Witchdoctor Motorsports
Chapter 96
SCCA Double National at TWS, March 7th, 8th and 9th
"Blood, Sweat and Tears"
PART 2: The Tears
Yeah, that's not good...
And now...the rest of the story.
Sunday dawns bright and clear and we warm up the car to go to grid. We turn it around after a good push, I go to launch the car and it dies and I realize it went into 3rd and not first. The shifter felt a bit wonky, but I notched it back in first and off we went with Fertitta riding on 200 pounds of steel plates. Sat on grid and then finally launched onto the track. I was behind another car that slowed to take the quick turnout onto the track and I clutched and put the car in neutral and coasted for a bit and then when he got going I re-clutched and it dropped into third again and I nearly stalled it after barely catching the error.
On track the car was driving great with tight steering and I was having to slow down my inputs dramatically to not over-rotate the nose of the car into the corner and early apex. The shifter felt fine but I was getting some smoke on left-handers and since TWS is all about left-handers I was getting a little smoke quite frequently. I pulled in after the second lap, the hood came off and the distributor gasket was quickly pinpointed. We knew it would smoke so I just went out and did a fast warm-up lap, a decently quick lap and then a cool down and brought it in. We had move the bars stiffer a bit and backed off on the wing angle to see what would happen and while the mechanical grip got only slightly worse, the tail wouldn't stay planted. The shallow wing angle (more top speed?) we tested made me feather the throttle from the esses to the banking as the rear was now stepping out due to lack of downforce. Riding the car slightly sideways at 100+ going to the banking was mildly enjoyable but sadly nowhere near the fast line. We needed to go back the other way on both mechanical and aero, but I was pleased with the 1.47 for just being out there messing around in the cold.
Back in the paddock, the crew got busy for a few hours and got the car ready for the race. We gridded sixth (closer to the front is better...) and I was actually surprised at that. Frank swapped out the failing distributor gasket for a nice fresh one and Gary and I both checked shift linkages. Everything was tight and after we double checked with strings again, we were ready early. I was actually clutching all my downshifts and clutching most of my upshifts, with the sometimes-exception of the 3-4 shift on the front straight. The pedals need some very slight adjustment to be optimal, but Fertitta did a great job with the first effort (he made and hung the gas pedal, the other two are a Wilwood assembly) and it is nice.
We go to grid halfway through lunch and line up. The sun has been shining but clouds have been threatening for the past few hours. When the '5' is called (5 minutes to launch) the darker clouds are close by and start sprinkling just a little bit on the windshield. With no rain tires and no wipers there isn't much I can do but hope it stops. It did and we launched on time. We worked our way around the track and then lined up two-by-two going to the esses and worked our way onto the straight. There was another fourth gen Camaro next to me gridded 5th (1.46.5) and a Porsche Gt2 car gridded in front of me with a 1.45.8 in 4th. In front of that was Kevin on pole and David next to him in their Mustangs and then Scott in the Mangusta. Kevin held us pretty slow and I was in second gear as we were all on the straight and the green flag flew. I was in the meat of the power and stepped up and walked on by the Porsche. I stayed high and then eased down to my mark in T1 and really got into it in third going through T2 and heading to T3. Scott was in front of me and I caught him and I very seriously considered stepping inside him as he was simply lined up behind the two Mustangs. It would have been a simple pass, but I knew these guys were quick and I was here just to finish another race. I ran middle of the track to keep the other Camaro from going inside me, but he was a little bit back. By the time we exited T3, the Camaro was closer and with the three in front of me stepping it up, I really hauled the mail through T4 and over to T5. I was pushing hard to stay with the leaders and we all went wide in T6 to make a good exit for the backstretch. I clutched and downshifted from third to second and got smoothly on the gas early and eased the gas down as I went through 6 and I had it all the way on the floor by the apex. I headed to the track out point and quickly clutched and shifted. Into first. The clutch came out and went back in before it was even fully out but I already knew I was in trouble. I quickly restabbed 3rd and shot off down the straight keeping an eye on the gauges. Through 7 and 8 I was fine and stayed in third down to the carousel while keeping the Camaro a few ticks behind me. I quickly shifted into second midway through the carousel and then launched down the shortchute and made a slow-ish shift back to third there. I'd let the leaders go and was now not sure what to do. The motor felt ok and the gauges were fine but I honestly thought about coming in right then. I decided to make an easy lap and see what happened (mistake) and eased it down the front straight. I was rolling into the gas and feeling the motor out down the straight as the Camaro caught and eased by me just before the start/finish line. I eased it into fourth and rolled into the throttle and could tell that we had a problem. Another GT1 had caught me and went under me as I lifted early for T1. Just as I lifted, with a very quiet rumble, the car lurched just a bit and died. I quickly clutched, put it in neutral and coasted all the way over to the ambulance on the backside of the Nascar oval past Nascar T2 and next to the roadcourse 3-4 straight.
I shut off the DL1, safed the fire system and climbed out. Hopped up on the back wall and watched some good battles. Eric was battling the C6 for T1 honors and after being behind for a while, he came back and won. Kevin held the lead for a bit and then David took it back and won the race with the Porsches being interspersed after the top few GT cars. The weather was nice and I just enjoyed the view for a while.
Here is a video of the motor letting go. Very anti-climactic, but you can see a few small puffs of smoke. Don't make the video full screen or it gets too fuzzy.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4160026871411909667
I got a flat-tow to the paddock and we pushed her up in the trailer that the crew already had ready and loaded. We rolled pretty quick since the kennel closed in three hours back in San Antonio and we made it with about 10 minutes to spare so the pups got to sleep at home Sunday night.
On one hand I was pretty bummed, but on the other this showed great promise. We ran very quick out-of-the-box (with problems no less!!) and the car will only get faster. We aren't that far off the mark and the car never did anything evil. The brake bias is stuck and we're not using near enough rear brake. We need time with more chassis tuning and we'll only get faster. I need to build a splitter and vent the hood which will give us more front downforce and that should help too. We need to set it up to run the 'jumbo' tires. The car turns in and rotates SO well that I may need to go to a slower steering rack. The car puts down power VERY well. It brakes great even with the wrong bias setting. It is VERY stable at high (170+) speed. The shocks are old Carreras from who-knows-when and I know we'll gain some time when real adjustables get purchased and installed.
Got home, unloaded the car and put it up in the air. Snapped a picture of the hole in the oil pan and felt the shifter. If you put it in the 1/2 gate it wont even spring over to the 3/4 gate. Great. Made a few calls and it seems the big reason most folks use a Long brand shifter is that the Hurst (what I have) have a tendency to lose one of the 5/32ths roll pins and the neutral gate feeling is lost and it wont move the shifter over to the 3/4 gate automatically. I check, yup, one of the roll pins is gone. We'll have a Long shifter next time...anyone want a good deal on a slightly used Hurst? :-P
Lastly, huge thanks to the crew. Wendi, Fertitta, Wade, Gary and Nick all worked great together and did a phenomenal job of keeping me on track. There is NO WAY I could run this car alone and I really appreciate the help of all these folks. I am deeply indebted to them and unfortunately all I am doing for them is getting them hooked on the go-fast crack pipe. Sorry guys. :-D
I've got some hi-res pictures coming and will post up a few when I get them. (**UPDATED** Go here -> http://www.witchdoctormotorsports.com/ch99.htm
Till next time!!
Costas