Spaze Racing

Wow, Clearly I’m not doing a great job updating my blog as I should, because its been about 5 weeks since the video was put on youtube. I became a local star for wrecking a car in such fashion, and the shop was working on the car as fast as possible. Over those 6 weeks, they assembled a built motor, a built head, pulled, cut welded, and fixed the chassis, had custom hubs machined, and added further chassis stiffening. But the drama of this last weekend started for me as I arrived at the PTuning shop at 5pm on Friday.

The Scion is sitting on the dyno looking like its about to destroy it with the power its about to make. The built motor is in, but the guys were having problems with the throttle body. The throttle body was actually frozen shut as a result of the accident! So they swapped that out and got to business tuning. Everything was looking great until the car hit the limiter at 6250. They rechecked the settings and the ECU was told to limit at 7000, not the stock 6250. The ecu was replaced and everything looked to be good. A few runs later, it hit the stock 6250 again. Maybe it was the piggy back? could that have been damaged from the accident as well? We swapped that and everything looked good.

Meanwhile the rest of the guys are collecting tools, and supplies for the weekend. Everything we could think of was tossed into the back of the truck, even the honda 80cc pit bike. Around midnight the car comes off the dyno, with JUST a WOT tune. After more problems the car was tuned at 19psi to 408whp on the dyno dynamics dyno. I was warned that partial throttle could be problematic but the WOT tune looked like a mountain of power that went all the way to 7800 rpm! Yes, we raised the rev limit that much simply so 5th gear would top out around 176 and not the stock 142! After the tC came off the dyno, the Street Xa went on for a little fine tuning. Packing came to a halt as the tC rolled onto the lift and the front hubs were removed. As it turned out one of the Advan RS wheels was actually bent in the impact. After calling several places another wheel the same size and offset could not be found. A few days prior, slugs of metal were overnighted to a machine shop to be machined to PTunings specifications. These custom hubs were then overnighted to NC to have the splines cut, and arrived back at the shop that morning. They were pressed into another set of spindles and were an easy bolt in to the tC. As 2am neared it was clear that it was going to be a “Drive and arrive” deal like nashville (we drove overnight to the venue), and the drop dead time to get the car on the trailer was 3am. Registration was until 7:30 and we were on track at 7:45! After the hubs were installed, the wheels were fitted and the car was sent to the alignment rack. After 2 minutes of talking the settings were decided on, and the car was nearly done. As the car exited the rack we remembered we had forgotten about the front splitter!

Its now 2:45 and stuff is flying everywhere, but the truck is loaded and waiting the car. at 2:55 the car rolled out of the shop, I drove it once around the parking lot and in the midst of driving the car up onto the trailer I ripped the air intake ducting off. The car went back into the shop and it was repaired. We then decided with the new clutch that rolling the car onto the trailer was the only way to go. We hit the road running at 3:15 for a 4.5 hour drive. It was going to be close but I knew we could do it. “We only need one lap guys!” I said to them so even if we didn’t get to practice 1 lap in the Time Attack would secure us the championship for the year!

After giving some rough directions I tried to get some sleep in the Lustine Toyota supplied Toyota Tundra Limited. It was rough and a 6am we were less than an hour from the track stopping for gas. I grabbed something for breakfast, the biggest Gatorade I could find, and a single Starbucks Ice Coffee. I downed the coffee knowing that the caffeine would be a nice pickup for the morning. We arrived at the track, paid the $50 a person for registration, which is highway robbery! We checked in at the Redline registration, received the number 96 and without a parking pass made out way toward the paddock. After sweet talking 4 marshals we were allowed into the paddock. After finding a spot we all exited the truck to the sound of the PA system requesting the Time Attack cars come to grid for our session. The guys sprang to life, the car was unloaded, the splitter and bumper were attached in record time. We were ready to go.. wait! We needed a transponder! After sending two people to get them, I ran over and after some searching grabbed one from Nik.

Once that was secured, I was off! The car was FAST and the first lap of VIR was great, but the track was slick! During the second lap I took the car to redline, only to find it was 6250 again, and I was cruising at 140 down most of the back straight. No matter, and no time to bring it in, I needed some seat time. After 4 laps I was greeted to spray of water on the windshield. OH NO! As I check the gauges I’m hopping I don’t see the temp gauge pegged. It was fine, and I limped the car back to the pits. We checked it out and determined that it was just a loose fitting. I went back out and the same thing happened 2 laps later. I was done for the session and brought the car back to the paddock space. The guys went back to work and it was determined that it was the fitting and a bad radiator cap! A few guys loaded up and went into town to find a cap, and the rest were diving into the ECU.

In the mean time I had to attend a drivers meeting for the Time Attack and the GT Sim Race. The coffee was starting to wear off and it was hard for me to stay awake at the meeting. My fellow drivers got a kick out of me nodding off, only to get yelled at and wake back up. After the Redline meeting I stayed for the meeting for the GT Sim race, where lucky spectators get to ride along in the Time Attack cars in a “mock” race. 2 laps, no passing, but we can do anything else we want.

Before I knew it they were griding for the Time Attack sessions. I was in the second session so I had a while to wait. While I was waiting I saw a few friends that had made the trek from NC to watch the action. When my session was called I jumped back into the car and headed to the hot pits. This is about the time I noticed the car only had a 1/4 of a tank of gas. That was fine with the old motor, but this new motor has much bigger injectors, so I could be cutting it close. I got the point and off I went! The motor was warm and over the next lap I needed to warm everything else up as well as see if the redline had been moved. Coming down the back straight, 5th gear seemed to stretch forever and I predicted the speed to be in the 160 range. Down though hogpen and onto the front straight I went to take the green. By the time I got to the Climbing Esses I was really in the groove, and noticed the gas light on. “One Lap, Come on baby! Give me one lap!”

Down the back straight one more time, the needle pegged at 140 and the car at full song for what seemed like forever. Back onto the brakes, though 14, down the roller coaster though hogpen and a sputter. Crossing the line I had done it but the car was out of gas. I pulled off in turn 2 and took the car behind the wall. After getting back to the paddock I informed the guys what had happened. We got a little laugh out of it, and we started discussing changes for the next day. After we filled the car all the way up it was nearly time for the GT sim race.

I got the car back into the pits and was loaded up with passengers 4 times. We were all having a blast giving the spectators a simulated race. Each had a good time, and even I was being a little daring. However, on the 4th person, rounding southbend we dropped 4th gear. Suddenly there was nothing, and I knew my weekend was over. I dropped the passenger off in the pits, and returned to the paddock with the bad news. The guys were a little bummed, but we were all so tired that no one put up might of a fight saying our weekend was done. By then they had released the times, and we set a 2:12, which is by no means blazingly fast, but we had to hope it would hold up for one more day.

We packed the truck up and went in search of food and more importantly a hotel to spend the night. We ate in danville, and somewhere between danville and south boston I passed out. I woke up in a hotel parking lot and decided I needed the 3 S’s! After some talking we went to sheetz grabbed some beer and everyone sat and drank in our room. It was then I posted on Time Attack Forums about our day, having a Miller Chill, watching Petit Le Mans, and talking with the team. It was the best night at the track I’ve had. Even with everything that happened, it was great to just sit and talk with the guys over a beer. At about midnight we all retired setting our alarms for 6:30am, to make it to the track for practice the next morning.

I would like to thank the PTuning Sponsors:
-Lustine Scion www.lustinescion.com for the use of their Toyota Tundra tow vehicle, supplying us with all the factory parts for rebuilding the front-end damage and finanical assistance to help cover the expense of running a race car.

-Progress Technology www.progressauto.com for their race-proven custom time attack coilover setup and rear swaybars.

-Seibon Carbon www.seiboncarbon.com for their lightweight, strong and perfect-fitting carbon fiber hood, doors and trunk lid.

-Toyo Tires www.toyo.com for their extremely sticky and competitive race-compound tires.

-Clutch Masters www.clutchmasters.com for their awesome lightweight and fast shifting stage 6.5 road race twin-clutch setup. This clutch can handle anything our motor can put out.

-FIC www.fuelinjectorclinic.com for supplying us with their new 900cc saturated injectors.

-Chris, from the www.thehotstickers.com for the all the vinyl decal work on the tC.

-The DriveShaft Shop www.driveshaftshop.com for their level 3.9 axles and supplying us with the billet slugs for our custom hubs.

- www.BudskiPhotography.com For possibly the best photographs ever.

I’ll post about sunday a little later