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Thread: Watkins Glen

  1. #31
    Senior Member Grass-Passer MikeP99Z's Avatar
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    WGI Summary:

    First - thanks Casey Holdway for making the journey and helping me wrench on the car and crew chief. The Winding Road guys were also awesome to have assist and provided support. Thanks Kevin Pyles for loaning me a clutch disc!

    Thursday had 5 practice sessions. Some sessions were no better than a DE due to the huge volume of cars, but it was perspective on the track. I think I managed to get about 12 hot laps in. Some sessions were shortened due to incidents. I was having an extremely difficult time shifting the car which was very unusual. We changed the tranny fluid, and bled the clutch but that didn't seem to help. We put the car on the dyno in the afternoon and it pulled 346/329/328. Something wasn't right. I had just dyno'd at Alamo prior to loading the car and was at my normal 363. Was it the dyno or my car?? I had worked my times down to the 2:08s without very many laps. The car was great except the shifting. I complained to Casey that if I could shift the freakin thing that I'd drop a second off the time.

    Friday morning I went out in warmup and the clutch exploded on lap two. I limped it back to the paddock and the search for a clutch began. This wasn't a simple solution, as my flywheel/clutch/pressure plate were all custom from Clutchmasters, so an off the shelf part wouldn't work. Casey called around and found a full assembly at a stealership in Albany. Cheryl jumped in the rental car and made the 7 hour round trip to get the assembly while Casey and I set off on disassembly. After walking the paddock looking for options, Kevin Pyles happened to have a spare used Spec Stage 2 disc in the GTO parts bin. We grabbed it deciding that we could use the stock flywheel and pressure plate with the Spec disc.

    Cheryl got back to the track about 6pm and we started installing. After a few snags and finding a clutch alignment tool from a corvette guy (really GM, you said one was in the box...), the car was reassembled by 12:30am (thanks to Greg Smith for helping us stab the tranny, holy shit that sucked). The clutch disc had exploded sending debris into the forks, broke the pressure plate mounts, tore up the flywheel etc.

    Saturday morning after 3 hours of sleep, I drove it around the paddock, and it seemed to work. I went out in warmup and ran a 2:06.5 on lap 2, and decided that things were working and the car was shifting fine, so I pulled it in. The stock pressure plate engagement was just like a stepping on a sponge for engagement, but the disc was holding the power.

    Saturday afternoon was Qual Race 2. Since I didn't run Race 1, I was starting last on the grid, and would be starting last in the champ race no matter how I finished. The bummer about no Friday race was the loss of education on where/who/how my competitors performed/raced and trying to learn a few things about the track under race conditions. So, we had a standing start which went off very clean. I picked up a few positions on Lap 1 and worked myself to 5th a few laps later. Places 2-6 were stuck in a pack together while the leader walked off a bit. I figured I might have a shot at P3 in the time remaining. I had clicked off a few 2:06s and knew where some improvements were in certain places, especially the last corner - I was over slowing the car and had decided to try 4th gear instead of 3rd the next lap - as the guy in front of me had pulled me hard twice in a row out of that corner.

    Going into the bus stop the guy in front of me kicked dirt onto the track. I hit it, my front end slid a bit and then the back slid (at 90-100mph). As i was sliding I had a choice to either gas it and loop the car onto the race line, or counter steer and not take out the guy behind me. I made the decision to not take out the guy behind me, but when I counter steered the car tank slapped. I recover these things 99% of the time. This was the other 1%. I ran out of talent. So, I locked it down with 2 feet in and tried to park it. The surface changed from asphalt to grass and I was along for the ride watching the guardrail inch closer and closer, saying no, no, no...boom - guardrail impact about 10-15 mph at about a 10* angle wiping the nose off the car. It was still running, so pulled it around the backside of the flag station where the rescue guys were parked, considering I was in a bad spot. I think my waving yellow last about 15 seconds. I'm fine and not physically hurt.

    It's hard to put into words the emotional dejection after such things. I'm pissed, frustrated, depressed, embarrassed, crushed, etc. I hadn't wrecked the car in about 10 years, which was due to a mechanical failure. That wreck was easier to put into context at the time because I had no control over it. This time I'm left wondering if I could have changed something to prevent it. Like just tooling around at the back knowing I'd still be starting last for Sunday, or not driving as hard, or whatever - pick an option - plenty of what-ifs. I went up there to race, I needed to learn what these guys were doing if I was going to have any chance on Sunday. Just an unfortunate situation which ended the weekend. The car should be repairable. It'll go to the body shop later in October.

    I'll upload the video soon (need to pare it down due to size etc), since I know all you sick bastards like to to watch such devastation and destruction. Yeah, I'm right there with ya...

    Turns out that Sunday was a complete cluster with 4 green laps in 45 minutes, and the worst thing / flagging decision I've seen in 20 years of racing - that's a story for another time.

    Side note - my mother flew in from Denver to watch me race (ugh, I just wasted the car with my Mom there...)

    Thanks for the support,
    MP
    Last edited by MikeP99Z; 09-26-2016 at 10:33 PM.

  2. #32
    Senior Member Carroll Shelby Supercharged111's Avatar
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    Geez I didn't think you were that close to hauling the thing down, what a kick in the nuts. Kind shocking such a slow impact was enough to hose your alignment and whatever else (aero for sure). And yeah, that flag situation was a joke. Even the announcer forgot how to be professional and I can't blame him watching that mess unfold. I mean you're on the edge of your seat fearing for the guy who spun out, talk about a code brown for him with his side of the car facing the oncoming nutcases about to take a green.

  3. #33
    Senior Member Carroll Shelby
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    Thanks for the report. I can understand all those emotions but you don't need to worry about any of them. It's tough not too but you don't need to second guess a decision at 100 mph to drive a car off track instead of potentially taking out more. It just wasn't your day and racing can punish you like the dirt being thrown on the track. It wasn't like you were making some low percentage dive bomb in a race that didn't matter. You were still racing and learning the car, track, and competition. The knowledge you could gain passing those guys could have certainly been used to get up front on Sunday.

    Man-4 green laps of racing in 45 minutes for the National event is pretty pathetic. Just too many cars on track with big speed differentials not just in lap times but where they make their speed on track.

    See you in the 24 at TWS.
    Bryan Leinart
    CMC #24

  4. #34
    Here is a video of the start of the championship AI race. https://youtu.be/_B_RRJE7jT4

    Over all our race weekend was mostly case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time with accidents and disabled car, safety cars which we were always on the wrong side of. We struggled in the test day with over heating issues. The race's we had no luck.We felt like we would have the pace to run well up in the pack if we had a chance. Just before the final the fuel pump started acting up and it finally quit while we were loading it in the trailer. We came home with all 4 corners intact. I have to thank Jason Massey at iLLcit Motorsports for all of the hard work all season. Mike Patterson for spending some time with Jack talking about the track and traffic management. Rumor has it hat next year East coast will be at Sebring and West coast will be at Thunderhill. See you at TWS for Next last race

  5. #35
    Senior Member Site AdminCarroll Shelby michaelmosty's Avatar
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    Are you freaking kidding me?!?!?! No kidding a code brown moment!!!

    How many got DQ'd for passing under yellow?
    -Michael Mosty
    CMC #11 Mosty Brothers' Racing
    Director - TX Region

  6. #36
    Not sure if there were any DQ for passing under yellow at the start of the race. Who in their right mind made the decision to tell them to throw the green with a standing yellow at the starter stand? Tell me who would have seen and paid attention to a person holding a solid yellow flag at the starter stand when the flagger is vigorously waving a green flag in the manner he was. When you watch Jack's in car video, you can see me leaving about 60-70 feet of my new tires on that track due to someones poor judgement to have them start the race. Look at turn 1 and there is no flag at T1 station but they finally made the decision to throw a full course caution by the time we hit T3. I looked at the CCR before I posted earlier to make sure I wasn't missing anything and NO WHERE do they talk about a green/yellow flag. Below is copy paste from the CCR on split starts. I looked at my video earlier and at the time I hit my brakes it looked as if I was doing anywhere between 100-120MPH (bad shadow so it's hard to see) I will get off my soap box about this but I won't stop being pissed about it for awhile. Pissed for the poor guy left on track while this unfolded, Pissed I almost wrecked my car because I didn't see the Vette until the red Camaro moved over and Pissed cause they helped me ruin 2 new tires I can't use anymore because of flat spots. I will post my video later of the start when I can find the time to edit it to a couple seconds.

    My driving weekend pretty well stunk there. The track is scary fast and I struggled with my car all weekend and tried to grow more cojones for the walls but never quite got there. We did finally change the rear springs Saturday night and the car felt great for the morning 100 car all skate practice. Just can't move anywhere in the field on 4 laps 1 lap at a time between DYellow. A late find on a cracked front rotor kept me from making it to the Saturday qual race till 2 laps into it. Still had a great time regardless. IMO NASA needs to have MANY more meetings with the NASA people as well as the track before they run a national event. I know a lot of the set backs and hold ups were due to racers themselves but there were plenty of things that could have prevented a few things.

    20.8 Flagman Timed Start (split or not)
    The Starter will raise a furled green flag over his / her head and open it slowly. After displaying an open green
    flag for approximately five (5) seconds, the Starter will drop the green flag. The group of cars will leave the
    starting line. In the case of a second group of cars (split), the flagman will repeat the process; and again for
    every subsequent group.
    Once the green flag has been raised, and there is a need to abort the start, the Starter will keep the flag in the
    air, and slowly furl it closed, then lower it slowly with the handle held vertically. This procedure should be done
    with care, as not to cause a false start

  7. #37

  8. #38
    Senior Member Rookie smitty328's Avatar
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    Wow Mike, great run. Sorry it ended that way, but glad your ok.

  9. #39
    Senior Member Grass-Passer MikeP99Z's Avatar
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    Thanks. At least my motor sounds good at 6500 rpm in 5th...

  10. #40
    Senior Member Carroll Shelby
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    Quote Originally Posted by smitty328 View Post
    Wow Mike, great run. Sorry it ended that way, but glad your ok.
    Exactly, thanks for posting the video and the story.
    Tyler Gardner
    CMC #13 2015-2017
    SM #013 2018
    www.dfwmustangs.net

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