I recently brought out my street E46 M3 out to a time trials event on July 21st at Thunderhill Raceway with the Northern California Racing Club / American Racing Club. This is actually my first time bringing out this car to a race track, so I wasn’t too sure how the car was going to work out there. To my surprise the car handled very well and was quite easy to drive allowing me to push the car’s limits right off the bat. The car has very few modifications done to it so far. I had it equipped with Falken Azenis RT-615’s (fronts: 245/40/18 - rears: 275/35/18) all around on stock M3 wheels with spacers and KW Clubsport Coilovers with an street / track alignment from Mach III of San Francisco. The rest of the car in including the engine setup is all stock. The car handled very smoothly and composed throughout the day and managed all of the surface irregularities and curbing very well. The engine pulled decently, but feels a bit mild and dampened compared to my other 400-500whp+ competition machines I have been used to. I’ve been hella spoiled, I know. It still had enough speed and grip to pass many fully race prepped Spec Miatas, Fox-Body Mustangs, and older Porsche 911’s though. The car is still fully loaded with all of the amenities like leather heated seats and everything. Racing in straight luxury spec. Even with all that plushness going on, I was able to capture a 1st place finish in the GT3 class Time Trial Competition with a 2:08.726 on Falken street tires! Good times.

Falken Tire

Mach III

KW-Suspension

Northern California Racing Club / American Racing Club

Running at Wall Speedway is always unique experience because of its challenging track surfaces. The banked straightaway leading up to an even steeper banked corner lined with smashed up guardrails, the harsh transition from the banking to the flat infield and bumpy “woops” across the figure 8 infield section. I was actually really looking forward to drifting back at Englishtown Raceway. That track’s fast entry road course layout suits my driving style a bit better. But after getting reaquainted with all of the unique characteristics of Wall’s oval course, I began liking the course more and more as the event went on.

During the qualifying, I pushed a bit too hard coming off the banking and spun going into the first right hander. So I decided to play it safe and run the last qual run conservative just to make a clean pass to make sure I get a score in. That conservative run put me in the 26th spot which lined me up with Justin Pawlak running the Bergenholtz Mazda RX-8.

We started off the Top 32 tandem battle with me following and during the run I noticed that I had more speed than him going through the banking and main infield corners. I was able to easily keep up with him throughout the entire course. Seemed like his car made a lot of power from the way it revved up and smoked, but would hold deeper angles causing him to drift slower because of it’s longer wheelbase. When I lead I just ran my wide qualifying lines and hit all of my clips not making any errors. Or so I thought. During that lead run, I was paying attention to Doug, the starter and basically took off when he pointed at the christmas tree thinking it was a signal to go like how he did in practice. Found out that I jumped the light unknowingly and noticed Justin looking at me all pissed at the end of the run. Haha, my bad. Luckily the judges gave us a one more time so we can run it properly. Having ran on my Falken Azenis RT-615 tires all day through practice and qual. They finally ran out and had to switch to some fresh rubber. I called 5 mins to switch to new tires and the Garage Boso crew was on hand to perform a Nascar type pit stop and was quickly back on track to run again.

During our 2nd Battle, I followed him closer and stayed with him throughout the entire course. I had to check up a couple of times to prevent running into him. When I lead, I ran the same qual lines and again without making any mistakes. The judges could not declare a winner, so they asked for yet another one more time. This tandem match was shaping to out to be a pretty good battle and I was feeling more and more confident in my car and driving. Feeling pumped, I got ready to battle again. Justin this time called 5 mins to change out tires which gave me a chance to cool the car down.

We battled once more for a 3rd time, with me following again. This time I had a better launch off the line and was able to stick to him even better throughout the banking and the infield. I had to check up even more than the 2nd battle throughout both infield corners. I felt that I was even closer on his door this time and thought all I had to do was run the lead run clean. So during the lead lap I just did the same as before and ran my wide qual lines and got through the whole track error free. I parked at the end of the track awaiting for the results, feeling confident that I won this long and hard fought battle. I anxiously waited for the FD official to give the signal, but when he did, he pointed at Pawlak. My heart just sunk in disbelief. I thought I had that match, but 2 out of the 3 judges thought otherwise. At least one of them thought I won. I haven’t had a good hard battle like that in a while. I feel like I am getting more comfortable in the car where I am not thinking about the way the car drives as much and am thinking more about how to run the course and with my opponent. That’s a good sign. Next time I am gonna have to make it more decisive and rub up on my opponents doors straight up. I’m now pumped for Vegas! I represented for Falken last year there and will do it again this year.

Check out some In Car footage of the Battle Here!

Speaking of Falken representation. I am so proud of our team this round. Falken straight sweeped the podium: 1, 2, 3! The closest I recall us taking over the podium was back in the 2005 Sonoma Round when I won 1st and JR got 3rd claiming 2 out of the 3 spots. Congrats to D.Mac, JR and Tyler for representing! I can’t wait to get back up there again. This is going to be a good year for Falken!

I have been wanting to run a time attack this year with my RX-7 since it has been a couple years since I last ran this car in one. I remember my first time attack with this RX-7 was back in 2005 during the Super Street Time Attack Finals in Buttonwillow. That year I took 2nd in Drift Class. This year I finally got another chance to compete in one and made it count this time around and pulled off a 1st Place Victory in the same class with a time of 1:32.87 on Falken Azenis RT-615 street tires. This was actually my first time competing at the Big Willow track. I have only driven on this track on 2 other occasions; a drifting demo in 2004 with my old Discount Tire / Falken 240sx during a Motor Press Guild Event and running some timed laps for SCC mag over 3 years ago in a rhd EVO 3 during a shootout feature. So my experience on this track has been somewhat limited.

Just Drift set up a drifting demonstration on the full Big Willow track throughout the Time Attack competition in between sessions. I thought it would be fun to have my car perform double duty that weekend and run both the Time Attack as well as the Drift Demo.  So throughout the weekend, I had to make some minor suspension and tire changes to the car, so that I can switch back and forth between the two disciplines. I was using Falken Azenis RT-615’s all around in 245/40/18 fronts & 265/35/18 rears for drift and 265/35/18 fronts & 275/35/18 rears during the grip sessions. But for the most part the car remained very close to my drift setup while running in the time attack. I am pretty interested in seeing how this car will perform in full time attack settings with bigger tires and brakes in the future. I hope to find out soon.

Check out some videos and coverages from the event:

cwanvids on YouTube

Drifting turns 3-6 outside camera

Speedhunters Willow Springs Redline Time Attack Coverage

Got invited to perform a Team Drift Demo with Just Drift at the Redline Time Attack race at the Big Willow track at Willow Springs this upcoming weekend on May 30-31 with my personal dual purpose Falken Tire Mazda RX-7. Along with the Drift demo, I am planning on competing in the Drift Class within the Time Attack Competition with the same car and the same Falken Azenis RT-615 tire compound. I am planning on performing only minor setting changes between the two disciplines. I am excited to see how my Drift FD3S will perform at the Big Willow track against the dedicated time attack cars out there. Stay tuned!

www.falkentire.com

www.redlinetimeattack.com

I had a pretty eventful Round 2 at Road Atlanta. I had some minor mechanical setbacks throughout the event that I had to deal with. The Falken team got there early for thurs practice. Right off the bat, during my first run, I ended up snapping both my rear axles. The Garage Boso crew quickly replaced the axles so that I could get some practice in for that day. We found out the car had some handling issues so we decided to make a few alignment changes for the next day.

Friday’s schedule consist of one 1-hour practice and then we went straight into qualifying. Wanting to get as many runs in with the short practice session to test the changes, I got to line up first in line. During the first run, the car ended up breaking the right rear spindle, right at initiation. Had to get the car towed off course. The Boso crew worked feverishly to replace all of the broken parts. We ended up missing the entire practice session and had to go straight into qualifying. Being the first run of the day with multiple changes to the suspension and brakes, I decided to just laid down a conservative first run, just get a score in. I pushed it on my second qual run but ended up pushing a bit too hard and spun. So I had to sit on my first low score and ended up claiming that 32nd spot which set me up with Tanner in Top 32 tandem on Sat.

I followed first and stayed with him tight for the first half of the course. I got through the keyhole section quicker than him so I had to check up a bit to stay behind him going towards the downhill straight. I lost too much momentum leaving the keyhole which cause him to gap me a bit for the rest of the course. During my lead lap, I ran a clean run hitting all of my clips, but Tanner followed closely behind. Ended up losing the round, but felt like I pushed hard and gave a good effort. Next time I’m gonna just stay in it and pass him. It’s on for next round!

PAS April 2009

My Falken FD3S is currently featured on this month’s April 2009 Performance Auto & Sound (PAS) mag. This issue has some pretty significant event coverages inside including: Tokyo Auto Salon and CES Show as well as a preview of the new Fast and Furious movie. The 5 page feature shows my RX-7 in competition spec at end of the 2008 Formula D season at Irwindale Speedway. I had a blast competing in my personal car all year. It’s nice to be able to see the car still all presentable in a magazine after a hard season battling around the country.

I would like to thank all of my sponsors and supporters that have help me along the way with this car:

Falken Tire Motorsports, MD-R / Motorsport Dynamics, GTwraps.com, Apexi, Rotary Extreme, Exedy, Seibon, APR Performance, Project Mu, Rays Engineering, Kaaz, Sparco, Vertex, Impact Engineering, Garage Boso, Cipher Garage, Mach III, Fatlace, Garage Inc, Rotary Engineering, Mazda.

Here is a video that Falken Tires put together of me testing the Falken S15 Silvia during the pre season. Check it out.

Falken S15 Testing Video on Vimeo

I finally got a chance to drift Willow Spring’s Horse Thief Mile course with Just Drift during one of their open track events before their 2nd round of Top Drift Battle. HTM is an amazingly fun and technical track. There are big elevation changes throughout the entire course with many tight corners with small straights that require commitment, good speed control and proper lines to connect the corners. It a small road course that allows you to drift the majority of the track or the entire track if you are committed enough. Very similar to some of the small drift circuits in Japan where you can connect the entire course.

Just Drift allows drivers to run continuous laps vs. single runs during their open track events which provides tons of track time. This trains drivers to be able to adapt to other drivers and get good tandem practice in which is really what is needed to prepare drivers for professional competition. Continuous drift laps is how many Japanese drift track events operate. That’s why Japanese drifters as so skilled, they get tons of track time with this style environment.

I am glad we have an organization like Just Drift that is providing a great platform for US drifters to hone their skills. Can’t wait to get my S14 going to I can get some more tandem action on with these guys.

www.justdrift.com

Here are some pics from the opening round of the Formula D ‘09 season in Long Beach with the Falken S15 Silvia.

Drift Demo with my Falken Tire FD3S at the 2009 San Mateo HIN Drift Demo. Good Event. Big Crowd. Locals representin. It’s nice having local drift events in the Bay. More to come.

Thanks for the support!

Falken Tire

Graphtech Graphics

Garage Inc.

Fatlace

Vertex

Apexi

Rotary Extreme

Mach III

Vitamin Water