marshall_mosty
04-21-2008, 02:17 AM
Guys,
Just wanted to give an update into the "Mosty Brothers' Racing" enduro effort.
Before I start, I'd like to thank Jeremy Gunter, Robert King, and Jeff Wirtz for helping out with crew duties. Even with radio issues, the pit stops worked well.
First, the car didn't receive much prep in anticipation of the 4-hour enduro. The trans was only a few weekends old, motor was freshened up in December and the brake pads were in good shape. Just needed to bolt the tires on and go racing!
Practice/Qual for the enduro put the #67 7th out of 26-28 cars. Not too bad for a son of the Ford fairmont, right? 8)
Well, the enduro started with a 25mph parade lap to show what the pit lane speed would be. I don't necessarilly think that the ENTIRE first pace lap really needed to be at 25mph, maybe just our first run down the pit road. Oh well, the car didn't have any cooling issues with the lower speed, so all is well.
After the 2nd pace lap (the regular 60mph one), everyone lined up for a flying start. I was on the inside of the banking, so was planning on diving to the apron when the green flag flew. When the green flag dropped, I was able to jump up to 3rd before T1. Pretty cool in my opinion. Now I just needed to hold the position. Frank and I had some good side-by-side racing all the was from T3 to T10. :)
I found out very quickly that the tires on the car left MUCH to be desired. They consisted of two 2004 date code tires and two 2005 date code tires. So much for reducing my inventory by using them. MISTAKE!! The car was an absolute handful the entire race. Oversteering at will. I even had a real nice drift coming onto the banking... (Frank had a great view!)
We had originally planned for a 3-stop strategy with roughly 55 minute stints and a 5 minute pit stop.
Well, after about 40 minutes the car changed exhaust note and revealed a cold cylinder... (well that just sucks!) Now we had to limp our car around as best we could. I couldn't even pull the CMC cars on the front straight. Oh well, work with what you have, right?
Also, at the first pit stop, I informed Michael I though the powersteering was getting weak. This was the understatement of the day as Michael struggled with NO powersteering and is down on power. He came in at the 1:20 mark (30 minute stint) saying he thinks "it's about to blow up". I assure him we will go out in spectacular fashion then and get in the car for stint #2.
Stint #2 was my first trip to hell. Boy is that not pleasent. I had decided during the offseason to install a nice "small" 13" steering wheel. This works great with power assist, but absolutely sucks with no assist at all. Every corner was like doing butterfly curls with 100 lb weights. Needles to say, slip angles went out the window and we were just trying to get the wheel turned enough to get around the corner. I was able to stay in the car for 50 minutes.
Stint #3 started with telling Michael "Power steering is gone and we're down on power. Do your best". He was able to gain on and overtake Liebbe during his 50 minute stint. I was hoping he would last at least 55 minutes to an hour so I would only have to stay in the car for approx 50 minutes. Well, since we didn't have good (if any) radio communication with the car, Michael came in a wee bit early.
Stinet #4 (Final stint). I told Robert to fill up the cool suit with as much ice as he could. (fighting with the steering wheel was HARD work). The cool suit and gas were both filled and I headed out for what I was expecting to be my last stint... once again, wrong. I started getting starvation going through the carousel so I called in that I needed a splash and go.
Stint #5 (Really the final stint). As I got to the pits, I was told there were only 4 minutes left in the race. 4 minutes... that's only two laps. Damn my luck with fuel consumption. We loaded approx 2 gallons on board to get the car fired and I roared away to finish the race. The last two laps were at about 70% pace so I could just finish the race.
Overall, other than driving for 3 hours with no power steering, having an engine down on power, and having old crusty tires that really belonged in a trash pile we (I) had a blast at the enduro.
The StopTech brakes were amazing. They didn't fade, falter, or really wear that much over the course of the 4 hour. Engine temps were great (170 water/235 oil).
Congrats to all the AIX/AI/CMC entrants (Glenn/Mike, Rob/Todd, Frank/Jorge, David/Jason.
Big congrats to Glenn/Mike (Team Moonlite) for taking the E1 victory!
I'm sorry team LiiR had a panhard bar mount failure that ended their race and to Frank for having such a lengthy stop to replace a failed wheel bearing and brake pads.
Now off to bed... it's been a long day. 8)
Just wanted to give an update into the "Mosty Brothers' Racing" enduro effort.
Before I start, I'd like to thank Jeremy Gunter, Robert King, and Jeff Wirtz for helping out with crew duties. Even with radio issues, the pit stops worked well.
First, the car didn't receive much prep in anticipation of the 4-hour enduro. The trans was only a few weekends old, motor was freshened up in December and the brake pads were in good shape. Just needed to bolt the tires on and go racing!
Practice/Qual for the enduro put the #67 7th out of 26-28 cars. Not too bad for a son of the Ford fairmont, right? 8)
Well, the enduro started with a 25mph parade lap to show what the pit lane speed would be. I don't necessarilly think that the ENTIRE first pace lap really needed to be at 25mph, maybe just our first run down the pit road. Oh well, the car didn't have any cooling issues with the lower speed, so all is well.
After the 2nd pace lap (the regular 60mph one), everyone lined up for a flying start. I was on the inside of the banking, so was planning on diving to the apron when the green flag flew. When the green flag dropped, I was able to jump up to 3rd before T1. Pretty cool in my opinion. Now I just needed to hold the position. Frank and I had some good side-by-side racing all the was from T3 to T10. :)
I found out very quickly that the tires on the car left MUCH to be desired. They consisted of two 2004 date code tires and two 2005 date code tires. So much for reducing my inventory by using them. MISTAKE!! The car was an absolute handful the entire race. Oversteering at will. I even had a real nice drift coming onto the banking... (Frank had a great view!)
We had originally planned for a 3-stop strategy with roughly 55 minute stints and a 5 minute pit stop.
Well, after about 40 minutes the car changed exhaust note and revealed a cold cylinder... (well that just sucks!) Now we had to limp our car around as best we could. I couldn't even pull the CMC cars on the front straight. Oh well, work with what you have, right?
Also, at the first pit stop, I informed Michael I though the powersteering was getting weak. This was the understatement of the day as Michael struggled with NO powersteering and is down on power. He came in at the 1:20 mark (30 minute stint) saying he thinks "it's about to blow up". I assure him we will go out in spectacular fashion then and get in the car for stint #2.
Stint #2 was my first trip to hell. Boy is that not pleasent. I had decided during the offseason to install a nice "small" 13" steering wheel. This works great with power assist, but absolutely sucks with no assist at all. Every corner was like doing butterfly curls with 100 lb weights. Needles to say, slip angles went out the window and we were just trying to get the wheel turned enough to get around the corner. I was able to stay in the car for 50 minutes.
Stint #3 started with telling Michael "Power steering is gone and we're down on power. Do your best". He was able to gain on and overtake Liebbe during his 50 minute stint. I was hoping he would last at least 55 minutes to an hour so I would only have to stay in the car for approx 50 minutes. Well, since we didn't have good (if any) radio communication with the car, Michael came in a wee bit early.
Stinet #4 (Final stint). I told Robert to fill up the cool suit with as much ice as he could. (fighting with the steering wheel was HARD work). The cool suit and gas were both filled and I headed out for what I was expecting to be my last stint... once again, wrong. I started getting starvation going through the carousel so I called in that I needed a splash and go.
Stint #5 (Really the final stint). As I got to the pits, I was told there were only 4 minutes left in the race. 4 minutes... that's only two laps. Damn my luck with fuel consumption. We loaded approx 2 gallons on board to get the car fired and I roared away to finish the race. The last two laps were at about 70% pace so I could just finish the race.
Overall, other than driving for 3 hours with no power steering, having an engine down on power, and having old crusty tires that really belonged in a trash pile we (I) had a blast at the enduro.
The StopTech brakes were amazing. They didn't fade, falter, or really wear that much over the course of the 4 hour. Engine temps were great (170 water/235 oil).
Congrats to all the AIX/AI/CMC entrants (Glenn/Mike, Rob/Todd, Frank/Jorge, David/Jason.
Big congrats to Glenn/Mike (Team Moonlite) for taking the E1 victory!
I'm sorry team LiiR had a panhard bar mount failure that ended their race and to Frank for having such a lengthy stop to replace a failed wheel bearing and brake pads.
Now off to bed... it's been a long day. 8)