TC1000 - 2007/10/21

Yoshida-san (Cayman s) and John joined me at Tsukuba TC1000 today. The lineup was 1 x 20 minute session followed by 4 x 15 minute sessions. Long day then...

The first session I was actually quite amazed at my driving. I was silky smooth for the most part and really did some nice braking. Unfortunately I forgot to video that too. Hmmm, Maybe there is a connection there. I suddenly became able to do the inner hairpin where as before I would more than like be very slow or spin out. I got a few 43 second laps in the first session. Wow. My best previous time was 44. My best was 43.81 in that session. Things were looking up.

I actually managed to get 43 seconds in the first 4 sessions. I had quite a few problems getting around the last corner though for a good run at the straight. Just never really turned the car enough and had to curb hop to get any sort of speed down the home straight which is not so good.

For the last 3 sessions I had problems on the first corner with under-steer. I just couldn't take it at speed for some reason. I think its something to do with my front tires (Neova) having only 2mm of thread left. Time to change me thinks. The final session was my worst session in terms of rounding that corner and I just couldn't dive under the 44 mark.

Still, what a fun day! I got to follow Kanapee-san around for a while which was great as he is the Party Race champion. He actually spun in front of me on the last corner which was rather cool. Even champions spin! He was using 255 tires today so can't directly compare times but he was running low 43s which makes me pretty happy with my 43.8 efforts :-)

After my last run, I asked Kato-sensei to show me some magic driving and he took my car around in 44s with 2 up which is pretty cool. He really hooked together the first and last corners better than I had done all day. Wish I knew how he did it! I think I was faster on the inner corners though, but thats hardly surprising considering its my car. The large time is gained on the first and last corners on this circuit. As always, deeply impressed by his driving.

I'll try sort out some video footage later on. Too tired now. I hope I can stay up to watch the F1 tonight. Its gonna be a great race!