Ken Brewer's Blog

New car?? What? Yes - I am now the proud new owner of an MR2 with a bit of history. The nice little tropical blue 1994 NA hardtop was converted very early in its life to SCCA Showroom Stock B specifications (including cage) and raced in the 1997 SCCA Runoffs. It has changed hands some since then and now resides beside my trusty red 1991 sunroof MR2 NA.

The idea to get this car came to me when I was helping my good friend Sam Harris shop for a track car, specifically something that could do well in NASA Time Trials. He actually came across the car, showed it to me, and I said "wow, if you don't buy that car I will". 12k miles, already caged, dry & wet race tires, otherwise bone stock and just a mere $2300!! He ended up going in another direction (I think the current candidate is a RX8 - whatever it is will also likely be our One Lap '09 ride.. shhh) so I had to live up to my word. It did need some refreshing as far as safety wear items, and I do need to add 1 more side-impact bar on the driver side to obtain the necessary NASA logbook to be able to race with them but the entire cost of the car was MUCH less than it would cost me to prepare the red car for racing, so it was a very good buy for me.

in its former glory:

at Eagles Canyon and how it sits now:

The improvements planned are pretty much the same as I had planned with the 1991 MR2, but some cosmetic stuff as well
- paint it back to all factory Toyota tropical blue, add white numbers/letters (possibly do red or orange accents?)
- Koni & Ground Control coilovers - springs between 500-800lb/in - exact and what end gets what TBD
- 205/225 RA1s (the R888 or NT01 if they become 5pt compound tires)
- remove muffler & catback, replace with a simple pipe
- ballast to 2657lbs with driver

Those will spend my 19 points for now. For the 2010 season I will add more parts and try to go do well in SCCA ITA at their championships over at Road Atlanta on top of my regular NASA stuff. But for now I can't wait to go try this car out at Miller Motorsports Park in Tooele, Utah for the 2009 NASA Nationals!!

On October 11-12 I was out at NASA Texas region's season closing event at Eagles Canyon Raceway. Being another NASA club it was of course identical in many regards to Southeast and Mid-Atlantic regions. What will vary of course is the balance between the various elements. They are a bit light on the HPDE side due to so many clubs running stuff at relatively few tracks compared to what I'm used to. Their TT program is starting to reach critical mass, and they had 4 separate race groups being the big things for me, since thats what I'm now headed to (TTF and PTF with this new car). There were about 9 PTF classed cars, all running under that flag since the SpecRX7 class is no longer Nationally recognized. Outta be a good indoctrination to racing, hopefully 1 season will teach me enough to do well Nationally in TTF/PTF now that I've got a nearly race legal car. I am fairly confident about finding the speed, but its the race-craft that will make or break me in PTF.

Overall I really liked Eagle's Canyon. Rougly 2.5 miles and approximately 80 feet of total elevation change that you go downhill through over the course of just 3 corners will always be fun. What was disappointing was that it really felt like a non-flat Carolina Motorsports Park. Every corner was 3rd gear in the MR2, the fastest I got up to was maybe 100-102mph on the nearly half-mile back straightaway, and the fastest corner was maybe 70 mph. That of course is reflected in the low average speed on my best that weekend - 2:15.516 - 66.41mph average. Faster than an autocross, sure, but not by as much as I hoped. I think it would be fun to race at though, especially with a car that happens to be good on the brakes

I am going through some serious withdrawls here.  Since the last entry I have not turned a wheel in anger.  I've also had to move from the SE back "home" to NW Houston.  The MR2 has been just lounging around while I've been so far fruitlessly searching for whorthwile gainful employment.  The Mustang sits unsold (its a great car though, buy it!!) and I've had to pass on some great offers and opportunities (couple One Lap rides, Grasstoots Motorsports Ultimate Track Car Challenge)... things could be going better here, heh.

Still, things could be worse and I'm still staying positive and focusing on the goals I set for myself at the beggining of the year.  It might be a bit tough to attain them, but by staying sharp with karting, getting back into track stuff down here when the budget improves I'll be in great shape to kick some ass nationally.  It will be a bit of a haul (1200mi roughly, one way) but its defintely doable when things turn around for me.  As much work as I'm putting into getting things turned around there is no way things won't turn around.

In the mean time I've been doing stuff like playing this online racing-based game called BATracer.  It foucses on the strategy and car setup side of racing with cars from the 2008 F1 field to the 1986 F1 field, plus production and semi-production and GT stuff like Lotus Sevens, MR2s, and ALMS cars.  Been learning quite a few tricks and tips that could be useful in the future.. maybe.  But in the meantime its a nice little distraction.

Hope everything is going better for you guys out there, but I'll be joining you shortly I promise

Friday:
spent the day bouncing between driving Rob Summer's SpecE30 race car and the classroom for Competition School, where you learn how to really race and get licensed to do so. Rained pretty much all day, so it was interesting doing the various driving drills (side by side, passing, etc) in the rain in an unfamiliar car. Kept it on track except one little spot where I went off under control to avoid getting tagged by the E30 beside me getting loose at the entry to T5. The mock race start was also really interesting as the skies opened while we were on the pace lap, and several cars went off as the green flag was waved.... I passed with flying colors, and got to drive about 40 mins in the car at the end of the 3hr enduro (can owner did the first part of the race) in still wet but starting to dry conditions. Had the best lap between the two of us (though I had better track conditions the car had more fuel starvation issues) at a 1:53.664

Saturday:
Sat was very very interesting, much worse weather than Fri (more rain, and tornado warnings that stopped on-track action 3 separate times to allow workers to take cover). Ran some whopping 2:00+ laps it was so wet, couldn't get any cornering grip/speed and was forced to rely on what little horsepower the stock 5SFE makes to get down the straightaways since I was carrying in some places as much as 30mph less. Best time of the day was a mere 2:01.049 in the last session that was slightly dryer, but still had to take funky lines to avoid puddles, especially in the middle of the treacherous turn 12. My friend had the car tied up for racing that day, so I was unable to get in my first real race. I did win TTF, and was 22 of 34 overall, I guess rain is somewhat of an equalizer afterall

Sunday:
Sunday was sunny, dry, and just the right temperature. Ran much better (1:52.585) in the MR2 in Time Trials, my personal best time in the car by a few tenths which won by 0.219 in TTF. Also managed to get the car for the SpecE30 race which was very very interesting.

The race was my first time in the car in the dry, and started with a standing start on the front stretch (done just like they start F1 races). Pure rookies have to start in the back by rule, so I was lined up 21st out of 21 cars in the class. I took it easy on the launch and run to T1 to make sure I had room to avoid any mishaps, and really started racing after T1. Coming up to T5 there was a spin just on the other side that cleared as I was coming through, the yellow flag that was displayed was dropped meaning it is now ok to resume passing... but alot of drivers ahead of me were still checked up and going through single file, so I jumped on that opportunity and snagged a couple spots before T6. I also managed to make a couple passes on lap 1 through T12 for a grand total of 5-6 spots gained very cleanly on the very first lap, very first start, taking it easy until after T1, and the very first time in the car in the dry. Further worked up the field through the race and finished 9th best lap was a 1:49.910, a bit off the pace of the front runners due to a bit of setup time and couple of tiny car prep details

Also, here is Jeff England's weekend report:
"The March NASA-SE Time Trial at Road Atlanta was a sold out event with 45 entrants making it on track. TTA was the largest group with 10 cars running on Sunday. NASA-SE was the first event on the revised Road Atlanta and it is the same with the visual references a little different now. A large contingent of NASA-FL Time Trailers made it to Road Atlanta to run with NASA-SE again this year. It was a lot of fun to have them at our event and they even brought Carbotech certificates for class winners. Hopefully, some NASA-SE Time Trailers are going to make it to Sebring in June to return the favor. The weather was the big factor on Saturday and everyone displayed exceptional track etiquette. The first session was wet, the second session was in a downpour and the final session was delayed by tornado sirens and hail. By the time we left the pits there was less than 10 minutes till track closure with a semi-dry line and wet everywhere else. The corner workers certainly had the best seat in the house since everyone was running hard to make a good time in 2 hot laps. The grid had a lot of low grip high horsepower cars farther back so there was a lot of passing going on in the semi-wet conditions. Excellent wet track skills, and some clean track, established the podiums on Saturday. Sunday was a completely different weather story with a cool damp track initially. It seems several did not heed the briefing on cold track, cold tires and the laws of physics. The first lap in the first session had a car in the wall out of T12. The session also had a blown engine with fire in T6, multiple offs and a car in the wall at T5. Amazingly, the track never really slowed down to clean up the incidents. New track records were set in TTU by Reese Cox, TTS by Jared McGillicuddy, TTB by Dennis Malevanyi, TTC by Everette Parson and TTE by Alex Bolanos. Reese Cox of MTI Racing turned the fastest time of the weekend of 1:27.121 in a C6 ZO6. Competition was fierce all weekend in almost all of the classes due to the large turnout and weather conditions. C5 and C6 Corvettes were well represented with wins in TTR, TTU, TTS and TTA. "

this entry details exactly what my method is for packing everything needed for a weekend at the track in an MR2

discussion of the new layout at CMP, discussion of the Feb NASA-SE event there

Discussion of the in-car video from my driving sessions during OLOA'07 at Hallet

2007 Year End Update

updates as they happen (or as close to it as possible) here:

http://www.trackpedia.com//forums/showthread.php?p=23492

We depart on Thursday

I'll clean up that thread/link and write one HUGE thing when I get back. Until then, check the link early & often!

Testing in Dougs SRT4 for OLOA'07 at the Dragstrip and NASA-SE @ Rockingham April 2007

VIR Full with NASA-MA (Mar/Apr 07) and OneLap Testing

Road Atlanta with NASA Southeast from March 17 & 18 2007

Instructor Clinic and VIR Full Course Event (Feb 23-25)

More discussion on the NASA Time Trials Ruleset, a bit on the upgrades I just completed, and a preview of the event coming up

News Story style entry on the first event of my 2007 Season at Carolina Motorsports Park with NASA Southeast

Track Record for TTF set at 2:01.720

In this entry I talk about selecting parts to meet the class(es) I want to compete in, and also talk about the maintenance tasks I have to get done before the 2007 season starts