Mark Barnes wrote:
you will be in "A" before you know it with finishes like that.
We'd've been in A long ago if they'd stop screwing us over (like they did this time) putting class A cars in class B. That's the second time this year they did it with the very same car. #58 (Halfast Racing) was the car Phil put in B as a joke at Barber, they lead the race (P1 overall, turning the fastest laps over all) until they puked a tranny(?) late Sunday. Jay put them in B-0 this time; after it was pointed out to Phil, he put them in A(0), and within 10min the whole team was at HQ crying to Phil. He put them in B-5 Sunday, and they sandbagged the entire rest of the race. They also had an E36(?) in B this time that should've beat us by a few laps, but their visits to the penalty box Sunday ended that. (they passed me on my second lap almost spinning in T14, and that's the last I remember seeing of them.) Turkstra was in B as well -- and they're plenty fast for A -- but were off track almost the entire weekend. (they're the one's that "slashed" our tire last year, after pitting me off the track at T4.)
This is the first race where all the "technology" worked. So I have 14+ hours of video to go with all the Aim data.
I don't think Roger mentioned it, but this is the first time we've finished the year on the same engine we started with. 4 Lemons race, 1 24hr Chumpcar, 3 THSCC HPDE's, 1 2.5 session HPDE with AV on Patriot course, MBC @ NCCAR, and NASA instructor clinc @ VIR. And TRSS is a few weeks away. This year we cooked a battery due to alternator problems at Barber (the plug thing wasn't staying plugged -- zip tie!) Learned what happens when you over fill the oil (at Barber) giving rise to "The Robert Maneuver" -- it blows the dipstick out and hoses down the driver side of the car, including the wheel. (we now zip tie the dipstick down.) I repeated this maneuver at patriot course when the oil pan gasket failed, and the grid worker didn't saying anything about that shiny grass covered wheel. The clutch release bearing failed a few weeks before Chump, but no one thought to pull the clutch, and as you might expect, the shaved bits of bearing locked up the clutch during Chump. We all did a fair bit of "off-roading" at Chump which turned out to be no bushings on the front passenger side -- we'll blame age (5 years) and Sebring for that. After this race, we were losing oil at a slow rate: o-ring on the dipstick tube.
Best year ever! I'm glad I missed the first few "engine and tranny eating" years. I think we've finally worked out how to build a car that can stand up to our endurance uses -- which isn't just races; we'll "hot pit" at HPDE's!
And thanks in large part to THSCC HPDE classroom and in-car instruction, I'm now as fast as Robert and Roger in the car. It's amazing to get on track and zip past almost everything. In fact, I had the fastest average laptimes Saturday, by 2s over Robert, which I'm sure doesn't sit well with him. :-) But he cooked our only set of brakes Saturday; I brought it back fine, despite baking harder in half the corners -- but thanks to Brian Settle, I brake hard but brief. The Carbotech AX6's have turned white from the extreme heat. If we still have them, I'll donate them to Rich's collection of example brakes.
Terminally Confused (the bees) had the most spectacular brake failure ever in their CRX. It appears the pad material delaminated and slid off the backing plate. The driver side still had material hanging on it. The passenger side didn't have as much luck. The caliper piston actually cut through the plate and was into the rotor.
[* There's more money in things tied to the dash bar than there is under the hood.]
Login
Register
FAQ
Search
After about 3 sessions, I got to revisit my lunch choice going under the bridge
