Topic: Flat Face Racing's First True 24

Susan and I arrived at HPR on Thursday to find a line at the entrance.  COVID had the waiver process taking a bit longer than normal but we were soon inside and backing the trailer up to our carport and parking the RV in its spot for the weekend. 

Once the car was unloaded and our area established we donned our masks and wandered about checking out some of the other cars and talking with some of the other teams.  Twas fun.  We chatted with a team with members from Texas and California driving a Maxima and another from Nebraska with their Luv truck. 

Friday had us up with coffee and a quiet race track.  With the open lapping day sessions pushed back there were to be no cars flogging the track until after 1:00 in the pm.  During the late morning David, Brad, and Ian arrived. 

Scrappy had some experience passing tech so I wasn’t too worried.  We were told to add some zip ties to stiffen up the cage foam but otherwise passed without any issues.  The BS inspection didn’t go as smoothly. 

I knew we would likely be in for some penalty laps with the ecotec swap and we were slapped with 50.  Honestly it could have been much worse and I didn’t argue with Phil’s judgement.  As I was tooling around the paddock on my way back I spoke to a driver from a team with a turbo Miata and they received 100 penalty laps.  The Orange Crush Miata was also recently turbo’d and they got 50 laps. 

Such is the cheaty life. 

With tech finished I drove Scrappy around the track for a few laps to break in the new clutch and then Ian went out to familiarize himself with the new build.  In recent weeks the clutch, alternator, and battery had been replaced so I was happy that the car seemed to be running alright. 

Alvin, the last of our six drivers, arrived with the evening and set about checking over Scrappy.  He also handled most of the installation of the LED light strips on the car. 

After the sun had set we swapped in fresh tires and David, Susan, and myself put in some night laps to check on the placement of the headlights.  There was some tweaking and after which we agreed our setup was adequate.  It was bright enough ahead and, while weak at the corners, illuminated enough to catch the reflectors marking the apexes. 

The next morning we were up early to give the car more pokes and prods.  I strapped in around 11:30 and drove over to grid.  It was at this moment that I realized the stock gauges weren’t functioning at all.  No fuel, RPM, or MPH.  Whoops.  At some point something was jacked up when we were doing our final tweaks and there was absolutely no time to do anything about it.  The obvious dash fuse was quickly checked but was fine so we raced without gauges.  At least the aftermarket water temp, oil pressure, and shift light gauges were still functioning. 

The twenty-odd minutes of parade laps were as boring and stressful as ever but soon enough the green flag dropped and the racing commenced.  The first thing I noticed was how awesome Scrappy felt to drive.  The car went from plucky autocrosser to track monster with the ecotec swap.  Finally it had enough power to pass other cars whenever the opportunity presented itself, which was a lot.  The worst part about my first stint is when I had to come back to fuel up and let someone else drive. 

Our stints were planned to be one hour and forty minutes long and the order was me (Max), Brad, Ian, Alvin, David, and then Susan.  We would extend the stints if fuel allowed which it did on occasion.  Everyone got to drive during both the day and nighttime. 

I’m happy to report that all of our drivers were fast with no contact made at any time with few one or two wheel offs.  For the first time there were no black flag penalties which can be attributed to our drivers paying attention as there were many other teams caught passing under yellow and spinning off the track. 

We found the night driving to be a lot of fun.  It was immediately noticeable which teams were unfamiliar with HPR and we found passing much more common and overtaking speeds to be much higher than in the daylight. 

Scrappy ran fantastic until it didn’t.  It was approximately 23 hours and 10 minutes into the race when I suddenly felt Scrappy lose power and heard some unhappy engine noises.  I immediately drove back to the carport hoping that something was wrong with the ignition.  While one of the coil packs was indeed loose it was clear that the sound emanating from the engine was of the knocking variety.  As we were so close to the end I attempted to reenter the track only for the car to die again – this time for good.  We had to push Scrappy into our car trailer when we finally packed up. 

While it was an obvious bummer that the engine didn’t quite survive the full 24 hours I consider the race to be a massive success for the team.  Even with the 50 penalty laps we clawed our way up to 9th place before the engine failure dropped us down to 12th place where we finished.  If we eliminated the penalty laps we would have been in the overall lead for much of the race and finished in second place. 

When not piloting Scrappy the other drivers were always helpful and positive.  Just a great bunch of people all around. 
Special thanks to Deandra who joined the team as crew and helped keep us on schedule filling up the quick fuel bottles and often handled the radio.  She was not only fun to have around but a real asset to the team. 

We were super-duper-happy that our friend team Sew So Fast won overall and class A.  Back when we were first testing Scrappy at HPR Friso and Tracey (the Sew So Fast car owners) had introduced themselves and we’ve been track-buds ever since. 

We’re already in the process of fixing Scrappy and planning more upgrades and can’t wait until next year’s Lemons races!