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Old 06-11-2009, 12:40 AM   #1
generalee69
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Join Date: Jan 2006
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2004 GT-1 ICSCC #9
www.ClintonRacing.com

Default Pics and Results from my 3rd novice race

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






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Old 06-11-2009, 07:45 AM   #2
dunk
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Did the vibration get better with more brake application?

-Duncan
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Old 06-11-2009, 08:28 AM   #3
brandonl
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Nice job and nice write up. Car looks good too.

Brandon
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Old 06-11-2009, 09:51 AM   #4
generalee69
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Quote:
Originally Posted by dunk View Post
Did the vibration get better with more brake application?

-Duncan
I think I found part of the problem last night... but probably not all of it. One of the front tires had two small flat spots from locking the brakes up. The funny thing is it was on the RF tire, but at PIR the LF is the tire that sees most of the work (primarily RH corners).

During the Saturday race, the vibration might have gotten a little better with more brake application (but not much). Still felt like the dash wash going to shake off the car.

During the Sunday race, there was only minimal vibration under braking. After see that tire, I would attribute all of the braking vibration to the flat spots. In a straight line under acceleration it wasn't noticeable at all. And if I cornered at lower speeds it was noticeable either.

Vibration is maybe not as descriptive as... it really felt like more of a repetitive "thumping". Just as a description it felt like a tire rubbing on a strut housing reallllllly badly. No traces of the tires rubbing anywhere thought. The higher the lateral G's the worse it got.
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Old 06-11-2009, 09:51 AM   #5
generalee69
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Originally Posted by brandonl View Post
Nice job and nice write up. Car looks good too.

Brandon
Thanks man.
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Old 06-11-2009, 02:18 PM   #6
Darcros
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Do you have any pics of your cage in your car? looks like your car is beyond novice looks nice
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Old 06-11-2009, 02:43 PM   #7
generalee69
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Old 06-11-2009, 04:36 PM   #8
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Quote:
Originally Posted by generalee69 View Post
I think I found part of the problem last night... but probably not all of it. One of the front tires had two small flat spots from locking the brakes up. The funny thing is it was on the RF tire, but at PIR the LF is the tire that sees most of the work (primarily RH corners).
.
That's how it often is actually. The first tires to lock up are the inside tires if you are trailbraking into the turn. As they get unweighted, the traction patch on the tire decreases making it easier to lock up.

The only time I've raced at PIR was at the 12hr race and the only tires I locked up were the inside (albeit rear) tires going into turn one and the hard right turn onto the back straight.
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Old 06-11-2009, 04:42 PM   #9
generalee69
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Quote:
Originally Posted by cooleyjb View Post
That's how it often is actually. The first tires to lock up are the inside tires if you are trailbraking into the turn. As they get unweighted, the traction patch on the tire decreases making it easier to lock up.

The only time I've raced at PIR was at the 12hr race and the only tires I locked up were the inside (albeit rear) tires going into turn one and the hard right turn onto the back straight.
Yeah I can see how that would allow the tire to lock up. I guess I thought that if that was the tire that had the flat spot, it would only cause a vibration in left hand corners. And that in right hand corners since it isn't loaded on, the vibration would be minimal (if at all).

Last edited by generalee69; 06-13-2009 at 08:54 PM.
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Old 06-13-2009, 09:07 PM   #10
generalee69
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After a thorough inspection by the mechanic yesterday. We determined the issues was the flat spots on the tires that I made by locking the brakes up too often. So we are off to Mission next weekend, and I'll find out then if the diagnosis was correct. Pat (my mechanic and fellow racer/mentor) has never let me down before, In Pat I Trust.

The ABS, I'll get it scanned Monday at Subaru and go from there. The problem seems to immediately be present when I start the car.. and goes off once the car is restarted. I think for now I will just be aware that if the light comes on, I need to reboot the system by restarting the car.

Engine pull... I put the street tires on and did a few on-ramp/off-ramp pulls. The engine had no issue pull all the way to redline/fuel cut. As always, I am paranoid of problems, but for now I will let this one lay until it comes back.
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Old 06-13-2009, 11:09 PM   #11
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very nice!
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Old 06-14-2009, 01:14 AM   #12
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Quote:
Originally Posted by generalee69 View Post
Pat (my mechanic and fellow racer/mentor) has never let me down before, In Pat I Trust.
Pat Newton?

Did you at least loosen the axle nut to check for play in the bearing?

-Mike
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Old 06-14-2009, 12:01 PM   #13
slowguy
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Mission! I may drop by on the 21st to check it out. It's only 40 min from me. Hope you got your ducting and pads ready. It's real tough on the brakes there!
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Old 06-14-2009, 12:38 PM   #14
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Excellent pictures and nice car. How's that google phone?
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Old 06-14-2009, 01:16 PM   #15
generalee69
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Quote:
Originally Posted by grippgoat View Post
Pat Newton?

Did you at least loosen the axle nut to check for play in the bearing?

-Mike
Pat Boyle at Pat's Autosport in Auburn.

Yeah, it all looked good. No bearing play.
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Old 06-14-2009, 01:16 PM   #16
generalee69
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Originally Posted by slowguy View Post
Mission! I may drop by on the 21st to check it out. It's only 40 min from me. Hope you got your ducting and pads ready. It's real tough on the brakes there!
Oh yeah, I've heard all the horror stories We'll be ready.
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Old 06-14-2009, 01:18 PM   #17
generalee69
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Excellent pictures and nice car. How's that google phone?
It's awesome! I had a blackberry curve before. The only thing I miss is the Blackberry Chat function, but the positives of the G1 far outweigh that one minus.
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