As many of you know, I have been preparing for the SCCA national Club Trials event at Second Creek Raceway. So, with an oil pan full of fresh oil and some Toyo RA1s in the hatch I headed out to the track in the dark early morning hours to discover if me and my little ITR that I love would hold up under the pressure of competition or wilt and go home embarrassed.

I was classed in regional OSP – a group of about 12 cars including Bob Tunnell’s M3 (of BimmerHaus), a Viper, some Corvettes, a nice CRX and other goodies. It was going to be fun but tough.

Day One.
Saturday started off cold in the morning but warmed up nice in the afternoon. The paddock was full of Corvettes, Miatas and other stuff you would normally see at a track – even another ITR. Saturday was run counter-clockwise, a direction I have never driven the track so I was learning as I went. This direction is a bit more technical and a bit scarier. Qualifying was two flying laps with the goal of grouping like-speed cars in run groups. My first lap was interesting with cold tires and I nearly spun it on one occasion – but made a quick catch to my relief. I qualified with a 1:23.7XX, which put me at the very top of group 3 (group 1 being the fastest) next to the CRX.

In the afternoon run groups are given a single 30-minute session. You can turn as many or as few laps as you want during that time. After learning my lesson about cold tires I took it easy for the first couple laps to get some heat in them as well as the brakes. Then started to try and get in my rhythm. It didn’t take me long to get past the CRX and then it was a matter of clear track in front of my and nobody pressuring me from behind. After a good stint of about 12 laps I decided to come in to the hot pits to let the tires cool a bit. After going back out on track I spent the rest of the session having fun with an orange Elise. We were fairly close in lap times with each of us gaining a few tenths here or there. I eventually made my way up to him and got by. My fastest lap was a 1:22.378 – nearly 1.5 seconds faster than my qualifying time. I was happy with the time since I never really felt totally comfortable on the track. At the end of day one I believe I was sitting in 6th place in class.

Day Two.
I was looking forward to the second day, as we would be running the course clockwise which I am more familiar and comfortable with. I felt I could really make up some time on a couple of cars in front of me (including a nicely prepared turbo Miata). Qualifying was uneventful and I ended with a time of 1:21.7XX. This put me near the top of run group 2 (1 being the fastest), which was a big improvement over the previous day. The car felt great, but I decided to soften up the front dampers just a bit to try and get some more grip, especially in the bumpy braking zones and corner entries. After lunch and watching a super fast Suzuki Swift hit a tire wall I headed out for my last session of the weekend. I started behind a really fast spec Miata with a good driver. I was able to stay with him and watch his lines for several laps while I got comfortable behind the wheel. He let me go by eventually and I was off in search of the next car. I ran some fast laps, but I think a combination of some sloppy driving and over working the tires left me looking for grip – so I went into the hot pits after about 9 laps to just regain my focus. After that, things were much better and I ended up turning my fast lap near the end of the session. The highlight of the day was getting the wave-by from a ASP Corvette after he realized that I was killing him under brakes and he couldn’t drop me in the corners. My best lap time was a 1:21.2XX (as a reference Bob Tunnell did an insane 1:12.XXX in his no-expense-spared M3)!!!

I was able to make up time in day two – and my combined weekend time was good enough for 4th in class. I went home very happy. The car never complained and only burned about a half a quart of oil during the entire weekend. The motor and the brakes were fabulous.

A Couple of Observations.
1. I was reminded more than once this weekend how nice it is to have a car that is so capable on the track and yet so reliable. I watched person after person lose time on and off the track with something broken while I sat in a chair drinking Gatorade (after offering to help of course).

2. Time after time I watched drivers using high HP to disguise or compensate for poor driving (or judgment) – and some of them got bit hard by tire and concrete walls. Yes, they had some fast lap times, but I would rather hone my skills in a car like the ITR than brag about X:XX.XXX.

Here are some photos that were taken by a friend at the track with a point-and-shoot. I will post photos that I took of cars around the paddock in this thread later.

 

Suwheat! Sounds like you had lots of fun!

 

Sounds like you had a good weekend.
Is this a class for street legal cars or something?

 

Great pics and thanks for sharing the right up as well.....

 

Man, you look like a real mountain man with that beard now Jonathan. What's that red thing in the middle front bumper grill?

 

Is that a transponder?

 

Nice pictures and write-up!

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by extrah &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Is this a class for street legal cars or something?</TD></TR></TABLE>

It is really a catch all prepared class for cars that don't want to run in a class of only 1 or 2 people.

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by hungsteR &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Man, you look like a real mountain man with that beard now Jonathan. What's that red thing in the middle front bumper grill?</TD></TR></TABLE>

The beard is fun.
Yep, that is the timing transponder...

Here are a couple more pics...






Modified by Flux at 2:46 PM 10/17/2005

 

I like your BMW numbers, 43

 

any pics of the miata? glad you fun!

 

Sounds like a great weekend! Glad you had fun and did well

How did the other ITR fair?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by JDMAflac &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">any pics of the miata? glad you fun!</TD></TR></TABLE>

Thanks. All of my photos of all of the other cars are still on my camera - I'll post them up as soon as I can get a chance to go through them.

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Chris93Si &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Sounds like a great weekend! Glad you had fun and did well

How did the other ITR fair?</TD></TR></TABLE>

Thanks Chris. The other ITR was running STX and didn't fair so well unfortunately...

 

Cool man, when you coming back to Tejas? hehe

 

 

Nice write-up/pics. Where'd you get that stupid hurts sticker, I have a similar gash on my lip .

 

haha yeah.. the bandaid sticker =D
tight..
looks fun too

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Flux &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote"></TD></TR></TABLE>

Awesome review and great pics, but I think this wheel is bent (right at 12 o'clock)

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Alexander &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

Awesome review and great pics, but I think this wheel is bent (right at 12 o'clock) </TD></TR></TABLE>

Thanks - I checked the wheels and don't see anything - must be something in the photo...

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Flux &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

Thanks - I checked the wheels and don't see anything - must be something in the photo... </TD></TR></TABLE>

Odd, I see it too, double check it

 

looks like fun
&lt;--too scared to bring his R wheel to wheel racing but likes to dream he would

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by ITRacer121 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">looks like fun
&lt;--too scared to bring his R wheel to wheel racing but likes to dream he would</TD></TR></TABLE>

There's no reason to be scared.

Try starting off with autox.

 

damn the car looks great, so what is your motor/suspension setup if you don't mind me asking

 

Thanks for sharing this, and congratulations on having so much fun and doing well.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by JDMSI &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">damn the car looks great, so what is your motor/suspension setup if you don't mind me asking</TD></TR></TABLE>

You can see all of the car's specs here:
https://honda-tech.com/garage?cmd=viewcar&id=695

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by George Knighton &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Thanks for sharing this, and congratulations on having so much fun and doing well. </TD></TR></TABLE>

Thanks George...

 

As promised, here are some photos from around the paddock on both days...
For those of you that do track days, you should really look into doing some Time Trials.

Fastest car out there, hands down...


This vette went into a wall on day two. The driver suffered four broken ribs.


One of the nicest prepared 3000GTs I have ever seen.


Broke a suspension piece on day two.


This was my hero. This Suzuki Swift was chasing down the big cars. Driver was incredible.




A super fast fully prepared spec Miata. The thing was fast.






I would have loved to have taken this for a few laps...


After hitting a tire wall.


Some people have all the money...