Buttonwillow Raceway, February 11-12, 2001

So here is what happened this weekend.

* It did not rain till the last session on Sunday. So most of the time I ended up using my RA1 tires. 
I left after it started raining and I did not run during the last session.

* I lowered my time from 2:15 to 2:11. Yes 2:11. John Lindsey was running 2:10 in his race spec Mustang. This suspension does wonders for handling.

* I got black flagged two times. The first one was a mistake on their part. So I did not enter till the second lap after the flag. My first time as a bomber. The second flag came when a Corvette Z06 could not shake me and slowed down and pointed me through after Taladega so I passed him in that no passing zone. I assumed that since he slowed down and pointed me through, then I should pass. NOT. He was at the download session and agreed that I should have passed, but the instructor said otherwise. Oh well.

* Tom and I had a "cat and mouse" routine. I pointed him through on the straight before the decreasing radius turn. So what does he do, he runs his hazard lights as if to tell me that he won the race. All he needed was a ricer flyby ;-) So I chase after him with Dave Karey in my car and at the decreasing radius turn he makes a mistake and goes off. So I pass him.

* An Audi S4 was also forced to bow down to the power of the Red Mist SE-R. He thought he had the AWD advantage in cornering. Wrong. He pointed me through after turn one. Then at the end of the session he came and talked to me and was impressed by the car.

* I constantly passed a certain burgundy 944 Turbo. That was not a problem at all.

During my last session on Saturday I had a very interesting encounter with an M3. He would catch up for a while and then I will put distance between us mainly through the West Loop of the track. It was fun until my car started choking up. Apparently I was running low on gas and going through tight turns starved the car out of gas and caused it to choke. So the M3 passed me. He later comes and talks to me. He thought i missed a shift when he passed me and he noticed the choking of my car. I told him what happened. I also told him that I was impressed that my SE-R could hang with an M3. And in typical riceboy fashion he blurted out "oh, I was not pushing my car." Jim Howard was able to take a picture of this encounter.

* At the last Sunday session before it rained. Tom gave me the best compliment that I have heard from him, "You are faster than fuck." He also admonished me to try and not crowd other cars in the twisties. I agree. I have a tendency to do that.

* I wrote RED MIST on the back windshield with shoe polish. And most people agreed that it fits me. Tom even said "If you look up Red Mist you will find Naji's picture by it."

* I met new people. A Mustang SVT guy (Mike) came up to me and was impressed by the SE-R. He called me a "wild man." He saw me the first time at Willow Springs and that was his second time. I like the guy. I was trying to get him to buy a Griggs racing suspension and slap it on the SVT. This might be my next project car by the way.

* I met a new SE-R guy. He never heard of the SE-R mailing list, SERCA, or SE-r.net. So I spread the gospel to him and so did Tom. He has a 94 Classic.

* Other than Tom, the only other car that passed me was the Maximum Motorsports Mustang. This cars is even faster and handles better than Rayn's and John's cars. After he passed me I tried to real him in, but he entered the pits as I was closing on him.

* I learned not to brake before entering Taladega. I used to do that to set my line. Now I simply depress the accelerator half way, set my line and then got full blast. I was going 110 through Taladega. So I was maxing out the speed limit.

* I still brake early in the esses. I just do not trust late braking in that area. I need to work on that.

* The Hawk blues brakes were fantastic. David tells me that while riding with Tom they could smell my brakes. That is how hard I was on them. When I removed them I noticed some hairline fractures in the pads. Is that normal? Anyone else got this?

Red Mist, faster than *uck Fast
1998 SE-R http://www.geocities.com/n_dahi
Slow 1996 G20 (AGXs/G20t springs, K&N drop in filter)