Alzilla is going racing! Viva la Chump Car!
#123
09-05-2011 | 01:53 PM
Thread Starter
| Teamspeed Pro
Joined: Apr 2008
Posts: 31,976
From: Minnesota
Boom. Back from Iowa. This weekend was full of highs and lows, cheers and curses, but it was a blast!
I left Minneapolis on Thurs to meet up with PorscheAudi in Des Moines. On the way down, MN State Patrol tagged me at 88mph in a 70. One driving award later, I was back on track to Des Moines. I got in around 8:30 and Pete showed me around quick and we went for a spin in the Boss before heading out to some bars. Had a great night, drank plenty of booze and passed out on the couch pretty late.
On Friday, I met up with a few other team mates who had spent the night in Des Moine and we caravaned to the Iowa Speedway to hang out and wait for the rest of the team to arrive. Another team coming from Minneapolis broke down on the way one of our guys managed to pick them up and tow their car down to the track as well. Once everyone got to the track, we went through registration and tech inspection then spent the rest of the afternoon prettying up the car while the open track session was going on in the background.
Mulling around the pits, I saw lots of interesting cars that I hadn't expected to see; a Triumph TR6, a Merkur XR4Ti, an Alfa Romeo...
A few of us walked the track to check out the banking and get a lay of the land.
Check out these trophies!
That was it for Friday. We eventually made it back to the hotel around 11:30 and hung out for a bit before going to bed.
More to come later...
I left Minneapolis on Thurs to meet up with PorscheAudi in Des Moines. On the way down, MN State Patrol tagged me at 88mph in a 70. One driving award later, I was back on track to Des Moines. I got in around 8:30 and Pete showed me around quick and we went for a spin in the Boss before heading out to some bars. Had a great night, drank plenty of booze and passed out on the couch pretty late.
On Friday, I met up with a few other team mates who had spent the night in Des Moine and we caravaned to the Iowa Speedway to hang out and wait for the rest of the team to arrive. Another team coming from Minneapolis broke down on the way one of our guys managed to pick them up and tow their car down to the track as well. Once everyone got to the track, we went through registration and tech inspection then spent the rest of the afternoon prettying up the car while the open track session was going on in the background.
Mulling around the pits, I saw lots of interesting cars that I hadn't expected to see; a Triumph TR6, a Merkur XR4Ti, an Alfa Romeo...
A few of us walked the track to check out the banking and get a lay of the land.
Check out these trophies!
That was it for Friday. We eventually made it back to the hotel around 11:30 and hung out for a bit before going to bed.
More to come later...
Last edited by Alzilla; 09-05-2011 at 01:54 PM.
#129
09-06-2011 | 08:59 AM
Thread Starter
| Teamspeed Pro
Joined: Apr 2008
Posts: 31,976
From: Minnesota
On Saturday morning, we met up at the track to double check everything on the car before the driver's meeting at 9:30. The race was scheduled for 10am and would run til 11pm so we tried to come up with a schedule for driver changes and estimate how long our tires and fuel would last. The race began without a hitch but about 30 min into the race, two BMWs collided and both cars sustained pretty significant damage that required a trip to the paddock to fix. *These cars were both contenders for an overall win this weekend but a call was made that could've really soured the results. I'll get to that later because while some teams were struggling to keep their cars running, a storm rolled in and soaked the track.
I haven't seen it rain that hard in a long time! And the rain lasted for a few hours, making the race miserable to watch and a lot more dangerous to drive. Visibility was terrible and since all the water runs down the oval's banking towards the infield, the road course quickly flooded! I'm talking 8-10" of standing water on a few corners. It was like driving into a lake!
One advantage to all of this water was that the yellow flag came out frequently. This helped us conserve fuel and tires much longer than we'd otherwise be able to. We almost managed to double-stint a tank of fuel! Unfortunately our plan to do so failed and necessitated an additional unplanned pit stop.
In any case, the race continued although the transition from road course to oval was pushed back from 1pm to 3:30 when the rain finally let up.
Shortly after our pit stop and driver's change, James, our youngest driver, was involved in a major crash in the banking in Turn 2 when the Bare Metal Racing Nissan Sentra spun on the high side of the track and swung down right in front of us at 95mph. With no where for James to go, he plowed into the Sentra hard and both cars had to be towed in.
A quick assessment of the damage showed that our front crossmember was pushed back about 4 inches, putting the radiator fan into our headers, and the front bumper, hood, and left fender were mangled. After beating on the car with a hammer and ripping off broken plastic and sheetmetal for about 30 min, we managed to get the car back out on track.
After James finished up his stint at 6pm, it was my turn to jump in the car for some laps around the oval as well as the transition back to the road course. I got out to do one lap and was immediately called back into the pits to check lug nut torque. Apparently our pit crew had forgotten to check because they were busy trying to bash the hood back into place so we could attach the lights we'd be running into the night. On my first few laps at race speed, I nearly smacked the wall a few times trying to figure out where to lift off the throttle to set the car up for the bankings. I was amazed at how difficult driving an oval track was. With the speed you're carrying, and with 40 other cars fighting for space on the 7/8th mile track, you're constantly watching your mirrors to see if someone is on your high side or low side, who's coming up behind you, or slowing down in front of you. About 20 min into my stint, an 1st gen RX7 blew its engine, spewing oil onto the track from Turn 2 all the way to Turn 4. This brought out another safety car which we followed for about 15 min while the track crew cleaned up the mess.
Just as they were finishing up, it started raining lightly. The green flag went out and we resumed racing for about 5 laps before the light rain turned into a torrential downpour that made the earlier storm look like drizzle in comparison. Visibility dropped to 50 ft and the safety car once again came out. After about 10 min of following the safety car, the call was made to switch us back over to the road course. The rain was coming down so badly that I saw at least one car go off track while still behind the safety car.
Finally they resumed the race and with about 35 min left in my stint, I put the hammer down. In all reality, I took it pretty easy. The banking was greasy and the infield road course was so wet that I had water coming up over my hood in more than a few corners. Additionally, it was now pitch black and my headlights were poorly aimed because the hood was so beat up. In any case, I managed to keep the car on track and stay out of trouble long enough to finish my stint.
We sent two more drivers out after me and at 11pm, the first day of racing came to an end. We finished up 13 hrs of racing with a severely damaged front end but the car remained in decent mechanical condition for the most part.
After a few beers that night, we started to assess the damage more thoroughly. The first thing we noticed was that the whole front end of the car had been shifted about 8" to the right, all the way back to the transmission mount which we later found out had cracked. We weren't about to pack it all up so we began trying to repair the car. We wedged our floor jack between the engine block and the left fender and began to push the panels out as best we could. After a few failed attempts doing that, we wrapped a chain around parts of the frame and used a truck to pull the frame back into shape. The team that we hit was nice enough to lend us their welder to try to weld some bits back into place to hold the car together and the majority of our front bumper was held on with duct tape.
We went to bed that night exhausted and frustrated but ready to keep fighting on Sunday.
* I wanted to comment on the BMW incident early in the race involving the Tubby Butterman Racing E36 and the Brake Dusters 540i one more time. What ended up happening is that the Chief Steward at the race made the call that the hit was malicious and that the team who kept their line and was hit would be given 30 free laps added to their total to cover the time they spent in the paddock fixing their car. The other team had their driver sent home but were allowed to continue for the rest of the race. I have NEVER heard of something like this happening in any form of racing before. It was a rubbish call that pissed off every single team out there.
The Chief Steward said he reviewed the on-board video from the car that was hit and he thought it was intentional. The video was posted briefly on Youtube right after it happened and from what I, and the rest of the drivers who saw the video noticed, was that the accident appeared in no way to be intentional. Both BMWs came onto the infield road course side by side, racing towards the entrance to the hairpin. The E36 was on the inside and the 540i was taking a middle line. There was a 3rd car that had gone wide and was on the far outside of the track coming into the hairpin so the 540i cut across the front of the E36 to avoid contact with the car on the outside. Unfortunately, the E36 had nowhere to go and the cars collided, completely destroying the front suspension on the E36 and denting a door on the 540i. After getting their car fixed and back out on track, the TBR E36 was given 30 bonus laps and immediately jumped into 1st place. Even after they asked to have those laps taken back on Sunday morning to keep the race honest, they finished the weekend in 3rd.
If I can find the video of the incident again, I'll post it but it was removed by the user shortly after it'd been posted.
More later.
I haven't seen it rain that hard in a long time! And the rain lasted for a few hours, making the race miserable to watch and a lot more dangerous to drive. Visibility was terrible and since all the water runs down the oval's banking towards the infield, the road course quickly flooded! I'm talking 8-10" of standing water on a few corners. It was like driving into a lake!
One advantage to all of this water was that the yellow flag came out frequently. This helped us conserve fuel and tires much longer than we'd otherwise be able to. We almost managed to double-stint a tank of fuel! Unfortunately our plan to do so failed and necessitated an additional unplanned pit stop.
In any case, the race continued although the transition from road course to oval was pushed back from 1pm to 3:30 when the rain finally let up.
Shortly after our pit stop and driver's change, James, our youngest driver, was involved in a major crash in the banking in Turn 2 when the Bare Metal Racing Nissan Sentra spun on the high side of the track and swung down right in front of us at 95mph. With no where for James to go, he plowed into the Sentra hard and both cars had to be towed in.
A quick assessment of the damage showed that our front crossmember was pushed back about 4 inches, putting the radiator fan into our headers, and the front bumper, hood, and left fender were mangled. After beating on the car with a hammer and ripping off broken plastic and sheetmetal for about 30 min, we managed to get the car back out on track.
After James finished up his stint at 6pm, it was my turn to jump in the car for some laps around the oval as well as the transition back to the road course. I got out to do one lap and was immediately called back into the pits to check lug nut torque. Apparently our pit crew had forgotten to check because they were busy trying to bash the hood back into place so we could attach the lights we'd be running into the night. On my first few laps at race speed, I nearly smacked the wall a few times trying to figure out where to lift off the throttle to set the car up for the bankings. I was amazed at how difficult driving an oval track was. With the speed you're carrying, and with 40 other cars fighting for space on the 7/8th mile track, you're constantly watching your mirrors to see if someone is on your high side or low side, who's coming up behind you, or slowing down in front of you. About 20 min into my stint, an 1st gen RX7 blew its engine, spewing oil onto the track from Turn 2 all the way to Turn 4. This brought out another safety car which we followed for about 15 min while the track crew cleaned up the mess.
Just as they were finishing up, it started raining lightly. The green flag went out and we resumed racing for about 5 laps before the light rain turned into a torrential downpour that made the earlier storm look like drizzle in comparison. Visibility dropped to 50 ft and the safety car once again came out. After about 10 min of following the safety car, the call was made to switch us back over to the road course. The rain was coming down so badly that I saw at least one car go off track while still behind the safety car.
Finally they resumed the race and with about 35 min left in my stint, I put the hammer down. In all reality, I took it pretty easy. The banking was greasy and the infield road course was so wet that I had water coming up over my hood in more than a few corners. Additionally, it was now pitch black and my headlights were poorly aimed because the hood was so beat up. In any case, I managed to keep the car on track and stay out of trouble long enough to finish my stint.
We sent two more drivers out after me and at 11pm, the first day of racing came to an end. We finished up 13 hrs of racing with a severely damaged front end but the car remained in decent mechanical condition for the most part.
After a few beers that night, we started to assess the damage more thoroughly. The first thing we noticed was that the whole front end of the car had been shifted about 8" to the right, all the way back to the transmission mount which we later found out had cracked. We weren't about to pack it all up so we began trying to repair the car. We wedged our floor jack between the engine block and the left fender and began to push the panels out as best we could. After a few failed attempts doing that, we wrapped a chain around parts of the frame and used a truck to pull the frame back into shape. The team that we hit was nice enough to lend us their welder to try to weld some bits back into place to hold the car together and the majority of our front bumper was held on with duct tape.
We went to bed that night exhausted and frustrated but ready to keep fighting on Sunday.
* I wanted to comment on the BMW incident early in the race involving the Tubby Butterman Racing E36 and the Brake Dusters 540i one more time. What ended up happening is that the Chief Steward at the race made the call that the hit was malicious and that the team who kept their line and was hit would be given 30 free laps added to their total to cover the time they spent in the paddock fixing their car. The other team had their driver sent home but were allowed to continue for the rest of the race. I have NEVER heard of something like this happening in any form of racing before. It was a rubbish call that pissed off every single team out there.
The Chief Steward said he reviewed the on-board video from the car that was hit and he thought it was intentional. The video was posted briefly on Youtube right after it happened and from what I, and the rest of the drivers who saw the video noticed, was that the accident appeared in no way to be intentional. Both BMWs came onto the infield road course side by side, racing towards the entrance to the hairpin. The E36 was on the inside and the 540i was taking a middle line. There was a 3rd car that had gone wide and was on the far outside of the track coming into the hairpin so the 540i cut across the front of the E36 to avoid contact with the car on the outside. Unfortunately, the E36 had nowhere to go and the cars collided, completely destroying the front suspension on the E36 and denting a door on the 540i. After getting their car fixed and back out on track, the TBR E36 was given 30 bonus laps and immediately jumped into 1st place. Even after they asked to have those laps taken back on Sunday morning to keep the race honest, they finished the weekend in 3rd.
If I can find the video of the incident again, I'll post it but it was removed by the user shortly after it'd been posted.
More later.
Last edited by Alzilla; 09-06-2011 at 09:14 AM.
#130
09-06-2011 | 01:03 PM
Teamspeed Rookie
Joined: Dec 2008
Posts: 23
That decision to give bonus laps is also a new to me. Never heard of that in more than 30 years of racing in FIA sanctioned races.
Probably the chief steward, acting as race director, should be more aware of the international prescriptions, because although the crash could be malicious you can never penalize others in benefit of the one that suffered the hit.
Maybe it's not the best system but I never heard of other that could repair unjustified hits without causing more problems.
Probably the chief steward, acting as race director, should be more aware of the international prescriptions, because although the crash could be malicious you can never penalize others in benefit of the one that suffered the hit.
Maybe it's not the best system but I never heard of other that could repair unjustified hits without causing more problems.