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I think going forward I'll have to carry track tires in the car. That way I can only use them on track and not get any street miles on them. Also if I have any issues like yesterday I can just put the street tires on and finish up my sessions.
Live and learn i guess.
Come see me next week, I have some tires that may work for you.
I also have a small trailer that I am not currently using.....maybe the hitch is the way to go, although now you will have two more tires you have to worry about.
Come see me next week, I have some tires that may work for you.
I also have a small trailer that I am not currently using.....maybe the hitch is the way to go, although now you will have two more tires you have to worry about.
Do it Aashish! Then we can TT together with COM! I already know what hitch works well on the BRZ
Attaches to the factory tow points. No need to cut, modify, drill. And you don't have to crawl underneath the car like I will have to with the chase race. You can pop the whole hitch off in 5 mins with an impact gun at the track. Really jealous of how good of a solution it is.
May 16, 2017: Patched weeping leak in oil pan.Changed oil in transmission.Brassy color.Syncros wearing?Running 4.3 differential.
May 17, 2017: Summit Point.Eight hour tow with stop in Harrisburg.Staying with LeAnn, Eric Russell (MGA #61) & their friend John Leotsacos.Motor home. They had the primo site in the whole paddock.Grass, not trap rock, close to bathroom and main buildings and close to gasoline.Also some pavement to work on. John Leotsacos who was trying to go to the VRG race school in Jeff Daigle’s old MG Midget.But he had motor issues and ended up using Eric’s car to finish the school.Eric was running my old motor and had his own set of troubles.
May 18, 2017: First time running the Jefferson 500.Tricky track, but more fun than I expected.First practice best laps in the 1:50s.Practice session #2 ran in the 1:47s.Practice session #3 ran a few 1.46+ laps.Felt I had some carb problems.#4 plug seemed wet.#3 was clean.#1 & #2 were sooting, rich.Re-tuned carbs.Balanced air intakes.They were a little off.Reset bridge on both carbs to .08”.Ran better, although at low rpm was spitting and scratching – sort of like an old girlfriend.
Practice #3 had a seized caliper on driver’s side. Had been heavy braking into Turn 1 and into Turn 5 (entry to Carousel).Had to come in early.Driver’s side rotor at 650 degrees.Passenger side at 325 degrees.Pulled tire and brake pads.And attempted to clean and repair.When cool seemed to work OK.
May 19, 2017. Had a hard time starting the car and it seemed to run very poorly.On way to false grid, John calls me back, as I am leaving a trail of fuel.Quickly swap float on rear carburetor to solve the leaking fuel issue.But still miss the qualifying run.Car running very poorly.Attempt to diagnose without much success.Pulled distributor, reset points and replaced one of two that looked suspect.Still ran poorly.Replaced distributor cap and rotor.Car had a miss but seemed to be OK. Attempted a run in paddock under load.Ran very poorly under load.I decided it had to be the capacitor, so we replaced that.Seemed to do the trick.Car finally ran well.
In early afternoon, head out to race one. Gridded in last place – which was apparently where I should be.Ran close to another MGA and a Porsche 356, but could never make a run.Could catch in corners, but I didn’t have enough grunt to pass on straights.After cars started to lap us, our rhythm broke up.But since I was trailing, my rhythm got interrupted first, and I fall back.Could never recover and then my brakes seized up again.Once I realized it, I did a long (painful) run around the track coming in one lap early.
Pretty depressed about the seized brakes. Decision taken (John strongly encouraged me into it) to pull the calipers off to clean pistons and replace brake seals.The seals were new (Moss) - replaced over the winter and had only one rainy and cool weekend at Lime Rock for the Spring Sprints.John’s compressor, aborrowed “blower”, my spare brake seal kit (Moss) and Eric’s brake fluid and in about 3 hours we had the calipers re-sealed with new seals.The dust seals, however, still looked suspect with a thin film of rubber at the ends of the V groove folding under itself.On testing, the brakes worked fine.
May 20, 2017: Saturday morning race.Car ran well without mechanical problems.I ran a couple of 1:44s, but of the cars still running, finished in last place.Attrition was my only friend.
Saturday afternoon race. Had my best run of the weekend.Ran consistently in the 1:44s, with a 1:43.618 in lap 3 - my best lap of the weekend.Well off even the mid pack pace, but considering my tires in comparison to the cars in front, I was quite happy.That is until the front caliper seized in lap 7.Came in.Dust seal rubber on outside piston melted. Pulled caliper, cleaned up.Since I didn’t have any more rebuild kits, decided to run without the dust seal on that particular piston.
Sunday race: Started strong with a 1:43.716 in lap 2.But then my throttle stuck open at about 4500 rpm early in lap 3.A hazard of a drive-by-wire car, I suppose.Afraid to accelerate too much for fear of getting it stuck at an engine damaging speed and had to ride the brakes in some corners.Continued at a leisurely pace of 1:50 for the rest of the race.Seized brakes by finish, but I did finish the entire race – dead last though I was.
The race course itself was better than I expected – once a rhythm was developed. Turn 10, onto the front straight is a bit hairy because you want to carry this corner as fast as possible.First half of front straight is uphill, so hard to develop speed.Second half is downhill, so you can pick up the pace into Turn 1.Tried to stay on full throttle to brakeboard #5, but not so easy when one can't heal & toe and brakes maybe unreliable.Turn 1 sharp right - deep.Turn 3 is a full speed left hand turn if you have the guts.Track out is not visible until after the apex – and then the track is turning left.Turn 4 is supposed to be flat out right, but I was lifting and tapping the brakes.Turn 5 – hard brake and sharp left.This is the entry ? to the carousel.Turn 6, hard right, my slowest point on the track.Lots of steering correction (sawing) in turns 5 & 6.Usually had understeer, but once or twice had both understeer and oversteer.Turn 7 & 8 are fast esses.Turn 9, just a kink in the back straight under the bridge.Then full speed to Turn 10.No steep elevation changes, but enough to keep it interesting.For the entire course, I had difficulty finding reference points for turn in and braking – mostly drove by feel.For example, for turn 10, the reference point for turn in seemed to be some overhead wires.As usual, I suffered from early apexing.I was disadvantaged by my tires.Everyone was running Hoosiers that were not only stickier than my Vredesteins, but also much wider.
Have a lot of work to do to be ready for Lime Rock on June 2-3. What with the holiday and my work schedule, not much time.In dealing with my brake issues, we discovered that my driver’s side suspension is loose (clunks on braking) and probably need to disassemble my steering knuckles and kingpins to properly evaluate. I’m sure my rotors are heat damaged – looked sort of blue.Ordered up some parts – enough to make short term repairs.Just hope they get here in time.
Here I have a couple of the gremlins Just checking pressure hereBeing overtaken
This crash happened while I was at Watkins Glen with BMWCCA. The car lost brakes in turn 7 and dropped a lot of brake fluid from the apex through to T8 where it went off. I was going to share the video earlier but then I noticed this driver receiving plenty of criticism online. However the story made it to Jalopnik and is now widely known.
Thanks for the report Jeff. The pictures are more cheery than the description. But at least you had more competent help than the usual. Good luck at Lime Rock. If I were in town I'd have stopped by to spectate. Please keep me updated via text though.
05-23-2017, 03:39 AM
