D1 Chicago was the first D1 event I attended this year.
On the first practice session my electonic system started going crazy. It was like I had one of those bug zappers under my dash with my lights flickering and relays constantly clicking. Some wire must have come lose but I couldn't figure it out. Just when I thought I had it I would line up and in the middle of my run it would happen again.
After my second practice run I pulled out of line and just started to push every connector incase one was loose. It seemed to have done the trick as the problem went away.
I lined up for my thrid practice run and after I initiated I notice my rear end felt very loose. I ended up spinning out but when I tried driving off the track I could get no traction. It was as if I ran through a puddle of oil.
After getting back to my pit area I realized that I broke the passenger side axel. I pretty much called it a day when John Wagner mentioned Matt Waldin might have an extra axel. After asking Matt it turned out he only had the driver side but said that Mark (NOS S14) might have an extra axel passenger side axel. So I asked Mark and they just gave it to me. Huge thanks goes out to them for that.
I immediately asked to change my run group so I can have a little more time to change my axel then I saw Quoc Ly flip his car. For the most part this ended the practice session.
So on to qualifying. We were given 2 practice runs then 3 qualifying runs. I was a little nervous that I haven't gotten any practice runs in earlier. One my practice runs I just took it easy to get a feel for the track. Despite how it looks the main sweeper is a little tricky.
On my first qualifying run I remember telling myself to make a conservative run. I have a hard time doing that as I like to go all out. I made a decent run but it wasn’t spectacular.
My second run wasn't so great and it felt like I went through an oil puddle again. I pulled over and checked if I broke another axel but it seemed fine so I just continued on.
My third run I went for it. I initiated as close to the wall as possible, pulled as much angle as I could and hit each clipping point dead on. The Drift box said I had 58 degrees of angle. I ended up qualifying 4th and was allowed to continue on the next day.
I remember Daigo Saito coming up to my car and looking under it. I popped the hood for him and he seemed really interested in my SIKKY oil pan. My Japanese is bad but was able to tell him about the SIKKY LS1 kit.
The next day I was one of the first to line up and it started to drizzle. The ground was wet so on my first run I took it easy thinking I would slide. I was wrong, the pavement felt as if it was dry so on my next run I went for it as if it was dry.
After I initiated I felt the rear end slip out a little more that I wanted to so I quickly countered and pulled the handbrake earlier then I normally do. As soon as I did that the car straightened out and I ended going straight into the wall. It demolished my front bumper but to my amazement there was no structure damage. It didn’t even brake the lights, just pushed them in on my custom mounts. I was able to continuewithout a problem.
During the rest of practice I felt pretty good. I was hitting a nice outside line and all the clips. During qualifying I started to get understeer then my rear tires wouldn’t grip as much. On my first qualifying run I stayed on the outside line but almost overshot then clipping point. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IoWu2Izo5Cs :20 seconds)
I don’t remember my other qualifying runs but remember I didn’t even use the hand brake and my rear tires wouldn’t grip. I ended up qualifying 15th and wasn’t too happy about it because I know I can do much better.
In the practice for the top 16 I was hitting my runs one after another (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trRkGrrb9so 5:40 Seconds). I was paired up against Forrest Wang, the top US guy in D1. I knew it would be hard to beat him but felt confident that if I didn’t win it would be a nice match.
On the first run I was following. Right after my initiation I knew I would suck right up onto Forrest as he was on the inside a little. He would either have to slow down or overshoot the clipping point. But then I spun out! WTF I didn’t spin all weekend other then my broken axel. That pretty much sealed it right there unless Forrest messes up big time, which he won’t.
On my leading run my car wouldn't kick out on the initiation. It then lead to me having to straighten out. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_bp7FqQDPI 5:15 Seconds). I found another video showing that I had only one tire spin. I guess the diff is going out but I don’t blame it on that. I was upset not that I lost but those were probably my worst runs of the weekend, other than hitting the wall :)
There were some coordination issues and apparently some driver drama but overall D1 Chicago was a blast.