Ken Gushi
Ken's been suffering from the same new-car flu Dai's been having, only his tC's been wheezing for more than a year. But after a revamped setup from '08 that lead to last round's Great 8 performance, it seems as though the RS-R team has finally kicked the bug.
When practice began at Wall Speedway, I was a bit scared of the guardrail at Turn 1. Two years ago, I went into the guardrail and totaled my car. I didn't want to see another wrecked car, so I was cautious. After a few runs, I began to feel comfortable and I pushed harder to see if I could get any faster and closer to the wall. My tire set up was good-I set my Toyo R1Rs to about 30 psi cold. I wanted to raise it to put out more smoke, even if I would lose bite. Thursday's practice ended with a blown dog box. My dad and the rest of the RS-R Scion team stayed up and swapped out the transmission.
Friday came and it was pouring rain. Some drivers grumbled, but I wanted to drive in the rain-all I needed was a decent run to qualify and the rain made it easier for me. Robbie Nishida and Eric O'Sullivan went out to test the track (they missed Thursday's practice due to technical issues with their transporter), and once the rest of the competition saw their runs, we came to the conclusion that it would be nearly impossible to hold a Qualifying session-the track was pretty much a toilet bowl.
Come Saturday, the rain stopped and the track started to dry up. This track was my least favorite, but ironically, we qualified First with 95.9 points! Tandem began and I started to worry about the traction issues we'd been facing.
In the Top 32, I was placed against Gary Lang. During my lead run, I just tried to mimic my qualifying run. On my following lap, Gary spun out in front of me through the first transition coming off the bank. I got lucky. In Top 16, I had to go against Ross Petty. During my lead lap, Ross lost power and could not start his car. Unfortunately, the competition was cut short because of the Five Minute rule-sucks, because it would've been a great battle. Taka Aono was my Top 8 battle. Taka was running strong all weekend so I knew I could not lose focus. I tried to stay consistent with my runs and during the lead lap, I pulled away from him slightly. It was close and I thought there was going to be a One More Time, but I moved on.
My next run was against Darren McNamara. During my lead lap, he was really close to me. I could not shake him, so I knew he had the advantage. If I didn't stick my car to his door on my follow pass, I would lose the round. The second run started and just as I expected, his tiny V-8-powered Sky pulled away from me. Darren's car is stupid fast. For the Third Place match, I was against Tyler McQuarrie-another V-8-powered car. We went One More Time, but on my follow lap, I could not keep up with him because: 1) the ridiculous amount of tire smoke limiting my sight, and 2) his car is also stupid fast. I finished Fourth, but it was not enough to dramatically shift my championship ranking-I only moved up one spot! At least our team did well this weekend. From here on out, we hope to continue to move up the grid!
RS-R
www.RS-R.com
Scion Racing
www.scionracing.com
Toyo Tire
www.toyo.com
By Carter Jung
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