Willow Springs, August 24 to 26, 2001

This was my first three day event at the track. While I had a blast, my car and I are totally exhausted. September will most likely be my off month from the track. The car deserves a one month hiatus. During these three days I logged 125 hot laps and 277 racing miles on the car. To date the car has approximately 1600 hot lapping miles on it.

My race tires did not fare well. Two of them were corded by the third session on Saturday. I had to make do with my half worn Bridgestone Potenza RE-71s for the rest of the weekend.

On Friday I ran at the Streets of Willow with the MR2 club. I was concerned when I found out that they are running without corner workers and more importantly without fire/rescue. But I pre-paid, so I decided to drive well within my limits and learn a track that I have never driven at before.

I discovered that this track causes me MOTION SICKNESS. I have driven on twisty tracks before, but the change of elevation and the tight turns made me sick. By the end of the second session I was so sick I almost puked in my car. So I decided to skip the third session and head out to town to buy some Dramamine type motion sickness medicine. I took the medicine and after that everything was fine. So from now on every time I go to Streets I will take motion sickness medication.

This was my first time with a Hotlapper, so from now on all my times are official. In the PM session the track was set for CC with the skid pad included. Track time was plentiful. The event was so lightly attended that cars were allowed on and off the track based on the drivers' discretion. I was able to put in two 12 lap sessions. My fastest time was recorded in the last session:

• Lap 1--1:47.45
• Lap 2--1:43.24
• Lap 3--1:42.21
• Lap 4--1:41.16
• Lap 5--1:42.63
• Lap 6--1:45.89
• Lap 7--1:41.13 (fastest lap)
• Lap 8--1:56.27 (MR2 spins out in front of me)
• Lap 9--1:43.68
• Lap 10--1:43.75
• Lap 11--1:45.18
• Lap 12--1:42.83

I do not know how these times compare to other cars/drivers. Not bad for my first time on that track.

By the end of the day I noticed that my front left tire was beginning to cord on the outside. I am running 2.75 negative camber and I still cord my tires on the outside!!! So I headed to the tire shop and had them rotate my tires on the rim. I put the best tires up front and the weak ones in the rear. I was hoping that this will make my tires last through the weekend. But that was not to be.

During the second AM session on Saturday at Big Willow I began noticing a slight steering wheel vibration on the back straights heading into turn 8 while doing 110 mph. By the third session the vibration was becoming serious. So I take the car to the tire shop thinking that one of the weights flew off. He removes the front right tire and it was corded on the inside all the way to the steel. These tires lasted for 8 hotlapping days just like the previous set. Two thumbs way up for Toyo RA1 tires.

I switch to my half worn street tires and decide to focus on being consistent rather than clicking a fast lap. With Speedtrials you run 5 sessions instead of 4 and their sessions last longer. In the Saturday closing PM session we were allowed to run 15 laps. It was a blast even with street tires. The times were as follows:

• Lap 1--1:49.11
• Lap 2--1:46.85
• Lap 3--1:47.70
• Lap 4--1:46.09
• Lap 5--1:46.93
• Lap 6--1:47.45
• Lap 7--1:47.74
• Lap 8--1:47.40
• Lap 9--1:46.69
• Lap 10--1:47.39
• Lap 11--1:47.50
• Lap 12--NA
• Lap 13--1:48.62
• Lap 14--1:48.62
• Lap 15--1:47.42

While the lap times are not fast, they were consistent throughout the session. But during the last four laps my brakes start grinding. After the session I check the front left brake and notice that the pad has wore out to the metal. The rotors got scratched a bit, but nothing too serious. I installed another set of Porterfield R4S and the car was ready for Sunday.

On Sunday I set my fastest lap time on Street tires during the first session. In fact that was my fastest session during the entire day. Thereafter, my tires began to grease up and temperatures went up causing my lap times to drop:

• Lap 1--1:46.83
• Lap 2--1:46.66
• Lap 3--1:45.87
• Lap 4--1:46.61
• Lap 5--1:46.51
• Lap 6--1:46.27
• Lap 7--1:47.05
• Lap 8--1:46.43

It was fun driving on street tires and feeling the huge advantage that race tires give you. For example in turn 2 I could feel the car fighting me for grip with street tires while with race tires it was much more forgiving. I used to enter/exist turn 2 at 90 mph with race tires. With street tires I could not muster more than 85 mph. I was also braking much earlier with street tires than race tire.

The down side of street tires is that everyone and their mother will pass you when you are in the fastest run group where almost everyone is running race tires. All the M3s and the Type Rs that I used to pass were putting passes on me. I was only putting passes on Honda hatch hybrids, 2002s, and a couple of Porsches. But the Type R and the M3 tormented me :-( The M3 driver even came up to me and said how come you are slower than during the Sat AM session (I had race rubber). I pointed at the tires and then he got it.

It was a pleasure driving my SE-R hard for three days on the track even if it was on street tires. Among all the GTI VR6s that overheated, the M5s that spun off the road, and the Porsche that blew its engine, the SE-R stood proud simply complaining with an EGR check engine light because of the heat and the excessive revving of the engine. If that is the only problem I have to complain about after three days of hard core hot lapping, then bring on the emission related check engine light :-)

Naji...Proud owner of a read-headed-step-child SE-R