Yama's Top Notch Photos of the FR-S at H2R

Yama took these photos at our H2R track day a few weeks ago. He got them all prettied up and uploaded to the interwebs. Here are a few of his finest photos of my FR-S on-track. Thanks for the great photos Yama!

My New Desktop Wallpaper...I know you were all dying to know my desktop pictures choices

Leo Parente of Drive TV with the Palatov D4

The Palatov D4 is a project I've been following since college when a couple of buddies and I were looking into building our own A-Mod SCCA racer. Our Miata-based open-wheeler powered by a Yamaha YZR-1000 engine never panned out, but the Palatov is looking pretty good now. 

The video below is part of the Shakedown series on Drive TV which is one of my favorite online racing/car shows. Leo Parente does a great job breaking their test session down and comparing it to the Sim Raceway version of the car. Check it out below:

Track Record Pace in SSB Civic at Mid-Ohio

I ran a two-day track day with PCA this weekend in the #07 Team Honda Research SSB Honda Civic Si. It was a great experience for me as it was my first time at the track with a nationally competitive car and new tires. This car finished 4th at the runoffs this year and 2nd last year, so I'd say "nationally comptitive" is an understatement. It was also my first event in an SSB car and only my second time at Mid-Ohio.

It was cold all weekend and wet for most of the day on Saturday. However, it was never wet enough for rain tires, so I got a lot of experience driving with slicks on a wet track. I had a few close-calls, but brought the car home intact on Sautrday with a fast lap of 1:56.8 on the wet, but drying track.

Sunday was a perfect day. With a high of about 50 and no clouds in the sky, the engine was making tons of power and we were able to get the tires up to temperature without too much troubl. I gained time with each session, but struggled to get clean laps due to traffic. Over the whole weekend, I only got 6 clean laps around Mid-Ohio. I made my last one count though and put together everything I had learned throughout the weekend. I clicked of a lap of 1:46.176 which is 0.025 seconds off of the SSB track record set by Chase Lin in 2007. With my TraqMate display showing me my laps times, I knew I had a flyer going and was pushing realy hard for the track record. I came up just short, but was very pleased with my lap time considering this was my first event in the car.

List of SCCA Mid-Ohio track records (See Chase Lin in SSB): http://www.greatlakes-scca.org/system/files/MidOhio_2.pdf

Traqmate Screenshot

Disappointingly, I don't have any video from the weekend so data will have to suffice.

PCA Track Day at Mid-Ohio in ITA Integra - Video

I ran a PCA DE in an SCCA ITA-prepped Acura Integra at Mid-Ohio. We ran the club course for this event. My fast lap was a 1:52.3 with traffic. This was my first event at Mid-Ohio and in this car. I was running in Group D so traffic was constantly an issue. We had great weather for this event and it was loads of fun.