These Brakes.. (8/8/15) - 12 hours - Portland International Raceway:
So after all the work to get the car straight again and a factory front lip added, we were ready to race in Portland. Our last event at Portland we had a 2nd, 3rd, and 3rd with 1st place eluding us. So we had a goal ahead of us!
Dave starts off the 12 hour race in 29th place. Dave puts in some solid laps and gets us up into 7th place. He's pushing the car hard, likely a little bit past his comfort zone. While approaching turn 10, he's still on the brakes a bit too much at turn-in, and the car starts rotating at 80+ mph. His countersteer is not quite quick enough, and to gasps of the people in the bleachers.. ("Oh no! Oh no!") he is headed off course... towards a barrier! Luckily he is far enough past the barrier to not hit it, and gets slowed down before getting to the tire wall. If it was raining, the car would be a balled up mess, as cars don't slow down much at all in wet grass. However even with the Brown Pants Moment, Dave makes it up into 3rd place before pitting!
Nathan Feigion is in the car next, putting in solid laps and moving forward in the pack. 19 laps into his stint I hear over the radio, "I think I've got a flat tire or something." Oh no! We aren't quite a prepared Nascar crew... we are in the pits for 6 minutes changing the tire before sending him back out. This knocks us back to 12th place, giving Nathan some work to do. Nathan then proceeds to set our fastest lap of the race (1:33.98) and get us up into 5th place.
It was my turn next, and I have my sights set on a podium finish. At this point we have gotten a trophy every single race in Portland since our first 3rd place trophy and I don't want to break that streak! I put in a straightforward two hour session and pit in 3rd place.
Dave goes out next, and then pits in 1st place! With four hours left, Nathan Feigion is back in the car. On lap 318, disaster strikes. No brakes! Nathan uses a combination of engine braking and emergency brake use to get the car slowed down, repeatedly pumping the emergency brake like Flintstone ABS. The car skids just past our pits with the rears locked up and the front brakes on fire! I hit the brakes with the fire extinguisher, dousing the flames and my hopes of a podium finish.
We jump into action to repair the car. This is the first time we've tried to do a caliper swap live during a race. And ... as you might imagine, it's HOT!! Like still smoking after being removed and on the ground kind of hot. The reason we lost brakes is our pads were so far gone that the piston popped out of the caliper. Again. Dave swaps the caliper on the right while I change the pads on the left side. I can't grab anything, even just my glove grazing the caliper is enough to send an instant wisp of smoke. I am trying to use a tool in each hand like some kind of caveman salad tongs. We get the new pads in and some new fluid in, and then bleed the brakes. Total time: 15 minutes. Not bad for a first time doing a hot change in the pits! In the picture below you can see the caliper smoking on the ground.
This brakes thing is getting ridiculous. To have 1st place snatched away due to brakes like this is frustrating. This will be our last race weekend on these brakes.. These Hawk Blue pads provide fantastic stopping power and feel, but in combination with stock brake hardware they just get too hot and disappear (even with our ducting). They used to be fine, but as we get faster we push the car harder.
I jump in the car last, and we are down to 7th place. I do what I can, but there's no making up for a 15 minute pit stop. We finish in 5th place, not too bad considering that included a flat tire and brakes+caliper change in the pits!
Video overview: