Kakashi Racing Attends ARRC 2005!
We attended the ARRC Runoffs at Road Atlanta, the unofficial national championship of Improved Touring.
Just as in our venture to ARRC 2003, The adventure started well in advance of the trip itself. Once again, Matt Kessler busted his ass getting the car ready for the event. It must be noted, however, that this apparently-last-minute preparation wasn't of his own doing; if you had been keeping track of our 2005 adventures you would have noted that we managed to trash two engines out of two attempts for the year. We had pretty much at that point decided to hang up our hats for the year, but due to last minute peer pressure from pals on the Improved Touring and Honda Tech boards, Greg decided to creak open the wallet and have Matt build an engine and prep the car.
Nothing like showing up at the big year-end event with no track time, no testing time, and no development time during the year, huh?
I'll save you the suspense: we had an awesome weekend. Unlike ARRC 2003 there were no spinouts, no accidents, no blown engines. No one was seen blowing chunks on the side of a van after having spent the entire freakin' day swapping out an engine.
OK, so you know what didn't happen; well, what actually did?
After busting said ass, Matt had the car pretty much ready to go a couple of days in advance. This gave us the opportunity to properly pack up. Greg thought about sending his car to Atlanta on a trailer truck (Richie Hunter was bringing his semi and had space) but instead we chose to tow down in the new-to-us 24' enclosed trailer; that way we had all our "Stuff" plus a changing room (we had overnight accommodations offered to us through the generosity of Tim Rogers. Super guy!). We would be towing down in the new-to-us 15-passenger V-10 powered Ford E350 so we had lots of seating space; we managed to convince Dave Gran to put his ITB Honda Prelude on Richie's truck and he and his wife Melissa joined us for the ride down.
The drive to Atlanta went smoothly. Unlike in 2003 where we caravan'd as a group, the Northeast group this year left at various times and kept in touch via cellphones. The white van left Connecticut early afternoon on the Tuesday prior to the event, and we made a leisurely drive southward. Taking the longer (but quicker) route across I-84 and down I-81, the group spent the night in Maryland after having stopped by Jeff Frederick's mother's house to pick up some of the van's seats (long story). The next morning we stopped by Jeff's condo, picked up the rest of the van seats (same long story) and some rain tires, and we hit the road southward once again. The remainder of the trip was once again a smooth one, with the occupants enjoying music, radio, and an occasional movie DVD played on the computer. The anticipation of arrival at Road Atlanta was palpable, as other Nor'easter folks called each other asking "so where are you now?" Tim Klavana won the award for arriving first, and by the time we got there the Coronas were flowing. We had to brainstorm the best arrangements for the paddock corral, but once decided we enjoyed the company and welcomed everyone aboard.
Thursday
was Test Day at the track, and the weather was gorgeous (as it was for the
entire weekend). We entered the track timidly, having remembered the engine
failure two years prior. Everything seemed to work properly and Greg eventually
got the green light to start flogging the car. It didn't take long before he
began to feel comfortable with the track again and times dropped to easily
within those he ran in 2003. We made some suspension adjustments and the times
soon became consistent. While we had not done the suspension development we had
hoped to in 2005, we were becoming confident that we could be in the hunt for a
top-5 finish.
Friday's practice/qualifying day was beautiful, and we ran hard right out of
the gates. We were a bit disappointed with the lap times, as they were slower
than the test day, but Greg did encounter a lot of traffic. His best time, a
mid-1:44 (versus a 1:42.4 for the pole), was still better than the best
of 2003 and was easily within the top ten of the field. Greg decided to jump
on the Honda Gyro scooter and drive around to 
watch
other sessions around the track; in passing by some friends to
say "hello", Greg was told they were amused at watching
the NX2000 during the prior session. One guy noted that the NX was bouncing
up the hill at Turn One and said that everyone said the car looked
like an evil thing to drive (one guy's comment: "Greg,
your car scares me")! He also said that "to a T" none of
them would drive the car and Greg must be insane...!
Armed with this info, Matt chose to make some significant suspension changes to try and calm the car down. For the second qualifying session Greg got to the grid early to get at the front of the field, managed to find both clear track and a drafting partner (the evnetual race winner Alex Muresan), and drove his heart out. Upon completion of the session Matt had a big grin on his face: The NX2000 had turned in consistent laps in the 1:42 range, enough for fourth place on the grid! Even better, other than basic maintenance the NX2000 was ready to go for the race the next day; all Greg had to do was drive the piss out of it...
Yet another outstanding morning greeted competitors on Saturday, and the
anticipation rose to a fever pitch. All through the 
paddock
teams polished, probed, and paced as their appointed session times neared. Team
Kakashi chose to skip the morning warm-up session, partially out of a desire to
not tempt the Fates with any potential
on-track issues, but mostly to sleep late. They were confident of their preparation and sat back quietly
as the appointed time approached. As one of the last cars to enter to ITA
pre-grid, the NX2000 slowly paraded through the field of primarily Honda Corp cars,
and competitors stared as the Nissan passed them slowly by, moving to the front of the
grid. Many were seen to mouth "what is that?" and "why's that so
fast?" Kevin Ruck even stuck his head in the car, shook Greg's hand, and
noted that he had apparently ignored the "Honda Parking Only" sign on
the grid...
The race started soon enough, with Greg doing one of his classic great
starts. This time, however, the competition was ready for it and Greg drove up
Turn One in fourth place. 
A
mistake by the driver of one of the front-running CRXs coupled with the excellent torque of
the Nissan SR20DE engine allowed Greg to come down from under the bridge in second place! Within a lap or two it became evident that this race
was going to be a cat-and-mouse game of strong points: the strength of the
Nissan engine, versus the Acura Integra's superior suspension, versus the CRX's
weight advantage. As the leader Alex Muresan marched onward, Greg was clearly
the class of the field on the straights, with a gaggle of Integras and CRXs
knocking on the rear bumper through the corners (and, in a few cases, bumping
the NX off the track in an attempt to pass...) Unfortunately, Greg missed a shift on lap four
and allowed one of each to pass, and the chase was on.
The field settled on this order for several laps until a full-course yellow to remove one car from the track. 
Muresan's
lead was erased and the wolves closed in for the kill. On the restart everyone
jockeyed for position, but the status quo was maintained. The field quickly
settled into a multi-pack battle, with Muresan (Integra), Joe Moser (CRX), and
Kevin Ruck (Integra) battling for the lead, Greg and Colin Botha (CRX) battling for third,
and others dicing for fifth and below. The Muresan/Moser duo consistently pulled
away as Greg tried to shake Botha's CRX, but where Greg had the advantage on the
straights
Colin had the handling down pat (and the advantage of drafting the NX). Colin
would "worry" Greg through the corners, slowing both of them down, and
Greg could not shake the draft to pull away from the CRX; neither could gain a
long-term advantage. Unfortunately, entering turn 10A on about lap 13 Greg experienced a
significant brake problem and Botha slipped by, so Greg settled into trying to
bump-draft him forward to catch the leaders. On lap 18, however, Botha pulled
out, a victim of a broken battery hold-down that caused the electrical system to
shut down, and Greg
cruised to a fourth-place finish behind the winner Alex Muresan,
second-place Joe Moser, and third place Kevin Ruck.
As Greg pulled into the pits, both Matt and Tim were all smiles: we had not
only met our goals, we crushed them! Fourth place is more than we ever expected
to obtain! We 
celebrated
with beer, food (the jerk meat was excellent, Ray!), and great company
that afternoon and evening.
After packing up the trailer and the van, we hit the road. The weekend ended with yet another anti-climactic highway drive home enjoying everyone's company. We even made it home in one day...one loooong day...
After
having recovered from the trip, we hit the Internet. Boy, were we ever surprised
at the reaction! It certainly appears that the Nissan NX2000 caught everyone by surprise.
Comments range from "Greg, if you
could get that car to turn.....you'd be GONE!" to "I would have
parked that thing with in 5 laps.... either on top of a tire wall, or back in
the pits. That thing just scares me."
'06 is shaping up to be a very good year...
Photos (courtesy Gordon Jolley)
Videos: (Thanks to RDTmotorsports.com for hosting)
Start of race, came out under the bridge in 2nd on first lap...got sideways up the hill in T1, lost momentum, which caused Joe Moser to tag me going into T3 and I did an off-road...look for Kevin Ruck's killer pass soon after a missed shift...
Part two. Don't immediately recall offhand any highlights, except constantly dicing...
Part three. Restart after caution. Look for a brake problem in 10A (pad backing plates bent) that allowed Colin Botha by and I lost touch with the group.
Short video on Isaac Direct from T11, of the restart after caution. Good close racing.
Discussion threads:
Honda Tech Forum
http://www.honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=1432263&page=1
http://www.honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=1453549
Improved Touring Forum
http://itforum.improvedtouring.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=6618
http://itforum.improvedtouring.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=6621
http://itforum.improvedtouring.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=6628
http://itforum.improvedtouring.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=6629
http://itforum.improvedtouring.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=6360
Nissan SR20 Forum