NJMSP

[Deathrace]

Great Race to all who participated. Had to have been the cleanest, fastest, race I've ever participated in. The corner workers must have been bored to death. You really had the ability to run any pace you chose given all the room on track.

Thanks Chump for not giving up on this one and making a great 8 hour event.

to Ronalds Racers and Duct tape, what a great battle!

Thanks for the lap info from Paisley and Tigers wood.

Jamie LaMent

#78 Death Race

[kent merkle]

Congrats Ronald Racers an all the podium finishers ! That race looked FAST. Has Mike recovered from Daytona or did he still look sleepy?

[skytrooper]

Awesome race ! Chump staff did an fantastic job ! The track was great, the competition was great....we finished the race with zero contact ! Fast and clean, it couldn't have been better !

[csx135]

Tiger's Wood is back home. We had a good time despite more frustrating issues with the car. We apologize to anyone that we held up and subsequently PO'ed. The rusty Cougar would run strong, but then an over-heating issue would strike erratically and we would suddenly find the car running as bad as it looks. The tranny must have gotten tired of the engine getting all the attention because it blew up too. I guess the positive is that we've gotten enough in-race practice we got this one changed in 53 minutes. We hope to have everything straightened out by Summit and VIR. Thanks to Chump for a great race!

[chip]

Kudos to the entire ChumpStaff- you guys and gals rock. I hope we all made this race easy on you since the turn around from Daytona was just hours. We really enjoyed the track and hope this becomes a regular stop for CCWS. One of our drivers did a vintage race weekend on Thunderbolt a year or so ago and really had nothing nice to say about the track or facility. But this weekend on Lightning has changed his outlook. I think the layout for Lightning is perfect for CCWS- it would be awesome to get about 60 cars out there.

The racing on Saturday was top notch. Everyone was clean and courteous. This kind of threw a wrench into our normal drive times. We can do 2 hour stints in our car, but that requires some yellows during a stint. During my stint from 11-1pm there were no yellows to mention and with about 30 minutes left I started to stumble a little due to low fuel- I had to baby the car around to make it- this was the same for our next driver also. I hope the next race has more yellows . We also had some clutch issues- it started slipping during my stint and progressively got worse. During our last driver stint, the clutch was really acting up and for the frist 20 minutes it was slipping really bad, but luckily for us it started to grab and he was able to bring home the win. BTW- that's another $500 for the Ronald McDonald Houses!

Death Race and Duct Tape- great racing with you guys, if the race was any longer I know the outcome would have been different- I guess lady luck was with us.

Tiger's- you guys were driving the crap out of that car- maybe you need to slow down and not corner so well and you might stay out longer . We had fun chasing you guys all day (well at least when you were running). You always had straight line speed, but you really surprised us Saturday with the cars cornering ability.

[KTulay]

I too am glad that the race was not cancelled, and it was certainly a different experience with such an open track. It was like a HPDE with open passing without a point by! Thanks ChumpCar staff for keeping this event on the schedule.

Congrats to Ronald's Racers, Death Race, and Duct Tape Motorsports. As Tiger's Woods knows, reliablity sure is the key. We had a number of issues with the MR2 this race but did manage to finish the race. However with such a small field it was almost impossible to make up any positions after having a number of issues.

I still haven't finished cutting/saving, and uploading the first video due to having an old computer, but here is the second video I was able to get from after we broke our first axle, till we broke our second axle. This video also has my fastest lap, which ended up being the FTD for the race.

/>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SuybuPkO-Es

Hopefully we can resolve our issues and have it more reliable for VIR.

[Car54]

Good video! Listening to your drivetrain bounce around on up shifts and knowing you are having drivetrain issues is puzzling. Were you a drag racer???

[KTulay]

Nope, never did a drag race once.

There is an unsprung clutch in the car, and sometime during the race the rear motor mount came loose. Not sure if there is a different way to upshift to avoid that with the unsprung clutch, never drove one prior to this car. All our drivetrain issues were axles. I believe the first two were simply a lack of lubriaction, as the joints blew apart, with smoke prior to it happening. The joints were completely dry when we removed them. The third axle was the stub that the nut threads onto. It was a spare which was of the smaller diameter stub, so perhaps it was already weakened, over torqued, weakened from excessive heat, or the bearing was already bad putting additional stress on it? We don't know when that broke after it was in, but the joints held up this time, which we also installed new grease into this time. The wheel bearing is now shot though, since who knows how long it was driven without the axle nut holding it together.

I think that if the axles broke due to power, excessive movement / odd angle on the joints, it should of happened again during the race since the first two broke within 1.5 hours of the race, and the joints would of been broken, but yet had some grease on them.

[Car54]

I'm just jealous! Time to reduce horsepower maybe? Maybe?

[KTulay]

I was going to hold onto the broken axle pieces as my "throphy" but knew they'd just collect dust here. Not sure what Troy (owner) did with them.

I still don't believe the axles failed due to power or even a bad mount or similar. If we would of broke the axles due to horsepower they should of just broke apart, and still had some grease on the joints. I think it was pure coincidence the same part on the second axle broke. To only last ~18 minutes and break apart, and be completely dry when removed (in the picture, the second one is one that is still together), it had to of overheated from lack of lubrication; not enough grease, expanding boot, or broken boot and grease thrown out.

The driver side axle (do you believe it came off the track like the picture shows, with the washer just hanging out there?), has been replaced again, and both joints on both axles have been regreased, with new boots. A new driver side wheel bearing was also installed. So, we will see if that fixes any problems. We might wrap some string around the boot to try to prevent it from expanding, and even vent it.

Other than the axles, we also had an overheating issue with about 1.5 hours left in the race. One of the radiator hoses decided to let go. Driver reported a load pop sound, and the temp gauge was then pegged. Luckiy he was going through the lightbulb and immediately came into the pits. We used various spare pieces to make up a new hose. The hose that failed was one of the custom ones we pieced together in the engine bay to accomidate the engine swap. It was in the car since the swap was done, so it was just it's time. It happens :/

[Jer]

So what you're sayin is you beat the car to death, and it couldn't take? That's what I'm readin...

[Salna]

KTulay, we had the same sort of failure at Road America. Drive axle sheared off, we ruined the bearings, and didn't bring a spare knuckle. The interior metal of the axle where it snapped had a weird discoloration, suggesting previous fatigue.

[Guest oneday]

Amazing lap, Kevin!

Looks to me like Kevin drove the car the way it was meant to be driven and something failed. poop happens. I don't see a single aggressive shift or too much use of curbing (that's not saying it didn't occur in the previous session). I know I used way more T1 and T5 curbing in our E30 than that video indicates Kevin did.

[Gearhead_42]

Results are up, as if anybody didn't know where they finished anyway ;-)

http://www.chumpcar.com/register/results/15.pdf

[KTulay]

So what you're sayin is you beat the car to death, and it couldn't take? That's what I'm readin...

Jer, does that mean you still want me to drive your car, like we talked about at VIR??

Amazing lap, Kevin!

Looks to me like Kevin drove the car the way it was meant to be driven and something failed. poop happens. I don't see a single aggressive shift or too much use of curbing (that's not saying it didn't occur in the previous session). I know I used way more T1 and T5 curbing in our E30 than that video indicates Kevin did.

Thanks Justin. I always look forward to hearing back from others such as you (instructors) about my driving. I had only ever taken an instructor once with my car at the Glen, and had friends go for rides at autocrosses all the time. So, aside from lap times I have nothing to really judge my driving on. Glad I finally got a camera to post some videos and get some feedback.

I finished cutting and saving the first video, but I am away now and won't get a chance to upload it till probably Monday morning. In that clip I hit T1 inside curbing early in the race and it really upsets the car, so after that I stopped hitting it. I would touch other spots here or there where it wasn't as large and wouldn't upset the car.

I know when I drove the Duct Tape Motorsports E30, it just glided over the curbing as if it was part of the track. Even during this race I saw them, and the 2002, doing it and knew I simply wasn't able to. This MR2 just does not like curbing!

[Car54]

Jer, does that mean you still want me to drive your car, like we talked about at VIR??

Thanks Justin. I always look forward to hearing back from others such as you (instructors) about my driving. I had only ever taken an instructor once with my car at the Glen, and had friends go for rides at autocrosses all the time. So, aside from lap times I have nothing to really judge my driving on. Glad I finally got a camera to post some videos and get some feedback.

I finished cutting and saving the first video, but I am away now and won't get a chance to upload it till probably Monday morning. In that clip I hit T1 inside curbing early in the race and it really upsets the car, so after that I stopped hitting it. I would touch other spots here or there where it wasn't as large and wouldn't upset the car.

I know when I drove the Duct Tape Motorsports E30, it just glided over the curbing as if it was part of the track. Even during this race I saw them, and the 2002, doing it and knew I simply wasn't able to. This MR2 just does not like curbing!

I still stand by my thoughts that your shoving the shifter a tad more than necessary for an endurance race In a shared car. You can hear the power train reverberating when you let out the clutch. That should be your indicator to just ease up a bit. That and most syncros prefer a split second between gates to spin up/down. Often at the beginning you would go up a gear just to down shift a moment later. Reduce shifts/reduce clutching is the fundamental feedback I'm trying to give.

If you want more feed back, I have some on steering. Try to keep your hands a little more consistent at 9/3. Move them if you have to but Lightning doesn't really have anything too sharp. One of the other habits is that you tend to disengage what should be your recovery hand. Good technique calls for pulling down to turn in and the other 180* hand should be holding the wheel anticipating to have to counter steer if there is too much slip angle. It's best to keep it on the opposite hemisphere so that you have that hand to pull down if you get in real trouble. If your hands share hemisphere, you lose power to recover, whether it be small or a big correction.

Probably more that you wanted to hear but if I was in the right seat and you were driving a fast car that fast, I'd be picky.

[Jer]

_{Kevin, I actually learned a few things from your hot lap. And I thought you did a good job with the car. I was just giving you} poop_{, my friend. We'll drive together someday soon...}

[KTulay]

I still stand by my thoughts that your shoving the shifter a tad more than necessary for an endurance race In a shared car. You can hear the power train reverberating when you let out the clutch. That should be your indicator to just ease up a bit. That and most syncros prefer a split second between gates to spin up/down. Often at the beginning you would go up a gear just to down shift a moment later. Reduce shifts/reduce clutching is the fundamental feedback I'm trying to give.

If you want more feed back, I have some on steering. Try to keep your hands a little more consistent at 9/3. Move them if you have to but Lightning doesn't really have anything too sharp. One of the other habits is that you tend to disengage what should be your recovery hand. Good technique calls for pulling down to turn in and the other 180* hand should be holding the wheel anticipating to have to counter steer if there is too much slip angle. It's best to keep it on the opposite hemisphere so that you have that hand to pull down if you get in real trouble. If your hands share hemisphere, you lose power to recover, whether it be small or a big correction.

Probably more that you wanted to hear but if I was in the right seat and you were driving a fast car that fast, I'd be picky.

No, not at all. At the very beginning I shift up into 5th after turn 5, because of the yellow flag. Not knowing what is ahead, or how many corners will have yellows. After getting to turn 7 and seeing no flag, and the truck pulling off into the dirt I then downshift to 4th and 3rd and carry on. I know sometimes I will shift up when I don't need to, usually when going slower like catching a car in a spot I don't want to pass, but its very rare and even when I do it, I think to myself why did I do that? You can watch my video in my own personal car, and I did it a few times at the start as well.

I don't feel I am shifting too fast, but I have nothing to go off to judge it. In the other video (I'll upload it Monday) the engine sound during shifting is smoother. Perhaps the motor mount was attached then, but later came loose? The transmission is shifting fine, and I am not forcing it into any gear. The engine noise is only when the clutch is released, and without springs its basically an on/off switch. So perhaps it is just from that?

I've always wondered if anyone would say something about my "floating" hand. Perhaps its old habits from autocrossing with much quicker transitions? If you watch the video in my own car on Thunderbolt, I do the same thing in some turns where I do all the steering with one hand and the other is there if needed. I think moving my hands, vs keeping them more in one spot is a bit of a driver preference. I remember when autocrossing a friend of mine would keep his hands at one spot, almost touching his arms together in slaloms, where as I would shuffle. Yet, we were very even in times. I would left foot brake as well, but he didn't. It was fun to compare with the differences.

[KTulay]

BTW, I seem to do the "floating hand" much more often on a left turn.

[KTulay]

_{Kevin, I actually learned a few things from your hot lap. And I thought you did a good job with the car. I was just giving you} poop_{, my friend. We'll drive together someday soon...}

Haha, I know Jer. Looking forward to it!

[Ronalds Racers 1]

KTulay, all I'm gonna say is y'all need to keep breakin' that car so we can have a chance at winning, lol! If y'all ever get that thing dialed in to where you don't have any problems you'll be about unstoppable. Every time I see your car on track with us I think that I just want to beat y'all, lol. I feel like we can hang with you guys through the corners, but as soon as we hit the straights you're gone. All our guys tend to drive pretty well (with the exception of me putting our car into the tire barrier in T5 at RA, lol) and the car has held up to everything we've thrown at it, but if y'all were to get yours to last an entire race then I think we'd be screwed. Anyway, it's always fun racing with you guys and we look forward to our next meeting at VIR for the 24!

[KTulay]

Sadly, there hasn't been a single race that I was in with the Biohazard car that there hasn't been an issue of some sorts. However, we did manage to take 1st place at Road Atlanta on Saturday in February. We weren't the fastest car there, but we had no issues that caused us to need to come off the track. Our only issue was very poor brake bias from doing some brake upgrades over the Winter. The car had very heavy front bias, and would easily lock up the front tires, thus not allowing us to brake as well, and eventually putting some good flat spots on the tires making it very interesting in turn 12!

As much fun as it was to win an event (which I have also with Duct Tape Motorsports), I think I enjoy just driving fast more, though reliably sure is more useful here.

I still believe our first two axles broke from either the boot ripping, or expanding and letting the CV run dry until it overheated. The third where the stub broke, well who knows exactly with that one. Prior to this I've never seen or heard of that happening, but I'm now seeing it does more often than I would of thought. And, it was just that time for the radiator hose. But, this is all part of these races.

We will be at VIR, and the car will have some track day testing beforehand, so hopefully the car will finally prove to be reliable. I'm really looking forward to running the Full, or a Grand East/West config in the daylight. It's a toss up if I like Road Atlanta or VIR more, hard to pick when I've only run VIR Full in the dark.

[KTulay]

Hey guys, don't forget about the 3 minute highlight reel video contest. I got the MR2 Biohazard video up.

Head over to ChumpCar's Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/ChumpCarWorldSeries, and click like on the video you want to vote for. Right now there are only two videos.

[chip]

our camera mount broke and we didn't get any video- I think I'd rather have a broken camera mount than axle though

[KTulay]

Yea, yea... lol if we had only broken 1, it wouldn't of been too bad. Between towing and fixing the axle, we lost at most 30 minutes.