So on friday 2/23 we passed our tech inspection with no difficulty, as usual. When it came to BS inspection, this is where you get your class assignment, we got a new guy. He looked at the car a bit and asked about our history. I told him in 18 races we were usually in B but have never finished well enough to win C. He asked which class I wanted to be in and I said, "I don't care. We're here to have fun." He put us in C. So naturally we decided to send it. Usually we fuel at the track pumps, which is far slower than hot-pitting. We decided to hot pit. This is decidedly riskier for the car, since you can't check fluids or do anything but fuel and driver change. Dennis went first on Saturday. He started about 45th which is random and only has to do with where you are when it goes green. He worked his way into 16th overall and 1st in C class! But no one knew because the scorekeepers made an error and had us listed in B. We decided that we'd tell them about their error on Sunday and only if we were still doing well. I went second and after the driver change we were in 30th.
The car was great. I'd put a lot of work into drag reduction. Thunderhill has long straights and fast corners. I figured there was time to be found in aero. I blocked the grill above the bumper from side to side. I made vortex generators to improve attachment of the boundary layer to the rear window, and I fashioned a small spoiler on the back corner of the trunk with roofing flashing. I dialed back the angle of attack on our wing. I made side panels for the splitter and ramps to direct air over the front wheels which do stick out a bit. I didn't have time to do any underbody work, which is where the biggest gains can be found, but I hoped that we'd see higher straight speeds and more stability in corners.
Sure enough our data acquisition showed us about 7mph faster on the longest straight and we were all getting about 6 seconds a lap faster. That's huge. Of course there were weather differences and we used a Hankook RS4s instead of our old reliable Falken 615Ks, so was it all aero? Who knows.
The car is janky as hell when going slow. It's noisy and hard to control, but on the track at speed we handle as well as any car out there, and with our LSD we get corner exits that make even the very powerful cars work hard to get around us.
I worked us back up to 14th overall and 2nd in C. C class or not this was already our best performance yet. My son Ewan drove next and he had an off that he self reported and later got a black flag for contact that didn't happen. With those he finished us in 24th overall. Jason did the last drive of the day and worked us back into 4th place in C. By the end of the day the car was shaking and the brakes were weak. So we jacked it up and found that the driver side axle had some play in it. We were loosing a CV joint. When these start to go bad it goes from okay to undrivable in about 8 laps so we were lucky it didn't happen during the race. We went to replace the axle and broke a breaker bar on that axle nut. Since I had a spare knuckle too we gave up on the nut and took the knuckle and axle out together. BUT! The box that I thought contained my spare driver side axle, actually had a failed old garbage axle. So I got on the phone at about 7pm calling parts stores all around the area. I found one in Red Bluff that had our axle and sent Dennis north to get it. Meanwhile we bled the brakes. When he got back around 9ish we installed it all and went back to our motel rooms. I was in bed about 11:30pm.
We did the reverse driver order Sunday. So Jason went first. He got us to 15th overall and 2nd in C when the car leading C burst an oil cooler line and caught on fire, a little. It was an old ford ranger done up as a Cybertruck. Red flag means everyone stops where they are and waits while emergency crews deal. When that lifted Jason's time was up so he came straight in. They were up by three laps so we didn't officially pass them until 3 laps into Ewan's stint. In the mean time the '68 El Camino passed us while we were in. So Ewan started 2nd in C and 17th overall. The El Camino got 2 laps up on us. When they stopped about 30 minutes later it was very dramatic. They pitted and Ewan made up a lap and was coming around as they finsihed. They were leaving pit lane as Ewan started on the front straight. He caught them on their out lap and put us in the lead in C. Ewan had an off just a few laps into his stint and we dropped into 3rd in C after the El Camino and some toyota corolla in daewoo drag. But got us back into 2nd. When I went out for my drive the El Camino was immediately on my butt. This was the reverse 3 mile which I have never driven. So while learning the track I managed to keep him from passing, which would have put us another lap down, and started to put some distance. I started making excellent headway when it went south. Some bonehead in an e36 318Ti got hard onto his breaks approaching turn 8 which is a flat out kink. I cannot figure out why he got on his breaks but I piled into the back of him, and flatspotted my right front tire badly. I came into the penalty box and lost a place. Back out there the car shoot at high speeds very badly. I finished the last 30 minutes of my drive and came in. We changed drivers and fueled. I told Dennis to come into the paddock where we would change the tire, but he decided to try it first. After 1 lap he came in and we changed the tire and sent him. After that we held onto 3rd in C and finished in 16th overall. The other axle failed as we were parking the car at home that night. There was minimal body damage from the crash.
It was by far our best finish ever. All our video is posted on youtube.
You can watch the crash here: https://youtu.be/xBHQihZp7hw?si=JetaI5cHp6sYUh3C&t=4517
You can watch a crazy series of passes I made after a full course yellow here: https://youtu.be/KwhxRiP76Q4?si=B1cNTHqN45e2UPeg&t=2965
The car was great. I'd put a lot of work into drag reduction. Thunderhill has long straights and fast corners. I figured there was time to be found in aero. I blocked the grill above the bumper from side to side. I made vortex generators to improve attachment of the boundary layer to the rear window, and I fashioned a small spoiler on the back corner of the trunk with roofing flashing. I dialed back the angle of attack on our wing. I made side panels for the splitter and ramps to direct air over the front wheels which do stick out a bit. I didn't have time to do any underbody work, which is where the biggest gains can be found, but I hoped that we'd see higher straight speeds and more stability in corners.
Sure enough our data acquisition showed us about 7mph faster on the longest straight and we were all getting about 6 seconds a lap faster. That's huge. Of course there were weather differences and we used a Hankook RS4s instead of our old reliable Falken 615Ks, so was it all aero? Who knows.
The car is janky as hell when going slow. It's noisy and hard to control, but on the track at speed we handle as well as any car out there, and with our LSD we get corner exits that make even the very powerful cars work hard to get around us.
I worked us back up to 14th overall and 2nd in C. C class or not this was already our best performance yet. My son Ewan drove next and he had an off that he self reported and later got a black flag for contact that didn't happen. With those he finished us in 24th overall. Jason did the last drive of the day and worked us back into 4th place in C. By the end of the day the car was shaking and the brakes were weak. So we jacked it up and found that the driver side axle had some play in it. We were loosing a CV joint. When these start to go bad it goes from okay to undrivable in about 8 laps so we were lucky it didn't happen during the race. We went to replace the axle and broke a breaker bar on that axle nut. Since I had a spare knuckle too we gave up on the nut and took the knuckle and axle out together. BUT! The box that I thought contained my spare driver side axle, actually had a failed old garbage axle. So I got on the phone at about 7pm calling parts stores all around the area. I found one in Red Bluff that had our axle and sent Dennis north to get it. Meanwhile we bled the brakes. When he got back around 9ish we installed it all and went back to our motel rooms. I was in bed about 11:30pm.
We did the reverse driver order Sunday. So Jason went first. He got us to 15th overall and 2nd in C when the car leading C burst an oil cooler line and caught on fire, a little. It was an old ford ranger done up as a Cybertruck. Red flag means everyone stops where they are and waits while emergency crews deal. When that lifted Jason's time was up so he came straight in. They were up by three laps so we didn't officially pass them until 3 laps into Ewan's stint. In the mean time the '68 El Camino passed us while we were in. So Ewan started 2nd in C and 17th overall. The El Camino got 2 laps up on us. When they stopped about 30 minutes later it was very dramatic. They pitted and Ewan made up a lap and was coming around as they finsihed. They were leaving pit lane as Ewan started on the front straight. He caught them on their out lap and put us in the lead in C. Ewan had an off just a few laps into his stint and we dropped into 3rd in C after the El Camino and some toyota corolla in daewoo drag. But got us back into 2nd. When I went out for my drive the El Camino was immediately on my butt. This was the reverse 3 mile which I have never driven. So while learning the track I managed to keep him from passing, which would have put us another lap down, and started to put some distance. I started making excellent headway when it went south. Some bonehead in an e36 318Ti got hard onto his breaks approaching turn 8 which is a flat out kink. I cannot figure out why he got on his breaks but I piled into the back of him, and flatspotted my right front tire badly. I came into the penalty box and lost a place. Back out there the car shoot at high speeds very badly. I finished the last 30 minutes of my drive and came in. We changed drivers and fueled. I told Dennis to come into the paddock where we would change the tire, but he decided to try it first. After 1 lap he came in and we changed the tire and sent him. After that we held onto 3rd in C and finished in 16th overall. The other axle failed as we were parking the car at home that night. There was minimal body damage from the crash.
It was by far our best finish ever. All our video is posted on youtube.
You can watch the crash here: https://youtu.be/xBHQihZp7hw?si=JetaI5cHp6sYUh3C&t=4517
You can watch a crazy series of passes I made after a full course yellow here: https://youtu.be/KwhxRiP76Q4?si=B1cNTHqN45e2UPeg&t=2965
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