Buttonwillow Raceway, July 13-14, 2002

This was my first race in SRX, the unlimited class. I am starting with zero points after ditching 500+ points in SR. No other SRX cars showed up. So I ran uncontested. So my challenge to myself was to pick up pole position and lead the race in both classes from beginning to end.

On Friday I took the car to Darin and had it aligned and corner weighted. Since the last race I have changed the following on the car:
1. Front 500 in-lb spring up from 450
2. Rear 400 in-lb springs up from 375
3. Stock front sway bar instead of the front ST bar.
4. Lower the car a 1/4 inch more than before.

The car weighed in at 2496 lbs with me in it, using the Volk rims and a full tank of gas. The actual racing weight on Sat was 2312 lbs with 3/4 tank of gas, using the heavier Kosei rims, running the heavier ST bar and w/o the driver. That gave the car a 15.2 weight to power ratio. The car is still making 151.8 hp.

Saturday during practice I decided to test the stock sway bar with the above mentioned suspension set-up. It was awful. The car was all over the place. It was very loose and I was dropping tires left and right all over the dirt. This set-up did not fit my late breaking hard charging driving style. I like to steer with the throttle and this set up was very sensitive to lifting and pushing the throttle like I like to do. Everytime I did that the rear end of the car would come loose. I was thinking "what the hell happened to my car??"

I go to the pit and right away Jude says "you did not like it, did you?" Jude was watching me with binoculars and he thought that I was driving like a rookie. Luckily I brought the ST bar and hardware with me to the track. So we jacked the car and proceeded to install the ST bar.

Qualifying comes around and I head out and pull the fastest lap time among all SE-Rs for both days. I pull a 2:11.xxx in the hot humid heat of BW. I take pole even though I am running the car with the open-diff 1998 tranny. Hell YEAH!!!

During Qualifying I see Jim's NX going really fast around the track. So I say to myself "wow Jim is driving really fast." So I decide to catch him and pass him. I catch up to the NX at the Cotton Corners and then I am right on its bumper at sunrise before entering the straights. Then it was a drag race down the straights. It was a question of who will hit the brakes first. Who will blink first? The NX blinked and applied the brakes and I take the inside going into sunset, but I exit wide and drop two tires in the dirt. now the NX is on the inside and I am on the outside. I manage to make the pass stick and leave the NX behind.

After that I head to the garage to talk to Jim about the pass. He tells me that it was Ryan driving the NX. I was stocked. I put a pass on Ryan with about equal cars!!! Later on I run into Ryan in the cafeteria and then he tells me "you maniac." I was flattered :-)

We grid for the race and I am in 7th position overall, a car behind me and then Tom in his Classic. We do our warm up lap and take the green flag and I start pulling a bit away on Paule and then he would pull back on me. The loss of the stock LSD on the car was really making its presence felt in some corners, especially going over magic mountain. Usually, I throw the car over the top of magic mountain and mash the throttle and it just grips the pavement all the way to the edge. Sans LSD, I had to be very careful not to drop the tires in the dirt.

So Paule and I kept at it. I will pull on him and he will pull on me. Then we started lapping slower cars. I come up on John's car going into I-5 and I charge through on the inside and pass him, Tom right behind me. But I am too late to set-up properly for the off ramp. I lose the rear end of the car and it drifts into the dirt on the right. Shit, Tom will surely pass now. But I correct and floor the throttle, so the rear end swings the other way and I correct again with full throttle applied. The car recovers and I do not lose any positions.

The last 4-5 laps of the race were very exhausting. My eyes felt like flame throwers and I felt like I had a huge rock on top of my head. The heat was getting to me and I was getting antsy. I wanted the race to end.

I end up leading the race from beginning to finish and pulling the fastest over all average among the SE-Rs. I head to the pits and Jude and Shannon give me thumbs up. Jude was watching with Mike K from the balcony and he tells me that Mike was cheering for me and said the following: "I do not care what class Naji is in, he is very fast." Jude adds: "and he is running
an open diff." I go to the garage shared by Mike K and Rob/Phil and Mike comes over and shakes my hand for a good race. Someone blurts that I was running in SRX. Mike's reply: "give the man some credit." Thanks Mike.

Sunday started out a bit cooler than Saturday. After having breakfast at the motel, Jude and I made it to the track. We fixed the tire temperature and went out for practice.

The car felt great. The track was still cool and the car felt grippy. Taking the sweeper at the end of the esses, I could feel the rear of the car turn in very nicely. The only problem was the exit as the lack of LSD made itself felt by letting the car skid all the way to the edge of the track. I had to manage the throttle more than I usually do to avoid dropping two tires in
the dirt.

The car felt so good, I was able to pull a 2:15 lap w/o even trying that hard. But by the end of the session I started noticing a shudder under hard braking. I thought that I had probably warped the rotors under extensive heat on Saturday.

After practice, Tom comes over and asks me if I want to join the USTCC cars on the track during their 50 minute feature race. They needed more cars on the track so they can do better filming. Knowing that I am going to win my class anyway and having lead last race from start to finish, I agreed to run with the USTCC cars.

But before running with USTCC, we had to qualify for the SE-OR Cup race. I was late strapping in and therefore did not have good grid position for qualifying. We go out and immediately a bunch of SE-OR cars get stuck behind a yellow Cobra who wanted to race us. GET OUT OF THE WAY, YOU FUCK, WE WANT TO QUALIFY, was my thought. I was behind Jared and Tom and Rob were behind me. I was really fed up with this guy, so I pull him on I5 and drag race him all the way until the off-ramp where he backs off and lets me through.

After that I was really booking, but then I enter the sweeper too hot and I lose the car all wheels into the dirt and I make a mistake trying to pull it out before it comes to a stop. I did not see it, but Tom and Rob almost ran into me, due to my stupid mistake.

After that excursion the shudder under braking got worse. Moreover, two legends cars got tangled coming out of club corner and we had a yellow that slowed us all down. All in all it was a bad qualifying session from start to finish. I only managed 2:14.xxx, but it was enough to put me in second place behind Jared in the SR cars and 9 overall on the grid. Congratulations to
Jared on his first pole in the series. Tom was in third. It looked like Jared was to win his first race.

Tom and I start from the tail end of the USTCC grid. USTCC does a standing start and I have not done one before. Tom and I were supposed to just hang in the back and look good for the camera :-) But I wanted to run with the pack for a couple of laps before I did that. We line up and take the start. I was able to get a good hole shot and pass two cars by turn 1. I kept going
through the sweeper and then onto magic mountain where I lost control of the car and went into the dirt. From that point on I decided to just hot lap and pull 2:17-2:30 per lap times.

By the very end of the 50 minute race I was dying from heat exhaustion and motion sickness. It felt like I was about to puke.

In the pit under the tent, Jude helps me out of the car. We had a 20-30 minute break before the SE-OR race. But I know that I am in no condition to actually race. I am worn out. My under shirt was soaking wet and so was my suit. I felt nauseous all the time. I drink lots of liquids and grab a bite to eat, but that does not help settle my stomach.

I decide not to run in grid and I start at the very end. The race was very uneventful, I was waving all the cars through knowing that I will win my race anyway. It was a good idea not to contest the race, since the shudder under braking was getting worse. I could see that Jared had a healthy lead on Tom and he had a couple of cars as buffers. But the funniest thing about the race was Rob getting caught napping at the wheel on the restart after a full course yellow. It seems that Rob was too busy admiring the cooling gauge to notice that the race has restarted since the end of the esses and there we were waiting for him to move after magic mountain. I had no horn to warn him, but I decided to pass him inorder to wake him up. After the pass he wakes up and then I let him through.

At the end of the race I am totally wiped out. Under the tent, Jude tells me that Jared could not win. "Did he breakdown?" I ask. "No", Jude tells me. According to Jared, Tom passed the two cars between them under yellow and then when green came he was able to pass Jared. Jared wanted to protest, but the corner worker did not see the pass and the word of the two cars passed
does not count. I did not talk to Tom to see his side of the story, but I would like to know what he has to say.

All in all it was a very good weekend. The car held up fine and was very competitive even w/o an LSD. As for the shudder, I later discover that one of my front tires was corded on the inside to the metal and I believe that was the cause of the shudder. Luckily I still have a set of Kumhos that might have a race in them and a set of Toyos that were just heat cycled on the track, Vegas should be lots of fun.

Naji