RA Recap

#41

Once I qualified ninth while hungover, with only one hand working, and with a facial wound that began healing to my helmet liner, y’all will have to come up with some damn good excuses in the future. I guess Skeen is just lucky I tried to hang with Travis on Saturday night (that CF!). Imagine what a force I could be if I were healthy. Imagine how much better my start would be if I didn’t shift 1-2-5. Imagine how much better my race would be if I kept it on the track in T1 instead of making it all the way to the tire wall up the hill (just a gentle kiss, luckily). At least I got to make JP my bitch on the back straight as I motored by him with my superior horsepower. Of course, that’s not really driving, is it? I might as well just get a Mustang if it is! :stuck_out_tongue:

Sasha

P.S. After my T1 incident I realized one more reason SpecE30 rocks is that the racing is close and fun, but not hitting hypersonic speeds down the straights can actually save your ass. Thank God for only 168 hp.

#42

The current truth is that the crank is ok. I’m going to spend Friday at the shop helping them do it. It was #6 bearing that was bad. The feeler gauge reports the others are ok, but we’ve not actually pulled them off and looked at them yet. New oil pump going in too.

The crank is not yet inspected. The shop ordered crank bearings tho, so I guess they feel that if the rod bearings are going to be replaced, we might as well replace the crank bearings too. Is that reasonable?

Did you only relace 1 rod bearing or all of them?

Got the crankscraper notes, thx.

Re. 1 qt over. I hadn’t heard that before it got mentioned last weekend. I always thought that too much oil was bad because the crank could churn the over-full oil into froth. I wonder if we couldn’t create some kind of Newby Tips and Techniques in the site’s Resource section for this kind of info. I’ve combed the forums as much as anyone, and there’s wonderful nuggets of info to be found here. But the wonderful nuggets of info are scattered among 10’s of thousands of posts. And for every dozen wonderful nuggets, there’s also a well-meaning turd. Often a newby can’t tell nugget from turd. By having a central Resource for Tips and Techniques we (meaning Great Admin Father) could QC the T and T.

Later edit. Crank is fine.

Been thinking about the brake problems. I changed from BHP to HT10 front pads just before RA. I didn’t make any effort to prepare the rotors for the swap, nor bed the new pads in. I wonder if that could have been the reason I continued to have brake shuddering problems even after I replaced the cracked rotor.

#43

If you’re going to replace one you might as well replace them all. A set for the whole motor is ~ $65 and if you’re in there already the labor to do the other five is negligable.

Like chuck said, I would also recommend a new oil pump while you’re in there. Factory 3 price on a new one is like $145 assuming you don’t know when the one in the motor was intalled, it’s a pretty good idea also.

#44

My Ra Recap

By Rev. Alonzo Graham Taylor III esq, etc.

Thursday, Discover my motor is making 125 hp…compared to Travis 136? Scott M 143? and JP 150. A great excuse for me.

Friday, Spend the morning feverishly working on the red car, 10 or so items on the list, plus sweat the fact I am about to run RA in the rain with no real track time there. The afternoon enduro nets a 6th OA behind 2 Miller cup, one Grand Am ST, a really fast P 944 and the Beer tech car…not bad for a street car.

Friday night, retire after drinking 2 beers…it was a long day.

Saturday, Stay on full rain tires and proceed to screw up Travis’s qualifying session, I think I started 13th and ended up 7th after the tornado delayed 4 lap race. I cant even remember what happened in the race. The awards ceremony could not have gone any better if we had planned it, thru a timing error JP was given 18th, elevating me to the coveted 6th and Travis to 3rd, so both Malt Liqour tech drivers were given full exposure, while JP thru a fit, all caught on camera. Someone asked about the toungue thing, well I am just showing off…and kt worked for Gene Simmons…

Also the Saturday night race, the official title was: The JP Coates run like Cornelius from “Planet of the Apes” trophey dash. I am thankful I wore my helmet. Also I was the only person to succesfully bob for a beer, all that surfing paid off being able to hold my breath.

Sunday, a dry track at last, qualified 10th, my race plan to continue to take it easy, learn the track and not spin. Hopefully finish 7th or better. To my surprise I was 3rd for the first 2 laps, in letting Travis by I allowed Gieger to catch up, I drove conservatively (Sp?) and finished 7th…

I will have my Mojo back for CMP…and will be driving the red car to the track.

Oh, only a midwestener would misspell “Poontangler”

Al

#45

I spell it with a ‘u’ like the British. I was trying to make it sound European and classy.

#46

Here’s my video of the Sunday Sprint start. Missed qualifying, so I had to start in the back. The carera angle kinda sucks b/c Mr Pantas turned the camera backwards before the start, and I had to get some random chick to flip it back around. It does capture some good action, though… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9rJdNxmupM

#47

What the hell fell out from under Al’s car coming out of 6?

#48

That was a cone from under Geigers car. Wonder where he picked that up…

#49

Pretty sure that was the apex cone from T3 that Damion/JP ‘disturbed’. Geiger snagged it and it got caught somewhere near the LF…Was smoking all down the esses. I thought he’d gotten together with somebody and crunched a fender down.

#50

IndyJim wrote:

[quote]Here is my video of Sunday. The sound cuts out for a bit. Edited for the highlights.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7085587812715357137[/quote]

Who was driving the orange car that you were battling with for the first couple of laps? RA looks like so much damn fun. :angry:

#51

That was Sasha I believe. He was doing pretty well until turn 5 he lost some momentum with the car in front of him and I was able to stay in it and get around on the short straight.

#52

IndyJim wrote:

That’s what I thought. It looks like you guys had fun. I’m trying to make it down there in august.

#53

Edited Video of Saturday. The Storm, and My Brillance driving over the wet paint. Did’nt they say something about that in DE? http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5768147945146291371

Edit of Sundays Race, action shots: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6901980750248592715

#54

IndyJim wrote:

I never really did figure out the quick way through 5. T1-T4 and T6-T12 gave me some trouble, too! :stuck_out_tongue: Going off in T1 while in 7th or 8th didn’t help my finishing position, either. Leaving half my face back in the paddock was a bit unsettling as well!

Sasha

#55

Other then that you did great.

Practice that running thing at home, I’d like to see you guys try again at CMP!

#56

dpjr wrote:

Yup. Here is my warning a week ago.

#57

Hey

A big thanks to Scott for bringing all that beer…I cant believe we did not drink it all…

Al