hook me up with a limited edition set of gorgeous lug nuts. Thanks bro!

Making the long drive up with the company of my friend Wern Rune (WR) riding shotgun, we reached the track with some time to spare and prepped the car for the race with WR doing his best to help me with preparations such as tyre pressure release and damper settings. The crowd turnout for Time To Attack was as usual nothing short of totally awesome. From NSX's sprouting multiple aero bits to massively modified Nissan Silvias, the competition all around seemed way more fierce than it was last year. In the Street NA RWD class, my friend (and fellow competitor) Steve Toh in his chilli padi red AP1.5 S2000 and I were now again faced once again with a  Toyota 86 sponsored by Wing Hin Motorsportsbut had additional competition in the shape of a Riyoz Racing MR2 and a Toyota Altezza which I believe was also supported by Riyoz Racing.

Before I knew it, it was time to get my gear on, say a quick prayer and prepare to exit the pit lane to clock our fastest laps together with all the other NA category competitors. A delay to my tyre shipment meant I was running my first laps on the waxy surface of my spanking new RS3's and I would have to be a little more cautious about the grip since I'd have less of it to begin with.

A packed pit with participants ready to storm the track, photo by N.A.Z. Photoworks

A pic taken by Traffic Online Magazine showing the traffic I had to manage.

Even more traffic here!

Here I am trying to slide the tyres around a bit to get the wax scrubbed off...

It seemed good for the first 2-3 laps as I carefully drove around the gradually grippier tyres to do 2:41 lap times but during the 4th out lap, disaster struck.

A Civic that I was catching up to on the exit of Turn 6 seemed to overspeed and began ploughing with massive understeer towards the rumble strips. Seeing how the angle of the steering was virtually turned to the maximum and he was about to spin right in front of me, I made the tough decision to go head on into the gravel to avoid T boning him and got stuck in the gravel trap. To say I absolutely disheartened would be an understatement as I knew how much the gravel would mess up my alignment settings along with me not being able to complete more laps but having to waste time waiting for a tow truck to come and extract me.

Just as my gravel ridden car was towed back to the pits, I realized I was now sans a right side rear brake duct due to the off track excursion. Frustrated and down, I contemplated heading home early as I knew that my car would probably not be as competitive due to the messed up alignment settings but my friend Mark Ong told me to try and clear the stones out with a quick drive and have a go in the second session of the day. Taking his advice, I drove out of the track to the main road and rid myself of as many stones I could with a bit of acceleration and braking. I had to also use a knife to pick out a stone stuck in my rear left caliper for safety lest it get stuck in my brakes. The run had me clocking a 2:41 which was only good enough for 4th position behind Steve Toh in 1st, Kenny Lee in 2nd and William Chong in 3rd.

Wiping up the car a bit, I composed myself for the second run and prayed a bit that the second lap would go a bit better than the first. Traffic was heavy and I had to force my way past competitors despite this not being wheel to wheel racing. This time I was faced with passing another Civic which I had quite a problem trying to make a clean pass. Thankfully some of the more experienced drivers, such as William Chong of the Riyoz Racing MRS which is definitely a competitive car helmed by a extremely competent driver as evidenced by the timings, allowed me to pass cleanly so both he & I did not have to worry about each other affecting one another's times. Thumbs up for great driver race craft!

Pic of me behind William Chong in his MRS at Turn 4

William graciously allowed me to pass cleanly only for me to run into even more traffic... sigh...

Driving more aggressively I began to see even higher speeds on the sweepers than what I noticed from my prior track day and was virtually able to use the sweepers as a passing point such was my improvement in the higher speed sections. Yet I realized the car tracked oddly and I knew I needed to be careful as the change in driving was likely due to the messed up alignment due to the gravel pit excursion as I had feared. I was now faced with an additional issue as for some reason my coolant temperatures were 5-8 degrees higher than what I normally had so I had to keep revs down to below 8000 to keep the temperature rise in check! Running with less power and noticeably less grip, I tried my utmost to keep speeds up to get my fastest times by relying more on placing myself well for the higher speed stuff where I seemed to have more grip.

It may have been a time attack but the traffic was no less than a regular high attendance track day, difference being everyone was giving it their 100% in driving ability. Here are some of the other cars I met on the track.

Photo by Perfourm, an online motorsport blog all the way from Indonesia, ZTH is going regional!

As it would have it, I would be twice as "lucky" as my first run group and caught up on the exit of Turn 6 to yet another Civic. I was side by side with him into Turn 7 and I tried to overspeed a little to gain the edge to lead him going into Turn 7. This led me to slightly oversteer in between Turn 7 and Turn 8 but somehow the rumble strips upset the tail of my car causing me to partially spin and dive straight into the gravel trap at the exit of Turn 8 leaving me stranded in the gravel yet again! Rather numb by now to the off track excursions, I just walked off to the tyre barrier and sat grumpily waiting for the tow truck to come yet again. On the way back to the pits, I realized with horror that my left rear brake duct was now missing in action and I had been dragging a tail of brake duct hosing all the way back to the pits!

 

You can just about spot the trailing brake ducting in this pic

More ducting again but still attacking!

iPhone pic by yours truly while perched on the tire wall awaiting a tow...

Both mortified and frustrated, I felt rather resigned to my fate and walked down to check my results at the usual pit wall where they were posted. Surprisingly, I had managed a time just 0.7 secs off my personal best and just 0.15 secs of the leading car which was my friend Steve Toh meaning I had managed to place 2nd with a 2:39 flat despite the odds! The competition was intense as evidenced by the timing gap from the 1st car to the 3th car in my category all falling within a 0.8 second range. The 3rd and 4th position fell to the Wing Hin Motorsport Toyota 86 driven by Kenny Lee and the Riyoz Racing MRS driven by William Chong respectively.

Here are the leader board standings in the Street NA Classes.

Pic from ZeroToHundred magazine for the NA RWD class winners with a nice summary of the podium finishers.

The close result had me rueing how close I was to win but I chalked the miss of 1st place down to both to my poor preparation to run in my fresh tyres beforehand and to plain bad luck at the mechanical issues faced combined with the off track incident. Divine help meant I had walked away from the gravel excursions without a scratch and my car was seemed fine despite the rock chipping off some paint and stripping me of my rear brake ducts. Exhausted but elated, I received my trophy knowing I was moving up the rankings of the Street NA RWD drivers on both sides of the Causeway and that the current setup had capabilities I was far from unlocking the maximum potential of.

Prize giving time! :)

Photo op with my friend Steve Toh, the winner of Street NA RWD

I got to know Steve from a Traction Circle trackday and we've been friends ever since. The laughs and banter we have at the track combined with our camaraderie despite being competitors is something I truly treasure. Here is us with our beloved cars :)

Taking a peek at the data showed me how much quicker I was through the critical corners of high speed sweepers I had a knack of being confident in and the speeds shown were even higher than my previous speeds I saw in my April track day. Despite the issues of heavy traffic, a caster problem which knocked off 1.5 degrees of the caster I should have got, not adequately scrubbing in my fresh tyres, a slightly vibrating brake pedal which forced me brake a touch earlier and the overheating issue which limited my revs to 7900, the timing achieved was reasonable but its interesting to note how much potentially quicker the car should have been with the gremlins sorted out. All in all, the data seemed to point that that I had probably easily a few seconds to knock off as long as the conditions were right leading me to hope I can up my driving to match the potential of my car to grab the win the next round as the setup i conceptualized seemed to be working the way I want it to.

Some silverware to start the season is a good start in my book and this looks to be a fruitful start to the 2013 time attack season for me! Let the Attack-ing begin....

Photo credits:

9tro

Traffic Online Magazine

Perfourm

N.A.Z. Photoworks

matcanyon

ZeroToHundred.com

Hei Snap

Joe Chao Photography

Shini Automotive Photography

Big thanks goes out to support and sponsorship from:

CounterSpace Garage

Wasp Composites

Alpha Performance Drive

Rev Magazine

S2KI

Wern Rune

Bruise Wayn aka Garage Defend Hammila ATTKD SPL  (just kidding!) 

Here are other links to coverage of this event:

http://www.timetoattack.net/2013/05/28/hall-of-fame-list-timetoattack-round-1-19-may-2013-sepang-circuit/ 

http://www.9tro.com/events/motorsports/zerotohundred-timetoattack-2013-round-1

http://www.perfourm.com/2212/zerotohundred-time-to-attack-round-1-2013.html 

 

Here are more pics from the event....Enjoy!

Final(e) Stage…Rain battle!

December heralded big hopes for the beginning of my push for competitive rankings among the local scene of trackies as I had emerged from November with an excellent time of 2:38 on a slightly damp Sepang track while data analysis showed I still had some way to improve so lower times were highly possible. Having signed up for ZeroToHundred Time To Attack Finale, I was very keen to show my mettle on the time attack stage and hopefully take a podium position or two back as a sign of progression.

Accompanied by my friend Wayn riding shotgun, we made a fuss free 300+km drive down to Sepang on the morning of 16 December and were excited to see the bevy of cars that had descended to take part. The list of cars was endless including the usual suspects of FD2Rs, Evos, WRXs and S15s. Some of the rarer entries included Lotus Exige, Toyota 86, 350Z and Toyota Altezza. Plenty of supercars had come down to take part including E63 AMG, Maclaren MP4-12C, Lamborghini and Ferrari F430 but my focus was drawn to the competitors in the class I had entered myself in. I was greeted at the registration table by the friendly smile by Angeline of the ZeroToHundred team who had taken great pains to help me with my slightly more complicated registration process.

Here is a video by Kenny Tang showing the huge range of entrants:

The Street NA RWD and Super Street NA RWD were the two classes I had entered to try to get a chance to podium and although I had more realistic opportunity to do well in Street NA RWD, I wanted to see how well I would do in Super Street NA RWD. A familiar name in Street NA RWD was my friend Steve Toh in his "chilli padi" AP 1.5 who has been clocking excellent times and so far was the quickest S2000 driver I know on street tyres with a personal best a scant 0.7 secs quicker than me so in my mind he was the man to benchmark against. Another participant which seemed strong were a Wing Hin sponsored Toyota 86 which apparently had about 80K of parts just in from TRD including a gorgeous Endless front and rear big brake kit. I was also wary of the competition from the a certain Toyota Altezza which I was told was now sporting an individual throttle body kit for more power and had further handling tweaks done to it.

The Super Street NA RWD class was occupied by rather few participants this round but all had strong potential to knock me out of contention from a podium. The cars included a Lotus Exige, Nissan 350Z and a V35 Skyline. It would have to take a combination of luck and skill to be competitive in both these classes and the final result was quite surprising as I would find out later. A further challenge that presented itself was that 57 cars had entered to run in NA class and it was likely that the time attack runs would have to be done with significant traffic.

Here's how crowded the line up to head out to the track were:

While I was rushing back and forth to ensure all the preparations were done right for the run, I noticed the cloud cover getting darker and darker, a really ominous sign. The Turbo and SuperCar classes were enjoying the dry but cool track temps whilst clocking properly quick times but as I began getting my helmet on, I noticed with a sinking heart that a light drizzle had begun. I queued up for the entry into the track and while we began on the warm up run got stuck behind some traffic for a lap or two. I opted to go for a gradual warm up and to get in a quick lap before the rain started in earnest. Big mistake!

The rain escalated into a full on downpour just minutes after the NA run began meaning that the first complete lap of the circuit was the only chance anyone in the NA run had a chance of clocking a good lap. Having wasted that due to poor strategy, I was now consigned to running on a wet track with wipers on full, having lousy visibility of not being able to see cars in front of me due to the spray and dodging spinning cars left and right. I had never raced in the rain before and it was truly a challenge considering my tyres were inflated for dry run pressures, I had plenty of camber on all four corners and my spring rates were very stiff.

Knowing that I had to clock the times despite the crazy conditions, I soldiered on and what a drive it was. I would be sideways at Turn 2 at the slightest provocation, sideways at Turn 3 at the end of 3rd gear, sideways at Turn 4 due to some oil, understeering at Turn 5 while very twitchy at Turn 6 and the wild nature of my setup showed itself on and on. The bad weather presented an added complication by way of a windscreen that threatened to fog up every so often and I had to constantly manage the situation with blasts of aircon to keep my visibility. The Toyota 86 proved itself excellent in these conditions probably due to better setup and was very quick in the torrential rain. I believe much of this was in part to the skill of the driver who was Kenny Lee, an S1K driver. The Lotus Exige competing in Super Street NA RWD had a driver who proved to have guts of titanium by entering corners at speeds I couldn’t muster and even after an off track excursion into the gravel at similar fast speeds, came right back on and kept on racing at the limit. It was the first time I saw FD2Rs spinning left and right with such frequency they would make one reconsider if they were front wheel drive or rear wheel drive!

This fabulous video by K.Kopter shows how tail happy the FD2R's were and how heavy the rain was:

Ending the first run exhausted from the mental and physical challenge of wrestling the car in the wet, I was dismayed to see my times almost 30 seconds slower than my personal best and in my mind, my poor strategy might have cost me any chance of a podium. Poring through the competitor times made me realize that things might not have been that bad after all as my timing might still be good for scraping through a podium or two. I decided to stay positive and rest a little while waiting for the 2nd run for the NA group later in the afternoon and try to improve on my standings. A rumble of thunder awoke from me from my half an hour shuteye and a huge downpour began just an hour before the NA run. I knew from that moment that it was likely that the timings from the 1st run would probably determine the standings for the day considering how wet and cold things had become. To give you an idea of how bad conditions were, safety runs by the ZTH organizers needed to be done to decide if the track was safe for competition.

Here's how wet it was and you can see how dark the sky was:




Despite how nasty the conditions had become, I decided to still go down and run as best as I could for the 2nd NA group to see if I could improve on my times somewhat. A repeat of the earlier run's challenges played out, made worse by a much colder track, fast disappearing daylight and a strong wind which exacerbated the heavy rain. The conditions became so bad that eventually most of the NA run group decided to throw in the towel and pit. The track also was closed due to poor conditions for a bit and I decided to adopt discretion for the better part of valor and end my run for the day. Tallying up the times for the day including the slower runs for the 2nd NA group run, I realized that I had sneaked in podium finishes in both of the categories I had entered myself for. Although the manner of which I had achieved those finishes were slightly different from what I had expected, I was still happy to achieve this testament to my perseverance despite the challenges I was up against.



Taking stock of my performance in 2012, I realized that despite the 1.5 years of absence from the racetrack due to family commitments and only returning to the track in August, I was still able to give a strong showing with comparison to available benchmarks for similar cars. The reality is that I still have a long way to go in my quest for improving as a driver as seen very clearly by data logs of my driving. In fact, on my personal best lap, some of the flaws were pretty obvious which makes me wonder how far I can actually push the limits of my machine to clock the fastest time. That will be my challenge in 2013: To prove the limits of the S2000 are greater than many have imagined them to be and refine my driving technique to live up to the potential this excellent chassis creates…

Photo & video credits to:
Wayn aka Bruise Wayn
Kenny Tang
The Right Wrong
Traffic Magazine Online
K.Kopter
 

The day personal barriers were smashed...

We form barriers in our mind when we are told certain achievements are not likely and even sometimes try less hard to exceed the limits previously set because we are influenced to feel that the odds are against us. Just as drivers are told to look where they want to go not where they are trying to avoid, the frame of mind can sometimes steer the driver beyond pushing their personal limits. It was with these obstacles that I attended the Über Garage Anniversary trackday.

2:38 & 2:39 were lap times on street tyres set by experienced S2000 drivers very familiar with Sepang International Circuit as they had the opportunity to track pretty often on bolt on modified setups (simple aero, intake & exhaust with coilovers). In this respect, I was severely disadvantaged as I had one crowded trackday and one brief time attack practice after 1.5 years of absence from the track with which to familiarize myself with a vastly different from stock setup that I was running before. As such, it was easy to assign oneself a much lower  chance to exceed those benchmarks with such a huge gap in track seat time.

To complicate things further, the car was constantly in a state of flux in terms of feel as braking, aero, alignment and tyres were changed from each of those events to the next. Going from old tyres to fresh tyres of a different brand, constantly fiddling with tyre pressures, a change to pads with vastly different friction characteristics, experimenting with alignment and tweaking aero grip meant I couldn't have a consistent setup to concentrate on  the driving. Even an attempt at using data to speed up the finalization of the setup by analyzing tyre temperature & the data-log of the racing line fell flat on its face as it became apparent that I was under-driving the car rendering the data virtually useless.

The gloomy clouds above when the track opened seemed ominous but I got down to warming up the tyres and stiffening the suspension up to what I felt was optimum. Within a few laps I was consistently lapping less than half a second slower than my personal best. Some traffic got in the way and I got held up leading to mid 2:40's laps. I was pleasantly surprised that the Über Garage crowd was very polite and friendly both in the pits and out on the track. It must be said that some on track courtesy & etiquette goes a huge way to make a track day enjoyable and safe.

A light shower slowed things down so I pitted for a break and waited for the sun to come out and dry the track up somewhat. Heading out again, I noticed a fellow S2000 passing me as I exited the pits and decided to try to play catch up as I knew this particular S2000 had clocked some decent times previously. Some messy driving at Turn 7 and 9 created a bigger gap so I was not surprised when I saw the RaceLogic Performance Box log a low 2:40's time. Pushing harder with late braking while  being careful to take an apex which was wasnt too late and focusing on higher corner exit speeds, I saw the widened gap began to narrow. As I inched  nearer my target  ever so slowly, I had a feeling this would be a flyer with a good time, maybe a 2:40 flat? Getting a high 2:39 woud be a job well done in my book so you can imagine how ecstatic I felt crossing the mid way of the front straight and watching the magic numbers flash out: 2:38.30 This timing would likely rank me among the quickest street tyre S2000's at Sepang!

Pitting quickly after to keep the tyres hot, I logged my tyre pressures which had given me this excellent time. Regrettably, I had neglected to get new batteries for my tyre temperature probe I couldn't get a gauge of the temperatures for record keeping. I sat down for some refreshments provided by Über Garage and mulled over what I had done right to slash more than 3.5 seconds off my personal best. Interestingly enough, despite the euphoria I felt from the result, I found myself picking out all the mistakes I made and thinking how much quicker I could have been.

It was then that I realized that not only had a barrier in laptime been swept away,  a personal barrier of mine had been overcome; the mental barrier of being limited by guess work, comparisons to other setups and references to other drivers. I no longer had to be concerned so much with what was consensus on what sort of extensive (and expensive!) modifications were "required" to hit quick times or how it was common knowledge that the S2000 would always be slower than the current favourites on the track such as the FD2R. In building this car, I had certain reference points which were now redundant considering I knew that quicker times than I had expected were capable from both car and driver. With that in mind, a fire burned brightly anew within me to surpass the limits of what common knowledge deems possible and to bring out the true potential of the racing DNA of the Honda S2000.

Watermarked pictures courtesy of Cyber Imp Productions

Track newbie reborn, cue the shenanigans...

The plan went as so: I would wait until my son turned 6mths old then be back to the tracks full tilt with a tricked out ride so that after detailed testing and practice set scorching new personal best lap times. As these things often pan out, virtually none of this came to pass.

Sigh. Cue the shenanigans...

Things got complicated at home mostly revolving around my son & housing issues so after prioritizing and settling things into relative stability, I finally got back to booking a track day with  Traction Circle Club only after my son turned 8 months old. Being a regular previously, I knew to expect a fairly large turnout as Traction Circle track days were fairly popular with the tracking community combined with the fact that the track day I'd booked was a Sunday. The increased traffc combined with my relative unfamiliarity with the track after 1.5 years of absence meant I'd have to significantly moderate my expectations on the kind of results I'd be looking forward to.

Another major issue I had to handle revolved around my unfamiliarity with the car which had evolved from a virtually stock car with budget drift tyres on all 4 corners to a stiffly sprung, aero grip enhanced, lightened and more powerful built up ride. Virtually everything was different and this would prove an additional hurdle to overcome. I had to also manage the hardened Yokohama tyres the car was shod with as I had only planned to use fresh tyres for an upcoming event so felt that these would suffice for a shakedown.

The scale of how badly of all these issues would conspire together to utterly disappoint me was shocking. I was clueless at every corner with an awkward combination of fumbling to figure which gear to use for the corner,  braking far too early, cornering at far too conservative a speed with unnecessarily slow corner entries and simply grasping at straws with the change in steering balance due to wheel and aero effects.

Compounding all of this was the traffic and you'd have to see how ridiculously bad it was to really understand what I mean. An 80 car track day attendance meant there were cars in front and behind me at virtually every corner thus reducing the opportunity to take lines freely without worrying someone was going to go mad and dive bomb hopelessly late into the corner or spin in front of me with disastrous consequence.

Some evasive action to avoid an incident on the track forced me to go full speed into the gravel which messed up my alignment for the remainder of the 3 hour trackday. I would later find how that off track excursion had messed up more than my alignment. Track etiquette is something that benefits all in the most critical part of tracking, namely safety. It suffices to say I hope that proper guidelines and courtesy on the track can eventually be more commonly practiced to allow more enjoyable & safer track days.

Reduced to The Incredible Sulk after posting a wretched 2:45 despite playing with tyre temperature readings and tyre pressures with grease monkey help from my friend Wayn,  I decided to just not focus too much on times and gave my Malaysian friend Steve a joyride so he could maybe give me some tips to go quicker. Back from our laps out, he noticed a knocking sound under braking and after investigating, I found out to my dismay that my remote reservoir for one of my dampers had come loose and was dangling freely. Probably due to that gravel surfing incident caused by the track incident? While wasting 30-40 mins fixing the loose part, I was aghast to realize that my damper settings were all over the place and that the weird handling that I had encountered all day might be due to the messed up settings. Unfortunately, by the time I realized it, it was too little too late as I only had 2-3 laps before the track day ended.

On the way back from the track, it would suffice to say that I wasn't the best company. Black faced and moody, I spent the rest of the night utterly grumpy. After a good rest and spending some time to take stock of all that had transpired, I came to understand that perhaps I had simply been too ambitious. All the factors I had been undone by were absolutely critical to get right in order to post decent times and I had reminded of the stark reality that I couldn't expect magical results from the get-go. Coming to terms with my failings would be the only way I'd make progress so I decided to get my act together, stop moping and prepare for a time attack event I had signed up for before knowing how badly I would do on this shakedown. Sucker for punishment as they say...

Quick note on 2012 hopes

2012 has been a whirlwind of activity so far on the family & work front so I have been unable to devote any time to getting down to any race track events. I still hold hopes for the later part of the year for me to get some way down to working out the setup (and any necessary changes) and most importantly to get precious seat time on the track. To say I may have lost touch with the track is probably putting it lightly but I think with some effort and focus, I should be able to get some progress. My friend and tuner has kindly volunteered to join me for a shakedown session to render any advice or assistance while other good friends have been equally supportive. I'd like to believe that the reason they are so forthcoming is that they discern my genuine desire to grow as a driver. My wife has been very supportive throughout and we jointly agreed to attend to more pressing priorities first before I get back to the track. Life has twists and turns but coping with the changes while not losing sight of your passions is very important, even so as driving is pretty much my sole passion. On a side note, I have decided to cease active involvement with a certain group and reduce interaction to the bare minimum as I realized how untenable relations have become. I have always been open with sharing and helping but if I am to face potential negative impact (even possibly spreading to career impact) then it is simply no longer possible to continue. I had been inspired by the open culture of the scene overseas where I had received advice and help without restraint while being free to give and open to accept criticisms. Trolling, profit scheming and narrow minded bullying manners were quickly chided yet it is regrettable that such positive ways mostly never found their way past off the shores they originated. Perhaps it is simply a culture I do not fit into. Hereon, I'm eagerly awaiting my chance to get into the seat or some proper driving and dearly praying things run smoothly until then so I can at least do one or two competitive events come year end. Wish me luck!