Fun weekend in San Diego

The Team Allstars Civic went down to visit San Diego yesterday and race with the San Diego region SCCA. Getting up and leaving before 6AM wasn't fun. However, it was my first time racing one of the local events and it felt like our arrival was eagerly awaited by the full field of regular STS drivers. John Lugod (from San Diego) had rounded up all the regulars to come race against us. It was really fun showing off the Civic to the group. For many, this was the first time they were seeing the car since the new paint job (which looks great). They were already familiar with Jason, who has been dominating the class.




The course was different from many of the autocross courses that we usually see in that the lanes were (at least they felt) narrow with big sweepers and decreasing radius turns - the kind of course that our set up is not optimized for. We were also making the transition from a very grippy surface at El Toro to a relatively slippery surface at Qualcomm. It ended up being a hotly contested class with the lead changing multiple times. Jason started out with the lead, then I took the lead and then Jason reclaimed the lead. A spoiler stepped in and took the lead until I made my 3rd run when I reclaimed the lead. By the end of the fourth runs, only 2/10 separated 1st through 3rd. We had a spoiler prevent another 1-2 finish for Team Allstars. It was still a good day out. We finished the day faster than the winning STU time.





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Team Allstars takes the 1-2 at the SoPAC Divisionals in El Toro

Sunday morning comes way too early. Jason picks me up at 5:40am. and we head off to El Toro to get the car ready. It's a good thing we arrive early. They close the course for walking earlier than I expected. We are able to get the car ready and all the walks that we want in.



Todays course is reversed from yesterday with some minor changes. It is going to be trickier to do this course right. The 3 slow turnarounds are all late apex exits now.



Jason establishes the benchmark time with a 79.xx and jumps to first place for the first run. Steve Ekstrand has a mechanical problem and doesn't run - it turns out he has some camber plates that decided to slip, so he had variable camber. I go out on my first run and turn in a 77.7 clean, putting me in first place.



We talk about the course and Jason is able to go faster. I start trying things to go faster because I know there is more time there and screw up something each time. I end up standing on my first run and being very frustrated with my driving. Jason does go faster and closes the gap to me. Everybody else is also a little faster, but nobody touches either one of us.



We end the day with a 1-2. This gives us a 1-2 finish for the weekend SoPAC Divisional event. Since this is also being scored as two local CSCC events, we have 1-2 finishes in two local points events also.

This was a very fun weekend. Total domination by Team Allstars. Our times put us about a second off the STX and STU classes. We don't get so close very often. It was hard going back to work on Monday. lol

...A huge thanks goes out out to Bridgestone, Nish Designs for the great paint scheme, Team Allstars for the great support though Lucus Racing, and Hyper16valvE for all the onsite pitting and closed garage tuning. We couldnt be where we are now without all of you and thank you deeply. As we come close to the end of our ROAD to TOPEKA, we are glad to have all of you on board and hope that we can make you all happy with a great finish of the year.













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Saturday is fun fun fun

We arrive and start getting ready for the event. The car is teched, cameras are ready and we walk again. Now we are all ready. This is a very fast and long course. I remember a few key apexes, but not the whole course. Hopefully what I remember will be enough.

The day is plagued with timing gremlins and our heat (#2) doesn't start until around 11. On run 1, the other competitors go out and run what seem like fairly slow times. Jason takes his first run and comes back with a smoking 83.xxx, putting him in first place, almost a full 10 seconds faster than the previous STS competitors. That's more like it. Ekstrand doesn't go any faster, so we are in the right range.



We set up for me to take my first run and it seems to take forever as I sit in the car and wait. They stop running a couple of times with timing problems. Finally, I get to take my first run and I run an 81.3, putting me in first.



Now that both of us have clean runs, we can start trying stuff. Jason goes a little faster and stays in second place. Marco goes a little faster, but not enough to catch Jason. I manage to get down to an 80.6 dirty and know that there is a low 80 out there.



On Jason's last run, he does go faster, but is dirty, so he stands on his first run. Nobody else is able to catch Jason, so he has locked up second place for Saturday. I go out and try to find that low 80 and end up butchering the run.

At the end of Saturday, we are in 1st and 2nd place and both of us stand on our first run. It's been a good first day.


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Friday registration for the SoPAC Divisional sucks

It's Friday and I'm driving down to El Toro to check in for the Divisional. The plan is to arrive early, check in and then do course walks. It normally takes about 1:15 with no traffic and in Friday traffic, I figure about 2:30.

With that in mind, I leave around 2:15, expecting to get to El Toro in plenty of time to register and walk the course a couple of times. Boy was I wrong. Traffic was horrible, I spent a lot of time not moving. I was so bored that I ended up twittering away a couple of times.

I finally find out that there has been an accident on the 405, by the 10 and 3 lanes are blocked. It's getting late and I'm frustrated. The course is supposed to close for walking at 7. It's already 5.

The bright side of this drive was that I spent a few minutes near a brand new Audi R8 (not diesel).

Anyhow, I clear the accident and talk to Tom on the phone and he tells me that it's another hour before I will arrive at El Toro :( He's right. It's around 6 before I get there (about 4 hours in the car) and I'm annoyed now. So much for my plans to arrive early and chill.



However, once I'm there with my friends, it's all good. It's down to business and we start walking. Our new look Civic debuts this weekend. It will be the first time most of our friends and competitors will see the new Allstars civic.

We have a wheel stud problem, so we are unable to tech tonight. After our walk, we drive the car over to Moe's so that the wheel stud can be replaced. We are finally done and off around 9 - finally ready for tomorrow.

Time for a New Look

This has been a long time coming. But with the great help of alot of people the Allstars STS Civic Now has a NEW LOOK.

Our greatest thanks goes to Gary from Nish Designs on working with our busy race schedule to get the car done. Also thanks to The International Allstars Automotive Marketing Team for making it all happen.

Thanks to Moe for coming up with a great old school looking color scheme and driving it to and from the paint shop every time we needed to race it as well as keep it running in the meantime.

So with out further ado we present the NEW LOOK of the ALLSTAR STS CIVIC!!!

We now have paint to match the speed of our drivers...

See you at the El Toro Divisional's for the official unveiling of the car at its first divisional race.

Thanks again to everyone that has made this happen