Willow Springs Raceway.
John Wurth and Aaron Bitterman host open track events known as SpeedQuest, at local tracks catering mainly to street cars. We'd heard about their events through our RealRide team mate Don Mock. Don had run an event earlier in the year, using it as a test day for his CRX, and had praised their organization and friendliness. Oh yeah, and the price was right, $120 for an entire day. Both ASC cars are ready and now comes the fun part: testing! Unfortunately, Tim isn't able to make this test day as he has to work (somebody needs to sponsor us so we can do this full-time!) so we decide to leave the new ASC in the shop. It doesn't make sense to debut the new car without the builder present, and I felt that it wouldn't be fair to Tim to not see his baby in it's first outing.

Instead, Sean and I help Justin spend the day setting up his car. Justin has been complaining that his car is suffering from severe understeer and we'd done several things to counter this including building an adjustable rear spoiler, raising the rear ride height and running a softer swaybar. We load Justin's tow vehicle, a 1970's Dodge Van, that he's dubbed "A-Team" with more junk than it already has (you should see the inside, it's got half eaten fast food packages dating back to the 1980's). Sean, who's ridden in A-Team too many times, immediately jumps into the passenger seat, leaving me to sit on some toolboxes. The ride up to the track isn't too bad except for the crates that keep tumbling down on me everytime we go over a bump and oh yeah... the THING that lives inside Justin's van.
Our arrival at the track is quite memorable. Amidst the SpeedQuest regulars' immaculate Dodge Vipers, Honda S2000's, Porsche's and other expensive cars, we look like the "Beverly Hill Billies" in A-Team and the ASC car. I feel like the song "Duelling Banjos" should be playing in the background as we pull up. Since we intend to pull in and out of the pits all day, the organizers suggest that we should pit towards Turn 1.

After a long driver's meeting, Justin suits up and heads out onto the track. We're running the softest swaybar at the stiffest setting and Justin comments that the car is still pushing. Worse yet, suddenly everybody else in his run group is spinning off the track. We discover that his oil sump tank has puked about four quarts of oil onto the track. Seems that Justin decided to add more oil into his sump tank the night before, despite Tim and Sean advising against it. We expect the other drivers to march up the hill towards us holding torches like a Frankenstein movie.

After nearly an hour delay while they clean up the track, practice continues. For the second session, we've made some tire pressure adjustments and drained some oil from the sump tank, but now the soft swaybar is allowing excessive bodyroll and the turn-in is about as crisp as a Jelly Donut. To make matters worse, the session gets Red Flagged again for oil on the track. Immediately, all the other drivers prepare to lynch us (Sean and I would have jumped ship and turned on Justin in a second!), but after some investigating, the organizers determine that it's a regular participant's S2000 and not us. At lunch time, we install the medium swaybar and leave it at the softest setting. We discover that the excessive bodyroll has also caused the bodywork over the rear wheel to crack from having the tire rub against it. Interestingly, we also discover that since lowering the decklid spoiler, the reduced downforce has caused the rear window to compress. We also use about half a roll of racer's tape to secure the bodywork, hoping that it will hold together until the end of the day.

By now, the desert heat is beginning to climb into triple digits. Despite this, our first session after lunch is the first one that begins to show significant improvement. Sean and I randomly time Justin running low 1:28's in traffic. At mid session, we make more adjustments to the tire pressures and Justin comments that the car is significantly better. For the last session of the day, the bodywork begins to come undone. With racer's tape hanging off the car, it looks like a mess, certainly worse than it really is. Justin runs the first half of the session and comes in satisfied with the car. While the car isn't perfect, it is as neutral as any that he's driven. From the pitwall, Sean and I can easily see this as Justin can carry speed all the way through the high speed sections. But the most obvious sign is be listening to the car. Since most of the other cars on the track are street cars with quiet exhuast, the ASC car can be heard throughout the entire circuit. Every time Justin backs off the throttle, or mashes on it, the sound carries through into the pits... great for the crew, but horrible for the driver as this leaves room for comments like "You whimp! Lifting at Turn 8?"

Since there's half a session left, I take the car out for a few laps. It takes me a few attempts before I get the mini triple disc clutch right, you can't slip the clutch like a normal car or it just stalls, just drive like a teenager and practice your drag racing starts. Once I get out onto the track, the car is remarkably smooth, almost like a Cadillac! That is until I reach the first corner and am amazed by the amount of grip it has. I keep feeding in more throttle and the car just keeps sticking. Pretty soon, I can't even hold my head upright and feel like a rag doll being thrown around inside the cockpit... Oops! better tighten up those seatbelts. Acceleration is best described as sling shot-like. In my years of driving performance cars and race cars, nothing comes close to this. To be fair, Justin's car isn't 100% ASC legal as he's running a dry sump high compression motor that is about 100hp more than the spec motors (about 400 rear wheel hp). But since he's also running a much taller final drive ratio, the extra power isn't as noticeable under lower speed acceleration. Because the bodywork is flapping in the wind and about to fall off, I have to go slowly down the front and back straightaways. But once I reach the next corners, it's grip city! The lateral G forces are unbelieveable as you try to keep your head upright but realize that it's fruitless after a while. This is a similar feeling that I experience in the shifter kart or the Formula Ford years ago, it takes a few laps before your body can adapt to this but you end up with very sore neck muscles that first weekend. Having not driven in over a year, I realize how rusty I am as I make some of the rookie mistakes.. lift... oops, too early... back on the throttle.... OK, lift and brake, turn-in.... damn, I could have gone much faster!". Shifting with the Jerrico transmission is a lot easier than I expect. Upshifting is easy, especially since I'd been using the sequential gearbox in the gokart, just lift slightly and throw it into gear, no clutch needed. Upshifts are lighting fast, just snap it into gear with hardly a pause. I expect the downshifts to be more difficult but it's just as easy. Once again, the shifter karts are really helping me out as it's a similar experience, just lift off the throttle and throw it into the lower gear... just make sure your revs are matched. The entire process is a lot smoother and easier than I expect. If nothing else, I'm ecstatic that I've addressed a major concern about transitioning to my ASC car. After 3 laps, the session is chequered and I bring it back into the pits. Coasting into the pits, the car is quiet, hardly rumbling. But to get it into 1st gear, I have to blip the throttle and the combination of the mini flywheel and high compression motor makes the exhaust note crack like a bullwhip. The cars might not be the best looking things in the world, but they sure sound great! Blip the throttle and you have everybody's attention around you. Justin says that it works much better than having a horn.

Before leaving, we stop by Race Control to thank John and Aaron. Some of the corner workers are gathered nearby and we stop to thank them as well. Apparently, Justin has become quite famous among them with his previous car "Oh, you're #06! I've towed you in dozens of times!". A few of the workers randomly time Justin at 1:27's during the day but not surprisingly, they're shocked that he's managed to run an entire day without breaking down. But since he's joined the RealRide Team and switched to his current car, Tim has slowly managed to supervise and help develop the car. Justin and I are self proclaimed mechanical idiots, whereas Tim and Sean tend to have somewhat of a Midas Touch when it comes to working on the cars. It makes for a good combination in the shop as Justin and I will wrestle for hours trying to muscle a transmission into the bellhousing.Then when Tim and Sean are entertained enough, or have taken enough pity on us, they'll reach over with one arm and push it in! Maybe an ASC car with it's infinite adjustments isn't the best choice for guys like me and Justin, but they just go like stink, sound incredible and we're just gluttons for punishments.

RealRide/Pennyweb