A little race report from me (Stephen with the RX8)
I had a TERRIBLE first out session with the RX8 on Friday AM. I had never driven rear wheel drive at LRP, never driven a 6 speed at LRP, and just finished fixing the car from the wreck in April... So I was trying to learn a few things and take it easy. Had a ton of traffic and never figured out what gear I should be in and before I even got into any groove the session was over. Turned a lousy 106, about 3 seconds slower than I went in my ITB car... yikes this was gonna be a bad weekend.
Second session I went out determined to get better and I did! I started to feel more comfortable with the car but it was really really loose and I couldn't get on the power at all. It also ran super high oil temps (250-260) with water temps around 180-190. I was hesitant but started to throw the car around a bit and see how it reacted. Got down to a 103.4 with was .1 seconds faster than I ever went in my ITB car. yahoo finally that 20K was worth it... Ya not in my wifes eyes
I was shocked to see that my buddy Tim in his corrado qualified at a 102 flat and pole for ITS. I was pretty bummed that I didn't think I could ever catch him and I just kept thinking WOW did I spend a lot more to build my car... what the hell did I do!! (I went into the weekend really really wanting to go faster than him, in fact we cared more about our race against eachother than anything else) So after we came in to prepare for Saturday we made a ton of suspension adjustments to see if we could get it to handle a bit better.
Morning warm-ups went well and I could tell it felt like it would be better. I was very excited about the potential in the race and couldn't have been happier with the decisions the crew made.
Race time came and I had a terrible start. lots of locked up tires in front of me, everyone 3 wide into turn 1 and this was the first race since the car got fixed... ya I was a pussy and backed off a tad! So after losing a bunch of spots on lap 1 I found myself following the ITB leader in my ITR car ;( what the hell I though to myself! My old Audi that I wouldn't even sell to anyone is right behind me with my brother driving... After that I settled into a groove and took off. I really started to understand how the car drove, what gears I should be in, and how fast I could slide it around some of the turns. I lead all the ITS cars with just the ITR cars out in front for a majority of the race. Oil temps still extremely high which is something that we need to look at before we get back on track again. I was still having a blast driving trying desperatly to catch Jay in his Turner ITR BMW and got down to a 101.6 which is only 1.1 seconds off the new track record set this weekend! I will be honest that I couldn't afford tires so I was wearing old giveaways from other drivers. In fact the front had 225 tires and the rear was 245's that sat in the snow last winter that I got from Steve U 2 seasons ago! With a new set of tires I really think this car has potential in ITR at a momentum track like LRP!
Overall a big success for me as the car ran well, didn't have any fuel issues (If you know anyone with an RX8 with issues let us know and we can help), and I had a blast driving it!
Attached are some pictures we took with the entire crew that I can't thank enough, the party we had a night with great in car video playing, the great boyscout giveaway (thanks Dave Gran for one of my favorite pictures of the weekend) and then the only picture I have of my car on track in the downhill. (If anyone has a picture of me on track let me know, I would love to get one!)
Stephen