Miguel qualifies...

6 of 10 in class

Miguel qualifying

Miguel kicks off the day for us.

Dinner

Weekend before the race...part 2

As Russ posted earlier, we had quite a busy day. And, as usual, he's being modest, having done the brunt of the difficult work... again.

mea culpa, I was the one who nicked the bumper during a practice run, resulting in that horrendous tear. See the following photos as to how Russ fixed the repair (and yes, I paid for the materials out of my own pocket...)

First, he scraped and cut away excess....

Then he applied putty, to let it dry.

Then he sanded it down, and taped up the area to be painted...

"A few coats (sorry for the runs.)" edit by Russ.

And presto, done!

In addition, he fixed some damaged lettering, and also applied the big stripe on the bonnet while waiting for the putty to dry.
Also, Sumi-san and I managed to purchase some plastic tool boxes to organize everything - it all looks tidy and organized now, thank you very much!

At Ebisu, will have to stop by at the local home center and figure out what we can buy to fix the rearview mirror (still showing bolt), as well as the bungee cord idea for the harness. We also have to wire lock (or use an altenative) to the oil level dipstick.

6 hr Race 600hrs of prep!

Ok, After my debarkle with my alarm clock, Aki and I(Russ) eventually made it to pick up the car. It looked cool tucked away in the carpark. 12hr event stickers fading away and sitting on the deck!

We assessed our jobs for the day. Filth removal, sticker replacements and Sumi-san would raise the height.

I had this little extra to think about too. "Who did this?"

Any way , we headed off to clean it a bit. The car looked like it was crying.

The speedhunters stickers survived from the last race.

We headed over to our "PIT" for the day.

Sumi-san set about correcting the Ride height on the Tein coilovers.

After a special "Aki-Wax" with tar removal. I cut the sticker for the bonnet and started on the front bumper repair.

Here I am masking the repair after some body filler and sanding. Luckily our PIT had some body colour paint on hand.

It came out pretty good considering our location and time constraints. It still needs to be sanded back a bit. ... THOUGHT. Paint the NACA ducts white for concealment.

Inside I prepared some driver instructions.

Refreshed the TG-R Badge

Added some yellow visual for the Air-man.

Sumi-san was testing the new "temporary" window driver labels on his Silvia.

New Honda badge in the sunset. If everyone hates the swish, you can trim it.

Door list for Ebisu 6Hr TG-Racing Drivers.

• S. Batters
• T O'Dowd
• H.Sumi
• M. Varella-Cid
• H. Motoki
• M. Gadd

Looks finished... Not Yet.

Side Proteeth and Kinokuni replacements.

And a very important one on the rear. tg-R

Interior. Sumi-san tried a new seat configuration. Ready!

And the exterior is Ready!

Next Race is the 24th. Support us and Join Us.

Russ.

Weekend before the race...part 1

We have guest drivers... and we now have an international team of guest mechanics - meet Lennart - without whom we would have been in a tight spot! Thanks Lennart for coming all the way from Holland to help us out! (ok, here's here in Japan to do other stuff too, but we really appreciate your help!)


I mentioned last time that we had to replace our Aragosta coilovers for slightly used Teins...


Here's the damaged Aragosta...


So what was Miguel up to - upgrading our front brakes, by adding brake duct cooling!


Miguel insisted on these NACA style ducts. Of course, makes sense to me!


Here it is, the tubing


Extending the tubing to the brakes...


New brake pads:


New rear rotors:


Spring for the oil filler cap, as required by regulations:


Finally got the rear view mirror re-mounted, very clever Lennart!




Sunday - Aki, Sumi-san, Russell to clean up and re-sticker the car, and organize the parts floating around loose in the car...

....And, We're BACK!!!

So yes we've all been quiet lately... vacations, work, other races...but it's time for another race, yes this time at Ebisu east again!

6 hours - October 24, 2009.

There are a couple of changes to the driver line-up. First, as it is only 6 hours, we decided on a maximum of 6 drivers - Miguel, Sumi-san, Tom, Simon - and two new members, Hiroshi (993 Turbo) and Mike (Lotus Exige).

Myself and Alex will now focus on pitwork - making sure the driver changes and work on the car are as smooth and quick as possible. Two Navy guys - the team is going to be run with military like precision and discipline!!! (uh... well... actually more like the Superfriends, but more on that later...).

In the background, supporting us in his down under way - Russell - I wonder what surprises he has in store for us this time?

Unfortunately, work and other commitments means that James and Rod will not be with us, but as our teammates, I know they'll be rooting for us!

We got together tonight at Simon's - many thanks to him and his better half Gill for hosting us and presenting us with an incredible food smorgasboard -


Man, that was good!!! Stuffed now...

But we were able to discuss our pit strategy, driving strategies, and various other items. Tom had prepared video with clips from the last race, which was instructive to watch. Simon's friend Steve was in attendance, and he gave us some technical tips, as did Miguel's friend Lennart, visiting from Holland!

I of course will have to be the big ole meany again, but this time Alex will be co-directing the efforts - as he put it, I'll be anal, and he'll be retentive!

Tomorrow Saturday, Miguel, Lennart, Sumi-san and Alex will be making some last minute adjustments to the car. Last weekend Sumi-san and I were attempting to change out the springs on the car when one of the dampers sprung a leak. We were able to replace with a used set of Teins, which Sumi-san will affix tomorrow. Miguel will be working on brake cooling and other mechanical issues.

Sunday, Russ, Sumi-san and I will take care of organizing what needs to be, along with detailing and making the car pretty - sitting outside for 2 months, got pretty dirty! Tom may join us to hook up the Traqmate again too.

Busy weekend - but the days are counting down until next Friday's practice session!