The course condition changed to dry

September 14th, the second day of competition. Weather: Rainy, cloudy later. Condition: Dry. Climate: around 22 degrees Celsius. The second day of competition was rainy in the morning so the condition was wet, but it became sunny in the after noon and the course condition changed to dry. Under these conditions, the track of the autocross event opened in 1p.m.

In Autocross event, there are two Autocross-style heats with each heat having a different driver. Its racing course consists with 900m track, slalom, chicane, low-speed corner, mid-speed corner, and high-speed corner. And it is competed with each team's fastest lap time.

Gave up on going for a practice run and headed for the autocross event directly

At first, the strategy of the Sophia Racing was to wear the brand-new tires with a practice run (worn tires has more grip), do the final setting of the car, and aim for a better time before the course condition changes. However, we have found a crack in a steering rod while we were preparing for a practice run. Unfortunately, it took time to fix the steering rod so we gave up on going for a practice run and headed for the autocross event directly.

A crack in the rear stabilizer

Due to the Autocross event being 2 drivers and 2heat system, Asai decided to drive first. The lap time of �@his first run wasn't enough for our team to be satisfied owing to the slippery unworn tires. And in his next run, he got the right to run one more time because he was interfered by another car.

Finally, in his third run, he did a good job and there was only a few seconds away from the fastest team. It seemed the car was doing alright from the outside. However, Asai felt something wrong with the car and proposed to go back to the pit. Thanks to Asai, we found a crack in the rear stabilizer.

We headed back for the pit and exchanged the stabilizer and checked the alignment once more. When we were dong this, the time of the autocross event was running out. Fortunately, with not many cars waiting at the practice course and the autocross cite, we were able to run without any wait. Therefore, we decided to go for the practice run again before the autocross event.

Obvious that we got the 1st place

The second driver was Maeda. Maeda was repenting of his last year's autocross event which ended up in 4th place, so he was greedy for getting 1st place. Moreover, he was pronouncing that he will get the 1st place. On his first run, the car's condition was improved with its tires well worn. Although the lap time of his first run made it high up in the chart, there was approximately 1 second away from the first place which appeared to be Michigan University.

However, rather than being impatient, Maeda was confident that he could get 1st place. And his next run was absolutely amazing with almost no misses. Everyone in the team waited patiently for the announcement to be made. "Sophia University's lap time was 44.36sec which is first place at the moment." the announcer announced. Because most of the team had finished running, it was obvious that we got the 1st place. We broke the fastest lap in the coolest way! In addition, there was only 0.01sec away from Michigan University's time. So, we consider that our endeavor towards making the car lighter and lighter lead us to the 1st place.

Please offer me your cooperation

P.S. Me, Maeda am planning to take part in the FJ1600 competition and really needs money. If you are kind enough and interested in this, would you please offer me money. Thank you!

Driver, Shohei Maeda

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