|
NASA & UMS Mega Event Recap
For those of you thinking of moving to Phoenix, I think I have the event recap which will send you packing!
While American’s everywhere were firing up their BBQ’s, exchanging stories with friends and family all while enjoying a nice adult beverage, amateur and professional racers from across the country gathered in Phoenix for the NASA Mega Event!
Firebird Raceway has seen it’s share of historical automotive moments while also being featured on television shows such as Speed Channel’s “Pinks” and is home to a major drag strip, along with two road course tracks and the Bondurant School.
img src="http://i139.photobucket.com/albums/q287/chickenwafer/NASATimeAttack05-24-08038.jpg" alt="" />
The National Auto Sports Association along with UMS tuning sponsored a mega event including events such as the Modified Magazine time attack shootout which should be in an upcoming version of the magazine. This event brought some of the fastest cars on the track to the event including COBB Tuning’s Japanese Spec Skyline GTR! This white beauty was something to behold and it was no disappointment to watch in action.
img src="http://photos-467.ll.facebook.com/photos-ll-sf2p/v290/131/58/6806467/n6806467_44493348_2598.jpg" alt="COBB R35 />
Being the retard I can be, while I was at UMS tuning I ran into Christian Rado who is a huge drag racer with Scion racing. I talked to him for a few minutes about their Scion TC that they were using in the time attack shootout. This car was putting out some very serious numbers. I’ve been asked not to post what they are due to the event being covered for the magazine. For being an amateur racer now myself, I felt pretty stupid being near a racing star and not even knowing who he was! I guess I better brush up on my professional knowledge.
I didn’t get to see much of Christian’s race but I know the TC suffered some issues with their fuel pump sometime during the race. Hopefully they got a chance to get one or more timed laps in. At the end of the day, Christian was awesome enough to talk to a few of us and said that he got his start doing road course racing. It was awesome to sit down and talk to a drag racing legend.
img src="http://photos-467.ll.facebook.com/photos-ll-sf2p/v290/131/58/6806467/n6806467_44493349_2917.jpg" alt="Chris unloading the Scion TC" />
I got a chance to see the COBB GTR R35 up close and I have to say this car is perplexing to say the least. On the one hand, the lines and curves of the latest Japanese super car don’t appear intimidating and the car doesn’t stand out like many of the other more exotic vehicles I’ve seen. Still, its simple design reminds me of those quiet girls that turn out to be total freaks. I’ve always said that the quiet ones are the crazy ones, and I think the new GTR fits that description to a T.
Earlier in the day, the GTR was shooting down the drag strip and putting down some impressive numbers in stock form. One pass had the GTR going 11.36 in the 1320. To my knowledge, COBB only uses their parts on their race cars and since I’ve not heard of any COBB upgrades for the GTR I am assuming it’s still in its stock form.
Other awesome car sightings included a Skyline GT-R R32 which was sporting the R34 V-Spec II wheels, A turbo charged NSX, and the fabled but very rare Skyline GTR Spec NUR. Sadly, the Spec NUR didn’t have any numbers on it so that car wasn’t seeing any track time.
img src="http://i139.photobucket.com/albums/q287/chickenwafer/NASATimeAttack05-24-08002.jpg" alt="Skyline" />
AZMC’s own MazdaManiac was out on the Firebird Main road course putting it down in the High Performance Driving Event group 1 as well! He had a great day and got a chance to show the RX8’s grace and handling will stand up to even vastly superior vehicles.
On to the hyper drive event. NASA also held another event on the Firebird West road course called Hyper Drive. This event was 15 minutes of track time with an instructor and was my opportunity to get on the track for the first time without destroying my bank account. The car handled pretty well with the moron driver (that’s me) behind the wheel. I am still having some issues with over steer which is either caused by me or bad suspension adjustments. Still, the car kept up with other drivers on the track including a black 350z which held me up the last half of the event.
I did have a Subaru WRX STI that felt he needed to pass me on the straight part of the track but soon found he was over driving his car when in the turn following the straight he spun out twice. Better luck next time I guess.
Erick, another AZMC member had a lot of fun showing the driver of a R33 the proper way to handle his car. This R33 had plenty of power to keep Erick’s RX8 held back in the straights but Erick was all over him in the corners. At one point, Erick was seen passing the R33 on the straight shortly before the event ended. While the car might have been up to the task, the driver certainly wasn’t.
At the end of the day it was one of the best events this year and it’s only May! You will no doubt find me out at the next HPDE event that NASA is doing soon. I’ll be busy saving my pennies for tires, brakes and gas!
|
