Fun SR20DE racing (pt. 2 of 2)

[Tim Rogers]

So, qualifying came in 2 sessions on Saturday.  Greg ended up 18th in the
first session after coming to grips with the track and having switched to
some softer rear springs to keep the rear of the car from passing the front
of the car again.
An alignment change for the second qualifying session gave Greg another 3/4
of a second, but did not change his position as the cars around us got
quicker as well.  So, we were 18th out of 29 cars that had posted times.
This was not bad considering that the SR20DE powered cars are classed with
2.5L 6cyl BMW's (210hp), Gen II RX7's (200hp), Z cars(190hp) and Mercedes
190's.  With the Improved Touring rules, our engines would be lucky to make
165 to 170 hp., and Greg's engine is not fully developed yet...
For the morning warm-up today, Greg dropped his lap times by another .5
second and we were all feeling more confident as Greg has a reputation for
going faster during the race than in qualifying.
A few cars did not make the start of the race, so Greg was the 15th car to
take the green flag, getting a great jump on the cars around him.  By the
end of the first lap, Greg had moved up to 12th!  Another 2 laps and he was
11th, but lost a few places in the middle of the race, only to make most of
them back up and finished 12th in this 20 lap race.  The  chart of the race
can be seen at:  http://www.mylaps.com/index.jsp
Then click on "2003 American Road Race...", then "Group 5 ARRC Race", then
"Show lap chart"
Greg was pleasantly surprised that he could get the car handling as well as
it did and was able to pull an extra 5mph by drafting other cars down the
straights during the race.  This was really promising, considering that the
car is short by about 20 hp on its potential, it can still use some more
suspension tuning, and there are some areas of the car that are still not
fully maximized yet.  Greg's fastest race lap was only 4 seconds slower than
the fastest of the race, and there were a few times that he bumped the car
in front of him because he was coming out of the turns faster than the other
cars.
We (Greg, crew chief Matt Kessler and myself) all had a blast this weekend,
even though we had a huge disappointment on Thursday.  We just stayed calm
(mostly), worked around our problems and maximized our available resources
to get the most out of what we had to work with.
Damn, I need to get my car built so I can go out and play on the track....

Tim Rogers
-93 NX T-top -needs motor work
-91 NX - Racecar-to-be
-75 Silverado - Rusty Beast
-01 Astro - Work Van, Tow Beast