November 20th, 1999: ASRA race at Firebird Raceway (Chandler, Arizona)

Tage Evanson's Integra GS-R

Photos from the ASRA Race at Firebird Raceway

So back a few months ago, the SCCA had a group of us show up at a sort of car show in Scottsdale to build interest in the club. Mostly this consisted of a few folks such as myself, Tage, Chelby and Kevin, Jim Rohn, and a few others sitting around chatting with each other for several hours. People did show up and ask questions from time to time so it seemed like a pretty worthwhile event.

Some time in the evening, a guy came by our area handing out flyers announcing a race and open track day at Firebird Raceway in November. It sounded pretty interesting and was only $80 plus $30 to join the group. I'd never heard of ASRA, but I'm always eager to check out whatever's going on at the track. Although I did run my Civic at Buttonwillow and Willow Springs over the summer, those tracks had a lot of run off room, whereas Firebird has walls. Walls would not be kind to someone like myself who'd had a couple of off-track adventures before.

Tire stack
My stack of Kumho tires
after one event
Tage was sure that it would be fine though, so I decided to give it some consideration. Although $110 for over an hour of track time sounded cheap, it's never that cheap. Being local sure helped since there would be no hotel or expensive food, or $40 in gas driving to and from the track. Thus, the major expense would be in tire wear. With shipping, mounting and balancing thrown in, the Kumho V700 tires I'm using cost about $500 per set.

The two open track events I did in California didn't seem to be too hard on my tires compared to an autocross. By this, I mean that autocrossing does a lot more wear per minute of driving than the open track stuff. I seemed to use up about half of my tire life just in the two California events and would wind up using a lot more in the 5 autocrosses and one driver's school to close out 1999. Since I really didn't want to buy more than one set of tires for the year, I decided not to run this event. As of this writing in the middle of December, I've finally finished out the race season and am nearly out of tire. If I had done the ASRA event, I would have needed another set of tires by now. Instead, I'll be able to cruise through Christmas and run the practice day in January on my current set of tires.

So, in the end I wound up just taking pictures at this event. We installed my camera bar and Sony camcorder into Tage's car so he'd have in-car video too. I should have a lap or so on the site soon, but it's also one of those things I seem to keep putting off until later. Since I'm already doing this update instead of buying Christmas gifts anyway, I'm not sure how much I'll be able to get done before the new year. After it however, I should have time to catch up on many of the things I've been putting off.

First up are the picture from my 35mm camera. Most of these turned out pretty well, but I wasn't able to take pictures from the back section where all of the turns are. So instead, I just got a lot of pictures of the first turn and the main straight-away.

Tage attempting to chase down a slightly faster Porsche 911
The Porsche builds up a lead however
Another pic of Tage's GS-R

The big horsepower cars would pull away on the front straight, but Tage would always catch up when they hit the turns
Tage joins forces with the muscle cars in filling the air with burnt oil
Brady blasts down the front straight in Chris Brinson's Honda Prelude

For as well as things went at the event, there were a couple of incidents which put a small damper on the action. There were no injuries however, so the problems were nothing that money and time can't fix.

The driver of an Infiniti G20 spun and slid by a tire barrier sideways leaving black tiremarks on the nose. Fortunately, he was able to buff most of it out later.
This Triumph driver got a nasty surprise when the car in front of him lost control and crunched the Triumph's front end. Though a bit upset, the driver was still able to complete the later sessions.
The driver of this Porsche 944 wasn't so lucky. Though I'm not sure of the details, he managed to smack the outside wall and render the car undriveable

Though not pretty, it did appear that it could be fixed and rolling again with some suspension and body work

The real impressive hardware came later however and included some fast racing trucks and highly tricked out Porsche 911's.

One of the "monster" Porsches powerslides through the last turn.
The two other monster 911's prepare to blast by a 320 horsepower Camaro SS
A couple of cars in the race group; a fast Porsche 914, one of the monster 911's, and a Cobra-type car with some of the biggest slicks I've seen

Not everything fast was big. This Legends car was tiny, but held it's own.
A BMW M3 Lightweight, an M3, and one of the speedy race trucks
Driving into the sunset, three Porsches just slightly outclassing a Honda Civic hatchback

The last pictures here are video captures from my camcorder. The in-car ones are from Tage Evanson's Integra GS-R which actually did quite well at the event. About the only cars which could stay in front of him had at least a 60 horsepower advantage over him.

The morning started early and with weather that was about as perfect as it gets
This was what it looked like from in the car where most all my pictures were taken from. Here Tage chases and passes a Triumph and stays on a quick 911 until getting stuck behind slower cars
Even with a passenger, Tage keeps up with a Camaro SS, BMW M3, and M3 lightweight

Here the M3 and lightweight get by the SS, but Tage winds up stuck behind him
Even with a 140hp advantage over Tage's GS-R, Tage was able to stay on the SS. Since passing wasn't allowed in the turns, Tage's first attempt to get by the Camaro failed
Next lap, taking a better line, Tage gets enough exit speed to pull even with the SS on the front straight. With the Camaro driver letting Tage reach turn 1 first, Tage proceeds to put about 5 seconds between them each lap afterward.

Page created: 12-19-99
This site maintained by Brandon Smith
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First up are the picture from my 35mm camera. Most of these turned out pretty well, but I wasn't able to take pictures from the back section where all of the turns are. So instead, I just got a lot of pictures of the first turn and the main straight-away.
Tage attempting to chase down a slightly faster Porsche 911	The Porsche builds up a lead however	Another pic of Tage's GS-R
The big horsepower cars would pull away on the front straight, but Tage would always catch up when they hit the turns	Tage joins forces with the muscle cars in filling the air with burnt oil	Brady blasts down the front straight in Chris Brinson's Honda Prelude
For as well as things went at the event, there were a couple of incidents which put a small damper on the action. There were no injuries however, so the problems were nothing that money and time can't fix.
The driver of an Infiniti G20 spun and slid by a tire barrier sideways leaving black tiremarks on the nose. Fortunately, he was able to buff most of it out later.	This Triumph driver got a nasty surprise when the car in front of him lost control and crunched the Triumph's front end. Though a bit upset, the driver was still able to complete the later sessions.	The driver of this Porsche 944 wasn't so lucky. Though I'm not sure of the details, he managed to smack the outside wall and render the car undriveable
	Though not pretty, it did appear that it could be fixed and rolling again with some suspension and body work
The real impressive hardware came later however and included some fast racing trucks and highly tricked out Porsche 911's.
One of the "monster" Porsches powerslides through the last turn.	The two other monster 911's prepare to blast by a 320 horsepower Camaro SS	A couple of cars in the race group; a fast Porsche 914, one of the monster 911's, and a Cobra-type car with some of the biggest slicks I've seen
Not everything fast was big. This Legends car was tiny, but held it's own.	A BMW M3 Lightweight, an M3, and one of the speedy race trucks	Driving into the sunset, three Porsches just slightly outclassing a Honda Civic hatchback
The last pictures here are video captures from my camcorder. The in-car ones are from Tage Evanson's Integra GS-R which actually did quite well at the event. About the only cars which could stay in front of him had at least a 60 horsepower advantage over him.
The morning started early and with weather that was about as perfect as it gets	This was what it looked like from in the car where most all my pictures were taken from. Here Tage chases and passes a Triumph and stays on a quick 911 until getting stuck behind slower cars	Even with a passenger, Tage keeps up with a Camaro SS, BMW M3, and M3 lightweight
Here the M3 and lightweight get by the SS, but Tage winds up stuck behind him	Even with a 140hp advantage over Tage's GS-R, Tage was able to stay on the SS. Since passing wasn't allowed in the turns, Tage's first attempt to get by the Camaro failed	Next lap, taking a better line, Tage gets enough exit speed to pull even with the SS on the front straight. With the Camaro driver letting Tage reach turn 1 first, Tage proceeds to put about 5 seconds between them each lap afterward.