Chumps

This past weekend, I swung by California Speedway, in the always beautiful town of Fontana.  Actually, I was invited by former neighbors/ Lemons teammates, Mark and Noemi.  They were racing a piece of crap in the Chump Car series.  But I think their real mission was to torture me, by watching them race, since I haven't my R compounds haven't had any contact with tarmac for quite some time.

WRC

Since Speed keeps going down the drain with food channel and gong show knock offs. Giving WRC the boot.  I stumbled upon Hulu.com which is carrying episodes of all 2008 and 2009 seasons online. So happy now. I really missed watching WRC.

Link to WRC on Hulu.com

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Turkey bowl

I recently signed up for the AE86 Grip day at streets of willow, which is happening Thanksgiving weekend.  The car isn't completed just yet.  So this will be an added incentive to get the force purple rain finished.
But I do have a back up plan just in case things don't go my way.
Here's a couple old scanned photos, as in almost 10 year old photos some past event.  When it was fun to own a corolla.  Do you remember some of these cars?

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Grand Prix du Canada

Well after a lag from my Canada posts, let's take a look at the Formula 1 event itself the reason why I even bother going to Canada. Thank god it wasn't raining that weekend. It was actually the very opposite. Hot and sunny with some humidity thrown in, which reminded of days when I used to live on the east coast.


He won the event.


I wish he won the event.


AMG wagon. This thing sounded so mean. I like it.




People with a lot of team spirit.


The brakes, they glow.

After the race was over, the track was open for visitors to roam around. The view from the driver's perspective was simply amazing.



The track was much bigger than I thought. Walking to the start finish line was so long, our seats was located at turn 10. Which is basically the other side of the track.


Team USA out to lend a hand to teams in need of help

Thanks for visiting. For the rest of the pics swing by here. Or if you hate racing but love Montreal like I do, go here.

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The Fruits

After many months of saving, i've finally received the a gift from the racing gods.


Oh yes, Formula 1 tickets Canadian Grand Prix here we come!


Hopefully, i'll see this guy take a win for Mercedes. Go Schumi!

But after missing my chance to go to U.S. Grand Prix a few years back, I knew I had to make this event. Since good 'ol Bernie is such a loose cannon who knows what venue he's going to add or remove. But then he pulls a fast one and now it's been recently announced Austin, Texas as a venue. But then again I don't want to wait 2 years. Who knows what's going to happen between now and then. Bernie changing his mind altogether or Austin not able to pull off a track in 2 years. I'll believe when I see it. And when I do i'll be there too!

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SKUSA SuperNats 13

Karting is considered one of the purest forms of motorsport. No wings, susupension, or team orders. Not too long ago I visited the SKUSA Super Nationals, held at the Rio Hotel and Casino parking lot in Las Vegas, Nevada. This is like the world series of karting, with 425 competitors from 25 countries. A bunch of talented drivers showing off their skills to hopefully one day step up into bigger and better things, even a couple of drivers from F1 and Indy showed up in their ranks.

Nelson Piquet Jr.

Michael Schumacher

Sebastian Buemi

With fields as large as 40 compeititors this made for some great racing in all classes. I haven't been this excited watching a race in a long time.

Even hachiroku invades karting.

If it wasn't for the F1 drivers attending this event, I probably wouldn't have attended thsi event. Definitely worth the money to watch alot of great racing. You'll probably see me here next year, hopefully driving ;) For more information on next years event click on their website.

Click here for more photos of the event.

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In the presence of greatness.

Watching some of the best drivers in the world up close and personal is a wish for many motorsports fans. For the lucky few it's a dream come true. I have to say i'm one of the lucky ones. Wasting time on the net like I usually do, I came across a post on Cold Track Days that Michael Schumacher was going to be in Las Vegas to race at a kart event. It was hard for me to believe such celebrity such as him would be at a kart event. So I had to make the trek to Vegas and find out.



Since I can only be there for a day, I headed out early to catch the start of the event. After a few hours, low and behold the man himself. It's truely hard to believe i'm so close to this guy so I took full advantage of this photo opportunity.





Since he's retired from racing it's like I lost the chance to ever see him race. But today i'm one of the lucky ones. Watching him race was so awesome. I can only imagine how the drivers felt racing against him. I wish it was me dueling on the tarmac with him. Time to retire the corolla and get a kart.

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Next step

Since I didn't blow up at the Drift Social event.

It's time to set my sights at the next event.


Megan Invitational, i guess SexxxySlide felt sorry for me at Pro Am and decided invite to drive at this event. Or maybe he doesn't like me NOS also has walls.

Time for some basic maintenance on the car cause there's always something that needs to be attended to.


Lost a nut to the alternator, but it's a good thing cause the bolt is much more difficult to come by than the nut.


At first I thought the fitting for my oil cooler was loose, so I retightened it. But it's not the case. It's a very rare case of bad seal. Confirming with Ash, who used to work at Baker Precision, the seal between the swivel and the female end has decided to let go so I must purchase another one. He said I can't rebuild it. But the pinoy will find a way.

Still need an air filter

I found semi old twin power I had misplaced. Didn't get time to install it at the last event.


Had some time to pop the dent out of the car. Not great, but it was hard to get to with all the extra sheetmetal in the way.

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AE86 Drift comp: Barely making it

At the last post, we last heard of our hero's computer crapping out on him. Still unknown what may have caused the problem. Luckily, I still had my old HKS piggyback system in the back. So in it went. Since it was a plug and play system, it should be and open and shut case. Wrong, once I got it up and running it really ran crappy. Now I was debating if i should swap the suspension and LSD into the stock car or bring the purple yam out to the event and see if i can figure this one out. As most who have attended the event, I chose the latter.

The car was like this for most of the morning

Unfortuantely, all morning I was trying figure out what was going on with the car. Running pig rich and sputtering all over place. Barely making any usable power. Fortunately some advice for good friends helped me figure out most of the issues. Enough that it was decent to drive, so instead of throwing in the towel, I prepared for battle.

The car wasn't it's best, I needed to keep clutch kicking/ feathering the clutch just to keep the car in the upper rpms and away from the rpm dead spot. It's like i'm driving an n/a 4ag. But it's all good, cause it just motivates to adapt and try harder, reason why I like corolla.

Anyways I was able to qualify. But was taken out in the first round. The SR powered corolla just walked all over me. But it wasn't because of that I lost. It was because I choked.

Anyways since I'm out let's check out some highlights


I think she should be the new spokesmodel for Red Bull.

Let's meet the judges for this event.


Taka A. : Corolla geek


Alex P. : In the closet Corolla geek


Brandon F: He does weird things to Corolla in the mountain


This is the guy took me out first round. Luc with an SR powered corolla.


Hi guys!


Tomas got distracted when some dood passed by?!?


Geoff trying to stimulate the car. I think it worked.

Here's a few pics from the day's battles:





The wild card for today was this guy


J Mac


Driving a very modest corolla worked his way up to 4th place. His skill never ceases to amaze me. His hair too.


Congratulations to all the winners!

I saw this chick who was holding a helmet that matches my car and had to have a picture of it. It so matches the style of my car. You know it's about lifestyle when you drift.

After the competition, it was time for some fun runs. After a couple of laps, something happened to the car and started idling high. I looked it over and thought screw it, it's o.k. Took a lap and realized the car is running great, no more sputtering and no dead spots in the RPM range. WTF?!

The day isn't over until I break something. But you know i'm going to try and use it again.


It was a great day overall but now it's time to pack up and head back home.

Image by the Frankfurt School via Flickr

But first a stop at Taco Bell for some energy w/ some friends.

Thanks to all who made this possible it was cool to hang out with old friends and new. It's what being a corolla owner is all about.

For more cool pics of the event click here.

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