2007 British ExtravaganzaAfter my throttle cable broke at my first race and quickly installing a new Ireland radiator to help deal with some cooling issues my second and biggest race weekend of the year did not start so well ……
My mom had to sell the 07’ 4Runner tow vehicle due to financial reasons and left me without a ride! I quickly called on my only friend that happened to have a Toyota Tundra….. I managed to convince him to lend me his truck for the weekend! Trouble is his truck did not have a tow hitch! Argh! Off I went and had no option but to buy a tow hitch wire everything up to work with my trailer and get everything else all packed up … Naturally it was all last min……as always with me. How last min? Well I got to the track at 3:30am! Found a spot with all the 2002 guys and hop out, unload my car and put all my boy scout skill to the test and start to assemble a tent that I never seen before in the dark by myself…..well is was not easy but by 4:30am I was asleep in my sleeping bag.
After sleeping for a amazing 2 hours I woke up at 6:30am to the familiar sound of people awakening from their comfy trailers to warm up their race cars. I was so excited I got up without much delay said hi to all the familiar faces and went thru the now familiar morning routine of check-in at sign desk and tech inspection. Ran back and got my own car warmed up and ready went thru my checklists……tire pressure….arming the fire system…..checking fuel…cleaning windshield …..etc….
As usual the first session of the weekend is actually a qualifying session for the afternoon qualifying race. The best lap is what counts here but it’s also your first time out on the track! The car was handling good as usual and the toyo’s still very healthy. I love Buttonwillow and quickly got up to speed and was really enjoying the corner named “Talladega” (long banked right hander taken flat out) and the infamous “magic mountain”. Out of 8 laps I managed a best of 2:18:385. Good enough for 10th spot out of 17. My previous carb stumble was long gone but towards the end of the session my water temp again was kinda high. I was defiantly worried about it for the 12lap race in the afternoon in the higher heat.
**Micheal Ward was fastest 2002 in class with a 2:12.9. He is also putting out a reported 145-152rwhp and is a top driver.
There was not much I could do about my potential cooling issues except richen up the carb a little bit just to help things a bit.
Another potential problem was that I noticed my newly installed oil pressure light coming on during heavy breaking and in certain corners. I would notice the accusump would kick in and quickly inject oil into the sump and the pressure would quickly rise and the light would turn off. Ever since I installed this stock head before willow I noticed a lower oil pressure at idle and during running. Seamed worse this weekend and now with the light coming on it was clear. I wonder if something in my hotrod head was different and this new stock one…nobody had any clear answers. So I poured in an extra quart of oil and the light never came on again the whole weekend but the pressure was still low. Someone mentioned damaged main bearing could cause low oil pressure as well.
I hung out mostly and checked out Mike ward’s custom made weber trumpets. He said I gained a whole 10 rwhp from it. He claims 152rwhp! Holy crap! That’s a whole lot more than me! Most of the competitors deemed his trumpets Illegal since they protruded past the hood. Okay for this weekend but next race he must remove it.
Saturday’s qualifying race !Well I lined up for the race and the adrenaline started to rush again. Man was I happy! This is the moment we all live for and I wish you all could experience sitting there amongst all these cool cars in our group. All our motors revvin’ anxiously waiting to head into battle! Our race group contains many different classes amongst the cars I would be sharing the tarmac with are many very fast Datsun 510’s, mini coopers, Triumph heralds, spitfires, MG’s, Alfa GTV, Lotus Cortina, Morgans, Mercedes 190sl, fiat spiders, Fiat Abarths, Volvos and a few others!! The feeling of racing amongst such cool vintage cars is one that is hard to explain to some of my younger friends.
The start of this race was just intense! Button willow is much narrower than willow springs with much tighter turns and makes for a crowded track. While my CS class had 17 cars at the drop of the flag our group had 40 cars!!! A datsun 510 made a risky inside pass into turn 3 luckily I thought he might do it and I saw him and I gave him some room still he had to put his 2 inside wheels into the dirt in the apex. Usual first lap stuff I guess! I got a decent start and managed to pass a few cars and was having a great time! Unfortunately the tape on my in-car camera ended a few laps into it! So that’s all you guys get to see! In any case I had a great race and settled into a nice groove by lap 10. I had been keeping an eye on my water temp and by lap 2 or 3 it had already hit 230 degree mark! Crap! I kept my eye on it and it stayed at 230 every lap until naturally the last lap as I crest magic mountain I quickly glanced and at that very moment I see the gauge suddenly shoot up and my heart sinks as I quickly shut my motor off and with 2 corners to go I pull off disheartened and worried about any possible damage. Unfortunately I’m getting real good at getting pulled into the pits by a tow rope….. argh… Still I managed to finish 21 our of 40 starters and 10th in class. If I can only manage to cross the dam finish line one of these days that would be great!
See this race on youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oteyyd1kvzUAfter taking off all my nomex and getting into my shorts again I pulled the hood off and my overflow catch tank was overflowed! Looked like the alternator got loose probably caused by me starting to hit a few curbs more as I explore more of the racing line. The belt looked like it got loose and then wasn’t turning the water pump and thus the likely cause of my fast rising temps. Other than that everything looked normal. The car started up and ran fine…. Many fellow ’02 racers offered suggestions about what It might and even did a pressure test and the cooling system help 30psi for 30mins. Plus it’s a fresh stock head, new IE alum. radiator and new head gasket. No smoke out of the tailpipe, no oil in the coolant and no coolant in the oil…..left everyone scratching their heads. A few issue were brought up as concerns that might be contributing to my poor cooling performance.
- My oil cooler was mounted directly in front of the radiator. Blocking 1/3 of it and basically pre-heating the airflow to the radiator.
- The straight silicon hose I used to install the new radiator at willow had to turn 90 degrees and was kinked probably restricting cold water flow into the motor.
- Poor air management of air entering thru the front grill.
Even so we couldn’t figure it out. I richened up the mixture again just to be on the safe side. I did the only thing I could try right there and the track and removed the restrictor on the inlet hose to the radiator. Not sure if that would help or hurt but it was the only thing I could try to help the situation.
I enjoyed the free bar-b-q and basically did what I could and enjoyed the rest of the night. Crossed my fingers and went to sleep.
Sunday Morning PracticeGot geared up and lined up for practice. Like my previous race the morning practice session with its colder temperatures helped matters. Removing the restrictor did not do much. The car got hot and I backed off a bit and so I got thru the morning practice without much drama ….. still it seamed like I would defiantly have issues during the race. Oh well!! This is low budget racing at it’s finest. So I just cleaned my windshield and try to relax.
Had a friend show up since he had been at Bimmer Fest the day before and drove over from Santa Barbara. Was nice to have a someone there cheering for me.
I was anxious but excited for my race. I figured I’d race hard for a few laps then limp my way across the finish line.
The big show …. the main event. As I took my warm up lap I focused on staying closer to the car ahead of me. After reviewing my last race I saw this as one area of improvement. I got a great start and we were 3 wide down the front straight! It was so loud that my shift light luckily reminded me to shift as I could not hear my own engine over the pack’s collective roar. I managed to get a good start and had a interesting moment as a 510 squeezed himself past me on the inside curb. The next lap was me hounding Ken Blasko in his beautiful 2002 trying to find a way around him. Finally I got a better drive and past him in Talladega where I had been fast all weekend. I quickly caught up to the red 2002 of Alan Deszcz (CSM class w/dcoe carbs) and was in a hurry to pass him and decided to pass him into the heavy breaking zone on the last turn before the front straight.
As I exited the esses with a good drive I made up my mind that I would pass him under braking for the 90 degree left hander that leads onto the front straightaway. I should of just relaxed taken a good line and gotten on the gas earlier to set him up to pass him on the exit like my instructor told me to do. But NOOO….. Instead my poor instincts took over and I misjudged my approach a bit. It was now quickly apparent that my usually braking point was much deeper than the car in front of me. The distance between us disappeared during braking and I realized I would have to slide over and pass him on the inside as I had too much speed. Unfortunately I don’t think he saw me and started to turn into the corner! I started to turn in as well in hope that he would give me some room. In a split second I realized that he still had not saw me and would go for the apex. Since two objects can occupy the same space at the same time it was wither collide with him and mix our paint or shoot towards the inside of the corner and cut thru it to avoid him. Unfortunately the curbing or “zebra stripes” in this corner was not a slight raised section but rather more like a ramp.
My car shot skyward as I got airborne. Must have been quite the site from a spectator view. To make things worse I just happen to land with the middle of my car on top of the curbing on the exit! SMASH!!! Something hit very hard and my engine quit seconds after… I happened to be right were pit-in was and I just rolled into the hot pit. I was pissed at myself for my bad judgment. My car would not start. After a few tries I gave up and I was towed into my pits as the rest of the group raced around for 10 more laps. Man was I bummed. I got my hot suit off and went to inspect the damage.
Looks like I totally smashed my headers flat. Lifted my tranny enough to poke a hole thru the tranny tunnel too…. Argh. Also in those few laps I managed to fill up my coolant overflow bottle. So something is defiantly up. A few people helped me load up my car. I watched a few other races and started to make my way home. I had a lot to think about on the long drive home. Lots more to do to prepare for the next event.
I decided to take my time now and sort out my car more before entering another race. I have to figure out these cooling issues.
It was a trying weekend. I do think I learned a valuable lesson and it could have been a lot worse… I just need to take my time and focus on passing cars more on the exits than under braking. Take my time and think the moves through. Looking at my lap times and the times of the red ’02 in front of me I was 2 secs faster than him in previous sessions. I would of passed him eventually. Live and learn….
In case you were curious, Jeff Ireland won the race with a 2:12 laptime. I ended up not surprisingly last in my class(15th) and dead last out of 39 starters.
Now I have lots of work to do!
See this race on youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2Qlc8WyjCc
or watch a higher resolution version by clicking on the link belowhttp://bmw1602.lostbrazilian.com/v1/video_BE.php
