I gave the car one final inspection and bled the brakes. I paid special attention to the solid spherical compression rods and front lower control arms we added, making sure they hadn't developed play or done anything funky that would prove to be an issue. Then a quick spray down with some detailer gave the car all the love it needed.
It was time to suit Yukes up and get him out for the start. Strapping another driver into your car is always a nervous time. Sure, you've seen them drive, but what happens when it's game time? Will they respect your equipment? Or is it an all-out, win-at all-costs battle? Putting my nerves aside, I gave Mr. Taniguchi a handshake and watched the Z roll on up to the front of the grid.
The green flag finally drops and the Viper that's controlling the pace catches Yuke at top rpm in second gear. He has to make a quick shift to stay in the pack, and needless to say, it's tricky considering the left-hand-drive situation. As a result, he gets passed by a BMW through the first corner, but both cars are quick to act on a mistake by the Viper entering corner 2 - now it's BMW, Nissan and Viper. However, both Yukes and the BMW get freight-trained by the V-10 on the backstraight. Yukes regains second shortly after and things start to develop some sort of stability. Now it's all about pace and getting through traffic. At this race, there are tons of cars running in the field and times range from 1:20s all the way up to 1:50s. For a fast car, that means you lap a slow one every three to four laps, which can prove to be somewhat of a traffic jam at times, but that's what makes the race exciting.
A very fast GT1 Subaru STI gets by Yukes on lap 27, leaving us in third place overall, but still first in class. Soon after the Viper pits for fuel and the Subaru drops out with a small mechanical problem, moving the 350Z into first place overall until lap 48 when Yukes comes in for our fuel and tire stop. I get him out of the car as fast as possible and fueling begins. As soon as it's finished, I get in the car, belt up and wait. Meanwhile, the air guns are going off and the tire change is almost done. The lollipop lifts and I'm finally able to roll out in a quick but delicate manner. Breaking an axle now would be poor use of our first overall position. Of course, by the time our pit stop was over we fell back to third place.
I immediately notice the car has a ton of understeer with the full fuel load, and with more than an hour and a half to go, I better drive extremely delicately if I want to have any tire left by the end of this thing. I lap consistent 1:30s with full fuel through traffic, which, looking back, may not have been the smartest decision. It's so easy to coast speed in and let the understeer decelerate you, but that overheats the front tires - not good. Every lap I'd have to pass two or three cars, usually exiting a corner or on a straight. But sometimes I'd catch a train of six or seven cars scattered all over the place. When those cars are doing 1:45s and up, there's no time to waste being behind them. I'm forced to pass up on the curbing, or dive bomb a few cars at a time, even cut them off to some degree. It is a race after all.
Just over an hour into my stint, we knew the car wouldn't make it on a single fuel load, so it was time to pit. At this point, my back was in agony and I was losing focus fast, not to mention the tires were starting to go. The car would step out violently over the concrete patches, so I had to be very gentle on the throttle and take it easy entering corners to cool the tires down, which was ultimately costing us time. A pit stop was what the car (and driver) needed.