 Ross brought the little red wagon for a day of lapping at Fuji Speedway thanks to an invite by Nutek Racing, which had rented the track for the day. This was the first time for Ross and I on the new Fuji Speedway full circuit. It had been closed for a while to make it friendly for F1 racing, which will debut there next year. This design made it quite a bit faster, except for the extended chicane section at the rear, and quite safe as well. The new run-offs are so large, it would be difficult to crash bad there!
It is actually quite nice to drive on even in street cars, with high-speed sweepers and only a few corners that really beat on the cars. The biggest problem for many of the other drivers out that day was keeping up speeds, as there were many high-speed corners that required a bit of commitment. Ross was taking them flat-out in 5th gear! Ross had to fight traffic most of the time, as there was over 60 cars on the track, but managed a 2 minute, 6 second lap time, good for 10th overall out of 150 cars! I did manage to get on the track as well for a few fast beginner laps. But after 4 laps I had to pull off with as it went down to three cylinders. This completely sidelined me for the second run as the AVO staff checked it out. It turned out to be a unplugged coil pack (it was loose from the start), but I still managed 14th out of 61 cars on time alone with a 2 minute 23 second lap. |
