A Week with King Motorsports - World Challenge RSX
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From: Jetsetter
A Week with King Motorsports - World Challenge RSX
Mods - sorry for the cross post, but I thought the RSX community would appreciate this. Thanks
In need of a serious vacation from the daily grind of life here in Madison, WI, I took a friend up on an offer to join his team for a week of World Challenge Touring Car love. The week began early Sunday morning (Oct 12) in Sullivan, WI where I met up with Scott Z and Yoshihiro Nezu. Our short term goal was to drive the King rig cross country and arrive in Atlanta, GA. by noon the next day – roughly 16 hours of driving.
Who would you expect to find piloting a World Challenge rig across the United States - oh just the usual suspects - a team owner, marketing guy for a furniture company, and a Japanese engineer. Aside from traffic in Chicago (a given - this time it was the Chicago marathon) the trip down was very smooth. We dropped anchor in Knoxville and had the opportunity to show the engineer a little bit of true southern Americana....
We crashed at a Holiday Inn finding ourselves back on the road early the following a.m. The smoker got his own room, the two non-smokers had to shack up - a wonderful relationship that lasted the entire trip. You might be wondering what a Japanese engineer does when cruising across the southern US
Well it probably wasn't all that interesting anyway. Interrupting the constant flow of country music and radio church services was Z and I talking about how unbelievably fat America's youth have become in their craze over fast food and video games. Of course I can't be too hard since I've become unbelievably fat in my craze over auto racing and beer.
We roll into Road Atlanta a few minutes past noon. Once you get there you have to wait to be “parked”. Filling up a paddock requires a bit of logistical organization – it isn't like rolling into the local mall and finding the last “fat boy” spot. So anywho, we park the rig and bum a ride from one of Foo's dudes back to the infamous Admiral Benbow Inn. Z insists that eons ago this used to be the hot **** place to stay. Aside from the oder it had charm, including a "pot head" monkey that Z took a liking to immediately.
After some yummy Mexican grub we crashed. Early the next morning, like around 3:00am, the rest of the crew apparently arrived from California. While good at navigating on the track, our racecar driver apparently had trouble finding his way.
Lesson #1: For the normal driver there is no I-785 in Atlanta. However, if you are a tired racecar driver and you find this mysterious road you'll end up half way to Knoxville before you realize that you might have taken a wrong turn.
The following day (Tuesday) began early with paddock set-up. It's seemingly simple until you find yourself anointed "rope guy" and perched atop the rig pulling the awning across as team owner and engineer fumble with the big nylon bit while dodging large beams of aluminum. After a few hours most everything is unloaded and setup.
Basically you need the following items in paddock:
1) Rig/awning
2) Racecar/parts
3) Pit cart/tools
4) Paddock transport a.k.a 4-wheeler
5) Alignment rack/scales
6) Table/chairs
7) Cooler/beer
8) People of varying heights, sex, and nationality
Yes it is level!
Tuesday was the “testing” day. Pretty much 2 hours of track time divided into 30minute sessions. No formal timing is available or published. Basically you rely on stop watches to compare your times to others. This is necessary to see how your set-up is measuring up. The car was fast right off the trailer. And aside from a few points of discussion we left feeling pretty good about the day. Aside from “rope guy”, I got to play “gas guy” and “tire guy”. Wednesday looked to be fairly relaxed so we didn’t hold back with paddock cocktails or drinks that evening.
Richi Bono and Nezu-san
Wednesday came quickly after a good night’s rest. Wednesday is a bit more serious as the we go from testing to practice. Practice is a timed event where everyone knows how everyone else is running. The trick here is to go fast, as to not look slow, but also not to go too fast and show all your cards. Relatively speaking we were not as fast as the day before and this was the cause of some concern at the end of the day. At this point you start to see the pressure of being a crew chief having to make a decision about what, if any, changes to make to the car to improve your times in the next day’s crucial qualifying session. With good input from Mr. Bob the decision was made NOT to make major changes and go back to basics – check the alignment. With a few minor tweaks we were ready to roll for qualifying on Thursday.
We found ourselves at a steakhouse getting to know one another, including the waitress.
Lesson #2: Racecar drivers get a lot hugs from women.
Some of us got a little silly after dinner and a number of cocktails. Don't ask me how Rich talked me into this, but I found myself on top of a large pumpkin at the bar. Unfortunately, I must have done some internal damage as our friend started to deflate. Before it was completely gone, we decided to depart.
JDM Cigs Yo!
Qualifying (Thursday) was okay. The Toyo tires put their best laps down early-on in a 20 minute session – like within the first 4 laps – so you have to go right out and lay down some fast times. In watching the in-car footage, we were having a little trouble with traction in 7 and ended up a modest 9th. Bob was disappointed, he wanted a better finish – I guess that is what you would expect from a champion and true competitor. In preparation for the race, no major changes were made to the car, just a fresh set of rubber and a tank of gas. Alignment settings were checked and that was it. No behind the scenes or smoke and mirrors stuff going on – pretty simple and basic approach. We had a decent meal that night and were in bed early in preparation for the big day.
Friday came bright and early – actually it was dark outside. We got to the track and made sure everything was in order for the race and put the car out on display while we tore down the paddock. The original plan was to be packed up and on the road right after the race – this was in order to get the rig to Jacksonville, FL by Saturday at noon. The next race is in Puerto Rico so everything had to be shipped over by boat from Jacksonville – busy schedule! The race came and as many might know it did not end so well for us. Early on Bob encountered contact on the back stretch and was forced off going into 10a. When coming back on the suspension was broken and by the time he knew he had a problem he was heading down the “old” pit entrance at a high rate of speed with no right front wheel or brakes! It was quite a moment for all of us. Initially he thought he just had a flat tire and was trying to get off of the track and come in for repair. Bob was okay and the damage to the car was not serious enough to prevent repair. Needless to say we were all bummed out, however I was very surprised how Scott handled it when I asked him how he was doing. Without any negative emotion and a little smile on his face he said, “I’ve been around this long enough to accept that these things will happen” You have to understand the context of their season which, with the exception of a few high points, was dominated by bad luck – everything from wrecking the car on the first outing, a string of bad motors, flipping the trailer, a questionable DQ on a 4th place finish, to finally wrecking the car at their last outing – all of these things out of their control.
I had a great week, and although and didn’t get much R&R, I must say that this was one of the most fun things I have ever done while on a vacation. The thing that sticks out most in my mind about the experience was how well this small group of people worked together. Relatively speaking, they get a lot done with very little, and are extremely competitive all at the same time. I attribute their success to their competitiveness and true passion for motorsport.
Thanks to Scott, Bob, Rich, Nezu, Amy and Lawrence
Moshi-Sushi
Ausmith
Enjoy the rest of the pictures.
Btw… there was a TV crew there filming the team for a new 13 episode show on Speed channel. The are building up a Mugen RSX project car and are starting the series out with some real-world application – i.e. racing. Not sure when it airs, but keep an eye out. It is supposed to be much better than anything shown thus far related to imports. More technical.
In need of a serious vacation from the daily grind of life here in Madison, WI, I took a friend up on an offer to join his team for a week of World Challenge Touring Car love. The week began early Sunday morning (Oct 12) in Sullivan, WI where I met up with Scott Z and Yoshihiro Nezu. Our short term goal was to drive the King rig cross country and arrive in Atlanta, GA. by noon the next day – roughly 16 hours of driving.
Who would you expect to find piloting a World Challenge rig across the United States - oh just the usual suspects - a team owner, marketing guy for a furniture company, and a Japanese engineer. Aside from traffic in Chicago (a given - this time it was the Chicago marathon) the trip down was very smooth. We dropped anchor in Knoxville and had the opportunity to show the engineer a little bit of true southern Americana....
We crashed at a Holiday Inn finding ourselves back on the road early the following a.m. The smoker got his own room, the two non-smokers had to shack up - a wonderful relationship that lasted the entire trip. You might be wondering what a Japanese engineer does when cruising across the southern US
Well it probably wasn't all that interesting anyway. Interrupting the constant flow of country music and radio church services was Z and I talking about how unbelievably fat America's youth have become in their craze over fast food and video games. Of course I can't be too hard since I've become unbelievably fat in my craze over auto racing and beer.
We roll into Road Atlanta a few minutes past noon. Once you get there you have to wait to be “parked”. Filling up a paddock requires a bit of logistical organization – it isn't like rolling into the local mall and finding the last “fat boy” spot. So anywho, we park the rig and bum a ride from one of Foo's dudes back to the infamous Admiral Benbow Inn. Z insists that eons ago this used to be the hot **** place to stay. Aside from the oder it had charm, including a "pot head" monkey that Z took a liking to immediately.
After some yummy Mexican grub we crashed. Early the next morning, like around 3:00am, the rest of the crew apparently arrived from California. While good at navigating on the track, our racecar driver apparently had trouble finding his way.
Lesson #1: For the normal driver there is no I-785 in Atlanta. However, if you are a tired racecar driver and you find this mysterious road you'll end up half way to Knoxville before you realize that you might have taken a wrong turn.
The following day (Tuesday) began early with paddock set-up. It's seemingly simple until you find yourself anointed "rope guy" and perched atop the rig pulling the awning across as team owner and engineer fumble with the big nylon bit while dodging large beams of aluminum. After a few hours most everything is unloaded and setup.
Basically you need the following items in paddock:
1) Rig/awning
2) Racecar/parts
3) Pit cart/tools
4) Paddock transport a.k.a 4-wheeler
5) Alignment rack/scales
6) Table/chairs
7) Cooler/beer
8) People of varying heights, sex, and nationality
Yes it is level!
Tuesday was the “testing” day. Pretty much 2 hours of track time divided into 30minute sessions. No formal timing is available or published. Basically you rely on stop watches to compare your times to others. This is necessary to see how your set-up is measuring up. The car was fast right off the trailer. And aside from a few points of discussion we left feeling pretty good about the day. Aside from “rope guy”, I got to play “gas guy” and “tire guy”. Wednesday looked to be fairly relaxed so we didn’t hold back with paddock cocktails or drinks that evening.
Richi Bono and Nezu-san
Wednesday came quickly after a good night’s rest. Wednesday is a bit more serious as the we go from testing to practice. Practice is a timed event where everyone knows how everyone else is running. The trick here is to go fast, as to not look slow, but also not to go too fast and show all your cards. Relatively speaking we were not as fast as the day before and this was the cause of some concern at the end of the day. At this point you start to see the pressure of being a crew chief having to make a decision about what, if any, changes to make to the car to improve your times in the next day’s crucial qualifying session. With good input from Mr. Bob the decision was made NOT to make major changes and go back to basics – check the alignment. With a few minor tweaks we were ready to roll for qualifying on Thursday.
We found ourselves at a steakhouse getting to know one another, including the waitress.
Lesson #2: Racecar drivers get a lot hugs from women.
Some of us got a little silly after dinner and a number of cocktails. Don't ask me how Rich talked me into this, but I found myself on top of a large pumpkin at the bar. Unfortunately, I must have done some internal damage as our friend started to deflate. Before it was completely gone, we decided to depart.
JDM Cigs Yo!
Qualifying (Thursday) was okay. The Toyo tires put their best laps down early-on in a 20 minute session – like within the first 4 laps – so you have to go right out and lay down some fast times. In watching the in-car footage, we were having a little trouble with traction in 7 and ended up a modest 9th. Bob was disappointed, he wanted a better finish – I guess that is what you would expect from a champion and true competitor. In preparation for the race, no major changes were made to the car, just a fresh set of rubber and a tank of gas. Alignment settings were checked and that was it. No behind the scenes or smoke and mirrors stuff going on – pretty simple and basic approach. We had a decent meal that night and were in bed early in preparation for the big day.
Friday came bright and early – actually it was dark outside. We got to the track and made sure everything was in order for the race and put the car out on display while we tore down the paddock. The original plan was to be packed up and on the road right after the race – this was in order to get the rig to Jacksonville, FL by Saturday at noon. The next race is in Puerto Rico so everything had to be shipped over by boat from Jacksonville – busy schedule! The race came and as many might know it did not end so well for us. Early on Bob encountered contact on the back stretch and was forced off going into 10a. When coming back on the suspension was broken and by the time he knew he had a problem he was heading down the “old” pit entrance at a high rate of speed with no right front wheel or brakes! It was quite a moment for all of us. Initially he thought he just had a flat tire and was trying to get off of the track and come in for repair. Bob was okay and the damage to the car was not serious enough to prevent repair. Needless to say we were all bummed out, however I was very surprised how Scott handled it when I asked him how he was doing. Without any negative emotion and a little smile on his face he said, “I’ve been around this long enough to accept that these things will happen” You have to understand the context of their season which, with the exception of a few high points, was dominated by bad luck – everything from wrecking the car on the first outing, a string of bad motors, flipping the trailer, a questionable DQ on a 4th place finish, to finally wrecking the car at their last outing – all of these things out of their control.
I had a great week, and although and didn’t get much R&R, I must say that this was one of the most fun things I have ever done while on a vacation. The thing that sticks out most in my mind about the experience was how well this small group of people worked together. Relatively speaking, they get a lot done with very little, and are extremely competitive all at the same time. I attribute their success to their competitiveness and true passion for motorsport.
Thanks to Scott, Bob, Rich, Nezu, Amy and Lawrence
Moshi-Sushi
Ausmith
Enjoy the rest of the pictures.
Btw… there was a TV crew there filming the team for a new 13 episode show on Speed channel. The are building up a Mugen RSX project car and are starting the series out with some real-world application – i.e. racing. Not sure when it airs, but keep an eye out. It is supposed to be much better than anything shown thus far related to imports. More technical.
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Honda-Tech Member
Joined: Jan 2000
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From: Northern Virginia
Re: A Week with King Motorsports - World Challenge RSX (civicvtec1ps)
nice pics, glad it was a lot of fun!
-Victor (who was glad that the Mugen engineers liked my "SPOON" R at Expo)
-Victor (who was glad that the Mugen engineers liked my "SPOON" R at Expo)
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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,790
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From: NC, USA
Re: A Week with King Motorsports - World Challenge RSX (Ausmith)
Mods - sorry for the cross post, but I thought the RSX community would appreciate this. Thanks
??
hell yesh we appreciate this!!
??
hell yesh we appreciate this!!
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Joined: Feb 2002
Posts: 800
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From: Island of Valinor, Middle Earth
Re: A Week with King Motorsports - World Challenge RSX (Ausmith)
<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Ausmith »</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote"></TD></TR></TABLE>
Wohooo, Wisconsin chicks...yeah baby!!
sorry I am concern more on the hooters girls..
</TD></TR></TABLE>Wohooo, Wisconsin chicks...yeah baby!!
sorry I am concern more on the hooters girls..
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Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 2,093
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From: WI
Re: A Week with King Motorsports - World Challenge RSX (xanctus)
<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by xanctus »</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
Wohooo, Wisconsin chicks...yeah baby!!
sorry I am concern more on the hooters girls.. </TD></TR></TABLE>
Damn right Wi chicks are for real
Wohooo, Wisconsin chicks...yeah baby!!
sorry I am concern more on the hooters girls..
</TD></TR></TABLE>Damn right Wi chicks are for real
Thread Starter
Honda-Tech Member
Joined: Dec 2001
Posts: 5,871
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From: Jetsetter
Re: A Week with King Motorsports - World Challenge RSX (95cx)
<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 95cx »</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
Damn right Wi chicks are for real </TD></TR></TABLE>
Actually those chicks were from Knoxville, TN. We grow them a little larger up in these parts
Damn right Wi chicks are for real
</TD></TR></TABLE>Actually those chicks were from Knoxville, TN. We grow them a little larger up in these parts
That looks like alot of fun!
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Joined: Jul 2002
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Re: A Week with King Motorsports - World Challenge RSX (Ausmith)
<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Ausmith »</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
Actually those chicks were from Knoxville, TN. We grow them a little larger up in these parts</TD></TR></TABLE>
LOL!
Ain't that the goddamned truth.
Actually those chicks were from Knoxville, TN. We grow them a little larger up in these parts</TD></TR></TABLE>
LOL!
Ain't that the goddamned truth.
Thread Starter
Honda-Tech Member
Joined: Dec 2001
Posts: 5,871
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From: Jetsetter
Re: A Week with King Motorsports - World Challenge RSX (Chris N)
<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Chris N »</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
LOL!
Ain't that the goddamned truth.</TD></TR></TABLE>
Yes it is.
LOL!
Ain't that the goddamned truth.
</TD></TR></TABLE>Yes it is.
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Joined: Jul 2002
Posts: 14,274
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Re: A Week with King Motorsports - World Challenge RSX (Ausmith)
<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Ausmith »</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
Yes it is. </TD></TR></TABLE>
Not so much down here, though. Which makes me wonder why I have no success!!
Yes it is.
</TD></TR></TABLE>Not so much down here, though. Which makes me wonder why I have no success!!
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Re: A Week with King Motorsports - World Challenge RSX (ArcticFreeze)
<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by ArcticFreeze »</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">here's my contribution from this weekend
</TD></TR></TABLE>
Heh, so that's what Stephen was talkin' about!
</TD></TR></TABLE>Heh, so that's what Stephen was talkin' about!
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