ALL UPDATES ARE IN THE WORDS OF SHARIF:

Catesby and I left Forged Performance at 4pm yesterday and drove straight through with the GT-R tucked safely away on our trailer. At 3am, we arrived at the hotel and managed to grab a few hours of sleep before making the 15 min trip to Tire Rack’s headquarters in South Bend, IN.





No less than 74 crazy and brave souls, and their co-drivers arrived for the obligatory registration, and driver’s meeting. This was our first chance to have a look at some of our competitors for this year’s event.

The event kicks off in earnest tomorrow morning at 8am with the wet skid pad, followed by the banked oval, then a quick transit drive to Autobahn Country Club. Three full events the first day…it’s going to be a busy one.

 

The first event of OLOA 2012 is the challenging wet skid pad. With Tire Rack’s sprinkler system coating the skid pad with a uniformly deep layer of water, each competitor took their turn driving their cars around the circle.

It’s amazing what you can pack into a GT-R!







Although the GT-R can usually hold it’s own on the wet skid pad, the top spot has traditionally been the domain of lighter and more nimble cars. But this year, to everyone’s surprise, the first place spot was in fact, taken by a GT-R, but one that was shod with massive 335 Michelin Pilot Super Sport Tires at all four coners! Incredible…many of us had wondered if the larger square setup vs. the 315’s we run, would be good in the wet. Todd and Tyson tested out this theory, which resulted in the overall win by a HUGE margin. Congratulations to them.

PSS 335 Sqaure was FAST on the wet skid pad.



We went into the wet skidpad expecting to finish towards the front of the group and we did. Catesby wheeled the car to a very respectable 6th place finish and reported the car felt superb.









A few more competitors take their shot at the wet skid pad. Smooth, steady balance is the key to a good run.











So with the first event under our belt, we hoped in the GT-R and made the 15 minute drive to the banked oval. Neither of us knew what to expect and we simply wanted to get through it in one piece and move onto the meat and potatoes portions of One Lap of America.

Catesby put on quite a show, to say the least. Launching the car at 4500rpm, the Forged Performance GT-R launched itself into the first turn and stuck like glue. The first lap around the ovall was abosolutely text-book. With tires warm, the second and final lap started even better than the first. On the exit of turn one he was absolutely flying off the corner…maybe a flying a bit too much. Tracking out to within a few inches of the concrete wheel he hauls it down again at the start of turn two. Hard on the brakes, the car slides 45 degrees sideways with Catesby expertly and miraculously keeping it off the wall for the second time. At this point, knowing that the lap would probably be a throw away he layed into the throttle again and drifted the car towards the wall AGAIN on the exit and again keeps it less than a foot away from the concrete wall.

As the crowd erupts in applauds, Catesby takes a bow and exits the track giving us all a big thumbs up. It wasn’t fast but damn it looks good. A quick check of the timing and scoring showed he still managed to pull of a 2nd place overall despite being sideways for half of the second lap.

Autobahn updates coming next..we are here at this beautiful facility. This is where our new aero improvements will really shine.

 

Awesome story! Can't wait for more! Keep the pics coming

 

We were looking forward to the first real road course event, and Autobahn’s technical South Course was just the ticket we were looking for. The Forged Performance FP800 equipped GT-R continued to perform flawlessly.



With current reigning Grand-Am Champion Leh Keen behind the wheel of the TopSpeed GT-R, we knew that making 3 clean laps and playing it safe was the way to go at this point. Remember, it’s still the first day of the event, and OLOA is all about patience, and consistency and that’s what Catesby did. On our medium boost setting, the car looked smooth as glass through the very slow and technical T1/T2 while other competitors struggled for grip and power on.



Despite only have 6 laps of lifetime experience at Autobahn, Catesby managed to click off a pair of 1:31’s on barely warm tires while still playing it safe and leaving some on the table. The TopSpeed GT-R and the Forged Performance GT-R were separated by a cumulative 2 seconds after the standing start three lap blast. That’s pretty damn close in anyone’s book, I reckon.

With 2nd place overall after the first day of competition, me and Catesby feel pretty good about our progress so far knowing there is more power and time to be had. Thanks for your support and hope you all enjoy the photos I managed to snap.



















K-Man!

 

Last night, I accidentally found myself cruising along at 96mph while chatting it up with Catesby. The wide open interstate coupled with the dead rock stability of the GT-R gave us the allusion of a 65mph gentle cruise. Too bad the Iowa State Patrol didn’t share our thoughts.



After a brief chat he asked me to accompany him to his cruiser, informing us “this won’t take long”. This friendly law enforcement professional made the process as quick and painless as possible. Reduced to 85mph and we back underway.

This morning, we woke to what was left of the heavy rain storm that passed through overnight. As the skies start to clear a bit, we pulled into the legendary BP Gas Station cafe just next to Mid America Motoplex. This place is home to the area’s finest 1 star hotel…that’s putting it generously. But more importantly, a terrific breakfast cafe that doubled as our pre-race staging area.











We are wrapping up breakfast and heading to the track momentarily. We are praying they have race fuel, otherwise, I’ll be whipping up an E85 map and rolling the dice.

 

Catesby and I finished up our breakfast and proceeded to the track. Unbeknownst to us, the previous night’s rains had flooded the race gas storage tanks at Mid America Motoplex leaving us with just 91 octane fuel at our disposal. Although we knew that most of the fuel stations in the Mid West top out with 91 octane we didn’t expect the race track to be without some form of higher octane petrol.
With less than 20 minutes before the first round begins and no good options to choose from, I quickly unloaded the 200lbs of gear jammed into the back of the GT-R and prepared the car for Catesby. I then grabbed my laptop and heading to the gas station to fill up with 91 octane fuel with hopes I’d have enough time to put a quick road tune on the car. Over the years I have become accustomed to tuning with all kinds of fuels, including 91 octane. But retuning the car would take some time, which was something I simply didn’t appear to have. I decided to simply lower the boost to a level I knew would be safe and hoped for the best.


As soon as Catesby’s GT-R pulled away for warmup laps, I knew we were in trouble. The TopSpeed GT-R driven by Grand-Am Champion Leh Keen accelerated with authority, while the Forged GT-R clearly made do with low boost and poor fuel. It didn’t take a stop watch or transponder to know how we did. With little time, boost, or octane to spare we finished round one with an unusual 5th place finish.
As soon as Catesby came off the track, I grabbed my laptop bag and snatched the car from him. I had a few hours until the next session and was determined to recalibrate the ECU for 91 octane fuel. I left without saying anything other than "Don’t call me…I’ll come back when I am done!" As the road tuning began, I get a call from the Sleeper Racing team (ZR1 and 2013 GT-R) called me with the location of a 93 octane fuel station about 15 miles away. I immediately headed there and filled up 10 gallons of 93 giving us an effective octane of 92. I completed the tuning adjustments and return to the track.
The second round begin at 12:30pm and immediately I could tell the car was back to full song and had most of it’s vigor and despite the initial setup we pocketed another 2nd place finish with Leh Keen in the TSM GT-R taking home the 1st place prize. And I wanted to add a personal congratulations to Leh for some very fancy pants driving in the very tight left-right entry onto the front straight. I had a front row seat taking some photos and video and he had a good little dance going! So the Leh and Catesby show continues onward to Hallett Motor Racing Circuit in Jennings, OK as we begin the 425 mile transit time


A few of you have asked me what my secret sauce was today that allowed our car to go from docile little ***** cat in Round 1, to a ferocious pit bull in Round 2. So here you go! Althought we were still down on power with my home brewed octane booster mix we closed much of the gap despite a lower boost setting.




I am sorry I wasn’t able to take photos of all the GT-R’s but I was pretty busy running around today. Still trying to figure out how to be in three places at once. Thanks for looking…stay tuned for more updates shortly!

Mid America Motoplex is a fun little track, and I snapped some photos of the action



Catesby’s shiny new helmet was the talk of the town!

 

/drool


Nice cars

 

Hallet was a super fun looking track. The elevation change, rolling hills and blind apexes and track outs always make for an exciting track experience. Catesby and Leh continued to lead the field and both cars sounded incredibly, especially from a standing launch. The Forged Performance GT-R ran absolutely flawlessly all day, and required nothing that cleaning off the bug splatter from the front bumper. Catesby best time was a 1:20.7, and we took home wrapped up two more runner up positions.
I am pretty tired from running all around the infield taking photos, coupled with the several hundred mile drive to High Plains Colorado so I will keep this update short. We will be up at 5:30am and looking forward to having a few guest appearances it would appear. See you in the morning.
















We hold onto our solid 2nd place overall position into the next stop…High Plains Raceway, Colorado.

 

thanks for sharing!

 

We had a great day at Motorsports Park Hastings today. The Forged Performance GT-R to run really strong and Catesby is very pleased with the setup.


Catesby writes, “After our uncharacteristic 5th place finish in Mid America due to the 91 octane fuel and very wet conditions, Sharif and I decided it would be a bad idea to chase Leh down and potentially make a mistake given the point gap. Hopefully, we continue to knock down a few more podium finishes so we can close out the event as runner up. It’s pretty clear, that Leh and me will continue to go 1 and 2 unless something unexpected happens. But without question, Forged’s FP800R package, tweaked with a Sharif’s special sauce is really a dream to drive fast. Their engine hasnt consumed even one drop of oil after 2000 miles. And given the fact he was finishing the final tuning just before we left for OLOA makes it even more impressive. The power deliver is very linear yet just enough punch in the midrange to launch me off the corners. And speaking of launch, the launch control that he whipped up gives me another advantage from these stand start races we are competing in. Congratulations to Leh for some spectacular driving. He pushes to qualifying level n the first lap and never lets up. Sharif and I have some big plans for next year and we promise to make it just a bit harder for Leh to retain his title.”
So with that, we continue our 644 mile transit drive to Brainerd International Raceway in Minnesota with a very convincing 2nd place overall standing.












Who says you can’t wreck in an Auto-X..ouch.