2011 SCCA Solo Nationals Street Modified WORLD CHAMPIONS

That's right. We're kind of a big deal.

Armed with an Armada and an arm full of hopes and dreams, we set off on our journey to the 2011 TireRack SCCA Solo National Championship and Pro Finale with high hopes of hopping to the top of the Street Modified class. The last time we visited Lincoln, our Pro Finale finish wasn't so fantastic, and our final day on Friday of the National Championship was filled with F-bombs of F-modified failure on top of a freaking monsoon. Dave's single cone on his last run prevented the G-Fab team from fulfilling its goal of finally sitting at the top of the class as champions, but that was all last year, and last year was behind us. This year, we came packing. In fact, we were packing so much, we had to acquire a new enclosed trailer (thanks Ray!).

The trip out was pretty horrible. To really fill you in on how horrible it was, I'd have to strap you to a chair for 30 straight hours and shake you every time you were about to fall asleep. I'll spare you the details, but we made it to Lincoln alive.

(more to come. this is about as far as I get on break.)

STupid Late: MSNE, Engines, NE Divs, RAL.

This entry is stupid late...and stupid long.

PJ finally installed the Nistune board after getting the base image changed:

After some tuning, it is far better. At least he didn't ruin the ECU in the process!

He also swapped the Greddy EVO TT exhaust from Panda to the red car. It looks as though it fits the general location, with only a few minor modifications to the brackets and hangers.

We decided that Dave should try for the Triad Award...I mean, he accidentally won the Northern States Championship by winning the Toledo Tour, so why not try for the Triad? However, that meant he would have to drive SM at Divs....Panda + Divs = waste of time and money. That means Baby would inherit some 5-year old Hoosiers from the Sentra's former GS life.

Of course, Dave would need to test how Baby handles, and I needed to familiarize myself with the Toyo R1R's. GFab trooped down to the Dirty Jerz (again) for an MSNE event at the Meadowlands, the week before Divs.

Then, disaster struck.

MSNE Sunday: Meadowlands is great. Rod knock is not.


Quick tire review: Toyos have interesting grip compared to the Kooks. It's not instant -- It's kind of like "OMG WHERE IS IT? I AM GOING TO SLIDE....Ah, ok now it's sticking." The shorter sidewall means faster acceleration, and the light tune means more power, so overall it wasn't bad. The course was long enough (and laps were hot enough) to make it so the tires would overheat and drop off by 3/4 way through the run, which sort of sucked, but at least it was good indication of how to take care of the tires.

Despite the tire problems, the car felt great, probably due to the new front ball joints and bushings. Also probably due to the fact that we greased the crap out of the swaybar; it was binding as all the grease had squeezed out. We were considering dremmelling out a channel in the bushings, but it hasn't gotten that far yet.

Photo courtesy Perry Aidelbaum

Because of the setup (Dave + me in the same heat, and 8 runs each), I took all my runs at once, instead of switching tires between us, which would not have been possible. I might not have been pushing as hard, but the car felt good, despite the 95 degree weather and 100% humidity.

We pulled a pit stop with F1-enviable tire changing times (<7 minutes), considering we had one impact gun and one jack. Dave went out for two runs and the ancient Hoosiers were not so bad after the first run. They were actually pretty sticky. In the first two runs, Dave went fast enough to take top time in class. By Dave's third run, I heard something not so good from the grid (500' away?), and our friends working the course heard it too -- which is worse. After he pulled back into the spot, he stalled, and then tried to turn the engine over....which sounded like pain.

PJ was already sprinting in from his corner, having heard the noise while Dave was running. It was unmistakable. And unfortunate. AAA stranded us for 2.5 hours, and after getting a little feisty, the flatbed finally came and towed us home.

We pulled the engine Monday night. We were a bit low on oil, but not THAT low, so we have a few theories as to why it happened. Perhaps the sweepers were just too big? Perhaps the heat thinned the oil too much? Who knows. All we know is that the bearing was TOAST:

The other half of it seems to be fused to the connecting rod. The block looks like it is ok, but the crank is all scored. Sigh, oh well.

Also, a weird little round cap was rattling around in the oil pan:

Engines! We had purchased a freshened up block and head a while ago in preparation for this season. The motor was already bored 0.020" over (first overbore and legal limit for Stock class), new rods, pistons, bearings, oil pump, timing chain, and of course, all new seals. We put the bottom end together on Tuesday, overnighted more parts from Japan than should be legally possible, and decided Wednesday would be "Assemble the rest of the Engine" night.

I think we forgot how long it takes to rebuild an engine...

Wednesday started off with the bottom end mostly assembled, but PJ ended up loosening and re-tightening everything to spec. Since he didn't have a degree wrench handy, I ended up guessing the angle for the rods and head bolts, with all bolts at least to the alternate torque spec.

Taking time torquing things down - Check out the veins in PJ's arm!

Getting the new timing chain and front cover on were easy enough, since it's all relatively bolt-on:

Things slowed down after that, with all the old RTV to remove off of the PCV, upper chain cover, and removing the gaskets from the intake and other accessories. Removing the rear main seal from the old engine was a pain with it still on the stand, but it eventually came out and a new seal was tapped in. The finished product isn't as shiny up top, but oh well.

Divs Recap: I hit lots of cones, which put me solidly in 3rd place in STL. Without them I would have been ahead of 3rd by 0.7. I also had the worst DNF of my racing career. It's on video somewhere. Awesome.


We had exactly 3 miles of break in on the engine before my codriver, Solo Mom Kathy Barnes, took her first run. And you know, it wasn't half bad! We are admittedly the slower of the 5 drivers in the car for Divs, so it seemed ok...but the gentlemen were quite unhappy.

The car on Toyos requires a completely different suspension setup. The guys used day 1 to figure it out, and it was better. Though, my codriver (in ST) said that he felt he needed to drive the piss out of the tires, which shouldn't be happening.

Photo by Dan Boudria

By Day 2, it was much better. FYI, Toyos like to be run at stupid low pressures.

Good thing Toyo pays out to third place (stupid cones....), and Kathy ended up in 4th. The guys in open class were 2 and 3, so overall, we won $400 and learned some valuable lessons. With 55 miles of break-in by the end of the weekend, the engine felt pretty good. It's only been getting better since then, too, which is encouraging.

ST*L had a pretty good showing, too. 1 in STSL, and 5 in STL:


Even Nationals only has 6 in STL....

Despite the driving failures, it was a pretty fun weekend. Probably the only one where it's acceptable (and fun) to attend, and not drive:

Fast forward to the NER annual charity event, Racing Against Leukemia. G-Fab was able to raise over $1700, and I think as a program, Solo raised nearly $7000. We raised more than the other divisions, and though I don't have a total for the entire weekend, I'd say NER might be on the UMass Memorial Foundation's list of favorite organizations.

We returned to stock sways, since the 30/27 mm ones were binding like crazy. The car feels a little more controllable with them on, but I don't know if it's due to size or lack of grease. Or the fact that we were testing it on a 28 second course on a postage stamp of a lot.

We datalogged the Toyos vs the Hankooks, and there isn't much difference. Codriver #1 says he doesn't feel a difference, but the Toyos were run in the rain/drying, Hankooks were run in the dry and overheating. It's hard to say which is actually faster overall, but given the time constraints, financial constraints, and the supply/demand issue, the ST team will be purchasing a set of full-tread RS-3's for Nationals.

Personally, I prefer the Kooks (as does codriver #2). The response is instant, and when at temp, the grip is incomparable. I think the car accelerates and brakes slightly better with the Toyos, which might be due to the lower amount of grip and the shorter sidewall, but in the rain they're absolutely better. We'll be bringing the Toyos out for rain, but I don't think they can compete with Hankooks if it's going to be hot out.

We ran into some fuel pressure issues again, but PJ threw a new pump in, and it's far better. The car definitely pulls a lot harder, as illustrated by our THIRD double header in a row...Wiley was able to take first place in ST over two EF Civics. In the rain. On Hankooks. Yay for us!

Right now, we're just taking a bit of a breather, only doing "comfort and convenience" modifications yesterday. Baby now has working rear speakers! They play the Glee Pandora Station quite well. I feel like this season has really been quite the learning experience, both in driving, assembly, and just how expensive shipping costs are.

Catching up on Events: Part II

Oscoda is a long drive.... 15 hours each way. Despite that, we arrived super early to the site and locked down prime paddock spots (important at National level events). Unfortunately, we encountered a similar problem to Dover, as SM did not have enough cars to make a full class. To make matters worse, we couldn't change classes since we needed to get season points for SM. On top of that, we would be "bumped" into the same class as the ASP land rocket that dominated the overall PAX index in Dover, and also have deal with the PAX disadvantage that SM has to ASP. Things were not looking well for the class win perspective.... until we were about to leave the site on Friday.

At around 6pm (or maybe earlier? the sun seemed as though it never set) a familiar face drove by. It was Jarrod Hoops towing his SM Evo onto the site. From him, we found out that Andy Lieber would be showing up, but not racing. Having Jarrod meant 4 cars in SM, but we would still need a 5th. After trying to convince him to convince Andy to race on Saturday, we found a DSP car willing to swap to SM under the condition that we would do his work assignment at the Finale..... luckily, it never came to that as a 5th SM car showed up on Saturday morning as a late entry! SM would make a class.

Making a class was only the beginning of the weekend, though. We would still have to get out there and drive.... Back again was Corey Ridgick, with him and Cy Lee having fixed their BSP/SM Evo after a tranny failure in NJ. On top of that, Jarrod's car was as monsterous as ever. It's also a past National Champion car, as well.


Corey Ridgick in the BSP/SM Evo


Jarrod Hoops' SM Evo

Round 1 would have everyone hitting cones, which put me in position to take over an early lead with some cautious driving. Dave would pull his usual antics, having a super fast runs negated by cones.

Round 2 wouldn't be quite as easy, with everyone showing that times could drop much further. I kept it clean, shaving a few tenths on each side while Dave would catch a single clean run to put him in 2nd. Hoops and Ridgick both hit cones on their fastest, with times fast enough to show that they were still just as big a threat to take the lead as ever.

Round 3 came the next day, where I managed to keep just in front of Hoops on first driver runs. The co-drivers came up and Dave would slot himself momentarily into 2nd, before Ridgick put down a pair of runs that nearly took over the lead. A single cone would negate it, though, and he would fall into 2nd place between Dave and I.


Panda at the line

After normal competition came the Super Challenge:
My luck would have it that I'd be paired up again with my fellow NER member and good friend, Scott Thursby, in the first round. Having coned away the win to him in NJ, I went with a fairly safe line on the first run. Ironically, Scott hit a cone that basically handed me the win


Thursby's Marshmallow

Moving into the 2nd round, I was up against another good friend and former SM ProSolo Champion, Chris Travis. Chris would also hit a cone, despite me taking the win in raw time anyways.


Chris Travis' (girlfriends') BS S2000

The rounds would just get harder, as I'd have to take on multi-time National Champion (and also NER member) Paul Kozlak. Somehow, I put down a couple good runs to get past him, and move on to the final four.


The Kozlaks' BS Pontiac Solstice

Unfortunately, my run would stop there, against Sam Strano. A bit of intimidation from Sam being a regular Challenge winner, and also from not cooling tires off enough, would result in a poor first run on my part. Getting the car a little loose into the first slalom would cost me my line on the return trip, resulting in a 0.7 sec deficit into the 2nd run. Somehow, I got my composure back, and clawed back 0.6sec of it, resulting in a 0.1sec win for Strano.


Strano's ESP Mustang

The consolation round started off well enough, but although I had a slim lead coming off the first run, I red-lit the 2nd, pretty much forfeiting the round to Matt Braun.

Matt Braun's SS Lotus Elise
All in all, it was a pretty exciting weekend, and in the end I have enough points to be the Atlantic Zone Champion going into the Pro Finale next month

All photos courtesy of Brian Keuhl

Catching up on events: Part I

The 2011 Delaware National Tour ended up providing a few interesting challenges. The first was attendance, as Street Modified was pretty slim at only 3 cars. Because of this, Hoosier contingency only pays out for 1st place, so in order to have a shot at a 2nd contingency win, we needed to swap one driver to another class. Having come off a good drive at a local event, Dave opted to run in SSM. Unfortunately, so did ASP overdog Mike "Junior" Johnson in a "600hp Land Rocket". The second challenge was the course itself. The course was divided by an island separating 2 parking lots. One lot had excellent traction, while the other was a larger aggregate that was also breaking up (much less traction + bumps). Handling each in a single run required a lot of concentration, and presence of mind to change driving style halfway through a run.


600hp ASP Vette of doom


If you look closely, you can see the debris picking up from crappier surface

I started off in SM, with Dave in SSM running the heat after. On my first run, I made the transfer from crap surface to good surface, and was putting down a good safe run when I bit off a bit more than I could chew through the finish and tagged a cone. Despite the cone, I had the lead in SM going into 2nd runs, where I put down the clean run (probably being a bit safe). With a 1 second lead, I went full bore into run 3 and tagged a cone halfway through. Knowing I hit a cone, I tried forcing my way through a tight offset slalom and DNF'ed when I couldn't get the front to bite. Knowing how fast I couldn't go through a section would provide some feedback for Dave in the next heat....

Dave ran SSM flawlessly, despite being at a disadvantage in power. He was still able to outrun Jake Namer's RX-7, and Jason Becker's powerful M-coupe. Ultimately, he would end up in 2nd place.

The Monster Mile

Dover is over, but the lessons learned are sticking with us.

• Don't mix Korean BBQ, sushi, beer, and racers. You get challenges like our last one. 
• Nine cones in one run, while a lot, is not a record.
• If you even mention something close to the word "illegal" be prepared to deal with the consequences.
• Talking to myself actually helps, and it also makes for funny in-car video for later.
  
  Most importantly, however....
  
• CHECK THE TORQUE ON YOUR WHEELS!
• HAVE A SPARE TIRE!

We started the weekend off with a bang or two. After bleeding the brakes on Baby Panda, the wheels were not torqued down. While driving home from the garage on Thursday (and almost reaching the highway), I heard a severe rubbing noise, and before I knew it, the left rear tire was rolling ahead in front of me. The damage to the car was not terrible. I'm just lucky I have such a stiff setup, and the car was low. I called PJ, he came with the truck, and we swapped on a shaved tire. We searched for about 90 minutes and couldn't find the wheel...Black wheel + black tire + 930pm = no dice.

The next morning, Dave, Todd, Roger, Bryan Mancuso, PJ, and I set off for Dover, at the ripe time of 5:00am. By Exit 27 on 95 (20 exits and it's now 5:30, mind you), we had another issue: The trailer tire had blown out. We sat in the area between the on-ramp and the highway for hours.

At some point, Dave and Roger ventured off into the lovely towns of Bridgeport, Stratford, and Fairfield to find a place--any place--that might be open and selling trailer tires. Of course...no where was open at 6:00 am. Bryan, PJ, and I hung around, playing poker in the truck and betting theoretical tires while traffic was picking up. Yay rush hour! A phone call and an hour later, the Davises showed up with their spare trailer tire, which (of course) didn't fit. So much for "standard" size trailer wheels!

A CT State Good Samaritan and two exits later, we were sitting in a strip mall parking lot. It was 8:00, and PJ and Bryan went to meet Dave and Roger at DeSantie Tire Co in Fairfield; the only place that would have a tire. I sat by myself, and 30 minutes later, we had a new tire, as well as a spare. We were back on the road around 9:00...20 exits in four hours...with no traffic...WINNING!

We arrived in Dover around 3, when practice runs were ending. Ah, well. It was obvious one half of the course would be grippy and awesome, and the second would be far less so. We went to a Mexican place for dinner, Nate drank a margarita, and we called it a night.

Day 1 saw NER with a strong showing of firsts, seconds, and thirds. The course was super fast, and with a bit of better suspension adjustment and braking, I'm pretty sure that Baby Panda would have done a little better. Not to mention less crap on the low grip side of the course. Marbles galore. A slight tire dip into the marbles, and you were f'ed for the run.

Photo by Perry Aidelbaum

I ended up in the marbles on last run...hitting a cone at the very beginning of the course. So I did what any other racer would do. BALLS TO THE WALL! I believe the grand total was 9 cones, though results only show 7 since two of my cones were put on Joe Austin, and then never put back on me (sorry Joe!). I hit a cone so hard, it wedged itself behind the tire, around the shock, and into the springs. A jack, a Roger Whipple, and some elbow grease and it came out, though I nearly needed a 10 minute mechanical.

Day 2 was....less good for Baby Panda. Cones galore, less focus, and a hero run by the competition. We can leave it at that. Todd and I finished 7th and 11th, respectively. Hey, at least we would have won at craps! (Though...I guess in a way, we did, because we drove like crap?)

Panda was leading in SM after Day 1, by over 2 seconds, and finished with over a full second lead over second place. I think it was PJ's Post-Day-1 massage that really helped him to relax and focus on Day 2:

After reviewing video and data, I realized I wasn't trying to go faster for some reason. I don't know what's up with that. Maybe I should change my goal from "not-DFL" to "mid-pack or higher" because I think the "not-DFL" mentality is no good for competitive edge.

Interestingly enough, I didn't do much better at the Devens event on the 12th, but I blame that on the rain. And the additional pressure of the GFab Street Competition. And the fact that we changed things on the car so I had to adapt. And the fact that the event was trying a bunch of new things like number of heats and new people in work assignments. And the fact that I didn't get a break. And I think I'm out of excuses.

Ah well. At least I got my Nationals "Tour requirement" out of the way. Perhaps I should use the time between now and then to learn how to drive properly.