NCM Racing Radios Grand Course

[DuncanDana]

 

Greetings All,

 

So Day one of our Racing Radios event at the National Corvette Museum track is in the books. Congratulations to the overall and class winners! Results can be found here:

 

https://speedhive.mylaps.com/Sessions/4445828

 

And after a good day of racing, including an hour and a half red flag for lightning, and some aggressive fuel strategies, the results for day 2 are in the books. Congratulations again to the overall and class winners! Day 2 results can be found here:

 

https://speedhive.mylaps.com/Sessions/4451622

 

 

Dana

Edited June 18, 2017 by DuncanDana
results added.

[KDJones2000]

Go Cone Crushers!

[Evilwheel]

Cone Crushers !!!!!       Congrats !

[craig71188]

Congrats to Cone Crushers!  It was HOT!  Lots of great, close racing and despite some early forecasts - NO RAIN!  Looking forward to tomorrow.

 

[Ronh911]

Looks like it might be a Porsche day!   First NCM then the 24hrs of LeMans?  Congratulations Crushers of Cones!

 

Ron

[2000atlanticGT]

First top 5 for Zorro Racing ... woooohoooo! 

 

[MGMIKE]

A big thanks to Racing Radios for spending a lot of time helping us out with a radio problem on our White Neon. and for all you guys who stayed home; you missed a great track that matches up with the best of them. Congrats to all the winners. Looking forward to next year already.

[revvhappy]

Congratulations to Cone Crushers and GodZirra Racing!

 

Big thanks to the Chump staff, volunteers and track crew for running an efficient and safe  weekend (great call on the lightning red flag Sunday).

 

NCM is a whole lot faster than it looks, with some great corner complexes and elevation changes. It seemed to be a "Class C" track that favored a strong combination of handling and power.

 

The Hong Norrth Supra had a roller-coaster weekend that ended with our first Chumpcar trophy on Sunday. We enjoyed being on the track with most of the cars - the driving was clean and respectful.

Edited June 19, 2017 by revvhappy

[E. Tyler Pedersen]

Well we didn't have the weekend we expected.  I tested the car a week before the event to make sure the new junkyard motor would hold up and there were no issues at all and dialed in the suspension.  When I rolled in to NCM and unloaded the car we noticed that there was an oil leak after the first test session on track.  It looked like it was coming from the rear main seal.  At the test session the car ran great and we were able to dial in the aero on the car.  Saturday morning we went out and started 10th, worked our way up to 6th until an upper coolant hose popped off.  I was able to save the engine and we noticed the alternator belt which controls the water pump was very loose.  We went out and got another belt along with getting the radiator hose put back on.  Ben Dawson went out to get some time in the car after we fixed everything and he came in and complained about stumbling issues in corners where the car would lean out.  The high pressure pump was working fine, but the lift pump was screaming and overheated.  I went out and got another lift pump from a parts store and plumbed it in.  The car would then start up and then die 25 seconds afterwards.  We checked a couple of other items and were stumped.  After swapping ecus, fixing the TPS, and swapping AFMs we went back to the lift pump that I installed.  I apparently plumbed it backwards which fixed our problem.  We were ready to race the next day and be in the running.  Sunday we went out and started first.  It was looking promising until I was yelling at Troy at the pits to go faster and he came in after 10 laps.  The clutch was slipping so bad we couldn't hold power.  The oil from the rear main was getting too bad on the clutch disc that it was just greasy.  At that point we packed up and was able to make it home before it got dark out. 

 

Thanks to all the ChumpStaff (Dan, Phil, Dana, Katherine, Mike, and Al) along with all the volunteers who can make this happen.  This was my 3rd race weekend out of the past 4 weeks and I am exhausted.  Time to regroup and get back after it for BIR. 

[zack_280]

Put your reading glasses on for this one...

 

Thanks to the staff for putting on a great event.  Thanks to the cornerworkers for braving the heat and the rain.  Thanks to the pit marshals for keeping us safe.  Thanks to Tyler with RVA Graphics for the great price for the awesome lettering on our wing.  Thanks to Racing Radios for hooking me up with a Stilo to NASCAR adapter for a great price.  Congrats to Cone Crushers and Godzirra on the wins.  Thanks to Justin and Charlie Ford and my wife for crewing for us.

 

The #148 Chattanooga Tourenwagen Meisterschaft E30 team had a great weekend at NCM.  This was our first race of the year and we made a bunch of changes to the car in the offseason.  Our team philosophy has changed from ‘simplify and add lightness’ to ‘complicate and add tires’.  The major changes were 15x10” wheels with 245 width tires, an adjustable rear wing, and a mean looking front splitter. 

 

Phil, @CabotTeg118, and I got to the track Thursday afternoon.  I was going to meet up with Tyler from @Crank Yankers Racing to do a beer exchange and some bench racing.  I was working out of town in Paradise, KY 2 days before and couldn’t really bring beer with me.  @Choray911 was coming up the next morning, so he picked up a couple of growlers that night.  We walked the paddock and hung out with @Doc and Chris from Brew Krewe.  We met the guys (whose names I already forgot) with the Godzirra 300ZX.  We ended up staying up pretty late bench racing with Tyler.  Luckily we weren’t doing the test day Saturday, so we could sleep in.

 

Friday morning we got a late-ish start and took a few Advil.  For some reason we wake up with headaches when we sleep at the track.  We figure it’s the cots in the truck.  We had a few things to work on on the car Friday, but mostly we just hung out and watched practice.  We knew it was going to be pretty hot Saturday, so we tried to stay hydrated.  Choray showed up in the early afternoon but he forgot the growlers.  Sorry about that Tyler. 

 

We spent the evening hanging out with the guys from Subliminal Racing and Bucksnort, then continued at our hauler with Trey from the Nashville Trash Miata team.  We didn’t stay up too late, but we found out that Natural Light is not as hydrating as water, despite the watery taste.

 

Saturday we got up and got the car ready on pit road.  We had a crew guy, Justin Ford, ready to move the car the starting line as soon as the driver’s meeting was over.  We were close to pit out and about half way through the driver’s meeting there was already a line to our pit stall, so he just moved the car.  We ended up starting in 4th or 5^th place. 

 

Saturday was an 8 hour race.  In the past we’ve been able to barely go 2hrs on a tank.  We weren’t sure how the car was going to do with the new aero.  Well handling wise it was great.  Fuel consumption wise was not great.  Luckily the race was red flagged for 15 minutes or so of the first stint to clean up oil from a blown motor and Phil went the full 2 hours.  We came in in 3^rd place, but the water light was flickering.  We opened the coolant reservoir and about 100 gallons or so of water boiled out.  So we had to refill and bleed the coolant on the first stop.  That took an extra 3 minutes or so. 

 

I got in the car for the second stint.  About 2 minutes before I got in the car I remembered letting someone borrow my Stilo to NASCAR adapter at Road Atlanta.  I didn’t get it back, so I no longer had radio.  My stint was pretty uneventful...I did get really close to the Rbank car.  I was following him for about ½ a lap and quite a bit faster in the turns, but quite a bit slower in the straights.  I underestimated his braking abilities and was inside of him at turn 6.  My front tire was roughly at his door at turn in.  He didn’t see me and turned in on a normal line.  I locked it up and just missed him (later I saw that his rear tire rubbed our splitter). 

 

At 12:53 I looked at the clock and thought, “I need to make it at least one more lap and we should be good on fuel.”  About one second later the car sputtered in turn 6.  So I prayed they were ready for me, did a careful in lap and made it to the pits.  Luckily they were ready. 

 

@Choray911 got in for the 3^rd stint and kept us in pretty good position.  But at about 2:48 the car sputtered right after he passed pit in.  Now we were worried because he was going to have to make it a full lap without dying and we were going to have to make an extra stop due to getting back on track with more than 2 hrs remaining.  Cho was radioing in that the car was cutting in and out as he went around.  It died for a while on the back straight, but he got it restarted and made it into the pits.  We lost about 2 or 3 more minutes on that. 

 

When Cho came in, we realized that dying on track would put us back on track at 3:01.  So if we could make it on fuel, we wouldn’t have to stop again before the finish.  Our wing was in maximum attack mode.  We were going to try to adjust the wing to minimum downforce mode to help with fuel, but we didn’t have the time during out stop. 

@RJTill went back out on track in 5^th place with no way of catching 4^th and no way of getting caught by 6^th.  We just needed to make it to the end of the race without another stop to maintain position!  So we told him to hit a target lap of 2:40 to maintain position and conserve fuel.  He was carrying as much speed as possible through the turns and staying in a higher gear everywhere possible.  It looked like all of the top 5 cars were in fuel conservation mode because we were all running sub-optimal laps.

 

Then we got a lucky break.  The Godzirra 300ZX in 4^th place had to make an emergency driver change due to losing the cool shirt pump and the driver overheating.  They had a long stop since they weren’t ready for their driver to come in and they got on track about 1:30 behind us.  They were gaining at ~6s per lap, but by our calculations they would barely catch us by the checkered flag.  So we told our driver to maintain speed. 

 

Then we got a 2^nd lucky break.  The HongNorrth Grumpy Butt Supra was black flagged (not sure why).  They were faster than us so we were worried that they’d get out just behind us and pass us.  But they got out about 15s behind the 300ZX.  So we told RJ to maintain his speed and we’d let him know if he needed to speed up.  It looked like the Supra was going to have to stay in fuel conservation mode since they weren’t turning fast laps.  But then they lost a fuel pump and that ended their day (sorry guys). 

 

The 300ZX was continuously closing the gap at about 6s per lap.  With 3-4 laps left, they were 18s behind us.  We told our driver to be ready to run 2:35s.  Then with 3 laps left the 300ZX ran a 2:42 and the gap stayed at about 20s to the finish and we took 3^rd overall.

 

Overnight we changed brakes and rotated tires front to back, adjusted the wing to ~25% of maximum, slightly adjusted the tire pressures, and celebrated.  We probably celebrated a little more than we should have, but none of us was sick the next day, so apparently we didn’t celebrate too much.

 

On Sunday @gr1vlet, RJ Till, got the 1^st stint.  We told him to go as fast as he wanted since we were pretty sure we’d make it 1:45 at a minimum.  He went pretty darn fast.  We started in 10^th place.  Cone Crushers started just behind us and passed everyone by the second or third lap but they started with a 2 or 3 lap MOV penalty.  By about the 5^th lap RJ was in the lead and chasing Cone Crushers.  I radioed in that he was in the lead and Cone Crushers was 2 laps down due to an MOV penalty.  RJ said, “I don’t care, I’m going to pass them anyway”. 

 

He was gaining on them by 2-3 seconds per lap.  He caught and passed them pretty quickly.  But he didn’t pull away.  The Cone Crushers driver saw where he was losing time and kept up with RJ.  RJ and Cone Crushers built up about a 30s lead on the field when a mustang hit the tire wall hard coming onto the front straight.  The driver was ok, but the car was toast.  There was a full course caution to clean up the track and repair the tire wall and our lead was erased. 

 

RJ had never been in the lead for a restart and asked what he should do.  We talked about a few options, but I recommended trying to slow down before the front straight and get a good run onto the straight and take a defensive line.  He did not do that and immediately got passed by Hong Norrth and Bucksnort.  He repassed them both on that lap and continued building a lead. 

 

We had a few issues with the transmission popping out of 3^rd and RJ said it was getting worse.  We figured we could drive through it, but it would probably be difficult to maintain position without 3^rd.  So we crossed our fingers and hoped for the best.

 

The RBank Saab stopped during the full course to refuel.  I guess most of the other teams stopped during green flag and after the first round of stops we were ~1minute behind the Saab and over minute ahead of the team behind us.  We were maintaining the gap to 2^nd and catching the Saab at a few seconds per lap.  Then we had a rear control arm bolt back out and then the rain started.  We thought about getting back out on track after losing 5-6 laps, but we just decided to call it a day with the rain moving in. 

 

Then the rain moved in as we started packing up our gear.  When the rain moved out we finished packing our stuff and the race was nearly over.  I have to say watching the racing on Sunday was pretty exciting!  There were ~5 cars at the front running in a pack early on and there were 3 cars running pretty close at the finish.

 

Overall it was a great weekend. We ended up in 3^rd place on day 1 and we only need to spend ~$10 to fix our car.  Well we need a transmission, but we have a spare.  We’ll just have to buy another spare and we knew the one in the car was on borrowed time.  It was a fun and exciting race and we got a trophy to add to our small collection.

 

Our next planned race is Barber in December. 

[DEE DEE]

7 hours ago, Crank Yankers Racing said:

Well we didn't have the weekend we expected.  I tested the car a week before the event to make sure the new junkyard motor would hold up and there were no issues at all and dialed in the suspension.  When I rolled in to NCM and unloaded the car we noticed that there was an oil leak after the first test session on track.  It looked like it was coming from the rear main seal.  At the test session the car ran great and we were able to dial in the aero on the car.  Saturday morning we went out and started 10th, worked our way up to 6th until an upper coolant hose popped off.  I was able to save the engine and we noticed the alternator belt which controls the water pump was very loose.  We went out and got another belt along with getting the radiator hose put back on.  Ben Dawson went out to get some time in the car after we fixed everything and he came in and complained about stumbling issues in corners where the car would lean out.  The high pressure pump was working fine, but the lift pump was screaming and overheated.  I went out and got another lift pump from a parts store and plumbed it in.  The car would then start up and then die 25 seconds afterwards.  We checked a couple of other items and were stumped.  After swapping ecus, fixing the TPS, and swapping AFMs we went back to the lift pump that I installed.  I apparently plumbed it backwards which fixed our problem.  We were ready to race the next day and be in the running.  Sunday we went out and started first.  It was looking promising until I was yelling at Troy at the pits to go faster and he came in after 10 laps.  The clutch was slipping so bad we couldn't hold power.  The oil from the rear main was getting too bad on the clutch disc that it was just greasy.  At that point we packed up and was able to make it home before it got dark out. 

 

Thanks to all the ChumpStaff (Dan, Phil, Dana, Katherine, Mike, and Al) along with all the volunteers who can make this happen.  This was my 3rd race weekend out of the past 4 weeks and I am exhausted.  Time to regroup and get back after it for BIR. 

You forgot Jimmy my man

[E. Tyler Pedersen]

1 hour ago, DEE DEE said:

You forgot Jimmy my man

 

Good catch, Jimmie was there too!

[jtower]

i wanted to do this race in the e46 but the rest of my team couldn't attend, fortunately the godzirra 300zx guys (charles and kelly) had an open spot giving me a chance to drive a new track.  none of us had driven ncm before so it was a learning experience for all of us.  we did the fri test day and learned the basics, then had a solid race on sat until the cool shirt pump failed during the third stint.  kelly works in hvac so he's acclimated to hot environments but he had to come in with 50 minutes remaining (and kudos to him for having the presence of mind to recognize it).  i jumped in to finish the race but hit fuel starvation with nearly 20 min remaining so i had to back way off the pace to ensure that we finished.  by the end it was barely making it around the track and i wasn't sure it could even complete the cool down lap.  fortunately we had enough pace to finish fourth overall, i pulled into the garage and sat there for about 15 minutes until the rest of the team showed up with jacks etc.  they had never been in the top ten before and didn't realize they had to go through impound!  so that was a good day.

 

sat night we went to walmart and bought a bilge pump and hooked it up in place of the failed cool shirt pump.  we had to get creative on the tubing to make it fit but seemed to function ok.  unfortunately one of the hoses popped off shortly after the race started so our first driver had to come in ahead of schedule to avoid overheating but it didn't mess us up too badly.  the extended red flag and subsequent rain enabled us to do a driver only change and got me in the car for the last stint in 4th place with a full tank with 1:45 to go.  despite a turn 2 spin i managed to catch the 3rd place sentra and was told the saab was next ahead of us.  i never saw them (i guess they had to pit) but i passed the hong norrth supra and they told me i was in first!  i knew hong norrth was capable of fast laps so i drove hard to make sure i maintained a several second gap which i was able to hold until the end.  first ever victory for godzirra, the team was thrilled and i was happy to be there for it.

 

BY FAR the greenest chumpcar race i have ever driven, virtually no FCY and you certainly can't fault them for the weather related stoppage on sunday.  the corners workers were excellent, second only to the always outstanding vir crew and arguably just as good.  the EV and wrecker crew were the best i've ever seen, hands down.  nothing but hot pulls, fast snatches, good point bys and communication to racers, and they sped around that track pretty damn quick while en route to a car.  and of course they wouldn't be able to do that without good behavior from the racers so everyone wins.

[zack_280]

9 hours ago, jtower said:

the EV and wrecker crew were the best i've ever seen, hands down.  nothing but hot pulls, fast snatches, good point bys and communication to racers, and they sped around that track pretty damn quick while en route to a car.  

The EVs were definitely moving.  I'm pretty sure they were driving faster in the straights than some of the race cars.  We watched one car follow the roll back through T2/3.  It was just moving at the same speed as the truck but about 200' behind.  We were wondering if he was being towed by the longest tow strap ever.  Then the truck started pulling away on the straight and we realized he was just pacing the truck through the turn, but couldn't keep up on the straight.

[Bill Strong]

redacted

[gr1vlet]

5 minutes ago, Bill Strong said:

redacted

Secrets don't make friends... 

[Doc]

55 minutes ago, gr1vlet said:

Secrets don't make friends... 

Don't worry...Bill is just trying some big words out he learned at the track this past weekend.

[Doc]

I was always told that if you don't have anything nice to say don't say it.

 

So that's my race recap.

 

Thanks to oh so many of you that stopped by to say hello, offered advice, loaned us parts, put a cold beer in our hands, and the countless other small gestures that make this the best dang series to be a part of. You all make me so DAMN proud to represent you all as we move forward.

 

Special THANKS to Crank Yankers Racing, Chattanoogan Tourenwagon, and No Cents Racing for all your help.

I know we were seriously impressed by the facility and the staff like @Matt@NCM. First class in every respect.

Thanks to the safety crews (holy moly, that rollback assistant was CUTE in that sun dress!!!), corner workers, and our volunteers for making the race safe for all of us.

 

The ChumpCar staff is, and always will be, awesome to work with and it was great to see virtually all of them there. Andrea was missed by us all.

 

It was great to meet a bunch of you for the first time and I'm working on remembering your names. There are a lot of you I know by sight, but putting your names together with your faces will take some time. Keep working on me and I will improve.

 

Last but not least, It was GREAT to meet my broadcast partner @Paulie for the first time and share some laughs with him and @Bill Strong.

 

Least and last, Congrats on the win in the first Annual ChumpCast Commentators's Cup @Paulie Cheaty bastages...LOL

[revvhappy]

Hey Doc, I need one of those "Keg on wheels" stickers! I'll trade you for a Retro Hong Norrth (pre-Supra) sticker...

[E. Tyler Pedersen]

How could I forget those deliciously baked cookies by Momma Bucksnort!!! I didn't realize how much I missed those at the track.

[Doc]

32 minutes ago, revvhappy said:

Hey Doc, I need one of those "Keg on wheels" stickers! I'll trade you for a Retro Hong Norrth (pre-Supra) sticker...

I remembered my friend!!! We will get some made for sure!

 

[Doc]

20 minutes ago, Crank Yankers Racing said:

How could I forget those deliciously baked cookies by Momma Bucksnort!!! I didn't realize how much I missed those at the track.

They saved our lives Saturday night with some excellent pulled pork sandwiches that were very much appreciated!!!

Thanks so much!!!!!

[Dcwilliams00]

6 hours ago, Doc said:

They saved our lives Saturday night with some excellent pulled pork sandwiches that were very much appreciated!!!

Thanks so much!!!!!

 Save my butt too. That pulked pork was awesome !

[csadn]

7 hours ago, Doc said:

I was always told that if you don't have anything nice to say don't say it.

Can you imagine how quiet the Internet would be if people did that?

[Indysupra]

Subliminal racing had a great weekend and just wanted to say thanks to the chumpcar crew you guys did a great job! Tyler and Zack it was great to meet you guys and can't wait for the next race!