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Ivan’s first experience at Toyota Irwindale Speedway which is a NASCAR track. Like most NASCAR tracks, the track is angled at a 45 degree embankment throughout. Track features 4 clipping points with the hardest clipping point coming in at the first sweeping turn which the driver has to clear at average speeds of 160km/h. First few practise runs, Ivan seemed good with his only issue is not getting high enough the embankment to clear the clipping cones.
Ivan at the first clipping point |
Ivan at the transition |
About the 4 practise run in, the brandnew driveshaft on the vehicle gave way. We changed the to our spare driveshaft which took us almost the duration of the entire practise session. We managed to get Ivan into the last lap of the practise session, however disaster struck. As Ivan was clearing the 2nd clipping point, he lost angle on the drift and decided to brake to stop the drift. This was a big rookie mistake as braking on the embankment only causes the brakes to lock up with Ivan losing total control of the vehicle. He ended up side-smashing the S13 into the concrete barriers at about 140km/h. Per review with the experienced pros, what Ivan should have done was to simply accelerate downslope once he lost his drift, the acceleration would have forced the car into move into the safety of the run-off in the middle of the oval.
We finally meet the "wall" |
At this point, the S13 was towed back to the workshop for evaluation. This is the list of damage:
• Intercooler was destroyed
• Radiator was destroyed
• Front Bumper was destroyed
• Front Carbon Fiber Bonnet was destroyed
• Front wheels was destroyed
• Rear Diff was destroyed
• Front Windscreen was destroyed
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However, crazy as things were, Ivan and the rest of Team Singapore decided that we would not let a “little” setback stop us from participating, so the decision was made to work overnight and the vehicle to restore it to race condition. The team worked throughout the night together with the USA crew with parts courier in from all over California. As you can imagine it was pretty crazy. The new parts alone cost Binter about 15,000 SGD.
Our crew chief “Gearhienz”, yup that is his real name dudes ...busy at work putting the car back together. The guys were really impressed by Gear’s work ethic and professionalism ... just take a look at the pictures for Day 3.
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