SE-R's kicking ass and taking names

[mike kojima]

This is pretty big news in our small world.  SCC and
SuperStreet sponsered a time attack event last week
and Jeff Naeyaert entered in his SE-R Cup SRX car.  If
you didnt know, time attack is sort of like a Japanese
version of solo 1 where you go for the fastest lap
time.  Its a pretty big thing in Japan and hopefuly,
like drifting it will catch on here (and hopefuly
drifting will go away!)

Many big baller cars were defeated, amazingly so,
every Supra, every WRX, every Silvia, every NSX,
nearly everything out of the 36 car entered, most of
which were fielded by some of the biggest tuners in
the scene!

To me this is bigger news than when we won the enaural
USCC many years ago.

Below is Jim Howards personal account of the event
from sr20forums.

Mike

Buckfang Racing Team entered the #99 SE-R in the
innagural Sport Compact Car/Super Street Time Attack
Challenge. The format was simple: there was a one hour
morning practice session for everyone and then cars
would be divided into three groups and each group
would get four sessions to set the fast time of the
day. It wasn't the normal road racing we do; the goal
was to just set the fastest lap time. The cars were
divided into six classes: FWD Limited, FWD Unlimited,
RWD Limited, RWD Unlimited, AWD Limited and AWD
Unlimited and we'd all run Buttonwillow configuration
#13 clockwise.

With Friend of the 'Fang and NASA-LA Executive
Director Ryan Flaherty driving, the #99 car managed to
finish 5th out of 37 cars. Beating a ton of WRX'es,
Evos and such tuner cars as the Science of Speed NSX,
Hotchkis' Celica (300 hp), a pair of USCC Supras, both
of the Twins Turbo Supras (even the one with 850 hp),
a tubeframe RX-7 and the Skunk2 Civic, among others.
The only cars that finished ahead of us were the
Signal Auto Time Attack Skyline GT-R (car and driver
imported driver from Japan), a modified Ferrari 360
with Hoosiers driven by a pro, the Sparco Evo and a
supercharged K24 powered Integra driven by the guy
that owns the ITA track record for the configuration
we were running. Not too shabby for a strut-based car
that had 4 rocker shims floating around in the oil
pan!

We were just up at Buttonwillow April 3rd and 4th for
the NASA SE-R Cup Race, so the car camped out at the
track for a few days until the Time Attack event.
There was minor work to be done in recovering from the
weekend: the front air damn needed to be replaced
because of a major off Jeff had at the end of the race
on Sunday. And since it was a magazine event, we
needed to clean the car up a little. (Ok, so that
didn't happen.) Anyway, after test-fitting Ryan into
the car and getting this fitted for him, we sent him
out on a shakedown for the first open session trying
to set a time that would put us in the fastest group,
Group A.

Since we had a lot of new things for the Cup Race,
we'd setup the car with the conservative spring
package that we knew would work with the new, bigger
wheels until we could get some more testing done.
Turns out Ryan hated the combo and Jeff was
frantically making tire pressure and rear dampening
changes to get the car to handle more to Ryan's
liking.

The next session out (first Group A session) was a
major improvement in car handling and Ryan showed it
by running a 2:01.540- just a few tenths behind John
Hotchkis in the Hotchkis Celica putting us 3rd in the
FWD Unlimited category. The car was better, but more
changes were needed- a little more front toe out and a
little more rear compression dampening. The car still
was pushing because of the conservative springs. The
second session brought times down even further, to
2:00.800, just behind Hotchkis with a 2:00.420 and
Bernardo Martinez in the Hasport K24 Integra with a
blistering 1:58.745.

It was at this time that Ryan and Jeff came to the
same independent solution: instead of trying to reduce
the rear grip to ease the understeering problem, the
car needed more front tire. Before I knew it the both
of them were off running. It just so happened that the
Buttonwillow Tire Shop was open and they happened to
provide a solution courtesy of the good people at the
Hoosier Tire and Rubber Company. After all, most of
the competitors were running on Hoosiers and had pro
drivers, so why not get into the game? Unfortunately
the shop didn't have any 235/45 sized 17 inch tires.
But it turns out that 245/45-17s would fit. With
little time to spare, the tires were mounted and Ryan
got out on track.

At first it didn't look good because we were a little
late getting out for this group. The afternoon heat
was in full effect and no one from Group A managed to
improve their times. But the new tires did the trick-
the #99 clicked through the timing loop with a
1:59.400- within a second of the class leader! The
session ended and a tire pressures were checked in
anticipation of the final session.

In the fourth and last session, Ryan and Bernardo went
out one behind the other and there was tension in the
air that this would be the battle of the titans and
fast lap would be set in this session. It was a head
to head showdown. Both started out slowly and
improved, Ryan got down to a 1:59.242 and Bernardo
still wasn't able to improve his best time. Less than
half a second away now and Ryan was bringing the car
up to speed for a "hot" lap. (He was alternating slow
and fast laps to cool the car down in an attempt to
get a better single lap time.) Ryan set a blistering
pace and was hauling around the track. Ahead of him
the Endless/5Zigen Civic was puking oil on the track
because of a blown motor. As it came into the hot pit
it the oil caught on fire and the bottom of the car
burst into a fireball! The fire truck rolled down the
hotpits and all flagging stations showed full course
black. Ryan was coming into the last turn before the
straight as he saw the standing black and fire truck
and slowed to a stop. In what was surely the fasted
FWD lap of the day, he eased to a stop right on the
timing loop clicking off a 2:05 lap. The session was
stopped, all the cars came in and the oil was cleaned
off the track. After a 35 minute delay Group A was
sent back out, but it wasn't meant to be. Buckfang
would have to settle for second and fight again next
year.

The highlight of the day was the third session when
Ryan went out just behind the Science of Speed NSX.
The NSX had carbon fiber everything, Moton dampeners,
built motor and huge fender flares. Ryan figured he
would stay as close as he could because eventually it
would walk away from him and he'd have open track to
set a good time. But coming on to the front straight
(after sticking with him for the whole lap), Ryan
decided to try and get a run and pass him. They
cornered nose-to-tail and Ryan pulled to the inside
and the drag race was on! I have to say there is
nothing like watching a Sentra OWN an NSX down the
front straight. Ryan said the NSX driver was shaking
his head as he passed. He ended up turning laps 2
seconds faster than the NSX. It was awesome.

All in all it wasn't a bad event. "The Little Sentra
That Could" made an impressive showing, beating out a
whole host of tuner and well-known cars. You can check
out the a partial list here. Be sure to check Sport
Compact Car for coverage of the event. Buckfang would
like to thank Ryan Flaherty for his excellent driving
and our sponsor 300Degree for their excellent
diagnostic tools. Rest assured we'll be back. Ryan
says we've got at least 3 or 4 seconds left in the #99
so next time we'll be shooting for the Skyline!

Thanks to Jared from SCC for putting on a great event.
We can't wait for the next one!