The first race for this years Vtech Club season was at Willow Springs. This is the first time I have been here since the rained out event last year, and the first time using their streets course in the the clock wise rotation. I did race at this track in 2012, but it was in the counter clock wise rotation. I am told that rotation is about 1 second slower. I will review the differences and my times at the bottom of the post, but first some of the cars that race in the competition.
This is a very fast EF chassis Civic dressed in Advan tire livery racing in the same class as me, N2. The fastest driver in this class lapped around the course in 1:29, the driver of this civic placed second with a 1:30. I have a long way to go to get to the top in this group.
JHPUSA the distributor, sponsored this Civic that races in the group A class. Which is also called the unlimited class. The class allows engine swaps, aero pieces (like the giant wing on the car pictured), and full race tires. The cars in this group are the fastest of the series and run laps in the 1:24 area.
This civic is a replica of the Gathers sponsored Super Taikyu race car from Japan. You might have played that car in the game Gran Turismo. All the great paint jobs and wraps the cars have been showing up in have seriously made me think about a wrap for my Integra.
Not everyone had a good day on the track. This Mitsubishi Evo went too wide on one of the turns and hit a big divot off the track causing his suspension to buckle. The accident ripped his strut out of it’s mounting points in the engine bay, and is going to cost thousands to fix.
This event is put on by Extreme Speed and though it was 80% Honda there where some other car makes racing too. This super charged 350Z was out for all the sessions with no signs of over heating, an issue that plagues most track raced 350’s. The tires were the widest I have ever seen fitted to a track Z.
I almost never see any NSX’s on the streets, so I was very surprised to see one on the track. The NSX has become a collector car, and it’s values have been on the rise. Not many owners will be risking their cars so I suspect we will see less of these cars on a track.
It wasn’t all Japanese cars on the track. This fox body mustang had grafted on over fenders, and an independent rear suspension from a later Cobra model. The 5.0 motor under the hood sounded mean, and was all business on the track.
Another class in the series is the N class which is filled with mostly S2000’s, and modified civics that have no aero or slick tires. The winner in this class was a S2000 that was lapping in the 1:25’s
I know this post has been very packed with Honda images, but I had to add one more. I just love to see Integras battling it out on a race track.
Last time I was on this track I lapped in a 1:43, this time I did it in a 1:40. The different rotation on the track gave me about a 1 second advantage but the rest is the updates to the car. I missed the first two sessions of the day due to an over heating problem that I traced to a low coolant level. I think I might have been able to get another second out of the car but ran into traffic just as I started to figure out the track. The time I posted puts me about 10 seconds behind the leader in this class, but the car still has heat controls, A/C, cruise control, and ABS which make it a very heavy car compared to my competition. I won’t be giving up the A/C any time soon as I have to drive this car the 3 1/2 hours to the track this summer, but I think I can loose weight elsewhere to help catch the competition. I also need more track time. The fact that I haven’t been on this track in 3 years didn’t help. I will try to make it to the next event to see if I can raise my standing.
Here’s my fast lap