#ChelseaTheCivic, Part 4: Budget Race Car Aerodynamics

How it All Began

As I mentioned in my last post for this build, I was in a rush for my previous season.  My time was spent fighting understeer issues, improving the reliability of the chassis, and navigating financial dilemmas.  With that being said, I didn't have aero as I knew it would cost money and take up time.  Instead, I focused on affordable suspension improvements.

This Article Discusses Installing Budget, DIY Aero for Your Racecar

Using my used eBay pyrometer and some strings, I was able to dial in my alignment based on tire temperatures.  

Soon-to-be Spec E30 Driver TJ and Alex Helping me With Tire Temps

Speaking with my friend Spencer I was able to experiment with used race springs on eBay to adjust spring rates.  Spencer also turned me onto the sway bar setup I needed and my friend Alex, the owner of #TrashTeg, turned me onto deals to save me money on the sway bar setup.

Cheap, 800 lb/in, No-Name, eBay Springs

The NASA Northeast Competition School Director, Brian, is also a Honda Challenge driver, and through him I was able to determine which bushings were the most important to upgrade from rubber to spherical, rather than replacing all of them.  Of course, Chris at Kingpin sold me the product I needed on closeout when he was trying to move product and this saved me money as well.

Best Bearings in the Business

During the off-season, I had a long list of upgrades and reliability and driveability improvements I needed to make to the car.  One of them was to add a front splitter and a rear wing.

Rear Downforce

Honda Challenge H4 cars are not that fast.  The speeds are on-par with Spec E30 and Spec Miata which both use stock-spec engines and share the same suspension setups for the most part.  As a result, I knew that I didn't want a lot of drag.

People put rear wings on these FWD Hondas because it stabilizes the car in traffic (starts/restarts especially) and under braking-- two areas which are critical to laying down some fast laps and beating your competition.  The rear wings also serve to stabilize the car in high-speed corners where suspension setup is less important than in low-speed, tight corners.

Carlos Valenzuela Driving a NASA SoCal Honda Challenge H4 CRX with Aero

The rear wing needs to be balanced with a front splitter, but we'll get to that at a later point in this post.

The best wing for my car would fit the following criteria:

A.) It's cheap

B.) It's small

C.) It works

D.) It's cheap

With that being said, i turned to my most trusted source for parts that work and are cheap: eBay.

eBay is full of cheap aluminum wings that are both light and functional.  They may not be custom-made for your car, designed using CAD/CAM software, made of fancy carbon fiber, or have baller hardware, but for my purpose they would be perfect.

An eBay Wing Can be Had for Relatively Cheap

When I made it known that I was considering one, my friend, also a Honda Challenge Racer, Zephyr messaged me and told me he had an eBay wing from his old CRX race car that he would give me for free.

Zephyr's Old Race Car

The wing was perfectly sized for H4 as it's big enough to stabilize the car, but not big enough that it would considerably slow me down in the straights.  So, I mocked it up to get an idea of where it would sit.  

There were several factors I had to consider when fitting the wing.

Honda Challenge H4 rules state that the wing must be within the outline of the car's body when viewed from above, for one.  

Secondly, wings generate more downforce when placed further aft of the chassis where they have better access to clean air.  This second factor was something I gleaned from leisurely reading about race car aerodynamics.  I'm sure there are exceptions to this assumption.

A Civic with a Legal Honda Challenge H4 Wing

I used a tape measure along the sides of the trunk, a chalk marker to mark where I wanted the centerline of the wing to be, some blue painters tape to ensure I didn't have a crooked reference line for mounting the wing, and a plumb bob to ensure my wing was within the legal limits stated above.

Using Chalk Marker to Make a Reference Line for a Non-Crooked Wing

When measuring to see if the wing is within legal limits, you must use a plumb bob.  If you don't have a plumb bob, tie a nut to some kite string from the Dollar Tree.  And use that.  The point isn't to be fancy, it's to be fast.

A Picture From YouTube

Gravity is more accurate than the human eye.  The pictures below illustrate this.  It seems as though the wing is sitting just at the edge of the chassis.  In reality, the wing is moved further forward than this by a considerable amount to ensure legality.

Viewing the Wing From Above

Next, I went to Home Depot and got the cheapest hardware I could find to attach the wing to the trunk.  With each wing stand having six holes each, I knew I needed 6 x 2 = 12 bolts, 6 x 2 = 12 nuts, and washers for each nut/bolt on the outside and inside of the trunk (24 washers).

This was $20.

Home Depot Sends E-Receipts if You Provide Your Email-- a Very Useful Way to Track Build Costs

With the wing mocked up in its appropriate spot, I marked where I needed to drill and began putting holes in my crusty, 1993 Honda Civic trunk.  

Wing Stands With Galvanized Bolts and Washers Inserted

Then, I opened the trunk and cut away the reinforcement structure in the areas where the bolts protruded.  This would allow the bolts to sit properly (not crooked) in their holes and it would also allow access to someone with a wrench.

Inside of the Trunk

In the picture above, you'll notice that there are black plates underneath of the nuts and washers.  These black plates are made of steel and are intended to reinforce the wing to ensure it meets objective "C."

These black, steel plates are made from spare oil pans I had laying around my garage.  These oil pans do not sell for much used on eBay and the steel is too good to waste.  If you have a vise with an anvil head and a sledge hammer you can easily straighten the metal out where it was stamped by the OEM to make a straight piece of sheet metal.  I did something similar when mounting my MSD ignition.

Next, I knew I needed to set the angle of attack for the wing. The angle of attack, in laymen's terms, is basically how aggressive the wing sits with respect to the wind.  If it has more angle, it makes more downforce, but also more drag.  If it has less angle...well, the opposite happens.  Below is a picture of an airplane wing.  You will see that the angle of attack is measured between the wing and the air coming toward it.  Don't pay attention to any of the other terms in the diagram for now.

Angle of Attack on an Airplane Wing

My goal was to have an adjustment from close to 0 degrees to something more aggressive. While this was a loose set of criteria, I was concerned the wing would have a negative angle of attack since the stands were not made for my car.  This would make LIFT in the rear-- the opposite of what I wanted.

To measure the angle of attack, I first placed a level on the door sill for the driver-side of the car and measured the angle relative to the ground using an app on my iPhone.  There are a ton of apps out there that perform this function and if you're a DIY car person you must own one.

Next, I placed my cell phone on the wing and measured the angle of attack at the lowest setting for aggressiveness.  I got 2 degrees!  Not bad.  This meant I had plenty of adjustment if I found I needed more rear downforce at some point.  If you'd like to see more about this, just check out the video I referenced below:

Setting Angle of Attack on a Race Car Wing

With the wing fully functional, I decided I'd give it some love and paint it black as well.  I purchased four cans of budget paint from Home Depot for a total of $4 and with some 220 grit sandpaper I had laying around, I went to work.

The Wing Sprayed Black

Here's the wing installed:

Front Downforce

Balance is a virtue-- it's one of the valuable qualities for any relationship, the best diet, and of course, the fastest car.  With rear downforce only, the car may understeer in high-speed corners, though it may be more stable.  The key to a fast car isn't one that understeers, or even one that oversteers, the key to speed is balance.

Stu Chasing Zephyr at New Jersey Motorsports Park

To balance out the rear wing on the Civic, a front splitter is needed.  A front splitter increases the pressure on the front of of the car using air pressure differentials.  High pressure air goes over the car and low pressure air goes under the car.

Read More About Front Splitters Here

Using Krider Racing's writeup in Speed News, the National Auto Sport Association's magazine, I was able to amass the basic supplies needed for DIY splitter fabrication.  However, I incorporated my own twists based on my needs and my resources.

Krider Racing, of NASA SocCal, and Their Acura Integra

One twist was in how I transported my 17/32-inch-thick, 8-foot-long piece of plywood a short distance from Home Depot to my garage in a Chevy Tahoe.  This is the LoBuk, Honda Challenge H4 life:

17/32-Inch-Thick Plywood and Garden Edging

Loading an Eight-Foot-Long Piece of Plywood Into a 99 Tahoe

I then borrowed four saw horses, a dual-orbital (DA) sander, a jig saw, and a router from my friend Anthony and got to work.  I started by placing the large piece of plywood on the saw horses and taping my front bumper to the plywood.

Most People Don't Tape Bumpers to Wood But I'm a Car Person and I'm Special

Per H4 rules, the splitter cannot extend past the outline of the car when viewed from above, much like the rear wing.  So, again, we use plumb bobs to account for this factor.  The plumb bob is moved about the front of the bumper and marks are made along the perimeter so you know where to cut.

Using a Plumb Bob to Draw a Splitter Pattern

Additionally, the rear of the splitter cannot extend past where the front wheel wells begin.  Luckily, I dealt with this last year when I made an under tray out of corrugated plastic yard signs courtesy of fellow H4 Racer and friend, Ken, Owner of Ken's House Wash.  I simply marked where I needed to cut the rear of the splitter based off of the under tray I made for last year.

Undertray Made From Corrugated Plastic

Then, with my friend Alex I began cutting the splitter using the jigsaw Anthony gave me.

Me Cutting Plywood with a Jigsaw

We then used the router to round off the edges of the splitter.

Alex Attaching a Router Bit to Anthony's Router

With the splitter cut and sanded down, we mocked it up underneath of the car to see how it would look.

Splitter Under Civic

Next, we needed to mount the splitter to the car.  There are a couple of trick methods for this. For example, Special Projects Motorsports sells the Kiwi Splitter Brackets.  These brackets are quick-release and are half-aluminum, half-steel.  The steel part mounts to the frame and the aluminum part mounts to the splitter, so if you crash, the frame doesn't bend-- the aluminum brackets do.  Additionally, the quick-release is super easy to work with and most racers in Honda Challenge love them.

Kiwi Splitter Mounting Brackets

However, this car is a budget build and we don't have $198.00 to spend on splitter brackets.  That money is much better spent on suspension upgrades or reliability upgrades.  So, I used some brackets that a friend, and also fellow H4 Racer (see a trend?), Carlos gave to me.

Carlos's Two-Piece Splitter Brackets

Carlos made these brackets for the EF/CRX chassis.  The brackets are intended to mount to the frame rails where the tow hooks are originally located.  However, the EF and the EG/DC Hondas have their tow hook mounts positioned differently relative to the ground.  The EF tow hooks sit higher, and as a result I had to remove the middle section of the splitter brackets circled below:

Where I Had to Modify my Friend's Brackets

The next thing I did was add capture nuts to the brackets.  I knew I didn't want to mess around with two wrenches in a cramped space in the engine bay, so I welded some metric nuts from Home Depot that share common Honda diameters and thread pitches.  

I always try to add redundancy to the car in this manner so that if a bolt strips, breaks, or gets lost somewhere on the chassis, there is another bolt to replace it.

Capture Nuts Welded to Carlos's Splitter Brackets

I then mocked up these new brackets on the splitter, relative to the chassis, to drill holes.

Mocking up the Splitter Brackets to the Splitter

Next, I began attaching the garden trim to the splitter.  There are two trims that need to be attached.  The first is a stout, short trim that mounts to the splitter with course screws (#12 X 3/4 wood screws).  

It serves as the base for the taller garden trim which I secured to the shorter trim with nuts and bolts.  Below you will see the first stage, securing the stout, short trim to the splitter with course screws:

Short Garden Edging Secured to Plywood with Course Screws

Then I took garden edging and drilled holes at equal lengths along the its perimeter and secured it to the garden trim using SAE nuts, metal screws, and washers that you can find in any hardware aisle for about $10.  Another option is to use long rivets, but these are harder to find.

The picture below shows me sanding the fake wood grain out of the trim because wood grain only looks good on luxury cars.

Sanding the Fake Wood Grain Out of the Garden Edging

After sanding the garden trim and splitter blade, I cleaned with acetone to remove any dust or dirt which would interfere with paint adhesion.

Prepping Surfaces for Paint

And finally, I laid down a solid base coat of flat black which acts as primer (a trick I learned from an OG) and once that was dry, I laid down two coats of gloss black.  Again, I spent $4 on the budget spray paint that Home Depot sells.  Regardless of paint quality, it came out pretty good-- serving the old adage that it's all in the prep work.

Painted Splitter

Here are some pictures of the finished car with aero:

#ChelseaTheCivic, Part 3: Aftermarket Headers and Hondas

Last season, I was in a rush to get my car together.  I skimmed over a lot of details while doing so in an effort to pass competition school with the National Auto Sport Association (NASA) and to race with my friends in the Honda Challenge H4 Series which we were reviving in the Northeast.

In the process, I ordered a DC Sports header with a 2.25" collector for an exhaust system that had a diameter of 2.5".  I was struggling to make it to my first event of the season at Lime Rock Park to test the car.  And on my final weekend before trailering up to Connecticut, I was faced with the dilemma of making this header work with my exhaust system.

With no flux wire or gas, and minimal welding experience, I welded the monstrosity you'll see above.  This monstrosity is a 2.5" PLM (Private Label Manufacturing) test pipe.  I thought I had a 2.5" collector on my header, but this is when I first discovered that I was mistaken.  As a result, the collector on my test pipe did not fit and I was forced to improvise.  So, I cut the flange off of my 25-year-old catalytic converter, cut the flange off of my brand new, shiny test pipe, and welded it onto the test pipe.

As you may be able to see, this last-minute concoction left a leading edge entering into the test pipe, providing for turbulence and most likely a loss of power.  On the dyno at Lime Rock Park after a race, my car had less horsepower than the three other H4 cars dyno'd-- most likely due to this and my janky intake, which I will not discuss in this post.  Additionally the welds were not very good as you can see below...however, the test pipe held up for a full season of racing.

When the off-season came, I knew I had to put this on my list of improvements for the 2019 racing season.  So, I started by purchasing a $211 PLM header off eBay.  

If you'd like to see more photos like this, you can follow me on Instagram:

This header is a replica of an SMSP Tri-Y Header.  It has a 2.5" collector and is a 4-2-1 which leads to less turbulence and higher flow than the 4-1 DC-Sports header I was previously using.  It's also fully stainless steel, very light, and tig-welded together.

The reason I was able to get this header for so cheap is because it is an open-box sale.  PLM and 1320 Performance are two brands which both sell a lot of headers for Honda.  And they have sales like this going on a lot of the time.  

Think of it.  

Your Facebook friend car meet fanatic wants to make 5 extra horsepower on the butt dyno.  He or she goes on eBay and buys a brand new, shiny, tig-welded header that has no damage at all and intends to put it in a car that is likely daily driven, and if not, is street-driven in his or her leisure.

This header is shipped through FedEx, UPS, USPS, or another service that throws the box around, sets it on fire, or dips it in a bath of acid (they damage it).  It gets to the customer, and they no longer want it.

As a racer, you can take advantage of this scenario by buying the scratched or minorly dented header second-hand, and you have a new, but unboxed item delivered to your door for a fraction of the cost.

Next, I purchased a new PLM test pipe.  This extendable test pipe was ~40-50 dollars and its length can be adjusted to fit your new header to your existing exhaust.

I mounted the header, mocked up the test pipe and got to work cutting and welding.  Having a vise is great for almost anything in the garage.  I even use it to hold pipes or other objects that need welding as I don't have a welding table, I have a wooden table.  The picture below shows one section of my three-piece test pipe in a vise with a white mark around it where it is to be cut.

  After cutting, I then mocked the test pipe up between the header and the exhaust one more time and welded the pipe in the appropriate spot.  This time I used flux core wire, to preclude accelerated rusting as seen on my older test pipe.  A better weld with less slag and less porosity would likely be achieved with gas, but this blog is about doing racing on a budget, so forget about it.

Mounted up, this is what the test pipe looked like.  It fits well, not pulling the exhaust too far forward or pushing it too back.

I also noticed that the SMSP tri-y header was touching the oil pan after I installed it.  Even in a 25-40 minute race, conductive heat transfer from a header to an oil pan could be bad.  You see, exhaust gases leaving an internal combustion engine's cylinder are typically around 1,000 degrees F (based on passing knowledge).  I knew I had to increase the clearance between the header and the oil pan.

Oil pans are cheap and made of soft, malleable, durable steel.  Headers are expensive and made of more expensive stainless steel.  When push comes to shove, one must give-- and in this scenario, I made the pan give with a hammer-- I mean I massaged it gently and carefully as I am a skilled fabricator:

In the above picture, the horizontal lines at the bottom of the pan mark where the header and oil pan were originally touching.  The dots at the top of the oil pan tell me in which order I need to torque the oil pan bolts.  5 bolts tells me that a given bolt is the fifth bolt in the sequence, 17 dots tells me it's the seventeenth bolt.  There are over 17 bolts on a B Series oil pan.

The hardest work was complete, but the last thing to do was to install the O2 sensor.  The problem with this is that on a 1992-1995 Honda Civic with a B Series Engine from an Integra or something similar is that the O2 sensor wire for the B Series Engine is too short for the Honda Civic engine wiring harness.  As a result, you have to lengthen it.  I began by cutting my brand new Denso sensor in half.

Next, I grabbed some wire, measured from the sensor to the connector in the engine bay, and cut the appropriate amount to connect the O2 sensor on the Integra engine to the Honda Civic harness.

Here's a tip: when you take apart any electronics for anything, save the wires.  Good wire is hard to come by at local hardware stores and if you can find it, you have to pay for it.  I save wire from cars that I part out, or machines that break around the house.  I then take these wires and use them in automotive projects.  I haven't spent money on wire in three years.

Then I grabbed my soldering gun and got to work.  I cut all wires needing connection, stripped all said wires of their insulation, soldered all wires together, and added heat shrink around the soldered connections to prevent damage via water intrusion or other external factors.

Here is the heat shrink I applied.  You can get it from a local hardware store, a local auto parts store, or online:

Lastly, I taped the wires together and wrapped the lower part of the wires that sit next to the header with insulation.  I was careful to wrap the soldered joints with tape so that they would not flex.  I was also careful to ensure an equal spacing of tape about the length of this loom of wire.

The finished product is shown below:

Lastly, I installed the O2 sensor...

...And I fired up the car.  The car was difficult to start at first, but ended up idling and running with no check engine light at temperature for several minutes.  The car was sitting for months not having turned over and it didn't even need a jump start.  I love this Honda.

I have some actions going forward to make the car faster, but for now I am focusing on getting it on track next month (April of 2019) at Lime Rock Park for testing with NASA NE.

I appreciate you all reading and wish you the best.  Peace!

My First Track Day

In 2015 I experienced some of the best moments in my life.  As a senior in college, I had experienced a lot of social events that really defined me and helped me grow.  I made friends and learned lessons and along the way, I got hooked on cars.

Take a look at my first track day during that year and some of the things I experienced as a novice.  This was originally written in 2015:

On April 15th, I experienced my first track day ever thanks to SCCA and their new program called "Track Night in America."

Track Night in America is aimed at newcomers who wish to enter into track racing from essentially any avenue.  Whether you're a kart racer, autocrosser, or traffic jam bum, if you want to get to racing then you can do so with Track Night in America thanks to the SCCA.  It is a safe, controlled environment where you can push the limits of your car.  

As a matter of fact, everyone I was driving with either autocrossed before or was a regular autocrosser!

Image from SCCA

With a price tag of $150 before a one day only $25 discount, I could not resist the temptation.  Although the track day occurred from 3 to 9 PM, cutting into the work day, so-to-speak, this price is nearly half the cost of an average track day with HPDE or Hooked on Driving or any other camp.  However, with any event comes preparation that needs to take place.

As mentioned in my previous article, one of the first things I tackled was the brake pad situation.  On the track, stopping and turning are much more important than going straight.  One of the first things mentioned on New Jersey Motorsports Park's tech form is that brake pads should have more than one half of their life left.  

Since I had been using my HP Plus pads for more than a season of autocross, I felt it was time to finally replace them.  Here's what the old pads looked like-- they definitely have some life left in them!

Next, I sent my car off to my good friend Alex who was supposed to align my car.  The desired settings were:

Front camber: -3.0 degrees

Rear camber: -2.0 degrees

Front and rear toe: Neutral

Caster: non-adjustable on the RSX

However, thanks to a seized rear eccentric bolt, rear toe was not adjustable.  Since Alex didn't want to do a half-good job of aligning my car, he stopped at rear camber and let me know that after four hours he was unable to do anything with the car.  Thanks anyway Alex!

In addition to my poor alignment, out of good will, while Alex was washing my car, my aero block-off plates came off!  I guess it's better it happened there than at the track!

So, not only was my alignment bad and my block-off plates had popped off, but there was a slew of other things I had to comb over before I brought the car on the track.  On the checklist I had:

• Fix front camber on driveway
• Fix front toe on driveway
• Make sure all bumper clips were securely fastened
• Tighten down the battery strap
• Install my new Hawks and bed them in
• And make sure all suspension components were in good order.

I started by jacking the car up and maxing out the camber, within reason, on my adjustable top hats.  The top hats are pictured below:

However once I did that, the car's toe was EXTREMELY out of whack.  The car tracked hard to the right, so I had to adjust the tie-rod ends with some guesswork.

After doing that I tightened down the battery strap, I tightened the lower locking collars on my coilovers, I checked all of the wheel bearings, I installed my pads, and I bedded them in.  Since I had done so much in just a couple of hours before I was due to leave, I took it easy on my way to New Jersey Motorsports Park (NJMP).

When I got there, I signed in at the gate, drove to Thunderbolt (one of two circuits at NJMP) and got set up at the paddock area.

I brought a couple of things with me to make sure I'd be able to lounge comfortably during the advanced and intermediate sessions, my friend's GoPro, and I also brought some tools with me to make sure the car would be in good hands.

This is, of course, in addition to my helmet, which you must have, my long-sleeve sweater, which you must have, my close-toe shoes, which you must have, and my long pants, which you also must have.

Here's a more detailed list of what I brought:

• A large tarp to cover my belongings
• A box of open-ended wrenches
• 10 mm through 14 mm deep sockets and a ratchet
• A small toolkit which was comprised of a small ratchet and multiple shallow sockets
• Allen wrenches
• A chair
• Dinner (PB&J)
• Lots of water
• GoPro
• GoPro charger
• Number plates-- in case we needed to be marked
• Painters tape-- to hold my magnetic number plates to the car
• A pen and some paper
• Sunscreen
• Helmet
• Sweater
• Jack stand

Note that I may have over-packed, but it was my first track day and I did not want to be unprepared.

Once set up, we held a driver's meeting.  During the driver's meeting we went over hand-signals to let people know that you want them to pass you, we went over passing zones, we went over flag signals, and we went over general tips to stay safe on the track.  The novice group had their own special leader who took the time to ensure we all had a fun, safe time on the track.  His name was Tom.  Thanks Tom!

After the driver's meeting, we filled out a self-tech form.  This form goes over everything from having your battery tied down, to discolored, cracked, or warped brake rotors, to no floor mats or loose items in the car.  We signed it to ensure that we were liable for any accidents and handed it over to the coordinators of the event.

Then, we headed out for paced laps to understand the corners on the track, including turn-in points, apex points, exit points, braking points, acceleration zones, and passing zones.  Here's the car that I was following-- an intermediate class STi!

After the paced laps, we sat and waited for the advanced driver (there was only one) to finish his run.  However, due to a stroke of bad luck, his drain plug came loose and he spilled some oil on the track.  According to my sources though, he was able to turn off the motor in time before damaging it!!  I'm happy to hear that.

As a result, there was a bunch of kitty litter put out on the track to make sure that no one slid on the oil.  This made for some tricky situations on its own, but it was definitely better than the greasy alternative, if you know what I mean.

After the mishap in the advanced group, we all waited for the intermediate group to get finished with their runs.  While we waited, I got some cool videos of the faster guys driving by!

And finally it was time for the beginner group to run.  Here's a map of Thunderbolt and the layout we ran for future reference:

Initially I took it slow.  I wanted to get a feel for the track and ramp up my corner speeds and get later and later in my braking zones to push the car.

Eventually I got comfortable on the track and really learned where I could push the car.  The turns that were covered in kitty litter initially tripped me up really bad.  And after the long front straight that leads into Turn 1 at NJMP, I learned that it was difficult to heel-toe due to the sheer magnitude of braking that needed to be done.

This area proved difficult to heel-toe downshift in

I wasn't passed once and after the first run everyone was asking who was driving the red Honda!

However, whenever you drive your car hard, it is to be expected that there may be some sort of mechanical issue.  When I popped the hood I noticed oil on one side of my valve cover and freaked out!  I quickly took off my intake manifold cover and while doing so I noticed that a bolt holding my valve cover on had come off.  The area is shown below:

So, I simply took a bolt from somewhere else in the engine bay and replaced the one that fell off with it.  Notice how there's no washer on the middle, front valve cover bolt as well.  That's because I took that washer and used it on the corner valve cover bolt.

After that, for the second run I took things easy at first.  I watched my temperature gauge and looked in my rear view for smoke.  I also kept my senses keen to make sure that no funny smells were coming from my engine bay.  With all things in check, I began to push the car a little harder and I still did not get passed once.

Finally, before I started the last lap, I asked the novice instructor, Tom, about one corner in particular that I did not know how to handle.  It was unlike some of the kinks that took place at high speeds because for those I could just let off the throttle, oversteer, and hit the gas.  It was also unlike the low-speed technical corners where I could slam the brakes, oversteer, and hit the gas.  

He ended up telling me to keep the car in forth gear, brake gradually, and let off gradually.  Doing so induced corner entry oversteer and allowed me to power out of the corner.  Here's the corner I'm talking about:

If you want to take a look at my driving, check out this video!  It has a lot of comments to help you guys see what I was thinking and what I was doing to be slower or faster through given sections and corners!  Maybe if you want to get into track racing this will help you!

At the end of the day I ended up meeting a bunch of people and having an amazing time.  Everyone agreed that I was the fastest of the day and I learned so much and had a blast driving with the other novices.  People kept asking if my car was turbocharged and how much displacement I had.  When one driver heard I had an N/A 2.0 liter motor he was shocked!

When I was leaving, some instructors even stopped by and asked who was driving the "red Honda" as everyone called it.  They said, yeah, "you're definitely ready for intermediate group!"

It felt so good finally being fast-- as compared to autocross where all of the lighter cars with better tires destroy me.  I guess we'll see how I do next time!  But for now, I'm gonna sign off.  Hope you had fun reading!