Bueller

iTrader: (1)

The 2010 NASA National Championship is right around the corner, September 14-19, at MMP in Utah. Last year was the first year that Nationals was held at MMP. Cool thing was that I was the first to be racing an Evo at MMP for NASA’s National Championship. This year I won’t be the only one racing an Evo at Nationals. Earlier this year a Socal Honda Challenge racer started racing his Evo with us. Last time I saw he is registered to race in H2 with his Integra, and ST2 with his Evo. Hopefully both of us do well and return without any issues.

After this year, Nationals is going back to Mid-O for 2 years, 2011-2012. It will return to MMP for 2 years starting in 2013. So it’s sort of my last year at Nationals because, given how things are, I don’t foresee being able to do the 5,000 mile round trip drive to Mid-O and back.

As of today there are 21 racecars entered in ST2 for Nationals. That is the biggest field of racecars for a higher class series. There might be a few more come Nationals, but you never know who’s going to make it until it happens.

Looking at the names that have registered for ST2, the competition is looking really fierce. The racecars are pretty diverse, and it’s been changing, so we’ll have to wait and see. So far there are a bunch of Corvettes, a few of the Mazda GT’s, 2 Porsches, Mazda RX8, Honda Civic, Nissan 240SX, E46 M3, Roush Mustang, my friend Scott Howard in his 1st gen RX7, and so forth. I know most of my competition, and since the National Championship race is 45min, I’ll need all the luck I can get.

In the meantime I want to note something we’ve modified on my car...some aero and better brake ducting. It’s the first time that I’m modifying my aero, so bear with me. I contacted APR, and they set me up with a splitter. And to help me minimize my expenses for Nationals, my friends stepped up to the plate and gave me their APR wings! Sean Bradley gave me his GTC-200 wing off of his STi, and Scott Pennock gave me his GTC-300 wing off of his Evo. Then, Mike Welch (owner of RRE), fabricated and installed pretty much everything. Mike, on his own time, bought all the parts we needed to put it all together. Then over the course of about 3 weeks, I went to RRE where Mike did his thing. Mike is awesome!

As for the brake ducting, it’s something I’ve been planning on amending ever since I bought a used AMS kit. I wasn’t happy with the AMS kit because it didn’t seem beneficial/efficient for my needs. So I took some basic concepts and incorporated them into my setup. Only thing I can say now is that it came out better than I had anticipated. It’s really cool when something you visualize finally comes together.

I also want to thank Robert Ramirez, a.k.a. Honda Robert, from RRE. I ran into some challenges one night at RRE while prepping and I needed help. Honda was planning on working on his car but he sacrificed his time to help me out. Then, 2 days later I did a shakedown test day on Sunday, August 15, at ACS with Speed Ventures. Everything seemed normal, but my day ended short. During the 2nd session the coupler of my lower IC pipe popped off. I crawled into the pits and had them tow me to my spot. In order to get to that coupler I would have had to remove the splitter. Since it takes a while to remove/reinstall the splitter, I called it a day. After the test day we’ve gradually been continuing with our prep work. Now we just need to tweak on a few more things, wrap things up, and cross our fingers for Nationals.

Btw, if you’re the type that likes road trips and you’re interested in seeing Nationals, don’t hesitate to come out and spectate. Here is my schedule for Nationals. I’ve excluded my Warmup and Qualifying sessions, so this is just a schedule of my races:

- Thurs, Sep 16: 1st Race
- Fri, Sep 17: 2nd Race
- Sun, Sep 19: National Championship Race (45 min)

In the meantime I want to thank my sponsors and friends:

- RRE: Mike Welch and the entire RRE crew. Too many things to note. RRE is basically my racecars home away from home. One thing I will note again is the APR splitter and wing that I added in preparation for Nationals. Mike pretty much did all the fabrication work. And he did it on his own time, even on weekends. Mike is so easy to work with. I truly enjoy working by his side and learning from him. He is such a genuinely good guy.
- Robispec: Robert Fuller, aka Robi, and his crew for providing me trackside suspension tuning at my races.
- Girodisc: Martin Meade for providing me phenomenal 2pc rotors, Raybestos brake pads, and awesome customer service.
- South Coast Mitsubishi: For their continued support. I can't imagine there being a better car dealership out there.
- APR: For the splitter and for all their help. KC was the rep that dealt with me, so a special thanks to KC for being so helpful and swift with everything.
- Friends: Sean Bradley, and Scott Pennock. To help me minimize my expenses for Nationals, Sean gave me his GTC-200 wing off of his STi, and Scott gave me his GTC-300 wing off of his Evo. Thanks also to Matt Dennison for letting me borrow his Tactrix cable.
- All my other friends and everyone else for their support.

racer145

iTrader: (1)

Good luck Ed!! You have a lot of good people supporting you.

Sounds like there will be some very tough competition in the class this year. We will keep an eye out for updates over that week to track your progress. Keep us updated.

Once Nationals move to Mid-O next year there are several Evo's from this side of the country that I'm sure will be participating. I guess that is why NASA changes the location every couple of years to mix things up with who all participates.

Drive Hard

apex electric

Good luck Ed,

You have time on that track so be fast in the 1st qualifier. Don,t let any of the Chevy guys intimidate you!

Bueller

iTrader: (1)

Thanks. If everyone makes it and can race issue free, the competition is going to be very fierce. Everyone that i know is fast and experienced.

I dont have the means to keep you guys updated while im there, but i know theyre going to have something like last year with SpeedCastTV.

I was at Mid-O in 2008 for Nationals. At the time i was competing in TTA. The drive for us was pretty grueling. Funny, i was just discussing this. It was nearly 5,000 miles round trip. Id like to come out again, but besides the financial burden of driving there and back, im just not sure i can do that drive again. As if the distance wasnt enough of a challenge, Hurricane Ike decided to wish us farewell on the last day as we left the track. Ill never forget that part.

Bueller

iTrader: (1)

Thanks Dave. I do have some seat time at MMP from last years Nationals, but it was limited due to my challenges. Hopefully this year i can race issue free and come back with a podium...wishful thinking. Problem with those Vettes is that if you put someone with experience behind the wheel, they are really fast in ST2/T1 trim. Two of the Vettes are Socal guys, and i know them both. They lay down some really fast times in Socal. The odds are against me, but i cant wait.

boomn29

iTrader: (47)

Yeah, setup a twitter page or something - and just send texts/pics to it! Works great and super easy.

I'll be at Mid-O next year. I can't make the 3000 miles to MMP. Not after my insane 2300 mile trek to VIR this year at the 'hot-ocalypse' that swallowed my truck!

U know I'll be rootin for ya. We all now 'Spec-Vette' in TTA/TTS/ST2 is very difficult!

Bueller

iTrader: (1)

Thanks Nate. I was really hoping one of you guys would make it this year. I wish Mid-O was a 3000 mile trip for us because id love to make Nationals again next year. As for twitter, it will have to get in line and wait for me.

So far, just about everyone i know in Socal has been really fast this year, so the Vettes are not that far ahead. At least in some of our Socal races. The Mazda GTs are really fast this year. Theres also an extremely fast Porsche that started racing with us this year. My friend Scott Howard, with his Rx7, is also really fast. And i know some of the other out of state guys are front runners also. Off the top of my head, i know of at least 10 guys out of the 21 who can win it because they not only have the experience, but also a very fast car. I cant wait.

metalsaber

iTrader: (9)

Be nice to see you at MidOhio Ed. Should pay someone to trailer it out and you can just fly out.

Bueller

iTrader: (1)

Thanks. Id love to make it to meet all you guys also, and to get to race there. Paying someone to trailer my car that far can be a good option, but it has its challenges also. One issue is that id have to figure out how to get all my tools, equipment, and wheels there also. Because deals like that typically only allow whatever you can stuff in your car, and a set of wheels/tires. I actually did that in 2008 because i didnt have a trailer. And i just barely was able to fit most of my things in my car. But im not sure i can make it work now because of 2 general reasons. 1, i have a cage in my car, which limits to how much stuff i can stuff in it. 2, i have more stuff now. Either way, i will have to wait until next year to think about all this. Its still a possibility, but for now its not a very likely one for me.

Balrok

iTrader: (15)

Should look at setting something up with Buschur where all the cars can be delivered to the track and you can ship other things that won't fit to him, fly in and pick it up on the way. I may even consider it from here in Miami to Mid-O. I don't remember the distance but I think he's the closest. We'll break our National cherries next year for sure. I'm taking Nate down!!

Bueller

iTrader: (1)

Hey Matt. Take Nate down! Another graveyard shift of working on the car is in the books. Where is the :im exhausted: smiley?

boomn29

iTrader: (47)

Buschur is close, TIC is down in Cincy and might be an option for something although they're more known for Subies.


Who's this Nate guy and where's he going? He sounds pretty cool

boomn29

iTrader: (47)

Any updates Ed? The 'live' timing and scoring for Nationals has been horrendously bad.

apex electric

The results are on my laps. Ed finished 7th in class. He was a couple seconds off the pace of the 1st place Corvette of Ron Farmer. Ed was right a couple of the Mazda RX7's were fast. 45 minutes is a long race to keep your tires and brakes from over heating. I wonder how much gas Ed had left in his stock tank at the end?

Bueller

iTrader: (1)

The competition at Nationals was awesome. I have in-car of my entire National Championship race. I need a solid week to get everything sorted. I have a lot to catch up on. Thanks for showing interest guys.