2010 IPRA National Champion EG Civic!!!!
The 2010 Australian National IPRA Under 2L Champion,
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For those who don't like a read and just look at pictures this is the weekend in short:
After 10 months of HARD work and prep Laurie D'ALessio in an EG Civic has just been crowned 2010 IPRA National Under 2L champion. This was his debut IPRA race in the car!!!
SATURDAY PICS - http://nextgenphotography.zenfolio.com/p1026168909
SUNDAY PICS - http://nextgenphotography.zenfolio.com/p751032507
For those that don't mind a read, read on:
The 2010 IPRA Nationals was held on Oct 16th and 17th at Barbagallo Raceway in Perth. Cars came from all over Oz including NT and as far as Tasmania to join the high quality of cars W.A is renowned for, all to contest for IPRA glory in under and over 2L.
Some standout cars from overeast where, Ray Hislop in the no budget spared V8 Blue BF Falcon (est cost I reckon is over 250k min) and Leanne Tander (Garth Tanders wife) in an immaculate RX7 that really pushes the limits of whats possible with the old Version 1-3 RX7.
Unfortunately no title contender under 2L car's from NSW entered. Apparently their championship race is this weekend and if something critical happened in Perth it could affect their chance of a good result at this weekend's race back in NSW.
There was TV coverage of the event and an incar camera on Laurie's car that will be featured in the TV coverage. The TV coverage will be released first on Fox Sports then on SBS in a couple of weeks.
SATURDAY
The 2010 IPRA Nationals kicked of on Saturday Oct 16th. Being a Honda forum I will just focus mainly on the under 2L cars. The 3 cars that were in strong contention for the Under 2L class were all W.A cars and were,
Blue Ford Fiesta driven by Mr Green - Fully built 2L with ITB's, weight with driver and unknown fuel level 1100kg
Blue DC2R driven by Colin Harper - Fully built B18 sleeved to 2L, weight with driver and unknown fuel level 1077kg
Black EG Civic driven by Laurie D'Allesio - Standard K20 with ITB's and cams, weight with driver and 3/4 full fuel tank 1070kg
This is the car I am involved in and when I refer to "us" in this write-up I am referring to Laurie (driver and part owner of car), Gavin (main builder and car setup guru) and Me (Gavs assistant).
Before the start of the event all the IPRA cars were broken into 4 groups, A,B,C and D. The Civic was in Group A and the Integra and XR4 were in Group D.
Saturday Race Day Program was as follows,
Practice
Group A + B Qualify
Group C + D Qualify
Top 50% Qualify
Bottom 50% qualify
Dash For Glory (1 Lap Sprint of top 5 fastest cars in under and over 2L, not compulsory nothing to do with points)
RACE Group A vs Group B
RACE Group C vs Group D
First up was practice, followed by qualifying. The first stage of qualifying was to sort out the fast and the slow cars in under and over 2L with the top 50% in the 2 groups qualifying again. The Integra, Civic and XR4 all got through to the Top 50% next qualifying group in under 2L. In top 50% qualifying the Integra posted a 66.16sec lap as opposed to the Civic and XR4 of 66.37 and 67.36 respectivly. It wasn't that crucial for the civic to set a ballistic time as the Integra and XR4 were in a different Group to us and in the race at the end of the day we wouldn't be versing them.
The grid spots for Sundays Racing would be decided on Race result finishes and was irrespective of class, how you finish the race is how you will be starting the next race.
Next up was "Dash For Glory" which was an invite to the top 5 fastest cars in under and over 2L to do a Time Attack style sprint over 1 lap. This had nothing to do with points but was good for spectators and competitors to see how quick the cars can go in a 1lap Time Attack situation (IPRA cars are designed for 9-20 lap stints).
The 9 cars that entered the Dash For Glory starting with the fastest lap were,
FASTEST OVER 2L Leanne Tander, (N/A Rotary) RX7 - 63.35
Matt Cherry, (6L V8) Holden Monaro - 63.65
Ray Hislop, (6L V8) Ford Falcon BF - 64.34
Ashly Barnett, (SR20DET) S14 200sx - 65.19
FASTEST UNDER 2L Laurie D'Allesio, (K20) EG Civic - 66.27
Gary Hasler, (N/A Rotary) RX7 - 66.41
Colin Harper, (B18 2L) DC2R - 67.26
Michael Green, (Duratec 2L) XR4 - 68.6
Christopher Evans, (SR20DE) Datsun 1200 coupe - 69.29
What has to be remembered is that these are IPRA cars (restrictive rules, designed to last and be consistent over 9-20 laps), not time attack cars. Also they use the Yokohama A048 control tyre which unless is 100% brand new is only consistent for about 10 laps of total use then is quite a bit slower. Alot of people where running new tyres for every race instead of running on the same tyres for the whole day and being compromised. Nearly all the competitors in the dash for glory did faster lap times during the actual races then in this "Dash For Glory".
So time now for the end of saturday race, Group A vs Group B.
The aim of this race and the 2 other races on Sunday before the final race (20 Laps) was just to get positions so you have a good grid spot for the following 2 races before the final.
Laurie drove well and passed a number of cars before he found himself stuck behind the 400whp+ 6L V8 commodore of Brett Stewart. The civic was quicker through the corners but down the long back straight and front straight the commodore pulled 1 car length back. It was cat and mouse for most of the race with Laurie attempting to make a few brave passes but with every time he got him on corner exit before the straights the commodore would just pull back in front by 1 car length. This held the civic up a great deal as Laurie was quicker overall over 1 lap, stuck behind the commodore cost Laurie about 1 sec a lap minimum. At the end of the race we finished in 9th overall.
Next race Group C vs Group D. Harper's Integra finished this race in 6th overall with the XR4 close behind in 8th. Harper's Integra was starting to develop a slight misfire after the first couple of laps. Back in the pits Gavin lent him a spare distributer and coil to see if it will fix it for sunday. The misfire only occurs after the first couple of laps so we wouldn't know if the misfire would be fixed until Sundays racing.
SUNDAY
Saturday night was spent making a few changes, tweaking the car and general maintenance. Come Sunday morning a little bit more tweaking was in order and the car was all ready for its first race of the day.
10 am 9 laps, the first race started of good. Laurie passed the XR4 no dramas then focused on catching up to the Integra. Laurie was making great progress and carving up the field in front of him. There was alot of oil on the track from so many cars driving on it over the past 2 days (friday, sat and sunday) that straying of the driving line was only for the bold. Laurie unfortunately found this out going into the first corner on the 4th or 5th lap with a brake lock up and going straight on the run of area. As quickly as possible he selected reverse, backed up out of the run of area and rejoined the cars. Having gone from approx 6th to now approx 12th it was sickening to watch especially after such good progress he made in the first 4-5 laps.
Laurie renewed the race with what seemed like renewed enthusiasm drove the rest of the race well and picked up a few spots. The Integra still had the slight misfire once was hot but managed to finish a respectable 6th, the XR4 (passed Laurie when he had the off) finished in 9th with Laurie in 10th. Not good for us for grid placings, we must do good in the next race to have a decent grid spot in the final race. During the race Laurie posted the fastest lap time of the Under 2L cars.
Back in the pits Laury gave us his feedback on the car and we went to work doing a few more tweaks before the next race.
11am 9 laps. Back out for the crucial race before the final. We had to make up positions on this race to get a good grid spot for the final race which would decide the Under 2L champion.
Laury got a good launch and was going strong, back down the back straight entering the last corner on the 1st lap Laurie was right on the back bumper of the 6L Monaro of Sean Ferrall. The Monaro went a little bit wide and Laurie slipped right up alongside with his bonnet just next to his drivers door. Sean didn't know the civic was even there and turned in a bit more to straighten up, his drivers door hit the L/H/F guard of the civic, lifted the monaro of the ground, spun him round, and the monaro's front then smashed into the civic's R/H/F door. No ones fault really, just racing. While all this was happening a few cars slipped by. Nooooo, positions lost again.
This didn't seem to slow Laurie down at all with him catching up ground fast, passing alot of cars and was putting the pressure on the big over 2L boys. Watching this little civic with Laurie making awesome pass moves on the bigger much more powerfull cars was awesome, can't wait for the TV footage. This civic really hauls arse in a straight line. Laurie then came up on the bumper of an EVO 8 that has a 2.3L stroker engine and a Garret GT35 turbo on it. Laurie passed him on corner exit and PULLED AWAY down the straight!!!!!! Unbelievable, and a real eye opener to other people just how fast this car is in a straight line. Those tweaks we did to the intake seem to be working good. After passing the Evo Laurie then started attacking the 500hp commodores. Same as the first race on saturday it was cat and mouse with the bigger boys with Laurie really pushing them to their limits, and they only just edged ahead of him back on the straights.
500hp+ track/race 6L commodore just edging ahead of a 2L civic by half a car length? Unbeleivable!!!!
Laurie finished this race in 9th, just behind the 2 brute commodores with all 3 cars a couple of tenths of each other crossing the finish line.
Very good race with the car and driver performing near on perfectly. A shame about the bingle with the monaro at the beginning which prob cost us those 2 positions the commodores had ahead of us.
Back in the pits we examined the damage on the civic, did a lot of check overs and a few more tweaks in prep for the final 20Lap race final.
While we were busy doing all that, the Integra and XR4 were out doing their 2nd last race. The integra finished 5th with the XR4 in 7th. The integra will be starting ahead of us on the grid. Our aim is to push reasonably hard for the first couple of laps to try and catch upto the Integra and if possible pass him.
We did not have a chance to do a 20lap test session in our car as it was ready literally on saturday. So our guess on how the car would react to 20 race pace laps was anyones guess. We built the car to the best possible standard we could so we knew the car would hold up no dramas but things like how would it handle with a full tank of fuel, how will it handle with tyres that are doing 20 laps without a break etc etc were all unknown.
We got over generous with the fuel and filled the tank upto the brim just to be safe. We estimated that the car uses approx 1.5L of fuel per lap so we had more then enough fuel but we topped it up all the way just to be safe that we don't get any of the dreaded OEM fuel tank surge at 1/4 fuel levels.
With last minute tweaks here and there to the car Laurie then hopped in and drove to the start gate. Me and Gav were nervous, who knows how nervous Laurie was sitting at that gate, waiting to line up on the grid. Those couple of minutes seemed to go on forever. I ran back to the car twice just to double and triple check a few things. All that 10 months of hard work, those all day and all night missions on the car, coming home at 2.30am in the morning, the missus cracking it etc etc. Gav working on the car all night Friday and not sleeping at all before saturdays events, was it all worth it. We had done our bit, now it was upto Laurie to drive the thing.
The field spilled onto the track on the warm lap before settling into their grid positions. All of Groups A, B, C and D were there. 30 cars lining up! The whole front straight! Looking at the grid lining up, it sunk in just how far ahead on the grid the Integra was. The XR4 was a couple of spots ahead also. Laurie will have to go hard.
Flag drops and there of. Laury gets a good launch but is slowed down by the car in front so he backs of which enables a few cars to pass him including that EVO 8 that has slingshotted of the mark 4wd style and overtaken the civic in the first 3 secs of the race.
This doesn't deter Laurie and he drives the best he has driven all weekend. He seems to be very comfortable in the car, very late braking, good maneuvering through traffic etc. He passes the XR4 within a couple of laps and then its just closing the gap on the Integra with every lap. Half way through the race the civic makes a pass on the integra and its extra torque enables it to hold its lead down the straight and into the next corner. Its game over for the integra. After passing the integra and all of the under 2L cars Laurie gets into a comfortable conservative rhythm for the rest of the race. No point pushing the car anymore then is needed, the job has been done, now bring it home.
So the race finished with Laurie 5secs ahead of the integra and 13secs ahead of the XR4. Laurie looked after the car so well during that 20lap stint that back in the pits his max temp recalls on oil, water, brakes etc were the lowest they had been all weekend.
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Laurie and Gavin 30min after the final.
CONCLUSION
To win an IPRA national championship on his debut IPRA race (in this EG civic) in a car that was built to extremely high standards but did not have much R&D behind it, is a testament to Laurie with over 20 years of circuit racing experience and Gavin's car building/setup abilities.
Not to be forgotten is Zack at Cypher Industries. Best Honda tuner in W.A in my opinion. Nearly every single Honda that succeeds in W.A either in sprints/time attack or IPRA is tuned by Zack. If you have a Honda and don't get Zack to tune it then in my opinion your wasting your money. His results speak for themselves.
We have just scratched the surface with this car. With more R&D and more parts that we have coming, we hope to make this car into one of Australia's best IPRA under 2L cars. Who knows what next year will hold but all going well we hope to defend its title at next years IPRA nationals.
See yous all out there next year.
Cheers, Cooker
