Mazda Speed Circuit Trial

Woke up at 3:35, showered, shoved 2 contacts into 2 sleepy eyes and hit the road at 4am. Arrived at Tsukuba at around 5:30 and began my preparations in the still darkness with a torch. By 6:20 I had eaten some breakfast and was ready to register. Got the numbers and official lap timer, stuck them on and headed to my parking allocation inside the track. Ran over to the control tower and got a form signed off to say that I could capture my run on video. Back to the car by 7am so that the officials could review my car and mark it as track ready. The only uncertainty was what pressure to start out with on my tires. I chose 200 except the front left which I set to 195. It was bitterly cold so good times were expected. Drivers meeting from 7:50, out on the track at 8:35 for first run. What a schedule!

Someone spun on the first lap on the last corner into the pit lane wall. Not a good place to spin. Luckily he stopped so that he only tapped the wall head on leaving a big dent in his bumper but not much other damage. Red flag was out so back to the pit lane. Not nervous at all. I just wanted to go faster and I felt the time was right. Green light so back out on the track. A blue car passed by on the straight on the out lap - the nerve! I took him on the first corner and continued going to set a blazing 1'09.425 on my first lap. I was flying. I wanted to go faster. I was chasing that 1'08 I wanted so badly. A couple more 1'09s mixed in with some traffic laps I could do no better as the grip got less and I started sliding more. Still - not one to give up, I battled on and sadly missed seeing the checked flag as I was distracted looking at where I could pass the next car in front of me into the first corner. I noticed all the cars had slowed down and it dawned on me that the session was over. So cooled the car down back to the car park.

"Number 13" was wanted by the control tower... Drat. I knew exactly why too which is good, I guess. So off I headed for my telling off. It was my first event so it was all new. Its good to get called in sooner than later as its tells you were you stand. Sure enough, they'd spotted that I'd ignored the checkered flag and I assured them I wouldn't do it again. They didn't make a big deal out of it so off I went smiling at my good fortune that I didn't have my quickest lap taken from me as some sort of penalty. Whew! I'll try harder from now on! Honest!

We had some time until the second session so I put in some petrol to bring me back up to half a tank. That 20 litre gas tank I bought is too big! Oh well, at least I have spare gas now at reasonable Tsukuba prices (about 10 difference from Tokyo). They didn't do a car exam (shaken) before the second run. We had a drivers meeting and then was back on the track again at 12:40.

The temperature had risen since the morning. I'd left my tires as is. They probably could have done with more pressure as they'd been 240 when I checked them after the first session. Oh well. In the second session I didn't seem to have as much grip as the first session although I was still trying to go in with more speed into all the corners. Finally after only a few laps, I unbalanced the car by throttling too hard mid corner and headed for the inside of the first corner. First thing I noticed was there was no padding where I was headed. I was pretty sure I could stop initially but the brakes just didn't work once I hit the grass and I kept sliding inwards. Here comes the wall. I stopped. Whew! Only inches away but that is far enough for me. An inch is a mile when you didn't hit something. Game on! Lets get back out there. I still haven't got a 1'08!

About 2 or 3 laps later, I unbalanced the car again mid corner on the 2nd hairpin and spun inwards. Damn. After considering reversing out for a bit, I decided to just try going across the grass and driving out the exit instead as it seemed safer for all parties. All I could think of was what a waste of time that was and how I only had perhaps 1 lap left to try something special so I got back up to speed. The rest was uneventful though as there was a car in front of me and some others going slow on the outside of corners etc. Best I managed manage was a 1'09.625 on the 2nd session. As it turned out though everyone was about 0.200 or so slower on the second session so it wasn't just me.

So, 1'09.425 is my best time at TC2000. I was really happy with that. I'd gone all out to get it. Unfortunately, everyone else was spectacular also and that time was only good enough for 9th place out of the 17 entrants in the RX-8 More Class. Half way up the field is not bad I guess. Everyone a head of my was a member of RTE! Such domination!

I think I need a new tactic now to go faster. I need to ignore fast laps for a while and try improve on sections by trying different things and concentrating on single corners every lap. To avoid boredom, I think I'll still try 2 attack laps followed by only attacking the 2nd hairpin to start off with. There is probably still time to get with a fast entry/exit on that corner as the back straight follows. I feel I'm also weak at the 1st hairin - well most corners to be honest but I hate it when I go too slow through there with over braking. I find I don't have a proper entry plan in my head or at least I never stick with one for that corner. Hopefully targeting specific corners should help get me the 1'08 that I seek - although I'm really after a 1'07 :-)