Check out the video I posted on You Tube of the start of my 10-1-06 Pacific Raceways IRDC race!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpW_VIcMiYM
Friday, October 06, 2006
Thursday, October 05, 2006
10/1/06 IRDC Race at Pacific Raceways, Seattle
Well this was my last race of the 2006 racing season. I guess I've pretty much reached my racing goals for this year. I rebuilt my racecar and ran as many races as I could. Even if I could only run four races this year I feel like I accomplished a lot. Anyway, on to the race recap....
As per usual I arrived at the race track Friday evening to unload the Camaro and set up my pit for the weekend. Saturday morning arrived bright and early and I got to the track about 7:30 in to prepare for my first practice session at 9:30. This was the first time I've been back to Pacific Raceways since Memorial Day weekend in 2004 and I was a little rusty. They changed turn 9 slightly by smoothing out the apex so its not such a sharp corner anymore. It is a little smoother now and allows a little more flexibility in your line through this corner. I still can't take it flat out though and I have to feather the throttle through this turn to maintain control. Maybe with better tires I can.
My Saturday morning practice session went well and I ended up improving my best lap time by 1-1/2 seconds. My previous best was 1:37.002 and my new best time set during this session was 1:35.551. The Camaro was running well and seemed very strong. I was taking it kind of easy and not wanting to push things too much until I shook off the cobwebs.
Saturday afternoon's qualifying session came right after lunch. I went back out on track and the car felt a lot different from the morning qualifying session. All I did was rotate the tires and tweak the tire pressure a little. The track conditions changed too with the humidity being higher in the afternoon. I decided to push it anyway because rain was threatening for Sunday morning's qualifying session and this might be my best opportunity to qualify well for Sunday's race. In spite of the fact my car was handling worse this session, I ended up posting a best lap time of 1:35.370 qualifying me in 5th position on the starting grid out of 42 cars registered for the race. My tires were getting hard and losing their grip and I knew this was holding me back from getting better lap times.
Terry Ward, a Canadian in a 3rd generation Camaro qualified right in front of me with a 135:278 lap time. I've raced with him before and I knew this would be a great match up. The rest of the afternoon I spent making a few more changes to my car's setup and getting it ready for Sunday.
Sunday morning I slept in a little after I decided to skip my Sunday morning qualifying session because my brake pads looked like they only had had enough left in them for the race. Got to conserve the equipment!I got the the track in time to watch my race group run their final qualifying session without me, but this allowed me to size up the competition from a different vantage point. I felt I achieved a decent qualifying time Saturday afternoon so I wasn't too worried, however, the weather was good and the track conditions were optimum for good lap times. I ended up getting bumped from 5th on the starting grid to 6th. Oh well. Still not a bad place to start the race.
Lisa and the boys came down for lunch and to watch my race. We had some fried chicken before I had to get suited up and report to grid at about 1:15. As I gridded up I spent a little time planning my strategy for the start of the race. I figured I'd end up having to take the outside lane at the splitter (person who directs you as to what side of the track to start the race on) but I was surprised to see they pointed me to the inside, my preferred lane for the start. As we drove the pace lap behind the pace car I scrubbed my tires and brakes too get them warm. As we rounded turn 9 we all tightened up our spacing in anticipation for the green flag. The starter waited until the last possible second to drop the green flag, and then we we off!
I immediately got a jump on the C3 Corvette in front of me and passed Mac Russell in his GT3 car too and set up right behind Terry Ward as we entered the braking zone for turn 2. Right at the start a really nicely prepared Red Porsche 911 RSA gridded right behind me had tried to pull out and pass me on my left, but my superior torque left him fading in my rear view mirrors. As we came around to complete the first lap they had standing yellow flags displayed at the starters tower and I immediately saw that the Porsche 911 RSA had crashed into the wall on the far outside of turn 1 causing a full course yellow and bringing out the pace car. Inever did find out what happened to the driver, but that nice Porsche was destroyed in the crash.
I figured it would take the safety workers most of the 30 minute timed race to clean up the mess but they somehow got it cleared off within three laps behind the pace car. During these slow laps behind the pace car we all bunched back up, so the re-start would be another chance to pass cars in front of me and better my position. When the green flag dropped I was able to pass Mac Russell (again) gaining a position and got right on Terry Ward's tail. As we raced on Terry had a little more power than me and he was putting a little distance between us. He had actually qualified a good two seconds ahead of me during his Sunday morning qualifying session and his better lap times were showing, but I was still keeping him in my sights. Chasing someone faster always brings out my best driving abilities.
We battled on through the rest of the race with me chasing Terry. As we began to lap slower traffic I would gain a little advantage only to lose it as we both passed through another batch of slower traffic. In the end when the checker flag was thrown, I finished the race about a second behind Terry in 4th place overall (out of 39 cars) and 3rd place in class (of 7 ITE cars) qualifying me for a trophy! My best race lap time was a 1:35.392, just a bit faster than my qualifying time. It was a fun race and one that I felt pretty good about. My car didn't exhibit any overheating problems like I have had in other raced this season and it felt really strong. If I had better tires and brakes I'm sure I could have broken into the 1:34 lap times easily and maybe even into 1:33's. I guess that will have to wait until next season though.
This winter will be spent upgrading my Camaro's front brakes to 13" Corvette calipers and rotors to compensate for the extra speed I'm now attaining with my higher horsepower engine I installed at the beginning of this season. I may also install some higher rate springs and new suspension bushings also. We'll see how it goes. Next season I hope to be able to compete in more races! I'll post some of my in car race video as soon as I can...
As per usual I arrived at the race track Friday evening to unload the Camaro and set up my pit for the weekend. Saturday morning arrived bright and early and I got to the track about 7:30 in to prepare for my first practice session at 9:30. This was the first time I've been back to Pacific Raceways since Memorial Day weekend in 2004 and I was a little rusty. They changed turn 9 slightly by smoothing out the apex so its not such a sharp corner anymore. It is a little smoother now and allows a little more flexibility in your line through this corner. I still can't take it flat out though and I have to feather the throttle through this turn to maintain control. Maybe with better tires I can.
My Saturday morning practice session went well and I ended up improving my best lap time by 1-1/2 seconds. My previous best was 1:37.002 and my new best time set during this session was 1:35.551. The Camaro was running well and seemed very strong. I was taking it kind of easy and not wanting to push things too much until I shook off the cobwebs.
Saturday afternoon's qualifying session came right after lunch. I went back out on track and the car felt a lot different from the morning qualifying session. All I did was rotate the tires and tweak the tire pressure a little. The track conditions changed too with the humidity being higher in the afternoon. I decided to push it anyway because rain was threatening for Sunday morning's qualifying session and this might be my best opportunity to qualify well for Sunday's race. In spite of the fact my car was handling worse this session, I ended up posting a best lap time of 1:35.370 qualifying me in 5th position on the starting grid out of 42 cars registered for the race. My tires were getting hard and losing their grip and I knew this was holding me back from getting better lap times.
Terry Ward, a Canadian in a 3rd generation Camaro qualified right in front of me with a 135:278 lap time. I've raced with him before and I knew this would be a great match up. The rest of the afternoon I spent making a few more changes to my car's setup and getting it ready for Sunday.
Sunday morning I slept in a little after I decided to skip my Sunday morning qualifying session because my brake pads looked like they only had had enough left in them for the race. Got to conserve the equipment!I got the the track in time to watch my race group run their final qualifying session without me, but this allowed me to size up the competition from a different vantage point. I felt I achieved a decent qualifying time Saturday afternoon so I wasn't too worried, however, the weather was good and the track conditions were optimum for good lap times. I ended up getting bumped from 5th on the starting grid to 6th. Oh well. Still not a bad place to start the race.
Lisa and the boys came down for lunch and to watch my race. We had some fried chicken before I had to get suited up and report to grid at about 1:15. As I gridded up I spent a little time planning my strategy for the start of the race. I figured I'd end up having to take the outside lane at the splitter (person who directs you as to what side of the track to start the race on) but I was surprised to see they pointed me to the inside, my preferred lane for the start. As we drove the pace lap behind the pace car I scrubbed my tires and brakes too get them warm. As we rounded turn 9 we all tightened up our spacing in anticipation for the green flag. The starter waited until the last possible second to drop the green flag, and then we we off!
I immediately got a jump on the C3 Corvette in front of me and passed Mac Russell in his GT3 car too and set up right behind Terry Ward as we entered the braking zone for turn 2. Right at the start a really nicely prepared Red Porsche 911 RSA gridded right behind me had tried to pull out and pass me on my left, but my superior torque left him fading in my rear view mirrors. As we came around to complete the first lap they had standing yellow flags displayed at the starters tower and I immediately saw that the Porsche 911 RSA had crashed into the wall on the far outside of turn 1 causing a full course yellow and bringing out the pace car. Inever did find out what happened to the driver, but that nice Porsche was destroyed in the crash.
I figured it would take the safety workers most of the 30 minute timed race to clean up the mess but they somehow got it cleared off within three laps behind the pace car. During these slow laps behind the pace car we all bunched back up, so the re-start would be another chance to pass cars in front of me and better my position. When the green flag dropped I was able to pass Mac Russell (again) gaining a position and got right on Terry Ward's tail. As we raced on Terry had a little more power than me and he was putting a little distance between us. He had actually qualified a good two seconds ahead of me during his Sunday morning qualifying session and his better lap times were showing, but I was still keeping him in my sights. Chasing someone faster always brings out my best driving abilities.
We battled on through the rest of the race with me chasing Terry. As we began to lap slower traffic I would gain a little advantage only to lose it as we both passed through another batch of slower traffic. In the end when the checker flag was thrown, I finished the race about a second behind Terry in 4th place overall (out of 39 cars) and 3rd place in class (of 7 ITE cars) qualifying me for a trophy! My best race lap time was a 1:35.392, just a bit faster than my qualifying time. It was a fun race and one that I felt pretty good about. My car didn't exhibit any overheating problems like I have had in other raced this season and it felt really strong. If I had better tires and brakes I'm sure I could have broken into the 1:34 lap times easily and maybe even into 1:33's. I guess that will have to wait until next season though.
This winter will be spent upgrading my Camaro's front brakes to 13" Corvette calipers and rotors to compensate for the extra speed I'm now attaining with my higher horsepower engine I installed at the beginning of this season. I may also install some higher rate springs and new suspension bushings also. We'll see how it goes. Next season I hope to be able to compete in more races! I'll post some of my in car race video as soon as I can...
Saturday, June 24, 2006
Friday, June 16, 2006
Portland Rose Cup Race, PIR 6/9 – 6/11/06
Rose Cup weekend. This is a race that culminates the Portland Rose Festival and always draws a lot of competitors and quite a crowd of spectators. I’ve wanted to compete in this race for a long time and this year I finally was able to race in it. This year the Rose cup race did not include my normal race class (ITE) so I stepped up a class and raced in SPO where I was racing against some seriously fast purpose built race cars. I knew I didn’t have any chance of being very competitive, but it would be fun just to be out there with and mix it up with the big boys in front of all the spectators.
This weekend I was being sponsored by Parent Empowerment Network and Mother’s Against WASL and I was happy to be able to help support their cause. Lisa set up a table with literature and gave out stickers and buttons as she enlightened people about the WASL. They put out a press release and we had a reporter and photographer from the Vancouver Columbian newspaper come out and do a story on us. We were printed in the Monday 6/12/06 newspaper and they had a nice article and pictures of me, Lisa and the Camaro!
Thursday evening after work I trailored the racecar to the track and set up my pit. I needed to replace a leaking header gasket so I decided I better get it done that evening and began working on it there at the track. It took me about one hour to get the old header gasket off. I began installing the new header gasket and it began to be more work than I anticipated. I couldn’t seem to get the header bolts to line up and get the threads to start. When it started getting dark I had to go buy a flashlight at GI Joes (where Melissa works) so I could see what the heck I was doing. I got back to the track and continued working on the car until about 10:30 when I decided to give up for the evening out of frustration. I had to get up early and return back to the track first thing the next morning and complete this work because I had our group’s practice session at 11:30am. I finally got the header re-installed and everything buttoned up by about 10:30 and got my car through tech and got suited up to go out on track. I went out and completed the practice session and was able to complete some fast laps and size up the competition, but there were a lot of cars that decided not to go out for this session. The Camaro was running well and felt strong. The only problem was that I seemed to be losing some of my coolant. No much but it was a concern.
Saturday morning came and our qualifying session came next. When I pulled my car into pre-grid there were some very fast racecars showing up to go out on track with. The racecar that pulled up next to me was Monte Shelton’s 1984 Porsche 962 GTP. This car is known to be able to top 240mph at Lemans! Talk about a mismatch! A little intimidating to say the least! We went out on track and I was able to only get a couple of fast laps in because they had decided to split our race group’s qualifying session into two groups, the fast cars and the slower cars. I went out in the faster group but we only had about 5 laps to qualify, and I was trying to bed in my new brake pads too. I ended up qualifying at 1:25.199, just a couple tenths of a second off my best lap time from the previous week. This qualifying time placed me 32nd out of 41 cars on the starting grid. I’m not used to starting so far back in the grid. I spent the rest of the day readying my car for the race the next day my installing new brake pads on all four wheels and installing new rotors on the front.
Sunday was race day. I got to the track at about 7:30am to begin double checking everything. My race was scheduled for about 1:10, but they wanted us to get the cars in pre-grid about 45 minutes early for the opening ceremonies. This was something I have never done before and it was kind of cool. They interviewed the top drivers, had someone sing the national anthem, and then had a celebrity announce “Driver’s, Start Your Engines!” Pretty cool! We had one parade lap, then one pace lap behind the pace car. It was pretty hot, about 80 degrees and I was getting nervous about my engine getting too hot and overheating. When we came around for the green flag and the start of the race, the starter figured we were all too out of shape to give us the green flag and made us all go around for another pace lap. As we came around for the third time we finally got the green flag. I started out very conservatively not wanting to get out of shape for the chicane on the first lap and I made it through cleanly. As we drove through turn 6 there was a Porsche 911 that was smoking badly and I was afraid he was dumping oil on the track, so I had to drive off the racing line and slow down to avoid him along with a few other cars. This gave the rest of the pack a chance to brake away from us. A GT1 car that started a couple rows ahead of me was driving a lot slower than I thought he should be and was holding me up even more. I was stuck behind him, an SPM Porsche 911 and a couple of pretty fast EP Mazda RX7’s. We struggled behind this slower (in the corners) GT1 car for a few laps until he blew the chicane giving us a chance to pass him. That set me up to do battle with the 911 in front of me. The only problem for me was the two RX7’s that were catching and passing me or trying to pass me in the corners. I would pass them on the straights, but they would catch back up and pass me in the corners. I had some really close racing with those guys, a little too close. As I was battling the 911 in front of me, he must have felt the pressure because he spun out right in front of me as we were coming out of turn 7. I had to drive off the track and into the grass to avoid T-boning him. Just as this was happening the race leader lapped us.
With the Porsche 911 spinning out I was now able to gain a position and get a little breathing room in front of the two RX7’s. I began chancing some cars that were a ways in front of me for awhile but before long my tires started getting too hot and began to get greasy and lose traction in the turns. This hut my lap times and allowed the two pesky RX7’s to catch up with me again. As I battled with these guys, trading positions a two or three times per lap, my engine began to overheat! So I had to slow down a bit off my pace to let the engine cool down a bit. This gave the Porsche 911 the change to catch up to me and he ended up passing me. After a lap or so my water temp gauge indicated the engine was cooling down, so I increased my pace again and chased the 911 again. As we were entering the chicane he went in too fast, overcooked his brakes and began to spin. This presented me with yet another opportunity to re-pass this guy, I was happy to oblige and went on by. Before long my engine heated up again and I had to slow down to avoid overheating. The 911 once again caught up with me and passed me again. After another lap the engine cooled enough that I felt like I could go after him again. Then, as we rounded turn 12 onto the main straight I saw that they had put out the checked flag signaling the end of the race! Apparently the starter never put out the “last lap” sign. I only had half the strait to try to pass the 911 to beat him to the finish line. It was a drag race between me and the 911 but he was able to edge me out at the line by only maybe a foot or two! If we had another 50 feet I would have passed him for the position.
What a race! I had survived and made it through without any incidents. I felt good about that. But as I completed my cool down lap my engine overheated! I ended up finishing in 23rd place, three laps behind the top three finishers. All in all it was a pretty fun race weekend. It was real nice to have my family there to support me. I think they enjoyed the day watching Dad race. I still need to figure out why I am losing coolant and overheating though before the next race.
Stay tuned race fans!
Columbian Newspaper Article on my race: http://www.columbian.com/news/localNews/06122006news35244.cfm
This weekend I was being sponsored by Parent Empowerment Network and Mother’s Against WASL and I was happy to be able to help support their cause. Lisa set up a table with literature and gave out stickers and buttons as she enlightened people about the WASL. They put out a press release and we had a reporter and photographer from the Vancouver Columbian newspaper come out and do a story on us. We were printed in the Monday 6/12/06 newspaper and they had a nice article and pictures of me, Lisa and the Camaro!
Thursday evening after work I trailored the racecar to the track and set up my pit. I needed to replace a leaking header gasket so I decided I better get it done that evening and began working on it there at the track. It took me about one hour to get the old header gasket off. I began installing the new header gasket and it began to be more work than I anticipated. I couldn’t seem to get the header bolts to line up and get the threads to start. When it started getting dark I had to go buy a flashlight at GI Joes (where Melissa works) so I could see what the heck I was doing. I got back to the track and continued working on the car until about 10:30 when I decided to give up for the evening out of frustration. I had to get up early and return back to the track first thing the next morning and complete this work because I had our group’s practice session at 11:30am. I finally got the header re-installed and everything buttoned up by about 10:30 and got my car through tech and got suited up to go out on track. I went out and completed the practice session and was able to complete some fast laps and size up the competition, but there were a lot of cars that decided not to go out for this session. The Camaro was running well and felt strong. The only problem was that I seemed to be losing some of my coolant. No much but it was a concern.
Saturday morning came and our qualifying session came next. When I pulled my car into pre-grid there were some very fast racecars showing up to go out on track with. The racecar that pulled up next to me was Monte Shelton’s 1984 Porsche 962 GTP. This car is known to be able to top 240mph at Lemans! Talk about a mismatch! A little intimidating to say the least! We went out on track and I was able to only get a couple of fast laps in because they had decided to split our race group’s qualifying session into two groups, the fast cars and the slower cars. I went out in the faster group but we only had about 5 laps to qualify, and I was trying to bed in my new brake pads too. I ended up qualifying at 1:25.199, just a couple tenths of a second off my best lap time from the previous week. This qualifying time placed me 32nd out of 41 cars on the starting grid. I’m not used to starting so far back in the grid. I spent the rest of the day readying my car for the race the next day my installing new brake pads on all four wheels and installing new rotors on the front.
Sunday was race day. I got to the track at about 7:30am to begin double checking everything. My race was scheduled for about 1:10, but they wanted us to get the cars in pre-grid about 45 minutes early for the opening ceremonies. This was something I have never done before and it was kind of cool. They interviewed the top drivers, had someone sing the national anthem, and then had a celebrity announce “Driver’s, Start Your Engines!” Pretty cool! We had one parade lap, then one pace lap behind the pace car. It was pretty hot, about 80 degrees and I was getting nervous about my engine getting too hot and overheating. When we came around for the green flag and the start of the race, the starter figured we were all too out of shape to give us the green flag and made us all go around for another pace lap. As we came around for the third time we finally got the green flag. I started out very conservatively not wanting to get out of shape for the chicane on the first lap and I made it through cleanly. As we drove through turn 6 there was a Porsche 911 that was smoking badly and I was afraid he was dumping oil on the track, so I had to drive off the racing line and slow down to avoid him along with a few other cars. This gave the rest of the pack a chance to brake away from us. A GT1 car that started a couple rows ahead of me was driving a lot slower than I thought he should be and was holding me up even more. I was stuck behind him, an SPM Porsche 911 and a couple of pretty fast EP Mazda RX7’s. We struggled behind this slower (in the corners) GT1 car for a few laps until he blew the chicane giving us a chance to pass him. That set me up to do battle with the 911 in front of me. The only problem for me was the two RX7’s that were catching and passing me or trying to pass me in the corners. I would pass them on the straights, but they would catch back up and pass me in the corners. I had some really close racing with those guys, a little too close. As I was battling the 911 in front of me, he must have felt the pressure because he spun out right in front of me as we were coming out of turn 7. I had to drive off the track and into the grass to avoid T-boning him. Just as this was happening the race leader lapped us.
With the Porsche 911 spinning out I was now able to gain a position and get a little breathing room in front of the two RX7’s. I began chancing some cars that were a ways in front of me for awhile but before long my tires started getting too hot and began to get greasy and lose traction in the turns. This hut my lap times and allowed the two pesky RX7’s to catch up with me again. As I battled with these guys, trading positions a two or three times per lap, my engine began to overheat! So I had to slow down a bit off my pace to let the engine cool down a bit. This gave the Porsche 911 the change to catch up to me and he ended up passing me. After a lap or so my water temp gauge indicated the engine was cooling down, so I increased my pace again and chased the 911 again. As we were entering the chicane he went in too fast, overcooked his brakes and began to spin. This presented me with yet another opportunity to re-pass this guy, I was happy to oblige and went on by. Before long my engine heated up again and I had to slow down to avoid overheating. The 911 once again caught up with me and passed me again. After another lap the engine cooled enough that I felt like I could go after him again. Then, as we rounded turn 12 onto the main straight I saw that they had put out the checked flag signaling the end of the race! Apparently the starter never put out the “last lap” sign. I only had half the strait to try to pass the 911 to beat him to the finish line. It was a drag race between me and the 911 but he was able to edge me out at the line by only maybe a foot or two! If we had another 50 feet I would have passed him for the position.
What a race! I had survived and made it through without any incidents. I felt good about that. But as I completed my cool down lap my engine overheated! I ended up finishing in 23rd place, three laps behind the top three finishers. All in all it was a pretty fun race weekend. It was real nice to have my family there to support me. I think they enjoyed the day watching Dad race. I still need to figure out why I am losing coolant and overheating though before the next race.
Stay tuned race fans!
Columbian Newspaper Article on my race: http://www.columbian.com/news/localNews/06122006news35244.cfm
CSCC Race at PIR 6/3, 6/4/06
This was my second race of this season. I had my racecar dyno tuned Friday and we were able to get 390 rear wheel horsepower and 393 rear wheel torque. These are great numbers and represent an 80 horsepower increase over my last engine setup. This increase in power was immediately noticeable once I got the car on the race track.
Saturdays practice session there were a few fast cars in my race group that used to be a lot faster than me. Not anymore. I was able to run with them and keep on their bumpers. In my Saturday afternoon qualifying session I posted my best lap time to date, 124.963. This is 5 seconds faster than my previous best lap time at PIR (with chicane)! I ended up qualifying 4th overall and 2nd in class on the second row right behind a fast Nissan 300ZX in my class.
At the start of the race I got a pretty good jump but wasn’t able to gain any positions before the chicane. I got passed my a pretty fast A/Sedan Mustang at the chicane entrance but quickly re-passed him. A GT1 Monte Carlo in front of me spun in turn 2 and bunched up the field somewhat. Then it was the Nissan 300 ZX, me and a GT2 Nissan 200 SX and we were nose to tail for the next couple of laps. I was staying right on this guys bumper in 2nd place with the Nissan 200 SX hot on my tail. The 200 SX was faster than me in the corners but I was faster on the straight. He ended up passing me going into turn 6. I probably could have held him off but that would have been blocking. So that put me in 3rd place so far. We would switch places like this for the next few laps. Then as I was entering turn 5 I was carrying too much speed and ran a bit wide and hit the rumble strips and went into the grass heading straight for the tire wall! Somehow I was able to get some traction and braking in the grass and managed to stop my momentum just before getting to the tire wall and turned around and headed back on course. This was my first of three off course excursions for the race, a new record for me, one I’d rather not relish!
So now I’m playing catch up with two A/Sedans that passed by as I was in the grass. I managed to pass them in another lap and a half or so, but in my effort to pass the yellow Mustang, I over cooked my brakes going into the chicane and ended up spinning out right at the apex of turn 2. Then after a few more laps there was some other race car on course that dumped oil and/or coolant on the track that caused me to loose traction going through turns 10 - 11 and causing me to go off through turn 12! Fortunately there was enough runoff room so I wasn’t in danger of hitting the tire wall.
After getting back on course again I just put the peddle to the metal and drove like heck. I started lapping slower racers and making my way through traffic trying to keep clean and not have any more offs. After awhile the checker flag came out and the race was over. As I was on my cool down lap I checked my water temperature gauge and noticed it was pegged! Somehow I had overheated my engine! I figured I had placed pretty poorly, but when pick up the official results later I discovered that I ended up in 3rd place overall and 2nd place in class! Not too bad considering I went off course THREE times!
When I got my car home and had a chance to investigate the over heating problem, I realized that I had neglected to screw on the radiator cap on all the way allowing coolant to escape from the top of the radiator. Dumb mistake, but at least it didn’t show up until after the race was over!
This race made me realize that now my car is putting out way more power than it can safely and reliably race with. I will now need to upgrade my front brakes and probably get a larger radiator. Considering I’m going a lot faster now, I really need to invest in these upgrades and probably a fire suppression system too.
Next race is this coming weekend’s annual Portland Rose Cup race. This is the most popular race of the year and there are supposed to be over 400 cars racing in 6 or 7 race groups with lots of spectators watching.
Stay tuned for more racing…..
Saturdays practice session there were a few fast cars in my race group that used to be a lot faster than me. Not anymore. I was able to run with them and keep on their bumpers. In my Saturday afternoon qualifying session I posted my best lap time to date, 124.963. This is 5 seconds faster than my previous best lap time at PIR (with chicane)! I ended up qualifying 4th overall and 2nd in class on the second row right behind a fast Nissan 300ZX in my class.
At the start of the race I got a pretty good jump but wasn’t able to gain any positions before the chicane. I got passed my a pretty fast A/Sedan Mustang at the chicane entrance but quickly re-passed him. A GT1 Monte Carlo in front of me spun in turn 2 and bunched up the field somewhat. Then it was the Nissan 300 ZX, me and a GT2 Nissan 200 SX and we were nose to tail for the next couple of laps. I was staying right on this guys bumper in 2nd place with the Nissan 200 SX hot on my tail. The 200 SX was faster than me in the corners but I was faster on the straight. He ended up passing me going into turn 6. I probably could have held him off but that would have been blocking. So that put me in 3rd place so far. We would switch places like this for the next few laps. Then as I was entering turn 5 I was carrying too much speed and ran a bit wide and hit the rumble strips and went into the grass heading straight for the tire wall! Somehow I was able to get some traction and braking in the grass and managed to stop my momentum just before getting to the tire wall and turned around and headed back on course. This was my first of three off course excursions for the race, a new record for me, one I’d rather not relish!
So now I’m playing catch up with two A/Sedans that passed by as I was in the grass. I managed to pass them in another lap and a half or so, but in my effort to pass the yellow Mustang, I over cooked my brakes going into the chicane and ended up spinning out right at the apex of turn 2. Then after a few more laps there was some other race car on course that dumped oil and/or coolant on the track that caused me to loose traction going through turns 10 - 11 and causing me to go off through turn 12! Fortunately there was enough runoff room so I wasn’t in danger of hitting the tire wall.
After getting back on course again I just put the peddle to the metal and drove like heck. I started lapping slower racers and making my way through traffic trying to keep clean and not have any more offs. After awhile the checker flag came out and the race was over. As I was on my cool down lap I checked my water temperature gauge and noticed it was pegged! Somehow I had overheated my engine! I figured I had placed pretty poorly, but when pick up the official results later I discovered that I ended up in 3rd place overall and 2nd place in class! Not too bad considering I went off course THREE times!
When I got my car home and had a chance to investigate the over heating problem, I realized that I had neglected to screw on the radiator cap on all the way allowing coolant to escape from the top of the radiator. Dumb mistake, but at least it didn’t show up until after the race was over!
This race made me realize that now my car is putting out way more power than it can safely and reliably race with. I will now need to upgrade my front brakes and probably get a larger radiator. Considering I’m going a lot faster now, I really need to invest in these upgrades and probably a fire suppression system too.
Next race is this coming weekend’s annual Portland Rose Cup race. This is the most popular race of the year and there are supposed to be over 400 cars racing in 6 or 7 race groups with lots of spectators watching.
Stay tuned for more racing…..
Sunday, May 07, 2006
CSCC Race @ PIR 5/7/06
This weekend was my first race since my July 2004 when my engine decided to sheer off it's oil pump drive shaft and end it's life. I spent the better part of the last month or so extracting a 383 stroker engine out of another 1994 Camaro Z28 I bought last year for the engine. Working on this weekends and evenings after work when ever I could, I was able to just barely get everything together in time for this weekend's race.
I loaded up the van and trailer Friday night after getting home from work. Then Skyler and I drove over to PIR, about a 15 minute driver to Portland, to register for the race, unload the racecar and get our pit set up. Then Skyler and I watched the drag racing that was going on there for awhile. Skyler seemed to enjoy the evening out with Dad.
Saturday morning came early. I got up about 5:30 and drove over to the track to begin getting ready for my first practice session at about 9:30. The weather was partly cloudy and dry, but rain was forecast for Sunday. So I strapped myself in the car and gridded up. My plan was to just get out there and take it easy, maybe push the car to about 70 to 75%. Well, as soon as I get out on track I notice a guy by the name of Kevin Smith who I raced with before. He races a yellow 3rd gen. Camaro A-Sedan. He was pretty fast and I ended up dicing it up with him a bit. So much for my 75% plan. I ended up pushing it to maybe 90% but the car held up great. If felt really great to get back out there on the race track, and it didn't take too long to shake off the cobwebs. Unfortunately Conference didn't post our lap times though. But the car felt pretty strong and handled well, even on my old, hard Kumho V700 tires.
For my Saturday qualifying session I bolted on my new Kumho V710 race tires to be sure I took advantage of the dry track conditions. Rain was looming for Sunday so I had to make the most of this qualifying session. I got out on track and laid down what felt like some pretty fast laps. The new T2R limited slip differential I put in last year really helped my car's handling making a noticeable difference in the tighter turns of PIR. During my qualifying session a radiator hose clam failed and my radiator drained water all over the track. But at least I was able to get a few good laps in, with a best lap of 1:17.509 lap time (non-chicane). This was two seconds better than my previous best with my old setup! I was pleasantly pleased with these results and qualified 4th overall on the grid behind some faster GT1 tube frame racecars.
Sunday morning was rainy. The forecast said intermittent rain showers and the track was pretty wet. PIR is tretcherous in the rain and I don't have any rain tires. As my second qualifying session came around, I went out on track with running my newer tries and figured I'd just go out and take a few easy laps then come back in. No sense to push it and risk sliding off track and possibly hitting something or some one. The rain stopped and the track began to dry out a little, but not nearly enough to provide any chance of bettering my Saturday qualifying session. I ended up staying out for the whole session figuring I'd might as well get my money's worth of track time. The car was still running strong and ready for the race later in the day.
When it was time for my group to race, it had been raining pretty hard, so the track was wet. I had decided to put on my older race tires because they had tread. My newer race tires are virtually slicks. Before gridding up I had spoken to GT1 racer in my group. He indicated that he didn't have any rain tires and would be racing on slicks. When it came time to grid up he had decided to sit this one out. Another racer who qualified in front of me failed to make the grid so I ended up starting second, on the front row behind a tube frame GT1 car on rain tires and in front of some fast A-Sedan Camaro's and BMW's. I figured I'd just take it easy and do my best to avoid trouble.
On the pace lap the BMW starting behind me wouldn't give me much of any room to scrub my tires to get some heat in them for the start of the race, so I was a little nervous that my tires would have any grip for turn one after the start of the race. We came around onto the main straight and the green flag dropped. The GT1 car and I both got a pretty good jump on the rest of the pack and quickly pulled away. Surprisingly I was able to stay with the GT1 car. My tires held through turn one and the track was dryer than I had anticipated. My tires felt really good so I went after the GT1 car. He was on rain tires so I knew he wouldn't be able to keep up the pace for long if the track stayed dry. He would pull me on the straights a little but I was all over him in the turns. After about 7 or 8 laps he had enough of me and pointed me by. So here I am in FIRST PLACE!
I continued this pace for several more laps trying to put as much distance between me and the rest of the field and I began to lap back markers. Pretty soon my tires started to go away so I had to slow it down a bit and settled behind a couple A-Sedan cars and watched them battle it out for awhile. Another A-Sedan ended up parked just off turn 7 with a broken transmission which brought out a yellow flag. I noticed yellow at turn 6 but I didn't see one at turn 4. I finally got tird of following these A-Sedan cars and passed them. I ended up lapping all but four cars in the entire 29 car field before the checker flag came out on my 22nd lap giving me the win! I got first in class (ITE) and first place overall!
I felt really great about my win! My car had performed very well and I was particularly impressed at how well it handled and the power down the straights and coming out of the corners. After getting back to the pits I began to load everything back up and put my car on the trailer and head for home. I needed to stop by the tower to get the official results and collect my trophy. When I inquired about the results I was told they weren't official yet as the race steward still needed to sign them off. After some waiting the steward came in and said he needed to talk to me. He had a corner worker's report that I had passed a black BMW in turn 4 while under a yellow flag! CRAP! He asked my version of the story and I told him I didn't pass the BMW until after the the incident (A-Sedan with broken transmission). I didn't remember even seeing a yellow flag at turn 4 and I questioned why they would throw a yellow flag two three corners before an incident that was off the track and in the grass.
The race steward said that he needed to interview some other drivers that had already left the track before he could make his ruling. Worst case is that I am fined $50 and penalized 1 lap. Best case, the other drivers back up my story and the steward shows mercy on me and let's the provisional results stand making them official. Either way, if I am penalized a lap I still win first place in class because I lapped all the other ITE cars. The downside is that I'll go from first place overall to about 5th place overall, and have to pay a $50 fine.
So, overall it was a pretty successful race weekend. If for no other reason than I was able to get back out on the racetrack after almost two years, and be very competitive! If I get dinged for passing under a yellow flag, then I guess I'll have to chalk that up as a learning experience. First time in five years of road racing that I've done that. Too bad it had to be a race that I won!
Steve
I loaded up the van and trailer Friday night after getting home from work. Then Skyler and I drove over to PIR, about a 15 minute driver to Portland, to register for the race, unload the racecar and get our pit set up. Then Skyler and I watched the drag racing that was going on there for awhile. Skyler seemed to enjoy the evening out with Dad.
Saturday morning came early. I got up about 5:30 and drove over to the track to begin getting ready for my first practice session at about 9:30. The weather was partly cloudy and dry, but rain was forecast for Sunday. So I strapped myself in the car and gridded up. My plan was to just get out there and take it easy, maybe push the car to about 70 to 75%. Well, as soon as I get out on track I notice a guy by the name of Kevin Smith who I raced with before. He races a yellow 3rd gen. Camaro A-Sedan. He was pretty fast and I ended up dicing it up with him a bit. So much for my 75% plan. I ended up pushing it to maybe 90% but the car held up great. If felt really great to get back out there on the race track, and it didn't take too long to shake off the cobwebs. Unfortunately Conference didn't post our lap times though. But the car felt pretty strong and handled well, even on my old, hard Kumho V700 tires.
For my Saturday qualifying session I bolted on my new Kumho V710 race tires to be sure I took advantage of the dry track conditions. Rain was looming for Sunday so I had to make the most of this qualifying session. I got out on track and laid down what felt like some pretty fast laps. The new T2R limited slip differential I put in last year really helped my car's handling making a noticeable difference in the tighter turns of PIR. During my qualifying session a radiator hose clam failed and my radiator drained water all over the track. But at least I was able to get a few good laps in, with a best lap of 1:17.509 lap time (non-chicane). This was two seconds better than my previous best with my old setup! I was pleasantly pleased with these results and qualified 4th overall on the grid behind some faster GT1 tube frame racecars.
Sunday morning was rainy. The forecast said intermittent rain showers and the track was pretty wet. PIR is tretcherous in the rain and I don't have any rain tires. As my second qualifying session came around, I went out on track with running my newer tries and figured I'd just go out and take a few easy laps then come back in. No sense to push it and risk sliding off track and possibly hitting something or some one. The rain stopped and the track began to dry out a little, but not nearly enough to provide any chance of bettering my Saturday qualifying session. I ended up staying out for the whole session figuring I'd might as well get my money's worth of track time. The car was still running strong and ready for the race later in the day.
When it was time for my group to race, it had been raining pretty hard, so the track was wet. I had decided to put on my older race tires because they had tread. My newer race tires are virtually slicks. Before gridding up I had spoken to GT1 racer in my group. He indicated that he didn't have any rain tires and would be racing on slicks. When it came time to grid up he had decided to sit this one out. Another racer who qualified in front of me failed to make the grid so I ended up starting second, on the front row behind a tube frame GT1 car on rain tires and in front of some fast A-Sedan Camaro's and BMW's. I figured I'd just take it easy and do my best to avoid trouble.
On the pace lap the BMW starting behind me wouldn't give me much of any room to scrub my tires to get some heat in them for the start of the race, so I was a little nervous that my tires would have any grip for turn one after the start of the race. We came around onto the main straight and the green flag dropped. The GT1 car and I both got a pretty good jump on the rest of the pack and quickly pulled away. Surprisingly I was able to stay with the GT1 car. My tires held through turn one and the track was dryer than I had anticipated. My tires felt really good so I went after the GT1 car. He was on rain tires so I knew he wouldn't be able to keep up the pace for long if the track stayed dry. He would pull me on the straights a little but I was all over him in the turns. After about 7 or 8 laps he had enough of me and pointed me by. So here I am in FIRST PLACE!
I continued this pace for several more laps trying to put as much distance between me and the rest of the field and I began to lap back markers. Pretty soon my tires started to go away so I had to slow it down a bit and settled behind a couple A-Sedan cars and watched them battle it out for awhile. Another A-Sedan ended up parked just off turn 7 with a broken transmission which brought out a yellow flag. I noticed yellow at turn 6 but I didn't see one at turn 4. I finally got tird of following these A-Sedan cars and passed them. I ended up lapping all but four cars in the entire 29 car field before the checker flag came out on my 22nd lap giving me the win! I got first in class (ITE) and first place overall!
I felt really great about my win! My car had performed very well and I was particularly impressed at how well it handled and the power down the straights and coming out of the corners. After getting back to the pits I began to load everything back up and put my car on the trailer and head for home. I needed to stop by the tower to get the official results and collect my trophy. When I inquired about the results I was told they weren't official yet as the race steward still needed to sign them off. After some waiting the steward came in and said he needed to talk to me. He had a corner worker's report that I had passed a black BMW in turn 4 while under a yellow flag! CRAP! He asked my version of the story and I told him I didn't pass the BMW until after the the incident (A-Sedan with broken transmission). I didn't remember even seeing a yellow flag at turn 4 and I questioned why they would throw a yellow flag two three corners before an incident that was off the track and in the grass.
The race steward said that he needed to interview some other drivers that had already left the track before he could make his ruling. Worst case is that I am fined $50 and penalized 1 lap. Best case, the other drivers back up my story and the steward shows mercy on me and let's the provisional results stand making them official. Either way, if I am penalized a lap I still win first place in class because I lapped all the other ITE cars. The downside is that I'll go from first place overall to about 5th place overall, and have to pay a $50 fine.
So, overall it was a pretty successful race weekend. If for no other reason than I was able to get back out on the racetrack after almost two years, and be very competitive! If I get dinged for passing under a yellow flag, then I guess I'll have to chalk that up as a learning experience. First time in five years of road racing that I've done that. Too bad it had to be a race that I won!
Steve
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
