Civic of Doom: Honda Challenge Recycling

[Kaan]

*pics will be added later*

The goal is to always work on something… practice, qualifying, or race. Mission accomplished… but not with out some trial and tribulation.

Prior to the event, we had a new trans built with closer ratios, the diff was rebuilt because it wasn’t really working, and we dropped in a 5.1 FD. All those things were more betta. I do need to raise my redline 200rpm… but it’s a safe increase. I'll raise it before next event.

Saturday practice my starter power wire came lose (post was bad apparently), it shorted out, and killed all the power in the car… and locked up the starter eventually. So I spent the middle of the day tracing the issues down, replacing the starter, and rewiring the starter. I only had 3ish laps on the new trans, I didn’t qualify, and it was race time… rowing gears and trying to figure out where to stay in 4th and where to be in 3rd… I put down a lap time that matched last event… all while battling +225 water temps and +270 oil temps. I had to back it down and stop chasing the mid pack guys and manage the car/temps. I pulled my grill block off in hopes that more air will help.

Sunday morning I went back over the car and did some mental driving of the track, purposely concentrating on gear selection and where to put the car in gear. I decided on a pattern and decided to stick with it… and to work on carrying speed in nascar, southbend, and the entry to the roller coaster.

Outside of the crazy start during beast of the east… the car was fine and running well with no tire temp issues. I got into the 2:17s even with dealing with a ST5 BMW that was checking me up the esses, southbend, etc. I got around him and life was good…

I did get my personal best. 2:17.251 during the Sunday race… and I was in the 2:17s consistently with AIM… so something worked. BUT I’m still 4 seconds off the front runners and 1-1.5 seconds off the mid pack.

Sunday the midpack guys had issues and didn’t qualify… so they were coming from the back of the pack. They had to get around Hunter and the massive Accord Waggon that he manhandles… by lap 5 they were behind me and the battles were fun. We swapped spots several times between lap 6 and 9… but once they both got around me and I was in the back of the 3 car pack… my gauges were back up pretty high. I pushed a little and wasn’t gaining ground, so I backed it off again.

After the race I was in rough shape. Sylvia had caught the flu or something… shes napping in the truck, I’m cooked and have to load up… I’m soaking rags in ice water and trying to cool down. It took forever to load up the truck and stuff… 3 times longer than it did at home. I had to take a break every 5 minutes to cope with the heat. I took a 15 minute shower with cold VIR well water and it was just feeling better before towing home. Part of the reason I am in the gym is because of this… I need my body to take it.

SO… Monday I ordered a new CSF radiator… say good by to the $80 CX Racing radiator that has served me well. I already pulled the font end off to start prepping for ducting… and I spent the heat of the afternoon drilling and building my DIY cool suit (inside).

I’m still trying to figure out where to pick up all this time. I’m braking later than the mid pack guys, I’m running up the esses faster than they were, I went through southbend faster…

T4 through the flat esses are still temperamental… the car doesn’t hold T4 well if I’m slightly off (closing the door, etc) and that makes me work the flat esses hard. I was out braking them leaving the back straight, we all seem to jump into hog pen about the same speed… they go wider than I do in the front straight kink…. I watch everyones videos and I feel like I’m doing what all the fast guys (fast/faster… all the HC guys, Ryan, Edgar, etc) are doing… maybe its just a bunch of little things. I’ll get into the data tomorrow I guess.