 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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