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DezodWest Time Attack A Success
It wouldn’t have been yet another race weekend without being totally fatigued before the action even gets rolling. The Time Attack race at Firebird Raceway on Saturday was a huge success not only for Dezod, but also for AZMC and Mazda in general.
My weekend started Thursday morning with rolling over to Bullitt Automotive in Tempe for a race spec alignment. In a race to make any positive suspension changes prior to the Time Attack race, I opted to see if the alignment for the car was out of whack. This time, I was actually right. The alignment of the vehicle was indeed a mess due to a combination of street driving, suspension changes, and overall problems with the passenger side having maxed out camber adjusters.
With the alignment straightened out, I spent the rest of my time focusing on smaller elements of the vehicle that I have needed to address. One element was the main drive belt which has been squeaking since I installed my Agency Power Underdrive pulley. The belts I have been using are ones provided by AP and had a few miles on them. I picked up a $13 from NAPA and after changing it out the squeaking went away! No more broken car sounds.
The previous week, AZsonicsnake assisted me in a Mazmart high performance water pump install along with a full coolant flush. We inspected the water system and found it to be very clean and the new water pump went in without a hitch. This pump made the difference between giving me several more full out practice laps while other RX8’s (and other built race cars) were overheating or breaking because of the extreme conditions. Thanks Tony!
The final work was getting the driver’s side flare fixed by using some plastic sealer to attach it to the car instead of using 3M tape which doesn’t survive the heat. The flare is firmly attached an no longer hangs off the side of the car. My final body work will involve pulling a few dents and getting my trunk holes filled. I think these elements will be on hold for a while though.
I also removed some excess clear coat from a rear tail light. After sanding it down and hitting it with a rotary buffer it’s looking good as new! If I tend to the front bumper the car will look much better.
Ok so!
The Time Attack…
The day started early around 7am at Firebird as I got registered, assigned a class, and unloaded the crap from my car. I was competing in the RWD street mod class. Due to the forecast (100+ degrees) I opted to throw 4 gallons of 110 octane race fuel into the RX8 to prevent any pre-mature detonation if the car ran hot. It certainly did run hot as the second practice session ran much longer than the first pushing oil temperatures into the 245-250 degree range and my water temperatures to the 230-240 degree range.
Thankfully a well working water coolant system prevented the oil system from being saturated with heat.
My first practice session out went rather well. Since I had driven the hyperdrive the previous weekend, I was familiar with a couple trouble spots on the track and was able to further refine my driving without having to worry about basics. I was able to drive the track in my head which is necessary for doing well. I had a azsolo driving instructor with me the whole time. His assessment after I was done was I needed to brake later, turn later, and roll into the throttle sooner.
So in short, DRIVE FASTER!
Drive faster I did indeed. The second practice session was pucker time as I was taking the brake zones much deeper; deep enough ABS was kicking in halfway into my stop. I was turning and apexing making sure to nail those rumble strips each time. I had issues with downshifting after the quarter mile straight because I needed the power of 2nd gear but I could carry the speed of midrange third gear into the turn. In all, I was hitting 92 mph at the end of the straight before braking.
Without going into too much detail, I felt I took the car to the edge of what I felt it was capable of and it went even further. The car continues to amaze me and I have a lot of growing as a driver before I will over drive the vehicle.
The Time Attack occurred during the hottest part of the day and the track was very warm. I had one warm up lap, 2 hot laps and one cool down. During my second hot lap I could start to feel the tires giving out as they heated up. Still, I stayed heavy in the throttle as deep as possible and only used the brakes when necessary. In all, I felt my time was impressive based on some of the vehicles I was up against.
I was 6 out of 7 people in the RWD Stock class, the fastest time being 1:11.63, the slowest being 1:27.55, and me being 1:15.57. Being less than 4 seconds behind the leader and also coming a few seconds ahead of someone who I have been trying to beat for a while was a huge thrill.
Some other notable vehicles I came ahead of...
Honda S2000 1:27.55, Nissan 350z 1:24.01, Infiniti G35 1:20.10, 03 Mustang Cobra 1:18.41, Subaru STI 1:20.25, Honda Civic SI 1:17.42, Scion TC w/ dezod turbo kit 1:27.50.
Overall it was a fantastic event and I’m looking forward to attending an HPDE event sometime in the middle to late fall. For now, I’ve got a few things that need to be done on the car before pushing it heavy on the track. Before my next event I hope to have a better set of tires, the access port with a full tune and a new ignition system.
I’ll post pics and video as soon as I can. Otherwise check out www.azmazdaclub.com for highlights!
~Flashwing
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