Events

Gridkhana Round 2 2023 (The Castrol event)

June 16, 2023Kester Johnson

Although I only managed to secure second place in the recent civic event, my main goal was to enjoy the drive and perhaps even win a small victory. Originally, I had planned to add a 50-shot of Nos with some methanol to boost the car's performance, but due to time and financial constraints, we couldn't make it happen. Consequently, I resigned myself to driving the car at the lowest horsepower and expected to finish last. However, luck was on my side when the rain started to pour - a glimmer of hope emerged.

The GP2 event showcased some truly exceptional drivers, and they inspired me to step up my game. I realized that I needed to make some improvements and shed some weight - not just in the car, but also personally. It's time to get back on track and trim the excess fat… not the car me.. lol

I want to express my gratitude to the following individuals and companies who contributed to my racing experience: Maxxecu / Maxxtuning AB for providing the ECU, The RaceTrac Co. for supplying the reliable 180TW tires that performed exceptionally well in both wet and dry conditions, Kazim Tullah, Dylon Clarke, and Neilson IWash for their hard work on the car, GarageFresh Trinidad for the oil change, Central Auto Spares and Accessories for providing the necessary parts, Ronney Seepersad for the coilovers, Bobreal Media for capturing stunning photographs, Runul Roberts for his work on the start lights, Devi Nath and the Castrol Team for organizing the event and giving us the opportunity to enjoy the thrill of driving, and TTASA - Trinidad & Tobago Automobile Sports Association for generously allowing these talented individuals to utilize their premises.

Last but not least, I want to acknowledge my local MaxxECU TEAM at Ultimate Sport Tuning Ltd for their ongoing support and expertise.

Although I may not have emerged as the victor in this event, I wholeheartedly enjoyed the exhilarating experience of driving. Thank you all for being a part of it.

BIG shoutout to my drivers of the day:

Ronnie in his b18 Civic MaxxECU Race,

Dylon in my civic b20b non-vtec MaxxECU Street, Dylon toyota celica st205 MaxxECU Sport,

Sanjeev Seejoor in his Drift Shenanigans Skyline RB20 MaxxECU Street

and Sajid Ali in his s2000 with a Haltch E1500. Hoping to have you guys at the next event.

categories News
tags Gridkhana, Castrol, 2nd, Civic B20B

Tobago Hillclimb 2022

August 17, 2022Kester Johnson

Last weekend we were in Tobago attaining TTRCs “Tobago Hillclimb 2022” and it was awesome. This event started with us supporting Devon’s Supra in the drift part of the event but ended up also giving support to Nikhil Nanan B13 SR16 MaxxECU on pump gas which also lead to me giving a hand to Vyshall Nandlel’s Yacco Nissan GTiR also controlled by a MaxxECU tuned by Konk. And in the last minute, Tobago own Reinaldo Solomon showed up after fixing his gearbox that same, day in his S15 MaxxECU.

categories News
tags TTAC, Drift, Road Race, Rally

Devon Drift Rd. 2 5/6/2022 Devon 1st Place P1

June 06, 2022Kester Johnson

First BIG congratulation to you Devon on your win for 1st place on Drift Rounds 2#. Sometimes you need to downgrade on order to upgrade, but i will let him talk about that some other time… :)

Devon we are most proud of you… keep it up…

“The words of Devon”

— Where do I start? In the 1st round, we had our fair share of issues and up to the week before round #2, I didn’t have any faith in the next round being any better. We were feverishly changing a broken crank damper, a worn keyway and a burst timing belt. As a matter of fact, the wear marks on the aftermarket cam gears proved that the shim clearance was not in range thus adding additional rotational drag from the cams. At that point, I decided to take them out and put back in the stock bump sticks and gears. The first fire up was successful and I decided to do a street test to ensure everything was fine, however, the real test was unknowingly the next 2 days….nonstop rain. And she passed with flying colours. The car was nut and bolt checked, topped up with fluids, new shoes on and rechecked again. The mood was positively surreal. Sunday, day of reckoning. How would she fair? With a patchy but drying track, which we were running in reverse, 1st…2nd…3rd gear and a quick flick, hard on the throttle, wide-open left-hander then right turn onto the inner clip to run it deep to flick it back to a very treacherous outer clip following the Tyre wall. 1st 2 runs showed up a little delay when getting back on the throttle. Stay calm! Suddenly, a wild Kester appeared, instantly diving in head first on the tune to pull fuel out due to the stock cams now. Back out, she was coming alive but still sounded like she was begging on the final clip. By the time, I stepped out to check the tyres, to which I was quickly dismissed by Dylon, Christopher and Keon while they handled it, I walked back to the front and Kester was already pulling more fuel out the tune and saying ok we’re good to go. Time for qualifications and this is the most calm I’ve ever been. I had put 110% faith in my team and just sent it to the moon, no holding back. I’m not sure if it showed as much as it felt in the car, but that lap was hella sick!!! BOOM….#1 qualifier. Onto tandem battles. Nothing was changed and at that point, it didn’t matter who I faced; win, lose or omt….I was enjoying the hell out of it. I faced Shivam first, but he just didn’t have the power to gearing combo and had to make sacrifices, which resulted in my moving on. Then the final against Dario and oh boy that was a nail biter. But somehow we got it in the end. We also discovered we had a blown wastegate line and was stuck on 12psi for that battle. In retrospect, the event day couldn’t have gone any better. She even drove home under her own power huge smile). With that being said, to the small circle of people that supported me, they made this happen. Because of them, I was able to have positivity for myself and faith in what I had built. This win is for them and echoes the lesson to believe you can first, then do it 2nd.

TTASA Street Car ShootOut 29-05-2022

May 30, 2022Kester Johnson

Today we congratulate Goodwill on his performance at TTASA'a Street Car Shoot out No Prep. Winning RWD in street radials and fastest time with any car on street radials. We have been prepping for this event for the past two weeks and as life would have it hard work does pay off. My hope was for an 11.5s but as goodwill normally does he over-delivers with an 11.4, but we can still do better.

Goodwill has been one of our more outstanding supporters when it comes to MaxxECU. We went from PowerFC to Link to MaxxECU. With the Link, we had no issues, but he took a MaxxECU as it was the ECU we were tuning more and more and just want me to feel more comfortable. We have been working on the car, looking for every advantage. Looking to see what wants to fail and want looks like it will fail. One thing i can say about this guy, Goodwill is a very committed racer, he not only sees the gaps in the car but also sees the gaps in himself and works on getting both better and that just makes my job even easier.

In the end, we came out and the car ran just as we would have hoped. We even ended the day with gas for the next event…

Best time for the day 11.4s and fastest car on street tires for the day. Thank you to all that Made it happen: Brian Bhagwandass, Niron Budree, Habir Alahbasir Naipaul Rickhee and Randy Gibbon. TTASA (Trinidad & Tobago Automobile Sports Association)

The MR2: 3sgte Borg Warna 7163 22psi