Apply the Learning (4/28/2019) - 7 hours - Ridge Motorsports Park:
Before the next race we stiffened up the shocks, which was really the only easy adjustment to make. Brake bias would have to wait. We were having a leisurely breakfast, when I got a text from Kyle Eisenbach, our competitor and friend from the General Leif. He asked if we wanted our car moved out on grid. Sure, thanks Kyle! Thanks to his generous offer, we ended up starting on the front row for the first time ever!
I started the race lined up next to our friends in #177 Finally Racing. I'm on the right side, which is the outside of turn 1, but Kurt concedes the first corner and I'm through into 1st! In talking to him later, he said he thought we would do better on cold tires and didn't want to fight for it. However with their extra horsepower, it becomes a real fight as the come around me a few laps later. Cody Smith is in the Mad Greek and he gets by me, and I get a real treat watching him wring out every bit of performance out of a 260Z.
The car feels more stable and balanced with the shock change, so thanks for that tip Randy! There are a ton of fast cars out, and the Ridge is a horsepower track. After Mad Greek gets by me, I'm also passed by #931 Uboot Rennenwerks Porsche with the turbo Audi engine and the familiar #13 Race Invader's Miata. Both the Porsche and Finally Racing have quite a bit more straightlight speed, so I have to try to use traffic to my advantage and be more efficient in passing. We battle it out for a good portion of my stint, me catching up and then losing distance on the straights again. All the while 5th gear is still quite crunchy, but hasn't really gotten any worse since yesterday. We know we will need to swap out the trans at some point, but at this point it is just a slight distraction. At the end of my stint I pit right behind #177 in 3rd place, having ran a 1:57.3.. nearly three seconds faster than the previous day and just 0.2 seconds slower than Randy's time! Now sure, it's after trying to get all of Randy's secrets, tweaking the shocks and with a full stint, but I'm super happy with that!
Dave gets in the car next, with us now in 4th place after the pit stop. Partway through his stint he radios back to the pits: "I can't get into 6th gear." Hmm... worrying, but .. we don't have to have 6th gear, it's not a deal breaker. On the straight you can shift into 6th, but you also won't quite hit redline if you stay in 5th. I radio back for him to just quit trying to use 6th and we should be fine.
He radios back that he also had an issue getting it into 4th gear. Uh oh, something is deteriorating fast. Occasionally when going for a shift, it just won't find a gear. Eventually he can't find 3rd or 4th and can only get it into 5th gear. That's not the worst thing.. until he gets stopped during a caution, and has to try start in 5th gear! Even with all the transmission issues, Dave finishes out his stint in 1st place after having run a 1:59.8, faster than my fastest first day lap!
I get in the car and see if I can get it going. I put it in 1st, and it works. I get rolling, try 2nd, 3rd, 4th.. everything seems perfectly fine. Well that's weird, I guess I'll just go racing! A few laps later, I do find that 4th is tricky to find, and eventually decide that shifting is too big of a gamble and I need to pick a gear and just leave it. Since I can run the straight in 5th, I decide that 5th is the gear to leave it in. A couple laps later, the power steering starts acting up and pulling to one side. Well, crap. I guess the good thing is with the flip of a switch, I can just disable power steering and move on. The downside.. manual steering. Now I know plenty of people race with manual steering and will think I'm a wimp for complaining. But with a car that is designed for power steering, going into turn two at 1.4G, it takes some serious force to keep the steering wheel turned!
I'm finding some entertainment in trying to keep momentum up and making use of just 5th gear. The first section of the track is not bad, all faster sweepers, but towards the end of the track there are some really slow corners where exiting in 5th gear is just wait, and wait, and wait... The straight stretch is particularly bad, where I'm being passed by stock Civics at the beginning of the straight, but then still hitting a decent top speed and flying by people into turn one. I get told on the radio that Randy Pobst is in the #820 Snap Oversteer V6 MR2. He passes me, and I desperately want to battle with him! I manage to stay with him up until the slow corners, but once I get stuck at low rpm, he disappears. I get into new unexpected battles, with cars that are a class lower. However, my slower lap times are not helping our cause. We are still in 1st place, but Randy is now just one lap down to us in the MR2 and is hard charging around the track. Without the ability to pull fast laps, I'm a bit of a sitting duck. I keep trying to find ways to maintain momentum and keep the revs up slightly, but the best I can pull off is a 2:01.47. Randy's fastest lap in the MR2 is a 1:53.8! I go as long as I am allowed, trying to give my dad a bit of a short stint to deal with the manual steering. I'm exhausted by the time I get out of the car, but we are still in 1st place.
My dad gets in the car, and Randy passes him for the lead. We hang onto 2nd place, and by the time my dad pulls into the pits the car is now stuck in 5th and he can't even get it into neutral. Time for a new transmission! I had a blast racing with my idol, and now I have some changes I can try making on the car to try get some brake balance.
Lots of videos from this event:
Randy Pobst fastest lap compared to my fastest lap:
My fastest lap with all gears versus just 5th:
Race overview: