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Gearing up for May
So it's been a little while since I gave an update to what's happening with my own car. With the 4th autocross event of the year behind me, I'm looking forward to May for some exciting and ground breaking events going on for me and my RX8.
Working backwards, May 31st will be the Dezod track event at Firebird Raceway taking place on their west side road course. This is their new course that's been built within the past year and I've been told it's a fantastic drive. This race event will probably be populated by noobs like myself since most hard core racers will no doubt be doing other events during the month with more track time.
The dezod event will be dividing cars into classes based on modifications and drive train. The entry is limited to 60 cars and dezod is a Honda and Scion aftermarket company so I am assuming most cars will be FWD with turbo and N/A applications. No doubt some of the AWD guys will come out to this as well. This leaves me in the Street Mod RWD class which no doubt will pit me against other RX8's as my only real competition. There's a shortage of RWD natural aspirated vehicles that are track monsters pushing nearly 200 WHP.
I don't mind that line up at all. I would prefer to compete against people I know as it makes the experience that much better!
The event is a race/show so there will be plenty going on that day for me. There will be a parade lap followed by a short practice session where I should be able to get one or two laps at the most. Finally, the main event will be a warm up lap, two timed laps for the time attack, and then a cool down lap. I recall seeing if two cars are within .1 seconds of each other there will be a sudden death run.
Tickets for this event have already been purchased so I'm locked and loaded.
The weekend before dezod will be a NASA event at Firebird and the opportunity to run the HPDE (High Performance Driving Education) event. I found out this evening my car should pass tech despite having some heavy tire wear on the outside edge due to not getting an alignment after my coilover installation. Yeah yeah, I know...dumbass!
I'd be in the HPDE 1 group which would put me with an instructor of which many have 10 or 15+ years of racing experience. They would show me how to apex properly, braking zones, and general track behavior. This event would be an all day event with 3 to 4 20 minute sessions. In all I'm looking at an hour to 1 1/2 hours of track time. This would really set me up to compete heavily at the dezod event since most of the people there will have never driven a road course track before and thus not know what to expect.
So, provided I can put up the funds for the HPDE ($200+) and get the car ready I'll have a good list of things I'll need to do. Mainly I'll have to do a tune up of the vehicle and make sure that there's no issues which could cause me to fail tech. I have a very small oil leak someplace and I have yet to track it down despite lots of looking. I also have a Mazsport performance water pump I have yet to install.
Track prep will include installation of the new water pump and a complete flush of the radiator system. I'll also need to work out grounding issues with my gauges as they read about 10 to sometimes 12 degrees lower than actual. This will be critical to prevent any engine damage during the events.
I'll have to put a case of Idemitsu 10w-30 oil on order as I'll need to perform an oil change before and after the two events. I'll also need to go over the suspension system and make sure everything is tight and there's no loose bolts or my coilovers don't have loose locking rings. Recharge my K&N filter and also get some longer hose for my oil catch can to run it properly.
I'm no doubt going to stretch myself thin with some of the purchases but with the hot summer months fast approaching this is going to be the last chance before October that I can run a serious race event.
It's shaping up to be an action packed month and some big steps for me. I've been building this car over the past year for racing and it's about time I start getting down to business.
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