Hallett Recap - 2019

I'll start with the #50 story while it's still fresh in my head.

It was an excellent weekend for the #50 CMC. Thanks to Redshift Racing, Richard, Dan and Craig for all their help and advice in setting up the car and getting my tire rack ready. It's a team victory for us, we've been working on the car and driver since January of 2018 to get it into a reliable competitive state.

Preface:
We made some big changes to the car this season going from a super stiff setup with a pm3l to a softer 4 link setup. At COTA the car drove like complete garbage. Richard and I made a trip from Austin to Summit Racing in Dallas Saturday night to pickup more speed parts which only marginally helped the car on Sunday. In between R3 and R4 I found a sizable crack in the driver rear upper control arm mount and called the weekend. A new set of dampers, new springs (again), front ride height adjusters, welding up cracks, fresh brakes, and designing/fabricating a tire rack for the trailer were all wrapped up at about 3am on the Thursday before Hallett.

We were able to test the car on Falken Azenis at MSR-H at a Driver's Edge event where we changes springs and sway bars to understand the effects they would have on the behavior of the car. Learned a lot of valuable information there, led to me ordering even more springs for Hallett. For the first time in a LONG time, the car went back on the trailer without requiring major surgery.

Friday T&T:
We rolled into Hallett mid-morning and were able to get three sessions in on Friday. I ran the Azenis for two sessions - a couple of seconds off the pace. I was having a really hard time getting power down out of the bitch. We removed the rear sway bar to help the axle move, definitely an improvement but not perfect. Scrubbed new tires in the last session to set tire pressures.

Saturday:
Missed warm-up with the HPDE meeting, no biggie. In qualifying we were running COTA RRs, and were a second off the pace placing us 8th for R1. Car still wasn't right, so we decided to drop the panhard bar. Dropping the panhard bar before a race is a risky move, it significantly changes the rear roll center of the car and it's attitude over all. The axle will move a lot more side-to-side, and ultimately caused a slight tire rub for us.

R1 - Got a decent start, minor body contact in T5 on lap 2 (I think). Ended up fighting from the back of the pack for a lower-mid pack finish. Not what I wanted, but puts us in a good position for R2. The car STILL wasn't where I wanted it, so time for more adjustments. Decided to drop the rear spring rate by 25lbs, and raise the rear ride height about .125" to accommodate the softer spring.

R2 - Started in 5th on row three for the rolling start. Got a great start and in a couple of corners ended up in 1st. I had a good battle with an AI car for a lot of the race... (not cool bro). Uneventful drive for a win! Felt good to break our breaking streak finally. Several transmissions, lots of chassis cracks, ignition issues, induction issues... long time coming. All CMC guys know, unreliable equipment ain't no fun.

Night - Awesome brisket from the OIF crew. You haven't had BBQ until you've been to Hallett. The Slip-N-Flip was way too much fun. The Thunder group really makes the Hallett event a blast or was it the rumchata/fireball concoction? Congrats to Record's team for taking the 2019 Slip-N-Flip trophy. I had far too many midnight ribs, and slept far too little on Saturday.

Sunday:
Probably to the benefit of most of the AI/CMC crew, Sunday morning was rained out allowing for more hydration and recovery time from the previous night's antics.

R3 - Cancelled due to thunderstorms. We took this time to check the car over again. Up until this point, we were running tires that were used for one race at COTA. I bolted on the set of sticker tires that were scrubbed on Friday for R4.

R4 - A 40 minute race, longer that I've ever run this CMC car. I got as much fuel as I could into the tank.

We started in P2 behind Michael. Michael and I both got good starts and barreled into T1, where Michael was able to make a move on an AI car. They came out of T1 side by side and I was trapped behind them. I spent the next 10-20 minutes trying to get around this guy, while Michael was opening up a sizable lead. I was eventually able to make move going into the bitch. Jander tried to follow on the inside at the bottom of the bitch, where they touched. I think the AI car got the idea at this point and eased off. Maybe I was too nice, but I really didn't want to hurt the car in such a long race.

Now with clear track ahead I knew I had to run as cleanly and quickly as I could to close the gap. Qual lap after qual lap, Michael was doing the same thing. We worked our way through other traffic fairly quickly without much issue. Once I finally got close enough to make a move, local yellows in T2 and the bitch were really... a bitch. Michael and I were inches apart for what seemed like 100 laps. We took the white flag, and my heart sank. I focused as hard as I could to run a perfect lap, hoping Michael would make a mistake - of course he didn't. Coming up to the bitch for the final time I eek out 105% of the grip the tires have to give and manage to get a run on Michael down the back straight on the inside of the track, I couldn't believe it. Michael expertly chases me down to the white line, we must have been a millimeter apart door-to-door. We're both thinking the same thing, last one to brake wins. Braking later than I ever thought was possible for the final corner I manage to hold my line on the inside and get on the gas early. Full throttle and a half down the front straight for the win. I couldn't believe what had just happened, the flag guy couldn't either.

Hank directed me to the winner circle on the in lap, which really confused me as I was trying to get to impound. None of the spectators were able to see what had happened in the final corner, to their surprise the #50 was queued in the winner's circle. Tyler helped me pin a NASA patch to my brand new suit, which was then promptly doused in champagne. We thankfully came in 66lbs over in impound (DQ for weight is the worst) and passed the track width measurement. Best drive home ever, going to ride this high for quite a while.

Great weekend of racing Thunder, triple thanks to Red Shift. Looking forward to the next event!

- Josh
#50 CMC

Great writeup, driving, and setting up. Really cool that you chronicle all the changes you made to share with everyone. My apologies for the minor body contact-though getting your tail light back and winning makes me feel better. I share your frustration with the AI car after he forced me four wheels off when I was in second place but mistakes happen though and an apology would have been nice.

Lots of hard work paid off! Pretty cool the car has been a winner with a stiff pm3l and a soft 4 link. Tells me I need to try some different springs/swaybars.

Interesting that you picked up a second with a new set of tires over a set with only one race at COTA.

The 55 would not turn left running the PM3L. Pushed really bad. It takes a little getting used to but not running a panhard bar feels much better....at least on the 55.

Great job Sook. We left with engine issues (everyone saw that) and I just assumed Michael had won. Wish I had seen the finish.

JJ

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by BryanL

I share your frustration with the AI car after he forced me four wheels off when I was in second place but mistakes happen though and an apology would have been nice.

---

We harp on out of class racing EVERY YEAR and what happens EVERY YEAR? Some douche pulls the same stunt in a different car. Last year it was that dude that chopped Gary in T10, in non Hallett events it's ALWAYS someone (Legends anyone?). I feel that there should be consequences even if it's a local policy for you TX folk. Who am I to complain? He screwed you Brian and I benefitted, but it's still bullshit and it's bullshit that it kept on into the final. I hope he reads this post because he was absolutely out of control and driving like a total inconsiderate asshat. What was he trying to preserve?

Congrats Josh!!! Very well deserved win and great driving all weekend long.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Supercharged111

We harp on out of class racing EVERY YEAR and what happens EVERY YEAR? Some douche pulls the same stunt in a different car. Last year it was that dude that chopped Gary in T10, in non Hallett events it's ALWAYS someone (Legends anyone?). I feel that there should be consequences even if it's a local policy for you TX folk. Who am I to complain? He screwed you Brian and I benefitted, but it's still bullshit and it's bullshit that it kept on into the final. I hope he reads this post because he was absolutely out of control and driving like a total inconsiderate asshat. What was he trying to preserve?

---

Congrats Josh! Was a great experience to watch from the grand stands. My 1st time to ever watch a CMC race and it was spectacular. Something to note: My 1st time to watch a race, and I was also pissed off at the AI car slowing other out of class cars down. Poor sportsmanship. Jander's contact with him should have spurred further warnings from higher up.

But in the end, the AI car didnt ruin the race. Great fun watching all the CMC group. I learned a ton this weekend watching you all, and getting some seat time in.

CONGRATS JOSH! Ride the high.

I enjoy reading the recaps especially if I didn't make the race so here is mine-which pales to Josh's. I could sum mine up came, raced, drank, ate, and had too much fun.

Made it in Thursday about 10:00 so the rain had stopped to get settled in and then hang out with the smoky toters and keep Randy's wife up till about 2. Checked out Al's new LS swap and some comments were made about various items which may or may not have been accurate? Mildly entertained by the new chicken song at 7am. Friday was spent checking a few odds/ends on my car specifically my annual Hallett set the toe chore. Helping a few people with their car-or just reiterating to Al the reasons why his power steering fluid was cooking. Of course another great evening in the pits.

Saturday the new chicken song had me fired up to check air pressures and make the 8am warmup. I brought my seasoned set of tires from 2017 that I ran at Hallett and COTA nationals last year so I was pretty shocked to qually 4th. Prepping for R1 I figured the key to staying up front would be getting around an AI car with similar lap times but likely difficult to pass with more PAH. The plan worked perfect to follow Michael especially since Jander started in 2nd gear so I'm pumped heading into T1 in 2nd place going inside of the AI car. However on track out I see an all too familiar tank slapper starting from said AI car which ultimately forces me to go all 4 off and let several cars by.

Now maybe I was driving angry or trying to listen to Jerry in my head tell me how Eric Foss takes a corner which upsets the car or two tires dropped but I end up spinning and popping Sook (sorry) who was passing me from behind-Thanks to everyone else who avoided me. R1 ended late in the race when I lost my power steering which ended up being a broken serpentine belt and the only issue the car had all weekend. The rest was just gas/oil and checking over things which is pretty typical.

R2 I started near the front maybe in third and I stayed there the whole race. Then I realized why I don't like finishing up top because I had to go to impound instead of heading to the cool trailer for a gatorade.

Ate way too much BBQ from OIF which was awesome and great to see everyone with huge smiles on their face. Even Sook yells at me and holds up the taillight I knocked off in R1 that a corner worker brought him! That's why Hallett is special. Made me feel less bad but I'm still giving him my Toyo bucks from R1 for hitting him along with hopefully not buying anymore RR's in the future, and following Chris McCombs.

Slip and Flip was awesome to watch. Kudo's to Records in his American Flag onezie and for Cody having the balls to pull off Randy "Macho Man" Savage!

R3 rained out gave me a chance to clean up the trailer after Jander trashed it which was uncalled for since I don't think I complained about tires much this weekend.

R4- wasn't too optimistic about my tires on a 40 min race and just wanted to be smooth hopefully staying close enough to the pack to have fun. Maybe drove a little too easy on the first lap or two but settled into a rhythm staying about the same distance from a pack of CMC cars in front of me and tried to keep the Dancing Indian from passing me which I did for about 30 minutes until some cars passing us gave me a bobble in T1 allowing Pranav to get a run as he was better under braking into bus stop.

Congrats to Dustin for winning the Camaro part of Mustang Challenge.

Also want to point out that we had 3 CMC Guys in DE who are ready to get their license and start running with Thunder-Welcome to the Jungle.

Happy to have raced and drive the car into the trailer. The drive back was enjoyable riding the high until 10 miles from home a trailer tire had a tread separation on a two lane road.

Had a great time with everyone and thanks to the RM guys for making the haul down as it wouldn't be the same without you guys joining the fun. Thanks again OIF, too!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Sook

I knew I had to run as cleanly and quickly as I could to close the gap. Qual lap after qual lap, Michael was doing the same thing.

---

I was pretty shocked to look at the lap times for the two front drivers. I put together a list of the times and the splits. It's pretty cool to see where Josh was losing time behind the AI car and where he is able to start closing the gap. You can see them slowing down a bit on lap 18 to pass the workers trying to unstick the BMW from the mud just past the Bitch. That same BMW came back on track and stopped just past Turn 3 to put out the caution in Turn 2 for the rest of the race.

The biggest takeaway from their times is the staggering consistency for both of the drivers over the whole race. The first lap is longer because of the standing start. Michael has one lap in the 28's on lap 8, another for the caution, and the final lap when he exited the last turn in the marbles because Josh was on the inside. He has three high 26's in a row followed by a 27.1 when Josh is really on him - at the end of the long race. The rest of the times are all in the 1:27's. Josh gets a slower start because of the AI car. Apart from the caution, he has four 26's when he is closing in and the rest are in the 27's. He has 16 laps in the 27's and 17 laps below his Saturday qualifying time.

The consistency thing when really going for it is interesting to me. A long time ago, Chris Marvel and I were at a TWS DE in my car. He was good friends with one of the other instructors and they would always go at it hard if they met on track. He came in from a session completely exhausted and said I needed to look at the data because he was sure his best lap time was in there. He said he didn't have anything else left to give on track. I found that he did all of his best segment times in that session but none of the laps were his best. He did his best lap time in the previous session when he drove "normally." It was a learning opportunity for both of us.

Just looking at lap times is a pretty high level look at data but I don't see any of the expected sloppiness at the end of the run when the tires, brakes, engine, and driver are all getting overheated. The fact that they both raced that hard for that long without over driving and making mistakes is amazing to me. It would be cool to do a deeper dive of the data between them.


Richard P.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by BryanL

Interesting that you picked up a second with a new set of tires over a set with only one race at COTA.

---

I'm clearly keen on changing the tire situation but that is a very deceptive characterization of the data. In addition to the weather and track condition variables, Josh and I made many changes to the suspension during the weekend that made him much more competitive. A better comparison for tire degradation would be Michael and Kevin. In the championship race, both of them had best laps two tenths of a second off of their Saturday qualifying times. Again, we have multiple variables like temperature and the difference between a short qual session and a long race. After the Sunday morning rain storm, Tulsa weather history shows that it was about 5 degrees cooler for the race. What's the real time difference for the tires after corrections? Don't know. Would the outcome of the race been different without fresh tires? Hard to say. I know Josh doesn't regret putting on a fresh set for the championship race. Clearly, tires had no effect on the outcome of the AI race. For the brutally tight CMC race, there is some possibility that fresh tires were good for about 6"...


Richard P.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by RichardP

I'm clearly keen on changing the tire situation but that is a very deceptive characterization of the data. In addition to the weather and track condition variables, Josh and I made many changes to the suspension during the weekend that made him much more competitive. A better comparison for tire degradation would be Michael and Kevin. In the championship race, both of them had best laps two tenths of a second off of their Saturday qualifying times. Again, we have multiple variables like temperature and the difference between a short qual session and a long race. After the Sunday morning rain storm, Tulsa weather history shows that it was about 5 degrees cooler for the race. What's the real time difference for the tires after corrections? Don't know. Would the outcome of the race been different without fresh tires? Hard to say. I know Josh doesn't regret putting on a fresh set for the championship race. Clearly, tires had no effect on the outcome of the AI race. For the brutally tight CMC race, there is some possibility that fresh tires were good for about 6"...


Richard P.

---

Cody thinks that's clearly a good 12"!!!

Of course I'm making a gross characterization of the data I'm just glad someone picked up on it. When I read the writeup it didn't sound like there were any changes made between R2 and the final other than new tires is the reason for the comment.

So we can speculate on what we don't know or I can state facts that Josh was .848 quicker in the champ race with new tires than any other lap he ran on Saturday with no changes mentioned. (and Sook started Saturday with a set that had one heat cycle on them from Cota if I understood correctly?

Conversely, Michael and Kevin who you brought up were both slower on Sunday. Also slower on Sunday was: Jander, Mozader, Martin, Records, Patel, Leinart, Sanchez, Fernandez.

Hey!

I was only slower on Sunday because I was stuck behind you for most of the race.

My fastest lap was my last lap of the championship race :)

Josh and Michael, outstanding driving to the end. Josh the recap and sharing of info is to be commended. You have answered dozens of my newbie questions and never even looked at me funny. Thanks! And thanks for the brake pads. You kept me out there this weekend and I owe you.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by 64GunPilot

Something to note: My 1st time to watch a race, and I was also pissed off at the AI car slowing other out of class cars down. Poor sportsmanship. Jander's contact with him should have spurred further warnings from higher up.

But in the end, the AI car didnt ruin the race. Great fun watching all the CMC group. I learned a ton this weekend watching you all, and getting some seat time in.

---

We don't know he didn't ruin a race, maybe Jander had something for Sook? Based on raw pace, maybe not, but racing is more than just raw pace. The fact is out of class racing has ruined many races in the past, and while it is part of racing it's terrible sportsmanship and a terrible way to earn a reputation. Just look at the guy in Jander's video. As Josh said, not cool bro. Congrats to Josh though on an outstanding run, I made sure to let Bryan Curtis know of his nemisis' demise on the last lap as he's probably still a little bitter about last year. :D

Also Josh, how about a sweet highlight vid of the final?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by BryanL

So we can speculate on what we don't know or I can state facts that Josh was .848 quicker in the champ race with new tires than any other lap he ran on Saturday with no changes mentioned. (and Sook started Saturday with a set that had one heat cycle on them from Cota if I understood correctly?

---

Josh made changes after qualifying and after the first race. Since he had a poor finish in the first race, he started pretty far up in the invert and was leading the race going into Turn 2. After that, there was no need to push hard and saving the tires for the third race that he would have started from last was the best plan. Also, you don't want to risk throwing the car off track pushing harder than needed. Well, other than the lap he messed up the entrance to the Bitch because he was distracted by an empty water bottle underneath his pedals. As a person who assembles safety critical flight hardware for astronauts in a FOD free lab, I'm wholly embarrassed to have missed that since I gave him the water in impound after the first race...

Anyway, if we didn't think there would be a delta in performance by going with a fresh set of tires we wouldn't have put them on. I don't think that number is a fair representation of the delta, though. If race three had been run in the dry, I think the delta between old and new would have been a little bit bigger. If the rain on Sunday morning had come without lightning, Josh would have been fine as we had rain tires ready to go. For those not keeping track, that's a set of practice tires, a set of lightly used tires, a set of stickers, and a set of rain tires brought to the track for one event. Having won my AI championship without ever owning more than one set of wheels, this seems completely nuts to me...


Richard P.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by RichardP

Well, other than the lap he messed up the entrance to the Bitch because he was distracted by an empty water bottle underneath his pedals.

---

Oh yeah, I forgot about that already. It was under a different pedal in every turn. Also the passenger seat belts weren't bucked so the left shoulder belt kept hitting me. Amazing how little things like that can be so distracting.

- Josh

Congrats to Josh and the #50 team for a fantastic win! What a great job to get it done, test, tune, adapt, find a way to find a way!!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by BryanL

Cody thinks that's clearly a good 12"!!!

Of course I'm making a gross characterization of the data I'm just glad someone picked up on it. When I read the writeup it didn't sound like there were any changes made between R2 and the final other than new tires is the reason for the comment.

So we can speculate on what we don't know or I can state facts that Josh was .848 quicker in the champ race with new tires than any other lap he ran on Saturday with no changes mentioned. (and Sook started Saturday with a set that had one heat cycle on them from Cota if I understood correctly?

Conversely, Michael and Kevin who you brought up were both slower on Sunday. Also slower on Sunday was: Jander, Mozader, Martin, Records, Patel, Leinart, Sanchez, Fernandez.

---

Comparing lap times from a Saturday morning qualifying session vs a Sunday afternoon race is terrible. Come on man.....

Quick SM Recap for me

After Hallett in March I noticed the bushings were walking in my rear upper control arms, ended up pulling all rear suspension and fixing the bushings and inspecting everything.

Due to the work on the car TnT was critical, on junk tires the car was pushing bad, the rear bar has 3 adjustments, ended up going full stiff which fixed it up on those tires.
Lap times were not bad on 30HC tires but the car was very difficult to drive.
Saturday comes, strapped on shiny 6HC tires, balance was now crazy oversteer, went full soft on the rear bar and made some small air pressure adjustments, around 34 hot seemed ideal based on pyro temps for the tires.

Car was now solid, made a friend for qual, did a little bump drafting and got pole by .2.

Checked the datalog, found the car was a little rich, dropped fuel pressure by 2psi for a bit more power.

Finished P1 for all races so I started up front, had a little fun on the start then left the field usually finishing with a 5 sec gap or so.
Final race was very interesting with the legends cars, they were all over the place, I would give one a pass then it would sputter out and I would pass them back OR I give them the pass then they go off track.
Had a red one spin right in front of me, almost tboned him, went 2 off, I almost spun but kept it together and finished P1 for the final race.

Next is COTA in 2 weeks with SCCA with the big boys!

#34's story was the best weekend it's had racing since sometime mid last season. Between MSRC and Hallett I have been through the whole harness looking for the issue that causes it to turn off in left turns. Everything else stayed on, fuel pump, gauges, cool suit, etc...but the car would lose ignition. I found the +12V wire to the TFI had a loose terminal inside the connector which was probably the issue. Spent Thursday finishing prep on the car after finding a bad front brake line Sunday (was out of town M-Wed night for work) and got it aligned and loaded up about 5pm after a day of thrashing. Drove up Friday, 4-legged crew chief and OIF BBQ enthusiast and wife in tow and got to Hallett in time to get nice and wet in the storm.

Saturday morning went out for warmup on MSRC RR's, car turned off completely coming into the bitch. I managed to roll to the end of pit lane and reset the ignition circuit breaker and got it refired and went back out. Lap 2 saw the same thing, this time got it refired sooner but decided to come in. That was basically the low point of the weekend after all the work I'd done going through the harness in the shop. If I offered the car for sale to you at a very low price during that time I retract that offer now.:-P A bunch of folks came over during the driver's meeting and took a look and Larry Jander actually found one of the alternator wires arcing out on the alternator body. Fixed that and the car was mechanically trouble free for the rest of the weekend. Larry is also invited for beers/fireball in my pit anytime.

Bolted on stickers and Qualified 8th for R1 which I was happy with given that I'd turned 2 laps on track prior to qual. Race 1 I was able to go from 8th to 3rd with an assist from Kevin in the left lane starting in second gear and ended up finishing there. R2 I was midpack when I went off bigly in 5 and finished in the back. R3 I was sitting pretty comfortable in 4th with about a second over 5 and 6 when the car picked up a massive push at about the 20minute mark and I lost touch with Jander and got caught by Dustin and Martin. I had to drive it alot harder to achieve the same laptimes and finished 6th.

Overall I was really satisfied with the weekend. I have some setup work to do to get the laptimes down, but on initial data review I drove more consistently than I normally do (less spread in laptimes over each session) and I was extremely pleased with how starts went.

Also...team 'Merica won the slip and flip and I'm definitely only drinking out of that trophy cup for the foreseeable future. Craig yelling 'FULL POUR' from the bottom of the hill still haunts me today though...that was rough.

Admittedly I had my best weekend there ever, but still left a little disappointed in myself. Car ran flawless on Friday so I put it away before I broke something, that something came in warmup Saturday when the alternator pulley nut backed off and I ejected the belt. Luckily the nut was still on there so I zinged it back on with an impact, installed the spare belt, popped the flip top on the radiator to check water, left it open and went out to qualify. Got 3 laps in and something wasn't right, so I did a cool down lap and came in. Car was 250 when I left the track and 270 (didn't know this was possible) when I killed it at tech. It took a good hour to get it cooled back down and I was really worried (still am) about the head gaskets. Car held temp so I raced it all weekend but the newly shrouded stock radiator really wasn't cutting it. Car ran about 249 degrees the whole time with oil in the blow your motor up territory. I had 2nd place all to myself until the yellow flag in R1. Mosty got around the 2 GTS cars and caught up to the rest of the field while I rotted behind them driving Miss Daisy watching Jander and Records now occupy my rear mirror. No biggie, just do your thing and they won't get by. . . until you miss a 2-3 shift leaving the bitch on the white flag lap. I got 4th that race. Good job Jander and Records, bad job Dustin. R2 was going about how an invert goes, I was as comfortably in 4th as one can be with Mosty grinding the paint off my rear bumper. . . until I missed 3rd leaving T3. Almost gave up 2 there but was able to hold off John Martin and kept 5th. R3 being cancelled ended up being a blessing in disguise, plus I was able to sleep off more of Saturday night. I qualified 5th for the final which is a pretty good place to be. Al kinda parked it on lap 1 around T2 and Dan got around me on the outside there. A lap or 2 later Dan got around Al and about 100 laps later I finally got around Al. If you think Randy's car is wide, you don't know Al's car. I got him once going into T1, but he over undered me and took it back in T2. There were one or 2 other aborted efforts that came up short. I really only managed to get around him when his car went down on power. A lap or 2 later Dan made a mistake in T1 and I got around him. Next it was my turn so I decided to understeer terribly in T10 giving John the opportunity to pass me in T1 which he did. Lucky for me he went too deep into T2 and I got back next to him, we went side by side through T3, T4, T5, and into T6 I had the inside and got my spot back. Shortly thereafter, the car started sounding weird in 4th gear and I figured it was going to be over soon. As I listened more, I came to realize the motor wasn't flat, the clutch was slipping! Holy crap, please don't grenade please don't grenade please don't grenade. Once I realized this, I realized that the clutch had been done all weekend, it was slipping a lot at both standing starts but then it was good after that. I have to wonder if the heat made it fade? Next up was getting lapped by all the faster cars, I really wish they'd done a better job of presenting themselves. They weren't breathing down my ass so it forced a much bigger lift than I wanted to give since John was still back there. In the end, I kept 4th and all cars passed tech, I came in 7# over my minimum. I remember jokingly saying someone in the top 3 please weigh under, then immediately started doing math in my head and realized it could be me and got real quiet. I didn't take into account the effect of the yellow in R1 on fuel consumption. You'd think it ends there, but it doesn't. Starting at the trip to my last race at LaJunta, the truck started semi-randomly rolling coal. Mind you, the truck has a 454 so it chugs enough gas on its own. Between then and Hallett, I'd found a mushed pin on the PCM connector which recessed a pin in the PCM. Fixing that fixed my wonky idle and 5V reference signal code and on the test drive it didn't roll coal. Fast forward to my Hallett drive and as soon as I dipped in elevation (again), it started its crap. It seemed to only do it at lower elevations, after the truck had a good 30 miles on it (heat), and was TP dependent. It seemed like it cleared up in PE mode, i.e. open loop. I was in a hurry to get there so I ate the gas and kept going. When I fired the truck up for the return trip, I was reminded of this issue. Dan to the rescue with some electronics cleaner for the MAF, or so I thought. Down the road I unplugged an O2 when it was pulling its crap and it ran clean in open loop for 100 miles and economy was up. I went to Oreilly's, bought their only O2 sensor, pulled both and replaced the sooty one. Now I was good to go (hack troubleshooting without a scanner FTW) and 1 more thing crossed off the 3500's list. Barring any major life incidents I'll be back next year with better cooling, hopefully less flawed driving, and a blower back on the dually. Not looking like I'll be able to do the LS swap this winter at this point so going to have to continue to optimize the LT1. It definitely smokes more now than it used to, Just ask John. ;)

The 88 had a "meh" weekend, but considering we literally only done a couple dyno pulls after changing everything in the fuel system but the lines and the tank what could we expect?

As underpowered as it was it drove nice. I'm guessing part of that it it's probably a lot straighter than the last car (RIP OG #39). In fact, it wouldn't spin the tires coming up the bitch when I tried...

That and some clanking/grinding noise from the new rear end was interesting. And I think the thing ran out of brakes...

Good job racing all.

Good news is, we were pretty sure we were under on track width.

I drove an underpowered CMC (cheater?) Mustang last November. It too drove nice, but really made me wonder what it would do at the ragged edge? Gonna have to revisit that as we suspect its problems have been solved. I just realized something important though: the highest placing Chevy in the final was rocking an LT1. :cool:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by mach1

on junk tires the car was pushing bad, the rear bar has 3 adjustments, ended up going full stiff which fixed it up on those tires.
Lap times were not bad on 30HC tires but the car was very difficult to drive.
Saturday comes, strapped on shiny 6HC tires, balance was now crazy oversteer, went full soft on the rear bar and made some small air pressure adjustments, around 34 hot seemed ideal based on pyro temps for the tires.

---

As stated by many smart racers before, the first rule of testing is not to use junk tires. Since using fresh Toyos isn't going to happen, Josh and I have found that testing with the 200 treadwear street tires is a better compromise than crap Toyos. The street tires have a softer sidewall and a bit different handling feel so it's not optimum but the balance is comparable to fresh Toyos and they have stayed consistent over all the events we have done with them. Doing setup changes based on used Toyos isn't the best idea as they go through unpredictable balance changes as they cycle out unevenly. I don't think driving on crap Toyos is all that bad for driver training. If you can get good at the sharp falloff of them, driving fresh tires will be easy in comparison. For me, I've given up on them even though I get them for free. It's just not worth making my track time less enjoyable.

Josh and I will be out at MSRH again this weekend experimenting with more setup stuff. As we are still learning with the softer setup, I'm curious if the Hallett setup will work well at Houston or if the soft setup is going to want something different at every track?


Richard P.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by RichardP

As stated by many smart racers before, the first rule of testing is not to use junk tires. Since using fresh Toyos isn't going to happen, Josh and I have found that testing with the 200 treadwear street tires is a better compromise than crap Toyos. The street tires have a softer sidewall and a bit different handling feel so it's not optimum but the balance is comparable to fresh Toyos and they have stayed consistent over all the events we have done with them. Doing setup changes based on used Toyos isn't the best idea as they go through unpredictable balance changes as they cycle out unevenly. I don't think driving on crap Toyos is all that bad for driver training. If you can get good at the sharp falloff of them, driving fresh tires will be easy in comparison. For me, I've given up on them even though I get them for free. It's just not worth making my track time less enjoyable.

Josh and I will be out at MSRH again this weekend experimenting with more setup stuff. As we are still learning with the softer setup, I'm curious if the Hallett setup will work well at Houston or if the soft setup is going to want something different at every track?


Richard P.

---

Interested to see how it works out at MSR-H.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by RichardP

As stated by many smart racers before, the first rule of testing is not to use junk tires. Since using fresh Toyos isn't going to happen, Josh and I have found that testing with the 200 treadwear street tires is a better compromise than crap Toyos. The street tires have a softer sidewall and a bit different handling feel so it's not optimum but the balance is comparable to fresh Toyos and they have stayed consistent over all the events we have done with them. Doing setup changes based on used Toyos isn't the best idea as they go through unpredictable balance changes as they cycle out unevenly. I don't think driving on crap Toyos is all that bad for driver training. If you can get good at the sharp falloff of them, driving fresh tires will be easy in comparison. For me, I've given up on them even though I get them for free. It's just not worth making my track time less enjoyable.

Josh and I will be out at MSRH again this weekend experimenting with more setup stuff. As we are still learning with the softer setup, I'm curious if the Hallett setup will work well at Houston or if the soft setup is going to want something different at every track?


Richard P.

---

Exactly, we even joked about having to revert the setup once we put better tires on and that’s exactly how it went down. Good idea on testing with 200tw tires! Crust old RR’s are like driving in the rain, keep you on your toes and are not very predictable lol.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Supercharged111

the lowest placed running Chevy in the final was rocking an LT1. :cool:

---

Fixed it.