racer145

iTrader: (1)

NASA Great Lakes Region TTS Season Championship
NASA Midwest TTS Season 2nd place

NASA Season Finale Weekend - Putnam Park
October 9,10

The final race weekend of the 2010 NASA Midwest and Great Lakes Region was held at Putnam Park on October 9th and 10th. For the final race weekend of the season there was abnormally warm temperatures. It was hard to convince ourselves that this was the last race of the year. Highs around 87 degrees both days felt like mid August instead of mid October.

Going into the last weekend the stage was already set for a great overall season result as long as we were able to run the weekend without mechanical failure or DNF.

Before making the trip over to the Indianapolis area for the Putnam Park race the Evo had to undergo some maintenance procedures to keep things running. In the prior event it was noted that the car was smoking significantly during the last session. Water temps were running higher than normal and water was pushing out the overflow bottle. It was obvious that a head gasket was leaking and would need to be replaced before things got worse.

Luckily there was plenty of time between events for the head gasket job to be completed. We found that the gasket had been leaking between the 3rd and 4th cylinders as well in a few other areas. Stock head bolts were still in the car were probably being pushed to the limit.

A new head gasket was installed and new ARP head studs were installed to protect this from happening again under the 23+ psi boost pressures that are ran for 15 minute sessions.
Compression readings were taken after everything was put back together and everything checked out good at 165-170 across all 4 cylinders.

It was decided that we would run the Friday test day at the track to make sure everything was ok with the car before competition day on Saturday. The format for the weekend was Saturday being a double race day event and Sunday was a fun day. The season ending awards were given out at the banquet that was Saturday night.

On the trip over to Indianapolis for the weekend we made a stop at VS Motorsports for an allignment. The allignment settings were set back to what we had ran at Putnam in May when we were there.

The Friday test day went very well and the car seemed to operate as it should. The head gasket replacement had cured the overheating and the smoking problem. The car was feeling good and ready for competition on Saturday. The drivers side from tire was corded in the last practice session and the brake pads were close to needing replacement as well.

Saturday morning I was able to purchase some front brake pads from Nathan Pitcher who had previously been running the same DTC-60 compound that I run. He had a set that still had probably 75% of life left on them. We detemined it would be best to run the newly purchased used pads instead of wasting a session trying to bed in a new set of pads. There were 40+ competitors in the Time Trials group and getting a good gridding position for the first timed session was critical. Just like all of the competition groups that weekend it was a sold out event over a week ahead of time.

TTS had only 3 competitors in the class which was the smallest of the classes other than TTR, which is almost a non-existant class in the Midwest/Great Lakes regions.

The first two timed sessions of the day were considered the first day of points and then the 3rd and 4th timed sessions were the second days points.
In the first two timed sessions I was having trouble getting the new pads seated well to my rotors to operate as they should. Tire pressures were also a challenge to get correct to the vast difference in air temp through the day compared to how cool the day started out. After the second timed run I found myself in 3rd place after running a best time of 1:19.2 which was 2 seconds behind the other two cars in the class.

In the second day of competition points I once again ended up in third place. In the fourth session my best time was a 1:18.4, which was .1 seconds faster than the best lap I had ran back in May when we were last at Putnam Park. Given that the track conditions seemed to be quite slick I was happy with the results and came away with a few ideas on how to make the car faster next year at this track and other tracks as well. After reviewing the Traqmate data it was obvious that having to shift into 5th gear was hurting potential straight away speeds at this track. The large span in gear from 4th gear to 5th in the EVO 8 caused a huge drop in HP after making the shift. The car was bogging down and losing the power curve it should have. A different 5th gear and tranny rebuild are most likely in the works for the off season. Maybe a EVO 9 gear or a JDM gear for 5th gear will help.

Many thanks to all of those that helped and supported me this season. I couldn't have done it without your help and encouragement.

VS Motorsports - thanks for you sponsorship this season. I learned alot this year with your help and development on this car. With some more improvements over the winter this thing should be exciting to drive next season.

goforwand

iTrader: (132)

Well done!

KevinD

iTrader: (56)

sweeet, congrats!

Balrok

iTrader: (15)

Nice bro. If I remember right the 9 gear is even longer then the 8 5th gear so it'd be worse, i'd chat with TRE/Shep and grab one of their spec ratio's.

KevinD

iTrader: (56)

evo 9 5th gear is shorter, and more ideal for track and drag, although, worse for being on the highway and just cruising. in sheps "ultimate ratio" set, its an evo 9 5th gear.

Balrok

iTrader: (15)

Ah right he uses the 8's 3rd and 4th or something.

WarmPepsi

iTrader: (35)

sorry man, i'll get to gettin those pics to you soon.. Been workin... logged a 15 hr day this week