CMP - Post race (Page 5 of 5)

2 liter soda bottles, filled with water and frozen on dry ice all weekend.  We fit 5 in our cooler and change them every 4 hours.  Only problem we have is a design failure where we lose enough water over time to uncover the pump.  Will be fixing that with some proper gaskets on the cooler lid. 
Putting bottles in the cooler that start at -100F makes for a really nice run...

I'm finally getting around to the GoPro footage from our car.... Here is a link to the Sunday restart after quiet hour.

https://youtu.be/N6Bj_O0Sz-k?t=1s

Much like a modern sunroof, it's much easier to give it place to leak rather than attempting to make it water tight.  My cooler has a over flow tube that is design to keep the water at a maximum level.  Once that level is reached, it flows out the tube right onto the exhaust, where it turns to steam so we don't get a BF for leaking fuel, since corner workers can't tell water from fuel.

So YOU blew the headgasket.  I knew it!   (j/k...I couldn't see the tach needle over the dash bar at one point.)   The car is supposed to have a rev limiter, but I never found it.  I had a lot of good Honda-Honda racing in my stints as well. With many of the others having B swaps, I was pretty impressed that our little D16 with a blown headgasket could still hang.  At least until it was time to pit for water.

Thanks to everyone, especially the Idle Clatter and Squirtin Coronas, for all the support over our first Lemons weekend in the 190E. Apologies for everyone that passed us both days, we had no idea how slow our car would be. But we all considered it a success- we passed tech without a hitch, and our basically-rebuilt motor never budged above 85C, the transmission didn't give up (although we had to work the auto ourselves to use 2nd and 3rd gear), and our brakes (thanks to Carbotech) were phenomenal. Yes, our giubo tried to kill my leg, but after disassembly on saturday night we all learned firsthand the construction method used by the Germans and were luckily able to put the 190 back on the track after lunch on Sunday.
We all agreed some suspension improvements are a must for next race, so hopefully we can kill the body roll and keep up a little better next race!

Here is the post race report I send to family and friends:

I'm gonna mix things up a little. Long winded but...

People ask or wonder why we drive 20 hours round trip to get maybe 3 1/2 hours of seat time in the car, spend the rest of the weekend sweating or freezing, cooking, wrenching on the car, running for fuel, or food, or ice, changing in and out of fire suits and helmets for pit stops and then get home at 3:30 Monday morning?

After the track went cold Saturday, the series organizer came over the PA and summoned everyone to HQ. Usually this is not a good sign, we are about to get yelled at for lousy driving, abusing the rules or any other number of things.

This time we were informed that a crewman for one of the teams had collapsed from a heart attack and was taken to the hospital where he died. The point was made that one reason we are able to spend a weekend doing something we enjoy is that there are others like us who are willing to do it as well, and to make sure you enjoy and acknowledge them, because they might not be there next time.

The Lemons group is competitive, we all want to win but most of us have realized that helping each other out is as good as winning. Simple things "like you need a bolt, look through my bin take what you need", someone who has already loaded and locked his trailer unlocking it so you can borrow a board to help get your car in your trailer, telling someone who can't catch their ride in the parade to hop on, asking your pit neighbor if they want to run an electric cord to their camper from yours when their generator quits. Yes, all these things happened last weekend and we were involved one way or another. I could go on and on, but it is a great bunch of people to be around!

So that's why we we drive long hours, cook dinner for 15-20 people and are exhausted for a week after a race. Wouldn't have it any other way!

So for the race: short story, finished 32nd (out of 96), had a few mechanical issues on Sunday, and some radio and cool shirt issues Saturday. One black flag and may have finally figured out how to keep the video camera running all day!

Long version:Spent the day Friday finishing some things up on the car, brake pads, brake ducts, general clean up. Friday evening was the parade and block party.  Put tags on the car so we could drive it to the parade (20 miles from the track). I got picked, it's a little squirrelly on the road, but was fine. Driving back to the track, I needed to use the facilities, but refused to pull over knowing 30 or so teams would pass, honk and laugh!

Phil went first Saturday, then Jake, Mat and I finished up, about 2 hours each. When Phil got in he could hear us over the radio, but we could not hear him. We had already set times for pit stops, so no worries. Swapped Jake in, then Mat right on schedule. They all complained the car was down on power, but ran well. I finished up with the old radio system in my helmet and had communications. Our new video power set up worked, but was not fully charged, got video up to about 5:45, racing quit at 6:30 so not bad.

Sat night replaced the brake pads, swapped the old radio gear back in, went to the BBQ put on by one of the teams, visited with some people and called it a night.

Sunday we race from 9-11, then have an hour break. Since Jake was rockstarring out (leaving early to fly home. Damn job!)) that afternoon, he did the 2 hour shift. He said the front end was clunking a little, but otherwise OK. I mentioned swapping half shafts, but we decided not to (foreshadowing alert!). Things are about to get interesting!

Mat ran next. First issue, the cool suit cooler I had rewired was not working. Swap coolers. Second issue, starter button not working, no big deal, push and bump start car. Mat goes out, track goes green. After a half hour or so Mat calls in "Brake pedal just went to the floor, car's all over the place, coming in". One of the pads on the right front was stuck and hot. Thermonuclear hot according to Phil. We got it taken apart, loose and hopefully working, and put it back together. As I'm putting the wheel on I notice the hub is wobbling. "Umm, something's missing". See photo titled "something's missing".

On a front wheel drive car there are half shafts that connect the transmission to the wheels, the driveshaft. The half shaft passes through the hub, and has a big bolt on the end. The bolt was missing, the thread the bolt threads on to was missing, it had sheared off. Time to swap a half shaft. Got it done in about 15 minutes, sent Mat back out.

I drove the third shift, refueled and swapped drivers on the hot pit, pushing the car to start it again. About 20 minutes into my run, the pedal goes to the floor again, and the car is all over. Into the pits. The half shaft nut had loosened up, and brake fluid was leaking. 10 minutes or so I'm back on track, a little worried about the brakes so I take it easy. With about 45 minutes to go I spot the Brick Mustang at the far end of the straight, our friend Rob. The chase is on. They accelerate better than us, but we have better brakes, so he would pull away on the straights and I'd gain at the corners. I got close several times, there may have been a little blocking going on, and could not make the pass. I knew where I was better, set it up going into turn 5, got next to him and we drag raced down the back straight. There is a turn called the kink in the back stretch, a flat slight right. I knew (hoped) he would brake for the kink more than me, he did, I made the pass. As I did I was thinking "Okay, either this is the winning pass or I'm going home in an ambulance!" They threw the checkers the next lap, and I held him off! 45 minutes of FUN. Rob pulled next to me on the cool down, all smiles and thumbs up, he had as much fun as I did.

Video worked all day, have some great shots, just need to get them edited. Loaded up, started the long haul home, arriving at 3:30 AM.

Next race: New Hampshire Motor Speedway October 22nd & 23rd. Link to photos:  http://s1196.photobucket.com/user/fritz … CMP%202016

First we want to apologize to everyone for oiling things down on Sunday. 

We been having a lot of bad luck the last several races with the Ranchero.  Drop a valve at the last race and destroyed the motor so we built another, ran great all day Saturday until it started to over heat at about 4:00pm, because of bad head gasket.  Missed the last two & half (2.5) hours of racing.  Pulled the engine down to the short block before the BBQ and ran for parts.  Then took a break for the BBQ.

Thanks so much for the BBQ, and the Duff custom brew.  You guys really rock! 

Party over time to get back to repair the motor.  New head gaskets, heads back on and valve train re-installed, distributor in, engine reassembled and ready to fire, only it's 2:00 am.  Being good neighbors we'll wait till the morning.  Everything ran OK Sunday morning until the incident in the Kink. 

The Kink was an oil line to the oil cooler blew out which pumped all the oil out of the engine and all over the car and under the tires.   A #8 AN line blew apart and dumped 9 quarts of oil.  Luckily our driver, in the middle of the spin, thought to shut things down. We are all thinking we lost another motor but after opening the hood, we could see the line blown and oil everywhere.  Judge Phil came down for some massive exploded parts pics but we had to disappoint him.  We removed the oil cooler, put some oil in her and crossed our fingers hoping we saved the motor.  No noise and 60 lbs of oil pressure, sooooo we're good right?   Motor seemed OK.  No noise, good pressure.  Lets run it.

Again, sorry to cause a mess.  That's our first full course yellow caused by us in 15 races, so I guess we are doing OK.  We had a great time and want to thank everyone that helped us get back on track with thread sealant for head bolts and various other assists with parts and the moral support of so many that stopped by just to tell us they loved the car.. 

Thank you all.

Woo Hoo really glad it was just an oil line!!!!!!!!!! That was way cool watching him trying to hold onto it coming through the kink. I was saying to myself hold it hold it hold it ok don't roll it   That could have ended badly , that car is really cool again I'm so glad for you guys that it wasn't anything super bad...

Our driver hit the oil slick and went two off and self reported. He looked so confused when he came in. All of a sudden he had no traction in a place where you REALLY want traction. I offered to get him fresh underwear but he declined.

I would have Code Brown-ed. I can only imagine how terrifying that feeling would be.

I've never had a bad weekend at CMP and this year was no different. We just barely missed P1 in B. I'll admit I LOVED the stress of competing for a class win, something we have never really experienced before in our 6 years of Lemons. A flat tire and one untimely black flag sealed our fate behind the very well driven V6(!) Firebird, and only a few seconds ahead the Stingata. The T-bird didn't miss a beat all weekend. Can't wait to try again. How is the season over already!!!!!??

Great racing with all of you. Cya in the spring.

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