Yeap, off to St Pete for the World Challenge race. Fly into Nashville, pick up the trailer andload the spares etc, then off to the races we go. Bought all of the CMZC t-shirts Tommy at SC had left, and my crew guy and I will be sure to wear them to rep Colorado, might even get a shot on TV, ya just never know.
I will try and provide a running race report as the weekend goes along as best I can, or you can find me on facebook. Should have the facebook for the race team set up fairly soon, will let you guys know when its up.
Off to St Pete for the World Challenge
Off to St Pete for the World Challenge
1986 Turbo FC race car, S6 13b, GOOPY Apex seals etc, GT35R, AEM EMS, lots more good stuff
RX8 World Chalenge Touring Car #7
RX8 World Challenge Touring Car #8
RX8 World Chalenge Touring Car #7
RX8 World Challenge Touring Car #8
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MSP SuperStreet
- Senior Member
- Posts: 603
- Joined: Sun Apr 27, 2008 9:14
- Location: Glenwood Springs
- Contact:
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Colombia28
- Posts: 4216
- Joined: Wed Sep 19, 2007 9:14
- Location: Lone Tree
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Dumbizzle wrote:I used to live just outside st. pete cars run great down there till you miss shift and blow a head gasketlol but that was me good luck to you guys
No headgaskets to worry about
Thanks to all the support guys, crashing out now, shuttle is here at 3AM which means I am up at 2:30, YAAAY 6AM flights!
1986 Turbo FC race car, S6 13b, GOOPY Apex seals etc, GT35R, AEM EMS, lots more good stuff
RX8 World Chalenge Touring Car #7
RX8 World Challenge Touring Car #8
RX8 World Chalenge Touring Car #7
RX8 World Challenge Touring Car #8
-
MSP SuperStreet
- Senior Member
- Posts: 603
- Joined: Sun Apr 27, 2008 9:14
- Location: Glenwood Springs
- Contact:
Well, yes now that I actually have a reliable web connection!
Lets start at the beginning-
I flew to TN last week, gathered up my crew guy, loaded the trailer, and headed to Alabama to pick up a spare motor on the way to St Pete. Got the motor with no issue, but for whatever reason the GPS decided that we needed to go the back roads, which made out drive take forever!
Arrived in St Pete at about 10:00 AM Wed morning. Spent the day getting the trailer parked, the car etc. unloaded, then stickering the car up. Managed to leave the track around 5:30/6:00ish to head to the hotel.
Thursday got to the track at around 8 am (late for me), and finished checking over the car. SCC Pro Racing guys came by and did the annual tech. We were OK with two fix-it-before-next-event issues- no drivers leg bracing and no scattersheild. Everything else we had more than the required. Also made sure we got our credentials as soon as registration opened, not a big deal, just a lot of standing in line.
Midday on Thursday we had the Driver/Crew Chiefs meeting. Those of you who have been to the Club racing version- the Pro racing version is much much longer and more detailed. Good stuff brought up though, so not too bad.
Finshed Thursday out by cleaning up the car, putting on the freshly mounted Pirellis slicks, and again left the track around 6PM or so.
Friday morning first practice was at 8:05 AM. We got there at 7:15 then a few minutes later everyone started lining up at 7:30! Chip had literally JUST gotten there and was barely in his suit as we were pulling around to grid for practice. Nothing really notable about the first practice, we kept our noses clean, took some tire pressures, and thats about it.
Second practice we set the tire pressures based on the early session, gassed here up, and away we went. Chip was fastest in practice, and the car performed awesome. Our good friend Eric Meyer lost his brakes while following Chip around, causing him to rear- end us at about 45mph in turn 4. Oouchies!Nothing but urethane and sheetmetal damage though, and Eugene and I managed to get the trunk section pulled back more or less into place using a slide hammer, mini sledge, and some blocks of wood.
Qualifying was pretty good, Chip went out and set fast lap, then Aschenbach (Honda) and Herbert (VW) set it higher. Chip went back out and layed down an awesome 1:26, but that pesky VW threw down a 1:25, with about 4 tenths seperating us, and there was nothing we could do about it, we were all in. Still outside pole is not a bad start to the season!
First race started out well, Chip holeshoted like none other, gaining positions like a madman. He literally passed the S2000 running in GTS BEFORE the guys tires were turning! Into turn 1 it looked like our race all the way, but the GTI was back, using its massive power (cough cough CHEATER cough cough) to blow past us on the straights. Running second, Chip was all over the guy in the corners, and on lap three it happened. What happened depends on who you talk to, but generic version A is that Herbert in the GTI knew he could not keep Chip behind him and was moving over to let us by when he scrubbed the wall, breaking his front rim and shooting him off the wall into our drivers side rear wheel, breaking it. We changed the wheel but lost three laps and the car was unpredictable under power, so we called it a day with I think two laps to go. Version B is not as flattering to the GTI, and more or less has him driving into the back of Chip to cause the flat. Either way, frustrating end when we were passing for first place!
Race 2 also started well. Once again we were outside pole, starting 2nd in class. Chip hammered the start again and made a hero move on the very slick paint at the end of the straight to save the car and not kill anyone. We were running 2nd most of the race with the GTI in front of us again using all of its turbo power to run away from us. Very frustrating, especially when a GTS Camaro got between the front runners and held us up. CHip could get by in the corners, but the Camaro would just pull ahead again on the straights. Very very frustrating when your running for position.
During a caution, Herbert for whatever reason drove past the entire feild and was given a penalty that resulted in him being put back out right behind us. Chip was holding him off with a 10 car lead when the car started to starve for fuel in the right hand corners, then the fuel pressure started to drop. He radioed in that he was out of fuel, but there was just no way! He came in when the pressure dropped way low, and once again we were out of the race. We found the car had over 1/4 tank of fuel in it, so WTF??? On examination we have found that the transfer pump in the right side of the car (the car we took the hit on) had broken loose and was just sort of flopping around in the tank, resulting in inconsistent fuel flow, which heated the fuel pump up and dropped pressure. Bad deal all the way around for us, but thats racing. I never thought to check the fuel tank after the hit, and we had no time to test the car before the race.
After the race we did a media day/photoshoot sort of thing with Grassroots Motorsports, so we will all get to see that soon as well!
Cheers,
Don Walker
Lets start at the beginning-
I flew to TN last week, gathered up my crew guy, loaded the trailer, and headed to Alabama to pick up a spare motor on the way to St Pete. Got the motor with no issue, but for whatever reason the GPS decided that we needed to go the back roads, which made out drive take forever!
Arrived in St Pete at about 10:00 AM Wed morning. Spent the day getting the trailer parked, the car etc. unloaded, then stickering the car up. Managed to leave the track around 5:30/6:00ish to head to the hotel.
Thursday got to the track at around 8 am (late for me), and finished checking over the car. SCC Pro Racing guys came by and did the annual tech. We were OK with two fix-it-before-next-event issues- no drivers leg bracing and no scattersheild. Everything else we had more than the required. Also made sure we got our credentials as soon as registration opened, not a big deal, just a lot of standing in line.
Midday on Thursday we had the Driver/Crew Chiefs meeting. Those of you who have been to the Club racing version- the Pro racing version is much much longer and more detailed. Good stuff brought up though, so not too bad.
Finshed Thursday out by cleaning up the car, putting on the freshly mounted Pirellis slicks, and again left the track around 6PM or so.
Friday morning first practice was at 8:05 AM. We got there at 7:15 then a few minutes later everyone started lining up at 7:30! Chip had literally JUST gotten there and was barely in his suit as we were pulling around to grid for practice. Nothing really notable about the first practice, we kept our noses clean, took some tire pressures, and thats about it.
Second practice we set the tire pressures based on the early session, gassed here up, and away we went. Chip was fastest in practice, and the car performed awesome. Our good friend Eric Meyer lost his brakes while following Chip around, causing him to rear- end us at about 45mph in turn 4. Oouchies!Nothing but urethane and sheetmetal damage though, and Eugene and I managed to get the trunk section pulled back more or less into place using a slide hammer, mini sledge, and some blocks of wood.
Qualifying was pretty good, Chip went out and set fast lap, then Aschenbach (Honda) and Herbert (VW) set it higher. Chip went back out and layed down an awesome 1:26, but that pesky VW threw down a 1:25, with about 4 tenths seperating us, and there was nothing we could do about it, we were all in. Still outside pole is not a bad start to the season!
First race started out well, Chip holeshoted like none other, gaining positions like a madman. He literally passed the S2000 running in GTS BEFORE the guys tires were turning! Into turn 1 it looked like our race all the way, but the GTI was back, using its massive power (cough cough CHEATER cough cough) to blow past us on the straights. Running second, Chip was all over the guy in the corners, and on lap three it happened. What happened depends on who you talk to, but generic version A is that Herbert in the GTI knew he could not keep Chip behind him and was moving over to let us by when he scrubbed the wall, breaking his front rim and shooting him off the wall into our drivers side rear wheel, breaking it. We changed the wheel but lost three laps and the car was unpredictable under power, so we called it a day with I think two laps to go. Version B is not as flattering to the GTI, and more or less has him driving into the back of Chip to cause the flat. Either way, frustrating end when we were passing for first place!
Race 2 also started well. Once again we were outside pole, starting 2nd in class. Chip hammered the start again and made a hero move on the very slick paint at the end of the straight to save the car and not kill anyone. We were running 2nd most of the race with the GTI in front of us again using all of its turbo power to run away from us. Very frustrating, especially when a GTS Camaro got between the front runners and held us up. CHip could get by in the corners, but the Camaro would just pull ahead again on the straights. Very very frustrating when your running for position.
During a caution, Herbert for whatever reason drove past the entire feild and was given a penalty that resulted in him being put back out right behind us. Chip was holding him off with a 10 car lead when the car started to starve for fuel in the right hand corners, then the fuel pressure started to drop. He radioed in that he was out of fuel, but there was just no way! He came in when the pressure dropped way low, and once again we were out of the race. We found the car had over 1/4 tank of fuel in it, so WTF??? On examination we have found that the transfer pump in the right side of the car (the car we took the hit on) had broken loose and was just sort of flopping around in the tank, resulting in inconsistent fuel flow, which heated the fuel pump up and dropped pressure. Bad deal all the way around for us, but thats racing. I never thought to check the fuel tank after the hit, and we had no time to test the car before the race.
After the race we did a media day/photoshoot sort of thing with Grassroots Motorsports, so we will all get to see that soon as well!
Cheers,
Don Walker
1986 Turbo FC race car, S6 13b, GOOPY Apex seals etc, GT35R, AEM EMS, lots more good stuff
RX8 World Chalenge Touring Car #7
RX8 World Challenge Touring Car #8
RX8 World Chalenge Touring Car #7
RX8 World Challenge Touring Car #8
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