For 2009, SCCA has moved the Runoffs to the venerable Road America circuit in Elkhart Lake, WI. The 4.0 mile layout is the quintessential power track and may have discouraged some Nissan competitors from attending. But look for tubeframe 350Z racers like Jim Goughary (GT2) and John Black (GT3) to be at, or near the top in their respective classes. I'd also expect to see Rob Jones in his B15 Se-R mixing it up with the leaders in SSC.

In Touring 2, there are only four Nissan competitors entered. Interestingly enough, they each hail from distinctly different parts of the country. John Baker is from Portland, OR and campaigns a Daytona Blue Z with backing from Jordan Schrader Ramis PC. Brian Kleeman is from the other side of the continent and was featured in last years SPEED broadcast when his very quick Inqusiqr3.com-backed red/black Z had a dramatic shunt (ironically with another 350Z) and went hard into a tire wall.

Our two Nissan Sport 350Zs will feature a pair of veteran racers--Rick Kulach (reigning SW Div T2 champ) from Dallas, TX and (me) David Muramoto, from Aurora, CO--in the cars we debuted last year. Another year of development means we've examined the SCCA rulebook closely and taken advantage of the update/backdate rule that T2 allows. In summary, Z's classified from '03-08 may use any of the parts homologated with those models. That means our '06 Redline coupes will have some intriguing parts in play. Kulach will be running full 350Z NISMO bodywork and I'll be running a VQ35HR swap.

Whether this helps us stay competitive remains to be seen. With turbo cars and V-8s exploiting those long straights, the third race on Friday (10:30 am) looks to be a tough nut to crack. Throw in the chance of rain all next week for qualifying and the crystal ball begins to fade... Stay tuned for updates as the week of September 21-27th goes on!

Good luck in the running. Please keep us all updated.

Thanks for the good wishes. Yesterday we worked to assemble, fit and install new NISMO bodywork on Rick Kulach's '06 350Z. We finished up this morning (Tuesday) and it looks bada$$, if I say so myself!

I didn't have a chance to do much to my Z, but qualifying (under cloudy leaden skies) start this afternoon at 3:50 PM CST. There's already been several cars damaged or written off during the optional PAID practice sessions yesterday.

Time to fill up with the MANDATORY $8.40/gallon 98 octane fuel and get the Z ready to go. More later...

Cool. Lets see some pics of the Nismo bodywork.

Mark- Let me see about uploading some pics. Rick took some, but you won't see the rear wing, as he is wasn't sent one. The nose, rear valence and sideskirts are on and we're trying to figure out of the extra bracing across the airbox is worthwhile to put on.

Today started off cloudy and then the rain started. As many know, Road America can be unforgiving in the wet. This morning, a T1 Vette driver lost brakes going into T3, got it sideways and slid across the grass. He hit the concrete barrier on the outside of the corner and broke it in half. Car totaled and driver had to cut from the car. No word on his condition. What we do is Serious Fun, yes, but it can turn to tears in a heartbeat...

I will be going out to qualify this afternoon and have full floods (rain tires) mounted. This is the reality of qualifying at the Runoffs. More later...

I hope your HR motor ran well today. Not sure I would run the car without the rear wing might create a handling imbalance at high speed. Greg took third in the first E Prod session this morning. I heard about the T1 driver. Hopefully he's OK.
Modified by jmark350z at 4:09 PM 9/22/2009

David, if you have any vids you can either contact me and I can upload them to NICO or you can host them on youtube and embed them.

Pix of the cars would work too. Heck, I'd love to have an article on the details of the cars for the NICO homepage

T1 driver is doing better. Breathing on his own but pretty beat up. Source sccaforums.com. Looks like the 350Z is out of luck in T2 at Road America. Greg is in the top three in E Prod in his 240Z and really doing well.

Glad to hear the T1 Vette driver is doing better. Apparently, another T1 car pinwheeled off the wall at the Kink. Bad mojo for T1.

Quick update: Tuesday's qualifying was run in full flood conditions and it was a hoot trying to see and keep the Z on the track. Times didn't mean anything, but at least I got to try my wet weather setup and get some track time.

Wed qualifying showed how far the Z is from being in the competitive range for T2. Still, I'm enjoying learning more about driving RA and trying awful hard to fing more speed. Having problems uploading pics of Rick Kulach's NISMO Z, but will try later on tonight.

Thursday qualifying was surprising for the speed and variety of cars in the top ten. Unfortunately, none of them are a Nissan product! Evo IX, Solstice GXP and BMW Z4 M coupe are mixed in with E46 M3s and even a Camaro. That three cars made it into the 2:31 range is both incredible and humbling.

I took 1.5 seconds off my time and ran a 2:41.4- not even close to the lead despite top speeds in the 130 MPH range. 350Z fans will also be interested to hear that gas mileage (98 octane Sunoco) is in the 8-7 MPG range.IRoad America is also extremely hard on brakes and I hope the Brembos with Cobalt Friction XR2s will stand up to the stress. Not much time to work on photos, but I hope to get some up later tonight...

Nissan Sport 350Z race team ar Road America in 2009. Rick Kulach's NISMO model is front and center, David Muramoto's T2 built Z is on the left. The pair qualified 15th and 16th for the SCCA Runoffs and will start tomorrow's race side-by-side.

Have a safe race David. All the 350Z guys need to work together and draft and not hold each other up. Time for the 350Z to be moved to T3.....T3 quick times are faster than all the 350Z times at RA.
Modified by jmark350z at 5:54 AM 9/25/2009

Thanks for the wishes, Mark. I'm not sure that the leading Z of Brian Kleeman will be available to do much drafting with the rest of us. He and his crew have spent thousands on tires and tuning to find that edge to put him further up the grid. I expect him the check out and run with the M3s and Camaros.

The rest of us will no doubt run in a pack, but unless there's trouble, will be in our own separate race within five laps.

BTW- I ran into fuel problems this year. The first wet qualifing session had me in 9th, but they found traces of the oxygenated fuel mandated at high altitude to reduce emissions. That means an automatic loss of qualifying times. No big deal, but I had to drain, refill and purge my system before getting retested. Then I was "blessed" and forced into running the track Sunoco fuel ($8.40/gallon!) that is allowed.

The T2 Narional Championship race is over and the record books will show that Don Knowles won in a Solstice GXP from the former "works" team Phoenix Racing. Jason Ott, who was racing in Formula Atlantic for Newman-Wachs racing took a BMW Z4 M-coupe to second and Andy Wolverton, last year's champ in a turbo Solstice, was third.

The struggles of the Z in this year's race were noteworthy. Brian Kleeman unfortunately broke a hub and went out on lap seven. That left Rick Kulach and I battling it out for 'best of marque' honors. Lap after lap, I kept the 130 MPH pressure on, probing here, testing there. His new NISMO 350Z bodywork seemed to help a bit with stablity, and I certainly did not want to bump into it! So I played the waiting game, hoping to wear down his defenses and make a quick, decisive pass.

But that moment never came. Hat's off to Rick, he beat me to the finish line by bit over a second for a lowly 13th place. His UpRev enhanced ECM certainly helped, as my Technosquare flashed VQ35HR was stalemated on Road America's long straights and fast sweepers. Did I enjoy myself? Certainly. That is one beautiful circuit and staring at the back of the redline NISMO bodywork was a hoot. Still, my competitive instincts are frustrated by not seeing more cars in my rear view mirror...