Hallett Comma 2020

[ShadowBolt]

Halloween.......... I like that way better than COTA in July or Eagles in August.

JJ

[Supercharged111]

I would have been there if the military didn't put me on a 200 mile leash. It was excruciating to miss this event. Happy to hear it went well though.

[Fbody383]

"The new to you 88..."

The 39a car and crew had a good time as well. For those that don't know, I ran out of talent at MSRH after somebody nameless splashed a bunch of water into the line I wanted in the last turn. "Nope, not gonna hit the wall... well, actually I am going to hit it, but not too hard. Nope, it's gonna be hard. WOW that was hard." I was supposed to be on a big boat enjoying all things Alaska this weekend so we thought we had a couple months to finish the car up.

But really, how long does it take to pull the frame rail, replace the strut tower and radiator support, rewire the fuse panel/switch panel, replumb the front brake lines and master cylinder, add a fire bottle, replace the harness, convert to big brakes, etc???

Friday was show up and see if the car runs day. We pulled whatever camber/caster we had into the car and bedded the brakes. Front spring perches were too low so raised those a bit and started wearing up some older tires. Just older than the other set of less-older tires we brought to race on.

Racing was fantastic all around. Robert Weston and I had a couple deja vu moments with him passing me into 2; both were fine and clean, the first one caught us both as "that might have been a little close/aggressive" but certainly nothing out of line and I was just holding him up anyway. Video will be interesting since in two laps i went from wondering if I was gonna hit the #5 to wondering if I was going to hit the wrecker that would then hit the #5. I need to watch the video and look for some racing data condition input device deployment. I do feel the car and the driver got more comfortable all weekend. Only one significant off after T1 due to driver talent error and other than the thing running "hot" (though it never pulled timing) and some minor brake fluid loss, the car held up.

Let's talk food. I think we now know that we need one small dish of potato salad, and probably no coleslaw. I think we got away with not having bread but maybe we keep some. In my best Simon Cowell, if I'm being honest - we needed 2lbs more brisket. In no particular order, and potentially missing something here's what we ate:

grilled chicken/grilled squash/pb&j sammich/chips/chaffles/cashews/almonds/raisins/cranberries/pulled pork/tortillas/roasted corn on the cob/brisket/onions/pickled jalapeno/dain bramage margarita/Randy's Beans^tm /McFall Baked beans/pinwheels/jalapeno poppers/jalapeno popper dip/tortilla chips/quacamole/ranch dip/salsa/meatballs/blueberry-cherry-apply-peach cobbler/nanner puddin/double stuffed Oreos/cheesy taters/green beans... what'd I miss? Duh, Midnight Ribs^tm.

Glad we cut down the last race a bit, simply to save the driver for the ride home that night. I don't know if it's good or bad that Hallett is such a haul but still the first race on my list every season.

Now, on to the video. If you have something (which you should since you have a camera for official AI/CMC races) get it trimmed and posted on the AI/CMC YouTube channel. If you need help, please just ask and we'll get something figured out.

[ShadowBolt]

It was too hot for this old man but Sunday was cooler and getting on the road home by 2:00 PM was great. I wish I could tell you guys how many time Connie and Scott told me how much they love this group. Scott said he had never seen such a close group (racing, helping each other eating and drinking together). I'm really proud of all of you. I really Missed Dustin, Gary, Pranav, Sook, Randy and Michael (sorry if I missed anyone). What happened to Corey Jones? It was so cool to have Sam at the track again. He working on his car all weekend with different issues until he found at least one injector stuck wide open and hydro-locked the engine so bad that it broke the starter nose cone! Then he makes it to a second place in the Championship race. Robert is a good racer and he kept saying how good you guys are and how fun you all are to race with. I'm almost Sure Jay could have made it a race with Daniel as I finally figured out what was wrong with the car 10 minutes prior to R4. All weekend the car would light up the right rear in the three righthanders. The Bitch was impossible to get through with any power added at all. We had to coast through the turn then wait to add power after the turn was completed. We noticed some oil on the top of the left strut and Sam had a spare so I changed it. While installing the last bolt and nut I saw the real issue and I should have known all along. The left end link spacer had punched through the washer meaning we had no front sway bar! I rigged it back together and Jay was fast as hell through The Bitch for two laps then something broke. Knocking when you start the engine even when not moving. Sounds like it's in the transmission. We will see. Either way the weekend was fun and as always I enjoyed the racing and the company.

JJ

[drecords]

Great weekend for #34. Car was absolute junk after descending from the top of Craig’s stacker on Thursday. Had a weird rev limiter feeling issue that was resolved with a MAF change and the car had a nasty push and a tire rub. Jacked with all that and got it sorted to qualify 3rd behind Martin and Curtis for R1. Martin put 4 off out of 5 and I slid by him and Curtis missed a shift out of 1 the next lap and I got the lead. Managed to hold the two of them off for the rest of the race. R2 I started dead last With Curtis starting in first and managed to make it up to 2nd by the end of lap 2. Got lucky choosing a lane and getting some great runs on lap 1. Managed to reel Curtis in but he made the mistake I needed to get by about a lap too soon and couldn’t do anything with him. Just about burned down my only set of tires for the weekend trying to catch him — but I really wanted to win. Race 3 I’d just assume forget (because hangover) but managed to get the 5th place I knew I needed to start the champ race on the pole. BTW ... The points used for the weekend are in the rules...first time I’ve been in a position at Hallett to worry about that. Lol...

R4: managed to clear Martin out of turn 1 to hold onto the lead. Curtis got around him and was all over my back bumper. Around lap 10 I made a mistake into the bitch and slid wide and he got under me. Decided I’d hang out behind him and see if I couldn’t force him into a mistake. A few laps later he slowed up out of 6 due to an engine problem and the rest is history. I dropped lap times ~2s to reduce the stress on the car so she’d last the rest of the race and was watching the gap to Crumpacker in the mirror. Managed to keep it clean and finish in 1st...absolutely was mentally wasted and couldn’t think straight until about 30mins later.

Unloading from the trailer yesterday it sounds like something’s gone in the bottom end of the engine — it’s running like it’s missing some compression and making some noises that sound terminal. Oh well ... that explorer bottom end had a good run and thankful it broke after the championship race!

Thanks to all for a great weekend and good clean racing and to Angie and the AI/CMC ladies for organizing the slip n flip and prizes.. Special thanks to OIF for cooking again this weekend...that’s no small amount of work and it was awesome as usual. The midnight ribs this year were even more spectacular than I remember!

[Al Fernandez]

I'll echo everyone's sentiments about this being a great weekend. Well, except for my ability to complete a track session...

[Fbody383]

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