My Fifteen Minutes
They say everybody gets their 15 minutes in the spotlight, and that's sort of what this weekend felt like. What a
weekend!
This was the first appearance of the SCCA at the brand new Motorsports Park Hastings
in Hastings, Nebraska. I left Fort Collins Friday morning for the 400 mile tow, planning on running the Friday test day
they were holding. The tow couldn't have been any easier - 70mph, 10mpg, six hours, and 400 miles straight to the track.
Easy.
The track itself is a brand new facility, opened just last year. It's out what I presume is the outskirts of Hastings, NE,
in the midst of the staples of agricultural life: grain elevators, corn and alfalfa fields, and a continuous "honnnnnngggg" of
train whistles as they go by on the nearby tracks. The infield and runoff area of the entire track is actually an alfalfa field,
which they do cut and sell to help the track's proceeds. The facility is brand new and quite simply, awesome!
Everything is brand new and tip top - heated bathrooms, showers, a completely smooth, paved paddock, and, most amusingly,
the presence an absolutely
infectious, irreverent attitude by all of the track staff that keeps everything light and fun. Truly, these folks are
capturing the spirit of what amateur motorsport is all about.
The ringleader of this merry bunch is the track president, one George Anderson, who was present the whole weekend, constantly
active in at least some capacity. I had thought the weekend might be somewhat of a lonely one, since I was going without
any crew person, and didn't know anybody there particularly well yet. Fortunately, the opposite was true - getting
to know the usual suspects in the club racing group has been fantastic. It seems that no matter where you go in racing,
the folks are some of the best in the world. Mike, George, Jim, Annie, Teri, Bringer of All that is Good, Mrs. Karl,
I-have-nothing-to-do-this-weekend Kevin, the WHILJSILJ
Grand High Inquisitor, Erin of Ebelmesser, Mysterious Photog, Z-man, and everybody else that stopped by to chat, ask questions, and enthuse
about things. What a collection of folks!
Friday Practice
I arrived at the track just as the driver's meeting was starting, so I hurried over to get the briefing on various
procedures at the track - and, never having done a test day before to see if there were any oddities. Nothing really,
a race cars group and a door slammers group. Weather was sunny and cool, and entirely pleasant.
I got myself unloaded and eventually headed out for the second session of the open wheelers, crusing around somewhat
to learn the track. The track layout
is tending towards the tight side, 13 turns in 2.15-odd miles. The real thrillers are the high speed turns 3 and 8, which
you take flat out at around about 100mph or so. The final turn 13 onto the straight is a decreasing radius requiring a
fantastically deep turn in, and holding the car through 4-5-6-7 is highly entertaining as well. Despite no elevation change,
the track is very fun - many of us were comparing it to our departed Second Creek in character.
The first session was nothing special, with perhaps a high 29 as I started to work my way upwards. Unnnnnnfortunately,
the biggest worry I had had going into the weekend was rearing its head - a slipping clutch. I thought I had perhaps detected
some slippage at the IMI outing the week before, and in retrospect, what I had misinterpreted as wheelspin at the Pueblo
start back in July must also have been a slipping clutch. It decreased in severity as the engine temps came up, but I was
still slipping a bit above 10K RPM. Dammit.
I decided to try a second session, just to get some more familiarity with the track, and see if perhaps continuing
high temp would solve the engine's clutch issue. So, I ran a complete 20 minute session at the quickest pace I was able.
Turns out, this was my best session of the weekend, turning a 1:25.09 on one of my last laps. In retrospect, I recall a
pretty big bobble coming out of turn 13, so it almost could have been a 1:24. Maybe next time!
After the session, I pulled in to my pit spot and began preparing to change the clutch, but noticed rather a commotion
over near the timing trailer. Evidently my 1:25.09 was a new outright track record, and everybody was interested in seeing
who/what had done it. Boy was it fun to be the center of attention for a while! It was fun to answer the same questions
over and over: "It's called a Radical", "A Yamaha R1", "just 1000cc", "Maybe 160hp or so", "about 1100# with me in it", "no, I'm just here
by myself", "this is just my 4th race", and so on and so forth. Such fun.
After this began the exercise in perseverance that the weekend became until mid Sunday. I concluded that the problem would
only get worse, so I decided to see if I could change the clutch. I'd brought the R1's manual, and both of the spare
clutches that Hasty gave me with the car. Here goes nothing...
As it turns out, I was able to change the clutch with the engine in the car - *phew*. I just replaced the disks in the
clutch with what looked like very new disks from the factory clutch. I hadn't the foggiest if I'd changed anything, made
it worse, or what, but at least it had a chance of working, right?
The biggest drama was getting the pullrod for the slave cylinder reattached, which took several attempts, and about 3 times as
long as the actual clutch change. Throughout the latter half of the clutch change, without whom it probably wouldn't have been
possible, was a Nebraska local named Mike Petersen, who continued to help me out the rest of the weekend. Mike, buddy,
I couldn't have done it without you!
The only issue that remained after changing the clutch was that in removing the clutch cover, I'd damaged the gasket, so we had
to make one out of RTV, that didn't turn out to be 100% leak-proof. While the leak itself turned out to be tiny, it introduced
enough paranoia in the driver to cause an issue later.
Predictably enough, we finished up just in time for the last call for open wheel cars, so as it turns out, I only got my
2 sessions on Friday. Well enough, I suppose.
Saturday
Saturday dawned - if you can call it that - dark, cloudy, and cold, with a steady, cold wind blowing from the south.
Mike told me "I don't know why anybody would live in this state" - heh. I spent much of the day hiding in my
truck with the heat on, dozing and trying to run laps in my head before falling asleep...
I arrived early to finish preparing the car, and to see how well our RTV gasket was going to hold. As I was warming
the car, George came by with a notepad, and wanted to know more about the car, if I had a sponsor, where I am out of
and so forth. Every Saturday, he does an "MPH report" on Race Central Radio, which is an internet radio station
out of Denver, if I am understanding correctly. He was grinning ear to ear, as he got to tell the DJ on the air that
his track record time had just been beaten handily by yours truly, and kept saying "you made my day brother". Great stuff.
He also got a good plug in for
SCR Performance, which will be a good kick for Mark. Perhaps I can
get a recording one of these days?
I took things slowly in the practice, working up to speed, to see how the new clutch was going to hold. Encouragingly,
it seemed to be absolutely rock solid. By this point, I was learning the track pretty well, so here's how a lap at
MPH goes in the Radical:
Come through the exit of 13, using a bit of the curbing on exit. With my gearing, (far too high), grab 3rd gear as you
cross start finish. Up one more to 4th, and then a medium brake at the 2 marker, down 1 gear, and turn in hard for Turn 1, which takes you
about 3/4 of the way out towards the exit. Keep your arc around to the left to open up turn 2, and look for the outside
edge of the track to pick up the throttle as soon as possible. Up to 4th, then 5th. Downshift, but no brake for 3, and
hard on the throttle through, back up to 5. Brake between 2 and 3 marker for 4, which has a surprisingly fast entry,
down two gears, and use alllll of the
exit curbing on your way into 5. Lift slightly for 5, which begins a constant right-hand, neutral throttle arc through six,
which may
take a slight lift to tighten before the exit if the car runs a bit wide. Short-shift a bit to be flat through 7, hugging
the left hand side of the track, and then
flat out (eep!) through 8. Hard braking at 2 marker, down two gears, and turn in, watching the bumps right at turn-in, which want
to send the car sideways.
Carve a constant arc through 8 and 9, working to get back to the left of the track for 10. Down one more gear for the 10-11 chicane,
which are the tightest corners on the track, turning in just in time to hit a few small bumps.
Carry a suuuuuper late apex out of 10, to open up 11. Grab 3rd just
at the exit of 11, and brake hard, just past the 2 marker, for the late turn in, decreasing exit 13. Nurse the throttle around
until you can just make the exit curbing at 13.
The session was extremely slippery. An FE spun in front of me almost immediately on the opening hotlap, causing me to have
to dive across the left side of Turn 1 to avoid. He ended up high centered and the session was ultimately black flagged. Before
that, also on the opening lap, the Atlantic spun in front of me near Turn 12, causing me again to have to dump 2 wheels off
to avoid collecting him. As I came around for my 3rd lap, I saw an FM spun near the blend line from pits at the turn 2 exit,
and after that (evidently 5 of the 7 cars in our session spun), the session was temporarily black flagged to collect all the
marooned formula cars...
Qualifying
Qualifying was fairly uneventful, and with a failing beacon (dying battery), I didn't have much idea of my times. My focus
was on making sure to get to the race, so I was just back in the 26 and 27 range, not pushing terribly.
After Qualifying, it seemed to be that the oil was a bit low, so I made the (mistaken) decision to run the oil a bit high,
in case the leak from the clutch was causing oil loss. It'd be horrible to have this motor explode one weekend from its final
race.
Race 1
The race started well enough. The starter threw a fairly late green, and I got a reasonable enough start to lead the field
into 1. The wings-n-things field was somewhat thin this weekend, so I pulled away pretty quickly in the opening laps. However
lap 4, I saw Erin (starter) leaning out from the stand as I drove by, causing me to freak out and start checking my mirrors
for smoke, fire, whatever. Boy was that a sloppy lap! Sure enough, 3 laps later, I got the meatball. Dammit again! My
exuberance in protecting the motor with the oil level had resulted in overflowing the overflow bottle, and the resulting
mess was dripping
on the exhaust, causing some smoke. Since it was all staying in the car's undertray, they let me do a few more laps
to get my finish, and I came in.
I spent much of the rest of the night cleaning oil out of the car...yeuch. Finishing that job will be a winter project,
I think.
Saturday Night
Saturday night will be one for the history books. It began with twilight runs around the track in the MPH Bacardi Bus,
with tourguide George Anderson manhandling this bus, complete with smokestack, terrified passengers, horn honking,
engine revving, and an old couch, around
the racetrack, narrating all the while. Truly, this has to be experienced to be truly appreciated. A tremendous
steak dinner was followed
with a Grand High Inquisition of the WHILJSILJ brotherhood, and torture of the accused offender (our region's RE) by
karaoke ensued, for he would not divulge the name of the "Mysterious Photog" that allowed pictures of the previous
race's post-event debauchery to be posted in the region newsletter, Redline.
(At bottom).
Sunday
Sunday came, and seemingly impossible, was even worse than Saturday. A damp, heavy fog limitd visibility to only a few
hundred feet, and temperatures remained in the 40's and 50's. Any on-track action was delayed until about 11:30 or so,
with the fog only lifting sufficiently to see from corner-to-corner. Practice was discarded, and we went straight
to qualifying sessions. Ever helpful, George had a leafblower out, pointed skyward at full throttle to blow the troublesome
vapor away. An update from the tower informed us that the National Weather Service had passed along that the fog was not due to
mother nature, but was punishment for Saturday night's karaoke.
I softened the rear of the car - bump and swaybar to make sure the back end of the car stayed behind me, and it
made an unexpectedly large difference in the car's handling. What had previously been very happily neutral turned
into somewhat pronounced corner-exit understeer, which did hurt laptimes. I was only able to dip into the
mid 25's, but was encouraged. By my session, the fog had broke, and temperatures were 70-80 for
the remainder of the day, which was a very, very welcome change.
I came in somewhat early, as the FM's were dropping wheels
everywhere, and the track was becoming fairly dirty with grass clippings and dust.
The track warmed throughout the session, and I was hoping my newer, second
set of tires might enable that 24 I was hoping for.
I changed these after qualifying, got lunch, and settled down to watch
the racing and see if I could find any pattern from the starter. (No such luck)
The race was an exciting one for me. I lined up next to the Formula Atlantic in our group, and after the pace car exited,
we formed up for our start. As we came around 13, he accelerated somewhat, pulling almost a complete car length on me,
so our start was emphatically waved off by our esteemed starter. I led the field around again, and this time, the
green flew as we were barely out of 13. I got an excellent jump, and the Atlantic was completely napping - I think he
was passed by at least 3 of the other cars on the start.
Coming down into turn 3 I discovered that this new set of tires had a tremendous imbalance on the front wheels, causing
a vibration so bad I couldn't even see my brake markers going into turn 4. By lap 9, my right hand was numb from
trying to hold the wheel somewhat steady - I couldn't even find the button to flip through the stack's menus anymore.
I decided to take things somewhat easy and make sure the car didn't vibrate itself apart, although whenever I came
up to lap somebody I would chase them hard - certainly I need the experience racing.
The most exciting part was
coming up to a group of three cars, which resulted in side-by-side racing from turn 8 until the front straight, when I
was finally able to get the last car - the same Atlantic. As we exited 11, the Atlantic ran wide all the way
out to the outside, forcing me almost to a stop before gathering things back up. I am feeling better about my ability to run near other
cars safely, which is encouraging. rFactor was good training after all! The only other excitement was a brief
surface flag in T1 for an errant cone that had been whacked out into the middle of the track, perhaps even by
me as I took a particually tight line into 1.
| Happily, this resulted in
a best race lap of 1:26.4, which is the new official DSR and MPH track record, which sure is fun. Huzzah! After another
nerve-wracking 9 laps, the 18 laps were complete, and I took my first overall race win checkered flag, with Erin
giving me the double checkers as an added bonus. It still amazes me how much you see after the opening laps
in a race - |
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I would never have thought your concentration could drift at 100mph, but I started noticing
cars on the freeway outside the track,
something weird in paddock, and conversations the corner workers
were having with themselves.
Fortunately, after about 3 corners worth of internal dialogue, I put my head down
to get to the finish
safely, and lapped the whole field in the process. Due to the late hour, they weren't doing victory laps as on
Saturday, but I made the most of an excited cooldown lap, to a nice ovation from the corner workers. Thanks guys!
Afterwards, the packing up began, and lots of congratulations from visitors, racers, and marshals alike. It really
felt great to be getting the kudos and compliments - I really felt like the man of the hour in my own head. I thought
more than once that if I never have another race weekend as nice as this one, I can say that racing has made me happy!
George had a friend of his from the Ford Racing world stop by and have a look at the car, and we spoke for a while.
After packing up, A whole gaggle of us - 20 or so - headed over to a local steakhouse and talked about our weekends.
In the end, the picture tells it all:
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The car
Moving on to technical matters, the new setup I tried was the best yet. I'd made a change to 8" and 10" tires,
instead of the 6"/8" previously. The extra support helped the front tremendously, as it no longer "fell over"
itself in high speed corners, and for once, the front tires wore beautifully.
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In fact, I think I wore both
ends of the car fairly evenly for the first time. 16-17psi cold pressures resulted in 20-21 hot each time,
which is excellent. The 450/650 setup felt very nicely balanced initially.
I added a tick of wing after
the first practice session to gain a bit more rear-end stability, although in retrospect, it probably hurt
my speeds in 3 and 8, and did result in some high-speed understeer in those corners.. I discovered that I couldn't outrun the FE's or FM's down the straights, I had to pass them
all under braking.
The rear shock and bar adjustments turned out to be detrimental as well, although that was expected, so I believe
I'll return to the baseline settings, which was the bar at medium, and the shock bump at 2F, 4R, for now. Those
changes may be a hint to improving the car's corner exit behavior even a bit more.
15/48 gearing wasn't enough, as I used 5th, but never 6th. The springs resulted in great performance, and no
splitter wear except for the 2-3 times I dropped a wheel on a few corner exits (4, 13, and 12). It's good enough
that I believe I'll declare the spring fiddling done for now, since even the bumps were not upsetting the car unduly,
and I think now I'll start fiddling with some shock adjustments to see how that goes.
After seeing how unable I was to pass theoretically slower cars down the straights, I guess that means that
the car either needs more power, less drag (take some wing out, idiot), or both!.
For next time...not much. I think the gearing now may be about right for Pueblo, and I will re-set the wing and
shocks back to where they were. the 8"/10" wheels were a huge win, and the springrates seem to be spot on. Time
to go clean some oil off the car, and unload everything...
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howdy!
Karl's Punishment
More...
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