2020 Round 1 MSRH recap

[Sook]

Excellent recap Al.

We did about 4 laps in T&T on Friday and immediately had a slipping clutch. Found out the flywheel bolts were seeping oil onto the clutch disk. A big scramble for clutch parts at the local parts stores, ended up with a mishmash of parts in the bellhousing but good enough to race on. Ran great on Saturday.

I had a stomach bug Sunday morning (leftover pizza...) which led to me getting to the track about 10 minutes before qualifying. I loved the wet track, but the clutch was slipping again. Slipped for the rest of the weekend, still had excellent racing with the CMC crew. We did some positive setup work on the 4th gen. Axle hop is the devil.

Warm welcome to our new comers!

- Josh

[Trublu]

I'll chime in with some AI stuff. Firstly, really great to welcome Rusty into the group, by all accounts he will slot right in both on and off the track.

Qual for R1: Great conditions to kick the weekend off. Car was running great friday so just a minor shock adjustment. Track was pretty clear for the most part and wide open for lap 3 which netted a 1:42.203

Race 1: Both Casey and I got pretty decent starts and I figured we'd be side by into 1, I hadn't left much room for that when we formed up so we ended up nose to tail instead. From there we both got to enjoy the new AI power to weight ratio and managed to pluck off some nice laps while negotiating some of the ST field. Big moment for me was almost driving right through the white Thunder Roadster when he decided to park it under the start finish gantry for no apparent reason. The Lap record for CCW had been held by Mason and the Team Downunder Mustang since January 2009 with a 1:43.927 I managed a 1:43.611 (lap 3 I think) to narrowly grab the record.

Race 2: Casey and I split around Bert who was stuck in 4th gear but Casey had the legs into turn 1, we were shaping up to have a close race but...... Rusty took his first green flag in American Iron and for the shit show Race 3 was I think he did a great job dealing with a bunch of new stuff all in the one race (should I say lap?). Congrats to Angie on making a double appearance in the pace car. How this race ended with no body contact is beyond me.

I ended the day thinking our group is better than the performance we gave not only in R2 but also R1. We need to spend some time breaking that down a little and taking something out of the experience.

Great goings on in the evening culminating in Clarke and my dear bride using my snoring mouth as a target for cheese balls.....memory like an elephant....

Qual for R3 was great fun. I left grid and the light made it seem as though the track was relatively dry.....no so. Spent the session on RRs looking for grip and playing the balancing game of traction vs speed. I love the extra element that a wet session brings and the MSRH event usually provides at least one each year.

Race 3: surprisingly grippy after qual conditions. Got a decent jump off the line to end up in front of Casey at turn 1. Yellows again but thankfully no pace car this time. First standing start followed by CMC field experience for Rusty, again great job.

Race 4: what a blast and thanks to the CMC field for allowing our request to grid at the back. The added dimension of racing through a field, maintaining contact with you competitor in front whilst making sure you don't ruin the CMC race is really cool. As it was Casey went with he inside guys into 1 and me the outside by the carousel I had to file in line with Casey to navigate through then still neck and neck coming out of Diamonds edge I chose to follow Michael and John around (??) but Casey found a gap down the inside before the sweeper. From there Casey and I had a great race with him pulling on straights and me gaining in corners. Great job to Casey holding out for the win.

Big cudos to Kay who managed a tightly packed grid like a champ.

I'm sore and tired, suffering from post race blues but already thinking about Cressen

[drecords]

The weekend from #34’s perspective....

Having just bought a house and having a wedding on Sat night i vascillated between showing up or not but eventually decided to show up on old tires with the same car that left TMS. Goal was to just have fun instead of getting all bent out of shape about doing well and end up frustrated when the car inevitably sputtered around all weekend. I did throw
a new fancy optima red top battery in it and low and behold the damn thing ran perfect all weekend (and made bang on power/tq on the dyno). Idk...the ignition switch took a dump after R2 and was failed on so I used the kill switch all weekend...might have also been the issue and finally broke to where I can fix it!

I didn’t test in Friday, instead electing to sleep in late, work out (new year new me...till about feb) and have a leisurely pack out and trip to msrh. Saturday morning warmup and quail went well...mostly knocking the rust off the driver and making a few setup changes that seemed to improve things through the weekend. Finished P4 and P2 in 1&2. Sunday morning the track was moister than an oyster and I could tell by the HPDE 1 session that it really wasn’t drying very quickly. Richard intimidated me when he pulled the rains out for Josh’s car so I pulled mine out and aired them up. I went up to a condo balcony and looked at the puddles and decided I’d give them a shot...god I love driving these cars in the wet, it’s just a raucous good time. Ended up getting pole for R3 and threw it away by demonstrate the fox chassis’ burnout capabilities on the start. Held onto 3rd until the last lap when I opened the door for josh by getting into some freshly sprayed mud on the exit of diamonds edge and ended up P4. Race 4 got out in the lead and put a gap on the field while Mosty and Martin worked their way through traffic. Ran up on a certain yellow miniature whatchamacallit car that was apparently missing mirrors or common sense and the Mosty and Martin duo caught me. Was trying to defend 2nd from John and ran wide in the carousel but tried to hero out of it to save the spot. Ended up buried in the mud like a dunce.... Lesson being if you know someone is putting a second per lap on you and the rest of the field is far enough behind that you can ride around for podium points...don’t drive off the track.

[Trublu]

One more thing I forgot to mention. We talked about ride alongs for potential new racers at the year end dinner; thanks to Michael and KDawg taking a couple of my friends out, we have two guys spending some quality time on the NASA and Racing Junk websites. Little early to tell yet but Kenny, who held a Scottish racing license, seems to be leaning toward a Mustang and Justin wants to know more about what it takes to get there.

[Fbody383]

Great start on the write-ups.

I'll add more later probably... Literally just watched the "incident" unfold. Looks like the #34 bus-stop-pedestrian-splashed a bunch 'o H2O on the last corner, Josh may have been able to turn under where the puddle landed and i went right in it. Once I get it trimmed I'll get it posted.

[drecords]

Great start on the write-ups.

I'll add more later probably... Literally just watched the "incident" unfold. Looks like the #34 bus-stop-pedestrian-splashed a bunch 'o H2O on the last corner, Josh may have been able to turn under where the puddle landed and i went right in it. Once I get it trimmed I'll get it posted.

Dang...guess I’m banned from midnight ribs.

[Al Fernandez]

Oh not at all...they've got a special rack just for you