Tuner shootout at Motegi (Parts I and II)

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Note: This is fictional story losely based on real race in GT4

Part I - The driver

Tuesday

It's sunny late afternoon and I'm sitting in my office bored out of my mind. There had been no excitement in my life for past two years since I hang up my racing gloves. It proved to be just too much trying to run private racing team as a one man show. I ran out of money, sponsors and eventually out of options.
On days like this I often find myself daydreaming about racing.
A phone ring brings me back to reality. Call display shows +81, what the hell ? That is not even in North America.

“Hello ?” I answer the phone, expecting to hear apologies for dialing a wrong number.

“Hey Mike, it’s Jake. Jake Jeffries.”

I’m confused. What could a mechanic I barely know want from me ?

“Where are you calling from ? The phone shows some crazy numbers.”

“Well,” I hear Jake’s calm voice saying. “Since the last time you saw me, I got a job in Japan. I’m a pit crew chief for small racing team.”

“What does it have to with me ? You are not calling just to brag, right ?”

“Let me finish. One of our drivers broke his arm and we got very important endurance race coming up. I remember you from old days when you ran those beaters against guys in factory supported rides and somehow managed to win. I know you haven’t raced in a while but I thought maybe you would like this opportunity”.

Millions of thoughts are running through my head and I hear myself saying: “Why me ? There are hundreds of guys that can drive the car for you.”

Jake replies, “Not really, everybody else is tied up in some contract. And also we don’t need someone who can drive a car, we need someone who can win that race”

By then I have already made the decision in my head.

“Sure, I’ll take it. When is the race ?”

“This weekend, we will pay for your ticket, hotel and all other expenses. Think of it as a vacation”

Friday evening

Jake picks me up at Narita airport near Tokyo. I shake hand with the guy and fall asleep right away in the back seat of his Honda Accord wagon. He wakes me up three hours later in front of the hotel in Motegi. I want to ask him about the race but he tells me to get rest first and helps me check-in.

Saturday morning

Jake calls me from the reception and I start bombarding him with questions.

“What car do you have for me ? How long is the race ? How many cars on the grid ? Common Jake, tell sm something”

“You will see” that’s all I get from him.

We get out of the car fifteen minutes later in the paddock of the Twin Rings race track. Jake takes me inside and I see the car for the first time. Actually I see two cars. Two Honda S2000 roadsters. I have only driven the S2000 once when they first came out in 1999. Just one ride convinced me they would make great racers. Nearly perfect weight distribution, front engine – rear wheel drive, rev happy engine with 9000 rpm redline.

“You will be driving the white one,” Jake points to the car standing next to its yellow sibling. “Let’s take it for a spin,” he adds.

I climb through a roll cage into the driver seat and Jake takes seat next to me. I push the start button and hear the engine to come to life with deep growl.

“This is not stock S2000, is it ?”

“Fairly stock,” Jake replies. “It’s modified by Mugen, Honda’s own racing development department”
I drive towards the pit exit while I listen to Jakes instructions. My hands are shaking with excitement. This car feels so solid and strong compared to the old front wheel drive CRX I used to race.

“Most drivers link turns three and four into one turn. Exit speed is very important. No distance markers here, you will have to memorize your braking points by tire marks on the track,” Jake leads me through the track.

I finish two laps and drive back to the pits to drop Jake off.

“Ok, now you are on your own. Run ten laps and come back here. The rest of the team should be here by then,” Jake says.

I take off and start circling around empty track. The car rides on street tires and doesn’t have much downforce. Still I find it pretty easy to drive. I’m getting to know the track and at some points I try to find the limits of the car. I run wide at the blind S curve but the run-offs are pretty wide here so I just put two wheels on the grass and pull back easily.

The engine responds really well. Thanks to the close ratio gearbox I have no problems keeping it in VTEC range over 6000 RPM where the most aggressive cam shaft is engaged. Although Honda claims 50:50 weight distribution this car feels little front heavy.

Ten laps done I pull in to the pit lane. Team’s stall is pretty busy now. I count at least six mechanics and one man in grey suit. I crawl out of the car and Jake introduces me to this serious looking man.
His name is Hanayama and he is the team owner. He doesn’t speak English so Jake has to translate. Mr. Hanayama bows almost unnoticeably, wishes me good luck and quickly leaves.

“So how do you like the car ?” Jake asks.

“It’s pretty quick even on these street tires. What are we running for the race ?” I answer with question.

“This is it. The race is limited to street legal tires. Fortunately Bridgestone is one of the sponsors so there is nearly unlimited supply”

“So Jake, will you finally tell me what this race is all about ?”

“I guess it’s time” agrees Jack, “This is an eight hour shoot out between some of the top Japanese tuner cars. We are representing Mugen, Trial is here with their ’03 Celica, Tom’s X540 Chaser, Nismo runs their road version of R34 Skyline GT-R LM and our biggest rival is Spoon with another S2000”.

“Ok, who are the other drivers on our team ?”

“Drivers ?” Jake looks surprised, “There is you and Bob. Actually his name is Hidefumi but I just call him Bob”

“And the other car ?”

“I just told you, it’s Bob’s. There are no other drivers.”

Now it’s my turn to look surprised. “Are you telling me we have to run for eight hours straight ?”

“That’s right,” Jake grins. “I never said it was gonna be a walk in the park.”



Part II - here
 
*Applause* That was some great stuff man! I was intrigued at the end but I think it fell a little short. But a great writing overall.

I would have never guessed that English was your second language man, and you have also a great imagination, which is a plus ;)

Keep it up as I'm looking forward to read more of these from you.





Ciao!
 
Seriously, you were worried about your English? Why? :confused:
I know native English folks around here that can't write that well!
Excellent beginning, a good way to whet the appetite for some more good stuff to come! Tried to give +rep already, but alas it's too soon after I repped your Nurb' 24hr report! :(
Looking forward to reading the rest! :)
 
That is good. 👍 👍 👍 👍 👍 👍 👍 👍 👍 👍 10 thumbs up. I look forward to the rest.

xjr-9
 
Originally Posted by socomplayer2
lmao i love the line Hey mike its jake, jake jeffries" lol

CRXnut: "Really ? I know a lot of people that introduce themself that way. Or is it funny name ?"


its a funny name
 
Absolutley great story.👍 I can't wait to read the other parts. No question about it, your english is just as good if not better than most people who speak it as a first language.
 
Part I - here

Part II - The car

“Let me introduce you to my best mechanic,” continues Jake while I try to recall when was last time I ran race longer than three hours.
“This is Paul,” and he taps young Japanese guy on his shoulder.

The guy turns towards me with a smile.

“Of course that is not my name, but you can call me Paul. Jake has got English names for all of us. I guess he got tired of being laught at when he tried to pronounce our real names.”

“Ok, why don’t you talk to Paul about setting up the car. I’m pretty sure you already have some ideas.” Jake turns to leave and then he ads, “Paul, don’t forget about the weight.”

I walk towards the white car with Paul and ask him about the weight.

“We won this event two years in the row so the organizers are setting us up with 200 kilograms handicap.” Paul answers my question and continues, “but last year we didn’t run against Spoon guys. Their car is much lighter to start with and they have twenty five horse powers on us.”

“Ouch, when do the good news stop ?” I ask sarcastically.

“Their driver. He mainly does testing and doesn’t have much race experience. He is very fast but only when he has the track for himself.”

Well, that would explain why Jake called me, I think to myself. I don’t recall ever finishing a race without some scratches on my car. The thought of side by side fights makes me realize how much I really miss racing. I can’t wait to get in the car again.

“So, how did you like the car ?” asks Paul.

“I like the power, I wish there was a longer straight. I never got to shift it to sixth gear.”

“Yeah, I can fix that. We didn’t bother changing it until we talked to you first. It’s still geared for the last track we ran on. You can have whatever you want. Final drive or individual gears”

“Really ?” I’m surprised again. “Could you make it top out at 200 km/h and space the top four gear as close as possible ?”

“Sure. But that will be a lot of shifting. Are you sure you want to do it for eight hour race ?” Paul warns me.

“Absolutely.” I’m excited. What a difference compared to my old days. We used to scavenge old transmissions from other cars and then mixed and matched the gears for custom gearboxes.

“Ok.” Says Paul. “Take Bob’s car and try to learn the track. Come back here in 30 minutes. It should be done.”

“What ?!” I’m shocked.

“C’mon.” Paul laughs. “Stop acting surprised all the time. We are factory supported racing team.”

I return to the track in the yellow car. It handles pretty much the same but acceleration is much better due to less weight. There is couple of other cars practicing on the track now. I follow Trial Celica for few laps trying to learn some good lines but I quickly realize I’m not going to learn much from front wheel drive car. The huge Skyline zips by me on the back straight. I get behind him to use the draft and almost rear-end him under braking. This will be good spot for overtaking. Heavy cars have to brake very early on this downhill.

I got the track memorized now and I try to find the limits of the car. The blind S curve catches me out again but I’m able to keep it on the road. I would not expect rear wheel drive car to understeer so much but this car is not setup for me and I’m sure Paul can do something about it.

I do one more lap and return to the pits.
Paul pulls out digital thermometer and checks the tires.

“Jake was right about you driving aggressively. These tires are just about done, especially on the sides. We could run little more pressure but you will have to take it easier.”

“I was taking it easy ! Do we have harder compound ?” I ask.

“Nope, this is what we have to run in the race. But I think you will be ok. Bob can run more than 20 laps on one set.”

“Alright, let me try the transmission setup.” I jump back into the white car.

Just one lap proves I was right about the setup. The gears are so close that the RPMs only drop about by 1500 between shifts. I can’t even feel the extra weight under acceleration. I wish it was true about braking and cornering as well. Only now after driving the other car I notice how much longer it takes to slow down and the tendency to understeer.

I drive back to the pits to talk to Paul about it. He sends me out to get coffee while he changes front sway bar and adjusts preload on rear springs.

“Here you go,” he says when I come back. “Now you got exactly same spring ratios on all four corners. Softer front sway bar should take care of understeer”

“Thanks Paul.”

I return to the track. The car still pushes a bit but it’s better now. I can actually swing the car around by lifting off throttle.

All of the sudden I hear another car catching up to me. I look in the rear view mirror and see blue Honda S2000. That has to be the Spoon car. I let him pass me and try to keep up with him through couple of turns. He is definitely faster on the straights but I can stay with him if I draft. I stay close to him and try to copy his line through turn three. The extra weight pushes me wide, I slide over the curb and spin out into a sand trap. Fortunately it’s not very deep and I manage to dig myself out.

When I return to the pits I find Jake talking with Paul. Jake takes one look at the dirty car and asks: “Aren’t you little too old to play in the sand box ?”

“The car is just too heavy, I tried to keep up with the Spoon guy.” I defend myself.

“Keeping up with him is not good enough.” Jake continues. “You either have to be faster or be good on tires so we can beat them on pit strategy”

“What about shifting that weight ?” I try to change subject.

“We can do that.” Says Paul. “I assume you want it further back ?”

“Exactly”

“But don’t forget it will upset the balance. The car will become unstable if you try to brake and turn at the same time.”

“That is exactly what I want.” I assure him.

“I hope you know what you are doing. I don’t want to spend all night rebuilding crashed car.” Paul mumbles to himself and calls couple of mechanics to help him with the weights.

“Sorry if I am little tense.” Jake apologies. “I just had a talk with the boss and he is really putting pressure on me. He didn’t like the idea of bringing driver from overseas and then he saw you in the sand”

“Oh common. You know it’s the only way to find the limits of traction.”

“Yeah, I know,” sighs Jake. “We will do some timed laps in the afternoon. Go get something to eat, I already had lunch with Hanayama.”

Saturday afternoon

The car is ready when I return from lunch. Paul gives me one more warning and I’m off to the track again. It’s great. After just three hours of setting up it feels like totally different car. I have no problems controlling oversteer under braking and it no longer pushes under acceleration.
I notice Jake leaning against the pit wall with stop-watch.
Time to put the hammer down. I run three hot laps and return to the pits.

Jake greets me with grin on his face. “Ok, you can go back to the hotel”

“Why ? I thought we’re gonna run some timed laps”

“You just did !” Jake is almost screaming now. “You just ran three laps, each about one and a half seconds quicker than Bob !”
“Take my Accord and go to get some sleep. I need you to be fresh for tomorrow.”

to be continued ...
 
You've definately got a great story going here! I can't wait for Sunday's race. I've got to give you credit for writing out all the dialogue. I find the style very tedious to compose, personally, but it makes for very interesting and believable reading. You've got more patience than I do, that's for sure.

Thanks for the report,
John
 
Yes it is very time consuming, it's taking me much longer than I thought. I should have part III for you in next couple of days.
 
CRXnut,
I withheld my comments in anticipation of part III and was going to rep you for it.

Excellent story so far but part III ????
Have you been in a fight with your publisher ?

Will rep you anyway (if permitted by the system)

edit: alas, the dreaded you must spread ...... msg appears.

AMG.
 
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