We had 66 entrants, a guy in a new Mustang GT who yelled at me on my way to work a few months back was there which was cool. There was a strong S2k showing, they were going so fast their magnets kept coming off. 

Weather: It was cloudy all day but the temps were in the 50′s so I was content with a long sleeve shirt and a hoody for 90% of the day. It did sprinkle during the first run group but everyone got at least 2 dry runs. It didn’t rain in the afternoon.

Car Prep, Course Walk, Tech Inspection: I got there EARLY, pulled in at about 7:15am behind the main organzier and course designer. They already had a few guys setting up the course so I stripped the stuff out of my car.

• Jack
• Autox Box
• Chair
• Jack Stand
• Passthru ratchet set
• Breaker Bar, Torque Wrench
• Stock Jack, Stock Jack handle crank, Stock Tool bag
• Cooler
• Backpack
• Registration / User Manual Booklet
• Domo Bag with random stuff
• Mashmellow fluff container Cobb AP Holder

Things that stay in the car

• Puma Speedcats
• ContourGPS w/ Water Proof Case and Windshield mount
• ContourRoam
• Helmet

I then proceeded to drink the rest of my coffee and have a snack. People started rolling in at full force between 7:30am and 8:15am. Registration opened at 8am so I checked in, since I prepaid online the check in process is pain free. Just state your name, class and boom you’re good. I signed up as an SCCA member the Thursday before the event so I saved $15 on my entry fee. 

After registration I jumped in the tech line and got my annual tech sticker!! w00t. Annual tech ftw. I have a small Abu (monkey from Aladdin) who lives in my trunk. He stays back there all the time including during the runs. Tech inspectors always get a kick out of it. 

Course Walk: Right at the start I knew this was going to be a fun course. Started off with a small straight away which would allow a nice launch and a quick short shift to second before the first right hander. There was a pretty self explanatory set of a few gates and pointer cones then a hard left hander followed by a quick right hander that if lined up correctly is a straight shot to the “lane change” section. I thought this section looked like a 3rd gear section but the gates seemed tight, most people agreed 2nd gear would most likely be ideal. After the lane change there was a 3 cone optional slalom with an optional turn around. Meaning you could start on either on the right or left of the first slalom cone and you could either go clockwise or counter clockwise thru the turn around. There was one additional gate before the turn around forcing you to stay tight after the last slalom cone. This section constantly had people stopped trying to figure out the fastest way thru. No one group truely agreed with each other, one guy would say Right, Counter Clockwise, Left another would say Right, Clockwise, Right.  My group decided to start Right and then see what the car was more comfortable doing. As you’ll see in my videos from the runs Clockwise was how my car wanted to go.  I switched between Right and Left after the turnaround and didnt find much time gained or lost either way. After going thru the lane change a second time the course veered right, then a series of sweeping S curves. They then threw a wrench in the works.  It’s hard to explain, but there were 3 cones equally spaced perfectly in line. The last cone was the finish. It was designed to slow people down.  yeah that didn’t work. haha.

Either way after walking it 3 times and changing my mind 6 times on how to handle the turn around I finally felt comfortable. On to the driver’s meeting.

Run Group/Work Order: There were 3 run/work groups which meant you worked 1 heat, ran 1 heat and relaxed 1 heat. This run/work order works great and is the one I’m used to from running in S. FL.

Working:
I worked first at station 4 (on the right side of the lane change), it was an eventful station as people kept clipping the exit of the lane change or forgetting to setup for the slalom and WAMM hit 4 cones.  It rained while we working but not enough to soak my hooded sweatshirt which was nice.

The S2ks looked amazing thru the lane change and there was a huge speed difference between the ones who shifted into 3rd and who didn’t.

Running:
Luckily running in the 2nd group worked out to my favor, all the water had dried up and I got to see how people were taking the funky slalom/turn around. I started up my car to let it warm up and chatted with a fellow STi driver who was competing in STU. He wasn’t shifting into third on lane change and he couldn’t crack under a 50 sec run. I decided to try it in second and get comfortable then try 3rd. So I get up to staging all is well and good, then theres a delay as they move course workers around. I look to my left and I see this guy in a GTI get out of the passenger seat of his car and he’s wearing some cool Puma Speedcats. I look at my feet and see these huge eS Accels and just giggle, I forgot to swap to my race shoes that were sitting in my back seat. So I swapped shoes, thanked the GTI driver who reminded me and took off my driver’s side fog light cover to give my Oil Cooler access to some fresh air and proceeded to wait my turn.

Run 1: It was pretty uneventful, I took it at about 7/10ths to get a lay of the land since it had been so long since I walked the course and for some reason people were going off course constantly. I stayed in 2nd for the lane change, got a little loose going into the finish line and finished with a 49.5

Run 2: I tried to step it up for the second run, but still stayed in 2nd for the lane change, still loose going across the finish and got another 49.5 Clearly I needed to change something.

Run 3: I said **** it I’m doing it live and went balls out. I shifted into 3rd before the lane change and hauled *** up to the slalom. I braked way too much and down shifted into 2nd going into the slalom and around the turn around. Going back thru the slalom I shifted into 3rd for the lane change. HOLY CRAP the car felt GREAT!! totally composed awesomely fast.  I almost didn’t want to down shift to 2nd for the back half of the course. The back half of the course felt good until I got to the finish, I clearly was going into it too hot. I got thru the gates and hard on the brakes clearly too early as the car was still sideways going thru the finish. Both feet in and came to a quick safe stop. Unfortunately I killed 3 cones after the finish. This was by far my fastest run dipping into the high 47′s. No damage done to any equipment (mine or SCCAs). A little frustrated I proceeded back to staging for my 4th and final run.

Run 4: Knowing I needed to calm down towards the finish and use 3rd gear twice I tried to be patient this run.

I was trying not to leave anything on course and being one of the last cars out to run in my session I was really trying not to eff it up. As I’m getting to the lane change I see that one of the cones is out of place, I was already nearing the top of 3rd gear and I wouldn’t have been able to stop in time to point it out so I avoided it and went about my way. In the back of my head I was praying the corner workers were being lazy (which they clearly were). On the turn around I was focusing more on not hitting that cone that was out of place and didn’t shift in to 3rd. This hurt my time substantially. The rest of the run was clean and I didn’t spin after the finish. Crossed the line with a 48.337!! w00t. Had I shifted in 3rd I easily could’ve dropped into the 47′s. *Kick self in face*  Still 48.337 was good enough to clinch 1st in ASP/STU. 

Notes:
Before the 4th run I was checking my camber wear on my front tires and I couldn’t feel the groove on the inside of the Star Specs. I thought this was strange…..turns out the -3.8 has been eating away the inside front tire (surprise).  So after my last run I decided to hang out during the 3rd run group so I could get my 3 punches for clinching 1st place in ASP/STU.  During the 3rd run I rotated my camber worn front tires to the rear, the rears looked new compared to the fronts.  I have been neglecting the rotation of the wheels/tires (obviously). It could end up biting me in the *** as I’ll explain later.

I get the car on some asphalt and break one side loose and jack the car up. Mind you with the ARP wheel studs are HUGE. I grab my impact gun only to find out it’s dead.  :fail: I spin one wheel worth of lugs off and my arm is about to fall off. haha. Luckily I was able to borrow an impact from a fellow racer (who pulled off a 45 second lap in his R-Comp equipped CSP MR2!!). Once that was all done and I packed up the car I was able to take a second to relax and wait for the trophy presentation.

All in all a great race day, still plenty of room to imporve and I’m looking forward to the AutoX next weekend!!

I’ll get the other vids posted and try and find some pics from the event.

This is my first run of the day, and there is no question I got lost. You’ll notice I nearly come to a stand still after one of the chicago boxes. I was looking ahead and I was unsure of which way to go. Luckily I chose the right direction. Final time for the run was 55.958 my slowest by time by over 9 seconds. I also was playing with wind noise reduction today, gain is set below 10 and I taped some microphone foam over the microphone. Its an improvement over nothing, but it isn’t perfect yet. As you’ll see there were a few cones in my way I decided to run over, i took one of them all the way back to grid.

Click, more to see the other videos. Be sure to click through to the Contour site to see them full screen!

The first run was not confidence inspiring by any means, it was actually pretty painful. I took a few minutes between runs to watch other cars go thru the section I had issues with. This helped alot, I was able to correct many of my mistakes. This run was a 49.022 clean, in my head after this run I kept hearing my friend Aaron telling me to use the gas pedal more and get a little closer to the cones. I knew there was more time left on the course. I was excited for run #3 to say the least.

Run #3, lets call this Run #Iwenttoofasttryingtobefasterandhitsomecones. I tried a more aggressive line in the start and the car got a little sideways, it was fun but SLOW. I ended up hitting a few cones again (3 at least) yet my raw time was the fastest yet of a 49.007. This means one thing, I’m leaving A LOT on the table. After the run I talked to a few fellow competitors to get suggestions about the section where I kept hitting cones. Most said “I’m having issues too”, best one was “slow down”. I listened to him, time for run #4.

Run #4, time to go fast. This run was very fun, unfortunately it appears I bumped the camera prior to the run and it’s not aligned as well. Run #4 was my fastest run of the day for me with a 46.447 clean.

Not only did we have awesome weather and a well run event, we got more than 4 runs! Here is run #5. After my fast run #4 I over drove the car and clipped a cone early, rest of the run I was trying to see if there were spots I could improve. Before my 5th run we were told we would get 5 runs, so after I coned it was time to have some fun. Little did I know there was enough time for a 6th!

Run #6, knowing this was the last run I tried to take everything I learned from the previous runs and push it a little harder. There were a few spots that I could still improve, but clipping off another 46.xxx made me very happy. I’ve had a few events where I can’t ever seem to match my fastest run and it always feels like a fluke. Being able to do the 6th run and get into the 46′s was awesome. Perfect way to end a day of racing.

Overall I finished 1st in my class (if you follow the blog on facebook you know that I was the only competitor in BSP today. ).

I did see a local EVO that I run with in SM though, so after the event I tracked down his times and he beat my best 46.447 by .045 seconds!!! Talk about close competition. I think I’m gonna switch to SM tomorrow and run with a bigger group.

All and all, a great event. Huge thanks to the crew @ CFR SCCA Solo (http://www.cfrsolo2.com) and the OCCC for letting us have the event there.

(Note: some videos are still be processed so they may not work right away)

Karlton placed 6th overall in SM after both days!! I can’t wait to see how Karlton does next year with some more tire and some more fine tuning. Maybe it’ll be time for t3hclap.com to take a road trip.

On to the pics.

We’re working hard on getting things back up to speed and updated over the next couple weeks/months. With the STi back and running we’ll be back autoxing in less then 11 days! We’ve got a few articles we’re working on, so stay tuned.

If you’d like to see your car featured here on the blog don’t hesitate to shoot us an email.

-T3h_clap

The car performed flawlessly (except some higher EGT’s which I’ll talk of later), I was happy with the performance of the Dunlop Z1 Star Specs as they were the only thing on the car I was worried weren’t going to be up for the heavy track sessions in the Sebring heat.

Quick review on my setup for the track day.

Suspension
TiC AST SST’s Coilovers with 9k/8k Swift Springs
Vorshlag Camber Plates Front and Rear
Whiteline Plus Bushings (Lateral Link, Rear Trailing Arm, Front Control Arm)
Whiteline Offset Caster Bushing
STi Pink Trailing Arms
Custom Wales Garage/Penguin Garage Alignment
-3.8 front camber, -2.2 rear camber, ZERO toe

Wheels/Brakes
17×10 +38mm Enkei RPF1
245/40/17 Dunlop Z1 Star Spec
ARP Wheel Studs
Project Mu Lug Nuts
Hawk DTC-70′s
DBA 4000′s

Engine
APS 3″ TBE
Cobb AP v1
Pro Tune by Jarrad
Koyo Radiator
Samco Radiator hoses
Greddy Oil Cooler

The Suspension setup was amazing, even with the very bumpy nature of Sebring International Raceway the TiC AST SST’s did amazing. The car absorbed all of the bumps and the car always felt stable. There was only a few “clean laps” where I wasn’t held up by traffic. Being in the Novice group I did run into alot of traffic, it wasn’t a terrible thing as this allowed me to focus on my driving line and less about going full throttle or late braking.

With the addition of the Koyo Radiator my water temp never budged, my Greddy Oil Cooler kept my oil temps in check even with the searing Sebring heat. My EGT gauge was showing some rather high EGT temps so I wasn’t pushing it 100% on the straights, only about 50% throttle on both straightaways. They peaked at 980c or about 1800f if I remember correctly. I’m tempted to get a new tune, as it’s been a few years, just to make sure the car isn’t running too hot. Any thoughts on the high EGT temps don’t hesitate to comment.

I can’t wait to go out to the next Sebring event, I hope to be down for the Redline event in August to see Turn In Concepts tear it up in the Florida heat.

Enough with the chat, on to more photos! Huge thanks to a fellow WRX driver and owner of Colour Tech South Motorsports Photography, LLC. Henry.

Earlier this year I got a PM from a guy looking to compete in One Lap of America, he had some standard fitment questions that we helped figure out. Although he did have one criteria that I don’t normally consider when helping with a Race Car’s wheel/tire fitment.

The guys at Moroccan Gold Imports needed a tire that could be Streetable, Track Ready, perform on the Wet Skid Pad, AND still have tread 2/32nd’s of tread after it’s all said and done!! Talk about a feat, I let the guys worry about the rest of the car. R.J. set the requirements of what was needed and we bounced back and forth for a few weeks. He decided to run a sick tire setup. Kumho Ecsta XS in a 275/40 slapped on some 17×9 +42mm on some 17×9 +42mm wheels.

Yes this is the infamous car to get pulled over by the Florida Highway Patrol and get featured in Motortrend!!

http://wot.motortrend.com/6535014/one-lap-of-america/busted-florida-highway-patrol-1-team-moroccan-gold-imports-0/index.html

Photo Courtesy of Motortrend

For updates on the MGI One Lap of America team check out their Blog http://www.moroccangoldimports.com/

They’ve been updating it daily with plenty of videos and pics! Go MGI!!

The car looks great all stickered up. Keep taking down the competition!

Good luck guys!

-T3h_Clap

You read correctly, Pastelito Racing took home the Subaru Challenge bragging rights trophy for the 2nd year in a row! 

With our “Fab 4″ doing exceptionally well in their respective classes it would’ve taken a dream team to beat us. 

Kolin (aka: Rankink) got FTD and top Pax for the day and won the opportunity to drive in the National Subaru Run Off sometime in 2008 in a factory prepped MY08 STi!

I was only slightly off pace, but it was enough to bring in 2nd place in BSP and 6th overall Pax.  The 17×10 CCWs and 275/40 V710s did amazing.

JMS put up some strong competition this challenge along with Koby Subaru and Mastro Subaru putting together teams with their top drivers.  Next year is going to be intense and we’re all hoping it isn’t as hot!

Abby’s photography for the event was amazing even through the terrible heat and inclimate weather.  All photos from the event can be seen here.

 The evening ceremony hosted by Subaru and the Buccaneer Region SCCA went on without a hitch and some killer door prizes.

 Some specific setups that should be mentioned are

SOJax/JMS MY05 Impreza WRX STi running 17×9 +43mm 5zigen FN01R-Cs with 275/40 V710s.  Suspension: Megan Track coilovers.  Driven by Bill (Scooby South).  (1st Place BSP, 4th Pax)

Mastro/Wombat Impreza 2.5RS (DSP) running 17×8 +35mm 5zigen FN01R-Cs with 275/40 V710s.  Driven by Josh (Whiteghost). (1st Place DSP, 11th PAX)

Koby Subaru MY04 Impreza WRX (SM) running 17×10 CCW Classics with 295 Hoosier A6s.  Suspension: custom JIC Coilovers.  Driven by Jose (Pacobeagle).  (1st Place SM, 3rd PAX)

[Still looking for photo]  

Mastro/Wombat Impreza H6!! this thing was mean.

Crazy Cracker Racing/Pastelito Racing MY05 Impreza WRX STi (AS) running 17×8 +48mm “unknown” wheels and 275/40/17 V710s driven by Kolin (Rankink).  This is the car that got FTD and he’s STOCK!!  Pastelito Racing FTW!

Pastelito Racing MY05 Impreza WRX STi (BSP) running 17×8 +48mm “unknown” wheels R-comps Suspension: Penguin Garage Breakfast Blend Combo, Whiteline Sway Bars. 

Pastelito Racing MY05 Impreza WRX STi (BSP) running 17×8.5 +48mm “unknown” wheels 245/45/17 V710s. Suspension: STi Pink springs with Cobb Sway Bars (3rd place BSP, 10th Pax)

Wales Garage/Pastelito Racing MY05 Subaru Legacy GT (ESP) running 17×7.5 +53mm STi BBS wheels 245/40/17 Advan A032R.  Suspension: Swift Springs, Tockico Struts, Cusco Bracing and Bars.

Pith Brothers MY06 Impreza WRX STi (SM) running 17×10 +25mm 5zigen FN01R-Cs.

Dynasty Auto/Pastelito Racing MY04 Impreza WRX STi (SM) running 17×10 CCWs and Hoosiers.

There were many other Amazing Setups at this event, which I will explain in more detail later.

It’s an autox organized by Subaru for the Subaru owner.

Using the common SCCA Solo2 classing structure Subaru Owners compete with similarly prepped Imprezas, Legacys, Outbacks and Foresters.

There is some intense competition at this years event. Teams Pastelito Racing, Jacksonville Mod Squad, and Dead Whorelando all have assembled a team of 5 racers and the each team members fast time will be added to the teams total and the team with the lowest total PAX time wins the “Bragging Rights Trophy”.

I’ve got my bets with Pastelito Racing!