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