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LA Freeway Enduro Double 7!


Guest posnova

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Guest posnova

Hey there Chumps!

A great field representing the best of the best and of course, the worst of the worst has arrived at Auto Club Speedway in sunny Fontana, CA! Tech and Registration went quite well, but a few teams arrived late. Sorry that vehicle tech directly corresponds with the L.A. commuting times. I-10 was not kind to some people :).

Weather for the weekend is supposed to be sunny, with minor clouds, approximately 88 degrees with calm winds.

As is standard, Live Timing is available for this event on Race Monitor (www.racemonitor.com) for your iOS and Android OS device, or over the web at http://home.comcast.net/~fairlanemac1964/cc/lt.htm .

See you bright and early in the morning!

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Guest posnova

At 9:10AM the cars took to the track. The first two hours of racing have been great! There's a few battles going on between the first 4 cars, and then the 3rd group of 4 cars, all brawling for position. Car 7, a Mazda Miata that is as bone stock as bone-stock can be, still running with the catalytic converter and all... is having the typical stock miata issue of overheating. The undertray didn't exist so some cardboard and duct tape helped a little, but not before they overheated it and it's running a cylinder down. Other cars have also had some overheating issues. The MR2 powered by a Kawasaki motorcycle engine is also having severe overheating issues, and work continues on the pit there as well.

Car 16, a Mustang, lost its starter on course and got a meatball for dragging it round and round.

More racing action coming soon!

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Car 16, a Mustang, lost its starter on course and got a meatball for dragging it round and round.

Is there a known problem with Mustangs and starters? The one that came with our car disintegrated after about 45 hrs of racing (plus associated test days), and we haven't been able to keep one in the car since.

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Guest posnova

Our race leaders have spread out their distance a bit, to about 4 laps between each, the 1st place car "2nd Chance Roadster" a '95 Mazda Miata, 2nd Place car, "Dirt Track Pirates" a 2nd gen Mazda RX-7 and 3rd place car "Marvin the Martian" a '91 BMW 318.

More cars are battling the southern california heat. A few more cars have expired due to overheating. The 924 of "Team Toofah" went out after a pit stop, sans oil cap, and sprayed the contents from the inside, to the outside. Also, the #7 Mazda Miata retired after changing a head gasket but the cook-job previously was good enough to ruin the plugs and plug wires, so they've got some parts to buy. Other wiring got crispy as well. They'll be back tomorrow :).

I'll post Saturday's results in less than 2 hours!

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Guest posnova

Holy Cow, what a finish! The 2nd place car, Marvin Martian Racing, had the driver get sick in the car with 10 minutes to go, and fell to 4th! Great racing by all. Very, very clean racing all day long. And, for those keeping score, there was no car to car contact, at all, all day long.

See you tomorrow for another awesome race. Results uploaded to MyLaps. Tomorrow will post podiums from both days, alternate awards, and raw lap .csv

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Guest chicagozer

Great racing by all. Very, very clean racing all day long. And, for those keeping score, there was no car to car contact, at all, all day long.

Great to hear. What has helped to keep the racing clean?

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Guest posnova

Great to hear. What has helped to keep the racing clean?

Financial penalties for hitting any of the plastic orange barrels strategically placed in any typical run-off area, to the tune of $200 per.

Just kidding, whereas that is a rule for this track configuration, I'd have to agree with Team Infiniti -- everything just seems "business as normal." No one thing helped or didn't help :).

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Guest posnova

This morning we started a little later than expected, as we had to chill for safety and medics to arrive. Cars took the Green Flag at 8:30AM this morning, and will run until 3:30PM.

We're down a few cars after yesterday's race, as a few suffered some mechanical failures that parts simply couldn't be sourced for.. however a car that never made it on track yesterday, has in fact made it out today!

Early on racing has been clean and fast. Yesterday's almost-2nd-place is currently leading. A few early black flags for excited driving (consecutive 2-offs in rapid succession), but nothing out of the ordinary.

If time allows, I'll post some more updates as they happen.

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Guest posnova

Great racing all day long. Today was a day for races within the race, between 3rd and 4th and 5th, and between 6th, 7th, and 8th, all day long.

Final results are on MyLaps:
/>http://www.mylaps.com/results/showevent.jsp?id=726887

Raw CSV data here:
/>https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B3vo4xPwWyOUNDIzNjJlMTAtZjAyOS00NzcwLWE2MjktNjk3NDE0OWFmMTI2&hl=en_US

and
/>https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B3vo4xPwWyOUOWNhNzJlN2UtOTY3Yy00MGYwLWE2ZTQtMTYyNGFmMTdhNTFh&hl=en_US

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Did my sister behave herself (Car 556)?

We (13 Irreverent Racing Mustang) had more fun racing with the (56) Gashole Car, than about anybody else out there. It seemed like our cars were pretty evenly matched, depending on who was behind the wheel at the time. We enjoyed clean, tight racing all weekend long with almost everybody on the track. So yeah, they behaved themselves, at least from our perspective.

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Guest cheseroo

We've been running some Lemons races over the last couple years and this was our first Chump race. Thoroughly enjoyed it. Actually had the thought a few times out on the track that it was different being able to solely concentrate on making good laps rather than always looking forward and backwards/to the side for traffic.

For better or worse the perception out there is that this is a crasher series but I didn't see anything close to that. One of our guys did make nose/tail bumper to bumper contact with the 32 car and I'm hoping he went over and apologized. From what I had heard I had expected a lot more contact, but didn't see any. Driving was clean for the most part, didn't see any deliberate a-hat driving just a few bad drivers. I'm guessing a few of the Mustangs out there were rent-a-racers. Reminds me that someone needs to let those Volvos guys know that if someone catches you and is in the act of going by that it's not cool to move to run you off the side of the track. Happened multiple times. A rather high percentage of our car to pit radio conversation seemed to contain the word "Volvo".

All in all, I enjoyed it and enjoyed watching the 31 & 32 cars run nose to tail for the lead after 10 hours of racing. Good stuff there. We'll be back

Rich

Team Mazdarita #55

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Hey all,

Gotta say I had a Blast! I love the fontana track for the shitfire! We (team Sex Pistons) had a great time. We only got hit once, I was not driving so I wont comment on it. We were happy with our car except for when it broke, (a spitfire broke, wow big surprise haha) we got a lot more speed out of it then last race we went to (Buttonwillow in July). I think its partly some more power and partly a tighter track.

Saturday was going well besides not having much if any breaks most of the day, then our drift pin on the clutch operating leaver fell out (forgot to replace it with nuts and a bolt on this tranny)causing a lock up. We had spares got it together Saturday evening. We had a flat spotted tire on only these horrible spare tries we threw on the rear, bad idea.

On Sunday morning had a quick alternator change and with the horrible spares on the rear we went racing! Our first driver learned how bad the spares were (spun many times) then out second driver got hit. They black flagged us for being out of control (It's cool we understand. We Decided to swap the bad spares to the front for controlled push and we were good. Then after a few hours we heard a clunking sound in the rear end, which i am sure many of you heard. We did not even look at it and just kept going. ABout 5 hours in our motor main seal blew and the shitfire was smoking and leaving oil on the track (sorry about that) so we got meat balled. With the rear end giving out (clunk clunk clunk) and the leaking motor we called it quits.

Good times though! We are going to be shopping for a new pile to turn into a crap can racer for next year no idea what yet. We will be getting the shitfire running for some cold sour race in december maybe we will see some of you there.

-Colin (Team Sex Pistons Craptain)

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Guest bellwilliam

hi, all:

I am the team manager for 2nd Chance Roadster, 949racing #1 (EC) and 949racing #2 (EC).

all 3 were Miatas.

2nd Chance Roadster car did well on Saturday, but blew sound for Sunday. it got black flagged 3 times (tried to fix it, but just couldn't get it quiet enough), so we had to stop racing as a Chump car, ran it as an EC car on Sunday to keep running for fun. so it doesn't have to adhere to Chump race sound regulation.

hopefully all 3 of our Miata drivers behaved themselves. thanks all for letting our EC cars run.

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Team Toofah Racing had a good time, even though we went down for the count on Day 1. At least I'll say that, as I got a full stint in before all hell broke loose.

20 minutes after our 3rd driver went out he started complaining about nausea. While pulling in we found out that the oil cap had somehow worked its way loose, and oil was coating everything inside of the engine compartment. After 3 quarts of oil and 15 minutes of cleaning things up with rags we sent Driver #4 out.

Well, luck was not our side and the car died after 15 minutes on the track. Got the tow back to the cold pits, and only then did it become obvious what had happened: Split coolant hose from the water pump to the head (!), so I guess that the car did pretty well running with no coolant - at least for 15 minutes.

After replacing the hose, we filled up the cooling system, and watched as it all leaked out between the head and the block at the front of the engine. Further examination revealed that the engine had become so hot that it melted the stainless steel braided mechanical fuel injection lines to 2 of the injectors. Hmmmm, kind of hard to get a dealer part or a junk one out of a yard at 3PM on a Saturday, even in LA.... Oh, and since the engine had been gone through at the previous Streets of Willow race, we didn't have a spare headgasket either.

The fuel problems were solved by cutting the hoses back beyond the melted portions and an hour of expanding the hoses enough to accept the barbs from the fuel injectors, then using hose clamps on them. Perfect, no fuel leaks! :lol:

The headgasket was the next problem. While we did have a spare engine with us, 3 out of the 4 team members did not want to do an engine replacement at the track. It was decided to use the good head from the spare engine and "reuse" the headgasket with some high temperature sealant. At 10PM the car started up and was running again with no apparent oil or water leaks - we were racing on Sunday!

Unfortunately, bad things happen when a cast iron block and aluminum head are cooled down, as Sunday morning the water coolant had found its way into the oil pan. We were done.

Still had a great time at the race, and loved the track layout! Great driving by all of our fellow Chumps out there (At least when I was driving :) ). Very clean racing, and lots of chances to mix things up.

Looking forward to next year's schedule!

Cheers, Keith

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hi, all:

I am the team manager for 2nd Chance Roadster, 949racing #1 (EC) and 949racing #2 (EC).

all 3 were Miatas.

2nd Chance Roadster car did well on Saturday, but blew sound for Sunday. it got black flagged 3 times (tried to fix it, but just couldn't get it quiet enough), so we had to stop racing as a Chump car, ran it as an EC car on Sunday to keep running for fun. so it doesn't have to adhere to Chump race sound regulation.

hopefully all 3 of our Miata drivers behaved themselves. thanks all for letting our EC cars ran.

I dont mean to offend you guys but I dont think this is right. In My Opinion, EC car or not, all cars should have to meet the noise regulation or not be allowed on track.

Noise complaints is one of the biggest issues facing tracks, I dont want to see any of the races i go to canceled, or shortened (again) due to noise complaints.

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Guest cheseroo

The Miatas were all fine to race with on the track. When they caught us I tried to point them by in places they would have room but they were quick enough that I don't think they needed all that much help. The orange one was a bullet and the silver one just miiiight be a bit too quick to buy that it was a stocker $500 car but that's not my place to decide :) I don't remember much about the other one. Actually the EC BMW was kind of fun to race with since it wasn't all that fast in the corners but off the corners it would pick up it's skirts and disappear.

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Guest cheseroo

I dont mean to offend you guys but I dont think this is right. In My Opinion, EC car or not, all cars should have to meet the noise regulation or not be allowed on track.

Noise complaints is one of the biggest issues facing tracks, I dont want to see any of the races i go to canceled, or shortened (again) due to noise complaints.

Well, the whole time we were running they were also alternating between running multiple uncorked Cup cars and multiple uncorked Indy cars on the big track. I kind of doubt a semi-muffled Miata made much of a difference in comparison. BTW, did anyone see what happened with the 7 Cup car that stuffed it into turn 2?

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John, we had a great time at the Fontana Double 7. Our drivers, mostly SCCA veterans, said they have more fun running this 18-turn interior track than they do running the "Roval" with other organizations. On the whole, the driving was at a high level. The EC guys, especially, were fast and courteous, although the Miatas did kick-up quite a bit of gravel onto the track on Sunday afternoon, as they run across the edges of the corner.

Thanks for putting together a fun, clean, safe weekend. We'll be at Fontana every time Chumpcar has an event there.

Michael

PS: Which team bought the barrel at the entry to the carousel turn?

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Guest posnova

PS: Which team bought the barrel at the entry to the carousel turn?

You know... we asked for clarification from the corner worker, and since 2 cars were directly near it when it happened, we simply didn't know with certainty who it was.

So be it. It's an orange barrel and it's not like someone intentionally obliterated it :).

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