The wannabe ST

I will add more details later to this thread but for now.
I got P2 at GRIDLIFE at big willow. I missed P1 by 4 tenths of a second. Not bad considering I am once again the only car competing on OEM shocks lol.
im happy to add another trophy to the collection and hyped for Laguna Seca competition in September

Now that I have a little more time, what a weekend.
I started off the weekend by putting a bunch of stickers on the car. These are some of the businesses of my close friends and I want to help them get some exposure as I compete through my first full time attack season.
the competition between me and another competitor for P1 was fierce. We had a good lead over the competition but we both improved every single session. And every session we switched on who was the faster driver. We were always less than 5 tenths away from eachother. It was a rollercoaster of emotions to see my lap time go down 6 tenths and then I need 2 tenths more to catch up. And the feeling would go both ways.


I was dipping tires a lot on one of my sessions and got this wonderful text 5 minutes after my session ended lol.
In an effort to go faster on day 2. A friend gave me some duct tape and I sealed off the whole upper grill of the fiesta and also gave me a little bit of gold heat tape which I put on the intake manifold.
the intake temps went up another 15-20 degrees with this combination. Making my intake temps 40+ over ambient. Not good since we were in the high 70s!


the coolant temps run at around 205-210 with this setup, normally they’re closer to 180-190.
despite the higher intake temps. I saw immediate time drop on the straights and corner exit with all the tape.
I also got the car weighed since they had the scales out and my car sits at 2659 pounds with roughly half a tank. Which means I should be able to take out roughly 120-150 pounds out of the car and still be legal for the class. At some point this year I will get the car on a dyno since I need to for nasa tt6 and that will let me know exactly how low in weight I can go.

once it was time for podiums. I finished with a time of 1.42.6 which landed me that P2. P1 was a 1.42.2. Once again why I love sundae cup so much. The tight competition makes it so much fun and gives you something to push for.
enjoy a few of these pictures I received this weekend:



Some mental notes for myself of things to upgrade:
Get bigger radiator for faster heat distribution
Lower temp thermostat
Block off upper grill permanently
Repair front bumper for better aero
Check if tire spats are legal
Get front and rear crash bars with tow hooks before I end up failing tech like someone else did
Remove random weight I don’t need, ideally in the back for more rotation.

HA! In WRC tarmac rallying, this is fully expected and considered merely 'force majeure' or par for the course for the crews further down the start list for the stages.
They might even make some suspension adjustment, or tire compound choice changes/decisions because of it!

Yea, some of my friends that were spectating were telling me about how the flaggers would grab the black flag as if they were going to point it at me, we all thought it was pretty extra because the amount I was throwing on track was minimal and it was off of most peoples race line, mine was a more narrow race line due to the elevation and needing to keep my momentum up. As someone who hosts 1-2 events a year and helps out with another organization I can understand the annoyance. Because as a host you will get drivers complaining about debris and in a competition format drivers aren't the biggest fans of it.

I just signed up for my first NASA event later this month. It is going to be at willow springs here in socal. Does anyone have any tips or advice on what to expect? I sent an email asking to be put in HPDE 4 or straight into TT6 instead of going thru the whole HPDE 1-4 process.

Another 2 day track weekend in the books for my car. This brings my total to 14 track days on this car now. With no major issues. I did run into overheating on my first session out. Temps shot up to 235 on my second lap. I opened the radiator cap for 20 minutes and it seemed to just be an air bubble because the car didn’t over heat anymore after that.
the first day was chuckwalla CW.
I got zero laps alone in my car due to instructing so much. Also my garmin stopped working so my best lap time with proof was a 2.18 but I’m sure I went faster.
On my last session I hit a suspension bolt from someone else’s car and hat to patch my tire the next morning. It held up all day with no issues.
the second day was CCW and I only got 3 laps to myself at the end of the day. My tires were delaminating and I just wanted to try to get a PB. I ended up with a 2.14. I’m pretty confident there is a 2.11-2.12 on the stock wheels and 195 wide federal rs pro setup. On my sundae cup setup with the motegis and rt660 I’m pretty sure a sub 2.10 lap time will be plenty do able.
enjoy these pics from the weekend:

On Friday this week tickets will go live for drivers for my annual birthday event. This year will be at Buttonwillow CW13 again in December on the 27th. The driver count will be 80 driver cap. I tried to work on pricing to get it lower, but pricing would've been more than I wanted to charge keeping it at 60 driver cap like last year. Early bird tickets will be $200 and regular price tickets will be $230. This year I am hosting it in collaboration with Touge2track so the event should run way smoother, as far as check in goes and more. The event will have sessions in the morning and after lunch will be open track. As always, I will be available to instruct and first timers to the track life are always welcome.

Registration for buttonwillow will go live at 8pm. This is one of the best deals you will find on buttonwillow for the driver count (80).
for any beginners, don’t be afraid of a new experience. Our organization is very beginner friendly and will help you out all day to go faster and safer.

https://touge2track.com/