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What happened with the Barnes/Peterson/Roberts STi at the Pro Finale?

Lots of DNS's (Roberts won anyway based on Friday times) but it looks like it might have had problems for the Ladies' runs on Friday. Roberts didn't run the Challenge (I think). Guesing that Chris ran a borrowed car on Saturday.

Fortunately AS doesn't run until Thursday if there is a major car issue.

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Dick Rasmussen

FS 50 2018 Mustang GT

Donnie posted on NASIOC that they ripped the front sway bar mounts out of one of the control arms. He has new ones on order and they should be in Tuesday. So the car should be ready to go by Thursday.

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2010 Honda Fit Sport
Couple of bicycles

I was IMing with Donnie last night. He was seriously bummed, as you might guess. Sounded like it might have started to fail on Donnie's 2nd morning runs and completed the failure on Chris's first morning runs. They discovered the actual problem between Jonathan's afternoon runs and Donnie's afternoon runs. Luckily for Jonathan, he was fairly well in 1st after his morning runs, so he was able to stand on those. Donnie was 2nd after morning runs, but didn't have enough of a lead to hold on to 2nd having to stand just on his morning runs. Donnie said Chris had lined up a rent-a-ride for her afternoon runs, but it rained. I see she ran today, but looks like her game was all thrown off--I know mine would have been!

On a brighter note, though, Eric finished 2nd in CS to Darrin DiSimo by a mere .03 secs! Great finish for him! He was beaten in the Challenge by the eventual winner, Mike Johnson.

All results from the Pro are here.

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ME got everything right. It was a bad deal for Donnie, Chris, and Jonathan. We're pretty sure the bar ripped off the LCA during Donnie's 3rd or 4th run. During Chris' runs she seemed really off the pace and we were all talking afterwards trying to figure out why she was lifting the inside rear tire well over six inches off the ground. We initially thought she was being too abupt with her steering, so we all owed her an apology after the problem was discovered during Jonathan's runs. He almost never red lights or even cuts close lights. So, back to back red light's seemed wierd. The car was hooking up quicker w/o the front bar attached. Anyway, Donnie made some runs to no avail.

It was a real bummer for Donnie since he was driving great Friday a.m. as he was sitting in 2nd. Based on his driving and their their recent test session in Valdosta we expected Donnie to run Jonathan pretty close at the Pro. A new control arm will arrive in Topeka on Tuesday, so the car will be ready for Nationals.

Chris found a ride in another STi, that cost us almost $40 per run - ouch. Anyway, it rained hard on Sat. p.m. so most folks in Shift D didn't even run. So, Chris' first runs in the other STi was Saturday a.m. The car was quite different and it was not an easy adjustment. I do think she coned a run that would have moved her up quite a bit.

Eric

I forgot...in the Challenge I had Mike Johnson down by about 0.15 after the first side and actually beat him on the second side, but coned. I just got impatient. Anyway, you can't hold back in those situations and I was happy with the way I drove.

Got to go.

That sucks! Sorry to hear this happened, especially at the ProSolo Finale. Any idea which bar they're using? I've heard several reports of this type problem with the Strano bar due to the way the endlinks mount to the control arms. The other big bar option, from Whiteline, fits with the stock end links and doesn't seem to have this problem (which is the reason I chose it for my STi).

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Keith Q.
2008 Top Gun
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmX8XuZ_DCo&NR=1

Donnie's car has the Strano bar. The 'borrowed' car had the Whiteline bar. The borrowed car was 'squishy' to me - but there is alot more in that equation than just the bar.

Donnie and Jonathan have the new part in hand with plans to get it installed today. If Donnie continues to drive like he did Friday morning, it's going to be very exciting to watch AS!

Same goes for Eric in CS - that was some of the best driving I've seen out of him ever.

Good time to "peak". Good luck to all of you. Drive your best!!!

Dick

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Dick Rasmussen

FS 50 2018 Mustang GT

The Strano bar should be a hair stiffer - it's a 32 mm hollow bar, which is supposedly equivalent in stiffness to 29.6 mm solid bar - the Whiteline is 29.0 mm solid.


Good luck to all the Tarheelers at Nationals! Looking forward to hearing all about it.

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Keith Q.
2008 Top Gun
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmX8XuZ_DCo&NR=1

The biggest bar from Whiteline used to be 27mm. I had that, and it was not only not enough bar, the endlinks were crap that it came with. Lost a large chunk of track time thanks to that.

Going to the Strano bar was like night and day. I can't imagine the car with a smaller bar.

But it appears that the endlink bracket that the Strano bar uses isn't *really* compatible with its endlinks, either. It took almost two years for it to happen, but it broke the control arm mount. Upon disassembly you could see where the endlinks were hitting the bracket, causing extra binding, and eventually breaking the control arm. We went to a parts store, dug around endlink kits, and found one that appears it will work a LOT better. Shouldn't cause any contact at all.

Sam Strano said a new bar is in development that will allow for the use of normal heim joint type endlinks without a bracket, and I'll get one of those when available.

Now, I still don't like the strength of the tab on the control arm. After seeing what someone else did on NASIOC, I'm going to fab a reinforcement bracket when I move to the new bar, too. Should be fine from there on out.

I also found that I can convert my Ohlins DA shocks with a single adjuster to split adjustment DAs, which I'll be doing in the off season. It requires a remote reservoir, but that's a small price to pay to split those adjustments, IMHO. I'm not a shock twiddler, but right now there's no "right" adjustment with the knob...to get enough rebound we have to live with too much bump, but the car seems fastest that way.


--Donnie