Hey everyone, I had what turned out to be a great weekend of racing! I was in group 1 (ITR, ITS, ITA, ITB & IT-7) so the sunrise was seen both days at the track.

Saturday warm up was uneventfull, but the 20 min quali was interesting for me. As I started to push the car and feel it out I managed to get a 2:26.60 on my Aim lap timer. I was pretty happy with that but I kept pushing, till I lost it going into the bus stop at the end of the superstrech. I pounded the curb pretty good but stopped short of the tire wall in a nice 270* spin. With a go from the corner worker, I was back on my way. As I continued my lap, something didn't seem right, my shift throws had gotten very long. As I got onto the superstrech I peaked down at the shifter to see it haning rather low, so I grabbed it and was able to pick it up and down. I continued to the pit lane and ended my session with about 5 minutes remaining. I did not want to stay out and risk a misshift. I had one of those at my last race. (you've all seen the video). It turns out that the bushing that holds the back end of the shift linkage support rod broke. The fork of my shifter was sitting on the muffler. Fortunately I had another support rod back at the house an hour away. That is the nice thing about racing at Daytona, it is close to home. Unfortunaely, this meant I would miss the Saturday 8 lap race that would determine the starting order for the 5 lap race Sunday morning. This was not a bad thing since they ended up racing in the rain as I worked on my car in the rain. I was putting my tools away as my group took the checker.

Sunday was another beautiful moring and this time, it would stay that way all day. I pull into pregrid to be placed in 57th position overall. This could be fun. Well, as you can see in the video, I don't get a great start, but I still make the most of it as we funnel into turn 1. The infield is pretty tight this far back in the pack so I just have to be carefull where I place my Sentra. As I come around for lap 2, I am able to close in on a spec miata that is playing in ITA. As we come out of turn 1, I start to pull up along the inside of him hoping he sees me. Turns out he didn't. He turnd into me and we both spun. OOFFF! Look at all of those cars pass by. Fortunately neither of us hit the wall. I was able to get going first and I just put my head down and made the most of it. Unfortunately my camera cut off before the race was over, but I managed to make it up to 37th overall and 15th in class with a best lap time of 2:25.43 in the 5 lap race distance. It was fun.

Here is the video from the 5 lap race

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLS0gq_Q5Qw

Part 2

Keep in mind that I have not fixed my handleing woes. My car does not hook up in right hand turns, the left front tire just chatters away as I wait on it. The car is awesome when turning to the left though. You can see this in turn 1, the kink (flat when not side by side) and the last turn exiting the infield (very important by the way) I plan on sending my Konis out to have them checked. Any other ideas???

So onto the Sunday 10 lap race. I am placed 37th overall and 15th in class, but the class leader opts out of the race because of transmission problems. The second place Saturn driven my my friend O.B. does not show up to the grid for some reason (they thought they had time to go for a bite to eat, Dohh!) So I just moved up to 13th in class! The first start is called off so we came around again and got a clean start. Now I just have to be carefull again and pass as many cars as possible. I knew that any damn miata I saw, I had to pass, period. This was gonig well till I got tangled with a pair of ITS porsches. A 911 and a 944. These guys were really pissing me off with their straightaway speed and lack of talent everywhere else. I can't stand it when I pull up to someone going into the infield kink and they hit the brakes. That can be bad. But if I am set up right, they cannot stop me from passing them in the west horseshoe!!! I made that move several times during the race. About halfway through the race I see my friend O.B. in his Saturn coming up behind me. I got pumped up then because I knew I can race with him and not have to worry about him doing anything stupid. I was able to get the advantage on him through traffic most of the time, but he could really suck up to me in the draft with his better aero. I don't know if it was 2 laps or 1 lap left but he dives down the inside of me going into the international horseshoe but over shoots. I was able to come in wide and late apex him and retake the position. It was a classic pass, re-pass. The two of us were just pushing eachother as we worked our way up the field. It was a blast. When the checker flew, I had made it up to 12th overall and 2nd yes 2nd In ITA!!!!! I was also able to click off a best lap of 2:24.45. Not quite the 2:23.2 of the winning ITA CRX or O.B.'s best of a 2:23.6, but I was still happy with my time especially since my car is losing time in the right turns and I have an all stock un touched 164plus thousand mile engine!!!

Here is the first few laps of that 2nd race. My camera also shut off on me during this race too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ll6dx-n83W4

I must say, that 10 lap race on Sunday was by far the most fun I have had racing my car since I began in 2003. And to come away with a 2nd just makes it that much better. Too bad I can't afford to race as often as I would like. It will be nice to sort out the handleing issues and build an engine to spec so I can have more power.....but till then, I will still have fun in my Sentra. I hope you do too.

Russell that is just flat out amazing. I am glad you are having fun.

Great stuff Russell. :biggthump
Did you check the preload on the LH side swaybar?
Lot of the Sentra racers do not have any idea about the Florida regional races. FUN,FUN,FUN. Especially in a SE-R.:D

Great fun Russell - my friggin camera died so I got nothing from my weekend... :(

Great job. You passed a LOT of cars.

It looked to me as though you had a legal pass on the Miata. I think he goofed. Also, FYI, Custom Steel has a stainless steel piece that replaces that rubber bushing that died. I installed it and it firmed up the shifter feel a lot.


-S

Nevermind

Pretty shitty of the miata to clip you like that, it ,looked like most moved out of the way when they realized they couldn't hang on, he just deliberately didnt want to move, what a dick. Whats the cars mods?? Man i would love to get into something like this. Where do i start?? Obviously with a decent car (money too?) but how do you get licensed to do this? Excuse me for being a noob at this.

Pretty sh*tty of the miata to clip you like that, it ,looked like most moved out of the way when they realized they couldn't hang on, he just deliberately didnt want to move, what a dick.
Whats the cars mods?? Man i would love to get into something like this. Where do i start?? Obviously with a decent car (money too?) but how do you get licensed to do this? Excuse me for being a noob at this.

Dreamer: Actually, despite how good of a driver l know Russell is, I'd place most of the "blame" for that incident on him. He was behind the Miata going into that kink and he closed up the gap very quickly and stuffed his nose in to where he should have known that car was going to go.
Not that Russell is the first person to make that mistake at that turn; I've seen about one "Pro" driver each year do the same thing in the early laps of the 24 Hours of Daytona. Its the kind of turn that sucks people in to that move if the car in front is not setting up correctly for the entry to that left-hander...
Of course, I've made my share of mistakes on a race track :-)
Here is the site for SCCA:
http://www.scca.com
Here is the link for the rule book that includes the Improved Touring class:
http://www.scca.com/documents/Club Rules/GCR2007.pdf
Here is the site where a lot of discussion about the Improved Touring class takes place (you'll have to register to access all of the forums):
http://itforum.improvedtouring.com/forums/index.php?act=idx

Russell, that looked like a ton of fun, glad you had a good time and a good result. Still waiting on you to come up here for the ARRC some day.

Yea Russell...you should run the ARRC...if nothing else the paddock is the most fun at a race you will have evar :)

Yea Russell...you should run the ARRC...if nothing else the paddock is the most fun at a race you will have evar :)

Yeah, all the cool people are going.... ;)

Dreamer: Actually, despite how good of a driver l know Russell is, I'd place most of the "blame" for that incident on him. He was behind the Miata going into that kink and he closed up the gap very quickly and stuffed his nose in to where he should have known that car was going to go.
Not that Russell is the first person to make that mistake at that turn; I've seen about one "Pro" driver each year do the same thing in the early laps of the 24 Hours of Daytona. Its the kind of turn that sucks people in to that move if the car in front is not setting up correctly for the entry to that left-hander...
Of course, I've made my share of mistakes on a race track :-)

Russell, that looked like a ton of fun, glad you had a good time and a good result. Still waiting on you to come up here for the ARRC some day.

Thanks for pointing out my faults so succinctly Tim :rolleyes:

Yes I took the chance that he was checking his mirrors, if he had been, I am positive it would have been a clean pass. I don't believe he did it on purpose, not for an instant, he just didn't know I was there.

I would love to run the ARRC, but I broke the budget this year just doing my 2 requiered races for the year this month, I cannot justify the cost of running in Atlanta in November. I know it would be a blast though. Maybe next year. Besides, I need to get my car to turn properly in right hand turns before hitting Road Atlanta. All of the importnat turns there are right handers. Fast ones at that!

Besides, I need to get my car to turn properly in right hand turns before hitting Road Atlanta. All of the importnat turns there are right handers. Fast ones at that!

Have you tried swapping the inserts from side to side yet?

Thanks for pointing out my faults so succinctly Tim :rolleyes:

Yes I took the chance that he was checking his mirrors, if he had been, I am positive it would have been a clean pass. I don't believe he did it on purpose, not for an instant, he just didn't know I was there.


Russell, I wasn't trying to fault you, its just that Dreamer seemed to take the "Nissan fan" perspective in placing blame on the Miata driver, possibly just because he wasn't driving a Nissan.... I was just trying to be objective, I'm still your 2nd biggest fan :-)
In racing, I've been rubbed on by another car that was trying to pass me on the inside (another Datsun 510 at that) and my 2 "major" metal to metal contacts were caused by (1) taking a turn too fast and (2) taking the wrong line through a turn that both lead to me spinning the car sideways and getting tagged by cars that were following me. I've also outbreaked myself as well as the car that I was trying to pass from too far back and hit a tire wall, so I know all too well how success in racing can be determined by a combination of skill, situational awareness and split-second decision making.
I think I've learned enough from my mistakes that I won't make them again, at least, I hope so...

Looks like a lot of fun, pretty nice skills there, I was getting into watching you move up until that pass, particularly liked you taking the high road around the left hand bank. :cool:

Have you tried swapping the inserts from side to side yet?

Funny you should ask. Truth is, i'm not sure.... After I finished replacing the shifter parts on Saturday at the track, I dug into swaping the inserts. While I had them out I was checking the settings and such and I think I may have gotten them confused and put them back where they started. So I really don't know if I swaped them. I will send them off to Koni regardless just to have them checked.

Russell, I wasn't trying to fault you, its just that Dreamer seemed to take the "Nissan fan" perspective in placing blame on the Miata driver, possibly just because he wasn't driving a Nissan.... I was just trying to be objective, I'm still your 2nd biggest fan :-).


I know Tim, I was just being a bit tounge in cheek. Thanks for still being a fan. How is your race car build going?

how much hp are you pushing? how fast did u get it up to on that straight away? sounds freakin awesome!! nice how you flew past those other guys