The Second event of the Season was just last Sunday at the popular Toronto Motorsports Park (TMP) and less than three weeks to go to the Canadian Sports Compact Series (CSCS) Event #3 at ICAR Circuit.
The R32 Skyline GTR @ Toronto Motorsports Park - Photo Courtesy of skootermedia
The weather on Sunday was great, a nice breeze not extremely hot, but warm. This was the first event for the R32 Skyline GTR and it was going to be setup, setup and setup kind of a day on new tires we had never driven on before, and the coilovers we never got to try out last year. Competing in the Street AWD (SAWD) Class we spent the practice session making sure everything was good in terms of the operation of the car and temperatures. Everything held together well, and we went out on qualifying trying to get the right settings in for the new suspension, we started to see good improvements but the Group 2 run group was packed and we always got to the grid late and had minimal time on the track – oh well. In addition, before our last qualifying session some unfortunate soul blew up their car and spilled oil all down the driving line all the way through Turn 1 after the main straight!
After about a 20 minute 10 person plus cleanup Group 2 and Group 1 only got an out-lap to clear the grid. We knew the GTR was in the qualifying time, but barely and we managed to Qualify at the end of the Grid in Sixth place.
Struggling to still setup the car we ran out of time to get it optimized, but Farshad went out and managed to drop his best qualifying time by almost 1.5 seconds! And he claims he still has more room for improvement. Finishing a solid 3rd and less than a tenth away from 2nd place.
After about a 20 minute 10 person plus cleanup Group 2 and Group 1 only got an out-lap to clear the grid. We knew the GTR was in the qualifying time, but barely and we managed to Qualify at the end of the Grid in Sixth place.
Struggling to still setup the car we ran out of time to get it optimized, but Farshad went out and managed to drop his best qualifying time by almost 1.5 seconds! And he claims he still has more room for improvement. Finishing a solid 3rd and less than a tenth away from 2nd place.
The E46 M3 @ Toronto Motorsports Park - Photo Courtesy of skootermedia
Scott in the E46 M3 was fighting hard on Sunday as well. The Pirelli tires seemed to struggle with coming up to temperature and grip was a huge issue. Also we were suffering some SMG issues which was delaying our shifts, resulting in an over-rev and a delay in power delivery until the shift was completed. We spent the day messing around with the tires and dealing with the SMG issue and Scott was not able to spend time optimizing anything else setup wise. Eventually we ran out of time to get the tires optimized and also fell victim to missing the last Qualifying session to improve due to the oil mishap.
The E46 M3 qualified in 3rd, which was not the greatest coming out of a win at Mosport DDT in the Super Street RWD (SSRWD) Class. Lined up 3rd on the grid with a time that was almost 1.5 seconds off our best time at TMP, Scott pushed hard and managed to hold on to 3rd place with 2nd place only half a second away and well within reach of our best time.
The E46 M3 qualified in 3rd, which was not the greatest coming out of a win at Mosport DDT in the Super Street RWD (SSRWD) Class. Lined up 3rd on the grid with a time that was almost 1.5 seconds off our best time at TMP, Scott pushed hard and managed to hold on to 3rd place with 2nd place only half a second away and well within reach of our best time.
Both drivers finish on the Podium @ CSCS Round 2
This was the first event with both the M3 and the GTR competing being relatively underpowered at TMP compared to their competition, especially the M3 in SSRWD and struggling with issues, we are glad to have two podium finishes!
We are looking forward to ICAR where Scott will be in attendance in the M3.
The Official CSCS Times were:
Farshad – R32 Skyline GTR – SAWD – 1:22.493
Scott – E46 M3 – SSRWD – 1:19.881
Congratulation to Farshad, Scott and the other class winners and look out for us at CSCS Round 3!
2015 Sponsor: Design Engineering, INC.
2015 Contingency: Pirelli
We are looking forward to ICAR where Scott will be in attendance in the M3.
The Official CSCS Times were:
Farshad – R32 Skyline GTR – SAWD – 1:22.493
Scott – E46 M3 – SSRWD – 1:19.881
Congratulation to Farshad, Scott and the other class winners and look out for us at CSCS Round 3!
2015 Sponsor: Design Engineering, INC.
2015 Contingency: Pirelli