2021 Nelson Ledges Race Results and Reports

[Bill Strong]

It was really wet. Then it was really dry.
Saturday: There was one protest on Saturday and it was denied. Protest report will be released by the Event Director this week.

Sunday: One podium team had ten points added to the VPI, and one lap added, which did not change the outcome of the race.

 

Impound report is here. 
https://champcarenduranceseries.blogspot.com/2021/07/2021-nelson-ledges-post-race-impound.html

Race Results
https://speedhive.mylaps.com/Events/1885445

 

Race pictures: 
Images from 90racing.com
https://photos.app.goo.gl/WvfRBrkVEJ5nLdrV7

Turn13 Photos

 

 

ChampCar.Live Saturday

ChampCar.Live Sunday

 

[Chummy]

uh Billy boy, where's them TROPHY  pics? chop chop

[mostmint]

I had a love hate relationship with this race weekend

 

Racing in the wet with running water on the track and standing water on the insides made Nelson Ledges a whole new track to race.  We started near the back and worked our way up to 14th, which was pretty good considering our lack of dry track pace.  The mighty Saturn was not going to keep up with the leaders but there were a lot of cars to pass.  This was my first full stint in the rain and it was fun.

 

Also got to see a lot of my ChampCar community friends, and race with them a little on track.

 

And my daughter made her road racing debut this weekend which was awesome.  She still has some work to do on pace but only put the car off track once and had contact which damaged a wheel.  It was a good next step in her driver development.

 

The wetness was otherwise incredibly annoying.  Bad weather on Thursday bent up the frame of our car tent, it was almost impossible to stay dry until Sunday. 

On Sunday the reality of the ChampCar collective teams developing their cars the past several years to leverage updates rules hit.  There were only two cars with slower FTD than us - with a package that was podium car in 2018 and class winner in 2019 at the same track.

 

Hats off to Nelson Ledges for all the updates and somehow making the track drivable despite all the downpours that had the ground so soaked. 

[Chummy]

8 hours ago, mostmint said:

I had a love hate relationship with this race weekend

 

Racing in the wet with running water on the track and standing water on the insides made Nelson Ledges a whole new track to race.  We started near the back and worked our way up to 14th, which was pretty good considering our lack of dry track pace.  The mighty Saturn was not going to keep up with the leaders but there were a lot of cars to pass.  This was my first full stint in the rain and it was fun.

 

Also got to see a lot of my ChampCar community friends, and race with them a little on track.

 

And my daughter made her road racing debut this weekend which was awesome.  She still has some work to do on pace but only put the car off track once and had contact which damaged a wheel.  It was a good next step in her driver development.

 

The wetness was otherwise incredibly annoying.  Bad weather on Thursday bent up the frame of our car tent, it was almost impossible to stay dry until Sunday. 

On Sunday the reality of the ChampCar collective teams developing their cars the past several years to leverage updates rules hit.  There were only two cars with slower FTD than us - with a package that was podium car in 2018 and class winner in 2019 at the same track.

 

Hats off to Nelson Ledges for all the updates and somehow making the track drivable despite all the downpours that had the ground so soaked. 

congrats to your daughter.  you all did a great job holding your line. 

[Chummy]

Bill Strong, how did your truck do on your way home?

[etoy]

We finally went to Nelson and didn’t kill an engine!   In 2019 and 2020 we lost engines (both due to human errors at the track).  This year the 383 There’s No Z in Mazda finished first in class both days.  We were happy to finish with out any off track adventures or dents.  Saturday we had almost a 16 min stop when I had to replace a broken caliper bracket (which I had to pull off a street car in the mud).  Then Sunday we lost about 24 minutes while I replaced a hub and a leaky caliper- probably damaged from the day before but not yet leaking.  Maybe one day we won’t have issues and can get that elusive podium.   

[steronz]

9 hours ago, mostmint said:

On Sunday the reality of the ChampCar collective teams developing their cars the past several years to leverage updates rules hit.  There were only two cars with slower FTD than us - with a package that was podium car in 2018 and class winner in 2019 at the same track.

 

Out of curiosity, what were some of the rule updates in the last couple of years that have made an impact?

 

We built our car in 2018 for the 2019 season but only did 1 race that year.  At the time I seem to recall that I had to run OEM springs or take points (our VPI is 485 so we basically can't take points).  I may have misunderstood the rules then, but it seems like late 2019 there was a clarification/rule change that allows me to drop in off the shelf H&R or other springs, which will allow me to run a much better shock, more camber, and generally wake up the suspension. 

 

I'm wondering what other big items I may have missed in our COVID absence.

 

In terms of our weekend, we had a pretty miserable Saturday and a pretty amazing Sunday.  On Saturday we bungled pit stops, ran out of fuel, and were waaay off the pace in the wet.  On Sunday we managed to stretch our stock fuel capacity enough to get away with only 3 pit stops, and executed all of them well within the time limit.  We lucked out a bit with the red flag and safety car.  And even though our pace isn't what it needs to be for C class, we kept churning out laps.  P13 overall, P10 in C class for our 2nd race weekend with the car.

 

Really looking forward to our next race at Mid-O.

[Chummy]

1 hour ago, etoy said:

We finally went to Nelson and didn’t kill an engine!   In 2019 and 2020 we lost engines (both due to human errors at the track).  This year the 383 There’s No Z in Mazda finished first in class both days.  We were happy to finish with out any off track adventures or dents.  Saturday we had almost a 16 min stop when I had to replace a broken caliper bracket (which I had to pull off a street car in the mud).  Then Sunday we lost about 24 minutes while I replaced a hub and a leaky caliper- probably damaged from the day before but not yet leaking.  Maybe one day we won’t have issues and can get that elusive podium.   

your car held a good pace , especially in the rain . If you could make it down to pbir,  I believe you would own a Podium spot. you did a great job on the swap. great job this weekend 

[Snorman]

15 hours ago, Bill Strong said:

Saturday: There was one protest on Saturday and it was denied. Protest report will be released by the Event Director this week.

Sunday: One podium team had ten points added to the VPI, and one lap added, which did not change the outcome of the race.

 

 

[Bandit]

18 hours ago, Bill Strong said:

Saturday: There was one protest on Saturday and it was denied. Protest report will be released by the Event Director this week.

Posted to the forum or to the Champcar blog?

 

I ask as I had to do a google search to find what was illegal on the Mercedes at Daytona.

[wvumtnbkr]

Oh, what WAS illegal on that car?  I never heard the details.

[Team Infiniti]

14 minutes ago, wvumtnbkr said:

Oh, what WAS illegal on that car?  I never heard the details.

On the main Champ Car website, Hit blog, scroll the second bar down Past the notice of counterfeit driver restraints, past welcoming Roger to the board, etc. you’ll find the post impound reports for Rd., America then Daytona.

 

Cliff Notes version:

unclaimed materials and items  found.

 

1) Unclaimed  non-stock adjustable toe links on the rear left and right

2)Unclaimed front strut bracing

3) Unclaimed Heim joints on both rear control arms.
 

 

 

[Money Shift Racing]

This race was not our best. The weather  on Saturday paired with driver blunders over the course of the day prevented any chance at a decent finish. An early off that literally flooded our engine (borderline Hydrolocked) caused about a 30 minute pit stop to dry out the spark plugs and change out a steering knuckle due to a bad wheel bearing. Being out of contention meant racing in heavy down pours was a high risk low reward especially considering we were on the pole on Sunday. As the rain dissipated we returned to the track to test some setup changes and prep for the following day. We missed Saturdays checker flag by about 5 minutes because our shifter couldn’t decide what gears it wanted to work in.

 

Sunday started with higher hopes. As mentioned above we were on the pole and the Sun was shining brightly. We started out strong but the fast guys eventually caught and passed us sitting us in P10 after our first stint. Another driver blunder in the second stint resulted in another flooded (literally) engine because for some reason we can thought our Honda would make a great boat. We kept at it though and even took the check flag directly behind the side by side Porsches. 
 

Lessons learned this weekend:

 

1. Rain sucks.

2. Garrettsville mud sticks to everything.

3. Honda’s make horrible boats.

4. RT660s don’t last

5. RS4s don’t wear

6. I still love doing this 

7. I love our team and all the fans that came to watch us this weekend!

 

see you all at GingerMan with some much needed additions. 
 

Kevyn

[obscene]

This recap will be more about my personal experience as a first time Champcarer rather than a team report, but I wanted to share since it was such a great experience.

 

I've been part of a team building our car for about a year now, but it's a long way off so when the opportunity to drive with another team presented itself I couldn't say no. Before this weekend I didn't have any W2W racing experience but was thankfully able to learn a ton from the guys at Full Send Motorsports. They've been running with Champcar for about 3 years now with their E46 BMW 330ci. 

 

 

The camping at Nelson Ledges was truly camping and made for an interesting dynamic to our race weekend. Our VW vans were great, but I'd be lying if I wasn't at least a little jealous of the proper RVs.

 

 

Saturday's race was like nothing we'd ever seen before. With our pit stall we had a great starting position, but with a 530 point car we were starting the race 3 laps down. Ultimately that was inconsequential as Saturday quickly became a battle of attrition. As the second driver, my stint was during the very heavy rain and was a wild way to make a racing debut. Thankfully with a bit of caution and plenty of luck I was able to turn consistent laps and stay out of trouble. We ultimately finished Saturday in 19th place with 3 clean pit stops and no incidents.

 

 

 

On Sunday the clouds miraculously parted and gave us all a much deserved beautiful day of racing. We'd again be starting dead last and 3 laps down, but this time from the back of the pack. I was in the car first, and it was awesome to be able to take the green flag for our team. Like before, I started off pretty cautiously wanting to be sure that our tires and brakes were up to temp. I must have lost 10 positions on that opening lap, but was then able to settle in and begin picking them back off one by one. By the end of my stint I was able to move us from 38th up into 18th and set our team's FTD. We had another trouble free day with 3 clean pitstops and ultimately brought it home in P12 for the team's best result yet.

 

 

 

 

And finally, it wouldn't be a camping weekend if one of Volkswagens didn't break. HUGE thank you to Champcar and the track workers for letting us plug in the welder and fix the trailer axle that decided it wasn't ready to go home yet.

 

 

Overall, a dream come true weekend. I'm so thankful for the opportunity to drive with Full Send Motorsports and for the warm/wet welcome from all the racers, Champcar staff, and track workers. For any other noobs reading this, I can't recommend enough starting off as arrive & drive or even crewing for an established team.

[Bandit]

12 hours ago, Money Shift Racing said:

4. RT660s don’t last

[tommytipover]

1 hour ago, obscene said:

And finally, it wouldn't be a camping weekend if one of Volkswagens didn't break. HUGE thank you to Champcar and the track workers for letting us plug in the welder and fix the trailer axle that decided it wasn't ready to go home yet.

 

 

 

Every time we found ourselves standing in ankle-deep water, someone would make an arc welding joke...

 

First-time Nelson Ledges racers, please don't judge the track by this weekend. Nelson is in fact a swamp, but great strides have been taken over the last 30 or so years to improve drainage. I haven't seen it like this since the 70's. This was just biblical, soul-crushing rain that would not stop.

[Team Infiniti]

59 minutes ago, Bandit said:

Everybody trying to reinvent the wheel, there’s only a few that actually last, if lap times matter more than money....this is where the problem lies.

Edited July 21, 2021 by Team Infiniti

[obscene]

50 minutes ago, tommytipover said:

First-time Nelson Ledges racers, please don't judge the track by this weekend. Nelson is in fact a swamp, but great strides have been taken over the last 30 or so years to improve drainage. I haven't seen it like this since the 70's. This was just biblical, soul-crushing rain that would not stop.

 

Honestly our recurring phrase over the weekend was "I can't believe how well this place drains". Seriously with the volume of water that was dumped over two days we should have all been treading water.

[obscene]

On 7/20/2021 at 9:24 AM, steronz said:

On Sunday we managed to stretch our stock fuel capacity enough to get away with only 3 pit stops, and executed all of them well within the time limit.  We lucked out a bit with the red flag and safety car.  And even though our pace isn't what it needs to be for C class, we kept churning out laps.  P13 overall, P10 in C class for our 2nd race weekend with the car.

 

 

We had a blast 'battling' you guys for the midfield places. Great racing with you.

[jWashburn]

14 hours ago, Money Shift Racing said:

4. RT660s don’t last

5. RS4s don’t wear

Size for both?

What was the wear rate of the RT660?  

Do you have same driver lap times for both?

 

I can get 225 or 245 RT660s for stupid cheap, but even then I'm still on "narrow" 205 RT615s.

 

I think I want to try out the RT660 for one race day so everyone can say "ha, told ya so".  Just wondering if we will actually get any hero laps out of it vs. the RS4.

[Money Shift Racing]

5 hours ago, jWashburn said:

Size for both?

What was the wear rate of the RT660?  

Do you have same driver lap times for both?

 

I can get 225 or 245 RT660s for stupid cheap, but even then I'm still on "narrow" 205 RT615s.

 

I think I want to try out the RT660 for one race day so everyone can say "ha, told ya so".  Just wondering if we will actually get any hero laps out of it vs. the RS4.

 

We run 225/45R15 for both.

 

In the Sunday AM Stint with NEW RT660s I was able to click off a 1:17.8 but fell off quickly as the tires overheated and got greasy.  On Used RS4s in my afternoon session I was able to pull a best of 1:17.9 and probably could have gotten more but the race ended as he was finding more speed.  The RS4s were stable at temp and I was pushing them at a 1:18.5ish pace at the end. We took the front RT660s off after 3 hours of track use and the driver front was showing signs of chunking.  We started the RT660s at 28psi cold and the RS4s at 29psi cold.  The RS4s have three races on them now and still have life.  I think moving forward we will just stick with the RS4s as the difference between our drivers skills is still pretty wide and tires don't really matter for us at this point. (we aren't to the point where we need to find every tenth of a second)

 

Kevyn

[enginerd]

23 hours ago, Money Shift Racing said:

 

We run 225/45R15 for both.

 

In the Sunday AM Stint with NEW RT660s I was able to click off a 1:17.8 but fell off quickly as the tires overheated and got greasy.  On Used RS4s in my afternoon session I was able to pull a best of 1:17.9 and probably could have gotten more but the race ended as he was finding more speed.  The RS4s were stable at temp and I was pushing them at a 1:18.5ish pace at the end. We took the front RT660s off after 3 hours of track use and the driver front was showing signs of chunking.  We started the RT660s at 28psi cold and the RS4s at 29psi cold.  The RS4s have three races on them now and still have life.  I think moving forward we will just stick with the RS4s as the difference between our drivers skills is still pretty wide and tires don't really matter for us at this point. (we aren't to the point where we need to find every tenth of a second)

 

Kevyn

That’s an impressive advertisement for the RS4. I ran rs4 at autobahn and was impressed that at 10 laps in I was still gaining grip and the re71 that I am accustomed to would have already peaked. This is something that is not captured by 3-5 lap short runs when someone does a typical tire test. We didn’t run any other tire so I have no times to compare.

[Money Shift Racing]

The more we run the RS4 the more we like them.

[Chummy]

8 hours ago, Money Shift Racing said:

The more we run the RS4 the more we like them.

if you go to big for your cars weight/hp/track condition/drivers skill level,   they do not get up to temperature properly. 

most people think bigger is better, but not necessarily. if you get the rs4 up to the proper temp they are great.

[Snake]

On 7/19/2021 at 7:04 PM, Bill Strong said:

Saturday: There was one protest on Saturday and it was denied. Protest report will be released by the Event Director this week.

Sunday: One podium team had ten points added to the VPI, and one lap added, which did not change the outcome of the race.

 

Where will this information be posted?