LuckyKid

The BoD is elected by roughly the same % of members as those submitting petitions and commenting. If petitions and comments are less relevant because of the lack of participation what does that say about the BoD? If a lawsuit would end CCES, then this is a risk that should be taken seriously and mitigated. All it takes is one pissed off member. I get that there are limited resources and this is part time. I applaud the previous efforts to leverage members (Like Chris in the Technical Writer role) and I think efforts like this should be used more to increase overall bandwidth and assist the BoD in making decisions. Each member calling each BoD member to get their version of events sounds like a not so great way of communicating. I very much like the forum posts from BoD members explaining their stances on different topics.

Why don't they just publish my tickets?

One professional mechanic who's a friend comes to a race here and there, when he does I pay him. The rest are bribed by the experience.

We've averaged about $10k for the team including continuous development on the car, consumables, transport, RV rental, good dinners for the crew. Local races are much less.

I made a nice clean ticket hoping they'd make it public.

Boxster E30 NC/NB/NA Miata Ordered in the amount of work to make them competitive. Altimas can be a good platform as well. Ignore the Tuttle eclipses on the list above, that's six figures of learning to get them where they are and finish.

Here ya go.

If you want the easy list it starts with a different car. The donor car ends up being a cheaper part of the build. Nothing wrong with the eclipse but you have a steep learning curve vs. other models.

I got a bunch of different answers. My favorite was that they didn't want CCES to look like and airport.

I did not. After that I began communicating everything. It is my understanding that it was CCES leadership who banned it that time.

I showed up to my first race with the rear of my car chopped off. The rule book says 60% of the bodywork must remain. Many people cut out other parts of their car. The car was 100% rule book legal. Tech said no way and they told Road America not to let us on the track for the test day we paid for. I had to load the car back up, drop it off at a welder and we built a structure which tech approved on a napkin (Fun Friday Night). We still take points for that structure today and its a PITA. Coming from SCCA, I never imagined some "guy" in tech can make up a rule on the spot. From the outside its absurd and as a new member I felt your pain. Now that I know how Champcar works I understand that tech is there to stop crazy things from happening since the rule book is like swiss cheese. I applaud the progress that has been made, but I've learned you need to walk a fine line pushing the limits, but not so much its pissing in someones tea, that is just frustrating and expensive when you get hammered down. I've since had great communication with the current and former tech guys and I've found them to be extremely helpful. I've learned to share ideas before I do them and the communication with the board and TAC seems to be better too. I haven't had a tech issue in over a year all because of more and better communication on my end and all around. It might say this somewhere, if it did I missed it, but the rulebook/website should say something like "Are you doing something unique? ASK TECH ON TECH DESK FIRST!"

Transmission - gone Differential - smoked Electrical system - fried And now... Motor- toast Thanks Road America!

A big congrats to Premium Dudes and RBank. Premium Dudes will be unstoppable if they keep the oil in the engine! We have nothing for RBank, the power is absurd! The Visceral cars are always great performers! MKD is also a powerhouse if they just get new brake pads. We were pitted by Brian and he was a good neighbor, you can fault the guy for many things, but he sure is passionate! PartsBadger - Race Report We believed we tracked the fuel pump issue from NCM to an overheating electrical joint so we up-gauged the entire fuel pump wiring panel and re-did all the joints. There was however some people that mentioned the FPR could be an issue as well, so we moved to a lower flowing external pump, and added a fuel rail with better fuel pressure regulator. During the first few laps of the test day, we had the stall issue happen again, after shaking the harness the issue went away and we knew it was a short. A short time later we get a call that the car lost throttle (we had the throttle cable come of at RA20 and since safety wired everything). The car was towed in and the the throttle cable bracket was in pieces with a jumble of safety wire and the cable was frayed. We fixed it using a 1/4" thick bracket this time, and found our likely short wire and cleaned up some others as well. The first race day went great for about 9 laps and we suddenly lost power, but different from last time. While getting ready to tow back to the paddock I used my foot to check the AUX ECU plug and sure enough, that f'er is loose again (Also an RA20 issue). We lost two laps but were back out. Then after the second stint we lost our alternator. Then the radiator cap came lose in the pits and we had to come in again. Then we lost power AGAIN! This time we found that our main power cable(from the original build) was loose in the terminal. A quick fix and we were back out. Shortly there after we lost a rear brake pad and a caliper burned through a good portion of the piston before losing brake pressure. Another "quick" fix and we finished the day by blowing a differential! The second day was much better. @Chris Shay pounded it into my thick skull that I needed to stay off the rumbles and that the vibration is causing all of these issues to ruin our races. We had a really good 1.5 stints and the transmission started to go. We made the call to keep it in fourth gear and run clean and consistent. We ended up finishing 8th, 7th or 6th (who knows?) A big thank you to my crew (Brandon, Nick, Steve) and our chief mechanic Will who quickly diagnosed my shoddy electrical work, without him we'd still be in the pits. Our pitstops were top notch and we were well prepared! I also dropped a line on the local Miata FB group and had a couple guys come to the track to help get food, fuel, and parts and take pictures, a HUGE help! Thanks Grant and Cal! Summary of issues and what I learned: - Throttle Cable Bracket (Use thicker plate, safety wire, check tension of cable) - Throttle Cable (check for fraying (add to list), keep a spare) - Loose Wires (check shrink tube periodically, use adhesive lined) - ECU Connector (use teflon paste on threads) - Main Power Connections (Purchase the right crimp tools and solder) - Radiator cap (Make sure its not too easy to turn) - Rear Caliper (Follow the freaking checklists, no short cuts!) - Differential/Transmission (Need more air under the car and we need a better heatshield on the exhaust, its cooking everything) - Stay off the gators! Stay off the gators! Stay off the gators! Getting local car guys to come help with food/part runs was the best idea I've had in a while, they had a great time and it was a big help for the team!

I'm still waiting for the official thread to post my race report.

Raining I would go with Continental Extreme Contact Sport. Otherwise A052 is a the best wet tire, followed by RE71R. We bring 205 RE71Rs and 215 Conti's to races just in case. You don't want to be stuck on the Conti's in the dry, so if its wet and drying, an A052 or RE71R is going to be better.

I've got a caliper in my tool box. You put one end on the top of the head and the other on the bottom where the head gasket is. Then you can read the measurement on the caliper and compare that with the FSM.

I actually didn't see this before but I guess we will go 0.020 over on pistons on the next rebuild vs. 0.010".

Tech told me factory service limits only. It needs to be in the factory service manual or its not allowed as far as machining.

NCM - We moved the car from its paddock spot where the car was slopped rear ward about a degree or two, to the main road about 15 feet over which is more level and it was then able to accept about another gallon. We did have a modified vent, which we've since re-modified prior to Road America. You can't jackup a car and then fuel? I would support this rule but I would also be surprised if someone got black flagged for this as it stands today.

In your testing what did you find? We've gotten nearly a gallon (in our 15 gallon cell) by changing fuel locations in the paddock so that air pockets are relived. 2.5 degrees would trap about gallon on ATL SP122A on paper. More if you push fuel through the vent line. Jack stand location alters rake by a couple degrees (we confirm when we check wing angle) It may "seem" trival, but its the difference between winning a national championship and not could be where the jackstands are placed. On Tuttle we noticed slight differences in the tank angles and asked that tech check the angle of the cell since it was pumped out on jack stands. Its entirely plausible that Tuttle confirmed cell capacity when it was on jack stands and thought they were legal, or close to legal.

I just sent in this ticket: Can I please get the procedure for inspecting the following:1. Fuel capacity of a fuel cell.2. Fuel capacity of a fuel cell with internal surge tank.3. Fuel capacity of a stock tank. (might not be able to easily check the neck on these)Also:Is the fill neck included in the capacity limits?Will the fuel be measured using something with calibrated graduations, weight, or another method, or multiple methods?Does the stated capacity of the fuel cell matter or only the actual capacity?Would an unmodified stock tank which holds more than the stated capacity, require displacement blocks to match stated capacity with actual?Would fuel inspection require the car to be level on the ground?Would the fuel inspection process require an identical process to fueling?Are you be prevented from altering the height, pitch or roll of the car during fueling in the pits?*In our experience there can be well over a gallon difference in the cell capacity based on pitch/roll of the car while fueling.*

This, in addition to @Bill Strong's smiling face, is why we race CCES vs other alphabet soup series.

Over 50 dyno pulls with a new tuner and with our new Ballenger Motorsports Wideband. Wowza! Excited for Road America!

@Bill Strong Can we get links to the 2020 Swap and Tech sheets?