{"id":60758,"date":"2019-03-21T08:39:43","date_gmt":"2019-03-21T15:39:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/?p=60758"},"modified":"2019-03-21T08:39:43","modified_gmt":"2019-03-21T15:39:43","slug":"dai-yoshihara-to-tackle-pikes-peak","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/dai-yoshihara-to-tackle-pikes-peak\/","title":{"rendered":"Dai Yoshihara to Tackle Pikes Peak"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Dai<\/p>\n

Dai Yoshihara, the 2011 Formula Drift champion, will try a special form of motorsport this summer when he makes an attempt to conquer the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb (PPIHC). He\u2019ll have the support of ENEOS, Japan\u2019s No. 1 oil brand, when he swaps his 1,000 horsepower Turn 14 Distribution\/Falken Tire\/ENEOS Subaru BRZ drift car for a 900hp Toyota 86 specially prepared to compete on the 12.42-mile Race to the Clouds.<\/p>\n

Evasive Motorsports, established in 2002, will do the prep in anticipation of Yoshihara\u2019s June 30th attempt. The Santa Fe Springs, Calif. team has participated four times in the past (their first attempt was in 2013) and the tuning shop currently holds the record for being the fastest Toyota 86 up the hill.<\/p>\n

From their first attempt at PPIHC, Evasive Motorsports have upped the power from 750 to 900 horsepower (at sea level) using a 2JZ Toyota Supra engine stroked to 3.4 liters and fitted with a Garrett GTX 4292R turbocharger. New engine management software gives the team confidence they can improve their standing in this difficult competition. The 2JZ engine is mated to a Samsonas sequential transmission for quick shifting on the 156 turns that comprise the fully-paved road.<\/p>\n

\"Dai<\/p>\n

The No. 86 ENEOS Racing\/Evasive Motorsports Toyota 86 will be using ENEOS Racing Series motor oil and transmission fluid, specially designed to reduce friction.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re delighted go be working with ENEOS on this year\u2019s Pikes Peak project,\u201d said Mike Chang, co-founder of Evasive Motorsports. \u201cTheir technical advantage should give us the edge in the Race to the Clouds.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the biggest changes we\u2019ve made to the car is fitting a more advanced MoTeC traction control unit that will allow us to use the power more efficiently,\u201d Chang continued. \u201cThis is especially important because we\u2019ve seen the weather change dramatically on previous Pikes Peak runs. You might start in sunshine but that can change to rain or hail as you ascend the mountain.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yoshihara, while recognizable for his Formula Drift championship and regular competitiveness, has also found success in road racing, skills that will serve him well on the tricky PPIHC circuit.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m really looking forward to the challenge. I followed Pikes Peak as a kid in Tokyo, and while I always dreamed of being there, it\u2019s crazy to think it\u2019s actually going to happen,\u201d he said. \u201cThe most important thing we have got do as a team is be prepared, and we are trying to ensure the car will be very competitive. Although the climb only takes about 10 minutes, the race is very hard on the car, especially with the altitude (14,115 feet at the summit), so we\u2019re doing everything to optimize the power and aero. My preparation is to learn the course but fortunately, I\u2019m familiar with the car. We\u2019ve entered it in a number of Time Attack events over the past couple of years.<\/p>\n

\u201cPikes Peak is not like a regular race track where I can go and practice,\u201d Yoshihara admitted, \u201cso I\u2019m trying to learn on a simulator and by watching videos. Everything I\u2019ve done before has been good preparation, from driving the mountain roads in Japan to Time Attack and even Formula Drift. It all teaches you racecraft and how to react in changing situations. As a result, I\u2019m confident about the race – but I want to arrive as fully prepared as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Dai<\/p>\n

Chang stated the team is doing a lot of testing with Yoshihara \u201cto ensure we can put the power to the road. We want to verify every component is fully tested so we know nothing should break when we get to Colorado.\u201d Evasive Motorsports has a PC-based Assetto Corsa video game that will help prepare Yoshihara for the climb.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a realistic simulation of the course and will allow Dai to learn the turns and landmarks. We\u2019re also going too fly him to Colorado so he can take a rental car up the hill to get a sense of the mountain in real life,\u201d Chang confirmed. \u201cWe have no doubt Dai has the skill to tackle the mountain, but I want him to remember everything. He should be able to drive it with his eyes closed!\u201d<\/p>\n

The ENEOS Racinb\/Evasive Motorspofgs Toyota 86 will be on display in its new Pikes Peak livery during the opening round of Formula Drift The Streets of Long Beach, which takes place April 5-6 on part of the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach circuit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dai Yoshihara, the 2011 Formula Drift champion, will try a special form of motorsport this summer when he makes an attempt to conquer the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb.<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":65,"featured_media":60760,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3470,3699,5029],"tags":[5614,6709,6710,844,41,4553,4603,1632],"class_list":["post-60758","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-other-racing","category-racing","tag-anne-proffit","tag-dai-yoshihara","tag-evasive-motorsports","tag-formula-drift","tag-news","tag-pikes-peak","tag-pikes-peak-international-hill-climb","tag-racing"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/lead-min-2.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p42YSK-fNY","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60758","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/65"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60758"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60758\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":60763,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60758\/revisions\/60763"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60760"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}