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Race Report: NASA Chamipionships 2018: Circuit of the Americas
As those of you that have been following this thread know, I have been preparing all year to race for the win in NASA's Super Touring 2 class at the 2018 Championships at COTA. I have made many changes to the car with the help of some very supportive partners like @cortexracing and JRi Shocks, and have matched or exceeded my personal bests at every track I have been to, on slower tires with those changes. Things were looking promising heading into the Championship weekend.
A group of us headed out from the greater Phoenix, AZ area early in the week to head to COTA. My rig is the runt of the litter
After two days on the road, we got to COTA and got everything unloaded. My car was set up and ready to execute a test plan on Thursday. I didn't have to do anything on Wednesday, so I took some time to help @captdistraction get some tire data during his own practice day.
Unloaded and ready to heat-cycle some fresh R7s...
We were under constant threat of rain. Two 'stangs all bundled up for the night.CorteX sent me a spare set of front struts in case I had any issues during the weekend!
And unfortunately, I did have some issues. During the third session of Thursday's practice, I lost steering going through the Turn 2 90-mph downhill right hander. Instead of continuing along the track to the right, the car decided to go straight, and wouldn't accept any further steering inputs!
I ended up plowing into a "safer" style barrier around 30mph, which munched all of the front end panels on the car For a while I thought my weekend was over.
It was later found that a ball joint sheared on the passenger side of the car mid-turn. This was about 3 seasons old, so this is probably my fault. I'm making these a yearly replacement item now, along with inner and outer tie-rods. We were able to get the fenders and fascia off of the car and bang the fenders out with a mallet. We were able to salvage the splitter and lower fascia insert as well as the splitter rods and brake ducts.
I was considering trying to pack it up for the weekend but my wife and a few friends wouldn't let me quit. One good friend even overnighted a fascia from Detroit so that I would be able to run and meet the cosmetic requirements to start the race!
With a fresh fascia, some gaffer tape, and a lot of metal zip ties, the car is almost ready to race. I installed a new spare ball joint as well as inner and outer tie rods on the passenger side. Special thanks to my buddies @mattlqx and David M. who helped disassemble and salvage panels and "massage" everything back to general fitment.
Tiger hood is destroyed but will last the weekend. Wall art incoming...Everything cobbled back-together as much as it could be.
Some of my friends from NorCal brought a really sweet alignment system to the track and offered to help me get the car back in-order for Saturday's qualifying race. They use the "WunderAligner" system--it was fast and dead-on!
I got a chance to shake the car down in the morning warmup session and everything functioned as-intended. We were left with cosmetic damage only. The hood needed a little reinforcement, so we got a strip of 6" wide fiberglass and riveted it to the underside of the hood. This made it almost as stiff as new, and much more comforting to run.
I was set to start at the back of the qualifying race group, but weather was looming. My forecast app said that the weather would be clear until the very end of our qual race. Due to this, I decided to go out on sticker A7 tires, and hoped that everyone going out on wets would be SUPER slow in the dry. Unfortunately I made a 100% WRONG call as it started to rain heavily before we took the green. I decided to pull-in from my last-place spot instead of trying to fumble through the wet on slicks. I'd done enough damage already.
@captdistraction made the same wrong call on dry tires that I did, but he was a little more motivated and ducked in about a minute after me to put wet tires on. Myself and a handful of others swarmed over his car to get the tires switched out and get him back on the track, and he even had a decent result in that race!
My tire error and subsequent retirement meant I'd be starting from the back again for Sunday's Championship race. My hope for a win was razor thin, at this point the goal was to just pick up as many positions as possible, have a good time, and not do any more on-track bodywork.
The grid for Sunday's Championship race. I am starting 17th out of 19 in ST2.Video from the race:
The start was a bit of a mess, but I managed to pick off 10 or 11 people during the race before (I think) my fuel pump overheated with two laps to go. I chose to retire instead of blowing up the engine. Lots of big changes with limited test time. I’ll get it right soon.
I have some extra heat shield material en-route now for the fuel cell and plan to wrap the exhaust in that location as well. I had tested at 20 minutes running but not 45 minutes!
This wasn’t the weekend I planned on but as they say, that’s racing. Despite my troubles, I had a wealth of support from friends far and wide to get me operational on race day.
The car handled great thanks to the arsenal of suspension components from CorteX Racing and JRi Shocks, and as expected the T56 Magnum from Dederichs Motorsports was rock solid. Thank you Filip @ CorteX, JJ @ JRi, and Joe @ Dederichs Motorsports for all your support over the past year. With better luck we would have been way up front.
Now it is time to rebuild and come back stronger, lighter, and most importantly--faster. I'm hoping to have the car out for our annual Thanksgiving event, but that's dependent on a lot of things coming together over the next few weeks.
Stay tuned...
Likewise, Mark. Sorry we didn't get more time to talk with all the BS going on. Hopefully we will be out that way again in 2019.Not sure how many times I screamed at 404 while watching that.
Sorry about the way it turned out for you, but good for you getting it back out there. Good to finally met you. If I could have helped you I would have, my drinking skills are better than my mechanic skills.
A few of you have seen this already but here's the in-car of my crash at COTA. Ball joint broke on the right side during a fast right-hand sweeper. Replace those ball joints and inner/outer tie rods every season, kids. Language warning...
This was a Watson/Howe ball joint, but it had been in use for ~3 seasons at this point. This was preventable.
Likewise, Mark. Sorry we didn't get more time to talk with all the BS going on. Hopefully we will be out that way again in 2019.
I haven't done much with the car lately other than take some damaged parts off of it. I am starting to drill out the spot welds in the front upper radiator support now to remove that section. Going quickly with a spot-weld driller from Amazon.
Got all my replacement parts in-house save for a grille surround, new Tiger Racing hood, and Tiger Racing carbon fiber doors.
Going to Optic Armor for the front windshield as well.
View attachment 5320
Very interested in any pre-install/during-install photos and any tips/tricks, including the quick-disconnect stuff. Thinking to mount them up myself but not sure what is already present in the doors for mounting hardware (assuming nothing?)Ooooo Carbon Doors, Love mine.
I used the OEM door nut plates to mount mine out of some trashed doors. Also converted the hinges to be quick disconnect with pins.
I know that some carbon doors do come pre drilled and ready for install....what kind are these and how difficult was it to properly locate all the holes for a clean install?
Brand and cost?These come with nothing, Including no door handle holes. It took me about 5-6 hours from starting to having both on the car and done.