I thought I would post up a recap, some pictures, and Trackmaster data for any of those that are interested.
Overall I'd rate the weekend about a B or B-. We had fun, learned alot, have a whole lot more to learn, and a lot of work ahead!!
To start I want to say thanks to sponsors:
Trackmaster. Jeff has done a lot of good work to put together an excellent data acquisition system for the Android O/S phones. His system had us within .05 sec/lap of the official timing & scoring. Pretty stinkin' impressive for a $4.99 application! Check out my official review here (see page 15, post 372)
http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/show...621408&page=15
Also, I want to thank Dan at
Wheeldude.com. Dan's an awesome guy to work with. Although we didn't get our new wheels in time for this race;his service, attitude, and enthusiasm to support Subaru race efforts is very much appreciated. Give him a shout if you are in the market for wheels (not just for you Subie!).
So Saturday! I was a little nervous Saturday morning. Not only were our two Corvette friends back... but also a stock car and a Trans-Am prepped Camaro!! Holy smokin' tires Batman!
The first session out the car had a funny vibration/thumping feel while cornering. I knew there was some pretty nasty rubber build up on the tires, but I didn't want to risk it when the vibration didn't stop after 4 or 5 laps so I pulled in. When pulled all the wheels off, but no signs of any tire rubbing, wheel bearings felt good... A sign of things to come!
We swapped tires front to rear and went out for our qualifying. Everything felt normal and good! Vibration is gone and we turned our fastest lap time of the weekend on the 3 or 4 lap of that session. 1:31.90 If the car would have stayed healthy we would have dropped another second or two, I know it. I was just starting to get comfortable with the car and the chicane.
For the race. They finally did not invert the grid, so we started 5th. Unfortunately, both the Corvettes had engine issues.
The red one blew the engine up big time going into T10. And the silver C6 popped the crank oil seal out. The engine was not destroyed, but it finished his weekend. So even though our grid position was 5th, I wound up moving to 3rd.
As we came off T12 for the green flag, I tried to keep a very tight 2x2 with Trans-Am Camaro, the stock car, and My friend Scott Norton (E36 325). There was a Porsche directly behind me. As we are rolling down the front straight I finally realize that I will be able to go to full throttle as the green flag drops!! (Previously with the inverted grids I had to start behind Miata's and slower bimmers that would clog up the straightaway). The flag flies and I start grabbing gears.... BUT there go the stock car and the Camaro away from me like I was stopped in the middle of the track. OH what it would be like to have 500+ hp.
Then my attention turns to Scott and the Porsche. I could out pull them on the straight, but T1 was going to be interesting. They were staggered behind me. The Porsche to my rear right and Scott to my rear left. HMMMM... I really hope they remember how much more my car weighs than theirs.... and that I have to brake earlier. We get into the braking zone and the Porsche starts to make a move to the inside, but I in about the middle of the track so there's not much room to the inside. He decides to be smart and breaths up a bit. As we make it through T1 and then T2 I realize, YEEEEHAW I'm going to make it through this first lap without being wrecked!!
For the first few laps I just keep pulling away from Scott and the red Porsche (at the same time the stock car and Camaro are fading from my view). On about lap 5 I start feeling a light vibration under braking. Not like my first session of the day.... this vibration only happens under braking. In a straight line it is gone... hmm that's odd. Then going into T4... whoa s@^!$ NO BRAKES! Pump once and get some pedal back. Ok whew I can deal with this the rest of the race. By about lap 10 that light vibration turned into a full on earthquake in the braking zones. And along with that I can't seem to trail brake anymore, because if I have the brakes on the steering wheel is hard to turn. Sometime around lap 12 I see that the Camaro has pulled off course. ALRIGHT 2ND PLACE BABY!
Also, about that time I unfortunately see a giant cloud of smoke as I am rounding T6. As the smoke clears I realize it is my dad's car off to the outside of T7.... along with a big black oil streak leading to his car. UGHH SIGH, he blew up the engine in his first race "out of retirement" so to speak... well regardless of how this race ends it's gonna be a bummer afterwards. I continue on my so-so merry way to a 2nd place finish. It's soo much fun being a front runner (a lesson I am soon to learn Sunday).
After the race Saturday, I officially got to upgrade to an Area Road Race license with ICSCC. This means I can now enter the senior races, BUT not before I pass a 49 question written test. ARE YOU SH@#$NG ME?? A TEST?! Oh boy this ought to be fun. It turned out not to be so bad. Mostly they want to make sure you have been paying attention for the last 3 race weekends. ON TO SUNDAY!
Well almost onto Sunday... First a quick note about my dad's motor. It let loose pretty good. We believe the steel crank snapped in two pieces. The front piece shoved the all of the front end components towards the radiator. The aux belt (p/s & w/p) had been moved enough that it was knocked off the guides. There was water and oil everywhere. I will be surprised if there is anything left but the heads and intake manifold.
Sunday! Ok, enough with the novices... it's time to get a real lesson in road racing. Prior to the first session I decided that the brake problems from my race must have been from warped rotors. Before the weekend, I had an old set of rotors recut, and didn't do a good job of bedding them properly. We swapped to an old set of rotors and a new set of pads. Gotta love the Raybestos ST-43's they've been freakin awesome so far.
During our qualifying Sunday morning, I notice that I am quite a bit slower than the rest of our group. But I am feeling pretty good. I learned a lot about rapidly approaching cars, maintaining my line, communicating with other drivers. Stuff that was hard to learn in the novice races because I was so much faster than everybody else.
Sunday afternoon, Scott and I both upgraded to ARR licenses after Saturday. So this is both of our first senior races. Man we're jazzed! SLOOOWWW, but jazzed! We wind up gridding 20th and 22nd. We're both hanging our heads, but all the senior drivers were encouraging and helpful.
On our warm up lap, I notice my ABS light is on.... hmmm.
As we roll to the green.. this time from the back with nothing but faster cars in front of us it is a little disappointing. The green drops and off we go. Not a lot of pressure into T1 this time, but still amazing that none of the cars in front of us screwed up THANKFULLY!!
The first couple of laps go by pretty smooth, I am able to hang with the cars that I started around. Then by about lap 4... something is definitely wrong. With the ABS light on, the ABS does not work. So learning how to threshold brake on the fly was a bit of a challenge, and I was locking up the brakes quite a bit. By the 5th or 6th lap, my vibration while turning is back. F@#^ and some other dirty words come out of my mouth. I am dealing with this and in my mirrors here comes the leaders already to lap me! ARE YOU KIDDING... 5 LAPS INTO THE RACE! As the race goes on the vibration in cornering only (not under braking this time) gets worse and worse. I am seeing my laps times gets slower and slower. Ok, well I'll just deal with this until the end of the race and we'll figure the problem out this week. Then by about lap 11 the engine power starts dropping at about 6000. It just won't pull to 7000 anymore... WTF?! From lap 11 on you can see my top speeds decrease by about 5 or 6 mph.... We finish the race (a little disgusted and disgruntled for not being able to put on a good show in our first big boy outting), but at least the car is still running. We finished 19th overall and 7th in class, pretty dismal... but I'm keeping my head high and going back to work to find some more speed (and my problems).
Hopefully the issue is a wheel bearing, axle, ABS pump, or ABS controller... I'll start tearing into tonight to find out. Only 2 weeks until Mission B.C., GOTTA HURRY!
Thanks again for following our adventures. I hope some of you enjoy the longggggggg winded post.
If anyone is interested in a weekend getaway. You can come watch us race again (hopefully if nothing serious is broken) June 20/21 at Mission Raceway Park in Mission, B.C.
Trackmaster data acquisition system last weekend. It's a fantastic app for the Google Android phones!
Saturday Qualifying - 2009 Chicane Challenge @ PIR - Group 7 - Google Earth Data
Saturday Qualifying - 2009 Chicane Challenge @ PIR - Group 7 - Xcel Data
Sunday Qualifying - 2009 Chicane Challenge @ PIR - Group 4 - Google Earth Data
Sunday Qualifying - 2009 Chicane Challenge @ PIR - Group 4 - Xcel Data
some photos