Final Prep Before My First Race!
3 days later and i’m still buzzing with excitement over just how good our last test night was. We went to the track with a few objectives, most important of which to me was to make sure I was somewhere in the window of pace after the newly found power and adjusted setup. You’ll quite often hear me refer to “we” when talking about race car things this year and obviously Racefix is just “Me” - Alek however this year Parramatta Vehicle Services (PVS Tuning) have come on board as a sponsor and are helping me run and maintain the car! Tyler from PVS will be specifically helping out running the car on test days and race weekends aswell as providing some driver coaching as I find the last couple of tenths.
Actual door to door racing will also bring some new challenges that I tried to get my head around on Thursday night including how hard I could push on a cold tyre and not only how quick I could qualify the car but also how well I could manage the car as the tyre went off and still drive to a race pace over a number of consecutive laps.
Heading out in my bright yellow 86 for the first time was super exciting to see the hard and tedious work wrapping the car pay off. The first flyer of the night was faster than I had ever been in the car before with a 1:50.4 before ending the session with a 1:50.0. I went into the pits pretty happy knowing that atleast a high 49 was on the cards on the night which was about where I expected the car to be given how shagged the tyres were.
After a quick debrief with Tyler we came to the conclusion that the front end was still too soft. Without a firmer set of springs on hand the only solution was to jack the combined bump and rebound dampening right up on the MCA Reds which solved some pitching issues but introduced some pretty hectic bouncing through some of the older sections of the circuit. We also established I was likely getting on the brakes a little early and not trailing in quite enough - Fine for race pace but I could fire it in a little deeper for a quali lap.
All that combined I recorded some solid consecutive laps in the low 49’s before dipping into a 1:48.7 for the very first time. Not only was the pace consistent for back to back laps it was also representative of a competitive quali lap - all on old tyres with some time still left in my driving at T4 and 6.
The newly found power combined with a far better exit coming onto the straight also saw the little 86 clock 198kmh down the shoot which is much more representative of where an 86 should be! As you can see the added mid-range from the new SME 4-2-1 header also helps with pull off the corner just about everywhere.
Unfortunately I didn’t have the GoPro in the car for the first 2 sessions so I headed out once more with the camera over my shoulder to try and bring you all some mildly entertaining video. I pulled the pace back just a touch as abit of a “race simulation” to see where I felt comfortable circulating, recording back to back low to mid 1:49’s as the tyre really fell off leaving the chassis consistently and predictively loose over both axles which is quite promising for some competitive results this season!
I’ve got quite a busy work schedule leading up to round 2 of Prod Touring which will be my first ever door to door race! I likely won’t have time to address the undersprung front end but i’ll hopefully get a chance to get the car into PVS to swap in a fresh gearbox as the one that came with the car was pretty crunchy in 4th and 5th straight out the gate.
Thursday night was also the first time i’ve run the car with its new bright yellow wrap which feels like the right time to mention i’m looking for a little bit of sponsorship this season to help out with the tyre bill! If you’re a business or individual that would like to help out a young bloke having a crack at racing on his own then I would love to chat further about what we can do to work together and bring value to your business!