Alex,

Thanks for getting our story up on the site.

Everyone else,

I hope you enjoy the following account of our race weekend at Road America. It's very long, but then again, so was our weekend...

Gary
Sheehan Motor Racing
#72 Subaru WRX USTCC
www.teamSMR.com

For now, I'll break it into two parts. Here's Part 1:

Road America is really far away from California. Which is unfortunate because it is by far the nicest racing facility I've ever been to. It could be because the weather was perfect, or maybe it was the rolling hills and thick woods that surround the track. Perhaps it was the incredible winding track that stretches on for over 4 miles. Hell, who am I kidding? It's because we kicked some ass in our final hour and scared the crap out of those BMW guys!

Joel and I left on our odyssey on the Wednesday before the race at around noon, which was about 6 hours late by our plans. I was already tired from shaking down the car the previous day and breaking in the freshened motor. Our Tuesday test day was cut short by a split fuel line which managed to dump LOTS of 100 octane fuel all over our nice clean motor. But not before I got just enough laps on the new motor to consider it race ready.

We weren't traveling as quickly as we wanted to towards our destination of Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin because of the hills between the Pacific and the corn. I guess I'm fairly ignorant because I had no idea that there was that much going on in the inner western states. I mean, sure, there are the Sierras and the Rockies, right? Wrong. Once we got over Donner Pass by Lake Tahoe, we never got below 4,000 feet until we got to Nebraska, some 1,000 miles later.

Needless to say, the mountains slowed us down to the point that there was no way we were going to be able to grab a hotel on Wednesday night. As we rolled through the night and into Thursday we were discussing our plans for Friday. We were told that the track opened on Friday at 6pm and we had to register and get our cars teched Friday evening or risk missing our morning practice on Saturday. Considering that we needed to find a local place in town to mount our race tires and find a Subaru dealer for parts once we arrived on Friday, it was becoming obvious that we wouldn't have the time for a Thursday night layover, either.

We staggered into our destination at noon on Friday. Just about 46 hours of straight driving with just a 2 hour break for unconsciousness. We went to 4 tire places before we found someone willing to mount our tires and found Suds Subaru to get a spare wheel bearing (just in case, of course) where we met Sean, one of the sales guys, and invited him out to the track on Sunday. Afterwards, we registered for the event and were 3rd in line for tech, which went without a hitch. Then it was a desperate drive to our hotel, a quick kiss for my girlfriend Sue, who had flown in that night, a much needed shower, then 8 hours of coma.

Practice on Saturday was bright and early at 8:30am. Which means we had to be up, against our will, at 6:30am. Like the Army. Or prison. Anyway, we got the car warmed up and ready to go. I will say that there is something special to the sound of race cars warming up on a crisp early morning. Unless it's a slime green Corvette with a motor from hell and Satan screaming out the exhaust loud enough to wake the dead. I swear Joel just about crapped his pants every time that thing fired up!

Once we finally got out on the track for practice I slowly worked my way around in an effort to learn the track. It was my first time there and I just wanted to get the layout down in my head on the first lap. I started to pick it up a little on the second lap only to find that the turns were all different than I remembered the first time around. I got all disoriented until I realized I was STILL on the first lap! Holy cow that's a long track! 4 miles just seems to keep going and going. To see just how long it is, check out this link http://64.224.17.144/roadamerica.com/track2000.wmv of CART cars racing around the track.

I finally made it around for the first lap, and once I was absolutely sure, once I could see Joel on the pit wall where I'd left him, I started to pick up the pace. The motor was warm and so was I and I was ready to start learning the track at speed. As I approached 6,000rpm I noticed a misfire. It was pretty bad and really slowed down the acceleration. I could get the motor all the way up to 7k, but it wasn't happy doing it.

I radioed Joel to get him thinking about things as I sputtered around in our car with no real horsepower to draw on. From inside the cockpit everything looked fine. Boost was up where it should be, fuel pressure was there, all our temps were nice and our EGT was 1500. So I just kept at it, trying to learn the track as well as I could until the end of the session.

This took us completely by surprise because I had just run the car on Tuesday at Thunderhill and it had run fine. Joel and I tried to figure out what could be happening. Everything looked good on the top of the motor. Nothing glaringly obvious. We decided to swap out our new M2 Performance intake and cone K&N filter with the stock box to see if that was freaking out the mass air sensor into running super-rich.

We went back out for our 12:40 afternoon session for our first qualifying session to see if we'd cured it. After one warm-up lap I got heavy into the throttle. It seemed to pull OK, but up around 5500rpm it started missing again. It didn't become clear to me how far down we were on performance until a yellow ITA Honda CRX motored past us on the strait. Great. A CRX has MOTOR on us at Road America, the longest damn track in the country. I finished out the session studying the track, trying to learn what I could traveling at sub light speed while all sorts of underpowered cars blew past us on the straight. We qualified last in class, about 10 seconds behind James Sofranes in his BMW 328i. Lovely.

That afternoon was miserable. Joel and I basically took the whole top of the motor off trying to figure out what was making us misfire. All the boost and vacuum lines were connected. We removed the intake, intercooler, BOV, intake manifold, throttle body, tumble valve generators, injectors, fuel rails, knock sensor, just about everything off the top of the motor. The only thing we found was a small tear in the plastic intake passage that runs from the air filter box to the compressor inlet. We taped that up and reassembled everything and finished up around 5:45pm, still not sure we'd resolved the problem.

We had a windfall of an opportunity as the officials at Road America were encouraging racers to bring their cars out on track to give the event workers a treat and drive them around at speed. We had just enough time for me to get suited up and Joel to install our passenger seat and passenger harnesses before the drive-arounds were over. I picked up my passenger, Paul, who was one of the grid officials, and explained to him that we'd been having some problems and not to expect to much. We head on out and sure enough, that damn misfire is still there. I drove the crap out of the rest of the 2 laps we were allotted, to give Paul a thrill and to get a little anger out of my system. I apologized to Paul afterwards for the lame ride, but he still seemed excited to have ridden in the WRX. It had been turning heads all weekend and everyone seemed interested in it.

So I brought it back and gave the team the bad news. We packed up for the night and went to grab a depressing dinner. We were thinking it might be a bad knock sensor or something crazy we'd never get a part for. As we walked up to the restaurant, what should be parked outside but a brand-spanking-new World Rally Blue 2002 Subaru WRX. I frantically wrote a note on a napkin begging for the owners help at the track the following day, asking if he'd lend us some small parts from his new darling to help us diagnose the problem. Joel sat himself in direct line of site of the WRX and had several false alarms, where he'd think the owner was sauntering over to his car. Joel would sprint from the table and out the front door, only to find an admiring fan looking over the car. Poor Joel. He meant well, but he really was a crazy person that night. I had to get him drunk. It was for his own good. We never did hear from that WRX owner. Where's the love?

We had an 8:30 session which was our second and final qualifying opportunity. We got there around 7:45am. We'd decided to change out our new M2 Performance intercooler, just to see if something was funky with that. We were grabbing at straws at this point. I removed the BOV and huge, shiny intercooler and put the stock one back on. As I bent down to get the BOV gasket off the M2 intercooler, something caught my eye. I could see where the BOV sat on the gasket and left an indentation. Something didn't look right. Joel saw me just standing there staring and said, "What's up?...What are you looking at?...WHAT'S GOING ON?!" What was going on was the cylinder that holds the piston for the BOV made an impression on the gasket that went clear off the edge of the gasket. I said "That's not right, right?" We fitted the BOV to the intercooler and sure enough, the bolt holes were too high in the BOV flange and the bottom of the BOV was hanging off the mounting surface of the intercooler. Which is completely invisible from the top of the intercooler, where us humans tend to hang out.

We searched frantically for our stock BOV, but it wasn't with us. It was about 2,200 miles away. Just slightly out of our reach. The time was 8:05am. Thank goodness for gas generators, electric drills and fellow racers willing to lend us a grinding wheel that early in the morning. We ground out the holes enough to where we thought it fit pretty well. It was ugly, but at least the BOV lined up better now. We threw the big, bad M2 intercooler back on with the modified BOV flange. There was just enough time for me to suit up and Joel to button up the car before the last call for qualifying.

I let the car warm-up for most of a lap. Before the end of a lap I let the RPMs climb up to 6500. No miss. I floored it to 7000 and still no miss. As I came on to the front straight at the end of my first lap I stayed hard on the gas to redline, shifted into third (huge psshhht from the BOV), climbed the hill and shifted into fourth. Joel radioed me and asked me how the motor was. Just as I passed him on the front straight wide open approaching the top of 4th gear I yelled out "HOLY $H!T THIS CAR IS FAAAAAST!!!!"

I couldn't believe how good the car felt. I knew we were down on power the previous sessions, but this was a whole new deal. I had to relearn the track because the speeds were so much higher. Braking points, gear selection, everything was different.

Everything about the motor seemed to be working just right. We had put a lot of new pieces on and everything seemed to be helping. The guys down at Subaru of Santa Cruz had just redone our heads. We had some leak down issues before the last race and Subaru of Santa Cruz reground the valve seats and installed new valve seals for us. They came back to us looking beautiful and brand new.

Lots of new stuff from M2 Performance were making their debut. We had a K&N cone filter, M2's aluminum intake with mounting surface for the stock mass air sensor, M2's huge intercooler and BOV and a custom 3" turbo-back catless exhaust. The car sounded awesome!

We also made major improvements to the handling of the car by raising it up a bit more to keep it completely off the bump-stops and by adding a new custom wing fabricated by All Wheel Engineering, which is the parent company of Kartboy Kustoms. All Wheel Engineering is a high performance consulting and fabrication shop. Everyone is familiar with the Kartboy short shifters and end-links, but not so many people are aware that these guys can design and build just about anything.

The wing made for our WRX is a carbon fiber lay-up on a foam core. It’s got a very aggressive camber to it and is 60” wide by 8” deep and has cool aluminum end-plates. The new wing completely eliminated our high speed oversteer issues and allowed us to tune the handling for better performance in the low speed corners. We’ve just about dialed out all of the low speed understeer now. Maybe just 50lb softer springs up front and it will be perfect.

Our qualifying times showed quite an improvement. The fastest lap we turned was in the mid 2:42s, which was a 10 second drop from our previous efforts. I knew we were even faster than that because I got held up by traffic on both of the laps I turned 2:42s on. I think one of the cars that held me up was a yellow ITA Honda CRX. See ya!

We had a little celebration in the pits, then started getting ready for the race that was just a few hours away. We needed to fuel the car, change the tires over to our new race tires and install our makeshift brake ducts that we’d had no time for up until now. I also wanted to bleed the brakes because I had noticed a long brake pedal during qualifying.

About an hour before the race Joel and I were discussing the possibility of putting the front splitter back on the car that we’d tried at Willow Springs. We were concerned that the splitter was too long and might induce oversteer in the high speed corners. Joel was kind of bummed because it would take a long time to cut the wood plank to the right size and we wouldn’t have the time. When I told him I could cut it to the right size in about 10 minutes, we decided to go for it.

That’s when all hell broke loose. We were all moving so fast the other teams around us could hardly see us. While Sue and I were cutting the splitter, Joel was cutting sheet metal to use as brackets for the fiberglass air dam (which we had never mounted before). Then we mounted the brackets to the wood splitter, then mounted the splitter to the car. After that we had to start drilling holes through the fiberglass air dam and through the metal brackets, then rivet the air dam onto the metal brackets. Then we duct taped the top of the fiberglass air dam onto the bottom of the bumper. The finishing touch was a shot of black spray paint along the fresh cut in the wood splitter. We’d gone from a vague idea to a sharp looking solution in just about 55 minutes. It was our finest hour! Special thanks to Shawn from Suds Subaru and to Dave (Bonzo on the i-club list) for pitching in and helping us get it done just in time.

We had qualified 4th overall out of 40-something cars and 3rd in the USTCC class. Up front was James Sofranes in his BMW 328i with a qualifying time of 2:40 and some change and behind him was a new entrant in USTCC, Patrick Dunbar, in his Turner Motorsports prepared BMW325i with a qualifying time just a tenth or two off of Sofranes. In third overall was another BMW 325is that was running in the ITS class, then came the Subaru WRX. There were also a few BMWs and Porches right behind us in different classes. German engineering and road racing heritage was all around us and it felt good to be in the middle of them with our little car from Japan.

The grid worker Paul came up to me as we were just about to go out for our pace lap and informed me that the BMW gridded in 3rd and the Porsche gridded in 5th have been racing here for the past 20 years and that I could really learn the track by slotting in behind one of them and benefit from their experience. I thanked him for the advice and focused on my game plan for the start. I always review a few different scenarios of the start in my head and plan on my actions beforehand. For me, this removes a lot of the chaos of the start and quickens my decisions once things start to happen.

We get the signal from the grid marshal we roll out for our warm-up lap. Almost immediately, guys are starting to warm up their tires by steering back and forth. I don’t bother because we’ve got a 4 mile drive ahead of us before the green flag and there’s no point in my mind to be worming the car around for that long. Sure enough, after the first mile, most of the other guys have become bored with tire warming and settle down for awhile.

As we get closer to start/finish, I started to work off the rubber that’s built up on the tires and start warming up the tires and brakes. The brakes still feel a bit long, even though they were bled. There’s nothing that I can do about it now but stay aware of it and drive the best I can.

All of us formed up pretty tight around the final corner heading towards start/finish over the top of the hill. It’s strange because you can’t see the flagger until you get over the crest. Sofranes was starting us out at a slow pace, which got me into trouble. I could either be near the top of 1st gear or be pretty low in 2nd. The problem was that up around 5000rpm in 1st at constant throttle, the BOV got a little hinky. Any tiny lift off the gas would cause the BOV to blow, which would confuse the ECU since all that air was being blown off to atmosphere instead of going back into the intake. The car would hiccup, then go hard again, then blow off again. It was a very quick cycle and really made the car jerk around. I had to shift up into 2nd just to calm the car down, but the RPMs were low and I was worried I’d get no pull on the start.

While I was still trying to figure out what to do, Sofranes got into the gas and got a pretty good jump on the field. This caught most of us by surprise, including Dunbar, who accelerated to catch Sofranes. Once Dunbar realized that Sofranes had a really big jump, he backed out of the gas, as did the rest of us. All the starter saw was Sofranes running away from the rest of us and we got a no-start wave-off. I put my fist in the air to show the drivers behind me that there was a no-start. Just then, David Lang in his Honda Prelude comes storming up between all of us at full throttle and shoots into second place. He obviously didn’t realized the race hadn’t started yet. It was pretty funny because Lang had been having a rev cut at 6,500 rpm all weekend and hadn’t gotten it resolved before the race. He must have been on the moon passing all of us at the start with his sick car! Once he realized something was up he put his hands up as if to say “What the hell was that all about?!” He slowed down and got back in line, maybe a little embarrassed.

Around we go again for another 4 mile cruise through the woods. I was still debating what to do at the start with our BOV issue. As we bunched up for another start, I put it in first and gently applied the brakes to modulate my speed. This way, I had the car on good boost and didn’t ever have the BOV pop off and confuse the ECU.

We approached the start/finish stand very tight and controlled. The green flag dropped and so did 40-some right feet. I immediately started pulling on the 20 year veteran in the BMW 325is on my right. I guess I won’t be learning the proper line today…. The WRX was pulling pretty hard on the two BMWs in front and I had a decision to make. I saw that I had enough room and moved from the left side of the track right across the nose of the BMW that started alongside of me which put me right behind Sofranes. I just kept going and went to the far right of Sofranes and began pulling up alongside.

We were approaching turn 1 at full tilt boogie three wide, with me on the inside. As we came up to the braking zone, I braked just a fraction of a second earlier than Sofranes. He went through turn 1 first, we be slotted in behind him and Dunbar right behind me. I was able to get the power down sooner and made a move to Sofranes’ right to try and get the inside of turn 2. Sofranes saw what I was trying to do and moved over to the right, completely blocking my pass attempt. I was SO tempted to just keep my right foot in it and shove him along. I was surprised and irritated that he so blatantly blocked me and I wanted to show him a little of my own determination. I decided to play nice and backed out of it and moved back over to the left to set up for the turn 2 right hander that would take us down the long straight to turn 3.

I got another good shot out of turn 2 and was right behind Sofranes as we went down the straight. He started to wander back and forth across the track in an effort to break the draft, but I was just too close. About half way down the straight Sofranes was moving to the left to protect his line for the turn 3 left hander, so I popped out right and started my pass. As I came up alongside and started easing past him, I slowly started squeezing over to the left. I remember seeing his passenger mirror just inches away from my helmet as we interlocked mirrors. When I thought he had no more room to move left I stopped moving over and stayed there alongside him as we approached the turn 3 braking zone somewhere around 125 mph.

I waited very late to start braking and got a little squirrelly turning in for the corner. Sofranes and I went through side by side, both slipping around, so close I was ready to feel us bump. We made it through completely clean and went barreling up the short straight to turn 4. I had a bit more of a lead on him by this time, but he was still up alongside and I gave him room to stay there through turn 4. I got a better shot out of turn 4 as I was on the outside and managed to get all the way in front before we got to turn 5. Sofranes was VERY fast through there and was right on my rear bumper.

I made it through 5 and 6 with Sofranes feinting a pass into 6. After turn 6 was Road America’s famous Carousel and our car was hooked up well there. As I shifted into 4th midcorner, I looked back to see were Sofranes was and was surprised that I’d opened up a gap of a car length or two just in the Carousel. DAMN that wing and splitter were working well! We were outhandling the BMW in the fast corners!

Through the kink with a slight lift, up through Canada Corner, under the bridge at full throttle, into the last corner onto the front straight and up the hill, the gap lengthened by another car length or so. I passed start/finish leading the first lap of our first race at Road America. Joel and Sue were so surprised to see us in the lead that they were jumping around waving their arms like crazy people.

I went through turns 1 and 2 and Sofranes caught up a little, but once we got onto the straight to turn 3 I put our power to good use. Sofranes could hang with me while he was in the draft, but he couldn’t pull on me. Things were looking good for us as long as I could stay just far enough ahead of him to keep him from setting up a late braking pass. There was no way he’d be able to slingshot past us on the straights.

Turn 3 of the second lap is were we started running into trouble. The brakes bit hard, then felt like they started to fade a little. I pressed harder and momentarily locked up the right front. The brakes didn’t feel good at all. Through turn 4 and turn 5 the brakes felt relatively OK, but as we approached turn 6, a 2nd gear left hander, they went away again. I entered the corner with too much speed and got sideways midcorner. I planted the gas pedal and the car straightened up under power and kept Sofranes behind me.

Through the Carousel again and we started to pull on the 328i again. But coming into Canada Corner the brakes faded pretty good and it was all I could do to get the car slowed down and keep a decent line. I managed to stay in front for the 2nd lap, but Sofranes was right behind me. I kept my braking zone the same for turn 1 and the initial bite from the brakes felt good, but very quickly faded to almost nothing. I pushed harder and harder on the brakes and managed to stay on track, but I missed my turn-in point and barely kept it on the track. Sofranes had set the corner up well and blew past me on the exit.

At that point I knew we might be in trouble, so I decided to take it a little easy and stay behind Sofranes and give the brakes a break. I stayed with Sofranes on the long straight down to 3 and almost ran into the back of him in the braking zone. OK, we were REALLY in trouble!

That’s about the time I decided that we were not going to be able to race Sofranes that day and had to find a way to keep going fast but make the car last the race. Into the long braking zones I would let off the gas a bit early, let the car coast, begin some light braking and start downshifting to help slow the car, then get on the brakes hard to finish slowing the car. The brakes still had OK initial bite, so it wasn’t too bad in the short braking zones, only in the really long fast braking zones. Everyplace else I was still driving the car as hard as I could, but I could see we were losing ground to Sofranes and in my mirror that 20 year veteran in the black BMW 325is was closing in.

Every time I passed under start/finish I could see the time left in the race. At 4 minutes left I wasn’t sure if the car or I could make it. My right leg was tires and sore from literally pushing on the brake pedal as hard as I could. And that black BMW was getting closer every corner. Joel and Sue knew the situation on the radio and were encouraging me to stay cool and make no mistakes. Joel radioed to me on the last lap that he wasn’t sure if that black BMW was in our class or not. So it might be a race for class position.

I struggled with the car on the final lap trying to go as fast as I could and gritted my teeth in the braking zones. That BMW had caught right up to me in Canada Corner, but I managed to pull out a little up the hill and under the bridge. In the last corner I moved mid-track to prevent a pass from the BMW and made sure I got the car slowed down enough to get a good shot out of the corner. The BMW got a better shot out and was tucked right under my bumper as we came up the hill. I wandered around a little to break the draft and as we came up the hill, he made a move to pass. I held the car mid-track and hoped we had the raw power to keep our position. We did, and we finished the race 2nd in class and 2nd overall!

A wave of relief washed over me after the finish line and even though we’d had a rough race, I still felt great. We’d overcome our problems earlier in the weekend and picked ourselves up from total despair to pumped up excitement, took our car right up to the front on the first lap and led the race, and managed some serious problems and saved 2nd place points. What an eventful weekend!

Everyone came over to congratulate us after the race and Sofranes was really excited for us and because we are now a tough competitor that will give him a real fight. The trip had paid off and we got 135 points for our 2nd place finish. That moved us up from fifth to third place in the championship. According to the rules, each team will drop 1 race and take the top 7 finishing point to calculate their overall finishing position. If we all dropped one race right now, we are tied for 2nd place!

The car has sustained quite a bit of damage from our problems at Road America. All the pad material from our Porterfield R4 pads looks like it turned to liquid and slung itself all over the wheels and extruded itself through the holes in the backing plates. The backing plates themselves are severely distorted from all of the heat. The pistons in the calipers left very deep indentations in them and the rest of the backing plate bent up and around the pistons. All four rotors are throw away. The front brake calipers need to be completely rebuild because the outer brake seals were charred away to crisps. The outer seal on the left front bearing popped out and the bearing lost all it’s grease. The left front outer axle boot tore and it is showing heat blueing on the axle spline and outer CV joint.

Even though we’ve got quite a bit of work to do to get the car ready for Portland on September 15th, we’re very excited about our chances. We now have a car that can run at the very front of the pack in USTCC and it keeps the championship open. We’ve got a few more performance enhancing mods to implement before the next race, so we should be faster than ever. This is one mean Subaru and it wants to win!

Excellent story, Gary! That's the most I've read since I graduated from college 10 years ago.

Congratulations to you, Joel, Sue and your pick-up crew at Elkart Lake!

Mark

That's one hell of an inspiring story Gary. Congrats to you and your crew. Keep fighting the good fight and make us proud in Portland.

Really Really Awesome story Gary, Thanks for taking the time to write it. I think anyone on this board that has a chance to get to one of these races and support one of our own needs to do so..

All Hail the Racing Subies !!!! :D

Later

and Great Racing

Eric

DAMNIT!!!! I missed all this?!?!?! I'm right down the road in Milwaukee. I would have definatly come up to watch all this drama!

Congrats on keeping it all together... That's a very inspiring story!

-Dave
http://granturismoforums.com

Now isn't this two different events where you have had brake problems? Or perhaps, did I hear it when the event originally happened and then just now heard it in your writeup?

What is allowable in the rules for you to take care of your stopping power (or lack thereof)? Big break kit, only OEM brake kits, pads and same size rotors?

-Jon
www.nothingserious.net

Stimpy,

We had braking issues at our first event at Las Vegas, but that turned out to be caused by a failing wheel bearing.

Any addition to the stock number of pistons or increasing rotor diameter is met with heavy weight penalties.

We've got to find a way to get these brakes working heavy duty with stock rotor and caliper sizes. Our next step is either Performance Friction or Hawk endurance brake pads.

Gary
Sheehan Motor Racing
#72 Subaru WRX USTCC

So you can change the thickness of the rotor? Also can you change the caliper as long as it has the same number of pistons?

I've noticed that a thicker rotor does work better, but it costs some power.

I am also guessing that there IS better calipers out there that will work with stock rotors. I should take a pic of my Old Suabru as before it I never believed that a caliper could cover so much of the Rotor. So maybe you could find one that also covers alot more of the rotor giving you more pad area to deal with car's wieght.

Last how close are you to the minimum wieght and is there any easy ways to shave more wieght off the front. Braking will work better if you can take weight off the front, and put in balast between or behind the rear wheel wells if you run under wieght. Thats one reason the 911's allways stop as if they drop an anchor out the door.

That sounds like Real Fun. This feels like Real Envy.

XT6Wagon,

We're looking at our braking options right now. We have calipers with the same number of pistons that will hold a larger pad. They are actually Corvette calipers. Lots of pads available for this caliper. We are looking at rotor options, too. There just may not be enough time to fabricate the necessary mounts in time for the next race.

But understand, I don't think the stock brakes are inadequate in this car. Remember that this is the first race we ran with a full splitter and air dam. I believe that this was a combination of not enough airflow to the brakes combined with VERY long hard braking zones with a pad not up to the task. I think bigger brake ducting and a Performance Friction 93 or Hawk HT12 or HT10 would be a great combination with the stock calipers.

As for weight, we are way under. That's why we have run anywhere from 300 to 500 pounds of steel and lead ballast at any given race. We tried putting the weight behind the rear wheels, but the car handled like absolute crap. The best locations for the weight that we've found is on the floor under the stock locations of the driver and front passenger seats.

Gary
Sheehan Motor Racing
#72 Subaru WRX USTCC
www.teamSMR.com

I don't think they are either, but you can never have too much in the brakes department.

I am very suprised that the car wants the added wieght under the driver and passenger seat. It does seem like you have to add a whole lot, so that may be one factor.

I just read the account of your race week!! My Heart Rate is still about 130!! Felt like I was in the car with you!!
I dont know if the members of this club have any idea, of how much you guys have accomplished, in your first season. This is the start of something BIG.
My only hope is, that the WRX fans in Portland, come out and support you on Sept. 15th. Come On Portland, these guys are Hero's. Lodging, Tire Shop, Parts, Tech. assistance. At least offer some help!!!
Very nice drive Gary! This is David & Goliath stuff!!
Good Luck, Jerry C.

Imprezzer, Please move this thread to WRX tech. and Non tech. and factory Turbo. and anywhere else you can put it. This should be required reading for all IClub members!! Nice job!!
Jerry C

Imprezzer-

Great article, or post, or whatever...It was great. Having been at Road A for the AMA races earlier this year, I'm very familiar with the track. Gotta say it could be the best in the country. Very challenging. You might want to consider that your brakes aren't that bad, for a "normal track".

Glad to hear you did so well, wish I could have been there. Keep us posted on your upcoming events so anyone who can, does show up.

JerryC,

Thanks for your enthusiasm! There is so much fun, dissappointment, excitement, nervousness, intensity, adventure and hilarity in our race weekends that I'm compelled to write about all of it. I'm glad you enjoyed it!

We're halfway through the season and in third place. Our next races are:

Portland International Raceway - Portland, OR - Sep 15 & 16
Phoenix International Raceway - Phoenix, AZ - Oct 13 & 14
Sears Point Raceway - Sonoma, CA - Nov 9 & 10
Laguna Seca - Monterey, CA - Dec 15 & 16

So if you are in the area of one of our races, come on by and hang out with us. We might even put you to work...

Gary
Sheehan Motor Racing
#72 Subaru WRX USTCC
www.teamSMR.com

Awesome! Really great job!

-Nathan

Originally posted by GarySheehan
We're halfway through the season and in third place. Our next races are:

Portland International Raceway - Portland, OR - Sep 15 & 16
Phoenix International Raceway - Phoenix, AZ - Oct 13 & 14
Sears Point Raceway - Sonoma, CA - Nov 9 & 10
Laguna Seca - Monterey, CA - Dec 15 & 16


Gary.....

You're going to be lonely at Phoenix (not on calander anymore). Save your money for a hospitality tent at Laguna......


BTW, I think I've got a plan regarding your BOV.

-dave
(USTCC Race Director)

Gary...
Awesome review as always.....Man I wish I were going to be in your neck of the woods for the remaining races....
Well maybe next year at Road Atlanta...:D:D:D...
Keep chargin....A win in around the corner for you I hope...:)...
As for the Brakes....might want to try DBA (Disc Brake Austalia) thye have proven systems for the Scooby...that or Cyrogentics Treated rotors....Can't you put the STD 4 pot brakes on...afterall it is a Scooby part...that and some Endless pads...have had good Results...I noticed also your using Castal Fluid...Might think about Motul or Ford HD brake fluid...
Are you running a Brake BIAS???(Tilton or equilivlant) Is there a rule on Line size???? that might be another way to get more brakes....Bigger lines....
The booster on Master Cylinder can be swapped out also to an STi one....Bigger Resevoir....and better feel....
I know you sill get it sorted...Good luck

Scooby South (Still without a t-shirt) :D

Great job Gary.

Looks like you're not going to be anywhere near the Midwest again this year. Too bad there isn't a race at Road America in December. You know, 12" of snow, plus drifts, is the great eqaulizer. Isn't that how the saying goes?

wow.

what a read. Felt like i was there.

Man. Great story.

Makes me want to take my car out for a spin (alas it's not here yet..hehe)

Congrats and keep us i-clubbers posted!

~V

wow, real good post.

Good Job!!

THE best thread that I've ever read on the I-Club!!!

If there's a USTCC race @ RA next year I'll be there FOR SURE...and I'm always willing to lend a hand in the Paddock.

Good luck the rest of the season!!!

-myk

congrats Gary and crew you've got a good first (hopefully of many) season going.

I'm hoping that this inspires some people to field more Subes in road racing. If I only had won that powerball lottery :rolleyes:

bigger brakes are always good to have, mine will go on soon

Is SpeedVision going to cover this series? I hope so

Damnit! I remember reading about this event months ago on USTCC's site and wanting to go, then I forgot about it and noone said a thing about it!

Too bad you only are in the midwest once, I would love to help out in the pits, mechanically or whatever... hell, I'd even drive for you! :)

Can we get some pics of the Corvette brake setup up front, possibly? Sounds interesting... just wondering how much customization had to be made to the calipers or spindles to make them fit.

8 their was a post in the MW forums. That was the same weekend as the big grill/meet.

Are flywheel, clutch, tranny parts modifiable?

Would they even make a difference?

Corvette brakes? Sounds interesting. Possible cheap, good upgrade. I can find vette parts 'round here. Hell, I see a vette every mile. Details on this one?

Clutch is replaceable, but flywheel must be stock. Transmission gear ratios must remain stock.

The Vette brakes are the same thing as the Baer brake upgrade kit. It's still a 2 piston caliper, but uses a Vette brake pad, which is larger than stock and is available from many pad manufacturers in lots of different compounds. The larger pads should give us longer pad life. We'll continue to use the stock rotors.

Gary
Sheehan Motor Racing
#72 Subaru WRX USTCC
www.teamSMR.com