GTA The Ridge — Apex Attack

Here it was, a solid 5 months of preparation being put to the test over two days.

I had some realistic expectations going into the event. My previous best was a 1:57.1 I knew I would beat that, my tires were on a whole new level. But, how fast?

In a previous post (HERE), you saw PNW hotshoe Randy Pobst drive another 2gr powered endurance MR2 to a very fast 1:53.8.

A Portland local with a similar car as mine (2gr, wing, splitter, and A052) was at The Ridge a few weeks prior and reset the MR2 Ridge record with a 1:53.4.

My goal, which felt a bit audacious, was a low 1:53, possibly a 1:52.x. I really wanted the Ridge MR2 lap record in my pocket.

The weather… seemed to have other plans. Saturday had 70% chance of rain, but Sunday looked dry.

Driving to the track, the weather seemed… damp.

Gassing up the truck and car got me some weird looks. I guess I should just expect that now with a car looking like this.

We arrived Saturday morning, to see lots of other cars and drivers had gotten there the night before. The air had a tinge of excitement about it, it was really a race day. Lots of RVs and fancy enclosed trailers in the pits. And of course lots of intimidating racecars.

The event was being run in conjunction with SCCA time trials. Basically the same event (fastest lap matters), but with different sanctioning bodies. So there were other badass racecars there running the other event.

I had a few friends there as my “pit crew.” Some knew nothing about MR2s, so I knew they’d be a ton of help if I came in with an issue. Luckily my buddy Tariq also came, who’s owned a V6 sw20 before, and now is in a turbo MR-S.

We unloaded, setup for the day, and I registered and made it through tech without a hitch. The guys running GTA (and the tech) were very friendly, and all of them really thought the car looked great. I was inclined to agree.

We went through the drivers meeting, and I was classed in the middle run group. Basically, if you had a prior laptime, you told them with your registration. If you didn’t, they looked at the car you were running and made an educated guess. They took the entire field and split it into thirds. What class you were in didn’t matter. They wanted your pacing to be as close as possible. I was in street class, but was put in the middle run group with Limited, and even Unlimited drivers. Once some laptimes were recorded they re-grouped everyone. They kept refining the grouping at the half and end of each day. They lined you up fastest car first, then released you about 20 seconds apart for each session. The goal was to keep the pacing and spacing so you basically had open track your entire session. It worked wonderfully. Yeah, there were passes and point bys, but for the most part it was amazing to have that much open track.

I set out for my first session. Nervous as hell. It was dry, but stormy clouds loomed everywhere in the sky.

First lap, warm up tires, brakes, remember the track. Second lap, let’s put some pace into it.

1:55. Well, that was easy! New PB. Let’s really hit it hard now. third lap.

1:52.8. Jesus! I just achieved my entire goal the third lap in!

The tires felt amazing, track was cool and dry. I clicked off a few more laps but ran into some traffic and rain sprinkles, all about 1:55s.

I came in and immediately started hi-fiving everyone I saw.

I was ecstatic. The car felt great. The tires were glue, and things seemed to just click.

After the first session, we had almost 2 hours before going back out again. Checking the radar religiously I could see there was rain all over the area.

The fastest run group went out after me and it immediately started to lightly rain on them. The fastest guys only put down a 2:00 lap. I felt bad for them since our session was really nice. After their session of course the rain stopped and it actually dried up fairly quickly while the SCCA guys were running. I was up next at 11:00.

Track looked dry. Checked tire pressures, and donned my earplugs and helmet. I rolled into the hot pits and prepared mentally.

Game face on, it was time to try and drop more time.

First lap warmup, 2:13. Second lap was a flyer.

1:53.5 Not bad. Car still felt good, so I gave it another hard flyer.

I’ll admit, this is when I really started to overdrive the car. I saw a much more powerful BMW M4 ahead of me and tried my best to catch him. I knew he was having issues with his brakes, I could smell them as I was gaining. Coming into turn 11, affectionately known as the thumb, I was hot. This is one of the hardest braking points of the whole track, and I came in a little too fast and over braked the corner. Mad at myself I tried to throttle out too early. I made an autocross style save and continued on my lap.

1:52.6! Dropped another 2 tenths with the mistake and save! I was really happy to repeat my results from the first session.

I was still hot on the M4, and I drive faster when I have someone to chase, so I stayed on him. Coming into turn 11 again I nailed the braking zone and came just a touch too wide on my exit. My rear right tire just barely went off, but that was all it needed in a high lateral load. The rear end kicked out, I tried to stay on throttle, but it was too late, snap…oversteer. I went off the track… but luckily at pretty much the safest and slowest part of the track to do it.

After 6 years of track driving; I can now say I’ve experienced the thing MR2s are known for… and it was ENTIRELY my fault.

I safely got back on track, and immediately pulled into the hot pits. The flaggers knew what I did, looked over my car for any damage, and sent me back out. I basically just did a parade lap. I wasn’t there mentally, I was over driving the car at that point.

Then… more sprinkles on the front straight. Time for lunch.

The rain came now with more gusto. We had an extended break for lunch so I hoped the afternoon sessions would be ok.

During lunch, I walked around and did my usual check-out-all-the-other-cars-competing. Here’s the highlights.

If you follow time attack in the USA at all, you’ve seen Amirs’ NSX. K powered, 2350 pounds, it’s a formidable machine. It also looks menacing as hell. If you followed the event from home, you know he was the fastest out here by quite a bit. Overall winner, and Street class winner. Not to mention he’s a very nice guy! Since the weekend we’ve become social media friends, and he’s been answering a lot of my dumb and probably annoying questions about car setup and weight savings.

This car hasn’t seen the track in a few years. It’s a stupidly clean S2000, owned by Jared at Sector 1 Design. I’ve followed his blog awhile, and it was really cool to meet. He’s a very quick driver. He used to run a supercharged F series motor, but was teething in his J32 swap this weekend. He ran some pretty fast times (1:51.2) before a valve retainer cracked on him, ending his weekend early Sunday. Again, another friendly, awesome guy in racing.

Very cool to go up against some people I’ve looked up to for years.

A local Union brother of mine, Ben Williams brought out his turbo S2000. He was gunning for the fastest time of the event, but his NT01s were letting him down a bit. This is a serious build, pushing 500hp. While the huge rear diffuser was a bit of an experiment, he admitted it had too much angle on it to provide much downforce.

Ben won Limited class with a 1:47.9. He hopes to throw on some Hoosiers next track day and set a new S2000 Ridge record.

The SCCA time trials event being run in conjunction with GTA also had some rad cars show up. This Z was very menacing when cruising up and down the pits. Still running the inline 6 (rebuilt as a race engine mind you), he was lapping sub 2:00.

A very spartan interior.

John Tristch came up from Portland with his 2gr MR2. John has a lot of autocross and track seat time, he’s a quick driver. Despite being a slower car on paper (less HP, more weight), he managed to be quicker than me the entire weekend! His best was a 1:51.5. John was instrumental in helping me wire up my 2gr swap. I still owe him some beers!

Very sweet lineup from Jackie Ding and the boys. He was piloting a basically stock Supra down to 1:50. Probably the most impressive performance of the weekend. To go that fast without any aero blows my mind, and definitely tells me I can learn to drive faster. Also, the GT4 Cayman might be my favorite car, running a 1:49 pretty much stock. The M4 was the one I was chasing in the video above. Despite fighting his brakes all weekend, he managed a 1:48 and podium in Street class.

Even a professional rally car showed up! Jeff Seehorn threw some ebay coilovers and Hoosiers on his rally car and came out for the weekend. I got to chase him a few sessions, and it was awesome watching him slide around. I think if I had some Hoosiers on I could MAYBE keep up! Goes to show you how fast a rally car really is. His best was a 1:49.2.

This E90 BMW had me reeling. It’s so mean looking. I really liked the build. With a trunk mount radiator, I think it was built for drifting and the owner just came out to have some fun. Would love to see it sideways.

After lunch, the weather was pretty meh. It wasn’t raining, but the track was taking its sweet time to dry out. Regardless, I paid a lot of money for this event, so I was going to go get some seat time.

With a wet track, it was basically myself and 4-5 other cars. Country club track time! A couple laps into the session a dry line formed and things were more encouraging. There were a few key corners with rather large puddles right in the apex (turn 1 for example, which you apex at 90 mph), so I was cautious around those corners but a majority of the track was dry enough.

I knew I wasn’t going to set any new times, so I just enjoyed the session. It felt like I had the track to myself for 20 minutes, I never saw another car. After a few laps around 1:58, I set a mental goal of a 1:55 and hit it despite a few cautious corners. I came in so happy. It was probably the most fun session of the weekend for me.

Then, the rain hit hard.

After about 30 minutes of this… the radar kept showing things staying about the same.

Eventually, I gave up on my last session of the day. We packed up for the night. Since I hadn’t broken anything, I left my car and borrowed trailer at the track (they had security there all night).

Note, security guard not pictured, but a useless “pit crew” member.

So, I went home and slept in my own bed, and came back early the next morning. I wanted to get all the wheels off the car just to inspect things. Looked for loose suspension, cracked rotors, just be thorough. I really wanted to hit some 1:51s.

The weather was about perfect. Partly sunny, highs in the mid 60s. Most importantly, dry.

I set up for my first session. Yesterday I was one of the slowest cars in the fastest run group. Today, they bumped me down, which I was happy about. I was a little outgunned in the fast grouping. Now I would feel like the predator instead of the prey. This also meant I was the first one out. More empty track for me.

I went right to business my first session out. A few laps into the session though… my brakes faded in a bad way! Then, a few corners later, they were back! I came in managing a couple 1:53 laps.

Now, my brakes have been bout the best thing on my car the last four years. Since I installed the Wilhelm BBK, they’ve been super reliable, and required pretty much no maintenance. I bleed them about once a year. The pads I’ve run are 4 years old (still half life left!), and are Wilwood BP-20s. They’re a great mix of street and track pad.

Turns out, at the 1:55 and above pacing they do just fine… but once you really start hammering the brakes in the low 1:50 pace… the pads just get too hot and start to fade. They’ve been fantastic pads, and I highly recommend them to anyone, but I found their limit. I bet if they were still new (thicker) they would’ve held up.

So, I was a little shook by not being to fully trust my brakes. My new plan was to raise my tire pressure to 29 cold. They would be up to temp/pressure much faster now, and I would run the car as hard as I could right out the pits and hopefully manage 2-3 laps before brake fade again.

I also had a CEL come on during the first session. They car felt fine and ran great… so I checked the codes.

Hmmm looks like an O2 sensor issue. A couple guys in the pits said they wouldn’t worry too much about it unless the car felt down on power. It didn’t. I checked all my fluids again, and decided to keep going.

I suited up for the late morning session. Temps and weather were still beautiful. Fangs out. You have 2… maybe 3 laps.

I really felt like I was driving at 10/10ths, but was still a bit timid about my braking.

I managed to cut another 4 tenths, 1:52.2!

The next lap my brakes really faded on me, some pucker moments.

Still, I was very happy with the car and my driving.

I enjoyed another lunch break, and said I’d give it my all for one more session. I was starting to worry a bit about the CEL, and obviously my brakes seemed to be fading quicker each session.

The last session, I was just too conservative on the brakes. I was at least consistent with some 1:53s and another high 1:52. So I know my driving is at least half there. But, four laps in the brakes were screaming for a cool down.

I brought the car in and gave a big ol’ slap on the dashboard with an “atta girl!” I was proud.

I packed everything up, gave a few high fives and congrats to some of my new friends who had podium spots lined up. It was a great weekend, the car made a big splash amongst some of the fastest drivers and cars in the PNW. Not to mention I dropped 5 seconds off my best laptime, crushing my goals.

Overall, I ended up 9th in Street class. I lost 8th by 0.04 seconds! Had I known that at the time, I might have gone out for my last session. Amir in his NSX won Street class and the entire event with an astounding 1:44.1! He had a predictive 1:42 lap but screwed up turn 12. He still beat everyone by 2 seconds.

I got the car home in one piece, and replaced the faulty O2 sensor, which I think has been an issue longer than I thought. The car seems to cold start easier and idle smoother now.

It was a great event, and I’m glad I did it. If I had one criticism, it’s the classing. By putting my carpet back into the car, I got 9th where I would’ve placed 4th in Limited class (one class higher) if I had left it out. The only discernible difference between Street and Limited class is pretty much about 10 pounds worth of interior trim and carpet. If they made street class a bit more realistic (less aero, more power restrictions), and Limited stayed the same, I think we’d have better pacing between the classes.

I think I’ll be competing again next year. I will probably move up to Limited class, as I’m sure others will too. I have no plans to add power, but to improve the chassis.

What’s next? Well, I’ve already improved the brakes and will be back at The Ridge in a few weeks, let’s try and find a 1:51!