Our fancy Grip Royal steering wheel, and Circuit Sports hub
and quick release were all here and we finally got rid of the ugly stock wheel.
The interior is looking pretty awesome with the Autometers, the dash wrap, the
new shift knob, and ASD handbrake. Grip Royal has a vast selection of wheels
available, but if you don’t see the color you like, don’t be sad! Grip Royal will get any color you want and
get you the look you desire. For us, we chose to match all the driver controls
to a similar silver/polish look. I think it came out fantastic!
Lastly, the wing. OH THE WING. By chance, I met a rad dude (Cody Stanfield)
who wanted to help out with the car. One of the aspects was the wing posts. We
had talked about wanting to make them taller, but how!? Well, Cody works at a machine shop, with
access to a CnC machine, that’s how! He
spent a huge amount of time working on the design, and layout of the posts so
they would plug-n-play with the wing and mounts I already had. Our only setback
was we had to check with the FormulaD rule book, which limits wing heights to
16” (we were thinking 20”!). The night we were leaving we installed them and it
was AMAZING sitting on the car. Unfortunately, the wing was highly unstable
side to side and had to come off for now until we have time to fix it.
Leaving at nearly
midnight on Thursday, we drove straight through the night and arrived at the
Nexen tires HQ in Atlanta to pick up some sick tires. We were given the
opportunity to run the ultra-performance N9000 and N6000 stagger for the FIRST
TIME EVER on our car. The N9000 are so amazing looking and just holding it you
can feel the softness of the rubber! Super excited to see how much they add to
the car.
We check in at the track at 10:30am and get the car to tech,
bunch of little things that they want addressed, so we take our time and fix it
all up and get cleared, game on! George
Grob was awesome and had a tire machine and mounted up those fresh Nexens for
us. Already getting dark, we turn our focus to the rear wing. It hasn’t
been seen yet since we took it off, and with everyone gone, we wanted to get it
right. After going to the local Home Depot, we came up with a stabilizer idea
of making larger mounting plates on the underside of the hatch. After some
hacksaw and drill action, we fit the new plates. Stood back and gave her a
rough shake…..the wing was almost dead rock SOLID and we celebrated like it was
midnight on New Year’s Eve . We were so pumped that we would get to debut it here
at Road Atlanta with the crowd FormulaD draws in.
Bright and early the next day at 8:45am, we are set for
practice. First run up was a little crazy. We have changed alignment, installed
the offset spacers, adjust sway bar settings, haven’t really put the ASD
handbrake to a higher speed test yet, and we are also running totally different
tire compounds! Not to mention in the driver’s meeting, Andy Yen (FD Judge)
explains how hard the new course line is and that many Pros were struggling
after the 4 hour practice session they had; we get 1 hour to practice. Back to
our first run… head in, and had to redo my intiation as I didn’t throw it hard
enough on the new grippy tires. After that,
I was able to stick the line really well! The other 2 practice laps I got
we had all the elements, and just had to bring them up a notch to really be
comfortable… too bad practice was already over after 3 runs. With some drivers visiting the kitty litter
and other having broken or crashed cars, our time was gone.
Qualifying 3 hours later…
First run, BEST of the DAY and
then I get greedy with angle, almost spinning on the exit of the
horseshoe! I save it and the bobble was
ugly, but I had a score. Next run up was everything the first was and much
more! No bobble and a great line and
angle gave me huge confidence that we were in for Top16. I can really feel the
Nexens added grip as I toss the car around. As we returned to the pits, I
dashed into the horseshoe, jumped out, and threw a few shirts to the hungry
crowd. They were diving trying to get the J1Nracing shirts!!
Driver’s meeting reveals our last run earned us an awesome 4th
place qualifying position! Since our competition was not until 9:30pm (9+hours
later!), so we made a few minor adjustments on the car and placed it in the
Exedy booth in the pro pit vendor area and went to watch Pro practice and
qualifying.
Leading in the car nosed over the first 2 rumble strips and was a little shallow up the hill. I couldn’t get the car to glide across the track as the tires just wanted to grab and go, but it was still a pretty solid run. We did some adjustments, and lined up to follow.
The increased grip was still too much and we lost drift as we started up hill, but at the top of the hill things got crazy. Entering the horseshoe I was getting pretty close to Lee and just then, he had a big correction and got really slow and straightened… I had no where to go, and we made contact! He pulls away and I’m just hoping I didn’t shatter my sweet headlights LOL! As I’m heading around the course, a terrifying scraping sound as the front is dragging on the ground. Fearing it might go under the car and get exploded, I took matters into my own hands. Put it in 1st, whipped her around, and drove in reverse up the hill! The crowd and announcer apparently LOVED the move as they could relate to not wanting to destroy their kits, LOL! We were awarded the win and moved to Great 8.
The next battle was against a local friend Brett Collins. Driving an S13 with a supercharged 1UZ, he was doing well and was 5th qualifier. I lead first and as I transition up hill- OH NO, too much angle!- I have to straighten up and intiate at the top of the hill- as I start to come around the horseshoe, I see Brett is backwards on track after the first clip. (phew, his spin saved my mistake). I pull up and ask him “What’s wrong?” – “I don’t know, car won’t start!”—“Oh, hold on”…. Brett has a stock bumper- so I pull behind him, and inch up… a loud “NO WAY!” rings out from the crowd as I make gentle contact. I roll on into 1st and the crowd goes insane, cheering me on. Eventually pull 2nd gear and push Brett all the way up the hill to his crew. I stage up and realize it was really odd move, but I was just thinking, he needs help, I got this crash bar here, might as well use it! Unlucky for Brett, his supercharger had thrown the belt and he didn’t have any recourse, so he withdrew. I got the win by default and got to make a fun run- which I utterly obliterated the track with my best run of the night!
Final 4 put us against the number 1 qualifier of James
Evans. We both had some mistakes and were told it was declared a OMT. As I
followed him in, I was gunning for the win. I enter and get RIGHT on him, it’s
ridiculous how aggressive I’m being, but I know James is a solid driver and its
pretty safe move. His car was so loud, I
didn’t hear my RPMs so low that I bogged a split second after the first clip. I
had to accelerate and reinitiate up the hill, leaving me at a disadvantage on
the next run. I absolutely KILL the run and even hit the outside clip marker
with my bumper- knocking it off as well. James is a great driver and stayed
smooth and I was knocked to the consolation round.
Doug Van Den Brink, a drifting veteran and former FD pro competitor
(who currently holds a legit FD license) somehow spins out and lands in the
battle for 3rd against me.
The first time we faced off was in 2006 where I won, and last year at
Zmax where he won. This will be our personal tie breaker! Leading first, I take off, hard on the
throttle like I’m running from a nuclear blast! Enter suuuuuper early and lay
down possibly my BEST run of the night!
We swap positions and head down the hill. As we dive in, I decide that I’m going to
enter before he does. I rip the ASD brake and a split second later he enters
and I suck RIGHT up on his side! It’s PURE
INSANITY! I might be closer than I was to James just last round!
I am more
aware of my RPM’s and keep her ripping up the hill, staying decent proximity on
Doug back down the hill. As we finish off the course I BARELY keep it on I’m
going so fast! Top of the hill we sit,
waiting on word--- I get the thumbs
up!! I WON! I give a fist pump to my crew waiting up the
hill further who explode and jump around with high fives!
We drive in and again toss a couple shirts out to the fans
that stayed late to watch. Awards are set to go out tomorrow, during
intermission between FD Top32 and Top16 rounds. We head to the pits and after some
laughter and handshakes we get to work on the front and rear bumpers so the car
is ready for the Exedy booth in the morning.
Awards were about 6pm, right at the FD podium down the row
from Exedy. We pull up and time it so the crowd is dumping down from the stands
during intermission. Awards go off with Jason Jiovani (3rd), James
Evans (2nd) and Bill Stenger (1st). I brought up some shirts (crowd LOVES
shirts!), sprayed some champagne, and tasted some victory! I try to drive the car back to Exedy, there
are so many people I can barely move. As I roll on, people are drooling over
the car, the wing, and the dash as I pass by. Non-stop comments and pictures as
we make our way; our car is definitely a crowd pleaser!
Hanging out in the booth a bit, I had a fan come up and ask
for an autograph! We got a marker and signed on his Exedy bandana, immediately
igniting my own autograph session. After it died down, I headed up to watch the
main event and cheer for my fellow Nexen drivers!
This event was crazy from the time we left until the time the car hit the trailer, but this is always my favorite event. I love Road Atlanta.
No comments:
Post a Comment