Autobahn 3.5hr Enduro - Saturday June 7th

 While at another event at The Autobahn Country Club, we seen a flier for a new 3-race Enduro series this year at Autobahn.  Race #1 was a 3.5hr event to be held on Sat June 7th.  With some (a lot) of planning, our same group that won the 4.5 hr NASA Autobahn Full Track Enduro was signed up!  That meant I'd be back in the #50 Mustang!

Last fall in the 4.5 hr, Dave (owner), Joe and I ended up running 5 total stints of about 50 min each for that race which ended in pitch darkness with me taking the checker in our E0 class.  This would be 3.5hrs and we eventually learned it would be the 2.1 mile South Track running from 4:30pm - 8pm.  Joe couldn't make it, and nobody else that Dave trusts could either, so this would be a 2-man event. 

About a week prior to the event we learned that Dave and our crew chief would be helping instruct an event on the North track all day.  So I immediately was thrust into the starter's role - no worries.  I'd also have the car at my disposal during the daytime to practice as I wanted and would need to qualify and do the final prep on the car.  Seemed simple!

I buzzed up to Autobahn about 8am Sat morning with a new personal best time of 2hr; 7mins - it's about 175 miles.  After being reminded of the battery cut-off safety feature Dave had installed, I got the car started and later went out for the 11:50 practice session.  The car felt fine, reminding me of the limited visibility it has!  The large hood scoop and big A-pillar do hamper things but it's doable. 
1pm was the driver's meeting and by then most of the crew (Ken & Heather) were there; with Dave escaping their instructing gig long enough to catch most of the meeting.  Nothing too crazy rulewise came up in the meeting.  Afterwards we prepped for the final 1:40 practice as we had plans to run the full 25min stint at race pace to gauge fuel consumption.  I think I got 9 laps in around a 1:39-1:41 pace on the Toyo RR's.  At that pace, there were several highly prepped Miata's that were going to be difficult to lap with.  While we were a few seconds faster than the Miata's, their cornering speeds are faster so passing would need to be respectful.

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We let the car cool down and then started prepping the radios etc for Qualifying which we thought was at 3:30pm.  We later learned it was from 3:15-3:25pm instead and we only had 1 tire swapped!  We also couldn't find a tire gun, so the 3 of us had to change everything with a rachet wrench which is painful and painfully slow!  We got things wrapped up with just enough time for me to get exactly 1 hotlap in!  Babying the brand new Hoosier R6 tires that def weren't up to temp, I think I had a 1:39x and was around 10th out of 15 cars perhaps.
We then had 1 hr to setup our pitstall and final prepwork.  The original plan was for me to start and run a full fuel load which we thought would be 1:10-1:15.  That would set us up for a 3-stop race; possibly a 2-stop if things were stretched perfectly throughout.

The race started with me behind the wheel - without too much drama.  Once the Hoosier R6's came up to temp, the car felt so much better than the old RR's we were practicing on.  I settled into pace - ahead of the Miata's at around 1:38 as planned, occasionally running a harder 1:37 by varying gear selection but always taking it slow through T1/2 complex to preserve the LF tire we were concerned about.  There was a double-yellow about 1 hr into my stint and as soon as that cleared up the car coughed for fuel.  I had been motioning into the pits during the yellow (that things were ok), but I noticed everyone thought I was motioning I was coming in for fuel, so it all worked out!  lol.
I loosened the belts as I made it into our pitstall when John (crew-chief) asked me how I was feeling.  I said 'Great'.  He asked if I wanted to double-stint and explained we were in 2nd in class and the 2-stop 3-stint strategy was lined up perfectly with my initial 1:20 stint.  I said 'sure'; and had John buckle me back in. Dave yelled out that I'd unofficially broken the NASA PTB track record... lol - I was well aware of that actually!

After waiting on fuel, I was off for another 1+ hrs!  The sun had started to go behind the clouds and twilight was approaching so the track was cooling.  The car stuck a bit better and I settled into a more aggressive pace.  My best lap being a 1:36.x while still protecting the tires a bit.  The stint was long and I was definitely getting a sore neck, hip (from heel/toe) and right-hand from the shifter.  I think there were about 13-14 shifts per lap!
Once the fuel load was done, I brought the car in and I surprised the crew as it must've been an official smoke-break!  People suited up, fueled the car and Dave hopped in to bring it to the checker with us firmly holding 2nd.  Twilight was upon us and Dave ended up with some light rain during a lot of his ~50min stint.  In the end, he kept it clean (Mustangs + Rain = No Grip!).  And 2nd place was ours!


http://autobahnenduro.com/

NASA Midwest Region @ Autobahn - 4/27/14

Sunday brought another day of great racing; with a similar schedule.  Practice yielded a 1:40.6; which was 4th of the PTE class but I knew their was more time in the car and wasn't worried.  2 hours later in qualifying I pushed hard and my best lap of 1:38.512 would put me on pole!  The top was damn tight; with 2nd being .08 behind me and the top four separated by just .355!
Today's race would be a rolling start.  And Jason and I would again be on the front row; with him qualifying P2.  We discussed a strategy of slow into T1 and me guarding the inside of the track; with him holding close to me so nobody could squeeze through.  We wanted to keep everyone else behind, and let us duke out P1.
The strategy worked pretty damn well actually.  With the drop of the green, the Miatas (pretty much everybody but me is in a PTE Miata) got a bit of a jump thx to their bigger motors, but I was able to make that up braking late into T1 thanks to my lower weight.  T1 and T2 went just as planned - and I was full out through T3 and was able to pull a bit of a gap.  T4 we were still 2-wide and with T5 Jason getting picked a little and I was able to pull a bit of a gap that I exercised by using all of T6 and checked out in the lead!  T6 is where both the videos below end - with both a forward-facing and rearward-facing camera.  Pretty neat stuff; there's a lot going on in those 40 or so seconds!
By the end of lap #1, I had about a 4-6 car lead with everyone still duking it out for position behind me.  I decided to take care of the tires a bit, as yesterday things got really greasy.  I think this strategy call was the incorrect call, as it let the competition stay close.  A few laps in, I took a bad line into T6 and pretty much lost all of my lead.  I was now forced into some defensive driving lines and into similar issues as Saturday where I'm at a bit of a disadvantage in traffic with the lower torque motor.  In the end there was some terrific driving in class, specially with the top 4 of us.  I had a terrific weekend and had a lot of fun.  It's great to hop in a car you've never seen or driven before and immediately be competitive.  Not only that; I put the car on the front-row of qualifying each day and run under the old track record!  Huge thanks to Sam and Myers Motorsports for the car prep.

NASA Midwest Region @ Autobahn - 4/26/14

The wife and I got up early Saturday morning (4:40am) to make the drive to Autobahn for the 8am driver's meeting.  I arrived in time to greet Sam of Myers Motorsports and get a look at the 1991 Honda CRX SI I would be driving this weekend.  The car looked clean and, well, small! 
I had a short discussion with Sam about the car and all the specifics relating to shift points, types of brakes and how I could expect the car to handle.  As well as a bit of advice on FWD, as I had never raced a FWD platform yet! 

8:50am Practice was up first and I'd have a 1-way radio in my ear with Sam helping spot and call out times  on the other end of the mic.  It was of immediate help as there was a car off on lap 1 and Sam called it to me before I seen it!  I took it easy for about 2-3 laps as the temps were in the 40's and the tires needed temp.  I started dropping about 2 seconds a lap and ended with a 1:41.3 I believe and Sam seemed pretty satisfied with that.  After I heard the other PTE cars were in the 1:40-1:41 range I felt pretty damn good.  To be nearly at-speed after 15min in a car I'd never even seen before was pretty sweet.  The only issue happened when I flipped on the fan in the pits and it grounded itself out and created some pretty hanous smelling smoke.

10:30am Qualifying was up next.  Sam had fixed the wiring issue; no real setup changes as I really liked the balance of the car.  I hit it pretty hard right away and seen a 1:39.8 pop-up.  I pushed hard 1 more lap (Sam radio'd the white flag was out) and the in-car timer said I had a absolute flyer going; .4 better... until I hosed up a turn and dropped 2 tires off.  Lap ruined!  However my time would hold for P2 out of 7 in class; which meant the front row!

1:25pm was the Lightning race.  36 cars in total; starting in 3 waves.  My class (PTE) would be the 3rd and final wave, consisting of 9 cars; 7 in my PTE class and 2 Honda Challenge cars.  I had only been in 1 standing start before, and they are difficult especially in a car you've never tried to 'launch' before!  I got a decent launch, but we were quickly 4-wide into turn 1, and I was dodging a spinning car by T3 in route to one hell of a race.  Video is below; I'll let it speak for itself.

After falling back to 5th at the start I worked my way back to 2nd before I spun.  My best lap was a 1:39.154 which broke the track record!  That is until a fellow competitor put down a 1:39.135 about 6 laps later stealing away the PTE track record!
I have to give a huge thanks to Sam & Myers Motorsports for providing a front-row capable car!

Chumpcar 7hr @ Autobahn - Sunday 4/6/14 - Day #2

Just like the previous day, we'd be running a 7hr endurance race on Sunday.  Same team, same drivers, just a reversed driver order with me leading off this time.  I had convinced the owner to try some lower tire pressures today in hopes it would improve the handling and eliminate the push.
With another cold morning (but not as cold) starting, I suited up and hoped in the car for the initial warmup laps.  That's when one of the craziest things I've seen happen - and I got it on video!

Yes, that's a tire falling off!  Pretty crazy eh.  And they were pitted right next to us!  So it was pretty funny for our crew to tell their crew about it.  Obviously that took a bit to clean up, but eventually the green flag dropped and we were off.  The last vid below is the first 40mins of my lead stint - uncut.  With the random green I started in 26th or 29th, not really sure as I only heard it across the radio.  I pushed hard ran better laps than yesterday due to improved tire pressures and less push.  Best lap of 1:48.5 - nearly 2 seconds better than yesterday!  I and brought the car up to 11th before turning it over.  Once again, a clean session from behind the wheel, although I had to deal with some yellows and we actually brought the car in a few mins early to try and take advantage of a caution. 

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Driver #2 (who spun yesterday) had instantly improved times.  I went to get some lunch since it was 11:15 or so and suddenly seen the car drive past the concession stand and through the paddock.  That wasn't a good sign!  I looked and we were down to 15, 18 and 20th pretty much immediately.  The story was another spin, stuck and had to get pulled to an access road to get out.  Ugh.

Driver #3 also improved his stint - running < 2:00 today.  He took the car in 26th and pretty much held it for most of his session.  Towards the last 15min he started picking up a few spots with the helps of some pitstops!  Dan did a terrific job imo as he had very little experience coming into the weekend.  Again a clean stint; no spins and no contact. 

Last up was the owner; taking the car from around 22nd to the checker.  I personally reset the tire pressures down a bit - but not too much.  The times were solid, again a bit better than yesterday and he worked the car up to a 19th place finish once again.  So we'd finish with a pair of 19th place finished each day - out of a 49 car field.  Top half!  w/o the spin each day we'd have been around 13-16th.

Chumpcar 7hr @ Autobahn - Sat 4/5/14 - Day #1 - part 2 of 2

As mentioned in the previous post, I would be the 4th and final team driver of the day.  I'd be driving from 2:10pm to the 4pm checkered flag.  I took the car in 26th and planned to push hard!  The car was pretty easy to drive and I quickly settled in with some 1:51-1:53 laps.  I did end up with the fastest lap of the team for the day - a 1:50.6.  The track was full but manageable and the car stayed consistent.  As I tried to pick up the speed even more, it became evident the car was setup to push (understeer) either for safety concerns or simply be accident.  It pushed badly in 2,3,4,5 and 13 where I had to back out of the gas mid-corner!  Not ideal, but at this point in the race I was trying to make up as many respectable position as possible!

The first 45min went by pretty normally.  The last hour was a bit more hectic; the last 15min was downright crazy (exactly why we switched me into the last stint) with a few different double-yellows because of contact and was hectic restarts where I wasn't the only one pushing hard for spots!  The first vid here is the last 45mins or so.

As I mentioned, it got more hectic.  Racing between local yellows and trying to time when a double-yellow will drop are 2 pretty difficult things to master.  Get it wrong and you can cause a wreck, injure a corner worker (very very bad), lose positions and/or incur a penalty.  Get it right and it's pretty sweet, fun, and definitely rewarding!
All in all, I pulled the car up to 20th and with a DQ in the top finishers, we ended up 19th overall out of 42 cars.  22 laps behind the leader and 7 laps out of 15th.  I figure that we lost 5-8 laps with the spin in stint #3 - which was the only spin for the team.  I am happy to say the entire team kept it clean; no car contact and no black flags!  Pretty much what I thought as we had a solid chance at 15th w/o the spin.  The 2 newbs were obviously slower, but we all expected that and by keeping it clean I thought they did a pretty solid job.  Pitstops were hastily planned, but executed pretty well with regards to fuel and driver changes.  We never checked any setup on the car at all - which I thought was a mistake.  We would eventually check the tire pressures after the race and find the fronts to be 42 and 55! 

The last vid here is the final 3 laps of the race - keep in mind that's the final 3 laps of an 8 hr race!  It should give you a good snapshot of what things are like with managing slower and faster traffic, not passing under yellows, timing passes, etc.

We'd be doing the same thing tomorrow; another 7 hours!

Chumpcar 7hr @ Autobahn - Sat 4/5/14 - Day #1 - part 1

I headed the 2.5 hrs from work to Autobahn Country Club in Joliet, IL on Friday.  We had 30mph gusts from the West combined with a 39 degree temp which made driving difficult!  The main requirement was to get my safety gear checked out and simply do a meet-n-greet with the team I'd be racing with.  I quickly found the car - a white Miata; nicknamed 'Jenny' (ala 8675309) - and some of the team.  There were apparently no plans to practice any driver changes or discuss strategy.  I was able to sit in the car and BS while freezing my arse off.  I did a lot of coaching to one of the newbs on the team; Dan.  Both explaining racing, the track, and trying to convince him not to overcomplicate things. 

The driver's meeting was 8pm the next day with racing from 9-4pm.  The owner suggested we meet at 7am, which sounded crazily early and when I arrived at 7:15am nothing had been done.  Besides the owner and myself, there were 2 other drivers - neither had driven in a Chumpcar event or any other Enduro race of anykind.  Some go-kart experience was all they had; which isn't totally uncommon for Chump or Lemons actually.  And I was also the only one that had ever driven at Autobahn before.  I figured our best chance was finishing 10-15th if all went well.

Our pitstall was mostly setup - we carried in a few remaining items and the owner was climbing in for Stint #1.  The 4 of us would be sharing the 7hr event with 1:45 stints each.  A last-minute change moved me to 4th as I would be the closer with all the 'crazies' at the end.  Sounded just find to me.
Crazily enough, when we went to start the car in pit lane the car broke!  No joke.  So thus started a weekend of push-starts!  We got it push-started and the random green flag generously put us in 7th out of the 43 car field.  About that time I realized that although we discussed the driver order, we never practiced or even talked about any time of pitstop setup, fueling, car setup, etc.  We did have a radio in the car however to hopefully call out some positions, greens/yellows and pit stops.

I made a quick walk up and down the pits to meet a few of the other teams.  Some cars I knew, some friends had new cars or teams and a few I'd talked to online and wanted to officially meet.  With that out of the way, I took over radio duties in the pits.  There were 2 early yellow's in T2 - the usual issue with 2 cars trying to occupy the same spot on track together!

The owner was picking up the track and improving his times.  Under the 2:00 mark and settling around the 1:55 area.  The front runners were in the mid-high 1:40's, so while not a frontrunner (and not expecting it) it wasn't too bad.  The car was radio'd in as 'great'. 
Driver #2 would be Dan, whom I had been further coaching.  I volunteered to fuel; with Mark manning the fire bottle.  All of which we worked out about 5min before the pitstop sadly.  The stop didn't go too bad really.  Chump requires a minimum 5:00 stop if you fuel the car and we weren't too far over that.  Since the car was deemed 'great' by the owner, there were no changes.  I suggested checking tire pressures but nobody thought it was needed. 

Stint #2 was Dan, and he took some time to get used to the car and track.  He took the car in 15th and dropped some spots on track with a slower pace.  After a lot of 2:20 laps, he dropped down to 2:06 and settled around 2:10.  I'm happy to report NO offs, spins, penalties or black flags!  I call it a success.  He brought the car in around 23rd

After manning the fire bottle on the pitstop to put Mark in the car for stint #3.  He took the car in 24th and seemed to pick up the track quickly.  We were 5 laps out of 14th and 10 laps off the lead.  Again, thinking a top 15 finish was our best bet personally.  Mark dropped a 2:03 lap about 30min in, climbing to 22nd, then spun shortly after.  He had to wait for a tow and we lost quite a bit of time.  At lap 100, we were sitting in 25th.  My stint was coming up and I would take the car to the checker.  I suggested we check tire pressures, but again, nobody seemed to care.  We'll see how much I could improve on our current position of 26th...

April 5-6 - Chumpcar @ Autobahn!

No rest for the weary.  So after racing last weekend, where am I at this weekend?  The track.  Racing Chumpcar World Series at Autobahn Country Club outside Chicago, IL.  I'll be racing with 3 other guys I've never met before with a team I literally found on an internet forum with an open seat!  With me luck...


The event is a 'Double 7'; meaning 7hrs each day for a total of 14hrs around Autobahn's South Course.  I really like Autobahn for both the course & facilities, not to mention it's < 3hrs from my doorstep!  With us luck - I'll be racing in a Miata again; with the GSDSU (Go Fast Don't Screw Up) team.  You can follow along on Race Monitor and I'll post a few updates on facebook and twitter.

1st place! NASA Midwest @ Autobahn 4.5 hr Enduro - "Into The Night"

Waiting for my final stint I was chugging water and heading to the bathroom.  The advice I got from a friend in regards to my first ever time racing in the dark was to be careful not to fixate on brake lights in front of you; and also not to look directly into the rearview mirror as you could get instantly blinded with all the hi-tech LED lights others were running.  Great...  Oh and trust your knowledge of the turns!

At about 8:10pm with 50min remaining David radioed that he was coming in next lap.  Everyone started setting up for what would be our 4th pitstop and 4th driverchange.  I would be going in; along with the final 10 gallons of fuel for the last 45min.  Once again, the pitstop was extremely flawless and everyone was moving even quicker.  Being my 2nd stint of the race, I was quickly buckled in and waiting on fuel.  Davids only advice to me was:  "look for those reflective apex cones; they are your only hope!". 
After the all-clear, I headed out of the pits with about a 2-lap lead over 2nd place in class.  With the car all warmed up obviously everything was sticking well and I headed past the first set of turns away from the lighted pitlane into turns 2/3.  What did I find - DARKNESS!  And lots of it for the next 3 miles basically.  Wow, words can't really explain it as there was just no light out there besides our OEM headlights that focus straight forward.  Looking L and R for the reflective apex cones (the ones that remained that is) was difficult at the least and you really had to trust your knowledge of the track and assume everything was all clear.  The corner workers had a tiny light to let you know it was manned; and we were told a larger flashing light to indicate a yellow. 
After about 2 laps I realized that car was very 'hooked up'; better than before as the track wasn't as hot since the sun went down.  It felt really good, but the fact I opted to go without the coolsuit was not a good call as the Mustang did not have much natural airflow in the car.  I had one of the overall leaders - an older Daytona Prototype - come up on me down the lighted pitstraight so it was an easy pass to let happen.  I then tried to stick with him to get the aid of his better lights but watching the taillights did indeed lead me into an offline approach and danger really quick, just as my friend had noted.  A few laps later I caught up to a Miata and set him up for a pass down the lit straight too.  Then I had to deal with about 1/2 a lap of mirrors with insanely bright lights and I just tried to hit my marks and put some distance on him.  Other than that, there was NO traffic out on the 3.56 mile course that I had to deal with.  Even though it was dark, I was running about the same laptimes (2:53-2:54's) as I did in the daylight.  The car felt good, and I felt more comfortable with the car and the North course portion which I had not ran since 2008.

After the traffic; trying to settle into a more relaxed groove, I instantly ran wide in T2.  Wow that was quick and dark!  I tried the same groove approach I use for longer Endurance races on the next lap and the same exact thing happened - I missed my turn-in badly and nearly ran wide!  Being my 2nd stint, dark, having driven 3+ hrs to the track, no other traffic to work with; whatever... it was difficult to concentrate in the pitch dark.  So I instead decided to start turning hotlaps.  With my mind focused on improving every laptime I started stomping out 2:50-2:51 laptimes.  After about 10 of these  I started really looking for the white flag - and was beginning to think about the fuel situation.  Having not been passed by any in-class car I was assuming we had the win but still focused on getting the car back safely and enjoying it! 
After a 2:50.3 I got a hesitation on very next lap on the front straight!  I know knew I could now complete 1.5 laps after the initial hesitation (David did earlier) so I decided to conserve some fuel circle with short shifts and hope for the white flag.  And I got it; with a slower 2:55 laptime!  I had no idea if I could make another lap but I was committed.  I just hoped I would not run out of gas and get rear-ended somewhere!  I coasted as much as I could and don't think I ever touched the brake pedal the last lap.  Once to the N course (the last 1/3 of the lap) it was struggling to pick up throttle at all.  Once I got to the final turn before pit-in it was barely sputtering and I was down to 20-30mph of momentum.  I coasted into pit lane where the lights started and I knew I would be ok, the car then died completely as I rolled into a pit stall only 6 short of ours!  I flashed my lights, shut off the car and waited for the team to reach me.  We exchanged a few quick high-fives and they pushed me back into the pits.

Joe quickly handed me out beers (Stella Artois) and we quickly headed up for awards.  As suspected we finished 1st in class E0 and 5th overall.  Turns out the Miata I passed in my final stint was for position!  83 totals laps complete; nearly 300 miles.  We finished 1 lap ahead of 6th overall; 21 laps ahead of our nearest in-class competitor - which apparently came into the pits with a cracked brake caliper soon after I left for the last stint!

Packed with adrenaline the team stood around and talked for nearly an hour after the awards.  Everyone was shocked at the laptimes I was putting down in the dark.  Maybe I found a calling?  Since everyone else seems to hate the extra challenges of night racing!  I downed a gatorade and headed home.  Pulling into the garage around 1am - my day consisted of 6.5 hrs in the 335i to/from the track and two 50 minutes stints in the racecar for a total of 8+ hrs driving!  Thanks to everyone for their help.   
New firsts:  1st place in an Endurance Race (after piling up 2 seconds), my 1st time ever racing in the dark, my 1st time ever with 2+ stints in the same day!

NASA Midwest @ Autobahn 4.5 hr Enduro - "Into The Night" (Stints 4-5 overall)

Having handed the car over to Joe for the 3rd overall stint it was about 6pm at this point, right about the time you need your headlights.  And boy did some of the field have some crazy LED light bars and sideways 'Apex' lights.  We... had 100% OEM brights on the Mustang.
Joe's stint quickly ran into the night with the last 1/2 being completely pitch dark.  Since my stint was over I took in some water and took stock of the situation and the competition.  There were about 6 cars in our class to start the race and 2 had immediate trouble and another had fallen back.  It was really between us and 2 other AI (high hp and higher prepped) mustangs with us holding onto a 2-3 lap lead at this point which Joe stomping out 2:51's and then 2:54's in the darkness.

Next up was David again - the owner - for his 2nd stint.  We were already running calcs to figure out how long David would need to run before we had enough fuel to finish with the following stint (me).  This was partly strategy and partly because David simply did NOT light driving at night; much less racing.  We figured he needed 30+ minutes based on our earlier stints assuming they checkered the race at 9:25pm to allow for a cooldown to clear the track at 9:30pm.
Joe brought the car back in terrific shape right about the 50min mark.  Our crew (including me) went to work; this being our 3rd pit stop and all things were moving very well.  We took another look at the Front Left tire and it was decided to go ahead and change it - once the fueling was complete, since we had a couple lap lead we didn't want to take any chances.  I grabbed the jack, jackstand and wrench - cleaned the windshield while waiting on fuel to finish - and then set about swapping out the tire.  I got some help from the fuel guys since they were done and everything went pretty smooth overall.

David headed out and struggled initially to find a pace in the pitch dark - pretty much just like he thought.  Having the radios working helped though and he soon radioed that he was coming in!  I was like 'Already'?  Then he mentioned he'd hit an animal - like a fox - and we just needed to check out the car.  Well, the bumper had shifted a bit, but it looked fine.  He wanted to stay in (there was 1 hr of race left; more than a fuel load) so he headed back out and started lowering lap times like a pro.  The crazy mishap def helped him out!

Still with our ~3 lap lead Dave was finishing up and I would be the closer....

NASA Midwest @ Autobahn 4.5 hr Enduro - "Into The Night" - My Stint (#2 overall)!

After the 1st of many pitstops, I was leaving for my stint (#2 overall) around 5:55pm and the car was literally 1st in class; I think 5th overall.  Our fuel window was a few laps after the other in-class Mustangs and some of the GTS cars were having issues so we were in luck.  Suddenly running for fun and experience turned into 'we might have a podium chance'!
The car was pretty nice to drive really.  It was just before dusk, with only a few cars running lights and after the first few laps the sun was no longer blinding me - although my tinted visor came in handy; it completely blacked out the gauges so I had a difficult time figuring out the best shiftpoints at first. I was utilizing a borrowed cool-suit for the first time ever and very much enjoying that.  Being that we were utilizing the entire 3.56 mile course, there wasn't a lot of traffic but just enough to keep you occupied. 

Overall, after about 3 laps I settled into a pretty mellow pace, I think around 2:50 - as to protect all the gear.  My theory was if I was going to drive a full fuel load; why not try to stretch out the mileage a bit longer!  I was short-shifting and being easy on corner-entry for the first 1/2 of my stint as we discussed front tire wear being a potential issue over the 4.5 hrs of the race.  About midway through my stint we reached the overall 1.5hr mark which brought out a checkered flag (for those that optioned for the 1.5hr portion and not the full 4.5hr portion).  This cleared out a fair number of cars and the remainder of the my stint was even clearer.
After that I started picking it up; dropping a few tenths with each lap and running some 2:49's until the car hesitated under throttle - the sign my fuel stint was over!  I had ran for about 55min altogether and it wasn't even dark yet!

I brought the car into the pits and the team went to work on the 2nd pitstop as I helped our 3rd and final driver - Joe - get buckled in.  Note; I turned over the car 1st in class!  Once again; a flawless stop by the team of volunteers including 10 gallons of fuel and we were off once again.  Joe's stint would climb into the dark of night and the team was already trying to figure out the updated pit/driver strategy being our 50-55min fuel window we had been running; versus the 75min hopeful window we had initially.  Being we were still leading our class, the decision to stick with safe 10gal fuel loads had already been made.  The reason being if we spilled ANY fuel, we incurred an additional penalty of a pitstop and a 5min hold penalty - essentially costing 3-4 laps.

David (the owner; driver #1) thanked me immediately after I got out of the car for a terrific consistent pace and keeping the driving clean.  I told him - that's what I do!  He then said - count on another stint later tonight!  More to come...

NASA Midwest @ Autobahn 4.5 hr Enduro - "Into The Night" - Start!

STRATEGY:
This would be a fuel-mileage race, without question. We had six cars start the E0 class, us, three American Iron-prepped S197 Mustangs, and two E46 BMW M3s. We were the entry with the lowest horsepower, so our strategy was to run full fuel-load stints, hoping for around 75 minutes each, plus a quick splash-and-go towards the end. We assumed that the night-time stints would be at a slower pace, with no lights at all (save pit lane) on the 3.56-mile 21-turn course, and based strictly on the horsepower and weight of the AI cars, we believed that we could run one less fuel stop than they did, worth around eight minutes, or two and a half to three laps. The question was whether their pace could put us more than three laps down. The BMWs were the wildcards, with unknown fuel consumption characteristics, unknown fuel-tank (or cell) capacity, and had the potential to simply bury us with those hyper-efficient I-6 engines. All we could do was run the best race we could, and let the chips fall.

THE RACE:
John, our crew chief, had an excellent strategy lined up for us. Dave (the owner) would take the first stint, to establish pace, and (hopefully) get us in a solid position on track for the first fuel stop and driver change. Then I would take over, running us through dusk and into the dark. Our last driver - Joe - who has a good amount of time in the car, would handle the anchor leg, and take it to the checker, if the car survived. As they say, plans NEVER survive contact with the enemy, and this was no different! After I came in from practice, Dave hopped in the car and got all belted in, while John handled the data and video setup for the stint. After a quick check of tire pressures and lug torque, the field was off for the formation lap and the race start.

Based on a random pit-stall layout, we wound up starting roughly P9 (out of 22 starters), right behind a Daytona Prototype, and right ahead of one of the AI Mustangs, an E0 BMW M3, then another AI Mustang.  What we wanted was to get up to pace as quickly as possible, find some spacing, and then just dial into a solid, consistent lap time that didn’t overly punish the tires and brakes, and make maximum use of the fuel onboard. That went out the window as well!

Right around 5pm, the green flag flew, and Dave dropped the hammer!  The race would run until 9:30pm!  I believe our fastest lap of the entire race was lap #5 while he was battling for early position. 
For another forty-five minutes, Dave just kept knocking off the laps, in the high mostly in the 2:48 range, flying by the Miatas, and getting run over by the DP and the Sports Racer, then 20 laps after the green flew, the car started to hiccough on left-hand corner-exits, and he knew the fuel load was about gone, so (as planned; since radio's weren't working) he signaled the crew by dropping the clutch and blipping the throttle three times on the pit straight.  We knew we had about 4min including the roll through the pits to be ready.  I was already suited up; just had to put on my helmet!  The sucky part; this was NOWHERE NEAR the 75-minute hoped-for fuel window; hell, it was less than an hour! We were uncertain exactly how much fuel the car would take after a fuel run, so we were planning on a 14 gallon stop, and praying not to over-fill and spill, and take a 5-minute penalty plus a second trip through the pits. Dave rolled into pit lane at a sedate 25mph and my stint was next!  More to come...

Racing this Friday - NASA @ Autobahn 4.5 hr Enduro!

It's hard to believe I haven't been racing since June!  There have been several opportunities out there but either pricing or scheduling have been the hiccups.  But this race has been on my radar for awhile and I've got a seat! 

The race is a 4.5hr NASA Enduro on the FULL course at Autobahn Country Club outside Chicago, IL.  It is scheduled to run from 5pm - 9:30pm and with sunset around 7:10pm, we'll definitely have some dark racing!  I actually had a line on about 3-4 different rides for this one, and was trying to work stints in multiple cars at one point! 
The car is my friend Dave's and the pics are below.  The Mustang was tested at the same exact track on Monday on old tires and came through just find in multiple 30min stints so we're feeling confident.  Starts are about 310whp @ 3300 lbs and the class will be E0.

We are planning on a 3-driver strategy and I believe I'm tagged for the middle stint which should start in the sunlight and end in the dark!   
Stint #2:  est 6:30 - 8pm but could change.  This will be my first ever time running in the dark, and first time since 2008 running the FULL course at Autobahn!  Dave has solicited some pitlane help for fuel stops and we've got multiple guys working on strategy.  We'd love to win, but the car will not be maxxed out for the E0 class - however with a good pit strategy and good racing, everyone has a chance!  We are working on multiple fuel mileage and tire wear strategies; plus some radio mis-match issues!

24hrs of Lemons @ Autobahn - June 8-9 (part 2)

After my stint on Saturday, the car's owner took over.  He had a good run, but unfortunately had to come in about 20min before the end of Day 1 for a splash of fuel.  We later learned that during the 1st stint the car was starting to sputter as well so we were pushing it to the max and if we didn't get in a full tank and run the 'normal' length session...
After Day #1, the car was in the usual shape for a $500 car that had ran 9 consecutive hrs!  No major changes or fixes were needed as the #86 Volvo proves to be pretty damn reliable.  We'd pop in some newer rear rotors and rotate the tires and stuff it completely freaking full of gas (my job) and it'd be ready for Day #2.  The plan for Sunday was for the 2 co-owners to split the day as I was only a last minute fill-in for Day #1 to help out with the long stints.  So, with nothing left to do I headed the 2.5hrs homeward and wished everything good luck.

Day #2 - Sunday - would be 5.5 hrs to complete the 14.5 hr Enduro event.  I heard the team had some last minute issues prior to the start and I later received this text:  "Here's our custom fix for the problematic alternator bolt breaking issue. This happened Sunday morning about 15 minutes before going out on track. It held up all day no problems."  (see pic)


Once again the car performed well and the team ran cleanly.  But 2 Camaro's were clearly dominating this track, along with a Lexus (that later blew up), the top 3 were V8's and were stretching their leads. 

By the end of the event, we finished 6th out of 82 cars.  A hell of a lot of fun.  Thanks again to the team for the invite!

24hrs of Lemons @ Autobahn - June 8-9

With a sudden change in plans a few days prior to the event, I was able to run again with Team Little Lebowski Urban Achievers.  This time the race codenamed 'Doing Time in Joliet' would be 14.5 hrs across 2 days at the Autobahn Country Club; running the 2.1 mile South Course.

Including us, there were 82 cars registered and many were familiar from the April event at Gingerman where our team managed to finished 2nd!  With my change in plans, our team would have the same driver lineup for Saturday with me filling the middle stint.  We'd also be running on the new Dunlop Direzza ZII tires (vs the usual Z1's) and managed to eek out a bit more camber to help keep up the corner speed... as the '86 Volvo definitely isn't very fast on the straights!

Eric started us out in 35th place and methodically worked up into the top 20 halfway through his stint even though we were about 7 seconds off the pace of the top guys as usual.  A very very minor bump with a Mustang brought out a black flag and dropped us a few more laps off the leaders.  The rest of his stint was great as usual and I was up next.  Compared to Gingerman - I drove a hell of a lot harder.  I drove it about 8.5/10 at Gingerman whereas here I pushed it at 9/10's and more the entire time. I knew the car could handle it after the previous event and I was much more aggressive with an event under my belt and feeling confident that the other cars had some decent awareness to run 2-3 even 4 wide throughout the track.  It was fun.  I was mixed up in some other cars spins, but always felt comfortable with the car control (reduced speed on street tires and low HP helps).  I didn't feel like being tentative so if I had the momentum and the room, I stuck the car in there pretty much anywhere on track.  Note that I wasn't using the NASA rule of front tire to door to 'own' the corner - I was using a safer rule of my car 'past' theirs so I KNEW they'd see m. 

In the first hour of my stint I did get bumped on the inside of a turn by a Miata which shoved me way offline.  They didn't call it in though, so no harm no foul I suppose.  About an hour later I got a point-by from an e30 for the outside of T13.  I setup to go around him and midturn he either changed his mind or forgot and came over into my section of track so I had to get to the brakes and ended up locking up a tire and dropped the outside tires off the track while avoiding.  I was black-flagged (for going 2 off) and had to come in and explain the situation.  Once I said I'd been in the car "about 2 hours or so" the judges suggested I get out and end my stint.  It was unfortunate and I still had time to go, but you have to obey and respect whatever judgement is deemed so I radioed in and the team hustled to get ready for the fuel refill and driver change about 25min ahead of schedule.

4.22.12 - NASA TTS @ Autobahn

After the brake caliper failure on Saturday, I switched the car to run Time Trials on Sunday to do some testing with the brake setup.  As for changes, I swapped out the leaking RF caliper with another that I had (always bring extras) and did a quick bleed of the brakes.  The odd thing was besides being a bit low of brake fluid, there really wasn't any air bubbles or darker fluid that came out of the system.

Having no time in TT from the previous day, I gridded in the rear and clawed my way through the traffic to find a descent lap while trying to be nice.  I ended up with a respectable 1:34x, similar to what I was running in the race the previous day - on the same setup.
Session #2 I bolted up my better 255 A6's that were leftover from 2011 and laid down a personal best 1:31.9, running just 3 quick laps.  Everything felt great including the brakes and things seemed to be back to normal overall although the car was rotating more that usual with the more aggressive ACD map from ACD-Tuning.  By this time it was lunch, so I popped out the front brakepads to check for wear assuming I'd need to drop in a new set.  But, they did not look any worse so I left them in. 
Session #3 I was lined up behind another Evo and we turned some good fun laps, nearly identical laps all right around the 1:32x range until he had an OFF and we both came in.  Overall, no better.
Session #4 I stayed out and ran 6 hard laps; which coincidentally was all the further I got in the race!  These turned out to be my best laps as I was pushing the car pretty hard - a bit too hard probably for the tires - through some of the tighter turns.  I had multiple laps in the 1:31x range.

At the end of the day, we ended up 2nd out of 5 cars in class; besting 2 TTS Evo's with front/rear aero and set a personal best of 1:31.666.  Keep in mind we were actually running in legal TTA form (but in TTS for competition) and this would have set a new TTA lap record with that time.  Huge thanks to Buschur Racing, AMSOIL and ACD-Tuning for their 2012 support.
The video below is from S4; enjoy:

4.21.2012 Qualifying at NASA Autobahn

So Saturday and the Evo....
I went out for the warmup session on street tires as I did not have time to change tires as we were first up! I tossed down a very eventful and sideways filled 1:38x on a cold green track in about 50 degree weather on 5yr old Dunlops on my 3rd lap and pulled in.  lol.  It was fun; and the car ran for the first time since the cage!

Qualifying was about 2 hours later. On my 1st hotlap I seen the debris flag at T6 - and quickly found the insanely huge OIL SPILL directly on-line from T6 through T10 when I actually passed said spiller on the backstraight still limping the car around.  IDIOT.  About 5 awesome oil-soaked drifts later for myself, about 6 offs witnessed from other cars and 1 car sitting a full 180 degrees backwards track-center - and just 3 laps - they tossed checker to end quals early. I had just a 1:40x.

I had a 4 hr gap until the race.  I worked on cleaning up some of the wiring from the gauges and getting my oil temp gauge hooked back up (Thx to Boostin Performance for the wiring fix).  I had time to update some of the decals on the car including adding ST2 designations for the race.  More to come...

The vid is from Qualifying.  Not too entirely eventful as most of the sliding action was in front me.

NASA Enduro #1 - April @ Autobahn

Race #1 of the NASA MW/GL Enduro Series kicks off today at 4:30pm.  It will be a 3hr Enduro on the full 3.56 mile track at Autobahn Country Club outside Joliet, IL.  This Enduro will kick off the NASA weekend at Joliet with the normal Sat/Sun festivities of HPDE, TT and w2w sprint races following.

Myself, being a newly licensed NASA racer, am now eligible to drive and compete in the Enduro series.  And wasting no time, I've partnered up with Michael of Michael Palmer Racing to co-drive his 1988 Porsche 944 in the very challenging E3 class.  The E3 class is nearly always the fullest, with other 944's and lots of Miata's participating just to name a few. 

This Spec944 is a brand new build, yet to even turn it's first lap.  Add to that the fact I've never personally driven a 944, this will be my first ever w2w race, this will be my first ever Enduro, this will be the longest I've never spent/driven in a racecar and I've yet to meet either the car or Michael!  So there is a host of challenges and items that need to fall into place - but that's what planning is for!  Also, for a bit more of a challenge, the forecast calls for 60% chance of rain that will hopefully clear in the afternoon.

The race starts at 4:30pm, with my scheduled stint from 6 - 7:30pm when we take the checker'd.  Wish us luck; we might need it!

Autobahn Sunday - 07.10.11 - 1st place in TTA!

For Sunday I knew I needed to make a change. I decided the simplest was to pull the Kognition rear wing and put the stocker back on. The car felt much better when I was there in April and I ran the stocker back then. The Kognition was definitely producing downforce, but since I don't have a front splitter to balance it out, with my current alignment/settings it's just too much for this track right now I guess.

So I lined up Sunday with the stock wing and ran a 1:33.4. Car definitely felt looser in turns 3 & 4 where I had to left off the gas earlier. And the bandaid was still holding! Still though, I wasn't as fast as I was in April. I looked over my traqmate data and see I was loosing time in the braking zone of T1 of all places! So I set out to correct that in S2 and ran a 1:33.4 again! I assumed at this point the tires much be nearly shot.

I was going to run at least 1 more session and I wanted to make some change. Talked it over with a friend and I made a 1-click rebound adjustment - note this is the FIRST TIME this YEAR that I've touched the suspension settings on my new AST's since they were installed (they've been that good). Amazingly enough I felt the 1-click adjustment! The car rotated better through 2 specific corners and I was able to drop a 1:32.5 to end the day. That time held to win TTA for Sunday - although I wasn't able to reset my April track record of 1:32.1

Here's a good vid from Sunday. It's me and Jeff in his Evo; running nose-to-tail 1:33's.

Boostin Performance Trans Refresh - Complete!

Went and picked up the car from Boostin Performance Friday night.  Left work around 3:30pm and made the trip up to Chicago.  I got pretty lucky with traffic; going the opposite direction and all.  I spent about an hour at the shop talking with Devin and Kristin about the car and what all it's been through in the past few years.

I packed things up and headed back home; yep it was a turn-around trip!  Made it safely back about 11pm.  Exhausted...

In the pic of my car and my buddy Ryan's white Evo that was coincidentally in for a transmission repair too.  We both decided on Boostin Performance; each with our first trip there!

We'll both be running the cars in a few weeks at the next NASA event - July 9-10th at Autobahn Country Club; just South of Chicago.  Wish us luck!

NASA - Autobahn - TTA Track Record!

Sunday morning the TT group was the first ones on track at 8:30!  I decided to go out and defend my gridspot - as we grid by time and all the Sat times were in the 2:03-2:35 range. So I asked a buddy to go with me for the hell of it because I like to scare people! As it was in the 40's it took a bit for the tires to warm up, so the rear was pretty loose for several laps which is quite fun! Eventually we played a few laps of cat-n-mouse with a TTB 350Z and had some fun running mostly 1:38's to keep at the front of the grid.

S2 I went out and hammered it. The car felt good but I was getting held up by a TTR C6 Z06 (check out the vid below). Unfortunately he ruined 2 of my laps and after that the tires were out of their prime. I did manage a 1:33.5 to regain the #1 gridspot so I'd be in front of that C6 Z06 the next session! I was also just .2 off my TTA track record from 2010 and knew it was well within site.

S3 was probably going to be my last as there was a 2.5hr gap afterwards and it'd been a long cold weekend for the wife and dog. I led the group out, took 1 lap to warmup everything and ran a pair of 1:32's with the last being 1:32.1 and breaking my own TTA track record from 2010.

Apart from a few sloppy lines; that was pretty much everything this current config had in it. That in itself was some great knowledge to have. I only wish we could have done all that on Saturday instead of Sunday. As I had a different config I wanted to test; but it'll have to wait.  All in all I ran 1.1 seconds faster that last year and reset my track record. I also had FTD both Saturday and Sunday over the entire TT group.

With zero changes to the suspension, the car is already rotating better on the setup than it ever did last year.  I have to thank Aaron from Winning Formula for the setup, AMS Performance for the power delivery and Sheppard Racing for the trick rear diff.  Enjoy the vid...