 The 2008 HyperMeeting at Tsukuba was the most heavily anticipated Evo. vs STI events in a long time, as both the new Lancer Evo and STI were brand new after many years. The crowd was quite large for Tsukuba, a small circuit, at 8300 strong. All die-hard Subaru or Mitsubishi fanatics to the core. All hoping to see there favorite car win.
We had shown up with two cars this year, our GDB-based widebody race car and our new 08 WRX turbo. We were hoping to break into the top 3 times with the widebody - if not win outright - and to also do well against the other new 08 Evo's and WRX's.  Ross had hit a 1 minute 1 second lap the previous day in practice with the widebody, and was planning to go even harder during the official event. And the 08 WRX was running at the 1.06 mark as well, definitely a good time for the light-tune class.
However, it was not to be for the 08 WRX - while driving it to the event, the transmission decided it really didn't feel up to the task and gave out on us. While the new Impreza WRX 5-speed transmissions are much better than the old ones, they still don't like too much more power! So we ended up having a bit more permanent "display" car than we had anticipated.
So it was down to just the race car. Ross got stuck in the back of the line for the start of the event, and that disrupted our plans a bit.  The tyres got a bit hot while waiting, and that proved to be a bit of a downfall during the laps, as they went off much quicker than we anticipated. Ross only had the two first laps before the traction was gone on them, and was held up quite a bit during those laps. So while the car was hitting rather terminal speeds in the straights with much more power than most, if not all the competitors, we were losing time in the corners. In the end Ross ended up with a best lap of 1.02.5, far off the pace of practice. This put him back down to 5th overall in the Impreza's. If he'd kept up the pace of practice, we would have placed about 3rd in the Impreza's, and maybe 5th place overall. We had to settle for 12th overall - not bad considering all the other competitors!
As we did do better this year, by over a second, we learned some new lessons out on the track. Our speed in the straights was quite ferocious - too much so.  The race car was getting too much air underneath, taking away from braking and handling when we got to the end of the straight. The suspension was much better this year, but still a bit soft, with too much weight shift in the corners. And they tires, well, yet again let down by the tires. But with only a couple years under our belt now vs. competitors with decades of experience at Tsukuba, I feel we are doing good!
 
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