NASA-SE::Pit Bull Brawl, May 19-20, CMP

#61

Fred and I will be at the track early Friday so we’ll keep our parking area clear. I’ll set up the SpecE30 signs. Beer and pizza in Kershaw at 6PM or so. Well, beer always, but pizza in Kershaw at 6PM ish.

#62

[quote=“Patton” post=65841]Brandon and Jim are thrashing about trying to get a junkyard engine into the panther. Their engine builder guy didn’t have the rebuild complete, so they went to plan “b”.

Wish 'em well so that we can see Brandon race for a position or two, or three, or four, etc. behind me.[/quote]
The Pink Panther fired up and came to life tonight at 8pm - it is running a little rough but with some new sparkplugs and possibly some valve adjustment it should be ready for the weekend! B)

#63

i’ll be there friday afternoon. Running hpde, but i plan on parking near all the spec e30s if that’s ok. Will have plenty of cold beer and my sister to pawn for any help on saturday. Look forward to meeting everyone.

Cheers
Craig

#64

You’re sure to meet Ranger. Helluva nice guy. Don’t let him work on your car. Or your sister.

#65

I just want to say thanks to Ranger and all the Spec E30 guys that helped me out and gave me advice this weekend.

I broke the intake rocker arm on #3 at the end of my 2nd session on Sunday (DE3).

I most likely over revved the engine on the 4-3 downshift into 8. Down on power coming out of 8.

Made it home fine on 5 cylinders. Ran a bit rough. I probably should have pulled the plug on #3.

Thanks again. Had a great weekend even though had to cut it short.

-Mike

#66

[quote=“GMotorsports” post=65891]i’ll be there friday afternoon. Running hpde, but i plan on parking near all the spec e30s if that’s ok. Will have plenty of cold beer and my sister to pawn for any help on saturday. Look forward to meeting everyone.

Cheers
Craig[/quote]
I had a great time this weekend. I was slow as molasses but still much fun. The only downer was that no one came over and said “this is my sister”.

#67

[quote=“greywolfe” post=65922]I just want to say thanks to Ranger and all the Spec E30 guys that helped me out and gave me advice this weekend.

I broke the intake rocker arm on #3 at the end of my 2nd session on Sunday (DE3).

I most likely over revved the engine on the 4-3 downshift into 8. Down on power coming out of 8.

Made it home fine on 5 cylinders. Ran a bit rough. I probably should have pulled the plug on #3.

Thanks again. Had a great weekend even though had to cut it short.

-Mike[/quote]

I found that 4-1 downshifts are better for the motor. :laugh: Tires lock and you lose a position but no motor damage.

#68

sorry ranger that was me. she brought her damn attack dog, seriously. i didn’t want you to get bit before your race. i don’t even like to be around her with that damn dog.

#69

[quote=“Ranger” post=65923]
I had a great time this weekend. I was slow as molasses but still much fun. [/quote]

I second that but, if you were slow as molasses I was as slow as 20w50 on a 0 degree day because you were quicker than I was. I had great fun dicing with you at the back of the pack. You did a great job at utilizing your strengths and capitalizing on my weaknesses. That by definition = good racing and provided a good show.

I like the track and the comaraderie is always fun. Add to that the perfect weather. Thanks to everyone for great weekend.

Don

#70

I also had a great time. My thanks to Fred, Scott and everyone else for answering the myriad of questions I had. I have yet to download my traqmate data and video to see where I can improve (everywhere probably). I only really had three problems the whole weekend. A bad thermostat caused me to miss the first two HPDE2 sessions. I had fuel starvation on the last laps on my last session, and I blew a trailer tire on the way home.

See you all at RA next month!

Andy

#71

Had a ball! Thanks to everyone for the fun clean racing. Exciting to see some new faces and future racers showing up as well.

#72

great time as usual, maybe someday i’ll understand why people don’t like racing at cmp. saturday’s video wasn’t worth posting (all solo laps) but sunday’s was a bit more exciting - https://vimeo.com/42528818

#73

Great video…it was fun racing with you…at least I made you fight a little bit!

#74

Great video…it was fun racing with you…at least I made you fight a little bit![/quote]

definitely bill, you were driving great (staying glued to patton’s bumper is a pretty good litmus test). but as we both witnessed getting past patton is an even bigger challenge :slight_smile:

#75

Pretty fun weekend. Congrats to Evan on his win on Saturday and Lako on Sunday. It was a lot of fun Sunday to start at the back with Evan and Tower. Good clean racing all around. Special props to Fred who was hauling it around and to Dad as well. Highlight of the weekend was when I tried to make the inside pass on Dad in 11 he had the audacity to stick his nose at 12. When we were side by side in 13 I couldn’t help but think how cool this was. I started with new tires on Saturday and did a F to R swap after the race. After Sunday’s race i had this weird grooving on both rear tires which I’ve never seen before and looked different than Mid-Ohio gaining (Will post pics later)

#76

Caught the start of Sundays race…
https://vimeo.com/42542861
Both races looked clean and well run / driven. Two of the cleanest starts I have seen in awhile… :slight_smile:

Maybe I should give this racing a try… :slight_smile:

#77

I had a great time. It was a bummer to be doing 1:58’s and 1:59’s instead of 1:54’s, but after no crashes in 5yrs, I crashed 3 times last year and I’ve some demons to exercise. I was particularly slow at turn 8 and the kink. I would go into 8 for example, brake early to make it easier to calibrate my turn-in speed at “pretty damned fast”, make it thru the turn by the skin of my teeth, look at exit speed and…I’d be 5mph slow.

So I’d resolve that the next turn 8 I was going to be fast as hell. 2min later I’d come back around, brake early, calibrate speed to “fast as hell”, barely make it thru the turn, look at exit speed and…I’d be 5mph slow.

Cursing bitterly for being a pussy I’d tell myself, "I don’t care if I fking die in the attempt I’m going to take that damned turn as fast as I used to!" 2min later I’d come around, brake early but deliberately take my foot off the brake pedal prematurely knowing full well that I was now truly fked by too much entry speed. I’d slide thru the corner thinking "fk, fK, f**k, trying to keep the car under control and executing the plan with the charisma and perfect precision necessary survive the impossible… I’d touch the perilous gators at track out and…I’d be 5mph slow. Then I’d gnash my teeth and rage my way to the kink where caution would rule again.

I figure from Friday-Sun I did this 180X at turn 8.

I brought my 3yr old R888 rain tires so the weather was terrific. Speaking of which, I noted last night that Tire Rack expressly states that R888’s should not be used when there’s standing water. Isn’t that just perfect?

I got to spend more time with (hopefully) future SpecE30 types Andy Greenshields, a Brit doc out of Chas, and a couple other e30 types that I’d invited to hang around with us SpecE30 types as opposed to sit in whatever corner of the DE paddock they found themselves in. “Hang around” being code for “bring beer”. Andy was kind enough to bring his GF whom we admired even before she started feeding us.

Both my quals went fine. I found an interesting dynamic between suckage and optimizing qual. When you suck, you see, a gap forms as the non-suckers leave you in their dust. This guarantees you all the clear track you could want to put down your very best lap so that you can be last in grid.

I almost screwed the pooch and showed up late for Sat qual. I was half way thru swapping from DE tires to race tires after Sat Practice when I got distracted and started wandering around the paddock looking for a thermostat for Andy. Not finding one I wandered back by my trailer and found everyone gone. I checked the schedule and found that Qual started in 6min. Moving with significantly more purpose I swapped out the 2 remaining tires, torqued all 4, set tire pressures, changed clothes into race kit and made it to grid on time.

I had lots of fun in Saturday’s race. I had a good start. I remember in my first couple years of racing, I mean back when I was a lot faster, thinking that I never ever could seem to get a good start. Now I’m pretty consistant with good starts. What does that mean? I can’t be both fast and crafty?

My camera was poorly positioned to really show the fun of either race because it didn’t have a good angle on my rear view mirror where much of the action was. A white car was hounding my ass on Saturday. It would turn out to be Kevin Butler. Kevin was trying to get by me on the back straight where my weak turn 8 told. He pulled it off a time or two but I got him back each time. Then, about 2/3rds thru the race I checked my mirror after the kink because I had to decide what line to take going into 11. To my suprise and relief what I saw in my rear view mirror was not a big kidney grill but Kevin’s driver’s side door. He was sideways. At probably 95mph. For a while, I’d be taking whatever line I wanted.

After the race I decided to get serious about a CEL 1221 code because my engine was clearly going lean (F/A meter on the dash) at mid-rpms. The CEL had been intermittant but was becoming more permanent with each lap. Not wanting to change more than one variable at a time, I swapped DME, O2 sensor and AFM. On Sunday I had no CEL, no lean F/A, and more mid rpm grunt. Ok, I don’t know what exactly fixed it, but fixed it was.

I had another good start in Sunday’s race. It quickly developed into a fight with Don Stevens, altho at the time I thought it was Jason Tower. You white guys all look the same…you really ought to do something about that. Don and I had a fine fight. Don was faster at 8 and the kink so every turn 11 was a problem trying to keep him behind me. The other turns I could hold my own. I was pretty successful at getting cars by me w/o causing a complete goatf**k and Don and I fought hard. At one point I had to move over pretty aggressively going into 11 to prevent him from taking the turn away from me. His plan went from workable to “insufficient braking zone” when my big-ass aluminum bumper suddenly shifted to his direct front. I took a whack to which I chortled over how his metrosexual plastic bumpers were welcome to beat themselves into plastic shards against my tank-like rear.

Several laps later somthing in the rear went loudly CLUNK. It felt like something around my right or center rear was loose. At some turns and in some braking zones there’d be a heavy clunk as if some great big piece of steel was loose. I backed off a bit and tried to figure out what was going on. I didn’t feel any difference in handling (yet) but it was such a great big piece of something that it was jarring the whole car. The only thing I could come up with was that maybe my coolshirt cooler had come loose. So I kind of decided “SCREW IT, back to the fight and hope for the best.” So I chased after Don who’d passed me while I was exclaiming “Holy shit what’s that clunk?”

I managed to get Don back a couple laps later and fought so hard to run decent laps that even on as the tires got slippery at the end of the long race my fastest lap was my last lap.

After the race I checked to see how my coolshirt cooler had come loose. And it wasn’t. “Uh oh”, I thought. “So what the hell was it that sounded like 30lbs of steel going clunk?” And that hasn’t been figured out yet. I checked the obvious things and everything seems nice and tight.

On the way home, about 50m in front of me on the freeway, some old white sedan attempted to change lanes from right to left. This came as a surprise to the SUV that already occupied that lane. They banged into each other pretty solidly. I tell ya tho, it really didn’t make much impression on me. I mean heck, every time I turn around there’s a Beertech car banging into someone, or Chuck Taylor/Robert Patton is getting sideswiped or bashed.

Then suddenly it struck me…"Hey, I’m on the freeway now, that wasn’t Thunder Roadster for “hello.” So I pulled over. No one else did and I figured the guy in the SUV was going to need a witness.

#78

Nice write up Ranger… :wink:

#79

Any of you video “experts” care to analyse this for me…

The Kink at CMP this weekend.

Had my first off there on Saturday and Sunday did this…

https://vimeo.com/42584124

Any and all comments welcome.

#80

Just pinched it a bit on exit. There is plenty of room track left to track all the way out to the curb and you can go 2-4 wheels off.