Brian Lock Tackles the “Concrete Canyon” of the SJGP
08-03-2005, 12:35 AM
#1
Registered User
Thread Starter
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Scotts Valley, CA
Posts: 202
Car Info: #93 Koni Challegne Subaru Legacy GT, 96 Impreza L
Brian Lock Tackles the “Concrete Canyon” of the SJGP
7/30/2005 San Jose, CA- The US Touring Car Championship spent the last weekend of July in the limelight at the Inaugural Taylor Woodrow San Jose Grand Prix. On Saturday, 50,000 people were on hand to watch them contest the points of the 4th round in the narrow and unforgiving track that is the San Jose Street Circuit. But amidst the glamour of supporting the Champ Car World Series, real drama had been unfolding all weekend for many of the teams.
Anticipation was the word of the hour on Friday morning. Every driver was practically salivating at the thought of getting onto the circuit. But as fate would have it, the course was not completed on schedule. The USTCC teams were told that their morning session was scrapped. Many teams set about the business of waiting till their afternoon session, when at 11:40, the call came down that it was the 20 minute warning for a rescheduled USTCC session! The teams jumped into action, but it was Brian Lock in his Subaru that was first to the starting grid, winning the honor of being the first driver to attack the turns of the San Jose course in anger. Local press was not blind to this history making moment, as Brian was inundated with interviewers upon his return. All was not well though, as the team had to diagnose a misfire in the Subaru amidst the crowd of onlookers.
Friday also held the first qualifying session of the weekend, and some of the first major mishaps. Tragedy struck when the #19 of Justin Elin had terminal brake failure and struck the #47 of Doug Fournier, totaling both vehicles and sending Elin to the hospital as precautionary measure. It was suddenly apparent that the San Jose circuit was extremely hard on brakes, and many cars boiled their brakes and ended up in the barriers, including Brian and the Subaru. Damage was light, but the main obstacle of the Grand Prix had now shown itself. To win this race would take BRAKES!
Saturday morning was the final qualifying. Brian held P2 from the day before, and was comfortable with that starting position. A conservative decision was made to use the 25 minute qualify as a mock race, to see if the brakes would go the distance. This is something that the other teams were not doing, since they had been coming in periodically to let the brakes cool. This gamble by the other teams worked, and although they posted only a few times, they were enough to knock Brian down to 5th on the grid, a less than desirable position for this narrow course. Still, the team was confident that a measured pace would prevail on a course that punished you and your car for pushing hard.
The cars lined up that afternoon for the main race. The crowed cheered as the USTCC cars made there recon lap. Said Brian, “I heard people shouting ‘Go Subaru’, from the stands. It really fired me up”. As he has done so many times this season, Brian launched the Subaru to an incredible start, lunging to challenge for the second row. Brian tried to position his Subaru between the wall and the MPACT BMW driven by Dale Sievwright, but an aggressive chop by Sievwright forced Brian onto the binders to keep from wrecking Dale, a charitable move that cost him 3 spots going into the Almaden hairpin. Brian set about executing his strategy, but now he had to do it from 8th instead of 5th!
It didn’t take long for the attrition to begin, and after 3 anxious laps of looking like a top 5 was out of reach, brakes began to heat up, and cars began to brush walls. Brian passed for 7th place, then 6th, as the Subaru’s pace overcame those who had been in the initial breakaway. “Everything started to come back to us,” said Brian after the race, “but the yellow flag ruined our strategy.” Indeed, 7 laps spent under the yellow flag was just what the leaders needed to cool their cars so they could finish the race at a top pace. This included Brett Erikson, Dale Sievwright, and the points leader, Dave Brown in the Opak/Spoon RSX.
As the race went back to green, Andrie Hartanto was in front of Brian in 4th place. Under the advisement of his crew, he decided to try to push turn 6 a little harder. The mistake sent him into the tire barrier, then violently back on track. The Brian narrowly avoided Hartanto in a brilliant display of reflexes and car control. After avoiding this disaster, he passed again in the final laps for 4th position, but the leaders had won themselves some well earned clean track the entire race, and had too much of a gap for Brian to reel in before the checkered flag fell. He finished in 4th position of 30 cars, a USTCC record field.
Off the track, the Subaru was a clear winner. Always a fan favorite, Brian and the WRX drew a healthy crowd to the paddock all day. It is not surprising that people love this car so much, when in near stock form, Brian was able to drive it within 0.7 seconds of the average lap times of the highly modified BMW’s and Honda’s that lead the race.
Brian and GOTO Racing would like to thank their sponsors: DMS, Gruppe-S, LIC Motorsports, and SubyDude.com; as well as Hankook Tires, Taylor Woodrow, Champ Car, the San Jose Grand Prix staff, and the people and businesses of San Jose for making such an event an enormous success. Congratulations to all the winners. Many happy returns of this one of a kind bay area race! The next stop on the Tour is August 6-7 at Infineon raceway. Don’t miss it!
_________________
GOTO:Racing
Anticipation was the word of the hour on Friday morning. Every driver was practically salivating at the thought of getting onto the circuit. But as fate would have it, the course was not completed on schedule. The USTCC teams were told that their morning session was scrapped. Many teams set about the business of waiting till their afternoon session, when at 11:40, the call came down that it was the 20 minute warning for a rescheduled USTCC session! The teams jumped into action, but it was Brian Lock in his Subaru that was first to the starting grid, winning the honor of being the first driver to attack the turns of the San Jose course in anger. Local press was not blind to this history making moment, as Brian was inundated with interviewers upon his return. All was not well though, as the team had to diagnose a misfire in the Subaru amidst the crowd of onlookers.
Friday also held the first qualifying session of the weekend, and some of the first major mishaps. Tragedy struck when the #19 of Justin Elin had terminal brake failure and struck the #47 of Doug Fournier, totaling both vehicles and sending Elin to the hospital as precautionary measure. It was suddenly apparent that the San Jose circuit was extremely hard on brakes, and many cars boiled their brakes and ended up in the barriers, including Brian and the Subaru. Damage was light, but the main obstacle of the Grand Prix had now shown itself. To win this race would take BRAKES!
Saturday morning was the final qualifying. Brian held P2 from the day before, and was comfortable with that starting position. A conservative decision was made to use the 25 minute qualify as a mock race, to see if the brakes would go the distance. This is something that the other teams were not doing, since they had been coming in periodically to let the brakes cool. This gamble by the other teams worked, and although they posted only a few times, they were enough to knock Brian down to 5th on the grid, a less than desirable position for this narrow course. Still, the team was confident that a measured pace would prevail on a course that punished you and your car for pushing hard.
The cars lined up that afternoon for the main race. The crowed cheered as the USTCC cars made there recon lap. Said Brian, “I heard people shouting ‘Go Subaru’, from the stands. It really fired me up”. As he has done so many times this season, Brian launched the Subaru to an incredible start, lunging to challenge for the second row. Brian tried to position his Subaru between the wall and the MPACT BMW driven by Dale Sievwright, but an aggressive chop by Sievwright forced Brian onto the binders to keep from wrecking Dale, a charitable move that cost him 3 spots going into the Almaden hairpin. Brian set about executing his strategy, but now he had to do it from 8th instead of 5th!
It didn’t take long for the attrition to begin, and after 3 anxious laps of looking like a top 5 was out of reach, brakes began to heat up, and cars began to brush walls. Brian passed for 7th place, then 6th, as the Subaru’s pace overcame those who had been in the initial breakaway. “Everything started to come back to us,” said Brian after the race, “but the yellow flag ruined our strategy.” Indeed, 7 laps spent under the yellow flag was just what the leaders needed to cool their cars so they could finish the race at a top pace. This included Brett Erikson, Dale Sievwright, and the points leader, Dave Brown in the Opak/Spoon RSX.
As the race went back to green, Andrie Hartanto was in front of Brian in 4th place. Under the advisement of his crew, he decided to try to push turn 6 a little harder. The mistake sent him into the tire barrier, then violently back on track. The Brian narrowly avoided Hartanto in a brilliant display of reflexes and car control. After avoiding this disaster, he passed again in the final laps for 4th position, but the leaders had won themselves some well earned clean track the entire race, and had too much of a gap for Brian to reel in before the checkered flag fell. He finished in 4th position of 30 cars, a USTCC record field.
Off the track, the Subaru was a clear winner. Always a fan favorite, Brian and the WRX drew a healthy crowd to the paddock all day. It is not surprising that people love this car so much, when in near stock form, Brian was able to drive it within 0.7 seconds of the average lap times of the highly modified BMW’s and Honda’s that lead the race.
Brian and GOTO Racing would like to thank their sponsors: DMS, Gruppe-S, LIC Motorsports, and SubyDude.com; as well as Hankook Tires, Taylor Woodrow, Champ Car, the San Jose Grand Prix staff, and the people and businesses of San Jose for making such an event an enormous success. Congratulations to all the winners. Many happy returns of this one of a kind bay area race! The next stop on the Tour is August 6-7 at Infineon raceway. Don’t miss it!
_________________
GOTO:Racing
Last edited by Brian Lock; 08-03-2005 at 12:42 AM.
08-03-2005, 03:37 AM
#2
Registered User
iTrader: (7)
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: Sacramento CA
Posts: 10,029
Car Info: 02 Impreza WRX sedan
Nice finish, Brian. 
How did the StopTech brakes hold up during the race? Did you have to make any pad changes to run a different compound based on the demands of the course?
--
0==WW==0
"…axles of evil…" - george w. bush
How did the StopTech brakes hold up during the race? Did you have to make any pad changes to run a different compound based on the demands of the course?
--
0==WW==0
"…axles of evil…" - george w. bush
08-03-2005, 09:43 AM
#3
Registered User
Thread Starter
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Scotts Valley, CA
Posts: 202
Car Info: #93 Koni Challegne Subaru Legacy GT, 96 Impreza L
The Stoptech's held up great. The stock rear brakes did the opposite. We have been dialing a lot of brake bias to the rear of the car for handling purposes. Because the rear could not disapate as much heat as we were giving them I completely boiled my fluid and ended up in the wall on Friday. So I had to run with my brake bias one click more forward that I would have regularly. We are considering getting a rear big brake kit to help with this problem. This has never hapenned before though because no other track that we have been on was this hard on brakes.
08-03-2005, 06:31 PM
#4
Registered User
iTrader: (7)
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: Sacramento CA
Posts: 10,029
Car Info: 02 Impreza WRX sedan
Thanks for the feedback, Brian. Good info for those who dial-in more rear brake bias on tracks that are configured for that type of repeated hard braking. I'm sure the Stoptech front BBK is fine using the factory brake proportioning in less than all-out race cars like yours.
--
0==WW==0
"…axles of evil…" - george w. bush
--
0==WW==0
"…axles of evil…" - george w. bush
08-17-2005, 03:18 AM
#5
Registered User
iTrader: (38)
Join Date: Oct 2003
Location: rightBehindYou, HI
Posts: 7,783
Car Info: 1973 Huevo Ranchero
wow how did i miss this? awesome! i better visit this page more often - congrats! brian would you happen to have any "projects" worthy of your time and effort to post up in our ongoing projects section?
aloha from the summit of *-^-Mauna Kea-^-*
aloha from the summit of *-^-Mauna Kea-^-*
08-17-2005, 07:18 AM
#6
Registered User
Thread Starter
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Scotts Valley, CA
Posts: 202
Car Info: #93 Koni Challegne Subaru Legacy GT, 96 Impreza L
If everything works out sponsor wise we might have pics of our build of our Grand-Am Car. It will probably be a 2006 Legacy GT.
Thread
Thread Starter
Forum
Replies
Last Post
suby_dude
Road Racing / Auto X
2
06-16-2005 02:18 PM
Brian Lock
Road Racing / Auto X
4
03-29-2005 07:37 PM
Brian Lock
Road Racing / Auto X
6
03-14-2005 11:39 AM
