There are dozens of race tracks scattered around Japan and all host races every week. Some are big races but most or normal race days for normal people. Most of the time they are organized track days hosted by a car shop or race club. My friends at TRIAL host a handful a year at some of the big tracks in the area. They used to always ask me to come but unfortunately they are always held on their day off, Wednesday. As you can imagine Wednesday for a normal person like me is a not a day off. During my summer and winter vacations, in which I do have Wednesday free, they don't hold them because of the extreme heat and cold. So, it looked like I would never be able to go. But, I had forgotten about spring vacation! Ah ha! A few days prior to their track day I had realized this and after some much debating about being able to afford it Yukino convinced me to do it. You see, since it's held at a large track, Okayama International Circuit, the fee is quite high. Like, a minimum $185 for two rounds or $250 for two rounds and the race. A maximum total of 60min on the track. Ouch indeed. Anyway, after talking with another guy who goes to them I signed up for the whole shebang. I figure I can do this once a year so why not. Oh, another thing holding me back was the weather. The forecast was rain. Was it really worth that much money to play in the rain? I decided it was.
Our car was hardly up for the challenge. I have serviced most things on the car since we bought it but it was in dire need of brakes and a coolant change. I immediately ordered new brakes, bought supplies, and headed to TRIAL to use their rental pit to do the work. A few hours later and that was done. That was the day before the race.
Driver check in starts at 8am. The track is supposed to be two and half hours away. Needless to say I went to sleep early the night before. Driving there was a synch with no traffic that early in the morning and the highways being wide open allowed me to go a little faster than legal limit. I took a back way to the track which consisted of one lane roads that had a sheer rock face on the right with a sheer drop off to a river on the left. Just a typical mountain road in Japan. The circuit was well in the middle of nowhere and the rain was coming down nicely as I arrived. The tension was building up.
I pulled into the pits, like a real race car yayyy, and checked in with the TRIAL staff. I perused around the area to see the competition. Three new modded R35 Skylines, race prepped Supra, race prepped Cresta, race prepped Silvia, race prepped Civic, and about 25 more cars that looked ready to rock. Eek.
The last thing you want to happen while racing is having a loose soda bottle or child seat to fly around and hit you will you attempt to corner. I solved this problem by taking every unneeded item out of the car. Good start I thought. I thought about taking out the passenger and rear seat but got a little lazy.
At 9am the drivers meeting was to start so I headed upstairs to the room it was being held in. Luckily I wasn't the only foreigner there so I didn't stand out too much but having twenty five "racers" stare at you is nerve racking. A little bow of acknowledgement and I took my seat obviously late to the affair. After a TRIAL staff welcomed everyone a circuit staff member took to the front of the room to explain everything using a whiteboard with the outline of the track and a million Japanese notes that I couldn't understand. He talked and talked and talked and I probably understood five points. Eek. Not a good place to not understand what is being said.
As it was my first track day I was required to stick around for the explanation of what all the different color flags. This took away precious car prep time and by the time it was finished people were already warming up their engines. Crap. I finish emptying the car and then notice my "race" engine computer on the back window shelf. Craappp. I wasn't sure my stock ECU would let me reach the speeds necessary on the track and the race one has a speed limter cut on it among other features. Ten minutes before it's time to head out onto the track. I jumped out, and started ripping at my interior panels to get access to the normal computer that is installed. I started unbolting it but realize I have no time so I disconnected the wiring harness from it and plugged the race one in. It was then hanging there a little precariously but I didn't have time to do anything else about it. I even found it convenient since replacing the computer is a pain in the butt and this seemed pretty handy albeit a little dodgy. I did end up taping it in place (so much better right?) and it was fine.
I jump in the car, put on my uncertified scooter helmet and construction worker gloves and warmed up the car just in time for us to head out. We lined up, waited a few minutes and then followed the pace car out onto the track. Ohhhhhh shiiiiiittt. I have never been on a real race track in my life and here I am in my little EVO on Okayama International Circuit with a Skyline behind me and a Silva in front. A dream come true for many including myself.
We did one lap and then before I knew it (remember, I didn't really follow the presentation earlier) everyone was full throttle. Naturally, I did too and off I went. The rain immediately posed to be a problem. Following a car at a high rate of speed while on their bumper in the rain severely limits your vision. Ah, windshield wipers. Forgot to turn those on past turtle speed. That helped. First corner came up and I eased into the cars new brakes a tad early but safer was better than stupid for my first time I thought. I rounded the first corner and see the first casualty, a nice Mazda Roadster in the inside barrier. How is over fenders weren't torn off I don't know but he was back out on the track later so he was fine. But still?! First corner of the day and one guy is off the track? Not a good start. The yellow flag came out and luckily I have watched racing before on TV so at least I knew what that meant. Hell, I even knew what the green flag meant when that came out. Things were looking up.
Lap after lap I was getting more comfortable. I didn't allow myself a lot of time to do that though since right from the get go I was going at it a lot harder than I thought I or the car was capable of. Redlining every gear I could and braking as late as I dared was an amazing feeling. The best was cornering. The rain allowed me little traction and I don't think I made one corner without sliding. Stomping on the brakes going into the corner while turning just a little at the end made me car a little tail happy. In that case I would get on the throttle and just slide it sideways around the corner with minute gas and steering changes. Or just gas it and slide more! Weeee. Another scenario was full braking then attempt to turn without the tail sliding out on me. The front end didn't like that and would understand like a yacht I was wasn't careful. Perhaps it was a tad faster around the corner this way but not as much fun.
For the first three laps I was getting the hang of the car but just as I was starting the fourth I saw the red flag. Return to the pits. Crap. Soon I saw why. A beautifully prepared Suzuki Swift was in the wall. Totaled. Totally Totaled. Byebye nice car. Poor guy. I can't imagine the cost of that crash. The car, the track fees and the three hour tow home? Yikes.
After a regrouping in the pits we headed back out again. I came to know my car better and again, before I knew it, we were signaled back into the pits. Round 1 was over. I didn't spin, I didn't crash, and the car isn't dead. The only thing negatives were a dry mouth and some sever sweating.
My friend in his civic pulls in and I greet him with the biggest smile I have had in a long time. It was such a rush to be out there racing around. Can't see much, loud cars next to you, brakes trying as best as they can to stop you and tires trying as best as they can to keep you on the track. It all happened so fast I had no time to think.
I was given a lap timer device so I knew my lap times had to be somewhere. When I approached the staff at the front they quickly remarked "you were fast!" The paper they gave me proved it. Fourth fastest out all 27 drivers. Amazing! I couldn't contain my happiness and they all had a nice laugh about how I looked like a little kid. I didn't care because I kicked butt! Sure it wasn't a real race and just driving around but it still meant I pushed it harder than 27 other drivers out there. Even the R35s posted slower lap times. I was happy :)
There was about an hour of downtime between sessions as another club had a track day as well and we alternated track time. I went for a little walk to see the motorcycles do their action and thought that they must be crazy and really unlucky to be having their track day in the rain. Maki, the owner of TRIAL, walks by with a few other people and asks, "hungry?" With nothing more than a piece of bread in my stomach I am starving at this point. I tell him I am and he says to come to the restaurant with him. I get my Japanese staple food, kitsune udon, and found out that everyone's lunch is on him. He is a big reason others including myself like TRIAL. We talked the whole time about cars and whatnot and learned a lot of interesting Japanese. I call it "old man" Japanese. They teach me things that I will most likely never use in my life. Also, something that made me happy was how Maki kept asking how many times I have raced before and why I am so fast. I also met the guy in sitting in front of me who it turns out has crashed his beautiful custom carbon fiber widebody MRS three times at these track days. Three times. Sheesh.
Next up was qualifying time. Now it was time to really drive hard. We line up and head out. The rain had let up a little but still made it difficult to see if you were behind someone. I could tell everyone was pushing a lot harder. While I had passed a GTR in the first session, this time I had one on my ass and fly past me with no patience. Rene, a friend also racing, had quickly gotten himself stuck in the gravel run off area and had to get out of the car to watch from the sidelines. All I could think about every time I would go past him was "what a waste of money." Each session comes to around $80 and to spend almost all of one standing in the rain watching others race would not be fun. I too was pushing harder though and I could tell that I was getting the hang of the track a lot better than before. In the end it payed off. With a best lap time of 2'17 I had reduced my previous session's lap time a whole 5 seconds. Two of the three GTRs blasted around with lap times 5 and 4 seconds ahead of me. That it too be expected I guess. Without them, I had the third fastest time. Second in my class! Pretty good no? I was ecstatic! I had even beat the third R35 GTR. I beat a new $80,000 super car with twice the power in my 16 year old little EVO. Preetttyyy good for my first time if I may toot my own horn.
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We had another hour to kill and luckily I spotted that I was almost out of fuel. Half a tank of fuel in less than 40 minutes. Yikes. Being in the middle of nowhere didn't allow me any options for gas other than the track gas station. You can imagine how expensive that was. The problem though was money. I didn't bring much. Not much at all. Okay, I had my American debit card. I would take a hit due to the exchange rate but it couldn't be helped. The card didn't work. Okay, back to the cash idea. I used up almost all of it and got about a half a tank of gas. Okay. Set. Then it dawns on me. I used half a tank for two sessions and half a tank getting to the circuit. With one session left, of REAL racing I would use a quarter of a tank. I am almost three hours away from home. That wasn't going to work. I REALLY needed a full tank to be safe but that wasn't an option. After a lot of thinking I decided to race a few laps and call it quits. I really didn't want to be stuck on the side of the highway and I really didn't want to not drive in the main race.
Race time came. It was to be a grid start. The real deal. I qualified well so I was near the front of the pack. For some reason the R35 that should have been in front of me wasn't so I was third from the front. I had a R35 to the front left and a normal STI next to me. Behind is a R35 and another STI. Behind them is an Elgrand I did a SpeedHunters article on in the past. You can see a crappy version of the article here ---->>>
click.
I had learned how the start lights work in the drivers meeting but nothing had prepared me for the anticipation felt just before. The lights counted down. Then went all black which meant GO. I hesitated and looked at the front R35 which didn't move. Then all hell broke loose. I floored it but was too late obviously. The STI behind me was on my right and the R35 on my left. The Elgrand was no where to be seen but god could I hear that thing. Deafeningly loud. The R35, the STI, and I raced towards to the main to the first corner behind the first two cars. I couldn't see crap and was scared to death of rubbing either car. We squeezed through with the STI getting ahead of me and me ahead of the R35. The Elgrand was still behind me somewhere with its open exhaust shouting "get out my wayyy." We all started spreading out just a tad on the straights and closing together on the corners. That was the scariest part. With the rain horrible at this point all that was visible was faint red light from the car in front. Judging the brake point of a corner was hard enough with a clear view but doing it based on a foggy set of red lights in front of you is another. One lap down. Gas....not great. Three corners in I passed the first STI. It was spinning uncontrollably along the barriers with blue and white being thrown all over. The red flag came out. The race was over. Funny how Rene, who was there racing his Civic, had mentioned that someone usually crashes during the race and it ends early. I guess it is just too much for some people.
From then on it was normal free time on the track and I decided to conserve what little gas I had and call it quits. I watched the others go around with another guy and relaxed a little. Rene could be heard with rocks flying all over from his off road excursion before. Soon they too had to come in as their time was up. We all chatted a bit in the pits and soon we were being beckoned upstairs to the meeting room. Awards time and final goodbyes. The staff talked a bit about the day and what not and then started with Class 3 awards. One first guy called up was obviously new to this and was incredibly awkward about receiving the trophy. Everyone was given some small items such as shirts and such along with their trophy. Class 2, the one I was in was next. The man driving the non crashed STI was called up for third. 2nd place went to........................... MMEEEEEEEEE. I was promptly handed this-
Along with a S sized (what the hell?!) TRIAL shirt and lanyard-
I was flabbergasted and I think everyone else was too! Earlier after qualifying the staff came over to see what tires I was running because it was hard to understand how I was doing so well. Others had race suits on and I had jeans, a sweatshirt and the aforementioned construction gloves and scooter helmet. I admit I was and am a little high on myself in this situation but I think it's understandable.
I kicked butt.
