Sunday, July 24, 2011

G1 Round 2 2011 (First outing since the rebuild)

Hey all,

G1 Extreme Drift comp Round 2, 2011

So we finished the car at 3AM the morning of the Saturday hahaa.... Talk about 'last min racing', thanks is in order to my mates Luke, Marc, Taylor, Lee and Trackster for the efforts put in through till 3AM.



Check out the finished product!!!!



There was some really crazy pics from the event including these couple I found from Stewart Wilkins



But as the morning rolled on so did the dramas, as I was lining up for a good old car check over the power steering belt jumped off. As I knew this was already an issue I quickly took the car back to my pit and changed the whole power steering pump over. I had a spare second hand one and thought I should change it over as its the only thing that hasn't been changed. I had that fixed and the car was cleared to run.

First up was practice as always and I decided I would run on a pair of YOKOHAMA S Drives 255/35/18's. As I hadn't even driven the car yet since the entire rebuild I was amped to give it a blast. I always use the first practice session to get back to grips with my car, push the limits within reason hahaa...



hmmmmm yeah right Jake.......


O_o hahaha I got it!!!

After realising how slippery the track was and the fact I was struggling the get the 360rwkw to the ground I chose to run the tyre pressures another 10psi lower then normal. Only issue now was worrying about the tyres de-beading mid-slide. But due to the way the Equips bead I wasn't too worried.


So after practice was done it was back in the pits and time to chuck another fresh pair of YOKOHAMA S Drives 255/35/18's on the rear. Notice the awesome shiny new engine bay :P Thanks to Hi Octane Performance Coatings.



I made sure this picture was in here so you don't think I just drive the car!!! haha



Now with the car back on Fresh YOKOHAMA S Drives I was ready for Qualifying. This is where I get nervous and pumped as I love putting down an Awesome run. I normally just warm the car up as soon as I get out of track so I can hit up my first Qualifying run straight away.

With the car all ready thanks to my awesome crew I was ready to go.



My First Qualifying lap is always a smooth easy going one. Once I nail a half decent first one its all out on the second one.


I came back into the pits to get the crew to check pressures and make sure everything was sweet. I was having a lot of trouble getting power down so we made a few adjustments and went straight back out again for qualifying lap number 2.


With a decent run in the bag already I decided to push my limits on the second run!! I finished the run with a lot of confidence so I was sure it was going to put me in a good place for the Battles. Now that the Qualifying was over I decided to save tyres and stay in the pits while everyone practiced with the remaining 20mins we had.



While the crew went over the car and got it ready for battles I pulled the car out of the garage so people could check it out up close. While this was on we were awaiting the scores for Qualifying.

BOOOOM It was announced I qualified 1st place. This put me up against who ever won the bottom 16 battles. I was pumped to be going up against someone who had been battling all the way through from the bottom 16 as they would be all amped and ready to go. Would make for an exciting battle.



First battle was up and I was eager to get on track!!

I was up against Jack Colins in the R31 skyline.





Was a good battle and was awesome fun. I won which put me through to the top 8

Without changing tyres we had to go straight into the top 8 battles. I was now up against Jarrod Ridgway who I knew wasn't going to be an easy battle. Jarrod's car is very grippy and works crazy well. I was the lead car in the first run while Jarrod chased



Jarrod was following close so I knew I had to make sure I could do the same and follow him where ever he went.



I won the battle and went through to the final 4. It had been so long since I had Driven Mallala in my own car and I was so excited to be in the Top 4 again.

The crew put on another fresh pair of YOKOHAMA S Drives 255/35/18's and let the pressures down to try get some traction on the slippery Mallala track. I was up against Corporal Pickering!!! :)

I was to lead being the higher qualifier and Christian was to follow. Christian was on R1R's so I knew we were about to put on one heck of a good show!!!



As we got through the esses I was struggling for drive and Christian was all over me.



I was pushing hard all the way through the end of turn 2 trying to get drive out of the car. Knowing Christian was on me I knew I had to do as much as I could to win the battle.

It was now my turn to chase, the fun part ;)



I was on Christian enough to call a re-run. It was bloody hard to keep up but I pushed as hard as I could.




Now with the re-run I was following again and Christian was Chasing
Obviously Christian was pushing hard but he was going to hard he smashed the tyre barriers on turn 1!!


Now it was my turn to push just as hard. We line up again and wave each other off the line for the final time. As Christian takes off I struggled for drive but managed to catch him out the esses.


 Just after the esses into turn 1 Christian went backwards into turn 1 which slowed me down too much to continue and I pulled out before I hit his car. Due to Christian not coming to a full spin it was called his way from the judges. This means I lost the battle and was now in the battle for 3rd place.

I was up against old school James Mardle in his S13. Ive battled James a few times and its always been exciting. I was straight up against him and leading the first run as I qualified higher. With the YOKOHAMA S Drives on the limits I was going to take this last battle easy....... haaaaaaa yeah right!!!!

Full noise!!! was off and killing it but then on the last corner disaster struck. Oil pressure went to 0 on my gauge and I instantly backed off. Looked behind and a crazy amount of smoke was still following me. I knew something was wrong so I instantly shut the car down and rolled to where I stopped on the track. Quick check under the hood to make sure it wasn't on fire and I sat down waiting for the final battle to take place. All I could think was "I have to leave for WTAC in 2 days and I need a new motor :( ". This also means I had to forfeit the battle and ended up with 4th place.

After the Final battles ended they came and towed me back into the pits. The crew looked more devastated then I did. We tried looking at the issue but it was dark, we had no light and Andy from ASR was keen to check it out back at his workshop.

Before the day was over though they had the presentation. Which also means Victory skids, by far the most fun part of the day especially when you get to do them yourself haha. While the presentations went off to my shock I was called up.



I won the Best presented car for the event! The crew and myself always make sure the presentation of the car is perfect so receiving this trophy was unreal. Thanks heaps to everyone at Mallala from Clem to all the officials and fire marshals for making the day happen. Was a great day out and I now have 2 days to get the car ready so I can leave for WTAC in Sydney.

Peace
-Squid

Saturday, July 23, 2011

**NEW** ADVAN Livery (DriftSquids re-birth)

Hey all,

Been awhile since ive done an update as its been so crazy since I returned back from New Zealand. The car arrived and within a couple days I had the whole car back to a rolling shell.

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With all my awesome supporters still on board and keen to help me give the Sonvia a re-birth it was going to turn out damn good!!!

First place the car was sent was to Helps Metalworks for some fabrication work to the rear end. My inspiration for the revised rear end was from Forrest Wangs S13.

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The rear end was cut out completely and replaced for a much easier and nicer tube rear end. Fitted with an Alloy fuel cell, external fuel pumps and battery. With Craig being so busy he had the car for a little longer then expected and in turn made the dead line for the car to be finished a little tricky. But with all my supporters I wasnt too worried as they are more then capable of getting the work done in time.

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G1 Round 2 was fast approaching and the car was still a fair way off being finished. Craigs work was now complete and was well worth the wait. It turned out alot better then I thought, making it alot easier to work with in the rear end too.



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I had now taken the car back to my place (Squid shack) for the final assembly of all the goodies.

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The motor and gearbox was pulled out as I had the gearbox serviced and alot of the engine parts sent off to Hi Octane for some colour treatment ;)

Hi Octane Performance Coatings had gone crazy on my engine parts and turned them into this!!!

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I couldnt wait to have the motor back together to see what it looked like and before I knew it I had it all back in the car and ready to rumble!!!

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Damn!!!! looks good hey????

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Now that everything was back in the car I wasnt able to run it due to upgrading the whole fuel system. I went down to MORPOWA in Adelaide and got myself a heap of Speed flow fittings and new fuel lines. -8 feed line and -6 return. After playing around with all this for a few days getting the right fittings and the right amount of fuel lines it was now ready to rumble.

G1 was so close and I still havnt even painted the car haha. My good mate KC was painting the car for me and with his busy schedule he needed to get my car done when it suited him. Sure enough he didnt have any free time because he was so busy, so he did the amazing and painted the car after hours for me. Once the shell was done he allowed me to have the car back to finish it off.

MY new sponsor Empire Aero had the brand new WORK9 kit arrive and without even fitting it up i sent it down to KC for paint. KC was onto that while I focused on getting the car ready. G1 was on the weekend coming and we still had to get paint done, new graphics, support mounts for whole new kit, new brakes, new suspension parts and a heap of tiny things.

While still working a full time job the 2 too 3 hours sleep a day was getting the better of me and the RedBulls started to cost me a fortune hahahaha.

But I think the final result speaks for itself. Even if we did only finish it at 3am the morning before G1 Round 2 hahaha. Hence the first pic of the car was at the event.

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Even had a few little fans approve of the new look!!

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A HUGE thanks to KC for painting the car in just a quick time. Luke Bing for the awesome sticker work. Taylor, Lee, Marc, and the rest of the crew at Bingles on the night before the comp for getting it ready.

ADVAN AUSTRALIA
HI OCTANE RACING
HI OCTANE DIRECT
MCA SUSPENSION
PPG GEARBOXES
ICON HELMETS
HELPS METALWORKS
EMPIRE AERO

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G1 Round 2 wrap up coming next.... with a video if I can get the footage in time ;)

Peace
-Squid