Ed Nazarian

RRE did an article about me.  Thank you James Singer for writing such a nice piece.  Here is the article:

- Ed Nazarian

We were racing at BRP a little over a week ago, April 9-10, on configuration #13CW.  The weather at BRP was pretty good on Saturday and Sunday.  Although, it rained on Thursday and Friday, and we even got some hail.  On top of that, some friends of mine said that it was snowing Friday evening on I-5 through the Grapevine.  The track was wet, but it eventually cleared up on Saturday.  It was pretty cool during the day and freezing cold at night.

In preparation for this event, I want to say a quick thank you to Mike Welch (owner of RRE), and Robert Fuller, aka Robi, (owner of Robispec).  Mike is always there for me, and his support is genuine.  As for Robi, I can’t say enough good things about him either.  He spent practically an entire day working on my car.  I didn’t think he was going to put that much time in my car.

I noted in my previous thread, regarding our 2011 season opener event at ACS Roval, that my alignment was off by a good margin because I didn’t have time to get it sorted before that event.  Well, it was definitely off quite a bit.  Robi pointed out that the RF toe was off enough that it was more suited for a CW track.  ACS Roval runs CCW, which partly explains why my car wasn’t turning well.  It also partly explains why I corded my tires that severely, specifically my RF tire.  Long story short, my car felt much better at BRP with Robi’s adjustments.  Thank you Robi!

(SATURDAY)

During our Warmup session I realized right away that my wheel bearings need to be replaced.  I knew then that I had to back off and be careful to make it through the weekend.  My lap times were going to suffer, and there was no way around that.

The turnout for ST2 was good.  We had 8 cars, and one of them was a ST2 newcomer, a Team Bimmerworld BMW that races in GTS.  The driver said he’s planning on racing in ST2 from now on.  Hopefully he can work it out because the more competition the better.

For Saturday’s race our rolling start included SU, STR1, and ST2.  I qualified P4 of 8 in ST2.  The front row ruined the start in this race by jumping it about 2-3 seconds before the green flag dropped.  I still managed a good start and was able to pass 2 of my competitors by Cotton Corners, so I progressed from P4 to P2 at the beginning of L1.  Scott Howard, driver of the White 1st gen RX7, was one of the guys I passed.  His tail end stepped out momentarily in the buttonhook, and I seized the opportunity.  I knew he was much faster than me, but I still tried to defend my position.  He ended up timing a nice pass on me in Sunset which dropped me back into P3 on L2.

Given the condition of my wheel bearings, I knew that I didn’t stand a chance at keeping up with him.  I decided I was going to try and stay with him as long as I could, and defend my position.  Unfortunately, my car shut off at the beginning of L2 in Cotton Corners.  I think it had to do with my kill switch (it’s something Honda Robert has suspected).  I pulled off around Grapevine while John Gordon, Scott Howard, and the 5 other ST2 cars that were behind me disappeared.

Moments later I was able to restart my car, continue on, and finish the race.  I was in last place by a mile, but I still wanted to finish the race.  And it’s a good thing I did.  Due to some of the other drivers misfortune, I ended up taking 3rd place.  I’m not certain about the details, but from what I was told some of the drivers had submitted incorrect forms.  Here is where I got even more lucky.  Scott’s car shut off in L11, which happened about 2 laps before the race ended.  Scott is a good friend of mine, so when I drove by him I felt horrible because I thought he had blown his engine.  If I didn’t finish the race, even though Scott had pulled off in L11, he would have taken P3.  Talk about lucky me.

(SUNDAY)

I pushed it a little harder on Sunday during Qualifying, but still had to back off enough because I didn’t know if my wheel bearings would hold up in the race.  I managed to drop a little over 1sec and ran a 1:57.746 in Qualifying.  That’s as fast as I was willing to go, which put me at P3 of 8 in ST2 for our Sunday race.

I knew there was no way I could maintain that lap time in my race, but I was going to do whatever I could to maintain P3.  I had another strong start but still played it safe because I figured that would give me a better chance at finishing.  I had a plan, and I stuck with it.  Lucky for me, it worked.

Towards the end of our race a CMC2 Mustang had an off around Riverside.  Shortly after that the Pace car was deployed to collect the field.  If the race was to restart after that, this was good and bad news.  Good news is that it put me in a position to battle with John Gordon and Scott Howard for P1.  Bad news is that one of my competitors was now directly behind me, the Team Bimmerworld BMW.  So one mistake, and the Team Bimmerworld BMW could overtake me for P3.  We did a few laps with the pace car, and since it was towards the end of the race I thought our race would end with the pace car, but it didn’t.  The pace car exited and our race restarted entering Sunset.

Here is where I got lucky again.  John Gordon had an off on L1 of the restart before Cotton Corners.  Because of Johns misfortune all of us moved up one spot.  Scott took P1, I took P2, and the Team Bimmerworld BMW took P3.  I was able to maintain P2, thus finishing in 2nd place.  I was surprised to say the least.

With bad wheel bearings, even worse lap times, a little bit of strategy, and a whole lot of luck…I took 3rd on Saturday and 2nd on Sunday.  Are those 2 podiums noteworthy accomplishments?  Not in my perspective.  Results by themselves can be misleading, because sometimes you flat out get lucky or unlucky.  Conversely, making good decisions before or during a race can sometimes mean the difference between last place and a podium, better yet, a win.  Congrats again to John Gordon and Scott Howard for setting the pace that weekend.

(VIDEO)

This video is a compilation of both races:

- Saturday/Sunday Race

A big thanks to my sponsors:

- RRE
- Robispec
- Girodisc
- SCM
- APR Performance

The 2011 season opener was at ACS Roval on March 4-6.  Up until last year our season opener has been at Big Willow in February, but NASA decided to cancel that event this year.  It’s really unfortunate because I love Big Willow.

Before anything I want to say a quick thank you to Mike Welch (owner of RRE), KC from APR Performance, and Art from RRE.  Due to some personal challenges in the off season, I didn’t have time to get ready for our season opener in a timely manner.  I literally prepped my car a few days before leaving for ACS.  Mike, as usual, was extremely helpful and generous.  He even made the time to get my car on the dyno in the midst of a busy schedule to see how things were looking.  KC from APR went out of his way by driving out to ACS on Friday to hand deliver a set of risers, that he installed himself.  Since I had used the GTC-200 wing without the risers, I could feel they made enough of a difference.  As for Art, he was there that weekend crewing for someone else but made time to check up on me.  I was doing some work on my RF fender and had him come over to give me his opinion.  He ended up doing some work on the fender also.

Earlier I said that since I had some personal challenges in the off season I couldn’t get ready in a timely manner.  The major factor I didn’t have time to sort out was getting my alignment adjusted for this event.  And Robi (owner of Robispec) was going to be out of town during this event, so we couldn’t make adjustments at the track like we usually do.  I knew it wasn’t ideal but I figured it was close enough from when I did a test day in November, so I decided I was willing to race as-is.  Besides, I figured it would be a good learning experience.

SATURDAY

Saturday was a day full of incidents before and during the race.  I qualified P2 with a 1:48.745, but after qualifying I realized I was cording my RF and RR tires.  Since our drivers meeting was after our qualifying session I didn’t have enough time to get my tires flipped, get ready, and make it to grid on time.

For Saturday’s race our group had 2 rolling starts.  Super Touring was with the 1st start, while GTS had the 2nd start.  When I entered the track both groups were long gone.  By the time I was approaching T9 the first group had already taken their start and the leaders were entering T3.  A few seconds later GTS took their start.  My only chance at that point was if there was an incident that entailed a full course double-yellow, or a pace car to collect the field.  Due to a pretty serious incident, that’s exactly what happened.  As I crossed start/finish to start my 1st lap there was a yellow issued before T3 due to an incident in T3.  As I started my 2nd lap the pace car was entering T1 with a full course double-yellow.  What are the odds?  I had to do over 2 laps to catch the pack behind the pace car.  It was unfortunate that incident happened, but it gave me what seemed like a one in a million scenario.  I was in the very back of the pack, but at least I was with the pack.

The race then restarted on lap 5.  After 4 laps I closed in on one of my competitors, but there was another incident at the start of lap 9 which caused another full course double-yellow.  The pace car was deployed again to collect the field, and our race ended as-is with the pace car.  I have in-car footage of this race but there is no point in posting it.

SUNDAY

Sunday was nearly a repeat of Saturday.  I corded my tires again during qualifying and was busy after that rushing to get my tires flipped in time for the race.  This time I just barely made it to grid in time, but as I was pulling in they were rolling out, so I had to start in the back.  But at least this time I was able to start the race with everyone else.

At the start the cars in front of me looked confused, so I was able to capitalize on that and passed 3 out of class cars, and a fellow ST2 racer.  I then passed another Super Unlimited American Stock Car on the outside of T4 totaling 5 cars I passed by T5.  So I started off pretty strong, and set my fastest lap of the entire weekend in lap 2 with a 1:48.622.  I got into a decent groove and was ready to gradually push it a little harder, but I quickly realized something didn’t feel right with my RF tire.  So after lap 2 I focused on trying to maintain consistent and decently fast laps.  Unfortunately, little did I know that my tires were starting to cord, but this time it was far worse than Saturday.  If my tires didn’t cord, I was on pace to run 1:47s all day from start to finish.  And if I had the luxury of having Robi there with me, I think 1:46s were within reach.  At least now I know what I’m capable of doing in a race with my new setup.  Unfortunately, we will have to wait until next years March event to see what I can do at ACS Roval.  Here’s a breakdown of my lap times illustrating how badly my tires corded:

Consistent and decently fast laps in the beginning:
Lap 1:  1:54.130
Lap 2:  1:48.622 (Fastest lap of my weekend)
Lap 3:  1:48.747
Lap 4:  1:49.094
Lap 5:  1:49.022

Since my tires started cording I tried to maintain consistent yet somewhat fast laps:
Lap 6:  1:51.451
Lap 7:  1:51.376
Lap 8:  1:51.518

I could no longer maintain those lap times because my tires were cording severely:
Lap 9:    1:53.155
Lap 10:  1:54.272
Lap 11:  1:55.658
Lap 12:  1:57.688
Lap 13:  1:57.187
Lap 14:  1:58.173

VIDEO:

- Saturday’s race was uneventful, due to the incidents I noted, so there is no point in posting it.
- Sunday’s Race

A big thanks to my sponsors:

- RRE
- Robispec
- Girodisc
- SCM
- APR Performance

My 2010 race season is over.  Reflecting on what I’ve encountered this year, numerous things stand out.  I had a couple really exciting races this year.  My win at ACS where I went from the back of the pack, to the front, and won the race on the last lap by .152 seconds.  Battling the Mazda GTs at BRP.  The 3 brutal days of racing at NASA’s National Championship.  More than anything, finishing the National Championship race under some challenging conditions.  The more I race the more I learn, conversely, the more I realize how little I know.

Other than that, I remember the transitions my car has endured.  From adding the TRE rear-diff, to adding some aero on my car for the first time.  All of which was made possible by Mike Welch, owner of RRE, and the entire RRE crew.  Being the genuinely awesome guy Mike is, he gave me a diff that he shipped to TRE.  This way we can keep my OEM diff as backup.  As for the aero, KC from APR set me up with a splitter.  And to help me minimize my expenses for Nationals, my friends stepped up to the plate and gave me their wings.  Sean Bradley gave me his APR GTC-200 wing off of his STi, and Scott Pennock gave me his GTC-300 wing off of his Evo.  Not to mention the scores of hours Mike invested in fabricating all the supporting components.  The work was extremely meticulous and time consuming but Mike made it all enjoyable.

I also want to thank my fellow racers.  The competition grew significantly this year, and the majority have stepped things up.  On top of that, we had some seasoned drivers join us with some pretty fast cars, 2 Corvettes and a blisteringly fast Porsche.  I got to know some of the drivers I met in 2009 a little better, and met some new people in the meantime.  It’s been an honor to race against these guys, and I’m looking forward to trying to battle with them next year.  If the 2011 season progresses at this rate, the potential is there for some even more competitive racing.

In closing, a major thank you to all my sponsors and friends who have been there for me.  Without their support I would not be as far along as I am.  They are part of the reason why I’ve been able to achieve the following since I started racing in 2009:

- 5 wins
- 8 podiums
- 1 pole position
- Winner of hard-charger award

- (12) 35min Socal Regional races
- (3) 25min National Championship qualifying races
- (2) 45min National Championship races (2009 National Championship race ended really short because I was hit)
- (17) Races in total
- Finished 16 out of 17 races

* Tuning: Scot Gray with some touch ups by Mike Welch
* Maintenance/Installs/Fabrication/Just about everything else: RRE crew

- RRE:  Mike Welch, Robert Ramirez, Scot Gray, and the entire RRE crew.
- Robispec:  Rober Fuller, a.k.a. Robi, and his crew for providing me trackside suspension tuning at my races.
- Girodisc:  Martin Meade for providing me 2pc rotors and Raybestos brake pads.
- SCM:  Rigo, Sam, Abbas and everyone else for all their support.
- APR Performance:  KC for setting me up with a splitter and all the other little things.
- Crew and Friends:  Robert Ramirez, Sean Bradley, and Mark Homer.

The 2010 NASA National Championship was September 14-19 at Miller Motorsports Park (MMP), in Utah.  We were racing on the Outer course again this year, which is listed at 3.06 miles.  I was there racing my RRE Evo 9 in Super Touring 2.  Last year was the first time I had raced at MMP, let alone driven the track.  And I left MMP with not much interest in the track.  It just wasn’t a track that thrilled or interested me.  I’m really not sure what happened this year, but I left with the exact opposite experience.  I really enjoyed the track this year and left wanting more of it.

The competition this year was fierce and diverse.  There were around 3 times as many ST2 entries this year.  I don’t know how many ST2 racecars were there, but from what I recall there were around 26.  However, we lost a few by the final National Championship race on Sunday.  And iirc, 4 people didn’t finish the National Championship race.  NASA’s Nationals is brutal because on top of it being our National Championship, it’s 3 days of racing.  And the National Championship race is 45 minutes long.  So NASA’s National Championship is more like a marathon of races, as opposed to 1 race.  Despite trying to be well prepared, you really have to be somewhat lucky because anything can and will happen, especially with 3 days of racing.

Last year I was the first to be racing an Evo at MMP for NASA’s National Championship.  This year I wasn’t alone.  A Socal Honda Challenge racer was racing in H2 with his Integra, and ST2 with his Evo 9.  There was also a guy racing an Evo in ST1, who I think is a MMP local.  Although, I barely saw them on track.  I think both of them were having some sort of issues.

As for me, I didn’t have any major challenges.  I started and finished all 3 races.  The only major challenge I had was trying to get used to my new aero on a track that I have very limited seat time on.  As I noted in my previous thread, my new aero consists of an APR splitter that’s coupled with an APR GTC-200 wing.  KC from APR set me up with the splitter.  As for the wing, to help me minimize my expenses for Nationals, my friend Sean Bradley gave me his APR GTC-200 wing off of his STi.  My friend Scott Pennock gave me his GTC-300 wing off of his Evo also, but I ended up only using Sean’s 200 wing.  Sean’s wing is slightly different than the Evo version, but we made it work thanks to Mike Welch, owner of RRE.  The dimensions of the wing are identical, only differences are the size/shape of the end plates, and the location of the wings mounting brackets.

Before anything else I want to thank all my sponsors, RRE, Robispec, Girodisc, South Coast Mitsubishi, and APR.  Without their support I would not be able to do all of this.  My racecars home away from home is at RRE.  I’ve spent many long nights at RRE prepping under Mike’s wing.  For instance, Mike spent a great deal of time fabricating and installing my splitter and wing.  It was a great deal of meticulous work, but he made it enjoyable.  I can’t say enough good things about Mike and his crew.  He is such a genuinely good person.  I truly enjoy working by his side.  More than anything because he is patient, and has the capacity to explain just about anything in the simplest way.  I didn’t grow up around cars, so I’m the furthest thing from a gearhead/grease monkey.  Not everyone has the capacity to teach, but Mike is one of those rare people.  Not only has he been around, but he also has the capacity/wisdom/patience to teach without coming across as arrogant/condescending.

So, did my new aero and brake ducting help?  Yes.  But I’m not sure by how much because I don’t have a comparable reference point for MMP.  I’ll know better when I run ACS in Socal.  I can say that my car feels different with the aero.  And I can tell that my new brake ducting is helping, but it has its limit.  With my experience, I can now say that if I want to maintain faster lap times in a race, I can’t do it with the OEM calipers.  I have proven that the Girodisc rotors work, but they can only do so much.

The dyno situation:

There was 1 factor that put me at a disadvantage compared to everyone else.  NASA couldn’t get an AWD dyno this year either.  Last year they found a MMP local with an AWD dyno.  And I went last year to test on that dyno, but it was malfunctioning.  That dyno was malfunctioning this year also so NASA tried locating another one.  They tried, but they couldn’t get anyone to commit.  So while everyone else (RWD, FWD) had the opportunity to check their power at MMP and to tune their car on the 2WD dyno, I couldn’t.

NASA did however have GPS units that they used to monitor a lot of people, including me.  I requested that they monitor me all day Thursday so I knew where I was at.  That way, if I was down on power I could at least take ballast out of my car.  Problem was that they were busy and fell behind, so they didn’t get a GPS unit on my car until Friday.  That hurt me even more because I pretty much lost any chance I had on Thursday to adjust my weight.  So I basically went into the 2nd day without any real progress on my setup.  Although, they sincerely apologized, and went out of their way to help me out.

They finally got some data of me on Friday, and that’s when I found out that I was down on power.  They told me by roughly how much I was down on power, however, it didn’t really help me because they weren’t allowed to tell me what my actual numbers were with whatever other math they needed to apply to that data.  So I knew I was down on power, but I didn’t know exactly by how much.  Therefore, I didn’t know exactly how much ballast I could remove.  Best case scenario, I figured I could have been close enough to making the power I needed with their calculations, but there could have been something funky happening in my powerband.  Keep in mind that my car was tuned in Socal, so maybe at MMP’s elevation, around 4,400 ft., my powerband wasn’t as efficient as it could have been.  It’s not a comforting feeling knowing my car is potentially down on power by enough of a margin, and I can’t really do anything about it because there isn’t an AWD dyno.  Meanwhile, my competitors have the opportunity to tune their cars at MMP on the 2WD dyno.

The Results:

As I noted before, this year I was able to start and finish all 3 races (Thursday, Friday, and Sunday).  My focus was to make it to Sunday, so my plan was to progressively get up to speed.  We started off with around 26 cars in ST2, but a bunch of them had some sort of issue from the first day.  Conversely, everything worked out well enough for me on Thursday.  I qualified in 13th  place, and finished the race in 11th.  I also improved my time in the race by about 1.5 seconds.  I was basically on track with my plan of attack.  Only issue was that after the race I found out that one of my rear brake pad pins and the clip was missing.  It was a first time for me.  I called Mike at RRE and he immediately shipped me replacement pins and a clip overnight.

Friday started off well in Qualifying, because I improved my time from Thursdays Qualifying session.  I also improved 2 spots by starting the race in 11th, but my race didn’t go as well.  PTA was mixed in with us, but they only had 3 entries.  However, only 2 of them were competitive.  One of the PTA cars, I think it was a turbo Miata, dive bombed a few of us.  He was clearly a fast driver with a really fast Miata.  Since my goal was to make it to Sunday, I didn’t want to tangle with him, or anybody else for that matter.  On the other hand, it didn’t seem like he had the same plan, so a couple of us got stuck behind him.  He was clearly trying to use us to put some distance between himself and the other PTA driver.  We were all bunched up so I kept my distance and didn’t really bother trying to pass anyone.

Saturday was our groups day off, so I spent pretty much the entire day relaxing and getting ready for Sunday.  Everything went smoothly and I was ready to go.  Sunday’s race was a great deal of fun.  I was in P10 out of 19 ST2 cars listed.  For me, it was intense from start to finish.  Since I was hit last year at the start of the National Championship race, which ended my race, I wasn’t sure what to expect out of a 45min race.  All my other races thus far have been 35min races.  You can see how it all went down because I have in-car footage of the entire National Championship race.

What basically ended up happening is that my brake pedal fell nearly on the floor.  In the meantime I was battling with about 6 other ST2 cars.  We exchanged positions several times throughout the race.  I finally took the lead amongst our pack, but my brake pedal didn’t have the capacity to allow me to stay competitive, so I let 2 of my competitors pass me.  One of them was my friend Scott Howard, racing his White 1st gen Mazda RX7.  Scott went on to take 2nd place.  Major Congrats to Scott, especially considering the issues he’s had the last 2 years at Nationals.  The other driver was Jim Wagaman, driver of the Yellow Mazda GT.  After letting Scott pass me, I thought about ending my race, but decided to stay on for a bit longer.

I had to back off and focus on taking it one corner at a time.  The only way I was able to do that was to pump my pedal several times before every braking zone.  For the longer straights I actually had to pump my pedal in 2 sets.  Around 3/4 way down every long straight I’d apply 1-2 pumps to make sure my pedal still had the capacity to rise.  Then before the braking zone I’d start pumping again to prepare the pedal.  All the while I was able to keep Jim within reach, and with about 2-3 laps to finish we closed the gap on Josh Carroll, driver of the Bronze Mazda GT.  Josh clearly had some sort of issue also.  However, NASA ended our race a bit short.  We were told it was due to oil spills.  I remember hearing of 2 cars specifically that dumped a bunch of oil all over the track.  If our race wasn’t cut short, both Jim and I would have passed Josh in that lap.  And since Jim wasn’t pulling away from me, I’m confident that if I had the entire race I would have had an opportunity to pass him again.  Furthermore, if I had an optimal brake pedal, I was in a position to battle for a podium.  Either way I’m happy with 7th place given the circumstances.  If you watch my entire race you will see how busy my left leg gets pumping my pedal before every corner and down the long straights.  It was another great experience.

Beyond all that, a certain amount of good/bad fortune pretty much always plays a factor also.  Here are some examples of people I know of who weren’t fortunate.  Ryan Cashin blew his engine on the first day and never got to race.  Oli Thordarson had a puncture in his oil filter during the National Championship Race and had to pull off on the warmup lap.  John Gordon was dominating all week by winning both Qualifying Races, and also set the fastest lap times.  However, John’s car broke down in the National Championship Race.  I’m not sure but I think it was due to a blown engine.  Basically, anything can and will happen in a race because despite trying to be well prepared, a certain amount of good/bad fortune always comes into play.

Thanks again to all my sponsors:

- RRE:  Mike Welch and the entire RRE crew for everything from tuning, to maintenance, to everything in between.
- Robispec:  Robert Fuller, aka Robi, and his crew for providing me trackside suspension tuning.
- Girodisc:  Martin Meade for providing me phenomenal 2pc rotors and Raybestos brake pads.
- SCM:  Rigo, Sam, Abbas and everyone else for all their support.
- APR:  KC for setting me up with a splitter and all the other little things.
- Friends:  Sean Bradley for giving me his APR GTC-200 wing off of his STi.  Scott Pennock for giving me his APR GTC-300 wing off of his Evo.  And also a thanks to Matt Dennison and Sean Sisco for going out of their way to help me out.

We were racing at BRP last weekend, April 17-18, on configuration #13CW.  The last time we were racing at BRP was this same event in 2009, so it’s been a year since the last time I raced there.  I felt rusty at BRP and never really got into a groove, but at least I wasn’t busy this time fixing/wrenching on my racecar like I was at ACS because my front end didn’t get coned this time.  Even though I’ve driven ACS significantly less than BRP, things seemed to click better at ACS.  We rolled with the punches and finished 2 more 35min races totaling 6 that we have finished this season, with a total of 14 races since our last years debut.

Before I proceed with the results, I want to say thank you to a few people.  Thanks to Mike Welch and his guys at RRE for helping fix the damage my car sustained from ACS.  New Griffin IC, lip, undertray, fixed my side skirt and front bumper.  A few months ago Mike also sourced some Carbontrix CF replacement headlights.  Mike installed those also.  Yes, Mike actually works on my racecar.  Want to thank Martin Meade from Girodisc for shipping me some ST43 brake pads.  Also want to thank Robert Fuller, aka Robi, from Robispec for providing me trackside suspension tuning for both races.

This weekend I set some blisteringly fast lap times in my ST2 races, and qualifying sessions…not.  The BMWCCA was racing with us this weekend, so the groups were changed up a bit.  Typically, the group we race in consists of SU, ST, ASC, GTS, AIX, and AI racecars.  This time GTS was in a separate group with BMWCCA, and the AIX/AI drivers skipped this event because they have their own West Coast schedule.  Therefore, our group this time consisted of SU, ST, and they added HC, PT, and Spec E30 with us.  Basically, most of the racecars in our group were significantly slower.  On top of that, we had a really big group, nearly 50 racecars.  So maneuvering through traffic played a significant role that weekend.  Other than that you just needed to get lucky.  The weather was a little on the warm side also, but we managed.

(Saturday Qualifying)

I couldn’t set a fast lap in qualifying if my life depended on it.  Just way too many lower classed cars out there.  Drivers usually cooperate in a race, for the most part, but the Qualifying sessions seem to always be every driver to himself.  Everyone is trying to set a fast lap, and since there were nearly 50 racecars out there you’re basically hitting traffic pretty much every other corner.  And sometimes one corner to the next.

(Saturday Race)

Out of the 10 ST2 racecars, I qualified P8 and finished the race in P6 for ST2.  I thought since we had 10 ST2 racecars, we would get our own rolling start.  But we didn’t.  Instead, we were mixed together with SU, ST1, and a solo Orange AIX Mustang.  So given our mixed rolling start, I was in P15.  Mixing us with those other classes ruined the ST2 race.  Because instead of having the opportunity to battle with other ST2 drivers as a whole from start to finish, we ended up getting scattered all over the track because we had SU and ST1 drivers in between us.  And on top of that, we had to deal with traffic, which scattered us even more.  I was pretty upset with that because as a higher class series, ST2 had the biggest field that weekend.  And we had the potential to have a really close and exciting race from start to finish.  I think it was such a big time waste to have not given us our own rolling start.

As for the race, I’m not sure what happened at the start, but something appeared to get mixed up because I was supposed to be on the left side when we were in formation, but I ended up on the right side.  Beyond that, since we got scattered I only had the opportunity to battle one of the Mazda GTs, Mark Montoya.  Unfortunately, a Super Unlimited driver in a FFR GTM-R prototype held us up quite a bit.  At one point Mark passed him, but I got stuck behind that SU prototype.  Not sure why he wouldn’t just let me by because he was by himself.  I finally got close enough to him at the buttonhook and made a move on him.  I took the inside line and was around his RR.  I was gradually pulling on him and at one point he for whatever reason turned into me a bit and almost drove me off track to the right.  I decided it was now or never so I kept my foot in it and maintained my position.  I passed him at the entry to cotton corners.  You can watch my in-car from Saturdays race to see it all unfold.  Mark then had an off after the bus-stop and I passed him.  If he didn’t have that off I may have never caught him again because that SU prototype had held me up too much.

(Sunday Qualifying)

It was the same deal as Saturday.  I was a bit more lucky with traffic, but still couldn’t set a fast lap.

(Sunday Race)

For Sundays race, out of 10 ST2 racecars, I qualified P6 in ST2, and was P12 for our rolling start.  I finished the race in P5 for ST2.  Sundays race is probably my most exciting race thus far because I was having a major battle with one of the Mazda GTs, Thorpe logemann.  We exchanged positions I don’t know how many times.  But what kills me is that I couldn’t get my GoPro camera to start recording.  Pretty ironic when I think about it.  It’s really upsetting to not have that footage.  And unfortunately, Thorpe doesn’t have any in-car either.  There were many incidents in the race, so on top of trying to deal with traffic, we were also trying to deal with yellows, and double yellows.  At one point I thought the race was going to end under double yellow, but it finally restarted.  At one point I passed Thorpe around the buttonhook and I got lucky with traffic while he got left behind.  In the meantime we passed another Mazda GT.  I caught up to the leaders towards the end, and had them in sight, but I ran out of time.  My in-car from Saturdays race fails in comparison to how exciting this race was.  In fact, if I had in-car from this race, it would have been at the top of my list.

Saturday Qualifying times:

1. 1:54.474 – John Gordon #30 Porsche 996
2. 1:55.123 – Jon Van Caneghem #00 Mazda GT
3. 1:55.557 – Josh Carroll #35 Mazda GT
4. 1:57.001 – James Wagaman #98 Mazda GT
5. 2:00.879 – Thorpe Logemann #3 Mazda GT
6. 2:01.225 – David Beatie #6 Mazda GT
7. 2:02.970 – Team Howard Racing #70 Mazda Rx7
8. 2:03.781 – Ed Nazarian #415 Mitsubishi Evo 9
9. 2:05.787 – Dan Miller #34 Mazda GT

Saturday Race results:

1. 1:57.059 – Josh Carroll #35 Mazda GT
2. 1:56.183 – John Gordon #30 Porsche 996
3. 1:57.122 – Jon Van Caneghem #00 Mazda GT
4. 1:59.024 – James Wagaman #98 Mazda GT
5. 2:01.333 – Thorpe Logemann #3 Mazda GT
6. 2:02.241 – Ed Nazarian #415 Mitsubishi Evo 9
7. 2:03.594 – Dan Miller #34 Mazda GT
8. 2:02.180 – Mark Montoya #50 Mazda GT
9. 2:04.318 – Team Howard Racing #70 Mazda Rx7
10. 2:08.885 – David Beatie #6 Mazda GT

Sunday Qualifying times:

1. 1:54.575 – John Gordon #30 Porsche 996
2. 1:56.350 – Josh Carroll #35 Mazda GT
3. 1:56.596 – Jon Van Caneghem #00 Mazda GT
4. 1:57.349 – James Wagaman #98 Mazda GT
5. 2:00.739 – David Beatie #6 Mazda GT
6. 2:01.596 – Ed Nazarian #415 Mitsubishi Evo 9
7. 2:08.111 – Dan Miller #34 Mazda GT
8. DQ – 2:01.724 – Mark Montoya #50 Mazda GT
9. DQ – 2:02.603 – Thorpe Logemann #3 Mazda GT

Sunday Race results:

1. 1:56.538 – Josh Carroll #35 Mazda GT
2. 1:55.877 – John Gordon #30 Porsche 996
3. 1:57.852 – Jon Van Caneghem #00 Mazda GT
4. 1:59.194 – James Wagaman #98 Mazda GT
5. 2:00.536 – Ed Nazarian #415 Mitsubishi Evo 9
6. 2:01.518 – Thorpe Logemann #3 Mazda GT
7. 2:00.800 – Mark Montoya #50 Mazda GT
8. 2:08.655 – Dan Miller #34 Mazda GT
9. 2:02.502 – David Beatie #6 Mazda GT
10. 2:04.062 – Team Howard Racing #70 Mazda Rx7

In-car race video:
- Saturday Race

Thanks again to my sponsors for their continued support:
- RRE
- Robispec
- Girodisc
- South Coast Mitsubishi
- I’d also like to thank Mike Welch, and Robert Fuller (aka Robi) for their help at the event.

We were racing at ACS last weekend, March 13-14.  Last time I raced at ACS was this same event in 2009, so it’s been a year since the last time I raced there.  Since I used our Super Touring season opener in February at Big Willow mainly as a shakedown event, I was ready to start pushing it progressively at ACS.  Despite all my efforts, it turned out to be another weekend of struggles.  However, it ended on a completely unexpected result.  I will get into the details accordingly, but for starters I want to say a quick thanks to Mike Welch from RRE for showing up and helping out, and also to Robert Fuller, aka Robi, from Robispec for providing me trackside suspension tuning for both races.

Thus far I have tried to be as patient as possible with mods for my racecar.  I have been patient long enough, so I decided it was time I upgraded something.  One of the mods I’ve been considering is the TRE rear-diff.  I contacted Jon at TRE and we set everything up through RRE.  Being the cool guy that Mike is, he gave me an extra rear-diff and then shipped it to TRE.  This way we can keep mine as backup.  Thanks Mike!  TRE Jon shipped it back to RRE and the guys at RRE installed it for me.  Thanks guys!  Since Robi does my suspension tuning, we will be setting up the car from track to track as things progress throughout the season.  I’ll post a separate thread regarding my initial impressions of the TRE rear-diff coupled with Robis suspension tuning as the season unfolds.  But for now I’ll say that driving my car with the TRE rear-diff feels like I’m driving an entirely new car.  And I’m looking forward to seeing how we can develop my car with it.  Beyond upgrading to the TRE rear-diff, Martin from Girodisc sent me a new set of front 2-pc rotors.  My second set had run its course, so it was time for another set.  I posted a thread about it here:

(Saturday Qualifying)

I noticed right away that the track was setup a bit tighter than last year, especially the last set of turns leading onto the Roval, T16-21.  Since that section leads us onto the Roval, it decreases our exit speed, thereby decreasing our speeds onto the Roval.  I gradually pushed it more and more from our Practice session, to our Qualifying session.

Before I proceed with anything else, I want to give a little welcome to an Evo newcomer, John Hsu.  I think John approached me on Friday while I was getting situated.  He recently purchased an Evo 9, and decided to race with us that weekend in Super Touring 2.  He’s a Honda Challenge driver, so he’s not new to racing, just new to Evos.  He was racing his Integra in H2, and his recently purchased Evo 9 in ST2.  I hope he continues to race his Evo 9 with us in ST2 because it will be really cool to see another Evo out there.  Other than us 2 Evo 9s, there was Scott Howard with his white Rx7, Ryan Cashin with his white Vette, and a guy named John Gordon in his blue 996 Porsche.  The Mazda GT guys skipped this event.

(Saturday Race)

We were part of race group B, which consisted of SU, ST, ASC, GTS, AIX, AI, CMC, and FFR racecars.  Most of the classes didn’t have enough cars, so our rolling start was combined including SU, ST, ASC, AIX, and AI.  And they set our grid according to the overall lap times with respect to each rolling start, not lap times within each class.  So despite qualifying in P2 for my class, I was in P10 for our rolling start.  That meant we had out of class cars in between us which made things a bit difficult.  For whatever reason, there is always one or more out of class drivers that end up racing other drivers.  They hold you up by drag racing you down the straights.  There were plenty of those guys at this event.

Some guys botched the start so a bunch of cars passed me through T1 and T2.  After watching my in-car, 8 cars passed me, 3 of which were my competitors (Vette, Rx7, Evo9), and 5 out of class cars (2 AI cars, 2 AIX cars, and 1 ASC car).  I was held up quite a bit and had to overtake several of those cars.  But my biggest challenge occurred early in the race on lap 3.  On the first lap someone knocked the cone that’s in between T10-11 into the middle of the infield straight.  In lap 3 I was nose to tail with Scott exiting that chicane.  I stepped out to pass him and that cone ended up eating my lip, my entire undertray, and some of my IC.  I didn’t know any of that until the race was done.  After hitting the cone I could hear something dragging around my RF, and I thought it was part of that cone.  After the race I found out it was my undertray.  The entire undertray was hanging by (1) zip-tie the whole time!  I somehow finished the race in 3rd place.  A pretty good result considering my struggles in that race.  Unfortunately, my camera shut off about 8min into the race.  Therefore, you won’t be able to see the out of class cars that were drag racing me the whole time, who btw had none of their competitors around them.  Don’t worry, you’ll see plenty of that from my Sundays in-car race footage.

As for the cone that ate my lip, undertray, and some of my IC, my friend Mark was able to help out.  Mark drives an Evo 9, so he loaned me his lip and undertray.  Thanks a bunch Mark!  On Sunday morning Mike brought me an extra undertray, lip, and a whole bunch of plastic clips.  Mike helped me finish up the rest with some zip-ties.  Thanks Mike!

(Sunday Qualifying)

Mike and my friend, Scott Pennock, helped out by checking my tire temps and pressures.  The undertray and lip felt fine so I pushed it more and more, and it felt like things were progressing.  Unfortunately, I found out afterwards that I forgot to mount my transponder so the officials had to somehow time me manually.  I didn’t get a good qualifying time because of that.

(Sunday Race)

For some strange reason, this event had a whole bunch of drivers who were flat out horrible.  Drivers drag racing out of class cars, incorrect/late grid formation, start jumping, and who knows what else.  It has never been this bad, so I’m a little confused as to what happened.  One in particular was an Orange AIX Mustang.  We were all over him in the braking zones, and the corners, but within a few seconds he would become a dot down every straight.  Then we’re all over him again in the next corner.  Not sure why he wouldn’t just let us by.  There was only 1 other AIX Mustang in that race and that driver was days behind the Orange one.  He was all by himself, and wouldn’t let us by.

As for the completely unexpected result, I won on Sunday.  That race on Sunday is by far my biggest come from behind win, while trying to get around more out of class cars that were drag racing me when they didn’t have any of their competitors around them.  As if that wasn’t challenging enough, the car that took 2nd place, Blue 996 Porsche, and I had contact on the last lap.  Fortunately, I was able to save a potential spin/off and maintained the lead for a completely unexpected win.  The Porsche was on my tail at the finish line trailing me by .152 seconds.  Meanwhile, the Orange AIX Mustang almost ruined my lead again.

I don’t know how I caught the Porsche in the first place.  I felt like I was so far behind that catching the leader never even crossed my mind, let alone having a chance at winning.  The lead was exchanged 3 times between us in the last 3 laps.  It was a really close competitive battle.  You have to watch the entire race to understand why.

Saturday Qualifying times:

1.  1:48.848 – John Gordon #30 Porsche 996
2.  1:50.331 – Ed Nazarian #415 Mitsubishi Evo 9
3.  1:51.720 – Team Cashin In #32 Corvette Z06
4.  1:52.079 – Team Howard Racing #70 Mazda Rx7
5.  1:52.567 – John Hsu #2 Mitsubishi Evo 9

Saturday Race results:

1.  1:49.222 (in lap 3) – John Gordon #30 Porsche 996
2.  1:49.358 (in lap 8 ) – Team Cashin In #32 Corvette Z06
3.  1:50.144 (in lap 10) – Ed Nazarian #415 Mitsubishi Evo 9
4.  1:50.794 (in lap 6) – Team Howard Racing #70 Mazda Rx7
5.  1:55.052 (in lap 3) – John Hsu #2 Mitsubishi Evo 9

Sunday Qualifying times:

1.  1:50.799 – John Gordon #30 Porsche 996
2.  1:51.688 – Team Howard Racing #70 Mazda Rx7
3.  1:52.618 – John Hsu #2 Mitsubishi Evo 9
4.  1:53.986 – Ed Nazarian #415 Mitsubishi Evo 9

Sunday Race results:

1.  1:49.913 (in lap 11) – Ed Nazarian #415 Mitsubishi Evo 9
2.  1:50.558 (in lap 4) – John Gordon #30 Porsche 996
3.  1:52.660 (in lap 3) – John Hsu #2 Mitsubishi Evo 9
4.  1:50.652 (in lap 3) – Team Howard Racing #70 Mazda Rx7
5.  1:50.192 (in lap 3) – Team Cashin In #32 Corvette Z06

In-car race video:

- Saturday Race
- Sunday Race

Since my camera shut off 8min into the race on Saturday, I’m posting the Sunday race for now because we can only post 1 video every week, given the size of my in-car.  I’ll have Mike post the Saturday race sometime next week and I’ll update it here accordingly.

Thanks again to my sponsors for their continued support:
- RRE
- Robispec
- Girodisc
- South Coast Mitsubishi
- I’d also like to thank Mike Welch, Robert Fuller (aka Robi), Sean Bradley, Mark, and Scott Pennock for their help at the event.

Socal NASA’s 2010 season opener was this past weekend, February 6-7, at Big Willow.  The last time I raced at Big Willow was May of 2009, so it’s been a little over 8 months.  I have been dying to get back out there.  And the last time I drove my racecar on track was at NASA’s National Championship in September of 2009 at Miller Motorsports Park.  So it has been a good 5 months since I have driven it.  Main reason why I haven’t driven my racecar since then is because I was hit during the National Championship race.  Details are here:

Results: 2009 NASA National Championship

Beyond that I had some setbacks that delayed the prep work we needed to fix the damage.  But with a few really late nights during the week leading up to the races and we were able to get the car ready for the season opener.  It wasn’t fun, but we got it done.

Before I proceed I want to thank RRE and Robert Fuller from Robispec for their respective work.  I’m not going to bother with the details of all the work RRE and Robi did.  Simply put, if it wasn’t for their support and hard work none of this would have been possible.  The guys at RRE put in a lot of their personal time to patch up the car.  My friend Sean Bradley came over for a day and also helped out, thanks Sean!  Quite a few parts needed to be replaced and RRE as usual pulled their strings and hooked things up.  Robi then did his work accordingly.  He also applied the necessary alignment/setting adjustments at the track both days.  More than anything because it rained on Saturday, and ended up clearing on Sunday.  Furthermore, I want to thank Mike, Honda Robert, and Robi for being there both days (Sat/Sun), to provide me the support I needed.  It is such a major relief to have them there with me in the trenches.  Unless you race, you cannot understand how valuable that is.

Before I proceed with the weekend, one thing I’d like to mention is my turbo.  In a few recent threads I had noted that before leaving to race at the National Championship, RRE set me up with their GT3076 turbo kit to test out.  Upon returning I decided to go back to my OEM Evo 9 turbo.  Given my setup I am looking to make around 340whp.  That power range coupled with my OEM engine cripples the 3076.  It’s really unfortunate that I can’t further test it in race conditions because despite my limited experience, it appears to be a solid turbo kit.

As for the results, last place both days!  I am not sure why, but I say that with pride.  On a serious note, the season opener was a shakedown weekend for me.  Considering everything that has led up to this point, coupled with the weather conditions, it was a successful weekend.  I got out there, did what I wanted to do, and brought the racecar back unscathed.

Regarding the weather, the forecast was indicating rain on Friday and Saturday, with the potential of rain on Sunday.  Given the weather forecast it was a low attendance weekend.  It ended up raining pretty hard on Friday, and continued to rain on Saturday.  I don’t really have any experience in wet conditions, let alone any experience racing in the rain.  It was strange driving on track with my wipers on.  It was a good experience.

As for lap times, that data is pretty much useless to me at this juncture.  Either way, here are the results.  But before I proceed with that, I am really excited to note that the Mazda GT racecars have stepped things up big time.  They ran some really solid ST2 times on Sunday.  If the season progresses like this, there is going to be some serious ST2 competition this year in Socal.

Saturday Super Touring 2 Qualifying times:
1.  1:42.664 – 98 – James Wagaman – Mazda GT
2.  1:49.545 – 00 – Jon VanCaneghem – Mazda GT
3.  1:51.774 – 415 – Ed Nazarian – Evo 9

Saturday Super Touring 2 Race results:
1.  1:34.390 – 00 – Jon VanCaneghem – Mazda GT
2.  1:35.393 – 32 – Team Cashin In – Vette
3.  1:35.412 – 98 – James Wagaman – Mazda GT
4.  1:44.513 – 415 – Ed Nazarian – Evo 9

Sunday Super Touring 2 Qualifying times:
1.  1:27.118 – 00 – Jon VanCaneghem – Mazda GT
2.  1:28.049 – 98 – James Wagaman – Mazda GT
3.  1:33.551 – 415 – Ed Nazarian – Evo 9

Sunday Super Touring 2 Race results:
1.  1:28.319 – 00 – Jon VanCaneghem – Mazda GT
2.  1:28.591 – 98 – James Wagaman – Mazda GT
3.  1:31.512 – 32 – Team Cashin In – Vette
4.  1:33.099 – 415 – Ed Nazarian – Evo 9

Thanks again to my sponsors for their continued support:

- RRE
- Robispec
- Girodisc
- South Coast Mitsubishi
- I’d also like to thank Honda Robert, Mike Welch, Robi, Sean Bradley, and Mark for their help on Sat/Sun.

I also want to congratulate my friend Mark for getting 2nd place both days in HCH4.  Not only was it Marks first time racing in HC, but it was also his first time driving a HC racecar.  Pretty impressive if you ask me.  Congrats Mark!

About 2 months ago Jathnael “Jay” Taylor, from the Speed Zoku, linked an article of mine on his website. I want to thank Jay for posting this. I didn’t know anything about it so it was a nice surprise. It’s the first time someone has mentioned me, and linked an article of mine:

- From a Super Touring Driver..
- Ed’s Evo

My 2009 race season as a rookie racer is over. It has been an amazing year. I don’t know how I can articulate how amazing it has been to start racing this year. So much has happened from the end of the 2008 season to now. I went from competing in NASA’s Time Trial series, to racing in Super Touring. I’m an example of NASA’s ladder system. I didn’t start in HPDE 1 with NASA, but either way I made my way up the ladder system from HPDE, to time trialing, and now racing. Typing about this now is probably the first time I’ve sat down to think about it all.

The transition into racing, besides all the thrills, has been stressful. Compared to what I go through now, it used to be a walk in the park when I used to get ready for time trial events. Now, the development and preparation is endless. We usually have about 1 month between our regional races, but that 1 month never seems to be enough. The days seem like hours, and the weeks seem like days. I just never feel like I have enough time to rest and get ready.

Having started racing this year has been a great journey. There have been several major unexpected highs, and a ton of challenges stacked with more challenges. I’ve learned a great deal about myself, my friends, my sponsors, and about racecraft. On top of all that, I finished all 6 of my regional races without any incidents. I successfully completed my provisional racing license, and before leaving for Nationals I received my official racing license. Also, on top of being the 1st from Socal racing an Evo in Super Touring, I’m also the 1st to race an Evo at Miller Motorsports Park (MMP) for NASA’s National Championship. Here is everything I accomplished this year:

Details: 2009 Results

* Total of 8 Super Touring ST2 races
* 2 Super Touring ST2 National Championship races
* 6 Super Touring ST2 Socal Regional races
* 6 podiums in a row
* 4 wins in a row
* (2) 2nd place
* Winner of hard-charger award
* (1) Pole position
* All the while as a rookie racer

I had a very successful year of racing this year (which was totally unexpected), but I know that it’s only going to get more challenging from here on out. I have learned that racing, compared to HPDE and Time Trialing, is on a completely different level. I knew that prior to starting racing this year, but I now have that experience. Racing, in one sense, is a major battle of attrition. Parts are going to wear out more quickly, there is going to be contact, and there is nothing you can do but hang on and try to deal with everything accordingly. And the only reason why I was able to hang on so that I could persevere through the challenges and achieve those accomplishments was because of my sponsors and friends. Thank you to all of you for your support:

- RRE
- Robispec
- Girodisc
- SCM
- ACT
- Island tire
- Last, and definitely not least, my crew, my friends, Robert Ramirez (a.k.a. Honda Robert), Sean Bradley, and Mark Homer.

As for the 2009 Socal NASA Championship, I don’t know what place I took overall because the final season points have not been assessed yet. When that happens I will note it accordingly. I know I didn’t win it because I missed too many races. But for what it’s worth, I was in 1st place after my first 6 races with a total of 580 points. The 2nd place driver was very close behind me with 565 points. Unfortunately, after getting hit at Nationals, I was not able to repair my car to participate in our last 4 races (Oct/Nov). That incident cost me a podium finish for the season. Even though I didn’t have enough points to win the Socal Championship, if I had been able to race in October and November I would have had a chance at a podium, and possibly 2nd place overall. But that’s racing. The 2009 season is over, but the 2010 season is right around the corner. In less than 3 months we are back at Big Willow to start the 2010 race season. I must say that it all went by really fast.