Import Face Off in Houston

First. sorry to my HALO guys out there for not getting this event posted on the boards prior to, but i'd just found out about it the friday before myself from a friend and wasn't able to log in to say anything about it.

Second. Sorry, no pics. you'll read why, lol. only timeslips. this is a long one, it's more like a mini novel, haha sorry

third. Please keep the flaming to a minimum, lol. I am inexperienced at "real" drag racing. I've done test & tune runs a few times before (once in my mazda truck (5spd), once in my mazda3 (auto)) but, i've never been in an actual event before this past sunday. I also have my reasons for doing what i did as you'll read. However, constructive critisism will be appreciated

also keep in mind my ride, performance wise, is bone-stock... well, except for the hot-water bypass but i don't think that counts for much. no intake, exhaust, or anything (though that's all on my wish list)

the story really kinda starts saturday night. Me and a buddy, Thomas, load up a 360 and a full rock band set up and head over to another buddies place and proceed to rock out till about 4 am. I'd not intended to stay that late because i'd wanted to unload the car and take my speakers out, get my camera and camcorder, etc. etc. So I ended up crashing on my friends couch, lol. never made it home. at that point i'd pretty much decided i wan't going to practice on my car at all. i still didn't know anything about what was actually goin on sunday, only that it was import drag racing.

so me and thomas load our gear in the car sunday morning and head out to meet my friend, Erik, that asked us to come along to the race. Erik has an 05 GTO with the 6.0L but he's still an import guy at heart. used to run a nice 01 integra gsr before he bought the goat. I knew he was gonna run his car and that the main thing was that we were going to watch another friend that has a real race built civic 4door. turbo, nitrous, full roll cage, etc., runs low 10's.

Id still was leaning toward not running my car at all with all the loose crap i had flailing around the backseat and trunk, not to mention the extra weight. While we were waiting in line to get into the track, erik gets out to come back and talk to us. between him and thomas they got me convinced to "run" my car (pay attention to that). So it's about 1030 in the morning when we finally roll up to the admission gate and the conversation went like this:

"Hi! welcome to the track! what are you here to do?"
"Uh... race?"
"OK, what kind of racing?"
"Uh... what kind is there?"
"Well, we have bracket racing..."
"Ok, sounds good"

So i get my tech card and pull around to the pit where the Goat and the civic are waiting for me. It's a loooong drive from my side of town to baytown, so first things first... gotta pee, lol. get back fill out my tech card. still relativly clueless about whats goin on. drive over to inspections and the next conversation goes like this:

"You runnin in the brackets?"
"Yeah"
"How fast you think your gonna run?"
"Uh... I have no idea."
"Well, we got 2 bracket classes today. 15 and slower..."
"Yeah, Definately that one"
"alrighty!"

and he proceeds to mark my ride up with white shoe polish #193 B1.

"Alright, they're doing qualifying rounds right now. They've already finished round 1. they'll be starting round 2 shortly. there's 3 total. go ahead and pull into lane 3"

Holy crap! i've already missed a round of qualifying! 8O

so i pull into lane 3 and walk up to the guy running the lanes.

i've since put together that they are running a seperate test/tune lane, so i ask the guy if i can hop over in that lane real quick. He tell's me not until i've been eliminated from compettion. Crap what did i get into. i get to make 2 runs on a car i've never raced, on a track i've never raced on, before eliminations start. :roll:

By the way, the track was still in bad shape from hurricane Ike. the timer boards at the end of the track still wern't back up, the surface was bad. everyone was having trouble hooking. the PA system was only half working, so it was hard to hear alot of what was going on.

Well, I make my first qualifying run in the left lane and get a 16.462 @ 85.92mph (Qual Run 1 Time Slip)

My second (last) qualifying run is in the right lane and i get a 16.700 @ 86.19 mph (Qual Run 2 Time Slip)

So I got 2 pretty descent differences in time on different lanes and now i need to make a decission on what my dial-in is going to be based on that :|
I decide i'm gona to use 16.5 for my dial in. Erik also gives me some advice: "Just to help make sure you don't break out, when your close to the end of the race, if your way ahead of the guy ease off a little so that you just barely beat him"

Now it's eliminations...

Round 1: Me in the left lane Vs. a Scion tC in the right. He's dialed in at 15.0. the tree lights up i go. i get about 2/3 of the way down the track and look in my mirror to see he's way back there. I'm still hard chargin in 3rd, so i let of the gas just a touch and let him catch up a bit. i cross first ( ) pull around to the timing booth to get my slip. turns out he red lighted, so it didn't matter anyway! things are looking good so far. I ended up running 16.778 @ 76.64mph (that should have told me something about my dial in right there, you'll see later) (Elim. Run 1 Time Slip)

Round 2: Me in the left lane Vs. another Scion tC in the right. He's dialed in at 15.54. Tree lights, i go. Again, about 2/3 of the way down, i look back, and he's even farther back than the first guy, so i let off again. I cross first pull around get my slipp and head back to the staging lanes. this time i ran 17.122 @ 65.65mph. I also caught the best light i have EVER caught with a .142! when i get to the lanes someone tells me that the guy missed his 2nd to 3rd shift, that's why he was slow. (Elim. Run 2 Time Slip)

Round 3: There we only 3 cars left so somehow i lucked out and got the bye 8) all i had to do was make a pass and not screw anything up. so i took it easy. (Elim. Run 3 Time Slip)

Round 4 (Finals): Back in the left lane Vs. an older Civic Hatch. He's dialed in at 15.4. Tree lights, i go. I already kinda knew i was in trouble at this point because i knew i didn't get a good light. At 2/3 down the track i didn't have to look so far back this time. in fact he was right on my back pocket and gaining pretty quick. and i was screwed at this point. i felt like i was running too fast, especially since for the first time, i was going to need to hit 4th gear before the end of the track. Yet here this guy was breathing down my neck. If i stay on it and break-out, i lose. If he crosses first, i lose. which chance do i want to take. i decided i'd go ahead and finish strong. I ended up running my best time of the night, but i lost the race, because even though i crossed the line first (barely) i broke out of my dial in by running 16.312 @ 86.09mph. (Final Run Time Slip)

There was still a prize for runner up, so i walked out of there with $50 in my pocket. not too shabby. it was alot of fun and ready to do it again! :cheers:

 

Entry to race in the bracket was $30
1st was $150
there were 2 bracket classes (14.9 and faster/15.00 and slower)
total bracket prize money was $400.

dunno if there was any contingency

hell at the time i didn't know there was a prize for 2nd, thomas had to tell me to go to the tower to get a prize, so walkin out with $20 extra in my pocket wasn't a bad feeling either way. It may be weak, idk, this was my first time (cherry popped! lmao) if there were less than 8 in a class the payout was half.

btw, a guy was there in a GT-R. bone stock. and he was actually running it, and not just in test/tune. he ran in bracket 2, street AND outlaw classes. holy crap running 11's right off the showroom floor. he actually made it to the finals in the outlaw class. dunno if he won or how well he did in the other classes.

also, as far as i could tell, i was the ONLY non-evo lancer there. it was funny as i was standing in the lanes people would alk up and be like:
"Evo's are AWD, right?"
"Yeah."
"(What's it like/How do you) launch(ing) it?"
"I dunno, my car is FWD"

LAWLZ

I even had one of these conversations with a silver evo X sitting in the lane right next to me and they couldn't tell, what to me, are the obvious differences

 

Yep, pretty much, only the bypass. but i'm sure that it would have been much faster with a. less weight, b. a more experienced driver, and c. if i wasn't spinning my tires so bad off the line. I seriously never gripped in first gear, only when i'd shift to second would i finally get traction. but the thing about bracket racing is that it's more on the driver than the car and how consistant the driver can be. since i'd only made those 2 passes, i had to stick with what i knew and there fore i knew i was launching with my rpm's too high making the traction situation that much worse, but i couldn't chance getting better grip and possibly running too fast and breaking out even earlier in the event.