Firebird East shutdown! That’s right, last weekend the Snail Performance team hit up Firebird East with NASA Arizona. This is the third event of the year so far for us! Got to love that west coast living. Of course because we brag so much, it snowed in Arizona just yesterday. Good news is, the weekend of racing was perfect sunny warm weather! I would like to take this time to mention proper planning for Markos “The Hipster” Mylonas who planned ahead and made it to both days with the team for the first time this year! ( #properplanning #Markoshashtagseverything #hashtag) and now for a commercial break!! If you don’t know what just happened, you are a lucky sole. Saturday the team broke out early for the 45 minute drive from the westside and headed to Firebird Raceway East. When we arrived we were greeted as always by Russ “The Toolbox” Whelan, and his JDM tent full of awesome! (Be sure to check out Russ’s Silvia that will be competing in the Modified Magazine Shootout next month!) With Markos now stepping up to Time Trials, we all went out for our first big bore session of the day. Travis immediately went for the TT-U jugular and set down the fastest class time for the day securing his win early. My first session set the bar for TT2 but ultimately a tired set of NT01 tires would secure 2nd place behind Wes in his GTR. Markos grabbed 3rd place in TT2 on Saturday. At least that is until we noticed Gabe of Ortega Tacos snuck a quick lap in and bumped Markos from the podium. Saturday night the party was at the Club Snail Trailer. As always you can find us here after hours providing hours of entertainment to all competitors. With the cooler empty, everyone headed off to get some sleep for the next day of competition. Everyone but me that is, I made a late night stop at the shop for another set of wheels with another set of takeoff tires on them. This was a great decision as the next day my times immediately dropped almost a full second. In later sessions I found more time and secured 1st place TT2. Markos ran very consistent times all day taking 3rd place TT2 before parking it behind a corner station for the day. Travis thinking he had a little competition threw on a fresh set of Hoosiers looking to better his .59.970 time. Fortunately the Porsche cup car that looked to be stealing his podium was classed wrong giving Travis 1st place TT-U. For Time Attack we lined up to take 4 laps and see what damage could be done. Rolling out in group 1 Travis and I secured 1st and 2nd place TA-C respectfully. Firebird East was another great event in the bag. We now focus our sights on March. March is going to be quite a busy month with four events! First is the Modified Magazine Tune shootout. This will be our third year competing in the event, this year rocking Markos’ 2006 WRX. Each year we have moved up the podium and hope to continue that trend this year. Next is NASA AZ annual one day night event!... which will be held during the daytime over 2 days? Either way it is always a great event with huge coverage, lots of spectators, and of course great racing. Don’t forget the UMS Tuning Time Attack which tags along with every NASA AZ event. Finally, March will bring Global Time Attack Pro Series round 1! We are very excited to have a GTA event right in our own backyard. The best thing about all the March events is they happen on the same 2 days! Combined this means we look to be on track for a possible 17 sessions over the course of the weekend! That’s a lot of track time, even more E85, and definitely means no sleep. With that busy of a schedule I think I am going to start catching up on sleep now. Until next month everyone, we will see you…ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ. Written by: Taylor “Dr. Koby D.” Wilson This writeup is brought to you by #. Big Thanks all of our 2013 Sponsors: Turbosmart USA, Whiteline US, Turbo by Garrett, LIC Motorsports, Wheeldude.com, Turbos Direct, and Mothers Facebook.com/SnailPerformance Follow us on Twitter – @Tayloratsnail, @SnailPer4mance, @Markos_mylonas Instagram – @Snailperformancetaylor, @PoweredbySnail, @Markos_mylonas Taylor's Time Attack Video
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Barbeque at Willow Ranch and Global Time Attack’s new Pro-Am Time Attack Series in conjunction with Shift-S3ctor at Buttonwillow Raceway sounds like a great way to spend a Saturday. As most of you know I, “Travis”, moved up to northern California due to my wife Meghan getting orders to Beale AFB. After getting settled in, we decided to make the trip back down the I-5 to attend the first ever GTA Pro-Am event with Shift-S3ctor at Buttonwillow Raceway. Not having my normal Time Attack Wrx I decided to go with “Plan B” and run my 2012 Subaru Sti. I had a good feel for the car as I just ran it at Firebird West in the rain so I figured additional seat time at Buttonwillow would be a great idea. First session of the day didn’t count and was meant to get times for everyone to get a grid position. I thought it would be a great time to give Paul Kuzma a ride along so he could check the track out. We took to the track and ended up with a 2:05.154, which was not too bad for just getting started. Second run of the day I went out for few hot laps and a quick swing into the hot pits to pick up Ulrik Szirka for a few laps around the track. I was able to shave 2.3xx seconds off my time running a 2.02.784, putting me in 3rd place in limited AWD with my little street car. During lunch, I reviewed the track in my head and after talking to Jeff Westphal I knew I could find more time in the car. The third session of the day came and I took the Sti out putting down a 2.01.945. knowing that I made a few mistakes on that run I couldn’t wait to get back out there in the next run group. Fourth session of the day came and I hit the track like a mad man giving it all I could in the little Sti. This session was my best all day! I was able to find my groove on track and laid down an impressive 2:00.743. A little story about my car and why I was happy with this time. The Sti is 85% all stock. lol Power is only around 330whp with a 20g-8cm turbo controlled by a Turbosmart IWG. Suspension is stock struts, Swift Spec-R Springs, Whiteline Front and Rear 22mm Adj Swaybars with Endlinks, and Whitelines H-Brace, while rolling on Wheeldude Rota T2R’s with Hankook RS-3 Tires. So needless to say I was pretty happy with the car for the day. Of course, after looking at the results I saw that I was only .072 off of 2nd place. I had to go back out for the final session of the day to see if I could find more time. On the warm up lap I was plotting my course in hope of shaving some time when I hit the Esses it was game time. Pushing the Sti as hard as I could, I made it to Cotton Corners without flaw and just as I was about to make the right into Club Corner, the car lost power like a intercooler pipe blew off. So I just coasted for a second with the car at idle. I didn’t hear anything so I just decided to call it a day as I was coming up to Magic Mountain, I heard a noise coming from the engine so I shut the car off and coasted on to the drag strip. Knowing everyone would be looking for me I got my phone out and texted Tony Szirka to tell him what happened. “I’m pretty sure I will be fined for using my cell phone on track like some NASCAR drivers LOL” I ended the day being towed in and with no way to get home took 3rd place. Luckily my Time Attack family did everything they could to help us out. Jason from GTA got us hooked up on a place for the car to sleep until I got a truck and trailer to come and get it. Tony, Ulrik, and Paul took Meghan and I to get a rental car to get us back home. Noah and Adam at LIC Motorsports are letting us use their truck and trailer to pick the car up and bring it home. I am looking forward to attending more of the GTA / Shift-S3ctor Pro-Am events in the future with the Snail Racer and the rest of the team later this year. The turnout was great, many awesome cars we there, and guys at Shift-S3ctor are top notch! See all you guys at the GTA Pro Series event on March 16-17 at Firebird Raceway!! For more info on Global Time Attack and Shift-S3ctor check out the links below. www.GlobalTimeAttack.com www.Shift-S3ctor.com www.Facebook.com/GlobalTimeAttack www.Facebook.com/ShiftS3ctor Big Thanks all of our 2013 Sponsors: Turbosmart USA, Whiteline US, Turbo by Garrett, LIC Motorsports, Wheeldude.com, Turbos Direct, and Mothers Facebook.com/SnailPerformance Follow us on Twitter – @Tayloratsnail, @SnailPer4mance, @Markos_mylonas Instagram – @Snailperformancetaylor, @PoweredbySnail, @Markos_mylonas Anyone that signs up to live in a place that uses hair dryers for weather forecasts in the summer, is obviously looking to escape the snow and cold climate. Unfortunately, avoiding unfavorable weather is short lived when torrential downpour ensues. NASA AZ had their second event of 2013 just last weekend. That’s right, 2 events before January is over and the east coast gets to play a match of curling with what used to be their spare tire, while we get to continue racing. With temperatures in the high 70's within the middle of the week before the next race event, we were all excited for a beautiful weekend. Mother Nature unfortunately had a better idea followed with three days of rain. On Saturday we woke up to a drenched hotel parking lot. As we pulled into the track we noticed that turn 3 had become the black sea and the entire track was covered with puddles and rivers of moving water. With nothing else to drive and no better tires than NT01 slicks, I jumped in my car and went ice skating. Travis had his 2012 STI with him which, had Subaru been smarter, would have advertised it as a boat since it was destroying the wet corners. It may also have had something to do with the fact that Travis drifts first and asks questions later. Without anything better to drive and wanting to secure some TT2 season points, one of the team’s friends loaned me their Honda Civic SI to take on the slip and slide. Loi Song and the nuts over at Sport Car Motion must be on to something because the Civic was a blast to drive. Pushing the high horsepower guys out of the way, the little Honda killed it in the wet corners. Down the straight, Vtec hit and I was like “whoa.” With the rain not letting up, Travis merked the wet track record for Firebird West and I finished in what would have been 2nd place TT2 had I declared my class earlier. Not bad considering I only lost to a R35 GTR. Due to poor planning, Markos wasn’t able to join in on the fun Saturday, but made it out Sunday with AD08 tires ready to splash around in his Time Trial debut. With a few laps in, Markos knocked out a 1:08.735, missing out on 1st place for the day by only .061 seconds. I planned on running in TT2 for the remainder of the season so I looked for another replacement vehicle to get a few laps in. Jeremy Ward was there to save the day in his new 2013 Subaru WRX with a whopping 400 on the odometer. While being gentle and trying not to be the first person to fly off track in his new car, I ran it around the track for a 1.12.257 which threw a couple points next to my name. Travis’ 1:13.404 was holding on to 1st place TT-U until the Radical found wet slicks and put down a 1:09.481 in the morning. A slightly drier track later in the day allowed Travis to find a 1:07.700 and take 1st Place once again. For Time Attack the team lined up positions 2, 3, and 4. With a mostly dry track, we did our best to stomp some solid times. Turn 3 unfortunately still had a river running through it which caused most of us to check up pretty hard. Travis on the other hand having actual grooves in his tires and floaties on his arms didn’t miss a beat and took 1st Place for the 3rd time that weekend. While showing off my drifting skills (no one cared because I wasn’t missing my hood, bumper, and or fenders) took 2nd place and Markos came in a mere .238 seconds behind 3rd place Russ “The Tool Box” Whelan. All in all it was a great weekend at the so called “Tsukuba of the West.” Driving in the rain always teaches you something new, especially on Rcomp tires. We look forward to our next event, that’s right, only 2 more weeks away at Firebird East. Thanks all of our 2013 Sponsors:
Turbosmart USA, Whiteline US, Turbo by Garrett, LIC Motorsports, Wheeldude.com, Turbos Direct, and Mothers Facebook.com/SnailPerformance Follow us on Twitter – @Tayloratsnail, @SnailPer4mance, @Markos_mylonas Instagram – @Snailperformancetaylor, @PoweredbySnail, @Markos_mylonas |
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