Prior to the start of this season, my wife and crew (Terry) and I talked about whether or not to run the F1600 Pro Series again or to run SCCA Majors weekends. There are positives and negatives to both but the main decision maker was whether or not the events were fun for both of us. I enjoyed being on track with only Formula F cars at the pro series races but I have to admit that the stress level was a few notches higher compared to SCCA weekends because of the schedules. There just wasn't a lot of time between some of the sessions and that can create quite a big problem for a small team like ours that doesn't have the manpower to get the car back on track in a short period -- especially if there is a problem. Conversely, the main issue that I have with running SCCA weekends is being on track with cars in other classes. That has definitely bitten me but the schedules are a little more relaxed and the stress level for Terry and I is down at these events so as a result so I consider the SCCA events to be more fun for us. This is just a hobby after all. I still love following the pro F1600, F2000, and Formula Atlantic series' and it is really impressive to see what some of those drivers can do -- especially the young kids in the F1600 series! If I win the lottery and I can have a pro team behind me then I would definitely be right there with them! I also think that the USA needs these series in order to help ensure that a US driver makes it to Formula 1 or even to get more Americans in the Indy Car series. There really is a lot of talented American drivers but it takes everything (especially a substantial amount of money) to get them to the ultimate pro ranks.
Anyway, the first race weekend for me this year was the SCCA Majors event at Virginia International Raceway (VIR) April 18-20, 2014. VIR was just repaved and it is at least 2 seconds a lap faster and probably the smoothest track I have ever driven on. Unfortunately Terry wasn't feeling well so she wasn't able to attend but I did have the help of a couple of younger racers, Chris and Luke. I have mentioned Chris before but Luke just got his SCCA regional license and he decided to make the 4.5 hour drive down from Northern Virginia and help out. Believe me, the help from Chris and Luke was very much appreciated! I also had John Block of Autoware (www.auto-ware.com) on standby throughout the weekend to analyze my data and give me set-up advice. I have really enjoy working with John and I think we have made great progress with the car set-ups and getting me to drive the car harder.
I've heard several drivers complain about not having the time to look at data during a race weekend. Frankly, it is a very valid complaint but John had provided a solution -- he does the analysis while you can focus on other things. You just have to email it to him and he will get back to you in an hour or so. Here is an example of just one of the benefits that I have experienced by using John's services. Before VIR but after a test at Summit Point John noticed that the right front shock histogram was looking very different from the rest so he had me check things out. It turns out that a bolt was binding in the upper rod end of the pushrod going from the lower A-arm to the rocker. The wheel would move the shock fine as long as there was enough force but the histogram showed that it wasn't moving properly over smaller bumps. This could obviously cause the car to handle differently so it was a great find and again shows the benefit of having data. John's pricing is very fair and I definitely encourage those with a data system but feel that they don't have time to analyze the data to utilize his services.
In addition to having John helping me out, James Kearney of Kearney Driver Development (www.kearneyKDD.com) was at the track working with some clients and he was kind enough to give me some segment times and other words of wisdom. Jim is a great driver's coach so those racers reading this should definitely consider using his coaching if they can!
For the SCCA Majors weekends, there are two qualifying sessions on Friday, a race on Saturday, and a race on Sunday. Your best time from the two qualifiers grids you for Saturday's race but your best time from the two qualifiers plus Saturday's race grids you for Sunday's race. As mentioned above, we also share the track with other classes and for this weekend we were sharing the track with Formula 500s and Formula Vees. I qualified 5th in my class for Saturday's race and there was no way any of us were going to go faster than our qualifying times in Saturday's race because it was raining Saturday morning. Here is a link to a video from VIR qualifying:
VIR Qual 2 4-18-14
We were scheduled to race in the morning and according to the forecasts it was going to rain all morning so Chris, Luke, and I put a rain set-up including rain tires on the car when we got to the track. But then it stopped raining an hour before our race. And when this happens there is a lot of second guessing as to whether or not rain tires are a right choice. I could see the track drying but I initially stuck to my decision to run on rain tires. Cars were already going up to the grid and Chris was buckling me in my car when I changed my mind. :) I figured that Chris and Luke would be able to change the tires in time so I asked them to put the slicks on. Chris and Luke did a great job and got the tires changed quickly -- THANKS Chris and Luke!! It turns out that we had more time than we thought because there was significant cleanup from the previous race group. But I was still the only Formula F on slicks and I knew it was a gamble and that I was either going to be the hero or the zero. On the pace lap I could tell that it was the right decision because I could see that there was a dry line and it still wasn't raining but unfortunately I lost the back end of the car going through a corner at the end of the first lap and ended up on the wet grass and mud. Unfortunately it took me forever to get going again. I was able to work my way back up to 6th place in my class so I guess I wasn't a total zero. :) Here is a link to a video showing the first part of the race.
VIR Race 1 4-19-14
The good news was that the car was just a little muddy and there wasn't much to do to prepare it for Sunday's race. I was again starting 5th and there was no guessing about the weather -- it was a nice dry day and track. A F500 decided to race me another Formula F in the beginning stages of the race and that broke us off of the leading Formula F cars pretty quickly. I also made a couple of little mistakes early on and that hurt my lap times. However, I got a couple of lucky breaks when the car in 4th place spun and then the car in 3rd place went off course avoiding an incident with a car in another class. That means that I was in 3rd place! But the previous 3rd place driver was Lewis Cooper (a National Champion) who has a very nice Spectrum Formula F and he was coming on strong. This was the first time I had to deal with lapped traffic and I was probably a little too conservative with my passing. Lew caught and passed me as we started the last lap and I finished 4th. Obviously I was a little disappointed that I didn't get on the podium but it was a fun race and I was really happy with the gains that I made during the weekend. And a 4th place finish, a 6th place finish, and being able to roll the car back in the trailer after the weekend ain't that bad! This video is the entire Sunday race so it is rather long!
VIR Race 2 4-20-14
Btw, the videos in this posting were created using a GoPro camera but the I was able to overlay the data using Race Render (racerender.com) software. This software is actually pretty neat. It is a little difficult to get the data to align with the video but once you do that you can include any data that you have collected on the video and you can present it in different formats. Hope you enjoy them!
Tuesday, June 10, 2014
Saturday, September 14, 2013
A Delayed Update
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.
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.
Wednesday, May 22, 2013
Yet Another Scoop
I mentioned in one of my previous posts that I wasn't very happy with how the scoop that I made was directly behind my helmet and I didn't think it was getting a good flow of air to it. I wanted to make another scoop before VIR but I didn't have time to make molds like I did for the original scoop. So, following are steps showing the fastest way to make a scoop out of fiberglass.
I used the same white styrofoam that is used when protecting items in boxes but first I needed to figure out the shape and cardboard worked well for that.
As you can see, I'm still utilizing the bottom part of the scoop that holds the filter and I'm just replacing the top part. Once I had the basic shapes figured out, I simply traced them onto the styrofoam.
Styrofoam is really a pain to work with because little pieces of it go everywhere and static electricity seems to help stick them to everything but again, this is all about getting it done quickly. I used a REALLY sharp knife to cut big chunks away and I have a small styrofoam cutter which is basically just a wire that is heated by shorting out a battery. You can't get much precision with either one of them so I then used a coarse file and finally sand paper to get it relatively smooth. Here is a pic of the scoop before I removed some of the air-inlet material. Btw, I removed the inlet material with a dremel. As you can see, the opening ended up being round rather than oval. That just kind of happened as I was sculpting it. :)
The one thing that is missing is the flange around it which will allow me to fasten it to the bottom part of the scoop. In order to make a really flat flange I attached the scoop to a piece of aluminum using some wood screws and then used some modeling clay to fill in the gaps between the scoop and the aluminum. The clay also helps it stay attached to the aluminum.
I could then fiberglass over it but before I did I covered it with mold release wax. I also cut a bunch of small strips of fiberglass cloth and matt. I initially used a very light cloth that is able to follow the countours very easily. I applied a couple of layers of that and then I applied the matt and then another layer of cloth that was a little heavier than the light stuff I initially used. I also tinted the resin with a black pigment.
And here is the bottom of the scoop after the resin hardened and I removed it from the aluminum and after I removed the exposed packing tape.
I obviously haven't worried about any negative countours which wouldn't be acceptable if I was making a mold and this is because the styrofoam is easily disssolved with laquer thinner (just like fiberglass resin). And you don't need very much laquer thinner either! Here is how it looks after I poured a few ounces of laquer thinner over the styrofoam.
Once the styrofoam is dissolved then the tape and clay can be pulled away from the fiberglass so that all that is left is trimming. Here it is after the trimming and removal of any fiberglass "needles"
Here is a pic of the two scoops together with the new one on the right. You can see that the scoop sits higher on the car which was the main thing that I wanted to change.
I ran the car at VIR with this new scoop but I really didn't have any time to pay attention to see if it was working better or worse than the original scoop. I finally found some time to look at the pressure readings from the Manifold Air Pressure (MAP) sensor for the two scoops and the old scoop actually had better readings. So I probably didn't go in the right direction when I made this new scoop but that is ok because it didn't take me very long and knowing that it doesn't work as well is still good information. I'm actually in the process of making a third scoop now which will have a bigger opening than either one of the scoops above and will be about the same height as the scoop on the right. I'm using the same process as above. We will see if that one works better!
I used the same white styrofoam that is used when protecting items in boxes but first I needed to figure out the shape and cardboard worked well for that.
As you can see, I'm still utilizing the bottom part of the scoop that holds the filter and I'm just replacing the top part. Once I had the basic shapes figured out, I simply traced them onto the styrofoam.
Styrofoam is really a pain to work with because little pieces of it go everywhere and static electricity seems to help stick them to everything but again, this is all about getting it done quickly. I used a REALLY sharp knife to cut big chunks away and I have a small styrofoam cutter which is basically just a wire that is heated by shorting out a battery. You can't get much precision with either one of them so I then used a coarse file and finally sand paper to get it relatively smooth. Here is a pic of the scoop before I removed some of the air-inlet material. Btw, I removed the inlet material with a dremel. As you can see, the opening ended up being round rather than oval. That just kind of happened as I was sculpting it. :)
Another drawback (yet also a benefit as you will see later) of styrofoam is that fiberglass resin will disolve it. So, in order to prevent that from happening it needs to be covered with packing tape. Here is a pic of it covered in packing tape.
I could then fiberglass over it but before I did I covered it with mold release wax. I also cut a bunch of small strips of fiberglass cloth and matt. I initially used a very light cloth that is able to follow the countours very easily. I applied a couple of layers of that and then I applied the matt and then another layer of cloth that was a little heavier than the light stuff I initially used. I also tinted the resin with a black pigment.
And here is the bottom of the scoop after the resin hardened and I removed it from the aluminum and after I removed the exposed packing tape.
I obviously haven't worried about any negative countours which wouldn't be acceptable if I was making a mold and this is because the styrofoam is easily disssolved with laquer thinner (just like fiberglass resin). And you don't need very much laquer thinner either! Here is how it looks after I poured a few ounces of laquer thinner over the styrofoam.
Once the styrofoam is dissolved then the tape and clay can be pulled away from the fiberglass so that all that is left is trimming. Here it is after the trimming and removal of any fiberglass "needles"
Here is a pic of the two scoops together with the new one on the right. You can see that the scoop sits higher on the car which was the main thing that I wanted to change.
I ran the car at VIR with this new scoop but I really didn't have any time to pay attention to see if it was working better or worse than the original scoop. I finally found some time to look at the pressure readings from the Manifold Air Pressure (MAP) sensor for the two scoops and the old scoop actually had better readings. So I probably didn't go in the right direction when I made this new scoop but that is ok because it didn't take me very long and knowing that it doesn't work as well is still good information. I'm actually in the process of making a third scoop now which will have a bigger opening than either one of the scoops above and will be about the same height as the scoop on the right. I'm using the same process as above. We will see if that one works better!
Thursday, April 25, 2013
Team Fisher House Racing
Ok, so that last blog wasn't very positive so this one is more positive! We are officially Team Fisher House Racing and I think the car looks great with the Fisher House logos. The announcer at VIR also really talked up Fisher House so it was great to see the car get some positive attention.
We also have a donation page now so I ask everyone who reads this blog to please make a small donation to Fisher House. If I can achieve my goal of raising $5,000 this year then I think that it will really show that racers are great people that can really make a difference where it matters. And remember, 96% of the funds donated to Fisher House go to their programs -- it doesn't get any better than that! Thanks for your support!!
http://www.teamfisherhouse.org/site/TR/Event/General?px=1004842&pg=personal&fr_id=1070
http://www.teamfisherhouse.org/site/TR/Event/General?px=1004842&pg=personal&fr_id=1070
VIR April 2013 -- Lessons Learned
Well, I really want to stay positive in this blog but VIR just wasn't a very positive experience. I actually wasn't going to post anything about it but then I realized that other racers thinking about racing these cars at a professional level (or even at a club racing level) can learn from my trials and tribulations -- and unfortunately my mistakes.
First, I was behind the eightball a little bit in getting the car ready for VIR and in order to make it I ended up working on the car every night after work and at least 10 hours each day of the weekend for about three weeks. Needless to say I was pretty much exhausted before I even got to VIR which was probably not a good thing.
Two weekends before VIR I felt some play in the left rear and it seemed like it was a bad bearing. A very knowledgable buddy of mine felt it and he thought so too so we decided it was best to build up a new upright (the upright is basically the "corner" of the car that the wheel and the suspension pieces mount to) with a new bearing. I had everything I needed but you don't just slap an upright together in an hour so it took a little bit of time to transfer some items from the upright on the car to the new upright going on the car. After the new upright was assembled and installed I should have felt for play again but it was now the weekend before VIR and I still had lots of things to do and I didn't think about feeling for play again. My wife, Terry, and I arrive at VIR Wednesday evening and it is time to get some test sessions in on Thursday.
The car feels terrible. It is pushing like a pig and we end up making some changes and although the car felt a little bit better it is still not up to snuff. After the 3rd out of 4 sessions, I was changing tires and when I felt the left rear I again felt play in it -- too much play for me to go out in the 4th session. So I end up taking things apart and I see grease coming from the new bearing. Not knowing enough about symptoms related to bad bearings on these cars it seems to me that this bearing is bad and again others verified that this was plausible. Unfortunately I didn't have an upright fully assembled to stick on the car but I did have a spare upright with a bearing in it. So with a lot of help I went about rebuilding that upright so that I could stick it on the car. It took a while but that evening I got it on the car and went to put the caliper on and it wouldn't fit with that upright. You see, not all uprights for these cars are the same and if the ears on the upright are a little too thick then the caliper wont be centered on the brake rotor. So now the frustration is really starting to set in and what was supposed to be a fun weekend is not so fun anymore. It is also getting late on Thursday and I know Terry isn't having fun either so I figured it was best to leave the track and go get some dinner and some sleep.
Friday morning we get back to the track early (6:30 am) and I remember my mistake of not feeling the wheel for play after changing the bearing at my house so I go ahead and feel the wheel for play. Guess what -- there is still play!! ARGGGHHH!! However, this time I see what it is. It is a bad rod end that is about 2 feet from the wheel itself. I have a spare so that is very easy to change but now I have gone down a path that has cost me lots of time and I'm not out of the woods yet because the rear caliper still isn't fitting. I do have an idea though. I check out the left front upright and it looks like it will work with the rear caliper so I come up with the idea of swapping the left front with left rear. That will still take some time and there are only two test sessions on Friday. One at 11 am and one at 5pm. I know I will miss the 11 am session but I should be able to make the 5 pm session so I get to work. I get the two uprights swapped and guess what -- the caliper still doesn't fit. Double ARGGGGHHH!!! At this point I'm ready to pack it up and go home -- and so is Terry. The only option that I know of at this point is to somehow get the ears of the upright milled so that the caliper will sit centered on the rotor -- not very feasible at the track. I walk away from the car for a little bit and come up with another idea -- get the caliper ears milled. This is much easier and there are race shops around VIR that just might be able to do it. I end up going to TMI who are located on the track property and they make the Ariel Atom track car. They have the caliper milled in less than an hour and I get everything together and make the 5 pm session. Unfortunately I had spent so much time on these problems that I didn't spend any worthwhile time with data or trying to figure out what to change on the car to make it handle better. I was hoping that getting rid of the play in the left rear would greatly help the handling but no such luck -- the car still pushed like a pig.
We put new tires on for the Saturday morning qualifying session and although the problem was a little better it still wasn't where it needed to be so I never did get a good time. I didn't qualify last but I was in the back for the afternoon race. More changes were made for the race but there was unfortunately a pretty big wreck which I narrowly avoided (but at least I avoided it!) which caused a long full course caution period along with a short red flag period. As a result we only got a few green flag laps. I could tell that the car was still pushing and getting worse. Plus my fuel pressure light started coming on pretty consistently and I knew I had plenty of fuel so that was something else I needed to address.
The qualifying session on Sunday wasn't until 1pm so I changed the fuel pump in the morning and we made a lot of setup changes for qualifying. The car was finally feeling better in qualifying but on my 4th lap my left front tire suddenly blew. I managed to keep it on course and I wasn't too far from pit lane so I got it in there using the three good tires. It turns out that a nut had come off somehow (they are supposed to be locking nuts) and the left front lower a-arm dropped onto the wheel and milled it down until it got to the tire bead which blew out the tire. I'm sure I could have fixed it before the 4 pm race but I was frankly really ready to go home at that point -- which is what Terry and I did.
So, even though the car didn't get balled up in a crash it was still a bruttally difficult weekend and certainly not much fun. To be honest, most of the problems were my own damn fault. But it isn't helpful to dwell on such things. It is helpful to learn from the experience and that is what I am doing. The main thing that I have learned is that these cars are much more labor intensive than the FVs that I raced for 14 years and therefore it is really a necessity to have a mechanic/engineer with you to help out when there are mechanical problems and to decide what setup changes to make -- at least in the F1600 Championship Series.
The big teams that we are competing against are absolutely top notch with really quick kids (17-20 years old) that are looking to be professional race car drivers. I'll give you an example of just how good these teams are. One of the kids hit a deer in the Sunday 1 pm qualifying session (yes, a deer -- it happens more than you might think and the gruesome pic is below) and it tore up the right rear corner of the car. The race was at 4 pm and the team had that corner rebuilt and the car entered in the race -- fixing something like that by myself would have taken me a good part of a day. The kid started dead last and finished 2nd. Wow, just WOW! Oh, and btw, the track record was broken by one of the youngsters over the weekend as well.
So I have definitely dived into in the deep end of the pool by entering the F1600 Championship Series but I don't have any regrets even with all my problems. I'm not looking to win a race but I am looking to improve and learning lessons from VIR will only help me to improve. I think if I can just have a weekend where all I need to do is focus on driving the car then that should help a lot. Therefore, I am hiring someone to help me for Road Atlanta which is May 9th to 11th. Unfortunately spending money on a mechanic/engineer was not part of the budget for this year and it may mean that I do only three out of the six F1600 races but I know it is the right thing to do. Road Atlanta is right around the corner -- please send good vibes my way!! :)
First, I was behind the eightball a little bit in getting the car ready for VIR and in order to make it I ended up working on the car every night after work and at least 10 hours each day of the weekend for about three weeks. Needless to say I was pretty much exhausted before I even got to VIR which was probably not a good thing.
Two weekends before VIR I felt some play in the left rear and it seemed like it was a bad bearing. A very knowledgable buddy of mine felt it and he thought so too so we decided it was best to build up a new upright (the upright is basically the "corner" of the car that the wheel and the suspension pieces mount to) with a new bearing. I had everything I needed but you don't just slap an upright together in an hour so it took a little bit of time to transfer some items from the upright on the car to the new upright going on the car. After the new upright was assembled and installed I should have felt for play again but it was now the weekend before VIR and I still had lots of things to do and I didn't think about feeling for play again. My wife, Terry, and I arrive at VIR Wednesday evening and it is time to get some test sessions in on Thursday.
The car feels terrible. It is pushing like a pig and we end up making some changes and although the car felt a little bit better it is still not up to snuff. After the 3rd out of 4 sessions, I was changing tires and when I felt the left rear I again felt play in it -- too much play for me to go out in the 4th session. So I end up taking things apart and I see grease coming from the new bearing. Not knowing enough about symptoms related to bad bearings on these cars it seems to me that this bearing is bad and again others verified that this was plausible. Unfortunately I didn't have an upright fully assembled to stick on the car but I did have a spare upright with a bearing in it. So with a lot of help I went about rebuilding that upright so that I could stick it on the car. It took a while but that evening I got it on the car and went to put the caliper on and it wouldn't fit with that upright. You see, not all uprights for these cars are the same and if the ears on the upright are a little too thick then the caliper wont be centered on the brake rotor. So now the frustration is really starting to set in and what was supposed to be a fun weekend is not so fun anymore. It is also getting late on Thursday and I know Terry isn't having fun either so I figured it was best to leave the track and go get some dinner and some sleep.
Friday morning we get back to the track early (6:30 am) and I remember my mistake of not feeling the wheel for play after changing the bearing at my house so I go ahead and feel the wheel for play. Guess what -- there is still play!! ARGGGHHH!! However, this time I see what it is. It is a bad rod end that is about 2 feet from the wheel itself. I have a spare so that is very easy to change but now I have gone down a path that has cost me lots of time and I'm not out of the woods yet because the rear caliper still isn't fitting. I do have an idea though. I check out the left front upright and it looks like it will work with the rear caliper so I come up with the idea of swapping the left front with left rear. That will still take some time and there are only two test sessions on Friday. One at 11 am and one at 5pm. I know I will miss the 11 am session but I should be able to make the 5 pm session so I get to work. I get the two uprights swapped and guess what -- the caliper still doesn't fit. Double ARGGGGHHH!!! At this point I'm ready to pack it up and go home -- and so is Terry. The only option that I know of at this point is to somehow get the ears of the upright milled so that the caliper will sit centered on the rotor -- not very feasible at the track. I walk away from the car for a little bit and come up with another idea -- get the caliper ears milled. This is much easier and there are race shops around VIR that just might be able to do it. I end up going to TMI who are located on the track property and they make the Ariel Atom track car. They have the caliper milled in less than an hour and I get everything together and make the 5 pm session. Unfortunately I had spent so much time on these problems that I didn't spend any worthwhile time with data or trying to figure out what to change on the car to make it handle better. I was hoping that getting rid of the play in the left rear would greatly help the handling but no such luck -- the car still pushed like a pig.
We put new tires on for the Saturday morning qualifying session and although the problem was a little better it still wasn't where it needed to be so I never did get a good time. I didn't qualify last but I was in the back for the afternoon race. More changes were made for the race but there was unfortunately a pretty big wreck which I narrowly avoided (but at least I avoided it!) which caused a long full course caution period along with a short red flag period. As a result we only got a few green flag laps. I could tell that the car was still pushing and getting worse. Plus my fuel pressure light started coming on pretty consistently and I knew I had plenty of fuel so that was something else I needed to address.
The qualifying session on Sunday wasn't until 1pm so I changed the fuel pump in the morning and we made a lot of setup changes for qualifying. The car was finally feeling better in qualifying but on my 4th lap my left front tire suddenly blew. I managed to keep it on course and I wasn't too far from pit lane so I got it in there using the three good tires. It turns out that a nut had come off somehow (they are supposed to be locking nuts) and the left front lower a-arm dropped onto the wheel and milled it down until it got to the tire bead which blew out the tire. I'm sure I could have fixed it before the 4 pm race but I was frankly really ready to go home at that point -- which is what Terry and I did.
So, even though the car didn't get balled up in a crash it was still a bruttally difficult weekend and certainly not much fun. To be honest, most of the problems were my own damn fault. But it isn't helpful to dwell on such things. It is helpful to learn from the experience and that is what I am doing. The main thing that I have learned is that these cars are much more labor intensive than the FVs that I raced for 14 years and therefore it is really a necessity to have a mechanic/engineer with you to help out when there are mechanical problems and to decide what setup changes to make -- at least in the F1600 Championship Series.
The big teams that we are competing against are absolutely top notch with really quick kids (17-20 years old) that are looking to be professional race car drivers. I'll give you an example of just how good these teams are. One of the kids hit a deer in the Sunday 1 pm qualifying session (yes, a deer -- it happens more than you might think and the gruesome pic is below) and it tore up the right rear corner of the car. The race was at 4 pm and the team had that corner rebuilt and the car entered in the race -- fixing something like that by myself would have taken me a good part of a day. The kid started dead last and finished 2nd. Wow, just WOW! Oh, and btw, the track record was broken by one of the youngsters over the weekend as well.
So I have definitely dived into in the deep end of the pool by entering the F1600 Championship Series but I don't have any regrets even with all my problems. I'm not looking to win a race but I am looking to improve and learning lessons from VIR will only help me to improve. I think if I can just have a weekend where all I need to do is focus on driving the car then that should help a lot. Therefore, I am hiring someone to help me for Road Atlanta which is May 9th to 11th. Unfortunately spending money on a mechanic/engineer was not part of the budget for this year and it may mean that I do only three out of the six F1600 races but I know it is the right thing to do. Road Atlanta is right around the corner -- please send good vibes my way!! :)
Friday, April 5, 2013
Fisher House Press Release
Here is the press release announcing the partnership between us and Fisher House. Hopefully we can raise a lot of money and awareness for them!!
http://www.f1600series.com/news/633-phillips-fisher-house-foundation-set-for-partial-season.html
http://www.f1600series.com/news/633-phillips-fisher-house-foundation-set-for-partial-season.html
Tuesday, April 2, 2013
The 2013 Season
I haven't posted in a while because I have been heads down getting the car ready for the 2013 season. I will again be competing in the F1600 Championship Series (www.f1600series.com) and the series kicks off at Virginia International Raceway (VIR) next weekend (April 11th - 14th). My wife, Terry, and I will be there and we are really looking forward to it! The series announced that there will be a Master's Class which means that old guys like me (over the age of 40) can compete for points separate from the overall points distributed throughout the field. Right now there are 28 entries for VIR and half of those are Masters entries. Here is a link to the entry list: http://www.f1600series.com/drivers.html Believe me, most of the Masters drivers are renowned competitors and it definitely won't be easy to get on the Masters podium. And frankly, my only focus is to do the best I can and continue to improve and learn about the engineering aspects of this car. I also really hope that I have worn out the bad luck that I had last year! It doesn't look like I will be able to make all six race weekends but I'm planning on attending four out of the six race weekends.
The one thing that I'm really excited about is that Terry and I will be raising money for the Fisher House Foundation (www.fisherhouse.org). Fisher House is a fantastic charity that helps our wounded/ill military personnel and their families. They have several programs but their main program is building houses near military hospitals so that families of hospitalized military personnel can stay in the houses free of charge for as long as they need to. Be sure to check them out and stay tuned for a press release announcing this partnership!
The one thing that I'm really excited about is that Terry and I will be raising money for the Fisher House Foundation (www.fisherhouse.org). Fisher House is a fantastic charity that helps our wounded/ill military personnel and their families. They have several programs but their main program is building houses near military hospitals so that families of hospitalized military personnel can stay in the houses free of charge for as long as they need to. Be sure to check them out and stay tuned for a press release announcing this partnership!
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