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Round 5 podium of the MotoIQ Pacific Tuner Car Championship presented by Motul. Don't let the smiles and fun fool ya! It was terribly hot and all we wanted to do was get into some AC or under some shade.
ARP Performance Products Race #5 Podium
1st place/Justin Taylor, Rockstar Garage S2000, $125 ARP Race Bucks awarded
2nd place/ Clint Boisdeau, MotoIQ Project EF Civic?, $75 ARP Race Bucks awarded
3rd place/ Martin Gonzales, MotoIQ Project P10 G20? , $50 ARP Race Bucks awarded
After the awards ceremony and Project EF cooled off, I got to work on trying to diagnose the over heating issue. Upon first inspection, nothing seemed out of place. I eventually opened the radiator cap to find the water rather gloomy. I opted to drain the water to check its condition. I got a few gallons of murky brown water, and no matter how many times I refilled and then redrained, I kept getting a new batch of murky brown, chocolate milk style water. I came to the conclusion that the head gasket was slightly damaged. Not so much for a gross amount of fluid leakage, but enough as to not allow me to get more than a handful of laps in a 20 minute race. I needed Project EF at full strength and pace to challenge Justin for Sunday. With an injured car and a race to drop (we are allowed to drop one race per season), I decided to pack up the car and reduce the possibility for further damage.
After wrestling Project G20 all of Saturday, Martin decided to get to the track early Sunday for a alignment inspection. The right front was oddly toed-in, which makes sense for the poor turn-in symptom. After adding some toe out, Martin went out for warm up to get a feel for the car and set tire pressures. Dynamic and times didn't change much so the car went back up for more toe adjustments. After adding a bit more toe out to the passenger side front, and a tad on the driver's side also, Project G20's grip and behavior was significantly better. Not perfect, but enough for a 2.11:846 which was a full 9 seconds faster than Saturday's times!
Justin's S2000 had zero issues and belted out an even faster qualifying time than the previous day at a 2.08:758.
Race start on Sunday Martin gets a jump on Justin's NA S2000 with the G20's wide and stout turbo torque band into the first turn. Martin would lead the early laps of the race, but eventually Justin got a run on the last turn exit for a pass on the front straight leading into turn one.
With Justin's S2000 cornering at high speeds and navigating out of class traffic, Justin was able to slowly but surely put a gap on Martin and his G20. Toward the last 1/4 of the race, the high ambient temps effected Martin's concentration heavily costing him more time…and a trip down the emergency access road at the entrance of the “bus-stop”. A cool suit might be in order.
One man short left Justin and Martin to stand on the podium alone. I was extremely disappointed I could not run the second race day. But I knew I'd be even more disappointed if I damaged my engine further. 
Motovicity Distribution Race #6 Podium
1st place Justin Taylor, Rockstar Garage S2000, $125 Motovicity Race Bucks awarded
2nd place Martin Gonzales, MotoIQ Project G20?, $75 Motovicity Race Bucks awarded.
