Well I finally took my ITR to a road course this past Wednesday. I've owned my Type R now for about 4 1/2 years. During that time i've done plenty of racing with it. I use to be huge into drag racing until last year when I started Autocrossing and got hooked on that. Drag Racing was fun and all but because of my love to go Karting i've always had a larger desire to turn then driving in a strait line.

I'm lucky enough to have one of the best road course's in the country only an hour drive away from me. That track being Miller Motorsports Park just outside Salt Lake City, Utah. I've loved that track ever since it was announced. I went to the meetings discussing the plans for it, traveled out there many times while it was being built, and over the past 3 years since it officially opened i've been to many major events out there. Unfortunatly I could never afford to be able to race out there myself. The price was just way too high. That was until Wednesday night anyways.

MMP created a program called "Wide Open Wednesdays" that will be taking place the 2 Wednesday of every month thru September. Basically its a program to get more of the locals envolved in racing there cars out at MMP. The program has many great deals such as 5 laps for $5 on the Karting track and $1 a lap on the Autocross course they set up on the West Paddock. However the best deal of the program is $20 for as many laps as you can get in between 5pm and 8pm on the East Course on the track itself. Yeah thats right I said $20. There was no way I was going to miss this oppertunity. I rearranged my work schedule and made sure I would be there.

I must say that racing on an actual Road Course is unlike any other racing i've ever done. I am hooked now. I loved it. In the 3 hours of racing we could do I was able to get 7 laps in (they run the cars one at a time 30 seconds apart for one lap then you get back in line) which was around 20 minutes of total seat time. I learned alot about my car at this event as well as myself as a driver. Unfortunatly they didn't time our laps (one of the workers says they might at the next one) but I know my car was on par with many of the Subarus there. It also made me realize how badly I need stickier tires. The tires on the car now are BFG G-Force Sports. When I bought them the car was still daily driven so I they were a good mix of daily a sport use. Now that the ITR isn't a daily though i'm looking into picking up some stickier tires for it.

Overall I had a great time and have already requested the rest of these wide open wednesday events off work. Unfortunatly I still can't afford to do an actual track day but I figure that these events will be the best entry into the sport that I can get for now. It was fun actually racing my car in the racing that Honda designed it for. What little desire I had left in me to drag race is now gone. I never care to go to a drag strip again. Looks like i'll be putting my drag radials up for sale so I can pick up some sticker tires for MMP.

Anyways heres some pictures my friend took of my car while I was racing. Enjoy:

 

Sweet pictures - glad you had a good time !

 

glad to see the track is trying to bring in more locals, thats a great deal

 

ITR + road course = good times!

 

cool pics.!

question, what kind of exhaust do you have?

 

Oh, man, Miller looks like a great track. Facilities look incredible and that down-hill chicane looks like it'd be so much fun.

 

Welcome aboard. Track days are the most fun.

Just avoid using the term RACING.

 

clean ARRRR

 

NICE, someday I want to drive MMP.

 

Nice. I hope to visit MMP soon with my GSR.. I'm down in CO.

If you're looking for street+track tires, I would go for:
225/45-15 Hankook RS3
205/50-15 or 215/45-16 Kumho XS
215/40-17 Dunlop Z1 StarSpec
205/50-15 Bridgestone RE11

Track only:
Nitto NT01
Toyo R888
Toyo RA1
Hoosier R6
..all available in 225/45-15

 

Thats a really cool concept. Great idea to get people hooked who were previously "on the outside looking in". The sport is very addictive....the most fun you can have with your pants on.

Don't worry about time right now. You should be focused on learning all you can about the basics of steering, braking, and acceleration. If possible you should see if you can find some local FWD guys that have a few years under their belts and see if they would be willing to ride with you to help you out with the basics. Perhaps one of the local UT guys in here can point to a local chatboard where you can solicit an instructor. Since this event doesn't coincide with an event that a senior level driver would be at you may have to offer some "motivation". Beer (maybe soda pop in your area, lol), dinner, or some cold hard cash never hurt. You'll learn 3x as much with an instructor to show you the correct line for FWD and to show you what you're doing wrong and right.

G/L and happy motoring

 

Welcome to an addiction worse than heroin mixed with crack and meth.

R's on a roadcourse are pure bliss.

 

i wana take my car there..

 

that's a hell of a deal.. wish there were courses closer than 5 hours that had deals like that.

 

holi moli bro, nce to see a honda guy tracking it hard... i wish we could have a track here in Saskatchewan CAD, but the winter always kills the pavement and the city just wont do it. Right now im almost done finising a AutoX car with my new GSR swap and some suspension/breaking stuff... enjoy it and let us know about your times. lets see how quick you improve... FTW

 

Its a Tannabe Hyper Medaillion Catback.

Thanks for the comments everyone. I'm diffenitly addicted. Hopefully in the next few years i'll have more money to run in the local lap battle series the track puts on. But for now i'm just gonna have to stick with these Wide Open Wednesday events. Hopeing next time they will run us on the West Course.

 

good stuff glad u had fun

 

Thanks for the words and insight everyone. I actually own our local Honda website so i've been in contact with some of the local road course guys. Utah has a huge Legal Drag racing scene with some of the fastest drag cars in the country being here as well as one of the best tuners around. So the guys that like to turn around here are very few. Unfortuantly they don't allow passengers at the Wide Open Wednesday events but i'm trying to talk some of the regulars to at least come out and watch our runs and help give us pointers as well.

 

Oh no..... Careful! Once you go track you never go back! Its a bad habit! Its like a terrible drug habit! It only gets worse and the addiction grows!

Glad you enjoyed it! Looks like you played it safe too!

 

Nice! The track closest to me kinda sucks and its 125 bucks to run.

 

hey Teknik, that's awesome that you did that.
i had no idea they were doing anything like that.
i'll have to come out to the next one.
do you think anyone would have a problem with a 1.5L wagon on the track?

 

I'm jelous, I have to drive 3 and a half hours to the nearest track that allows for open course days...just not NEARLY as cheap as $20, and not as often. Looks like you had fun!

 

sounds like a dream come true. great stuff

 

Bumping this back up because I finally made it back out to the track for another Wide Open Wednesday event. I had an onboard camera this time so I was able to figure out my start to finish times of each pass. I was pretty excited to see I was pretty consistant with my times being between a 1:47 to a 1:49. Anyways just thought I would share a couple of my onboard clips of my quickest pass as well as one of my spinout on my last pass. Already looking forward to the next event and hoping to have new tires soon.



Quickest pass:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MbFFfRh1-zo

Spinout:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcK0yy0RTtY

 

I strongly recommend that you sign up for a drivers school and not participate in open track days. Without any instruction at your level of experience (novice), you are almost certainly developing bad driving habits that will make it difficult for you to go faster. With a good drivers school, an instructor sits in your passenger seat as you go around the track, and tells you what to do differently. There are also classroom sessions where you will hear insightful information about performance driving in general and that specific track in particular. If you want to develop your skill quicker (and have more fun too), you're better off signing up for one of these schools. They are held by clubs like BMW CCA and NASA at tracks all over the country, probably including yours. And of course there's also the Integra Type R Expo held every year. They're worth every penny. You'll be amazed by how much more you will learn that way!