2012 Nationals Update from CMC#82
Like last year, I’ll try and keep the group updated on Dan Allford and the Red Shift Racing #82 CMC car from the NASA Nationals. Hopefully things go a little smoother this year…
Dan, Craig and I were all supposed to head to Ohio early this week with some tourist type stops along the way. A big design review at work got postponed to this week so Dan and Craig left on Sunday afternoon without me so I can present at the review. I’m supposed to fly in on Wednesday night to catch up with them.
Dan and Craig successfully got the #82 car to Ohio this morning after driving through lots of rain. I, of course, showed up to work this morning with news that the review had been postponed another week. Not only is the start of my trip compromised, I now have to hurry my ass back to Houston after Nationals…
Since this is Nationals, drama is apparently required. We started the drama early this year with a 5:00 dyno appointment. The car seemed to be running fine but it was down about twenty horsepower, and more tellingly, the ignition signal was dropping out giving erratic readings on the graphs (600 ft/lbs?!?). The number one cause of this is a bad signal from the fragile dyno sensor that attaches to a spark plug wire. A few different wires were tried without success. The dyno’s sensor was working fine before us and, more importantly, after us. Crap.
Since we are a day away from the start of a really big event with an unknown issue, the obvious answer is the shotgun approach. In this case that would be plugs, wires, coil, and of course, the Opticrap. It’s fun trying to explain how to swap an opti over the phone. Anyway, the car is back together and runs. The good (or bad) news is that they found oil inside the opti. It’s good that they found a plausible reason for the issue. The bad is that I’m not sure why it does that and how long it will be before it goes bad again. The other bad news is that they were not able to get splined shaft out of the opti so they had to carefully clean up the one that was in there and reinstall it.
Anyway, tomorrow is practice and of course more dyno runs. Fingers crossed…
Richard P.
Drivers after action report:
The Nationals are worth the trouble to race.
All I managed to do was finish 5th. Even that was thanks to two full course cautions followed by good restarts and the fact Cody isnt clear on where 3rd gear is. :)
I struggled with HP problems at first which we solved with an optispark and a new coil. Then I struggled to learn the track. It was not until the 22 lap of the final race that I got in to the 1:40s. I found it challenging to learn the track because there a several places you would rather not go off.
As always the CMC crowd was great. Kent Owens took time to show me videos of the line through one of the corners. Derick Wright gave me pointers on several corners which helped a bunch. Kent gave me a tranny bolt and water pump gaskets when I needed them. Joe Bogetich offered to send one of his crew to pick up parts for me. And the beer flowed freely at parties every night.
Yes it was a long tow, too much time, too much money, too small a field and a bit humbling. But it was a tough crowd to race with and I crave a challenge. I enjoyed myself and learned a bit of driving too. I encourage everyone to attend next year at Miller. Support the series, race against some talented drivers and enjoy an intensity level which is hard to match.
Dan Allford #82
