Well, I thought it would be funny to show up at the local 1/3-mile paved circle-track tonight for the "One On One" drag-races on the oval, where street cars compete for a big trophy and an invitation to the finals in the fall. What the hell, I thought to myself. It's something cheap to do on a Thursday night.

And it turned out to be a pretty interesting night. Why? Because, during my first time *ever* on a NASCAR oval, in a street legal daily driven 93 SE-R with some bolt-on mods, I WON THE WHOLE THING OUTRIGHT and came home with the big trophy to prove it!

Not that I'm bragging, because I'm not. Lots of people can tell you that I'm pretty much a non-driving piece of ****. However, the car... the car is quick. And I blame my win on the car, not the driver.

Also I must mention... not only was my car the only import out there, it was the only car out there under 3000 pounds. On a 1/3 mile track it's not too hard to waste 3500 pound Camaros and Monte Carlos, even ones with 400 hp and seasoned roundy-rounders behind the wheel.

So what happened? I showed up late and was allowed a "special late entry" into the event. I think they just wanted to laugh at my dirty old Sentra, really. "At least he's out there trying," they had planned to say.

The format was as follows: two solo warm-up laps to see the track, followed by heats of heads-up, one-on-one racing against a single competitor. The oval was divided into a "low lane" and a "high lane" by cones every 50 feet. We would stage at the start-finish line on the front straight and drag-race when they threw the green light, down to the first turn in our assigned lane, and complete one full lap in that lane. Then we would switch lanes and do it again. If you hit a cone or wandered into the other lane, you lost. If you won both, you proceeded to the next round. If you each won one, you would flip a coin to see who proceeded.

Warmup laps... I spun in turn 3 and backed the car down the banking, missing the inside wall by about 5 feet. Then I locked up the brakes trying to stop at start/finish as instructed. On my second lap I spun again in turn 3 and backed the car up the banking, missing the outside wall by about 5 feet. Then I locked the brakes up again after the finish line. Note to self: turn rear AGX's down. A lot. And go easy on these Metal Masters, which don't have the bite of the Porterfields I'm used to. Most importantly though, SLOW DOWN TO GO FAST.

First round, I took it easy and won by several seconds. Second round, I took it slightly less easy against a faster car and still won by several seconds. Third round I was the enemy of everyone and still beat the Camaro driver by several seconds. Final round I ran against a "local hero" with "more than 5000 laps around here" in his 400+hp Monte Carlo and still kicked his *** by a fair margin.

Rumors suggested that "the rice-boy" should "take his ******' import and go home" because "he cheated, he has adjustable suspension and probably soaked his tires and probably hid a nitrous bottle in there somewhere". Which begs the question, did I cheat? The rules are as follows: show up in a street legal car with license plates, and race. So I did. And I won. Without soaking my tires, and without nitrous. In an import Sentra (that was built in America, actually.)

Long story short? The car was awesome. As soon as I adjusted the shocks it was neutral in turn 3 (where I spun previously) and pushing slightly in the other three turns. Cornering was "hit the brakes, turn in, floor it, keep feeding in steering, and hold on". On my last run I really hit the groove and pushed out to the outside wall - it was no more than a foot from my right side mirror, which, in retrospect, was a stupid move on my part. But it sure was fun!

So what did I learn? First things first, oval-tracks are no joke, even when they are only 1/3 of a mile. They have walls everywhere AND every turn is different, which is why they number them that way. Secondly, most people who frequent these kinds of events have no idea what an SE-R is, or what a power-to-weight ratio is. Thirdly, a classic SE-R with some mods really is a quick little car under most circumstances. Compared to all my competitors, I had faster launches and faster entries into turn 1 and faster exits from turn 2 and so on. In retrospect I can't believe it was so easy.

PS- they hold these every Thursday night - so everybody show up next week in an import and win a big trophy for yourself! It's Southside Speedway in Richmond, VA. See you there! Although I can't drive anymore... winners are forbidden to race again until the finals in the fall, which will feature a cash prize or something.

The SE-R *ownz* drags on ovals yo!!!

Jon

 

 

Dude, that rocks, now only if my car was street legal... Hum, my DAD's WRX?

 

Corey, you would *OWN* in a WRX out there. See you next thurs?

Jon

 

sweet

 

Jon, you are such a meanie I friggin love it!!!

I myself found a whole new respect for the attachments* on guys that drive the circle tracks (and I thought I already respected them).

* a la David Hobbs commentary at Silverstone??

 

Fantastic Smackdown! I love hearing about **** like this!

 

[smacks self in head]

Damn, I should've known it would be better to race a Sentra in the roundy-rounds against 400hp Monte Carlos than in the twistayz against BMW's and RX-7's.


[Modified by slowSER, 7:37 AM 7/12/2002]

 

Excellent!!! It's nice to hear about others that do "spectator drags" (What we call them here at Seekonk Speedway in MA). Your format is a little different that what we have here.

We have over 125 cars at every spectator drags. They toss a coin for lane choice, no cones... just door to door so to speak. And one lap. It comes down to almost always who has the inside lane. The last two standing gets two laps.

About 5 years ago it was all american iron. Now, it's a good mix. The 1st import to win was a friend of mine... Fedja Jeleskovic (Now SM Auto-xer... he was an ESP auto-xer at the time). It is all about car prep. The crowd went wild when he won. Then sure enough, year after year, the talons/eclipses started to own the track at spectator drags. (They would launch then duck down to the inside before the other guy was off the line... and the inside line won 95% of the time)

Heck, Fedja's won twice and my friend Leon Rietman (vote for him in SCC's ultimate sports car challenge please.) has won or come in 2nd a few times too. They only hold the Spectator drags about 2-3 times a year.

It's an interesting thing about the cones... it really forces you not to push the others into the wall, like they tend to try and do here.

Good win! Going to be great to hear about your win at the end of the year.

--KC

 

man that is the funniest thing i have heard in a long time

next time, put the porterfields and some hoosiers and really scare the crap out of them

 

Awsome! Im'gonna run my GSR sometime. Surely I'll be chased around by a torch carrying mob thats convinced I'm an evil wizard who cast the " DOHC VTEC" spell on my engine . What time do the start? Is it every thursday?

Ross

 

Awww chit jon, i needs to show dem V8's boys whatz up!!

 

That is GREAT, Jon. Very entertaining.

The circle track NE of Seattle (Evergreen Speedway) that I used to go to for burgers and fun did a similar thing. One evening back in the mid-'80s, some wiseguy kid shows up in a Ferrari 308, like off of his dad's dealer lot or something...

He made it to the last round and was head-to-head with a brown-primered, late-'70s Camaro, that actually sounded pretty potent but looked to be on lousy rubber. Going into T3 with a lead, on the second lap of the final, the guy in the 308 gets a little oversteery, overcorrects, and high centers the thing on the top of the banking, perched there with the rear tires spinning in air. The Camaro squeals past him to win.

The crowd went NUTS!

Kirk

 

LMAO, good job at whooping @$$ and reprazentin' the mad import power. I'd get my WRX out there if I didn't have friggin' Calc 3 class from 6-8:40 every thursday... Heck, it's still considered street legal with DOT-legal R-compounds, right? Was this at Southside Speedway? After the 2 autoxes I've run there, I think I've got the groove there reasonably well.

 

Wow I want to do this!! Is there any places in NY that do this kind of racing?

 

Nice Job!

 

How were the trophy girls?


Matt

P.S. Good job!!!

 

i'll go own them in my saturn y0!

well maybe not. but sounds like it'd be fun

 

From what I heard, nothing worth stealing.


[Modified by JMU1337, 6:07 PM 7/12/2002]

 

Too bad we still don't have the Neon Ross...that is American iron er...aluminum/plastic right..??!!!!

 

This sounds like sound like more fun than I had in our food fight thursday. SOrry Rock-ola Ill have to check this out.

 

good job

 

That's the best thing I've heard today.

 

Thanks guys! I hope I made you all proud with my ricey import 4 cylinder.

Pat- yeah, the SE-R might not be the best IT car but it can kick *** when applied correctly to lesser forms of motorsport. Take your wins where you can get 'em, right?

Harper- no Hoosiers or other DOT race rubber, unfortunately, they require street tires and they can check treadwear ratings. I ran on a busted-***, shredded, strangely-worn, out-of-balance set of 280-treadwear, 205/50-15 Kumho 712's that I haven't checked/set the pressures of in several weeks, which I can't wait to destroy and replace with Falken Azenis in the very near future.

Ross- it starts around 7, every Thursday for the rest of the year as far as I know. Definitely show up in your GS-R next week or ASAP - I remember driving that thing on the JC the other weekend and damn dude, you could *OWN* out there in that ride! VTEC kicks *** - and from what I remember, you'd be into the VTEC in 2nd coming out of T2 onto the back straight and out of T4 onto the front straight.

Yack- please don't show up, you'd humiliate everybody so much that they would probably ban all import cars forever.

Kirk- that Ferrari story left me laughing and crying at the same time.

Chris P- no R-comp's, sorry, that would be too easy, I already inquired before I showed up. It was indeed at Southside Speedway - but you can't really follow any line via this format because they have it divided with cones into a "high lane" and a "low lane". BTW, how are two u-turns considered four turns again? There isn't really an apex anyway, right? Definitely not four apexes per lap. It's basically a straight into a banked increasing-radius turn into a straight into a decreasing-radius turn. I'm really confused.

Jon
PS- Sunday fun on the twistiest road in VA, anyone? Details are at https://honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=228073

___

 

Autocrossing on sunday y0