British Extravaganza! it's here!

2007 British Extravaganza

After 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=oteyyd1kvzU

After 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 Practice

Got 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 below
http://bmw1602.lostbrazilian.com/v1/video_BE.php

My first race! Desert Challenge @ Willow!

Here is is ........

My first race……sorry it has taken me so long to write the story about it it’s just ….. well I have no excuse really. Here it is……

Find all the pictures from that weekend Click HERE!

Years of preparation, sacrifices and hard work have all come to this weekend. My first days as a racecar driver or "pilot" as we say in Brazil. It’s official this poor Brazilian kid has a race license and a race car! Spent all Friday morning eager to get leave work since I know I had lots to do before I left to be able to make it to my rookie ground school. Ground school is a required classroom session on Friday 6.30pm. It’s the last chance the instructors (in many cases our fellow competitors) have to give us our last warnings, instructions and advice. Well it is required to me to attend to be able to race that weekend and I had a lot to do before I hit the road!

I left work around 12.30 and raced to my mom’s house in Burbank. I had to pack up all my gear, load the car on the trailer, load up the 4runner (aka hotel room), prepare some food for the weekend etc…. etc…. all by myself! Somehow this is the story of my racing life. Ever since the days of my motorcycle racing, my friends all find better things to do along with most of my family members. I’m left to do run around like crazy and try not to forget anything. Well I had to make it to the racetrack classroom by 6.30pm for the ground school…. Willow springs international raceway is around 90 miles from Burbank, CA were I was. Normally it would take you around 1hr 45 mins. to get to WSIR. Well when I finally sat in the drivers seat of my mom’s 4runner and pulled out of her driveway with my car in tow it was 5pm!!!! So it was in this mad dash that about 20ft. into my trip I had a feeling I had forgotten something…..so I glanced in the rear view mirror to see of all things my freshly painted fiberglass hood flying 15ft above my car!!! Aarghh!!! Nooooooo!!!! I as screamed and slammed on the brakes to see almost in slow motion it slamming into the tarmac!. I ran out to survey the damage. Turns out in my rush I forgot to pin my hood down! Luckily it landed paint side down (ouch!) but it landed flat. So it did not break in half or severely damage it. It now had some road rash across the hood and a small crush on the corner. I was so mad at myself! But I had no time to morn my paint job I had 1hr and half to get to the track. I pined it down and checked the trunk lid and ran back to the truck and gassed it onto fun LA Friday freeway traffic. This was just not my day as I inched ahead on the freeway. By some miracle and my heavy foot I arrived at the familiar sight of WSIR and ran into the classroom only 15mins late. Somehow I managed to get there 1 hr 45 mins.!! I soaked in as much as I could during the class. The instructors basically hammering into our heads to be safe and our goal this weekend was simply to have a clean event and finish. Good goals for anyone

here's some of the damage on my hood.....argh.



Now that that was over, calmly walked over to the truck and began unloading at setting up my pit. Was able to find a spot surrounded by most of the BMW racers, Jeff Ireland, Scott Parsons, Mike Ward, Nick Reed and others. We hung out chatted a bit as I began to make friends with everyone. I have to say the vintage racing community is so friendly and everyone has welcomed me. I could not ask for a better welcome. In true grassroots fashion I prepared my bed inside the 4runner. You know, with the seats folded down a pillow and a sleeping bag I was pretty comfortable! I opened up my laptop and to my surprise they had wireless internet! So I was able to make some posts and watch a dvd to put my nervous mind to sleep.

It is a marvelous thing to be awaken by the sound of vintage racing motors warming up! No time to eat and wake up, we were in group 1 the first group on the track that weekend. I ran over to sign up then to the drivers meeting. Quickly from there I put on my gear get in my car and anxiously head to my first tech inspection. I read thru the rulebook carefully and I was feeling pretty confident about passing. He found a few minor things that he just noted in my brand new logbook but he put the ok sticker on my windshield. I put on my balaclava and tightened my helmet straps dropped it in first and made my way down the hot pit lane and onto the track. It was a surreal moment. No time to be emotional. Time to focus and qualify!

Qualifying

As I drove around the first lap and warmed up my brand new Toyo’s my many years of motorcycle racing around WSIR helped me get up to speed fairly quickly. It was quickly apparent that I was not the slowest in the group as I made a few passes. My car was stumbling heavily exiting most corners suggesting a fuel delivery issue and was really lazy above 6000 rpms. I dealt with it and just tried my best to put down my first laps as a racer in the most professional manner I could. I was able to put down a fastest lap of 1:45:881. Getting me a starting position of 21st out of 32 starters for Saturday’s 12 lap qualifying race. Not bad! It was cold and besides the stumble on exit everything was okay.

Super Fast Steve link
*** Fastest BMW was 06’ class champ Pam Plavan qualifying in 7th with a 1:42:778. Steve Link in his Datsun 510 grabbed pole position with a blistering 1:38:382 ***

Pam Plavan tearing it up.
I came back to my pit with a sense of relief more than anything. Relief that I just achieved my dream of build my car and racing it and relief that I didn’t screw up and that I was not sucking too much!

I pulled my plugs and saw that I was lean!! No wonder that car didn’t want to rev! So I increased my main jets and changed my air correctors courtesy of my new pit buddy and owner of Long Beach Autohaus www.lbautohaus.com Scott Parsons. So big thanks to him!

I rested attempting to keep cool in the increasing desert heat and tried to calm down for my first real race....Saturday's 12 lap qualifying race.

Saturday’s qualifying race (12 laps)

Got my head together, my gear on and found my place in the pre-grid lineup. Now as the worker flashed her 5 fingers at me signifying 5mins. to start It finally hit me and the butterflies in my stomach were quickly drowned out by the thundering sound of 20 cars ahead of me leaving single file onto the track for the warm up lap. I pulled in the clutch rev’d my M10 and rolled onto the blistering blacktop of willow springs 2.5miles of high speed heaven. I did my best to imitate everyone around me swerving left to right to try to build up some heat in our tires. I love how as soon as my foot made it’s way to the sheet metal all my worries and butterflies disappeared and my mind cleared and my world shrank to a very small world of my car and the track. I tried my best to watch to line up in my spot in the rolling start. Rolling starts are new to me as all motorcycle races at standing starts and I’m learning this new technique. I left way too much room between me and the car in front when the flag was thrown. I was cautious thru turn one as everybody bunched up and tried their best to position themselves.

I had a good battle with a red 911 but 3 laps or so in my temp gauges was north of 210 degrees, soon it was at 220! I had not choice but to take it easy on the straights and wave people by me as I attempted to finish. The temps did come back down to 200ish and when the brown immaculately prepared 2002 of Ken Blasko passed me I had to give chase! But soon my temps rose back to 220 mark again! To add to my woes was that the jetting change did not correct my corner exit stumble! So I had no choice but to back off and be content to nurse it to the finish. I was relived to see the checkered flag as I limped my way back to my pits concerned with my temps. I didn’t even realize that I had just finished my first race! ! !

Watch all the action of my First race on video here,

http://youtube.com/watch?v=ouNomP5qRjI

I finished a disappointing 30th out of 34 starters. Jeff Ireland was the fastest BMW putting down a fast lap of 1:40:121 !!

I took my gear off and had a much needed drink of water. Pulled my hood off to start to address my issues. I took light of the good side, I finished and my car survived. That’s about it really!

Luckily Jeff Ireland had one of his new aluminum radiators on hand and gave me a great deal on it ! (Thanks!!www.bmw2002.com).

Just as I started to remove my brass 320i radiator my mom and my step dad arrived. Was nice to see them and I caught them up on the latest news. They helped my by going to the race supply store and buying some water wetter and some silicon radiator hose (they only had a straight piece.) I was able to quickly install the Ireland radiator.

I also went to a bigger main jet and Scott adjusted my float bowl height to address my G-stumble. I rotated my tires since willow has lots of right handers put the cover on it and went to sleep this night in the cushy confines of my parents hotel room! Yeah!

Find all the pictures from that weekend Here

Morning practice

After a good hotel breakfast we headed to the track for morning practice. In traditional desert fashion it was cold as I suited up and began to warm up my car. The water temp with the new radiator was not surprisingly stone cold and it never got above 160 degrees. So it seamed as my cooling issues were solved with the new radiator but the ambient temps were on the low side. Practice went pretty smooth except my stumble was still there and then on the last lap of qualifying……..all went quiet ! Oh no! Pedal to the floor…..snapped throttle cable? I was able to coast my way into the pits and pushed my way to my pit area. The hunt was on for a throttle cable! After looking for 40mins all I could find was a broken Porsche cable (but long since engine is in the rear). I was able to ingeniously make it work for me. It was not the best but better than packing up and going home! I could race! Scott also broke out the manual and we readjusted the float height again. Cleaned my windshield and tried to relax. I was very happy to see my brother. He came just in time for my race. I finished in the nick of time and put my gear on and carefully headed to the pre-grid.

Me trying to mickey mouse my go-cable.....
The big Show the final run to the flag!

I nervously gave my brother the thumbs up as he turned my camera on for me and I tightened up my belts and ran through my first laps in my head. I now headed onto the tarmac with confidence despite my mickey moused rigged throttle cable.

I was a bit confused when we bunched up again for the rolling start but I followed the Datsun 510 ahead of me around the outside of turn one as I was able to pass a few cars as they all bunched up toward the inside. This put me on the inside of turn 2 and followed the same 510 passed a few more cars!

What a good start to my race I thought for a second as I exited turn 2 with good speed and trying to avoid what typically in my motorcycle days a turn were lots of first lap accidents happened at willow, turn 3. As I rounded on the outside (luckily) my reservations were confirmed as all hell broke lose and a big 3 car accident unfolded in front of me. I managed to squeeze my way between the crumpled cars and narrowly avoided a rogue wheel. I was fazed for a second and a triumph went passed me and I realized the race is still on you dummy! I floored it going down the hil toward turn 5 and did not loose any more positions as I screamed over the hill in turn 6 I saw what I was expecting, the red flag. (this mean a halt to the race as the incident is severe and ambulance needs to go onto the track) we slowly made our way onto the front straight as we all parked our cars and waited for the restart. As I sat there in the oven that my car was becoming due to the desert sun I realize my stumble was now gone! We all just sat there waiting. After a long wait we were told it would be a 3 lap sprint race due to the long cleanup and the 7 races that needed to be run after ours. So off I went warmed up my tires again and prepared for the single file restart. I had a decent start but a few fast cars went by me.
The car was handling well and I was having a blast when I came into turn 9 on the second lap of the restart my throttle got stuck!! Crap! Just when I was going to take action it snapped back as go on the front straight again. The throttle was sticking so I slowed my speed as I evaluated weather or not to bring it in next lap. Just as I went into turn four my pedal went to the floor again and I thought I guess my rigged cable snapped or failed ……. I found a safe place to pull off the track and remained in the car strapped in like I was instructed while I waited for the end of the race and a tow back to the pits. As I sat there I was oddly still so exited about my first race! I was able to avoid the big crash and did very well with what I had. I undid my camera from the mount and filmed the end of the race. I waited for the tow truck and they pulled me into the pits. Unfortunately they took off and luckily my bro was there to help me push my way into the pits...


Everybody helped me to push my car on the trailer and we confirmed that indeed my rigged cable did not fail! Turns out my linkage bolt backed out and the toothed wheel fell off!! Reminder Locktite EVERYTHING on a race car!!

Here is a closeup of the bolt that backed out and allowed the toothed wheel to fall completely off!


WOW! What a rush! Even tough I had failed to finish I tried my best and I did not make any mistakes. The car didn’t get hot enough to test the new radiator but it looks like it defiantly made an improvement. (ultimately did not fix my issue, more to come)

I said my good bye’s, packed up and headed home pretty happy with myself actually. Things could of gone way worse!

I had a great time hanging out with everybody made some new friends and sorted out a few issues with the car. Got my first race experience and 2 race starts under my belt. Later reviewing my tapes I learned a bunch actually.

Enjoy all the action of my Sunday race even a slow mo of the accident
http://youtube.com/watch?v=CE1czK6vUtE

I said my good bye’s, packed up and headed home pretty happy with myself actually. Things could of gone way worse!

I had a great time hanging out with everybody made some new friends and sorted out a few issues with the car. Got my first race experience and 2 race starts under my belt. Later reviewing my tapes I learned a bunch more.