Labor Day weekend marks the last of the SCCA National race schedule for 2010. Project 350Z T2 will be in action at Colorado's High Plains Raceway, east of Denver. I also plan to use the evnt to test some of Goodyear's latest DOT R compound tires and get the car ready for the SCCA Runoffs two weeks later.

Ah, yes, Road America in Wisconsin will be in the second year of its Runoffs contract and if you like power tracks with high speeds, elevation changes and idyllic scenery, you might like this circuit. It's one of my favorites! If any Nissan Sport reader is interested in attending, PM me or post up here and we'll get you into the event as part of my crew!

The Labor Day SCCA Nationals are history and it was an eventful weekend. On Saturday, I had to swap between several sets of tires to get an initial heat cycle to 'set' the compound. In my haste to get the Z to the starting grid, I neglected to recheck tire pressure on my left front tire and started the pace lap with only three tires properly inflated. As we scrubbed and warmed tires on the pace lap, I could tell something was wrong. When you see racecars weaving on the pace lap, we're actively using steering, brakes and power to get heat in the tires and the air pressure up. It became clear halfway through the pace lap the LF was down significantly and would probably tear itself apart if raced that way.

I waved the rest of the field past and came screaming into the pits as the green flag fell. Trouble was, I had no pit crew to help me out! I jumped out of the car and borrowed a tire gauge and air tank to get the tire up to spec. After that, I jumped back into the Z and hustled back into the race. It was a bad handicap, but the Nissan ran well and I managed to catch and pass many of the cars I was behind. Temps were summertime HOT (96 degrees F) and I was soaked with sweat as I flashed under the checkered flag. A quick check of the results showed I finished in eighth place (same place i qualified), but a few laps down. I was determined to do better in Sunday's second National race.

After that inauspicious start, I was ready to stop swapping tires and concentrate on evaluating and racing on Sunday. Still feeling the effect of heat and dehydration from the day before, I tried racing on Goodyears new RS model R-compound tire. Look for a more detailed report in a future issue of Nissan Sport, but I will say the I had no more tire-related issues that weekend. But a new problem became apparent after qualifying as we spotted the melted urethane bumper around my exhaust tip. The titanium bead weld around the rear part of the round cannister had failed and the exhaust tip was tilting with the G-forces and melting the area around the left exhaust opening.

I had few options after inspecting the damage. Using metallic tape wouldn't help, the stresses are far too great. Welding Ti is not something easily done (especially at the race track) and not an option, either. I had no spare exhaust system on hand and elected to take off the broken muffler before it fell off. That left the Z with an open exhaust just behind the rear axle (no safety issues from carbon monoxide as long as it didn't sit and idle), but it was LOUD! Some say it was the loudest car on track and I was lucky strict sound rules were not in place. Starting eighth (again) I quickly moved up to seventh, was challenged by a A-sedan Mustang, but eventually began moving past and up. Lapping consistently, I began lapping some of the slower cars in the group as the 18 laps ran down. Project T2 350Z finished fifth overall and ran strong and consistent to the finish. The National points earned allowed me to finish second in the overall Rocky Mountain Division standings for 2010. That's a sweet ending to a long, hot, somewhat frustrating, but always hard fought racing series.

Next: on to the National Championships at Road America!

Road America has been the site of the SCCA Runoffs the past few years. It's a 4.0 mile road course with 15 winding turns and some of the longest straightaways in North America. Extremely fast and lined with Armco barriers to keep cars from running into the beautiful forest the track is set in, it's one of my favorite tracks in the country. But that's not to say I don't recognize its dangers. Last year six drivers went to the hospital and many more totalled their cars at the 'one race, winner-takes-all' Runoffs. Your car has to be in top running shape and I'm trying to work the Nissan Sport Project 350Z T2 into some semblence of that.

First, the Z is up on jack stands and the broken exhaust is off. The titanium cannister fractured the welds at the back and was completely loose. Ti is not an easy material to work with, as any oxygen contamination can result in a poor weld. Fortunately, another SCCA racer is a certified aircraft tech and has access to the necessary tools and materials. So, he's working on the repair this weekend as I finish prepping the car.

The last two races a strange problem has cropped up. While the Brembo brakes still work fine, there's an audible 'clunk' every time the brake pedal is depressed. I've checked the brake master several times and its well secured and properly bolted in. There is some flex in the assembly (SCCA rules don't allow us to run a brace) itself, but that can't be the explanation. I've got to find some reasonable explanation and try to correct it. And the clutch, while functional, still feels soft to me. The shifts are OK, but I notice blipping the throttle has to be pretty precise to rev match on my heel-toe downshifts or the shift isn't as butter-smooth as I want. I'll drain and refill with Redline MT85 this week. Of course, I'll go through checking all fluid levels and suspension/brake systems as I check the car over. Some of the bodywork (particularly the rear bumper) is getting rough, but that'll have to wait until next year.

Meanwhile there'll be many teams testing at Road America this week. Track cost alone are high at $1,250/day for Mon-Wed, but you can learn a lot and get the car dialed in early. Add that to travel expenses, hotels rooms, meals, etc. and you've got one big bill. I've never footed the bill for extra testing and will leave next Friday (9/17/10) to make the drive from Denver to Elkhart Lake, WI and start the three days of qualifying that begins Monday (9/20) leading up to the T2 race on Saturday (9/25). Any Nissan Sport subscriber who happens to be in Wisconsin for those dates is welcome to PM me for FREE passes to get in on my crew list.

Today I'm in Omaha, NE after a long tow that takes me halfway to the track. Good weather yesterday, but that looks like it changed last night. Thunder, lightning and rain hit about 2:30 am and it looks to be a soggy drive the rest of the way. What's more interesting is the advance weather forcast for Road America: rain. For Monday's first qualifying, there's a 20% chance of the wet stuff, while the rest of the week it goes up to 60%!

That means the fastest times may come very early on and set the starting grid (fastest cars start up front). Even with rain tires, there's simply no way to slither around a 4.0-mile course with 15 turns and go faster than in the dry. Road America can be dangerous in the dry, in the wet it can be positively treacherous! Unlike NASCAR, we WILL race in the rain and while our RWD Zs will be at a major disadvantage to cars like the Evo 9, it's simply what we do.

Ah, did I mention the rear tires on my crewcab dually are almost bald from towing? I'd better concentrate on getting to the track safely FIRST, before thinking about rain at the race...

An inauspicious start to my 2010 Runoffs yesterday. Our first qualifying session found the Nissan Sport 350Z cutting out and sputtering on two of my three laps. Nothing like having the VQ35HR hesitate at 90 MPH in fourth gear at WOT to cut your top end. Then, a few seconds later, three cars blow by at 135+ when your momentum is broken! It happened several times on a quarter tank of fuel in a lap, so I stayed off the line and eventually made it back to the pits and pulled in.

Road America is the only track I've been on that I can't use a low fuel load for qualifying. The gas gauge will read 'empty' after a few high G turns as the fuel sloshes from side-to-side inside the tank itself. Today I'll try running a bit over a half tank to see if that resolves the problem. My lap times were a full six seconds off my best and I'll need to recoup quickly for the second (of three) qualifying sessions (one on Tuesday at 4 PM and the third on Thursday at 9 AM) before the Saturday race. It's the reality of racing- nothing goes quite the way you expect.

The second qualifying session was better. The high speed stutter disappeared after filling the tank 2/3 full and putting up with the heavier fuel load. Cut 4 1/2 seconds off my lap time, but that wasn't too tough. What is tough is making much headway in this field. The turbo cars and M3s, Z4s and Porsche 911 Carreras are really using their top end to pull me down these long straights.

Even my teammate, who's debuting a new 370Z in T2 competition this weekend, pulls my VQ35HR by a couple of car lengths every lap. He's putting in new brakes and a NISMO LSD this afternoon and I expect it will get faster as the race goes on. One more qualifying session tomorrow and then we race on Saturday morning!

The 2010 SCCA Runoffs are history for me tonight. And not a history I particularly want to remember. The third qualifying session found me driving to the Road America pre-grid when the rain started. It resulted in a lame duck session in which no fast times were set and nothing was learned about my shock setting changes. For the race, I thought I had a solid package and gridded up on Saturday ready to go.

Lots of jostling in the lineup as we came around for the start, but when the green flag came out late, things happened in a hurry. The blue Z ahead shot the gap between a Camaro and a turbo Solstice and bounced off both sides! I kept my nose out of trouble, but had to brake hard to keep from center-punching a car avoiding another accident. As we accelerated up to 100 MPH on the run down to turn 3 (T3), the pack was close packed and we stayed that way all the way around to the backstraight.

Then it happened, under braking from 120 MPH, my ABS malfunctioned. Usually, the Z is very stable under high-speed straight line braking, but the rear end rotated 20 degrees counterclockwise as I got on the Brembos. I managed to catch the slide by countersteering, but this took me off track at Canada Corner. As I slid towards the concrete barrier, my hands moved fast to to keep from going head on into the waiting sand trap. Bang! The left rear bounced off the barrier, but the friction slowed me enough to keep the Z out of the kitty liter.

But the rest of the T2 field was half a lap ahead by the time I accelerated back onto the track. And I couldn't help but notice the ABS malfunction light illuminated on my speedo pod, while hoping I didn't damage the wheel/tire/axle/hub. So I didn't turn into pit lane, but my senses were on alert as I accelerated down the straight. For the next few laps, I tested the brakes and found them touchy and prone to locking. For the rest of the race, I tried to drive around the problem, but found I had to do several more 'saves' when the car got sideways on corner entry. As if that wasn't enough, towards the end of the race, the VQ35HR started stuttering as it looked like the 3/4 tank I started with wasn't enough.

One positive was the Nissan Sport Project 350Z T2 car made it to the checkered flag under its own power and not on the hook of a wrecker. My official finish in this year's National Championship was 17th (after starting 21st), but this was far from the kind of season ending result I had in mind.

Received a nice gift from Nissan Motorsports this week. All Nissan racers received a 6-pack of Mobil 1 and a copy of "Winning-Paul Newman" by Matt Stone in thanks for representing at this years' Runoffs.

Good stuff, keep us updated on this years plans =)

Glad you asked- while It's early, there's time to refocus on what I'd like to achieve in the coming race season. All this has to be tempered by the fact that I'll be spending some significant time in Omaha, NE as my better half has a good job there. No, we won't be moving (at least not yet), but I'll be maintaining two households in two cities for the immediate future.

In any case, I'm weighing the possibilities of continuing to race in both NASA and SCCA for this year. I've held a SCCA National racing license for going on 26 years and have also held a NASA license for the past four. At one point, I qualified and raced in both the NASA Nationals and the SCCA Runoffs when they were held about a month apart.

But for the past few years that hasn't been possible due to the events being back-to-back and thousands of miles apart. This year the NASA Nationals return to one of my favorite tracks, Mid-Ohio, but the Road America Runoffs continue to be scheduled the week afterwards. I enjoy racing with NASA, but there's just not enough competition in the local Performance Touring ranks, as well as lacking the time and $$ to swap configurations to race in both SCCA and NASA configurations.

Compounding this is the fact that SCCA is putting the GT3 class on probation for 2011. Not enough entries for this tubeframe class mean it could lose its National standing and be consigned to being a Regional-only class in the future. I stopped building my SR20VE-powered 350Z tubeframe car a few years ago when the T2 project came up and 2011 may be the time to resurrect it. Here's a pic of what this beast looks like at the bottom of the page.

Right now, I'm thinking I'd better not spread myself too thin. I have no regular crew and do all the prep, towing and racing myself. To do a full GT3 program probably isn't realistic either, but if I can make some of our SCCA Nationals at PPIR or HPR, it will be a small victory. I'd also like to qualify for the Runoffs once again in the T2 Z, but that would be a bonus. So it looks like I may have to give up racing with NASA this year in order to more fully concentrate on SCCA competition for 2011.

It'd be nice if NASA could get on board with SCCA classing. My ITB MR2 is fairly pointless in NASA and outclassed by even local competition.

BTW, I love your Red Ryder tool bin.

It's difficult to race a car designed for one set of rules in another sanctioning body, so I imagine you're in the same boat with your MR2. With NASA, most of my points in PT get used up in allowable T2 mods (suspension, brakes, tires, etc.). But changing any of the other allowable NASA mods (upper adjustable suspension arms come to mind) would be illegal for SCCA.

BTW- that's no 'Red Ryder' tool bin! It's my American Flyer pit cart.