Sunday, October 10, 2010

Out Flat at Last Race of the Year





No, I didn't suffer a twinge of dyslexia in my post headline. Yesterday was going great. My first time at Pueblo a very fast 2.2 mile track until the main race at the end of the day.

Five minutes before grid did one last tire pressure check and WHAT. I had a flat. Scrambling, another SPEC racer lent me his 4 year old near dead RA-1. The results were not good. No idea what the pressure in that tire was. I was just happy to get it on and get in the race. But at the beginning of the third lap, when the tires were at full temp, I realized just how important a set of equally conditioned and pressured tires were. I was suffering massive push. And trying to keep up with the 944 SPEC national champ had me off the track. Twice. So I called it a day.

But I still had a great time at Pueblo. I was able to qualify sixth then finish the qualifying race in fifth out of fourteen. Oh well, that is racing. Better a flat than something more pricey to fix. So, now I will either do one lapping day to end the year on a high note, or just pack it up.

In the pics you can see how Pueblo's front straight uses the drag strip portion of the park. You come out on it flat out of turn 10 at about 80MPH and hit what I suspect is about 115 at the end of the straight.

Then there is a pic of Graham suggesting I add some coolant to the car. Good fun that my wife and son were able to see me in the qualifying race and had left by the time of the main where I flatted.

One note, my motor seems to be breaking in nicely. Revving a bit quicker and offering what seems a bit more mid range torque. Especially when I wrapped cardboard around my oil cooler to raise the temps. I couldn't get the oil above 160 degrees in the am. So for the qual race I wrapped it and saw my temps a better 200 degrees. Warm oil is fast oil, to a point. You don't want to go above 240.

No comments: