[6/3/2018] CSCS #1 (DDT)

[6/3/2018] CSCS #1 (DDT)

Event: Canadian Sport Compact Series #1

Track: CTMP DDT

Weather Conditions: 19°C, Overcast (Qualifying), Rain & Fog (Time Attack)

I was able to participate in CSCS Round 1 because Can-Jam & Steelcase Tires were gracious enough to lend me a set of 265/35/18 Pirelli Trofeo R's (spec tire). Thank you very much guys! 

Unfortunately on just my 2^nd hot lap of the day, I clipped the curbing at T16 a bit too aggressively and the car became unsettled and I went into a spin. I counter-steered and pinned the throttle to try and keep it on the tarmac but didn’t expect the fronts to regain their grip so suddenly. All of this happened within a split second and before I could re-centre the steering wheel I was in the grass with no choice but to rip the e-brake with two feet in and hope for the best. I’ve clipped that curb (and many others) so many times in the past… a bit unlucky that it put me into a spin this time. I'm not going to jump to conclusions about changing any suspension settings just yet, but if I continue to get random instability in the future it's something I'll definitely have to look into.

This is the 2^nd red flag I’ve caused in my career, hopefully the last. I had to get towed out of the wall and grab my 17” street wheel to be able to drive back to the pits because the front left Trofeo R came off the wheel. Luckily, I was able to do that.

I had a busted front left fender & bumper, broken brake duct, and front left tire dismounted. Unknown amount of damage elsewhere. No CEL. There didn’t seem to be any powertrain issues. 

After assessing the situation I decided that I would try to fix what I could and go back out on track to see how the car performed. Lots of hammering later and the car looked like it could drive again.

I went back out on track but just a few laps in another car went into a wall, cutting this session short too. My car seemed to drive fine but the alignment definitely felt off so I wasn’t confident in pushing 100%. Not only that but it started to rain shortly after I got off track. My time of 1:43.865 was good enough to qualify for the time attack in 6^th place so I decided to just head back and not break anything else.

During the time attack, not only did it start raining harder, but a heavy fog came down on the track as well. Visibility was poor. The car wasn’t handling very well. And my confidence was low. Still, I tried to put down a respectable time given the conditions. I took the 1st lap very conservatively, then decided to go for it in the 2nd and 3rd. In the 3rd lap, I botched the braking zone into T1 so I decided to scrap the lap entirely. I finished with a 2:00.055, good enough for 5^th place overall, 1.1 seconds behind 1^st place’s 1:58.889. 

I’m obviously bummed about the crash. But everyone knows that’s the risk you take when you go racing. All things considered, the damage appears to be quite minimal. Hopefully I’ll be back on the track before the end of the season.

[6/1/2018] HANSON School (DDT)

[6/1/2018] HANSON School (DDT)
Event: HANSON International Driving School
Track: CTMP DDT
Weather Conditions: 25°C, Sunny

In 2017 I took a sabbatical from work and since I was technically unemployed I chose not to track for financial reasons. But I’m back to work now, and the beautiful weather was enticing me to go out and play.

I registered for CSCS on Sunday so I wanted to get in as much practice as I could at the HANSON School on Friday.

I’m still running the same set of Direzza ZII’s as my last blog post in 2016. These tires continue to perform and are honestly some of the best bang for the buck tires you can buy for having fun at the track.

There were a few changes I wanted to test with respect to the pace notes I made in 2016:

T1 – A different approach influenced by Jim Houghton’s line in his record setting 1:25 lap and a vlog post by Michael Gardener explaining the same concept.. This involves cutting T1b aggressively (read: 2wo) and tracking wide left to get a very wide approach and late apex (post-concrete curbing) vs. my old approach of shallow-in, neutral apex. Also not downshifting into 3rd but rather keeping a higher entry speed in 4th to carry momentum.

T10 – Keeping 4th gear rather than downshifting into 3rd for similar reasons as T1.

T11 – Staying more to the left of centre as I bomb down the curve so that I can take T12 as wide as possible. Previously I would be too close to the right/grass and end up with an awkward sharp entry angle into T12.

I forgot to record the first session. I only did two more sessions later in the day as I was suffering from some pretty severe motion sickness after riding with my student in the morning (despite using my killer anti-sickness combo).

Although I didn't have a lap timer to prove it, the line changes to T1 & T11 seemed faster to me. I think I still need to go wider at the exit of T1c though. Although holding 4th through T1 & T10 is certainly easier, I'm not entirely convinced it's faster, as there's still a decent amount of braking involved and in doing so I lose a lot of boost/torque.

Overall a solid day back at the track with much rust shaved off. Feeling good for CSCS on Sunday.

[8/19/2016] HANSON School (DDT)

Event: HANSON International Driving School

Track: CTMP DDT

Weather Conditions: 28°C, Sunny

What a perfect day for lapping with the HANSON school! The biggest win for me today was not from driving but figuring out the winning combination of motion sickness meds as an instructor/passenger. Behold the winning combination:

Scoplamine Patch + Sea Bands + Ginger Gravol

I doubt the Gravol did anything.

I ended up doing 3 sessions of lapping. I experimented with the left foot braking and found it didn't make as much of a difference as I thought it would. Perhaps I need more practice or I need to be more aggressive with keeping the throttle depressed. Getting LFB through T2 is just downright scary and I'm still having a lot of turbo lag through T5 with it. The fuel sloshing issue was still present below half tank which is why I had to cut my 2nd session short to re-fuel. We ran without the kink on the uphill which was an interesting change. It definitely helps my car relative to the others as I'm putting down more power, but I much prefer with the kink as it's more technical and challenging to drive.

Other than that, not much to report to be honest. It was just a great day of grinding out lap after lap and getting better at driving. My four year old Dunlop Direzza ZII's were also holding up incredibly well. I'm really starting to get more comfortable at the new DDT which is what I set out to accomplish this summer. Also I decided not to run the remainder of the CSCS series this year just because the rules make setting up my car very time consuming before each event in order to stay class legal. Perhaps I'll run in a different class next year. Anyway, enjoy the videos :)

[6/3/2016] HANSON School (DDT)

Event: HANSON International Driving School

Track: CTMP DDT

Weather Conditions: 20°C, Sunny

So many Subies!

My second time at DDT this year and third time driving the new layout in my WRX. Very motivated to improve upon my poor results at CSCS Round 1, my focus for the day was on getting the proper line through T2 and committing to optimizing gearing for the track. No personal bests would be broken on four year old Direzza ZII's but I had a few upgrades to my car that I was eager to try out:

Front Suspension & Alignment

I replaced the front HotBits DT2 that were lent to me by Can-Jam with the proper RCE T2 coilovers to match the rears. I also had an alignment done. The last time I had an alignment was in 2013 and apparently my settings were way off. The front of the car felt much better with the RCE T2's. I'm sure some of that was due to having a proper alignment, but I also felt that the RCE T2's soaked up bumps a bit better than the HotBits and were a bit more compliant overall.

DIY fuel slosh box but improvements are needed

Fuel Slosh Box

I made a slosh box around my fuel pump using a 32oz Dubro model airplane fuel tank and some check valves. However me being an idiot I installed the check valves backwards and ended up having to remove one of them due to fitment issues inside the fuel tank. Overall the slosh box helped a little bit. I was able to get down to 1/4 tank before noticing fuel starvation vs. the 1/2 tank previously. There is obviously room for improvement with my design but the whole thing was a PITA to install so I'm not really looking forward to doing this again.

Neetronics DCCD Settings

Besides calibrating the throttle position sensor (TPS), I also changed the throttle override trigger (TTRG) and lock-up condition (TOVR) to better suit my driving style. This fixed the driveline lash during part-throttle conditions and I'm about 90% happy with where the settings are currently. I think some finer tuning could be done on corner exit throttle conditions - I'm looking for just a hint more power oversteer so maybe I'll try increasing TTRG or reducing TOVR by 5-10% for next time.

In-Car Footage

1st lapping session

2nd lapping session

3rd lapping session with Peter as co-driver

4th session cut short due to 1/4 tank fuel cut

Slower Shifting

One of my biggest leaks has to be the frequent miss shifts that I make. Peter thinks I should slow down my shifts and I agree 100%. Quality over quantity. The time I save by shifting quickly is lost tenfold when I miss one. I'll need stay calm by practicing meditative breathing while driving, even though at times it feels like I'm strapped to the back of a cruise missile. This is also my reasoning behind holding 4th on the back straight rather than having to do a double downshift from 5th to 3rd into T18.

My 3rd revision of pace notes for CTMP DDT

LFB denoted areas are theoretical at the moment and untested

Left Foot Braking

Due to my large turbo I'm getting quite a bit of turbo lag coming out of some of the slower turns. In theory, on the turns that don't require downshifting, I can use left foot braking to keep the turbo spooled for a quicker exit. I think the turns I can apply LFB to are T2, T5, T7, and T15. It will take a lot of practice on the street before being comfortable enough to use on the track but it's a skill I definitely need to learn.

My next time attack event will CSCS Round 2 at TMP on June 26th. I'll try to fit in one more practice day to dial in my settings and get comfortable with left foot braking before then.

[5/15/2016] CSCS #1 (DDT)

Event: Canadian Sport Compact Series #1
Track: Driver Development Track, Canadian Tire Motorsports Park
Weather Conditions: 8°C Wet, Snowy (!), Overcast

I mentioned in a previous blog post that a return to time attack might happen. Well, it happened, and I picked one hell of a day to make a come back. Temps were frigid and we even had a mini-blizzard during morning practice!

"Lapping in the snow mother f***er!"

I had some seat time last summer but my last competition was back in 2013 and I haven't been actively practicing. When it comes to the new DDT layout, I must admit that I'm a newbie. This would be my second time driving the track so I had a lot of catching up to do. 

To my surprise, I won a Facebook contest with Race Lab and I was fortunate to have Crazy Leo himself ride along with me and give me some pointers during the morning practice. Leo really stressed the importance of attacking the curbs. This is something I was a big proponent of on the old DDT layout myself. 

I ran into several technical issues during the day which affected my performance during both qualifying and time attack:

1) Boost Cut - Because the air was so cold and dense, my car ended up over boosting a few times and I hit some pretty violent boost cut under full load. Luckily this only happened earlier on in the day and it resolved itself as it got warmer. But it's still something I'll need to have sorted out since this won't be my last cold track day.

2) Fuel Starvation - This has always been an issue with my car when running at 1/2 tank and lower. Because the fuel pump is positioned on the passenger side of the car, and there's a hump in the middle due to the AWD prop-shaft; hard right turns can result in fuel starvation. I experienced this several times on both the main straight and bottom straight. Before dropping big bucks on a fuel surge tank, I'm going to try a cheap DIY mod using a model airplane fuel tank as a baffle first.

3) DCCD - My car is equipped with a Neetronics DCCD controller and it wasn't set up properly. Since I removed the car battery during storage over the winter, I forgot to re-calibrate the throttle position sensor. Additionally, I think some finer tuning of the lock-up, particularly on braking, will be necessary. I found the car understeering quite badly especially through the high speed T2 despite heavy use of trail braking. I haven't played around much with the DCCD in the past, but this is definitely a tuning aspect of the car I need to learn.

4) Suspension - One of my RaceComp T2 front struts was leaking last year so I had to send it to KW for a rebuild. Can-Jam graciously lent me a spare set of HotBits DT2 coilovers for my fronts. But this meant I was running a different suspension front-to-rear. Obviously this is not an ideal setup and is only temporary, but it's something I'd like to get sorted out before the next event.

5) Brakes - I've fixed up my RooDucts brake duct cooling system which routes cool air from the fog light area into the wheel well area. But on a cold day this can be detrimental to a race pad since they need to be at a certain minimum operating temperature. I should have blocked the ducting off with my fog light covers but it totally slipped my mind. During the time attack video you can hear the pads squealing quite loudly - an indicator that they're not up to temperature. I believe this is what may have caused me to out-brake myself into T1 on my 3rd hot lap. The pedal was firm; I just had no stopping power.

Chasing down a fellow Can-Jam car piloted by B. Gray

On the plus side, the new Bridgestone Potenza RE-71R's I just mounted were absolutely amazing. As a class rule we were limited to 245/40/17 size but compared to my old 255/40/17 Dunlop Direzza ZII's they actually had a wider footprint. I found these tires heated up very quickly and they even had decent grip during the wet/cold practice session. Once the track got remotely dry the car just felt planted, although the tire had to be run at a much lower pressure than usual. Because the tires heated up so quickly, they tended to get greasy after a few laps as well. While these "street" tires perform very much like an R-compound tire, I'm very interested in seeing how well they wear. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that they'll last the entire season. 

I qualified in 3rd place with a time of 1:40.908 and finished the time attack 3rd with a time of 1:39.858. 

Despite the technical issues I was having throughout the day, the main reason I wasn't satisfied with 3rd place was simply because I didn't drive well. I mis-shifted on the exit of T2 during lap 1, completely missed the apex of T2 on lap 2, and lap 3 was invalidated because I completely missed the T1 braking zone (see issue #5). I also felt I could have used more of the track overall and possibly taken a wider line through the T9 downhill, and T14-T15 to improve exit speed onto the uphill straight. As a reference, last year when Richard Boake drove my car in the CSCS Round 1 opener at DDT, he posted a 1:33.157 on a very similar setup. If you assume a 1 second difference due to weather conditions, and the Trofeo R being on par with the RE-71R in the cold, then I'm still a whopping 5+ seconds off pace.

Completely missing the turn 2 apex

On the other hand, this leaves plenty of room for improvement. And a podium finish while not breaking anything to start the season off can never be a bad thing :)

Ok enough blogging for now. Time to hit the simulator.

2015 Goals in Review

Automotive Career

• Succeed in new role - I feel I have a solid grasp of all the processes and now and can start focusing on gaining valuable product development experience.
• Pass P.Eng exam - I wrote my exam in December and although I don't get my results until next month I'm confident that I passed.

Health and Fitness

• Keep getting better at badminton - Results of training every week with Coach Lee are starting to show. I only played one club tournament this year and my brother and I managed to take home 1st in doubles. My singles game needs a lot of work though, as I lost every game.
• Exercise 5 days per week - I had a couple weeks where I had to take breaks from this goal due to injury or studying. But overall I stuck to it pretty well. Leading up to the tournament in December I was active 5-6 days per week for ~2 months. Tiring, but worth it in the end.

Poker

• Maintain Platinum Star for July+ - I maintained Platinum Star for 3 months but then fell behind once I decided to replace my poker time with studying for my P.Eng. 2015 was not a good year in terms of volume or winnings. I barely played much poker, and overall ended the year down $2.5k USD mostly due to spending a lot of time trying to learn a new game (PLO). I'll consider it tuition. PokerStars has significantly reduced their VIP rewards for 2016 and so for this year I've decided to focus on playing more live poker.
• Stretch Goal: Did not achieve Supernova.

Motorsports

• Attend 3+ track days - Went to two days at TMP for remote tuning with Sasha at OnPoint Dyno and we managed to get a nice safe power level with no signs of knock. Also did a day with the HANSON school and another at Grand Bend Motorplex with some friends. Overall it was nice to be back on track and I had a lot of fun battling other fast cars despite being a bit rusty. Looking forward to some more casual lapping days this year without breaking the bank.
• Keep the shiny side up - Done!

2015 Goals

This year so far has felt a bit lackluster in terms of overall direction because I haven't written down any goals to hold myself accountable for. So let's get started:

Automotive Career
There's a lot for me to learn in my new job as Product Development Engineer. Considering I spent the past 6+ years in a completely different line of business, there's going to be a bit of a learning curve here. The important thing is that I work on developing the skill set needed to succeed in this new position. Another thing I want to do this year is write the Professional Engineering exam so that I can become a licensed Professional Engineer in Ontario. I plan to submit my experience forms shortly and hopefully write the exams being held in December.

• Succeed in new role
• Pass P.Eng exam

Health and Fitness
I feel that I've struck a great balance with badminton and fitness that works for me. Currently I'm training once a week with my brother and play games on 2 other days. The remainder of the week is spent in my home gym doing StrongLifts 5x5 (2 days) and either light cardio or rest. If I can fit in exercise at least 5 days a week I'm happy. I'll be turning 30 this year but I won't let that stop me from being in the best shape I've ever been in.

• Keep getting better at badminton
• Exercise 5 days per week

Poker
I haven't played online at all this year but I'm feeling the itch to click buttons and make money again. Achieving Supernova in only 6 months will likely be impossible. But maintaining Platinum Star might be doable. I'll start small this month at 50NL and move up to 100NL once I feel comfortable.

How am I supposed to play poker with a steering wheel ... ?

Since I stopped playing, I converted my poker grind station into an online sim racing station. Playing poker behind a steering wheel might take some getting used to...

• Maintain Platinum Star for July+
• Stretch Goal: Supernova??
  

Motorsports
The car has already raced once this year in CSCS Round 1 with Richard Boake behind the wheel. He managed to grab 2nd place which is not bad considering we decided to run the car at 11PM the night before.

Richard killing it at CSCS Round 1 (TMP)

Photo by skootermedia

This year my plan is to get back behind the wheel for a couple events (not competitively) just to enjoy the track again. Online sim racing has been fun and all, but it just doesn't compare to the real thing.

Safety upgrades for 2015. Dobaru approves.

For 2015, I've made some safety upgrades: roll bar, 6-pt harnesses, HANS device, and a new helmet.

Looking serious now.

The car also received some front end aero upgrades: Prodrive hood vents and Can-Jam custom canards.

Temporary setup: GTX-3076R stock location. 

The hood dampers and 20-cell Antigravity battery are new.

Here is how the engine bay currently sits with the loaner turbo. My own turbo should hopefully be in the car and tuned by next month. It will be a rotated GTX-3576R .82 A/R tuned by OnPoint Dyno.

• Attend 3+ track days
• Keep the shiny side up

Mid-Summer Update

I haven't updated my blog since April (!) so it's time for a mid-year update:

Got Married

May 10th, 2014

May was super busy getting everything done last minute for our wedding. We had an outdoor ceremony and the weather turned out perfectly despite several thunderstorms leading up to the big day. The whole day went by as a giant blur but it was definitely one of the best days of my life :)




No plans for a honeymoon yet but maybe in the near future we'll do something for snowboarding (Whistler?) or an Asia trip.

Travel

Peggy's Cove, Nova Scotia

Work has been keeping me busy with travel this summer. Places I've visited include Montreal, Halifax, and Vancouver. I went to perform quality audits at our vehicle processing centres (VPC's). Before a vehicle ends up at a dealership to be sold, they first end up at one of the VPC's to be processed. This is where some accessories (seat heaters, radio upgrades, leather seats, etc.) and throw-in's (owner's manual, etc.) are performed. Unfortunately there isn't much time for vacationing on these work trips, but I did get a chance to visit Peggy's Cove in Halifax before leaving.

Poker

Two thirds there!

I wasn't getting the hang of PLO and the learning curve was really hurting my bankroll. Since switching back to NLHE at the end of May, I've been back to beating the games, up a bit over $7k since switching back. In the past 2 weeks or so I've been heavily experimenting with mass multi-tabling the Zoom games trying to get my VPP count up. I re-organized my hotkey layout and have been able to manage 6-tables of Zoom (~1350 hands/hr). So I bumped it up to 8-tables (~1800 hands/hr) but haven't been so successful. The quality of my game has dropped quite a bit in doing so and has currently put me in a bit of a downswing for the end of July. So for August I'm planning to go back to the basics and study a bit more and play less tables. I'm on pace to achieve my goal of reaching Supernova status this year at 67k out of 100k VPP's so I can afford to play less tables and work on improving my overall game.

Badminton
I enrolled in 3 tournaments since my last update:

10th Asian Community Games 2014 - My partner/brother Jordan got injured and had to withdraw so I played with a ringer from my club. We lost all our games.

Ryerson Open 2014 - I injured my neck a week prior to the tournament and had to withdraw.

Varsity Blues Summer Open 2014 - Jordan and I came 2nd in pool play and made it to B-Flight where we lost in the opening round. The games were very close and we were disappointed with our sloppy play. 3rd place in our pool went on to finish 2nd in C-Flight and the guys who knocked us out of B-Flight lost in the semi-finals to the eventual winners.

Although my wrist condition has significantly improved, I feel that my overall game has stagnated a bit. I think I just need to train harder and play more.  Perhaps its time to start weight training as well. But on top of work and poker, this is proving to be an issue of balancing priorities. I really wish I had more time :(

Yonex Z-Force II

I was also forced to upgrade my rackets to something more durable. I used to use a Yonex Voltric 5 intermediate racket. I owned 3 of them and all 3 of them eventually broke in the exact same spot. I've always been in the camp of spending less money on equipment and more money on skills. So to spend $400 on two new rackets hurt quite a bit. But I have to say the new rackets I got (Yonex Voltric Z-Force II) are significantly better than my old racket and they also feel a lot more durable.

Motorsports

The new classroom at CTMP. BTW what kind of school is this???

Despite not competing this year I've still been out on the track instructing for the HANSON advanced driving school. Canadian Tire Motorsport Park had a big upgrade over the winter and the new facility / track layout is nothing short of amazing. The old classroom was a beat up portable with no AC or heat and covered in bugs everywhere. The new classroom is on the second floor of an air conditioned facility with huge windows overlooking the track. The new track layout keeps hints of the old layout but improves it in every possible way. The track is FIA width. The straights are longer. The pavement is smoother. What more can you ask for?

Although I've only been out on track in my daily driver Scion iQ, my time attack machine did get a chance to stretch its legs at CSCS Round 3. I wasn't driving because I had a badminton tournament that day. I lent the car to Can-Jam so that they could test some new parts. Richard Boake drove the car in Street AWD and ended up winning his class with a 1:19.110 on street tires. Not bad!

I've been putting a lot of thought into where I want to go with racing and what I want to do with the car. Knowing how competitive I can be, I know that open lapping might not be enough to make it "fun" again. But at the same time, I don't want to get caught up in an arms race and go 200% over budget trying to be competitive. So at this time of writing, it sounds like a return to Street AWD might be in the works. The car is legal and clearly capable of being competitive. And I won't have to deal with a full blown race car that can only ever be enjoyed at the track. Not to mention having to deal with the logistics nightmare of trailering. I had a lot of fun back in 2011 when I was first starting out with a car I could enjoy both on the track AND the street. So look for some updates in the near future. I haven't given up!

2013 End of Year Update

I haven't updated this blog in a few months so I wanted to take a moment to write about a few important changes coming up.

I've decided to take a break from Time Attack racing indefinitely.

This season was exhausting. I went over budget on my build trying to keep up with the arms race that the Super Street AWD category has become. Ultimately, I won the championship, but not without great sacrifice. Motorsports accounted for over 50% of my spending this year including mortgage payments and regular living stuff. That is completely unacceptable and unsustainable.

I'm getting married in 2014 and there will be a lot of bills to pay. The reality is racing is an expensive sport and I don't think I'll be able to continue racing competitively without going completely bankrupt. This doesn't mean I'm quitting driving though! Just competing.

I debated selling my car. I even put it up for sale. If I get a decent offer for it, I won't hesitate to let it go. But that's probably not going to happen as my asking price is a little high (I put a lot into it, and don't want to lose too much). If I can't sell the car, then it will likely be detuned back to something less hardcore and more of a weekend warrior/project.

Even if I had the money to continue racing competitively, I wouldn't. I'm at a point in my life right now where I need to start being smarter with my money instead of blowing everything on a depreciating hunk of metal. I would like to be financially free sooner rather than later. On top of that, I just feel like the competition in motorsports can be too easily "bought" by anyone willing to spend the money. More on this later.

Thank you to all the people who supported my short lived motorsports career. I'm sorry there won't be as many motorsports updates. But hopefully you will still find my blog interesting as it changes direction in 2014.

[9/22/2013] CSCS #5 (TMP)

Event: Canadian Sport Compact Series #5 (Season Finale)
Track: Toronto Motorsports Park, Cayuga
Weather Conditions: 9-13°C Overcast

Final event of the season and I only needed to finish top 5 to claim the overall title. But even that was proving to be quite difficult as the track was very cold and my tires were giving me attitude all day long.



I spun out 3 times in the morning practice and had a few other nasty power slide moments. I just couldn't get the car doing what I wanted. Can-Jam replaced the stock R180 rear diff with a Cusco one, so there was less wheel spin coming out of the corners now. An amazing improvement in exit acceleration, but with my tires acting up, it was tough to put down a good lap time.

Photo Credit: Charles Spivak

Perhaps I could have adjusted the rear wing's angle of attack to provide some more rear downforce or play around some more with the DCCD bias. Too late now though. The best time I could put down during qualifying was an atrocious 1:23.95, far from the 1:18's everyone else was doing in my class.

Time Attack

I bumped up all 4 tire pressures by 2 psi and hoped for the best.


Time Attack Lap Times:
Hot Lap 1 - 1:27.22
Hot Lap 2 - 1:21.70
Hot Lap 3 - 1:19.85

1.4 seconds off pace vs. Round 4

Final result was a 4th place finish with a 1:19.850. Not terrible, but far from my A-game. I was off pace in nearly every corner. Because I had no idea how the new tire pressures would react, I treated the first 2 laps with extreme caution to prevent a DNF. Although my times were dropping quickly after hot lap #2, I felt I could be in the 18's no problem if I had one more lap...

Can-Jam builds fast cars!

My class record was smashed with a 1:16.155 by Scott Murfin driving another Can-Jam prepped time attack STI.

I may have lost the battle today. But a 4th place finish scored me enough points to claim the SSAWD Championship. Proof that persistence and consistency can pay dividends in the long run.

Final SSAWD Point Standings

Overall this was a crazy season for me. Lots of ups and downs. But the end result was worth it. I would like to extend a huge thanks to all the people who supported me on and off the track: My pit crew: Ryan, Francis, Stephen, and Jordan. My sponsors: Can-Jam Motorsports and Touge Tuning. And everyone else for the moral support (you know who you are).

[8/18/2013] CSCS #4 (TMP)

Event: Canadian Sport Compact Series #4
Track: Toronto Motorsports Park, Cayuga
Weather Conditions: 26°C Sunny

Photo credit: Charles Spivak

I had mixed feelings coming into Round 4 after the disappointing crash at Round 3. On the one hand, I really wanted to do well and put up a strong fight in Super Street AWD, but on the other I didn't want to break something again and put a further beating on my bank account.

One could call it 'Days of Thunder Syndrome', where you totally forget how to race and are afraid to take risks. This was not going to be me.

I decided that Round 4 would be "back to the basics" driving for me. Time Attack is all about racing against yourself. There's no need to worry about anyone else on the track or in your class. It's all about focusing on driving your absolute best.

The key for today was to focus on getting my confidence back and working back up to the limit. So I wrote down some key words on my track sheet: "Patience" and "Warm-up". I even removed my lap timer from visual sight and stuffed it in the glove box.

Removing an endlink is the same as running no swaybar

The car was also in a dynamic state of change. Since I recently sold my JDM Spec-C seats, I had to borrow a loaner OMP bucket seat from Can-Jam. I was running with no front swaybar as a trial. And last but not least, a slightly bigger loaner turbo (GTX-3076) to make the car a bit more competitive.

Qualifying & Testing Changes

Photo credit: Charles Spivak

It was great to be back out on the track again in my own car. All of the anxiety and nerves I had coming into this event disappeared once I hit wide open throttle.

GTX-3076 vs. EFR-6758 Turbo:
There was quite a difference in turbo lag compared to my old Borg Warner turbo. But in a sense, that made the car a bit easier to drive. I felt I could modulate the throttle better on corner exit, rather than have all the torque snap the wheels free too quickly. It just suited my driving style much better.

No Front Swaybar:
The lack of front swaybar made the front end a bit more floaty but honestly I didn't notice too much of a difference in terms of overall grip or lap times. I ended up reconnecting it later on. With the swaybar connected the car was just a bit more predictable on turn-in.

OMP Bucket Seat:
The OMP bucket seat provided a bit more extra support, especially through the esses in T2 through T4. Although the JDM seats were a wicked daily driving weekend warrior seat, I don't regret my decision at all to upgrade to a full bucket. Street driving to and from the track was just as comfortable. But getting in and out of the car was a bit harder.

Two issues plagued me during qualifying:

The first was that my front splitter was generating so much downforce that it was literally ripping the front bumper skin off the car. This caused me to lose one of my fog light brake duct covers on the track :(

Support bracket

Bumper bolt and Gorilla tape

Can-Jam's depth of experience here never ceases to amaze me. Together we installed some bolts on the side of the bumper to hold it in place and also rigged up a support bracket to keep the front of the splitter from collapsing. And as an extra measure, some Gorilla tape. All done on our lunch break!

Photo credit: Charles Spivak

The second issue was a bit more severe, and it was actually causing me to lose seconds per lap. Coming onto straightaways after 3rd gear turns, I was having an intermittent issue with 4th gear breaking up. I would upshift and apply 100% throttle but the RPM's would not increase and it felt like I wasn't accelerating at all. After losing some RPM's the throttle would then kick back in and continue as normal. I'd estimate at least 1.5-2 seconds per lap being lost because of this issue.

Great view from Mike Gardner's 350Z. I have to let him pass on the 2nd lap due to my throttle issue.

Qualifying Lap Times Pt. 1:
Session 1 - 1:23.35
Session 2 - 1:25.90

I didn't know it, but my car was running on a low boost map. Can-Jam was secretly helping me regain my confidence as well. We thought the issue might be tune related so we switched over to the high boost map. Unfortunately this didn't resolve the issue.

Qualifying Lap Times Pt. 2:
Session 3 - 1:20.74
Session 4 - 1:20.31

Photo credit: Charles Spivak

I qualified in 3rd place, with Mike Harvey and Richard Grossi both ahead of me doing mid 1:19's in their STI's. Today was going to be tough. But this is where I had to remind myself that there was nothing I could do about anyone else's lap times. Anything could happen. They might make a mistake during time attack. If I stayed focused and brought my A-game, then that's all that mattered.

Pre-Time Attack

As a last ditch effort to resolve the throttle issue, I filled the car up to a full tank of gas. I had been running most of the day with under half a tank of gas and there was the possibility that fuel starvation was occuring due to the increased lateral G's from the aero/tire upgrades. Speaking with my fellow competitor Mike, he mentioned that when he was low on fuel, he would notice fuel cut about 1-2 seconds after coming out of a high G turn. That sounded like my problem! I never liked to fill up more than half a tank for weight reasons in the past, but if this fixed my issue, it would be well worth the trade off.

CSCS stages the timed heats in descending orders of lap times. Which gives people with the faster lap times a bit of a break before they get to run. I was in the 12th heat so I decided to take a little nap in the shaded area of my tent and run some laps in my head.

Time Attack

Stick to the game plan and warm-up the tires. Patience. That's what was going through my head as I waited for the marshal to release me on the track.

The warm-up lap is an excellent time to drive slowly and try to hit every braking point, turn-in point, and apex. HPDE 101.

First hot lap and the moment of truth. Coming out of the hairpin onto the main straight and shifting into 4th gear. Will there be power or will it hesitate? ... Nothing but pure POWER!!! After the second straight I knew I was golden. Hot lap 1 felt good. No major mistakes. Hot lap 2 also felt good. I over shot the apex of T9 a little, but it still felt fast overall. Knowing I had put down a decent first and second lap, I decided to just go for it in lap 3.


Time Attack Lap Times:
Hot Lap 1 - 1:19.71
Hot Lap 2 - 1:18.87
Hot Lap 3 - 1:18.45

Final result was 1st place in SSAWD and a new class record at TMP. Previous record was 1:18.85 set by Mike Harvey in Round 1 earlier this year.

Having my first win of the season felt amazing especially after all I've gone through this year. I could not thank Can-Jam Motorsports enough for all their hard work and track side support. And huge thanks to my one man pit crew of the day, Ryan, for helping out where he could.

Today was a proof of concept for me that at the core of any tough competition, a focus on the fundamentals will take you a long, long way.

Points Standings as of Round 4

Bdon - 330

Alex - 270

James - 260

For more information check out CSCS.ca
See you at the Season Finale on Sept. 22nd at Toronto Motorsports Park!