Topic: Barber: who won, lost, broke?

I miss the days of Friday inspection posts, End of Sat leader post and drama, and the Monday race wrap-ups.

Re: Barber: who won, lost, broke?

I do too, Heck just the entry list was cool so that I knew who was who on RaceMonitor.

Mistake By The Lake Racing (MBTL)
88 Thunderbird "THUNDERBIRDS ARE GO!", Ex Astris, Rubigo / Semper Fracti
A&D: 2014 Sebrings at Sebring (NSF), 2014 NJMP2 Jurassic Park (SpeedyCop), 2012 Summit Point J30 (PiNuts)
2018 Route Sucky-Suck Rally Miata, 2019 World Tour Of Texas 64 Newport

Re: Barber: who won, lost, broke?

I miss them too.  We should force Phil to get back to work.  We were in 4th with 5 minutes to go on Saturday.  Then we wrecked the car.

Property Devaluation Racing

Drivers wanted for TX races

4 (edited by TeamLemon-aid 2017-02-06 08:50 PM)

Re: Barber: who won, lost, broke?

We were in 2nd on Sunday when our radio caught on fire.  Yes... our radio battery started on fire.  Lost 4 laps sorting that out.   We were in 3rd after the break and then either our ECU or crank angle sensor died.  We didn't have either. So packed up, said good byes, and went and watched the super bowl.

Congrats to everyone who won!!!!

LemonAid - Changing kids lives one lap at a time.

Re: Barber: who won, lost, broke?

Somehow our team was working together. Everyone was driving really good pace. 2.5 hours left in the race we were P1 in class B, P4 overall.

Driver I swapped with reports an "alignment" issue. I can see smoke coming off the right left. Says car is trying to kill him, so he comes into the paddock.

https://goo.gl/photos/kKNzKmetehG4Dstf7

Team ran to parts store, got bearings and rotor. I pull car apart, go to install the new stuff and we are missing 1 seal, but also the rotors they gave me are 5 lug front rotors for who knows what. Not a MK3 Jetta at all.

Bearing destroyed, which destroyed rotor, and turns out killed our caliper and stub axle too. We were done for the weekend.

Re: Barber: who won, lost, broke?

We raced all day on Sat.  We also got 4 black flags.  Had to write "Kia is Korean for Powerhouse" 50 times on the car.  At the end of Sunday with 40 minutes left in the race the car stopped running.  Seemed to have some kind of electrical gremlin. We changed the battery out, but the engine didn't sound right after that.  It seemed to be coming from the head, So we changed it. 1am we where done, but the car wouldn't start. So we packed it up and went to our hotels.

Sunday morning, tested compresstion, and we had none. So it we changed the whole engine and where ready to go by 1pm.  Took it on track and the car over headed.  Spend the rest of the day trying to figure out why it was over heating.  But we did manage to take the checkers and drive the car onto the trailer.

We have some good high lights to our black flags, they will be coming soon.

Mock Grass Racing                                                                     Slower Traffic, Keep Right
2017 - Introduction of the Kia Amanti; 2016 - Killed the Car at WRL
2015 - 4 Races, finished all; 2014 - Barber, Blew 2 Engines; CMP, Class C winner
2013 - CMP, Blew engine; CMP, Engine Overheated 2012 - CMP, FInished; CMP, Blew Engine

Re: Barber: who won, lost, broke?

This was my first race at Barber - what a great weekend! Many thanks to Brett for the chance to drive the Toylet.

TeamLemon-aid wrote:

We were in 2nd on Sunday when our radio caught on fire.  Yes... our radio battery started on fire.  Lost 4 laps sorting that out.   We were in 3rd after the break and then either our ECU or crank angle sensor died.  We didn't have either. So packed up, said good byes, and went and watched the super bowl.

Congrats to everyone who won!!!!

I was very sorry to see you come in on the strap Sunday. You had a much better shot at first than we did.

Re: Barber: who won, lost, broke?

https://speedhive.mylaps.com/Sessions/4266236

Cold Saturday morning, rainy Sunday morning, fun track

Dirty Some Beaches - Lemoncello Racing - Honda Wag-O-Van
Team Red Bear - BMW 320i
Inglorious Bastards - Ford Thunderbird, Mazda Miata, the other Mazda Miata

Re: Barber: who won, lost, broke?

We ran good for about 3.5 hours until our second driver used the rear of the KnoxVegas Mustang/Contour for a brake.  Apparently someone had spun at the bottom of the museum turn and all the traffic came to a halt.  By the time our driver saw that, it was too late, and he couldn't stop in time. He plowed UNDER their rear valance (lifting their car) and it broke our radiator, and bent the core support  and hood pretty bad.  Fortunately nobody was injured and the KnoxVegas guys were able to continue minus their rear valance.  We packed ours up afterwards and should have it fixed before the next CMP event.

Apologies again to the KnoxVegas guys for the damage.  Obviously there was no malice involved on our part, just a racing accident.

Our camera died after our first stint so we don't have any video, but I'd be very interested to see any that others may have available.

Captain
Team Super Westerfield Bros.
'93 Acura Integra - No VTEC Yo!

Re: Barber: who won, lost, broke?

We were having a pretty good race until Sunday afternoon. I had decided that this was the last race for the current Bumble Bee chassis. It has a lot of races on it and is bent up and rusted to the point that a good wheel alignment is near impossible. I have been working on a replacement Bumble Bee chassis since last October. Sunday about 1PM the current Bumble Bee shows up at the paddock. Master Cylinder went out and the driver slid sideways which broke the axle nut off the end of the left axle, destroyed the bearing, disk and caliper in the process. Pretty sure the hub and knuckle are toast as well. To top it off, the starter suddenly burnt out. I think the Bee just decided it had enough. Used the wench to get it on the trailer and called it a day.

Re: Barber: who won, lost, broke?

We were sabotaged by the Chinese! Of the three EV-PEAK A9 chargers, two exploded immediately. (output capacitors vaporized. That can happen when you short a battery that can dump a 1,000A surge) One refused to see all twelve cells. Robert had two new ones with him. They too failed. Who knew charging a car with shitty RC car chargers wouldn't work. These things are so horribly constructed, I'm surprised they work at all -- 15-34v input to charge a 50v pack, power transistors that aren't supposed to be co-grounded floating above the same massive heatsink, 12awg input wires with 10awg outputs... To say there are some quality control issues would be a bad joke.

The CAR, however, ran fabulously! Albeit briefly. We had to be timid with the prius "gas" pedal lest we overload the repurposed Chevy Volt batteries, but unlike last time, the motor and controller can handle full power nearly continuously. (previously, full throttle would cause smoke to billow out of the motor.) We ran with two 36 cell modules in parallel. We need three, but only two will fit in the factory battery box. Those two are good for 300A continuous power. At 35F Saturday morning, however, they could hardly provide 200A. But, as Roger proved Sunday afternoon, using more than 200A continuously will overheat and pop the 225A rated PEC pack fuse (inside the Nissan Leaf service disconnect.) He was the only one to head out with warm, freshly charged batteries that could actually supply full power. The fuse was still warm 30min later when I walked down to give it to Phil. I didn't know you could "blue" copper.

I went first Saturday morning for a 4 lap test run. The batteries were nearly frozen, but they easily got me up to 65+. That was enough to pass the Astro Van! After checking everything and heading back out for 3-4 more laps, the cold finally caught up to me; I had no juice going down the back straight. Not wanting to repeat last year's Red Flag Incident, I pulled over in front of station twelve and awaited a tow. That tow up the hill onto pit lane gave me over 100A of regen! Sunday, I made it up the hill onto pit road before it cut out. Thanks to everyone giving me the space to hold onto my speed around the final corners. If I had lost any momentum, I would not have made it up the hill.

Duff Beer Civic (#128) -- 2014 Sebring - Class B (#1 of 7), 2016 Barber - Class B
1981 Jet Electrica 007 [Plymouth Horizon TC3] (#128) -- Mk.1 - Index of Effluency Eco (IOEe) @ 2016 Lemons South Fall, Mk.2 - Judges' Choice @ 2017 'Shine Country Classic, Mk.3 - Index of Effluency @ 2017 Southern Discomfort

Re: Barber: who won, lost, broke?

Apocalyptic Racing had an almost flawless race. We went out Saturday with the intention of stopping one time for gas and driver change and both Bill and Nick kept it clean and turned consistent lap times all day. Even with our one stop strategy we were not clocking up laps as quickly as the front runners with Save the Tatas Camero and a couple of others still ahead of us 3.5 hours in before we pitted. Fortunately for us a few of the front runners had issues and we finished the day in 2nd just ahead of our friends at Lemonaid. We found two broken studs on right rear these and replaced and swapped the rear wheels as a precaution. We found the axle seal leaking and repaired that as well.

Sunday started wet and we got to start in 2nd place, the front runners for the most part kept is very calm and collected as the track slowly dried. There were some real fast cars in the wet, mostly FWD but I was very impressed with the speed of the #35 Nissan Z car and the red E36 in the wet. Our only mishap was my 4 wheels off in turn 16 trying to go three wide following a full course caution that had bunched a lot of cars up. It was a stupid mistake but didn't hurt our standing or gap to first as the leaders had a similar incident. We had to stop one more time as the second stint was about 45 minutes too long for us to run on a full cell.

Mark ran the final 3.5 hours putting down some blazing times (for us) as the track dried out. We finished the race in 2nd overall,  pretty good for an almost 40 year old chassis with a genuine junkyard engine.

Was cool to catch up with friends from the south and east coast, hope to see you all again at NCM.

Congrats to Squirting Coronas, very well driven all weekend long.

Barber is my favorite track and I encourage anyone who gets the chance to race there to do so!

Apocalyptic Racing - Occupy Pit Lane racing
Racing the "Toylet" Toyota Celica powered by Chevrolet Ecotec.
24x Loser with the Celica. 16x loser in other fine machines
Overall winner Gingerman 2019

Re: Barber: who won, lost, broke?

We were a new team/car and this was our first race. We had a blast. We were terribly slow and probably got in some people's way, but I could always count on passing the van-space-shuttle thing. Somehow we went all weekend without a mechanical failure, no black flags, no contact...nothing. So thanks to everyone for not mowing down the little guy!

We were driving a silver MX-3 with a 1.8L(i swear) V6 that the judges assumed was a swapped in 2.5 - although one day it probably will be. The car handles great, but the engine has like 4 lb-ft of torque and we suck at driving compared to most of you. But despite the fact that we were the 80th fastest car car on the track of 110, we finished 29th overall, so reliability and some driver upgrades will have to be part of our strategy for awhile. Nonetheless, never been so happy to be the 29th best at something!

Thanks everyone for a great race.

14 (edited by st_rage 2017-02-08 01:51 PM)

Re: Barber: who won, lost, broke?

Car wouldn't start to put it on the trailer.  Eventually figured out that the fuel pump had a bad ground.  Get to the track and the engine won't rev over 3kRPM.  Started working again after a couple of restarts.  Still don't know what was causing it.

Finally get out on track.  It lasted 5 laps.  We forgot to put oil in the transmission after we had swapped engines.  Wailing and gnashing of teeth ensues.

I fetched the spare transmission that I had put together from Atlanta while the team pulled the engine/transmission.  Get back, get it in, and.... it doesn't work.  Something in the shifter was wonky.  Robert came by and inspired us with Duff Beer and the promise that Roger might help us figure it out tomorrow, so we pulled the engine out again and went to bed.

Sunday morning we separated the transmission, opened it up and what did we see?  The reverse gear had been assembled upside-down.  Flip it, put the trans back together, reassembled the trans to the motor and put the motor in the car.  Got out on track a few minutes after quiet hour ended. 

The car ran pretty well for the afternoon session, but the master cylinder blew its seal with a lap to go.  Fortunately I didn't hit anybody when it happened.

All in all pretty typical.

Our Lady of Perpetual Downforce
http://www.perpetualdownforce.com/

Re: Barber: who won, lost, broke?

CPB wrote:

Somehow our team was working together. Everyone was driving really good pace. 2.5 hours left in the race we were P1 in class B, P4 overall.

Driver I swapped with reports an "alignment" issue. I can see smoke coming off the right left. Says car is trying to kill him, so he comes into the paddock.

https://goo.gl/photos/kKNzKmetehG4Dstf7

Team ran to parts store, got bearings and rotor. I pull car apart, go to install the new stuff and we are missing 1 seal, but also the rotors they gave me are 5 lug front rotors for who knows what. Not a MK3 Jetta at all.

Bearing destroyed, which destroyed rotor, and turns out killed our caliper and stub axle too. We were done for the weekend.

This is an issue with many FWD cars. A word of advise to all teams if you race one of these cars, bring spare parts to the race. Consider changing hubs & wheel bearings Sat evening just "because". it's racing and you want to finish!

I club raced/race two different FWD cars. The first one I broke 2 hubs during races until I stopped using used parts and went with only new hubs. On my current race car I have modified the knuckle to take a bigger bearing and a much stronger hub but still allowing me to use the stock CV, rotor, etc. Using stock bearings I would get 3-4 sprint races out of them, that's less than one day of Lemons racing!

Re: Barber: who won, lost, broke?

I can get three to four races out of front wheel bearings but everything else in the front suspension and drivetrain has to be perfect.

17

Re: Barber: who won, lost, broke?

jimbbski wrote:
CPB wrote:

Somehow our team was working together. Everyone was driving really good pace. 2.5 hours left in the race we were P1 in class B, P4 overall.

Driver I swapped with reports an "alignment" issue. I can see smoke coming off the right left. Says car is trying to kill him, so he comes into the paddock.

https://goo.gl/photos/kKNzKmetehG4Dstf7

Team ran to parts store, got bearings and rotor. I pull car apart, go to install the new stuff and we are missing 1 seal, but also the rotors they gave me are 5 lug front rotors for who knows what. Not a MK3 Jetta at all.

Bearing destroyed, which destroyed rotor, and turns out killed our caliper and stub axle too. We were done for the weekend.

This is an issue with many FWD cars. A word of advise to all teams if you race one of these cars, bring spare parts to the race. Consider changing hubs & wheel bearings Sat evening just "because". it's racing and you want to finish!

I club raced/race two different FWD cars. The first one I broke 2 hubs during races until I stopped using used parts and went with only new hubs. On my current race car I have modified the knuckle to take a bigger bearing and a much stronger hub but still allowing me to use the stock CV, rotor, etc. Using stock bearings I would get 3-4 sprint races out of them, that's less than one day of Lemons racing!

Thanks, we initially have been playing by the rules and staying completely in budget. We figured piles of spares wouldn't be covered, but I can see now it is probably necessary.

We will be doing some preventative maintenance and stocking up on parts. Thanks for the advice.

Re: Barber: who won, lost, broke?

Wheel bearings are considered safety gear and are budget exempt. 

4.2.1: Beside the items and processes listed in Section 3, the following are considered safety-related and therefore exempt:

    Wheels, tires, wheel bearings, balljoints, and brake components
    Exhaust systems downstream of the header/exhaust manifold (NOTE: Turbos and related components are NOT exempt from the $500 limit. Nice try.)
    Windshields and wipers.
    Driver comfort & information (steering wheel, shifter, gauges, pedals, cool suits, vents, heaters, radio)
    All fuel hoses, fuel fittings, fuel filters, and related mounts
    All fuel-system components upstream of the fuel pump, including tanks/cells, mounts, fillers, vents, etc. (NOTE: Fuel pumps, carburetors, injection pumps, computers, and individual injectors are NOT exempt from the $500 limit.)

Re: Barber: who won, lost, broke?

Even before they exempted wheel bearings, I replaced them annually with new ones. I viewed it as a safety issue after having one fail and try to steer our car into the wall at Charlotte.

Everybody grab your brooms, it's shenanigans!

Re: Barber: who won, lost, broke?

After a string of really bad luck, we (Purple Hays #69 Fox Mustang) had a few modest goals.
1.) Show up with a running car - Check
2.) Everyone drive before car breaks - Check
3.) Race clean - Check (no black flags)
4.) Race all weekend - Didn't quite make this one. (car spit a rocker off with 45 minutes to go, most likely bent a valve.)
Overall, I'd say it was a decent weekend. As usual, Barber was a great place to race, and everyone we med was cheerful and friendly.  Duff had some great beer.

Re: Barber: who won, lost, broke?

rmcdaniels wrote:

Even before they exempted wheel bearings, I replaced them annually with new ones. I viewed it as a safety issue after having one fail and try to steer our car into the wall at Charlotte.

We replaced them on the van every other race.

Re: Barber: who won, lost, broke?

With wheel bearings it's really how heavy the car is, how hard you run it. and how well designed the car is from the factory.
Some cars can go a full race or even two but some like the first gen. Neon's won't last very long. In club racing with sticky DOT tires you can measure their life in minutes! Same goes for MK I Rabbits. You can get 2-4 races or about 3-4 hours life if you push hard.

You should also look at the wheel bearing to see if you can "pop" it open, that is the sealed double row ball bearing type that is common on many FWD cars. If you can open the bearing up clean out the stock grease and put some better grease in there. Before I went to a modified set up with a larger wheel bearing I added  at least 50% life to the stock bearings over ones with the stock grease. But don't fill it as the grease needs room to expand. The first time I did that I had grease coming out of the back side onto the outer CV and the wheel. What a mess.