It has been quite a long time since my last update. Mostly this is due to the lack of time to write it but I also wasn't that motivated to update the blog due to a major hiccup back in May. Unfortunately I overheated my engine on the test day before an SCCA Majors race weekend at Mid-Ohio and there was nobody to blame but myself. I apparently didn't have a water hose clamp on just right and on top of that my dash warning light temperature was set too high so I didn't notice the high temperature fast enough to prevent the head gasket blowing or worse yet the aluminum head from warping. Unfortunately I strongly suspect that the head is warped. I don't know yet because I haven't taken that engine apart to find out. I almost threw in the towel for this year but I just couldn't stand the thought of not getting back in the car for almost another year and after a small bout with depression (just ask my wife if you think I'm kidding!) and some creative financing, I bought another engine from Honda Performance Development (HPD). I removed all of the unecessary parts from the new stock engine and transferred all of the specialized race parts from the old engine to the new engine. I'm still not sure what I'm going to do with the old engine but figuring out exactly what needs to be fixed will help me decide and that is going to be one of the winter projects.
I got the car out for a test day after I put it back together and it felt really good to be back in it again. We went back out to Mid-Ohio for a F1600 Pro Race weekend and enjoyed a challenging but good weekend. My crew consisted of Jeremy Grenier of Ski-Motorsports, Chris Elwell (a FV racer), my wife Terry, and I started using John Block's (Autoware) remote data analysis services. Mid-Ohio is really a tricky track and we dealt with some rain, cool conditions, and some nice conditions. My times weren't close to the really fast drivers but we made a number of setup changes and it was good to see how those affected the car's handling. And at this point this is what I really need to do. I'm not a pay driver and can't afford a full time engineer so I need to be able to learn enough about different settings so that I have a better idea of what to change on my own. I ended up finishing 13th in the 1st race and 11th in the 2nd race and I turned my best lap time in the 2nd race so that makes me feel good. It also felt really great to roll the car in the trailer without any major problems! And btw, it was really great to have the extra help!! One thing that I have learned is that Terry and I can barely handle everything that needs to be done if there aren't any problems but if there are problems then those problems become much bigger if we don't have anyone else to there to help out. Here are a few videos from the Mid-Ohio weekend.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7ZKnuQKeHo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7zDY931KT4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvXHiVtry9w
The next race weekend was at my home track, Summit Point Raceway, WV. It was August 23rd to the 25th so it wasn't too long ago. I had Jeff Owens, Mike Fultz, and Terry helping me at the track and I again utilized John Block's remote data acquisition services. Jeff and Mike are both racers so it was really great to have them helping out. I thought I was really going to need them on Friday the 23rd becuase we were scheduled to go out 6 times with 2 of those sessions being qualifying sessions. Unfortunately the weather didn't cooperate and the first session was the only session that had a totally dry track and that was only during the first half of the session. The rain came and stayed all day which really stunk because I was really looking forward to utilizing John's expertise and getting the car dialed in some more. Due to the rain, the schedule was changed so that the last session of the day was the only qualifying session and the best time in this session would qualify us for Saturday's race. The fastest time in Saturday's race would qualify us for Sunday's race. I didn't see much benefit in running in the rain and possibly tearing up the car so Friday ended up being a lot of waiting around and looking at the sky to see if the rain was going to stop. When it looked like it was going to continue to rain during the qualifying session we decided to put a full wet set-up on the car and go out in the last practice session. The car actually felt great so that was good experience in itself. The rain started to ease off just before the qualifying session and stopped while we were on grid. But the track was wet and everyone was on wets. However, the track started drying during the session and it was real challenge to figure out how hard to push the car and where to place it to get the most grip. It was actually really fun though and I ended up qualifying 12th. Here is a video from that session.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3frpfnsT-0
We had a 7:30 am warm-up on Saturday so we had to put the dry set-up back on the car. The warm-up went fine although there was quite an extensive fog delay. We made a couple of changes for the race and I had a good race although I didn't get to really race with anyone until the end because faster cars pulled away and I pulled away from the cars behind me. However, about three quarters into the race I made a mistake going into T1 and ended up going a little wide and put wheels off. This really screwed up my rythym and I think the tires had too much pressure in them as well because I didn't seem to have the grip that I had at the beginning of the race. Nevertheless, a couple of cars caught me and I had to defend my position some in order to maintain my position. One of the cars got a run at me coming onto the front straight on the last lap and I just barely beat him to the checkered flag!
We again had a 7:30am warm-up on Sunday and I frankly didn't feel like I was awake enough. I know I could have gone faster as a result but we did get some good data and after looking at that along with Saturday's data, John suggested a gear change before Sunday's race. We were only changing 3rd gear and Jeff and I changed it with plenty of time to spare before the race. Unfortunately six laps into Sunday's race a bolt came out of the shift linkage and I couldn't shift the car. It was a shame because I was having a great battle with four other cars. But loosing the bolt didn't bother me at all because I had already made a couple of good passes and I was no longer thinking about what I had to do in the car -- I just did it. This is how I felt in my FV because I was so used to it and this is a really good sign that the car and I are becoming one! Here is the video from that race.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEO32saYzEM
So the season didn't start off well but it ended well and I feel like I'm really starting to understand this car and how to drive it. I'm planning on doing one more test day before the winter and then I will be tearing down the car and going through it and possibly making some updates if the budget allows for them.
Btw, the remote data analysis services that John Block offers are really great and I highly recommend them. John is a great engineer/data guy and the way his service works is that you send him a data file after every session and then he calls you in about an hour to discuss what he is seeing and to find out what your feeling in the car. Based on that he recommends changes. If any racers with data systems are reading this then they should definitely consider useing John's expertise. I'm not going to list prices but it is a lot cheaper then having an engineer (including John) at the track with you. If you can afford the engineer then that is definitely the way to go but if not then you should consider using John's remote data analysis services -- John's website is www.auto-ware.com. I feel that we have been heading in the right direction and plan on using John's services a lot more.
