Wurth Motorsports/Bitterman Time Trials
Buttonwillow Raceway, January 26/27, 2002
"The Revenge of the Pulp S2000"

S2000 running in the rain at Buttonwillow
 

In late January, Wurth Motorsports/Bitterman Time Trials held their first Honda S2000 Challenge event.  John and Aaron went out and bought a bunch of AMB transponders and associated timing equipment, and decided to run some time trials using computerized printouts to determine the winner of various classes.  Aaron classed the S2000's according to the following classes:

S2000 Challenge Series Classification (Event #1)

No changes are allowed to a car unless they are listed below. If a component or other modification is listed below, any type (or size) of that component is allowed, unless otherwise noted (ie. “sway bar” means adjustable or non-adjustable allowed). Additionally, aftermarket rollbars and racing seats are allowed in any class, but an approved seat must be installed in the passenger side. No parts, insulation or anything may be removed from a car to lighten it or for any other reason, except for the tire change kit (jack, etc.) and spare tire. If you have a question about any modification, please contact Aaron (abitterman@aol.com).

STOCK
Tires: up to 255 width rear tire, 100+ treadwear
Stock wheels only
Alignment – any setting
Any brake pad
Any modification to stock rotor
Any brake fluid
Brake ducting allowed
Brake dust shields can be removed
Brakelines
Any air filter

MODIFIED (same as Stock +)
Any wheels 22
Springs (w/stock shocks only) 20
Shocks (w/stock springs only) 20
Calipers/Rotors 20
Any cat-back exhaust 17
Front swaybar 15
Rear swaybar 15
Cold Air Intake 13
Aerodynamic additions 13
Clutch/Flywheel 13
X-brace 7
Headers 7
Modified throttle body 5
Strut-tower brace 3
Rear brace 3
Thermostat 3
Heat Shield 3

Points Allowed = 77
(if a car goes over 77pts, it is bumped into the PRODUCTION class)

MOD–R (same as MODIFIED +)
Any tire (max width rear = 255)

PRODUCTION (same as MOD-R +)
Any suspension
Any modification (except power adders)
No points restriction

Z-MODIFIED (same as MODIFIED +)
Power adders (supercharger, turbo, nitrous, etc.)

Z-R (same as Z-MODIFIED +)
Any tire (max width 255 rear)

OPEN
Anything goes (same as PRODUCTION + power adders)

Aaron's nifty tire trailer that he tows behind his S2000

This sounds like fun!  Computerized printouts, various classes depending on modifications, opportunity for some smack talking.  The classing makes pretty good sense to me, as Aaron went by what mods actually help for lap times in an S2000.  I told Aaron that I figure that it will take months until the NSX is ready to compete again, I might as well play around with the S2000, and this is the perfect opportunity. 

My S2000 fits squarely in the MOD-R class.  I have Porterfield R4 pads, brake ducts, rollbar, and tires that I planned on using for this event.  So I have 0 points in terms of mods according to this classing scheme.  Well, make that 15 points, as I had Larry throw the Comptech front sway bar in.

In the meantime, over the past week, Wayne has come down with an incurable disease, and it looks terminal for him.  The disease is called Italica Fervora, which is gibberish for Ferrari Fever.  He was looking at some F355's that are for sale, and checking out prices, what it would cost to lease, etc.  He figures he can get a good F355 on a lease for maybe $1100 a month, and then he would just drive it one day a week like I do,  to keep the miles and repairs down, and drive the NSX the rest of the time.  I tell him he is losing it.  But it is no use....the Go-Fast Crack Pipe is out, and he has that glazed look in his eyes.  There's no stopping him.  Dagmar tells him that Wayne driving a Ferrari one day a week is like giving 12 vials of crack to a crackhead, and telling him, "Now if you only use one vial a month, you have enough to last you the whole year......

After being severely disappointed with my lap times at Willow and Laguna, I decided that A032R tires aren't going to cut it at an event that is going to use the AMB transponders.  This means war.  Which means that I need to use some Hoosiers.  Which means I need a new set of spare rims.  Which means I can no longer just drive the car to the event, now I either need to trailer the car, or get someone to drive the truck up to the track with tires and tools.  I opt to go for getting someone to drive the truck to the track, as our single car trailer sorta isn't registered.  Plus, it might rain or snow going over the Grapevine, which would be a nightmare.  I recruit my friend Donald, who has been helping me out at the shop, to drive the truck up to the track.  I fill up the back of the truck with tools, jack, air tank, chairs, ice chest, food, and about 30 other things that are necessary for a track event.  And also two 5 gallon gas jugs, so we can fill up before we get to the track, and don't have to leave the track during the day to get more gas.  I am an efficient (meaning lazy) bastard.

Since the weatherman said it will be cold in Buttonwillow (38 degrees at the track in the morning), I decide to rent one of the Buttonwillow garages for $50 a day.  Especially since it might rain.  The week before, I replaced the rear R4 pads, bled the brakes using those Speedbleeder gizmos, and it looks like I am ready to go way in advance for this event.  I pick up an extra set of stock rims from Paul Mumford.  Mumford's S2000 has been out of action for almost a year.  Provost said that you can see Mumford's car on the back of milk cartons.  Rumor has it that Mumford took his car to a go-fast shop that butchered the car, screwing up the big brake installation, rollbar, ABS, and a bunch of other stuff.   So now he has EMI Racing re-fixing it so it can go-fast again, and is going to make the car perfect for kicking ass at the track.  More rumors have it that the latest snafu there is that EMI is waiting for the right size rear caliper piston from Brembo to get the brake bias perfectly proportioned. Fortunately (unfortunately?) for me, EMI is also the guys fixing the suspension on the Flamemobile.  Let's just say you can understand why I am starting to take my S2000 to the track........

Cobra getting ready to light it up on the track

Thursday, January 23rd, 2002
Ferrari Fever is getting worse.  The temperature just went up two more degrees to the intensive care stage. Wayne is now bidding on a 360 Modena with 14,000 miles on it, located in back east.  He saw it on Ebay.  The reserve was set at $145,000, but the highest bid so far is $135,100.  Wayne talks to the guy, gets a history about the car, calls Algar Ferrari, one of the authorized dealers back east, gets more info on the car.  He also does a CarFax, talks to some other people back east that know about the car, etc.  The guy tells Wayne that he must sell the car by tomorrow, as he needs the cash so he can buy his Lamborghini Murcielago that is coming in.  Wayne can have the car for $135,200.  One year left on the warranty.  Red/Tan, perfect condition, Scuderia shields on the side, power seats, and the owner just had the pricy 15,000 mile service performed on the car. Wayne says that he could take out a margin loan, fly out there, check it out, rent a U-Haul truck and trailer, and bring it back home.  I tell him that is a bad idea, as the weather is bad, it is winter, and he doesn't want to take a chance at crashing a trailer with a 360 Modena in it.  I would love to put that picture on the front page of the next story.  If he buys it, I figure he has to use a professional transporter to ship the car back here.  He can't drive it back, as the depreciation on a Ferrari 360 is probably $3 a mile.  So if he drives it 3000 miles back home, he's out $9000 on the resale value.  Plus it would probably break down twice on the way home.  I calculate that his monthly car payments are the equivalent of about $2400 a month.  He's a madman!

I checked my tires the week before, and I pretty much wasted the rear Hoosiers at Willow Springs earlier in the month, which means I need a new set of rear tires.  The fronts look pretty good still.  I drop the tires and rims off at Best Value Tire, which is about a mile from our shop.  At 4:00 p.m. on Thursday, Mike the tire technician, who is about the only guy I trust to mount my tires without scratching my rims, calls me and says that one of the front tires is cording, and do I have another tire he can mount.   WHAT?  I looked at those tires last week, and they were fine.  Mike says that on the outside edge of the tire, he can see some cords.  Uh oh....let's see....4:00 p.m. on Thursday....no way that Tire Rack can Fedex me a tire so I get it tomorrow.  Damn.  This is the first set of Hoosiers that I ever bought for the S2000, so I don't have any used spares lying around.  I could just use the A032Rs, but after the ass whupping at Laguna, I don't want to deal with that. 

I go over to Best Value Tire, and I check out the tire.  It doesn't look too bad, but the wear seems abnormal on that tire.  Maybe my alignment is off?  A quick call to Dale at Dave's Frame and Alignment, and I tell him that I need yet another quick emergency alignment so I can go to the track this weekend.  He says to bring it over at 7:45 a.m. in the morning, and he will check it out.  I go over to www.s2ki.com and search for alignment specs, and decide to go with the aggressive -1.5 front, -2.5 rear for the weekend.   I bring the car over in the morning, and Dale mentions that he set up the alignment on this car for street driving.  I tell Dale that he hasn't touched this car before, and he says, "Oh yeah I did, back you first got it.  You told me it wasn't going on the track, remember, and I aligned it accordingly?".  Uh....I don't remember.  I bring so many damn cars over to Dale's for alignment, that it slipped my mind somehow.  Hummmm.....is that why I was getting my ass kicked at Willow and Laguna, as the alignment was set to a "slow, tire saving" setting?  Maybe, who knows.  At least now I got an explanation (note: not a "reason" or "excuse") of why my lap times were a couple seconds slower than I anticipated.

I get into a pool of $10 wagers for the event over email from friends who have their own pretty cool little track nuts mailing list, and who are heading out to Buttonwillow.  These guys got fed up with all the public email lists and BBSs that have a bunch of random, anonymous yahoos posting and causing controversy.  I myself think that all of the anonymous "screen names" are ricockulous.  If you are going to post something for the world to see on the Internet, use your real damn name and backup the statements that you post, instead of hiding behind a fricking AOL-like screen psuedonym.   It's bad enough that I can't remember a person's name and match it to a face, but now I have to match a screen name to person's real name to a face.  My brain can't process that transitive procedure.

And don't get me started on AOL, who is suing Microsoft for crushing Netscape, despite the fact that AOL chose Internet Explorer over the Netscape browser due to the superior modularity and speed of Internet Explorer back during the browser war years in the mid to late 1990's.  AOL today STILL ships Internet Explorer, not Netscape, in their own product, despite the fact that they OWN Netscape.  Could it be that the Netscape browser sucked?  AOL's argument is the equivalent of Ferrari suing Toyota for trying to take over the Italian market for engines, yet Ferrari builds Ferrari cars and ships them with Toyota engines the past 7 years.  Doesn't anyone in our government understand the STUPIDITY of the AOL lawsuit??  Doesn't my stupid State Attorney General understand this?  Oh, I forgot....the Attorney General is trying to grandstand for the public by taking on big bad Microsoft, so he can make a run for governor in a couple of years.  I got news for him.....I am getting the Pulp Army (similar to the Kiss Army) prepared to vote to make sure he never makes it to the Governor's office.

Anyways, the good folks on the track nuts list figure the handicap formula for our wager should be:

Sounds good to me.  I throw in my 10 bucks.

Friday, January 25th, 2002
Keith, a new track guy with a 91 Mustang, emails me and he also wants 10 bucks of action in return for an 8 second handicap.  He says that The NSX-Files convinced him to try a puff on the Go-Fast Crack Pipe, as this will be his first event.  I take him up on that also. 

Wayne is bummed.  Some female bid the Ferrari 360 to $140,000, which is way more than Wayne wants to pay.  He has to bow out.   I can't picture a female driving a 360 with a manual tranny.  Oh well.....at least Wayne doesn't have to go into debt, and he can put some chairs, couches, and beds in his new house.

Brad's awesome looking new Turbo

Saturday morning, January 26th.
Wurth and Bitterman want us at the track by 7:25 a.m. for a driver's meeting.  That is an hour earlier than most other events.  But that might mean an hour more of track time.  Good move by them.  Except when my alarm clocks goes off at 3:00 a.m.  I curse them, those bastards, it's too damn early in the morning. I cut up some tomatoes and lettuce for sandwiches at the track (so I can be efficient and don't have to wait in line at the track for food), eat some Cocoa Krispies, take a shower, feed the cats, pack up the car, and off to the shop.  I meet Donald there at 4:30 a.m, throw the food in the truck, and off to Buttonwillow.  Due to our perfect preparation, timing, driving ability, and experience, we get to the track at 7:15 a.m.

George's NSX getting ready to do battle on the track

The event is broken up into three runs groups.  Rumor has it that there are around 90 cars at the event, so about 30 cars per run group.  We are running the track configuration known as Clockwise #1, utilizing the Star Mazda turn and the Bus Stop, so it is the longest configuration, and probably the most fun configuration that they have.  There are 13 different configurations, which can be run both clockwise and counterclockwise so it makes it tough to compare lap times from previous events.  There are quite a few S2000's there, along with a bunch of Corvettes. 

Another S2000 playing in the rain

Organized electronic timing with computerized printouts brings out a lot of controversy at the track.  Arguments PRO and CON are along the following thoughts:

1. Timing is good.  I want to see my lap times in comparison to others on the track.
    

2. Timing is bad.  I do not want other people to see my lap times on the track.  Thus, I can sorta lie about how fast I am, and no one can really challenge it.
    

3. Timing is good.  It allows me to see if my driving line, shifting, braking, cornering, is getting better each session.
    

4. Timing is bad.  It allows drivers to see their times, which means they will have incentive to go faster and drive like a moron, which means it is much more likely they will spin or crash their car.
    

5. Timing is good.  It allows me to see if I can justify my investments in go-fast parts.
    

6. Timing is bad.  It allows me to see if I spent money stupidly on go-fast parts, and my wife/spouse can kick my ass for putting those expensive doohickeys that ain't doing nothing to make me go faster.
    

7. Timing is good.  It shows potential sponsors/go-fast parts makers that I can pilot a car pretty fast around the track.
    

8. Timing is bad.  It shows potential sponsors/go-fast parts makers that you are really slow, and they put you on the special "blacklist".  Which means they jack up the price on parts for you, to encourage you NOT to run their parts.  They just plain don't want to be associated with you, as you make their parts look slow and worthless.
    

9. Timing is bad.  If insurance agents see lap times, and you crashed at that event, supposedly you can't get reimbursed for crashing your car.

Well, for those of you that read this website, you know that Wayne and I subscribed to the belief that everything in life should be measured.  When you go to the track, every damn lap should be measured, so you can figure out how to go faster.  We have backup timing devices for the backup timing devices, because if we can't get instantaneous feedback on our performance, we just quit and go home.  Maybe in the future when you are at a party, and someone else mentions that they go to the track a lot, perhaps you could both whip out your little wireless organizer, and you both could download your official AMB transponder lap times from the AMB Internet website for all your previous track events, and then you can compare them with each other to see who really is the faster driver.  

With that in mind, let's go to the facts and intrepret them: 

Results from I think the first run group, (might have been the second group???)
 

I believe this is the time sheet for the first red (advanced) run group on Saturday.  James Gunn crushed everyone with a 2:01.974, destroying the field by almost seven seconds over the nearest competitor.  He should be entered in the Open Track Challenge. He is running a Z06 Vette with Goodyear racing slicks, so he should be kicking everyone's ass.  But still a very impressive lap time, and he could be up for top honors in the OTC.  James, if you are reading this webpage, email me at dougha@msn.com, we need you in the OTC!  Victory and Glory could be yours come May 18th.  You could be the OTC King!

I believe the next four fastest guys are also Vettes, as the Vette guys came out in force when they heard there could be a "Corvette Challenge" if enough Vettes showed up.  A couple of the Vette guys are well known cone-dodgers.  Bill's a road racer, and he always runs pretty good at track events.  Fifth place is George, running some great driving lines in his green NSX, and he hits every apex right on the money.  He and I were duking it out in one of the sessions, albeit that he had a passenger and I did not.  I am sixth, heading up the S2000 group by about 2.5 seconds over Josh and Jason, who are also entered in the S2000 Challenge.  Would have been nice if make of car would have been filled in on the AMB time sheet, but hey, it's their first event in this format.  I am sure next time we can have all the info! 

Wayne calls me at the track.  Apparently the female who bid $140,000 couldn't qualify for financing.  Apparently she had Ferrari Fever that extended beyond her credit limit.  She's probably jumping off a building right now, as she didn't get the 360.   And, the guy at $135,100 couldn't qualify for financing either, Ferrari Fever whipped him into a useless frenzy, and he probably pointing a gun at his temple right now.  The guy who owns the 360 has to sell ASAP, as he really want that new Lambo.  He tells Wayne that he can pick up the 360 for a mere $130,000 in cash.   Wayne figures he can take out a margin loan on stock, get the car, drive it sporadically for a year or so, and hopefully sell it for something close to the price that he bought it for, and pay back the margin loan. He starts hunting around on the Internet for a plane ticket to the east coast......

Run Group 2 of the beginner group was interesting.  There were about 20 spins in the session.  That has got to be a world record.  There were so many spins that apparently the corner workers couldn't get any free airspace to say that someone spun.  All you could hear on the radio were different voices saying "Off in nine".  "Off in two".  "Off in four", "Off in ten", in rapid succession.  Aaron promptly instituted a "penalty box".  You spin, you come into the hot pit for a five minute "timeout".  You spin twice in your session, your session is done.  Keep in mind, that Buttonwillow is a tricky course, mixing a lot of medium speed turns that are off camber or going over some small hills that can throw you for a loop, so amateurs spin frequently here.  When I was learning the go-fast driving techniques back in the early 1990's, I spun a couple times here at Buttonwillow.  (well....a couple of times a day for a total of maybe 12 spins and various other off track excursions)  I have never spun the S2000, and I think the last time I spun the Flamemobile was probably 30 events ago, back in 1998.  I am a professional.....and a couple of  my "experienced" passengers agree with me as we fly around Buttonwillow at high speed.  My ego gets bigger.  I do not understand why people won't pay me cash to drive their race cars at professional track events.  I could make their cars go-faster.

AMB sheet from I think Red Run Group 3

I believe this is run group 3 for the advance group.  Notice that James got slower, could be that the rumor that slicks are only good for about 3 heat cycles (run groups), and they start to suck?  I planned to come out blazing in this run group.  I usually take a passenger out for the first four laps or so to show them the line, and then eject them for the last couple of laps so I can get a fast lap time.  My strategy was perfect.....I dropped the student off in the hot pit, as I am done using their excess body weight to heat up the tires, and waited for some space, got on the track, went slow until I saw a car from behind me start to catch me, thus ensuring I had at least 25 seconds of space in front of me.  That way, I would not catch up to a car during my hot lap, and then floored it Michael Schumacher style to get a fast lap time just like he does in qualifying.  I blew through the first half of the track like a madman, determined to get to 2:12, and came flying through the bus stop at almost full throttle.  There is a tricky left  hander coming out of the bus stop, I stabbed the brakes, tossed the car into the turn......and promptly went spinning of the track backwards into the dirt.  Ooooops.   Damn.  That was embarrassing.  Not sure what I did wrong....maybe I put too much of the left tire on the berm?  I see a cloud of dust three stories high surrounding my car, and now I remember why people won't pay me to drive their race cars.  Hopefully no one back at my garage saw it.....

Rylan hanging out by the Top Time of the Day Z06 Corvette

I cruise into the hot pit, ego damaged, a little dust all over the car exterior and interior, and I confess my sins to John, who is the starter for this session.   I get back onto the track, but I catch slower traffic, so I turn a slower lap in this session than I did the session before.  I still kick Don Mock's ass in his racing CRX, which I had to do, since he DESTROYED me at Willow Springs on the big track by a full four seconds a lap.  I also notice that autocrosser Jason Keeney picked up 2.3 seconds that session, which is bad news for me......as it indicates that the autocross guys are getting the hang of the track.   I get back to the garage, and Russell is reading the paper, and he says, "Headline in the Los Angeles Times says that Doug Hayashi Spun!"  So much for no one seeing the spin.....

Printout of the final session of the day

Final session of the day.  I maneuver to get some space on the track, and do a flying lap, a la Formula One qualifying, slowing down a bit more on the exit of the Bus Stop, and I break into the 2:12's, thus whupping a lot of the bigger HP cars (well, a couple at least) in lap times.  I am able to keep Keeney behind me.  Everyone seems to be wearing out their tires and getting slippery on the track including me, and I doubt that anyone with an S2000 is going to beat my 2:12.866 on Sunday, especially since it is supposed to rain on Sunday.   I look around for the Wurth/Bitterman trophy girls, but there are none, so I crown myself the winner of the Inaugural S2000 Challenge.  I shake my own hand in congratulations to my self.  I think I am getting the car dialed in now, and achieving a Zen-like state while driving the car.  You know are in a Zen-like state when your breathing is slower than usual, and visually everything is happening real slow, like a dream....despite the fact that you are at triple digit speeds and you are hitting every apex right on the money.

Cars all lined up to do some hot lapping around the track

Sunday Morning.
It's very wet outside, with a slow, steady drizzle that won't stop.  Track is real wet, and worse, if you go off, your car will get stuck in two feet of mud and you will have to be towed out.  I throw on the old A032R's that I drove up on, and take it out for some fun in the rain.  The results are the following:

Looks like those Vette guys wussed out in the rain, and went crying home to mama, as they didn't run in the morning.  Driving a car on the track in the rain is pretty tricky.  In the dry, you can use the berms and curbing to your advantage, but in the wet, if you touch the painted surface of a burm or curbing, and you will be instantly spun off the track, as it is very slippery.  I was pretty sure that I had the fastest rain lap out there, but then I come in and I see Don Mock kicked my ass in the wet by a full six seconds!  How the hell did he do that?  I stop by and ask him, and he said that he was full throttle in the "Esses", and was going 80 mph through the Riverside sweeper in the rain.  By comparison, I has half throttle through the "Esses", and 70 mph through Riverside, as I thought I was going to wipe out and end up in the mud.  Humm.....something ain't right here......how did he do that?

Next session, I psyche myself up to take Don Mock's 2:47 to the cleaners, as I fight to keep the car on the track at speed without flying into the mud, and the results are:

I make it to 2:49.  Don Mock is three seconds slower this session than last session.  .  Turns out that someone said he spun twice that session.  Ahh....I thought that 2:47 lap of his was a fluke lap.....he was really on the ragged edge that lap, and driving over his head. (at least in my opinion.  Remember, I have experience, and I can come up with an explanation for anything.  <grin>)  A guy in a WRX dials up the four wheel drive and smokes us all with a 2:44.  That is pretty much uncatchable.  Keeney is 8/10ths of a second behind me.  The rain is still coming down, and I tell Donald that we should bail at lunch, and start heading home, as no one is going to come close to beating my time from yesterday.  Since people from Southern California can't drive in the rain, it is better to get going now, before darkness sets in and the temperature drops more, just in case it snows through the Grapevine.  Southern California people REALLY SUCK when there is snow on the ground.  Keeney is loosening up his sway bar for the next session.  I wonder why he is putting so much effort into it........he ain't gonna beat my 2:12 in this weather.

Nice looking NSX!

I check all my wagers....looks like I cleaned up on all of those for about 60 bucks against the NSX/M3/MR2/etc.  I spotted Keith in the Mustang 8 seconds, and I beat him by 20 seconds. (sorry Keith, I just had to mention that).  Luckily, George in the green NSX wasn't in on the bets, as he was one of five people faster than I was, the other four were Vette guys.  Consider there were about 90 cars there, that means I beat 84 other cars in terms of lap times.  Now, I know some of you who were at this event will protest that they did not have a transponder on their car, and they ran faster than me.   Uhhh.....hello.......we want computerized proof that you are fast.  Next time, rent or buy a transponder, and perhaps you can get in on the side bets also.......

One of the NSX owners has his brother take the car to the gas station five miles down the road while it is pouring rain.  Brother comes back, and takes the entrance turn off Lerdo highway into the race track a little too fast.  Car spins, slides into the mud, hits a tree with the front and rear bumpers.  Bummer.....looks like some serious damage.

This car crashed coming INTO the track while it was raining on Sunday....

Tree is still alive.  Barely.

The Wurth/Bitterman event was pretty fun.  With just three run groups, we got a ton of track time.  They put the AMB printouts out after each run group, so we can see our progress relative to other people.

Monday, January 28th
I pick up the F355 from Premier.  It looks absolutely stunning, almost like it is brand new.  I don't know what those guys to to the paint, but all the swirls are out, it shines, you can almost see your reflection in the paint.  Dave mentions that the Ferrari is leaking fluid, but what else is new?  I take the car on the freeway, and the handling is kinda darty, so off to Dave's Frame and Alignment. 

At night, I stay up until about 4 a.m. working on the updates for the website.  I head over to www.s2ki.com and re-read the rules that Aaron posted about the S2000 Challenge.  Oh shit.  It looks like Buttonwillow counted as two separate challenges, a Saturday Challenge for time, AND a Sunday Challenge for time.  What the hell?  Shouldn't it be fastest time for the entire weekend?  No wonder Keeney was loosening his sway bar to go out for another session in the rain, he knows that he only needs to pick up 8/10ths of a second to knock me off for Sunday's top time, thus making it so I win Saturday's challenge, but he picks up points for winning Sunday's challenge.  Damn.  Note to self:  Print out the damn rules and read them!

Tuesday, January 29th
I pick up the F355 from the alignment shop.  Battery is dead.  Totally dead, despite the fact that I drove it about 70 miles the other day.  I decide to just get a new ffing battery, since it has been three years.  And the fact that you have to jack the car up, take off the front tire, take off the wheel well plastic, as the battery is buried in front of the passenger side front tire.  It's a pain in the ass, and if I try to charge the dead battery and it dies again, I have to go through this procedure again.  Also time to change out the brake pads on the S2000 from R4 to R4S pads until the next event.  I used about 70% of the pads in the front and rear at Buttonwillow, and wasted the rear solid disc rotor. 
 

7 Tracks in 7 Days! Do you have what it takes to be the OTC King?

Still waiting for Aaron to post the official results.  Hopefully it rained harder after I left, and Jason wasn't able to crush my 2:49 lap time on Sunday.

LAPTIME UPDATE:  Thursday night, January 31st.
Aaron Bitterman ran a 2:38 later on Sunday in his S2000, with quite possibly the fastest time of the day on Sunday.  Damn.  I shoulda stayed longer.  I wonder if it got a little more dry as the afternoon went on.  Anyways, it looks like Aaron is the Rain Master for Sunday's Time Trial.

Wayne takes a 1:00 p.m. flight out back east, to check out what could potentially be his latest supercar that he has purchased.   If I recall correctly, his choice of cars purchased over the years has changed from 911 SC to 911 Turbo-look to 944 Turbo to NSX to 944 Turbo to F355 to 944 Turbo to NSX to 360 Modena.  He's owned more exotic cars than most entire neighborhoods have owned......

I drive the F355 home for the first time in six weeks.  Still some minor glitches on it, but it is close to 100%.  Then another LED light goes out on the dashboard, indicating what gear the car is in.  Unbelievable....so that is two LEDs that have failed.  Timex makes LED watches that last 10 years, and Ferrari LEDs die in 3 years.

The gear indicator.  With two dead LED's in two months.  You can sorta see a "3"

Wednesday, afternoon, January 30th, 2002
It's a done deal.  Wayne gets the red 360 Modena.  He's a  hero to us all, someone who basically says, "I just don't give a shit.  I am going to buy me the car of my dreams.  So what if I will be broke for the next year and will have an empty house, and can't make my mortgage payments.  At least I will be pimping around Southern California in a Ferrari 360!  I could die a happy man if I got hit by lightning today!".  Horseless Carriage (who apparently does lots of Ferrari North America shipping) will be transporting the car back to the west coast.  He should have the car in his hot little hands by next weekend.

Next karting event will be I think February 24th, at the Willow Springs Kart track for the first race of the KRC Super Cup series.  We are behind on practice, but I hear they are switching to one run group, combining F1 and F2, so our race group might have 30 karts battling it out wheel-to-wheel....it's gonna be awesome.

I wait in the stupid DMV line for an hour to pick up my new personalized license plates for the S2000 that I ordered about six weeks ago. 

Next car event will probably be the Wurth Motorsports/Bitterman Time Trials at the Streets of Willow, on Friday, March 8th.  I am doing a money call out on all you Cone-Dodgers, time trialers, street racers, highway racers, and the rest of you S2000 owners with a gizillion mods (including superchargers), and all you modified Miata girly cars, racing CRXs, Red Del Sols, etc.  Let's see if you got what it takes to knock the virtually stock Pulp S2000 (with Comptech adjustable bar) off the pedestal.  I think I am getting the car dialed in to my driving style.  Come on down for a little friendly competition......let's place some friendly wagers on the outcome of the AMB printouts, we can even devise a handicap system a la the Track Nuts format.......I think I have finally found a source of steady income for this sport! 

The new license plate

Thursday morning, February 1st.
My fricking MSN email isn't working again.  I bet the AOL dweebs can AT LEAST READ THEIR DAMN MAIL.