One lap in review-
We had a rough time immediately before the event. We put a stock engine in the weekend before, and lost time for other improvements including testing. The day before we developed an electrical interference that interfered with the MAP sensor and the TPS sensor. The AEM engine management allowed us to tune out the problems with the MAP sensor, but the TPS would jump around without moving the throttle. We did however improve the relationship between sensitivity and it’s ability to trigger other functions, so it was drivable. Not optimal but drivable… we were out of time.
The day of the event start, the problem resurfaced and was off the chart, I had to pull off the road twice in the two miles from the hotel. We knew it was electrical because we could log all the sensors in the engine management. When zooming in on a one second interval we would see 12 or 13 pulses… or 12hrtz. Unfortunately no time and lack of tools meant it would probably be a long week.
Wet Skid Pad The car sputtered as I entered the circle and almost rolled to a stop. Kind of embarrassing. I pressed on with the sputtering car and tried to maintain a constant speed. The water from the sprinklers would hit me in the face every 10 feet or so, as I didn’t have windows in the cup car. The skid times were off pace, but better then the could have been.
IRP The trip was slow as we needed to pull off the road a number of times from the intermittent electrical problem. See when the TPS thinks its being opened, it tells the timing and fuel to compensate… so even if you cruising at say 3000 RPM the ECU would start flowing fuel for ¾ throttle. Our gas mileage was unbelievably bad… les then half of normal. With the delays of sputtering and gas stops we made it to IRP with just enough time to unpack. I then started franticly disconnecting electrical items we didn’t need. No Luck, Vaughn had to drive the laps at about 40 MPH, and since the leader passed him we got the checkered flag and had to pull in the pits before crossing the finish for the third time. That gave us a DNF and zero points. We later argued the situation and were given around 65 points out of a possible 400. After the second of two failed competitions I dove back into the problem and started disconnecting more electronics, checking connections, and re-routing any wires that were long enough. Something worked! I took it for a test run and the car rocked… if we could only go back in time- Vaughn had a second run at IRP with less Intel then the other competitors, as he was only able to sputter around the track in the previous session. He met the challenge and surpassed the class… even the drivers who knew the course.
Beaverun I was confident as I tested this track before the event, it was raining during my test day but I drove around most of the other testers with my airport rental car. One Lap used the first run at IRP to line up the field of cars based on lap times. This order would dictate the rest of the tracks. We were in the back because our position was based Vaughn’s 40 mph run. Because of safety, they would allow cars like us to move up… I lined up behind the Radical. I was on fire, they gap us generously and I was reeling in the radical on the first lap. With two to go, a corvette lost an engine on the track two cars in front of me. I almost lost my rear in oil or antifreeze. Fortunately I had this tracks number. Even after loosing at least 3+ seconds in the last two laps, I caught the radical at the finish line. The time was good for a top 8 and within 2 tenths of Mikes NSX. Two seconds were still on the table if the track was clean, and I couldn’t wait to run the second event. This time I lined up second again behind a 500 hp 4wd EVO. Just before we started, the rain came. I knew the track in the rain, so put down a respectable time, and caught the EVO. Problem was that the groups before and after had dry tracks. Both the Radical and EVO drivers came to talk to us about our speed… the radical couldn’t believe we caught them in the dry and the 4wd EVO couldn’t believe we caught them it the wet.
Lancaster Speedway Vaughn has oval experience so he was the best choice as driver for the team. We walked the track and talked to the owner about line and grip. I forgot to mention earlier that our brakes were never tested and un-proven. The fronts are super sensitive compared to what were use to, the rears don’t seem to contribute at all, and the ABS is disconnected after failed attempts to wire it in. We ultimately adapted to them, but they were a handicap even over OE. Anyway Vaughn rocked, he easily had the fastest straight away speed of all the entrants, but would give some of it back as he locked up the brakes on every lap. It still shows what his experience was worth as he claimed a 6th overall and best in class.
New Hampshire International On the way we were told that oil was coming off the back of our car, and we traced the leak to the oil adapter housing that bolts to the block. Actually it was the block it self… it’s a junkyard stocker that I quickly rebuilt. One of the three threaded bosses for bolting on the adaptor was cracked. Anyway we were amped as we were moving up the standings fast. We didn’t plan the in between driving too well, and I was super tired… I couldn’t concentrate on learning from the track video that was on Vaughn’s lap top. The series is designed to fatigue you, especially if your having problems that cause delays. Almost every night we would arrive at the next track about 3:00 am and have to set the alarm for 5:00 am to work on the car before the event. Vaughn felt good about his knowledge of the track so we opted to have him drive, while I focus on fixing our oil leak. His first session was not so good, but part of his problem was water coming off the overflow from overheating that almost caused him to spin. The other problem was he was not yet use to putting the higher power down on an up hill exit off a slow corner. I worked on the oil leak and slowed it to a drip rather then a stream. Even know Mike knew almost all the tracks, finishing behind him didn’t sit so well with Vaughn. The decision to have Vaughn run this track was a good one, because on the second run they decided to change the configuration to use the high speed banking… again Vaughn is good at these as he instructs at Texas Motor Speedway. He rocked the second event surpassing the locals and earning another top finish. We still overheated but could get out the three laps needed.
Summit Point Vaughn flew in to test here, as I did with Beaverun. He went out and did well… in fact it would have been a best in class and a top three overall, but he was black flagged for leaking oil. He pulled in and Brock (the promoter) discovered that it was only water from the overflow. He apologized and said (On tape) that they shouldn’t have pulled him off and that he would take care of our points… he never did… and another DNF. During lunch I worked on the overheating and found that one or the two RD radiator fans was wired in the wrong direction. Easy solution, but the overheating caused a leaking head gasket that would give us grief for the rest of the trip. To assure that I contain any water overflow I attached (2) one gallon water jugs in the trunk and ran the overflow to them. (Mark Hicks idea) Vaughn ran his second run and it was good. The story of our entire event “One great and one horrible”
Mason Dixon Drag way About now we know were out of the race, but we still wanted to do our best. The two NSX’s lined up and ran. This is where the Mikes NSX lost its crank pulley that drives the blower. I decided not to power shift, and to launch easy on the clutch. The car ran 12.40’s without cryo or nitrous not bad, but I wanted 11’s. Surprisingly this was 8th overall! We then lined up for a single elimination bracket race. The worse points you could get was 6th place, as that is how the math comes out. Well I got 6th place. I posted a 12.30 so I wouldn’t brake out. (The first run seemed solid) My reaction time sucked with the on/off road racing clutch we were using, so I tried to regain the gap by power shifting… it seemed to make a big difference as the car broke out with an 11.90. I wish I did that on the ET run because it would have moved us to 6th over all. At least we got another first in class.
VIR Or better known as home. This track would have three events- the north course, the south course, and the pro long course that both of us knew. Both of us wanted to run the long course, as our history has proven fast times. Since neither of us knew the two other courses, Vaughn and I flipped a coin for who ran what one. I was on the fence with what one I would rather run. The upper course if divided into turns is split down the middle with turns I knew and turns I have never seen, but my best speed secrets are on the upper part of the course. The bottom course has 75% of turns used on the known long course. The flip of the coin would decide. I got the upper course. Oh… the better over-all finisher would get to run the long course. I ran first and felt solid… someone told me that I ran 4 seconds slower then Mikes NSX… I thought damn I didn’t know that much could be left on the table, but chalked it up as him knowing the short courses. It turned out that his stop watch was wrong as I actually ran 2 seconds faster then the other NSX , 6th overall and another first in class. From then on I stopped listening to hand made times… that 6 second variation almost put me in shock. Vaughn ran the lower course with Mike and a new Mustang in front of him, he was catching both of them but the stop watch was telling me different (Same stop watch). After thinking for about a milli second I knew that was impossible and returned the stop watch to the owner. I like to think my flip of the coin lost my run on the long course because Vaughn got a 5th over-all and another first in class. After his run I needed to revise the overflow mounting to stop them from leaking. One of the Porsche drivers complained about the water, they made us run last after all the other competitors… I’m just glad they let us run. After every run, I need to cool the engine, add water, drain the overflows, and bleed the air to make the next three laps without overheating badly. I’m not sure why Vaughn was under the impression that my opinion of head gasket failure was exclusive to himself, but we defiantly have a blown head gasket… Hell I probably added water and bled the system 50 times the remainder of the event. If the engine is eating water it’s very little, it seems that the combustion and boost are transferring to the coolant circuit and a developing a higher overflow PSI then the 16 lb radiator cap, or (More likely) is injecting air into the coolant system allowing an air pocket to stop water flow and overheating… that then overflows. Either way every gas stop, all 20 races, and 4000 miles I lost another half hour to refreshing the coolant system. Unfortunately Vaughn’s long run on the last lap, the car blew the rubber bleed nipple in the front of the car. He had to cut the car off at Oak Tree and coast the rest of the way to salvage any remaining points. Well at least this time it was 2 out of 3 wins. The other NSX broke a trans. I called one of my good friends Gary to bring him a 5-speed. He generously lent them the replacement that allowed them to continue.
Next stop was Carolina Rod Shop This was a mandatory stop that allowed us to get any needed work done. After running last at VIR then tending to our problems, and the needed cooling delays on the way, we barely made it to the shop on time. We arrived at 9:30 and were supposed to be there between 5:00 and 9:00. I did my normal radiator routine and decided to fix two other items on the car. They had a lathe so I made a spacer and used large fender washers to add to the clamping force holding my leaking oil adaptor. I used a near by bolt and bridged some pressure to the adaptor. The other item was why I found it necessary to drive most of the time in between events. We already attracted a lot of potential attention from law enforcement, but after our second event I lost brake lights. If there was any chance of talking my way out of a ticket, I’m guessing that when he almost runs into my while pulling over… this would likely guarantee a ticket. After crawling under the dash to check the brake switch output (Much harder with a cage)… it turned out to be a fuse. But what caused it… this is a race, so I’m thinking buy a box of bigger fuses. One of the guys at the shop rigged up an auto resetting circuit breaker. It worked great, even if it did blow it would reset after it cooled. We didn’t get out of there until 12:30 and headed to Roebling.
Roebling We had to stop on the way about 50 to 100 miles out because neither of us could keep our eyes open. I was excited as Roebling is more home turf. My wife informed me that she wasn’t coming to spectate because there was like 100% chance of rain. Vaughn was bummed, but I can practically run Roebling equally as fast in the rain. My first run I could not believe how bad the car was in the rain the back end would twitch out every 30 feet. It would even twitch about 4 times on the main straight at about 140mph. When I told my friends that the car was dangerous they knew it was bad as they have never heard those words from my mouth. (It was a running joke) In a short straight between 4 and 5 a puddle put me into a spin, I continued the momentum and still gained on the others in my run group. But far from competing with the over-all. The second run my plan was to make sure not to spin and maybe my times were faster then I felt. While in line to enter the track Vaughn noticed that the fuel gauge was at 1/8 tank. We both felt that we had plenty of gas (only 3 laps). We have tested in Cup, and can run on the track all the way down to the red line before starving (The NSX has the best OE pick-up system on the market). Anyway hindsight is always 20/20. Our gas gauge seemed to stay on full longer then normal, and seems be shifted up about 1/8th tank. The 1/8th is now our red line. The gauge works on resistance, but I’m not sure what could cause the change. We did swap the pump recently, but the level is in a different part of the tank? Back to the 2nd run; immediately on the recon lap the car was starving of fuel, but entering the course initiates your run… so I had to make the best of it. This run was even worse… still slippery, and now I'm starving and surging shocking the rear into additional loss of traction. I’m sure you have seen the video, I’m full throttle down the front stretch. It was already un-nerving to keep my foot planted to the floor with the back end loosing traction multiple times before the braking zone. As I hit a pool or water the cut out and came back on hard, the car was no longer in my control. All I could think about was staying between the hard wall and the hard flag stand like a football and a field goal. My hands never moved so fast, I had no chance of braking or even slowing that much, but if I made it past the opening about 300 feet away I was damage free. After the opening, my trajectory pushed me to the edge of the track, so my objective of not spinning and loosing all control, changed to keep it on the track… I counteracted much harder and forced a spin towards the middle of the track. When sliding backwards I turned hard to face down track and dropped the clutch. The car only sputtered so I pulled off the line in the grass. After a couple minutes I tried to re fire and limp around the track for last place points. The car got about 200 feet before completely running out of gas. Another DNF. The tow truck towed me to the gas pumps, we put a few gallons of race fuel in and it ran perfect. Vaughn thinks our problem was less related to gas because about 3 miles after leaving the track the car started sputtering, and 10 miles later it stopped running. One of the 3 wires on the 3-bar map sensor had broken. When broken it wont run, but regardless if it sputtered because of a poor connection or low fuel… we my never know because the car is running good now and we wont be trying to save weight with fuel.
Nelson Ledges Were like 30th overall and 5th in class, and neither of us has run here, so we decided to each run one of the two events to learn the track for the future. Vaughn went first so I could have a bench mark to destroy :biggrin: . Mikes NSX ran faster so I really had some fun with Vaughn. While sitting on a railing in back of the car I noticed colors contrasting the black rubber on our tires. I walked to the car… Holly sh?t the rear tires are so corded they are in multiple layers. No wonder the car was so bad in the rain and Vaughn’s times are off here. After the trans failure at VIR Mike was in a close battle with a new M3 and he needed us to put some points in between them. Vaughn ran slower then the M3 on the first run so we needed to step it up. I rotated the tires to favor the track direction, and Mike asked the officials about the ruling on borrowing a tire. They let us borrow one tire that obviously went on the strong side. Because this is a high speed track and the rears had bad traction, we decided to dial in full rear down force. I took another one for the other team and decided to let Vaughn drive the second leg. He now knew the track and there was no guarantee that I could run faster on my first session. Vaughn did accomplish our goal of beating the M-car.
Tire Rack Skid Pad #2 The down force on the trips between tracks is the reason for our excessive tire wear. The last leg with full vs. our normal minimum rear down force, not only wore the inside because of negative camber, it wore almost all the rubber off the tire. The fronts are perfect and even. We got a flat 3 miles from the next exit and about 75 miles from Tire Rack. We had no replacement in the car. We had to limp the car at idle to the exit, so the tire wouldn’t heat up, disintegrate, and ruin the rim. The gauge reads about 2 miles an hour but it only took about an hour to go the 3 miles. The exit was an oasis with no tire services. We had two options either call AAA and likely get disqualified, or get someone to bring us a tire. I called Brock (The promoter) then called a friend who went to my truck at tire rack to get an OLA stamped tire to bring to me. He drove like 150 miles to do this. The next morning I mounted fresh rear rubber at tire rack. You are allowed 6 tires, so we already had the replacement rears in my truck from before the event. We looked at the standings and Vaughn’s comeback at Nelson took us to 4th in class. If I could beat the 3rd place car by 6 spots we could actually take 3rd in class… This says a lot about our trip, we had many DNF’s but when we ran, we ran strong. I ended up getting first in class on the skid pad with a .997 on street tires. The little M-car was only 5 spots behind me so we got 4th in class by 5 points (The least amount possible). The race was difficult and like any event preparation is key. Next week we will discuss future plans and will start as soon as we know.
