recap: trd series r2 - Close wall.
Round 2 of TRD Series took us to Auto Club Speedway (ACS), home of NASCAR Cup Series racing in SoCal, and a local favorite to all of the high horsepower guys/gals. This day brought in a lot of V8 muscle. Not the American variant, but of Lexus F cars wanting to stretch their legs on the high speed oval portion of the ROVAL Sports Car configuration.
For us torque-less cars though, this track provides a challenge to keeping speeds up as high as possible. Because of the high speed nature of this track, it was the perfect time for me to switch to E85 in hopes to wring out any extra power I can from the stock 4U-GSE engine.
Lexus F cars stretching their legs at TRD Series R2. Long live the V8 - Image by PB Photo
Heading into the day, I knew how I wanted to attack this track. Auto Club Speedway is essentially made up of three straights, and one really really long straight - that is the NASCAR oval. So it was crucial to maximize exit speeds. Especially at T18-T19 where you want to enter the oval with as much speed as possible and maintain it around the oval. In a 200hp car, every bit of speed you can carry onto the oval is crucial for good lap times.
This track is also very hard on the brakes. With high speed brake zones, it really puts a lot of stress on your braking system, so ensure that you have fresh fluids and plenty of brake pads left.
My previously best lap time around ACS was a 2:02.256 at round 3 of TRD Series last June. My goal was to see if I can break the 2min mark.
Auto Club Speedway ROVAL - Sports Car Map. Most important corners to me were T18-T19, T9, T5-T6, and T4.
The first session out had quite a bit of traffic as cars weren’t gridded by lap times yet, and with only a couple of clean laps, I was able to knock out a 1:59.598. The second session only saw a moderate improvement with a 1:59.500, however it was the most fun as I was chasing around my buddy Brian’s 2JZ-GTE swapped SC300. Both cars run similar lap times, but do it very differently.
On the third session, I was determined to get a better run onto the oval as I’ve been working all day on T18 and T19. I wanted to be full throttle through there and onto the ovals. Several times through this section I would get a bit sideways, but I would keep my foot in it knowing once I get on the banking the car would straighten out. On my best lap, I was able to hit a top speed of 126.5mph into T1, and put down a 1:59.202 (1:59.199 on the transponder) - good for a P1 in Street class.
Great times chasing my buddy @b_lisiono around ACS - Image by Kevin Natividad @ Feend Media
With P1 pretty much in hand, I went out in the 4th session for a couple more laps to see if I can get a 58. And here’s where it nearly goes very wrong. Again trying to maximize my entrance onto the oval, I attempted to carry even more speed through this section, and went extra wide. My rear right tires got into the marbles and buh-bye traction. I had one of the worst off I’ve ever had, and the first spin out in over a year.
The excuses of what went wrong….
Lack of awareness of how dirty the outside there really was.
Over-confidence since I was able to skate through there all day, and didn’t anticipate how slick it was, and thought I could catch it.
Stopped looking where I wanted to go, and dropped the eyes to the cones. Should’ve just hit the cones.
…but instead I committed one of the track’s seven deadly sins and LIFTED.
I got lucky this time and only walked away with a de-beaded tire, and maybe a bent wheel. It could have been much worst. The wall was awfully close :).
The final results from round 2 are below. Next round will see us back to Streets of Willow for round 3 in May.
Final results from round 2 of TRD Series - Auto Club Speedway
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Fast in, Fast out.
-P