mxpop

Subiefest 2009 at Willow Springs International Raceway

Being greeted by a cool yet sunny windless morning was a rare treat as any WSIR regulars can testify. The conditions were ripe for records to fall and fall they did.




We had a strong showing 2 weeks prior at Spring Mountain where we beat the old Unlimited track record by 7 seconds with our Modified class car (yet still finished 2nd in Mod). Our recent improvements to the car and driver are really coming together and the entire team is working very well.



After signups and the driver's meeting (where I did my best to embarrass 101's Dusty Nabor), we got out on track with very low settings to break in our new pistons and turbo. Even in traffic with low settings we cruised to some effortless 1:29s (We won Subiefest 2008 with a 1:28) With everything looking good, we gave it a little more boost and immediately ran into boost cut due to the unusually cool air temp. A quick stop in the pits saw Mitch's Scandinavian fingers in a blur clickety-clickety style on the laptop and we went back out. The very next lap had the car go off song again so another stop was needed. This time it was Adan who found a spark plug connector not quite 100% engaged which was a quick fix for our Latin hero. The next practice went very well with some low 1:26s in traffic (a new Mod/Ltd/TTU track record) while on tires that should have been thrown away a long time ago. Frank was doing his best Jackie Chan impression looking like an angry Ninja the way he was attacking tire pressure and temp duties. He nailed our targets perfectly all day. Jonny used his jungle-like instincts to help out with whatever was needed and Breck's flowing hair looked like Superman's cape as he floated around the car getting his camera and sound equipment just right. JC, like the typical Swiss he is, sat back and enjoyed a cafe mocha and pastries between driving sessions.





The first serious timed session had us install our freshest set of tires that had already seen duty at Cal speedway and Spring Mountain. They weren't dead but their best laps were behind them. Since Subiefest this year only had a very restricted Street class and a completely open Unlimited class (only rule was no Mitsu motor hermaphrodites or something similar...) we figured that we had little chance of an overall win in Unlimited class since we were sticking with our Mod/Ltd/TTU legal setup which included our excellent Toyo "R" compound tires instead of the qualifying slicks approved for this race. Our goal was to break into the 1:25 range, get the new track record in class, and be the fastest Mod/Ltd/TTU legal car. A shot at the Unlimited podium was a possibility but we didn't expect an Unlimited win if the usual Unl suspects were on their game. Plus, the tires allowed in Unl are worth 4-5 seconds when setup properly over our "R" comp tires which is why we didn't bother to throw on brand new tires for this event. None the less, we were able to click off several low 1:25s and even a couple of upper 1:24s until we bumped into traffic, securing the new Mod/Ltd/TTU track record.



We absolutely reached and even exceeded our target so we decided to sit back and see what the competition was up to since we had been the fastest car all day up to this point. With the only two Unl class cars not running for best time, our main competition was LIC's sweet looking STI that was enjoying the trackside support of both GST and Crawford (the 2 unl teams in attendance). They also recruited Dr Russ Warr who is probably the fastest redneck looking AWD driving chiropractor in the world with many laps around WSIR under his belt. Although they were very fast (lapping under the old Mod/Ltd/TTU record), we still felt comfortable that we had them covered and sat out a few mid day sessions to preserve our car for the next 3 upcoming events.



When the final session came around we headed out with a few minor adjustments but still on our "seasoned" ties and not even on our "kill" mapping. As we confidently sauntered up to the pre-grid, we noticed that the LIC boys had played a strong card by installing some sticker (brand new) Hankook C91 qualifying tires. We know that those tires are worth 4-5 seconds over a good "R" comp tire if set up properly which should come quickly to LIC as they had GST and Crawford in their corral who both have many laps under their belt on these tires. The question would be whether or not LIC and Russ could make it work out for them.



We managed to improve our times slightly to a lower 1:24 but could do no better. A fresh set of tires and our "kill" map may have given us another 1-1.5 seconds but we will never know for sure. In the meantime, LIC showed what they could do with their fresh C91s and managed a 1:22.5 which was out of reach for us on this day with our Mod/Ltd/TTU setup, even if we had installed some fresh "R" comp tires. LIC dropped their times by 3.5 seconds over their "R" comp laptimes they had previously ran and would have likely gone even faster if they had more setup time with these tires. This strongly supports the belief that C91s are worth 4-5 seconds per lap which LIC was on track to gain if they had a little more test time on these tires, dropping 3.5 the first time out on fresh C91s supports this. In third was the COBB/Surgeline STI Unlimited class car on Hoosiers with a 1:29. Theoretically, if we had put C91s on our car and similarly dropped our times by 3.5 seconds, we would have been in the 1:20 range with the fastest AWD car ever (Sierra-Sierra) and would have been the fastest Subaru ever at WSIR by a comfortable margin. Assuming we could realize all of the expected gains that C91s offer and we would have been in the high teens! Of course, that's just unproven bench racing theory but does make one wonder, hmmmm.......



All things considered, we feel great about our performance. Beating the previous Mod/Ltd/TTU track record was our goal, smashing it was icing on the cake. We even lead Subiefest overall all day until we got beat by the combined efforts of LIC, Russ Warr, GST, and Crawford on C91s in the final session with their Unlimited spec car (Unl spec due to their tire choice). Those guys are all very fast on their own and even harder to beat when they put their collective heads together. We are proud to have given them an honest run for their money in Unlimited even with our Mod legal car and I bet this will help give LIC momentum and confidence when back in Mod trim. It's great to have another fast Mod class Subie team to help beat the EVOs. They are great guys to race with as well.



Sunday was another race/event for us at WSIR with our Subie as well as Ryan Novak's beautiful Honda S2000. We entered both cars in "The Octane Report Challenge" to compete for a spot in OR's booth at SEMA this year and we also raced the Honda in the S2K challenge that SpeedVentures organizes. Our Subie ran flawlessly again and let us put down a few 1:25s in warmup and then some 1:24s (I believe this is a SV record for non formula cars, certainly on "R" comps) in the race on our now totally dead tires (within .008 of each other!) This let us easily win the race portion of the OR challenge by about 5 seconds over the next closest competitor. The Honda had some teething problems but we were able to get it together enough to run some 1:30s in traffic to secure the pole in the final race. We are running the same excellent Toyo R888 tires on this car as we do on our STI but in a smaller size. These are the best "R" compound tires available but we had our hands full all weekend competing against race-slick equiped cars. The final race for the S2K started out great until about half way through the lap when a boost hose came off. We had to nurse the car to the finish and only managed a 1:32 (our target was a 1:28 for this day which was very realistic). Fortunately, our 1:32 was still enough to win the Unlimited S2K class as well as the overall. Not bad for it's 2nd race ever. We have lots more power, better suspension, and much bigger tires available once we sort out our teething pains. Keep your eyes out for this car in the near future.....





This was truly one of the more enjoyable race events we have attended and that's due in large part to the fun promoters and the great competition.

As always, we couldn't have done any of this without the great help and support from the crew and sponsors.

Adan Quezeda
Mitch Pedersen
Frank Chen
Ryan Novak
Dianne Hoffman
Breck Haggerty
Tommy Mc Williams
Jim Gates
Judey Rubio
Leilani Solomon
Jonny Grunewald
Ray Quezeda
Dan Harman


AQ Motorsports/Harman Motive
MPT tuning
JRZ suspensions
Toyo Tires
Cosworth
AEM
AIM
Enkei wheels
Motul
Stoptech brakes
ACT clutch
Kaminari fabrications
EDO/Zero Sports
Sparco
The Driveshaft shop
Kognition
Deatschwerks
Kartboy
Whiteline
Hose Techniques
AirTrix