jerdeitzel

iTrader: (9)

Congrats on finishing your first race!

boomn29

iTrader: (47)

After some last minute updates to the brake ducting last week, we made it to Gingerman around 10pm and setup camp in the pitch dark and proceeded to drink until about 2:30am for some reason.

Race Day:
Morning came quick and I made the registration switch from PTA over to ST2 already. I knew I didn't have a chance in ST2 w/o at least good tires but I wanted to be in the faster rungroup and get used to the traffic. My goal was simply get the car through the weekend successfully and see how everything felt and reacted over the course of an entire race.

I prepped the car briefly and went out for practice on street tires to feel out the brake updates. Everything felt solid, although the car pushed hard on the street tires - which it has all year since the cage went in - I ran a 1:47 or so which was used to set the grid for Quals later that morning. I had a car spin in front of me and 2 of us had to split to miss it in the track which was fun. I was weighed afterwards and started doing to the math for the ballast I'd need.

I switched rims to the last of my leftover 2011 255 Hoosiers and stuffed the car full of fuel until it ran back out! I only ran a few laps and qualified with a 1:41 trying to save the tires as they were pretty beat up from running hard TT sessions last year. Last year pushing hard on the tire setup I ran a 1:38.8 (current TTA record) so I was in the ballpark. I made weight, but not by much, so we definitely would need to add ballast. Another issue was the oil temps. In my effort to fix the brake cooling issue I admittedly borrowed from the oil cooler flow as well as fixing the hole in the rubbed fenderwell by adding a chunk of plastic. I think the latter made things worse so I removed it and then worked up a special duct from the 'faux hole' around to the oil cooler. I was fairly confident this would make things at least manageable.

With a 3hr gap before the race I had some prep time. I had a tire that was starting to cord, so I replaced it with an another used 255 I had. I also was able to secure the ballast I needed, with the help of Jason from GP Racing we secured 25 lbs in the passenger side and another 30 lbs in the trunk. I'd already topped off every fluid container in the car (oil, radiator, drink bottle, windshield fluid, fuel, etc). Not knowing how much fuel the car would burn I errored on the heavy side as I didn't want a DQ.

The race went pretty well overall. All of the ST cars lined up in the 1st of 3 waves; I was 9th of 12 in that group and started on the inside of a very tight T1. I got a good jump, but all the big V8 N/A cars in front of me pulled harded off the line. I also realized from my vid I should have been up closer to the car in front; so I'll learn. I took T1 pretty slow trying to stay clean and dropped below boost in 3rd so I lost some momentum there. After that I had a Speeds car right on me and tried to leave room for him to come around as I knew he was faster and not in my class. I ran a few 1:42's and after that settled into a pace around 1:45-46 carefully eyeballing my oil temps the entire time around the 280-285 range. I babied the car, avoiding the high rpms when I could by shifting early and pushing the clutch in to coast into braking zones - all tricks that I know help the oil temps. Brakes felt good throughout and the tires stayed underneath fairly well since I wasn't pushing hard. I picked up a few spots from lap traffic with the older CMC cars and navigated some faster GTS traffic. I picked up the pace on the final few laps just to see and the tires were giving up for sure. Turn-in was horrid and the rear wouldn't rotate because of the lack of front grip and the extra ballast didn't help. In all the race lasted 17 laps and I covered about 43 miles.
I was very happy just to complete the race in the Evo. I was ever so paranoid about the brakes and the oil temps before the race started. I didn't use quite as much fuel as I thought so that was good and the car performed well with the Buschur tune. Officially I'd finish 4th in class and 12th of 36 in total.

As for the fuel, after the race I had exactly 1/2 tank but was not weighed.

fwiw on the weight, I ran 4 laps in Quals the next morning with 0 changes and came in at 3266 (claiming 3244) so I was fine.

boomn29

iTrader: (47)

I've another day's worth of video to edit and writeup to do yet, and that's coming.

This week I've been ordering up supplies like crazy! New tires, brake pads & brake duct inlets are all on the way already. I'll have some details on each of those items as their either a new product for me or a switch or fab needed, etc.

What I'm still hunting for is some type of headlight delete option. The only one that seems to be out there is the Carbon Trix offering that's like $350 and still needs lots of modifications to fit properly.

Oh, and I registered for NASA Nationals awhile back too! Not too happy about the price hikes though.

R/TErnie

iTrader: (32)

I was watching the video and thinking...wtf is that? A street bike? haha No it was a DSR lol

great video editing! thanks for the vids.

boomn29

iTrader: (47)

Dunno if you can make it out, but here's pics of the ballast we put together Sat:

boomn29

iTrader: (47)

And pics from the race on Sunday. Credit goes to a fellow Evo guy - Smevans:

R/TErnie

iTrader: (32)

Haha... You need lead weights.

boomn29

iTrader: (47)

After a long 35min timed race on Sat - I was happy but insanely hot and exhausted. It was pushing 90 with 0 clouds all day and all that sun/heat was taking the toll on my energy level to be sure. Sat evening I went over the tires and tried to strategically rotate to get the best tread in the right spots - but everything moved very very slow! The brake pads looked to be around 50%, wearing less than I feared they would in the race. I knew they'd be good for the day but might start to get low and run warmer.

Sunday morning started very early due to a mandatory quite time of 10-12pm at this track. So the first cars were out at 8am with our race group scheduled for 8:20. This session would be qualifying, with the grid based on yesterday's best race lap. I was making some other updates including switching out my ACD unit and last track of time. I made it to grid in time, and the session was hot! I quickly discovered I missed a few things:
1) There was something rolling around in the car (later found a 10mm socket)
2) I didn't torque my wheels - only as tight as my rechargeable drill got them
3) I neglected to plug in my ACD after the switch
4) I neglected to put up my driver's side window net!

Apart from all the above, I just ran like 2 laps quickly and safely and came in. I managed a 1:41.5 which was slightly better than my qual time from Sat while still taking it pretty easy. I weighed 3266 I believe; having made 0 changes to weight since yesterday's race when I was claiming 3244. Meaning I was probably 4-5 laps to the good after Sat's race but I was also coasting into the corners to work with the higher than normal oil temps.
I checked over the car and realized my passenger rear that was previously showing some spots of cord decided to let go and wasn't really safe to run for a race. Maybe I could have flipped it and run it for a short session but that's not the safest to do. So it was time to switch to my other set of even more HC'd 245 Hoosier R6's and change forms. With a huge gap, there was plenty of time to take care of that and pull all the ballast I had put in the previous day.


The forecast for Sunday's race would be about the same. Right around 90 and solid sun. After happy to literally survive and finish on Sat, I was determined to push everything today and see how it turned out. I started in the same spot; 9th out of 12 in the first wave. After watching my vid, I was again not aggressive enough getting in line for the start. I held with all the leaders for 2-3 laps this time and settled into a pace of 1:42x (compared to 1:45-46 Saturday). The car slided a lot more but also rotated better, probably due to the combination of having less tire and less weight. Around lap 10 the brake pedal started getting longer, so I backed my pace down and did some LFB prior to the bigger braking zones just to make sure everything would be there. This slowed my pace enough that the CMC cars were difficult to get around (see pics above) as I didn't trust the brakes nearly enough to stick my nose down to the inside. And I definitely learned the CMC guys cornering speeds sucks on those Toyo's! Next time I'll know that my car can stick much better in the turns and make the pass more aggressively, so all good information.

This race was scheduled for 25min, so I knew it'd be less than the 17 laps from yesterday. There were a few local yellows again, but nothing to slow us down. There was more attrition than Sat with a few cars pulling off full of smoke; 1 catching the ground on fire nicely. I believe 14 laps was the total. The Evo pulled through with flying colors in this race; just the pads wearing down about 3/4 of the way through but that wasn't unexpected given the width I started with and only having 2" ducting still.

I was called in for weight as I finished 3rd of 4th and made weight easily. So I got my first podium in a Sprint race. But there's work to do and it's time to get serious!

I pulled off the passenger side from tire to do a little TLC to the fenderwell and found an issue:



Although this was a double raceday, with me being very hot and the brakes going downward, the cords showing was enough of a sign to pack it in for the weekend. Now if I were going for pts in ST2 or had 4 good tires, I would have at least went out for a few laps in the 3rd race but that's not my plan for this year.
At that point I was done for the weekend and worked to pack things up.

Overall my mind was racing with data. While I had oil temps on Sat just over 280 and I babied the rpm's, I pushed it hard on Sun and it never really went higher. I was also able to run 4 seconds faster consistently on even worse tires which was also a good sign. With the old saying that new tires are worth 2 seconds; I'd been knocking out 1:40's on better tread which is what most of the class had listed for their fastest lap actually. Keep in mind; I'm running 1 class higher that my setup too! So there's a lot of positives and a lot of small changes I can take away from the weekend. Which honestly was the entire plan from the beginning.
I've gotta thx Buschur Racing for a quality tune that was put through it's paces all weekend. It's been great this year so far! Also thanks to AMSOIL, KNS Brakes & ACD Tuning.

R/TErnie

iTrader: (32)

very nice! congrats on the finish.

Kidloco51

iTrader: (32)

Any luck with head light deletes? I emailed Mullerized about theirs as it might be an option. I am in the market for some myself.
http://www.muellerized.com/products_evo89.html

Check at the bottom of page

R/TErnie

iTrader: (32)

The carbon light covers are pretty cheap at 300 dollars. Are you guys looking for lighter ones? Nicer ones? One's that require less fitting? I have a ton of friends who do high quality carbon work, I just don't see what's wrong with the current market of carbon lights?

EVOlutionary

iTrader: (38)

Cost. We want our cake and to eat it too. ;-)

Come on, can't you make some for like $50 that mount in the stock fashion, comes with a cold-air intake snorkel, and reads me bedtime stories too?

boomn29

iTrader: (47)

That's a nice find - I never seen those!

Actually I was able to source something, and I'm very happy with the pics I got - waiting on the final product. What I found came from another Evo and they are fiberglass and will bolt right into the factory spots for a plug-n-play type option! So no $350 do-it-yourself crap like the Carbon Trix ones.

I'll have pics once I get them installed!

boomn29

iTrader: (47)

So now that the #929Evo has a full race weekend under it's belt, it's time to charge forward with an updated plan! While the plan last weekend at Gingerman was just to survive, learn, and burn up the rest of the 2011 leftover tires, it's time to take all that knowledge and make the appropriate updates to charge forward.

Thanks to a new partnership with GP Racing Products, the #929Evo is going to get some much needed updates. If you recall the name, when I ran the Enduro at Putnam I rented from Jason & Ryan of GP Racing. They're pretty much a 3-person shop that currently support 3 top running Spec Miata's with another that's currently for sale that they rent out. In addition Jason used to be an Evo owner so there's some additional familiarity right there. All in all, there's just some things you can't do without a 'proper' race preparation shop - and that's where the partnership with GP Racing came from. In addition, GP Racing offered to take my Evo home with them directly from the track and we'd work out a timeframe for me to retrieve it; with an option of delivering it back to an upcoming track event! This option made a world of difference being they're located just outside of Milwaukee, WI which is a solid 5 hr drive.

Included in the list of work on the #929Evo, most notably is the fact that since the 140 lb cage install we've yet to put the car back on the scales for a corner balance! We've also been w/o a working boost gauge since the cage install, which has been annoying if nothing else. Also since the Putnam event in May when the rear exhaust hanger weld broke, we've been using wire and supporting zip ties to hold everything in place (which has worked great actually). Add some tire mounting, a host of other small items and phase II of the brake cooling upgrade project and GP Racing is really going to fine tune some issues on the car.

We're also striving to pull as much weight off the front end as possible prior to the corner-balance. I think I've got nearly 31 lbs coming off the front. In all, for our PTA legal post-race weight of 3263 lbs, we could be adding around 85 lbs of ballast to the car - definitely not in the front!

honda-guy

iTrader: (55)

^ that's a massive trailer