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Captdistraction's ST2/GTR build thread Build Thread

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captdistraction

GrumpyRacer
1,954
1,698
Phoenix, Az
Pushed (with driving skill, not bumper) the GTR right out of the way to victory. Did you just back down the pace or was the BMW just too strong for you?

I was one tenth slower on our fast laps, but I had to back off. The center net is in the way but my datalogger was flashing warnings at me.

As cool as a overall win would have been to chase after, the Bmw was out of class. I just changed my mind after a few laps:

“I’ve got this guy”
“I’ll just stay close and wait for a mistake”
“Oh, I’m melting”
“Don’t screw this up, you’re in the lead and no one is in your mirror”
“Reminder: Jeremy isn’t in your class and there’s no award for first overall”

Edit: Just kidding, official results posted today and Jeremy in the E36 laid down a 1:45.460 to my 1:46.714. I'd have had to catch him early (which there were a few opportunities) and hold him behind me, but honestly this result was the absolute best case scenario as it played out.
 
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captdistraction

GrumpyRacer
1,954
1,698
Phoenix, Az
Congrats Dude you earned that win with some damn good driving!

Thanks and congrats on yours! These wins don’t come easy, took a few years for me to find one, you go and make it look easy!

Looking forward to cota and the fall events, we are getting to have a fun group! Might get crazy if Adrian, Ron and Ricky all are running as well.
 
Chris, I’ve been following you on Instagram for maybe a year now, so I had seen some of your challenges but I just read this entire thread (don’t tell my boss) at work and wow. I don’t know how you did it. I am gradually working up to maybe getting my car to the point yours is at (maybe not quite as involved, but somewhat involved), but man I couldn’t do 5 motors and issues you’ve had. But I have learned quite a bit from this thread. I will put it to use.
 

captdistraction

GrumpyRacer
1,954
1,698
Phoenix, Az
Thanks!

I really should update this thread with everything from the summer, but I’ve been pretty burnt out.

Addressing the burn out is something I really want to get figured out the rest of this year before going into next. I think 2019 will be more about the individual races and not a series championship.

I’ll put together an update soon


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

captdistraction

GrumpyRacer
1,954
1,698
Phoenix, Az
Race Report - NASA Championships at Circuit of the Americas

Its been a while since I've posted, and that's because life keeps punching me in the face. Work had been filled with challenges and I was burned out on racing. I've made some changes to the car and forced myself to get it ready for nationals.

Improved the trailer, loaded up and headed to Texas with @mattlqx as the co-pilot. My wife would join us Friday (or so was planned)

Major Pre-Race changes:
Spring rates moved from 600F/300R to 500F/250R, dampening settings altered to reflect updated data from JRZ, Headers wrapped again (tired of melting stuff), New complete boss 302R arms from @OPMustang Tim were installed (Thanks for all the support and hyper-fast shipping!). Everything else was gone over, cleaned up, oil changed, plugs changed, and the car was set for ride heights and alignment. There was more planned, however a couple vendors left me hanging (and Amazon went a bit wacky with packages)

Wednesday Practice - I spent the money on extra practice to learn the track. I didn't do much meaningful during the day, but did get a nice dry day to learn the track (or so I thought) and get plenty of laps in. I wasn't fast, but at least I was familiar. I did receive some very bad news, that my 10 year old chihuahua back home required emergency surgery and wasn't expected to make it. Initially I tried to find a way to fly back home, but nothing I could do would be in time. Thankfully she's made it through surgery and I stayed in Texas. More on that later

IMG_0392.jpg

Thursday - Off
- Took the day off to collect myself and help @ArizonaBOSS through his troubles, had a front clip shipped to my hotel and we were able to push him back into the fold.

Friday Qualifying - I signed up for some coaching with Racers360 / Dion Von Moltke, who has a cool video-based program to help with coaching. Unfortunately, they couldn't review my video until after qualifying was over. It had started to rain, so I thought the second qualifying session would be a good time to have a spin going on the straight. Unfortunately, I cracked a rear rotor in the process, and that became an issue compounded by my forgetfulness to pack the appropriate spares. We had to order a set that would show up AFTER Saturday's qualifying race.

Video of the first qualify session:

Broken Rotor
IMG_0402.jpg

Saturday Qualifying Race - I did a bad thing, I ran that rotor for the race in practice that morning and the race. I set it up with some pads that were close to done so they could scrub through (with the thickest pad against the cracked face). I don't ever recommend this to anyone, but we were in a pinch and only the outer face had cracked. Again, this was a stupid decision I was lucky on. The race, well, got interesting. After everyone looked at their 20 different weather apps, we believed we had a dry race ahead. No sooner than we were released it started pouring, and most of the Group B classes were on dry tires. Most parked it after the first lap, and I stayed for the green, but after nearly losing the car 1000 times, I came in as well.

See this at 13 minutes into the video, and hang out to just past 14 minutes :)

I ran in to my paddock space, and took off and grabbed my wheels with wets. While it took a blistering F1-race-fast 7 minute pit stop to get them mounted, I was able to rejoin the race and score one more lap that moved me up several places for Sunday. The craziness paid off.

Sunday Championship Race - With the brakes now repaired, sticker tires placed and dry weather, I was ready to go fight it out. I had decent position at 14th in class, and I was confident I could drive my way up. The car was ready to go. However, on the start, the local GTR (second in the region) had a great run up the inside line going into T1, and I thought if I stayed middle and kept him inside, the slower traffic through that corner on the inside would hold him up. I couldn't have been more wrong as two corvettes decided playing grab-ass was more important than racing and parked their cars on the top of T1. I was stuck behind them at a full stop, and had to reverse to continue. I went from 23overall to dead last in a nearly 50 car field. I started working my way up through cautions as all the dead vehicles were picked up. I kept my nose clean and made it through some of the best racing I've done yet. The car is overweight and under powered for the class, as I was getting destroyed on the straights by my peers, but under braking and mid-corner speeds belonged to me. The coaching paid off as I was able to work my way back up to 23rd overall and 11th in class. I hit nothing, took no penalties, and was able to put the car on the trailer with no issues.

IMG_5175.jpg

I then made the trip home safely and will continue on the rest of the season. My regional points lead stands at 59 points above the next competitor after drops, and 6 races remain with one being a double-points enduro race.

On Family, the Most Important Thing - as I mentioned above I had issues back home with my dog. I found out that it has hermangiosarcoma, a terrible, incurable and aggressive cancer of the spleen that had caused a rupture while I was out racing. This affected me greatly (and still does, I'm absolutely a broken and defeated person today) as the pup is just in the middle of its life expectancy; now instead of years, I have weeks left. She's not showing symptoms now outside recovery, but soon that will change. I carry a lot of guilt for being out racing and having fun when I should have been home for the dog that's always been there for me. I don't have kids, so the pups are family, and we had just lost our Labrador retriever a month prior.

My point is, racing is great fun, but don't forget what's important and cherish the time with loved ones (and furry little loved ones) as it passes far too quickly. I had great support from friends at the track (and a very motivational phone call from @OPMustang Tim keeping me sane and that if I did stay, I needed to focus and be safe) and I wouldn't have been able to get through the weekend without it. I'm glad that I get a bit more time with the dog (and will make the best of what time we have left) and get to see her, as at the beginning of the event I was told there was a good chance that she would pass away on the operating table 1000 miles away from me; and I appreciate the support of friends and family to get through a real tough time.

I'll have more positive stuff starting with the next post, about what comes next for the car.
 

Fabman

Dances with Racecars
6,519
8,154
Exp. Type
W2W Racing
Exp. Level
20+ Years
Pleasanton: 1/2 way between Sonoma and Laguna Seca
Race Report - NASA Championships at Circuit of the Americas

Its been a while since I've posted, and that's because life keeps punching me in the face. Work had been filled with challenges and I was burned out on racing. I've made some changes to the car and forced myself to get it ready for nationals.

Improved the trailer, loaded up and headed to Texas with @mattlqx as the co-pilot. My wife would join us Friday (or so was planned)

Major Pre-Race changes:
Spring rates moved from 600F/300R to 500F/250R, dampening settings altered to reflect updated data from JRZ, Headers wrapped again (tired of melting stuff), New complete boss 302R arms from @OPMustang Tim were installed (Thanks for all the support and hyper-fast shipping!). Everything else was gone over, cleaned up, oil changed, plugs changed, and the car was set for ride heights and alignment. There was more planned, however a couple vendors left me hanging (and Amazon went a bit wacky with packages)

Wednesday Practice - I spent the money on extra practice to learn the track. I didn't do much meaningful during the day, but did get a nice dry day to learn the track (or so I thought) and get plenty of laps in. I wasn't fast, but at least I was familiar. I did receive some very bad news, that my 10 year old chihuahua back home required emergency surgery and wasn't expected to make it. Initially I tried to find a way to fly back home, but nothing I could do would be in time. Thankfully she's made it through surgery and I stayed in Texas. More on that later


Thursday - Off
- Took the day off to collect myself and help @ArizonaBOSS through his troubles, had a front clip shipped to my hotel and we were able to push him back into the fold.

Friday Qualifying - I signed up for some coaching with Racers360 / Dion Von Moltke, who has a cool video-based program to help with coaching. Unfortunately, they couldn't review my video until after qualifying was over. It had started to rain, so I thought the second qualifying session would be a good time to have a spin going on the straight. Unfortunately, I cracked a rear rotor in the process, and that became an issue compounded by my forgetfulness to pack the appropriate spares. We had to order a set that would show up AFTER Saturday's qualifying race.

Video of the first qualify session:

Broken Rotor
View attachment 5121

Saturday Qualifying Race - I did a bad thing, I ran that rotor for the race in practice that morning and the race. I set it up with some pads that were close to done so they could scrub through (with the thickest pad against the cracked face). I don't ever recommend this to anyone, but we were in a pinch and only the outer face had cracked. Again, this was a stupid decision I was lucky on. The race, well, got interesting. After everyone looked at their 20 different weather apps, we believed we had a dry race ahead. No sooner than we were released it started pouring, and most of the Group B classes were on dry tires. Most parked it after the first lap, and I stayed for the green, but after nearly losing the car 1000 times, I came in as well.

See this at 13 minutes into the video, and hang out to just past 14 minutes :)

I ran in to my paddock space, and took off and grabbed my wheels with wets. While it took a blistering F1-race-fast 7 minute pit stop to get them mounted, I was able to rejoin the race and score one more lap that moved me up several places for Sunday. The craziness paid off.

Sunday Championship Race - With the brakes now repaired, sticker tires placed and dry weather, I was ready to go fight it out. I had decent position at 14th in class, and I was confident I could drive my way up. The car was ready to go. However, on the start, the local GTR (second in the region) had a great run up the inside line going into T1, and I thought if I stayed middle and kept him inside, the slower traffic through that corner on the inside would hold him up. I couldn't have been more wrong as two corvettes decided playing grab-ass was more important than racing and parked their cars on the top of T1. I was stuck behind them at a full stop, and had to reverse to continue. I went from 23overall to dead last in a nearly 50 car field. I started working my way up through cautions as all the dead vehicles were picked up. I kept my nose clean and made it through some of the best racing I've done yet. The car is overweight and under powered for the class, as I was getting destroyed on the straights by my peers, but under braking and mid-corner speeds belonged to me. The coaching paid off as I was able to work my way back up to 23rd overall and 11th in class. I hit nothing, took no penalties, and was able to put the car on the trailer with no issues.


I then made the trip home safely and will continue on the rest of the season. My regional points lead stands at 59 points above the next competitor after drops, and 6 races remain with one being a double-points enduro race.

On Family, the Most Important Thing - as I mentioned above I had issues back home with my dog. I found out that it has hermangiosarcoma, a terrible, incurable and aggressive cancer of the spleen that had caused a rupture while I was out racing. This affected me greatly (and still does, I'm absolutely a broken and defeated person today) as the pup is just in the middle of its life expectancy; now instead of years, I have weeks left. She's not showing symptoms now outside recovery, but soon that will change. I carry a lot of guilt for being out racing and having fun when I should have been home for the dog that's always been there for me. I don't have kids, so the pups are family, and we had just lost our Labrador retriever a month prior.

My point is, racing is great fun, but don't forget what's important and cherish the time with loved ones (and furry little loved ones) as it passes far too quickly. I had great support from friends at the track (and a very motivational phone call from @OPMustang Tim keeping me sane and that if I did stay, I needed to focus and be safe) and I wouldn't have been able to get through the weekend without it. I'm glad that I get a bit more time with the dog (and will make the best of what time we have left) and get to see her, as at the beginning of the event I was told there was a good chance that she would pass away on the operating table 1000 miles away from me; and I appreciate the support of friends and family to get through a real tough time.

I'll have more positive stuff starting with the next post, about what comes next for the car.
How did you like the softer spring setup?
 

captdistraction

GrumpyRacer
1,954
1,698
Phoenix, Az
I liked it a lot. Between the arm changes and springs the car felt faster.

With the large pistons in the jrz struts it seems to work better to let them do some of the work versus trying to cram as much spring in as possible. There wasn’t a lot of additional roll and the front end was responsive. I’d argue there was more grip than before.

Won’t know for sure until back on home tracks but it certainly seemed better. I wish I had put a touch more wing in it for some of the sweepers where the car was a bit loose but otherwise it felt great


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

captdistraction

GrumpyRacer
1,954
1,698
Phoenix, Az
Final Stretch for NASA AZ 2018 Super Touring Season

This has been a long trying season of racing, but there's 6 races left and I'm in the lead. Unfortunately, that could all change, so I want to learn what I can do to best execute down the stretch and close out the season with a W.

The way points work in nasa is 100 points to first, 90 to 2nd, 85/80/75/70 to 3-6th, then 69,68, etc for places further down. We get to drop two races (lowest scores), and there's one enduro race at the end of the year counting double. Here's a table showing where the season sits:
upload_2018-9-25_8-1-14.png

I have a very comfortable lead with drops, however that lead after drops falls significantly. Don't mind the strike-through names, they're just people not expected to participate in most of the remaining races (though I hope @ArizonaBOSS does make it for a few, despite his setting the benchmark for execution).

With that said, there's 3 of us that will show up for the end races, and I'm the slowest car of the bunch. I'm working on driving better, but the GTR is much faster than I am on even on scrubs (vs my car on sticker R7s), especially in straights, and the Civic (which oddly is marked as GTR on the list) is faster through corners and braking). What can't happen is the GTR (team dangerous) winning out, or winning half the remaining races. If they miss one race, then the whole exercise is moot, but I doubt they'll let me off the hook that easily. Being the slowest car, there's plenty of opportunity for the competition to get in on plenty of good points.

The enduro is anyone's game. Its been discussed to be 100-180 minutes in length, and I have some experience in endurance racing, but that could go any way. For the sprints, I have to figure out how to be faster.

I'll make threads for each (and update the list to links), but here's some categories I think I need to improve on:

  • Driver Improvement
  • Weight Reduction
  • Setup Improvement (will stay in this thread)
  • Overall Race Season Strategy (will stay in this thread)

Right now, the car is 3630lbs with me in it with 1/2 tank of fuel, with 3501 being my classing sheet minimum weight. Also the classing sheet was for my older motor, and I'm not entirely convinced this current motor puts down 458rwhp. Its close, but I believe if I were to dyno it I might find that I can have even less weight on the car. I run Hoosier R7's, but I might look and see if another tire can be run (even with a weight penalty as I have the room) that would give me more stick.

So I'll need to procure the consumables I'll need to finish the season, and likely at some point make some repairs to my tremec magnum XL trans that is starting to scratch consistently into 4th gear. I believe I damaged it on the AMP races on 5/19-20 from the heat and stresses of my first win, as I was not gentle on the car. Additionally, for the AMP races, currently I have to add another 40 lbs of weight in exhaust.

I'll go into more detail on each category shortly. Hopefully I can put together a plan to close out the season on a high note. Its going to be a close race.
 
Nice update and good luck! So Rondog isn't going to make the final races? Looks like Derek is doing well, is this his first season in ST2?
 

Mad Hatter

Gotta go Faster
5,237
4,227
Santiago, Chile
Best of Luck!!! Losing a Dog is always hard, the best way I found to get through, is get a pup and tell him he has big paws to fill. Some how it keeps the memory alive. They are here for a good time, not a long time.

Have four resting in peace in the garden and I still miss them decades later.
 
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captdistraction

GrumpyRacer
1,954
1,698
Phoenix, Az
Nice update and good luck! So Rondog isn't going to make the final races? Looks like Derek is doing well, is this his first season in ST2?
Ron's out. Probably will run the car with ProAuto but not NASA. Most of the AZ ST crew are upset for one reason or another. Colin was penalized earlier this year, but when he was hit at nationals no penalty was given to the offending driver (or at least was mishandled), others were hit, had wrecks, lost positions due to starting procedures not followed, etc. Not a lot of happy racers in AZ currently.

Hopefully Derek gets back into it, I know he had to deal with surgery that held him out for nationals. More participation in ST2 is good for me from a points perspective.
 

captdistraction

GrumpyRacer
1,954
1,698
Phoenix, Az
Race Report: NASA ST2 at Arizona Motorsports Park (again) Oct 13/14

Back to the track that gave me my first win, and had a mostly* smooth weekend. I did very little prep for this event outside noting that my transmission was covered in gear oil from every seam. Found that the vent breather was clogged and was forcing the oil out through every seal in the trans housing as it has heated up. I'm due for a rebuild as my 4th gear synchro is notchy and a bit crunchy, but trying to hold it together until the end of the season.

Saturday:
Per the forecast, we had a chance of rain. Luckily, some lazy idiot had forgotten to remove the Continental EC-Wet R/L tires off a set of @APEXRaceParts EC7 Wheels to put R7's back on it. I had gone out in the morning on R7s for practice, assuming the dark clouds would still give me enough time to try the track on dry tires. Well....

IMG_0272.JPG

It rained. Lots. Then it rained some more. I cut a 1:59 in practice before the course was really soaked. On went the wets and in qualifying, I stayed out much longer than I should have: as my first lap was good enough for pole position! Though I'm glad I had some practice in the wet on the tires to build some confidence.

The race went similarly well: Immediately I was away from the group and by the 4th turn after the green flag I was able to see everyone well behind me. The car put down 1:54's in the wet and the next cars in class put down 2:02 and 2:13 respectively. The car was performing well but I wanted to try to hold up. By the middle of the race I could relax some, however, I decided to keep my foot on their neck and ended up with a 73 second margin overall. My first overall win, and second class win in 2018! This about sealed up the championship.... or so I thought.

IMG_0287.JPG

Sunday:
Weather cleared up, and while we had a bit of a threat of storm, it went right by. As the temperatures rose and the track dried up, it was ideal racing weather! This is where my car's big disadvantage comes into play: I'm still the slowest ST2 car running in the field. Though my 1st place finish put me on pole for a qualifying race.

That qual race went well, I had to issue a couple completely-legal blocks in the opening laps, but was able to again build out a lead and hold on to another first place finish, putting me on pole for the final race of the weekend.

What I had noted in the race start during the qual race is that I was murdered off the line versus the other cars, I had started in second (magnum xl with 3.73). So for the main race, I thought I'd slow things down to 40 or so and start in first. Well, immediately the ST3 car to my left blew me away and had a couple car lengths by the first turn. Trying to not get stuck into driving defensively for 20 minutes, I looked to try to run the car like a qualify session and build up some gap, focusing on hitting every mark I could. I had noted on one turn I could get a bit more rotation out by grabbing curbs (since in the wet the curbs are to be avoided at AMP less you have spare racecars). Well I tried grabbing a bit too much curb and lost the car in a large tank slapper. Here's the throttle (and yaw) trace from that slapper:

Can tell I did two things wrong: I tried to save it with my hands, and I was hesitant to initially get back to WOT. I should have immediately gone to WOT and been a bit more patient with my hands.

The result is I spun right with the crowd of cars going around me, narrowly missing the two other ST2 cars before coming to a stop very near a K-rail wall. I was able to restart the car and rejoin the race. Technically, all I had to do is finish a lap and park from a championship perspective. That said, I thought if I could just finish in front of the 2nd place car, I could clinch the championship (via a lap-and-park strategy for the rest of the year). Despite being 30 seconds behind, maybe I could close the gap or they'd have a spin themselves. Unfortunately, I closed the gap to 15 seconds (working up from 19th to 6th overall and 4th in class), but the 2nd place car ran a clean race without spinning.

oops.jpg

Something of note is that I was about 4 seconds off pace from the race winning ST2 car, and I was 1.5 seconds slower than my last visit to AMP, which was on a hot day. I've made improvements to the car which should have resulted in better lap times, so I'm going to do a lot of data analysis to see what's up. I think a big clue was how badly I was being blown away on the start of the race. I'm also going to dyno the car with the AMP restricted exhaust on, then my typical exhaust. Some of it was a more conservative driver, but its a troubling and growing theme to be behind the peers from a performance perspective.

From a championship perspective I'm all but locked in for the win. I have to show up and race, but one more finish ahead of the other car (Team Dangerous Enterprises, the Nissan GTR/Godzilla car) would clinch it. Otherwise if they win out through the end of the year and I take 3rd or worse in class, they can win via 1 point. (or if I skip more than 2 races). Its a big uphill battle for them, however I still have to perform for at least a couple races to ensure a victory at the end of this year. No participation trophies to be given.

Current Points 10-15.PNG

All in all it was a good weekend, I was able to spend time with the dogs, share pizza and beers with the peers, race without incident. Huge thanks to all the partnerships and @ArizonaBOSS for helping me that weekend.
 

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captdistraction

GrumpyRacer
1,954
1,698
Phoenix, Az
About the loop:

I didn't post the trace properly above, so here's a better look at it:TPS_Trace.PNG

Red line is the yaw rate, and the first peak is where the car started to spin on the turn just behind the purple dot on the map. As yaw increased, so did throttle, but I didn't fully commit. That's where things went wrong as my focus went to my hands in correcting the angle of the car; cardinal sin where I lifted completely out of the throttle and the weight stayed up front and the tank slapper continued into a spin.

Some good video here (Spin at 54 seconds):


Funny thing is, I know typically what to do in a situation like that:
1) keep your foot in it and go to WOT, maintain the weight out back
2) counter-steer to the direction of the spin
3) briefly pause with the hands as the car sets up to come back the other way
4) stay committed in the throttle, reset hands/wheel to center

I wish I had the steering and brake traces, but I've been unable to get those mapped thus far with the racecapture system (Ford's mappings are proprietary and those that do have access to it are either under NDA or paid a kings sum to see those mappings. Some day I'll reverse engineer them or add dedicated sensors).
 

captdistraction

GrumpyRacer
1,954
1,698
Phoenix, Az

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