Duff Beer wins at Barber

Roger McDaniels · **Posted:** Mon Feb 08, 2016 1:26 am

We basically ran the best race that we could, got everything perfect, and then needed a big dose of luck at the end, but it all came together. Congrats to new team member Charles Lankford for running two perfect sessions in his first LeMons race in the Duff car.

Steven Carter · **Posted:** Mon Feb 08, 2016 9:02 am

congrats, guys! Well done.

Michael Czeiszperger · **Joined:** Thu Apr 09, 2009 9:35 am **Posts:** 861

Way to go!

Aaron Buckley · **Posted:** Mon Feb 08, 2016 10:41 pm

Well done. Welcome to A class!

We finished 7th overall ou of 85, which wasn't too bad. - AB

Roger McDaniels · **Posted:** Tue Feb 09, 2016 10:24 am

We're trying to avoid A class, so it may be time to dust off our C class project and fire up the welder.

Aaron Buckley · **Posted:** Tue Feb 09, 2016 11:35 am

Roger McDaniels wrote:

We're trying to avoid A class, so it may be time to dust off our C class project and fire up the welder.

Avoid it? Why? You have K24 ready to go. - AB

Roger McDaniels · **Posted:** Tue Feb 09, 2016 12:02 pm

Yeah, I don't mind ventilating the block on a cheap D16 while endurance racing, but that K24 frankenstein setup cost me about $6K.

RickyBeam · **Posted:** Tue Feb 09, 2016 4:48 pm

Aaron Buckley wrote:

Avoid it? Why?

Because we really aren't Class A drivers. (that level of dedication and precision we just don't have. Heck, Saturday, I was half throttle most of the time -- I used 6gal in 2 hours; it can burn 12gal in 1.5hr.)

I'm voting for "B plus whatever it takes to not be top 10". Our Class C creation will be an exercise in WTF. (not quite to the level of the Knoxvegas van, tho)

If they'd stop putting Class A cars in Class B, we would've had a win years ago. Those cars happened to have problems this time that let us get ahead. (And Craig really didn't want a win as they don't want to be in Class A, ever.)

Vincent Keene · **Posted:** Tue Feb 09, 2016 5:01 pm

RickyBeam wrote:

Because we really aren't Class A drivers. (that level of dedication and precision we just don't have.

Being a Class A driver, I'll take that as a compliment...I think.

Roger McDaniels · **Posted:** Tue Feb 09, 2016 5:47 pm

Our reliability, strategery, and pit stops have come a long way since we started racing the Duff car in 2009, but the car isn't fast enough (we never got under 2:01 on Saturday or Sunday) and we generally have a rookie driver on the team, which raises our average lap times. We could put an Integra powertrain swap in it, which is what most of the teams with Civics have done, and give a disproportionate amount of seat time to the more experienced drivers (which we have seen other teams do), but we'd rather spend our time/$ on making the car as non-blow-uppy/non-fall-aparty as possible and drive with people that we like to hang out with, as opposed to putting bigger engines and ringers in the car or shorting the less experienced drivers. That way we all get to have fun and whatever happens is fine with us.

And sometimes that works. Looking at the fastest lap times for the 26 Class B cars, we were 14th, so not even in the top half of the field, and we still won. Half of the cars out there either had to be driven more poorly than we drove or have been less well-prepared than we were. The notable exception was the Terminally Confused Del Sol, and we only beat them because they were doing their pit stops at the gas pumps because they didn't feel like suiting up and doing real pit stops. Our pit stops were each about 5 minutes long, which I think is reasonably quick, we spent every green-flagged second of the race on track, so no black flags or mechanical issues, and each of our drivers turned safe conservative laps to conserve tires/brakes and minimize the chances of breaking stuff or being involved in a black flag incident.

Vincent Keene · **Posted:** Tue Feb 09, 2016 6:07 pm

Roger McDaniels wrote:

We could put an Integra powertrain swap in it, which is what most of the teams with Civics have done, and give a disproportionate amount of seat time to the more experienced drivers (which we have seen other teams do), but we'd rather spend our time/$ on making the car as non-blow-uppy/non-fall-aparty as possible and drive with people that we like to hang out with, as opposed to putting bigger engines and ringers in the car or shorting the less experienced drivers.

All of our drivers get equal time, or as equal as we can make it when dividing by four and not adding a pit stop. Equal pay = Equal time in our car, and since all our drivers are owners, it makes it easy.

Roger McDaniels wrote:

we spent every green-flagged second of the race on track

Roger McDaniels wrote:

Our pit stops were each about 5 minutes long, which I think is reasonably quick

With a 5 min stop, I think you burned more than a couple of those green flag laps. Not to brag, but we did all of our stops in under 3 mins, most in 2.5 mins. That was 10 gallons of fuel, and a driver swap. Basically you were losing an extra lap every stop you made. I'm sure you guys have video, so any idea why it takes you 5 mins?

Roger McDaniels wrote:

no black flags or mechanical issues, and each of our drivers turned safe conservative laps to conserve tires/brakes and minimize the chances of breaking stuff or being involved in a black flag incident.

No argument there. STAYING on the track, and out of the penalty box is what you guys do well and that is over over 75% of the battle. We had three black flags, one was a flagger error, one for contact where the other guy admitted fault, and the third was deserved. Erase those three things and we could have likely finished 5th vs. 7th, but otherwise we did all we could do as the other four cars were just out of our league.

Barber is an awesome track as we had a blast and can't wait to go back next year.

Roger McDaniels · **Posted:** Tue Feb 09, 2016 6:43 pm

I say 5 minutes for a pit stop, but that's not correct, as I was looking at the pit stop lap times from MyLaps, which would include the lap. Our pit stop laps are about 5 minutes, so subtract a couple of minutes for driving around the track and our pit stops are about 3 minutes. Our last pit stop lap was 5:10, and our lap times were around 2:10, so that's probably 3 minutes to dump 10 gallons of gas in it and swap drivers, minus a few extra seconds for the hot pit speed limit.

Our camera was cutting out for some reason this past weekend, so I think we only got about an hour of video. I'll have to see if there is a pit stop on it.

RickyBeam · **Posted:** Tue Feb 09, 2016 6:53 pm

Vincent Keene wrote:

I'm sure you guys have video, so any idea why it takes you 5 mins?

He's looking at MyLaps lap times, so that's including getting around the track (~2 min.) We're quick, but not really rushed. We hurry to get the gas in because it's the longest part of the stop, and nothing else can happen with the cap is off. Then we get the next driver calmly in the car as someone else checks the car.

Aaron Buckley · **Posted:** Wed Feb 10, 2016 1:29 pm

Anything 3 minutes or under for the actual stop is good. Hell, even the trip down pit road is a *lot* of time at Barber. - AB

clinehall · **Posted:** Thu Feb 11, 2016 8:23 am

You guys are going to be stuck in A for the next couple of races even if you bring a tricycle as long as they know it is you. And let's face it, you guys don't really blend in in a crowd. Just enjoy the next couple of races then they may let you back in B.

We came in 8th, much like the Super Westerfield Bros, had we not stepped on our, uh own foot, a couple of times we would have gone up a couple of spots but everybody can say "shoulda woulda coulda" Our biggest nemesis is a thirsty V8 with a gas tank designed for a 4 cylinder. We can barely make it 90 minutes between fuel stops.

Over all, a great showing for THSCC drivers. I think it says a lot that most of us came up through the HPDE program.

Barber is amazing. Everybody ought to make it a bucket list track and destination. I didn't make it to the Museum this time and regret it. Heck, the driveway to the Bass Pro Shop next door is an E ticket ride in itself.

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Duff Beer wins at Barber

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