We hadn't raced in a year, and showed up to tech on Friday. Even though we are bringing a little more firepower, we start thinking that maybe we brought a knife to a gunfight. In addition to the usual suspects, there are some very rowdy sounding cars. There is a Corvette with the 1994 ZR1 OHV engine and various other cammed V8s that make us real nervous.
While waiting in line for tech, I am by myself while Nathan and Dave are doing the gear check. I need to move the car forward, and now the car which had started faithfully since the first try was not wanting to start. The car would crank, but just wouldn't fire.
By now a few people from other teams start taunting: "What a pile! Failed in the tech line, one less car to beat tomorrow! Hahaha!" I don't say anything.. but they are really ticking me off. It's bad enough to put that many hours into the car and have it start failing. I'm thinking, "Oh you just wait for tomorrow." I finally get the car to fire and make it through tech. I try to look into why the car hadn't started and find a failed code for the anti-theft system. I clear the code but I'm not able to find any smoking guns as to why it had happened. The wiring all seems OK as well as the key is ziptied directly touching the antenna. Well, hopefully it holds up.. it's been working fine.
First Race with the V6 (7/22/17) - 7 hours - Portland International Raceway:
During qualifying our first gremlin pops up. The tach starts dropping out. The car is running fine, but it's difficult to tell when to shift since the torque doesn't drop off with no tach or speedometer.
Nathan Feigion starts the race, having to learn new shift points with completely new gearing. It's a massive field, and we start 20th place out of 78 cars! The sun is shining and it's dry but not too hot out. I start to feel a whole lot better with the previous day's taunting as Nathan is moving up through the field. That Corvette I was worried about.. is just not nearly as fast as I think it should be. By the time Nathan pits, he has made it all the way to 2nd place! We are behind Dimsum Racing, a 240Z with a Honda J30 engine. Nathan ran a lap time of 1:31.3, faster than what I ran on the practice day.
I get in the car, and it doesn't want to start. Crap! Quick.. need to do something smart here. I theorize there may be too much voltage draw since the car doesn't want to start and the tach doesn't want to work. I ask my dad to unplug a few accessories on the right side of the car. It works! The car fires up and I have a tach again! We lost about a minute, so not too terrible. We can make it up. And once I make it out on track.. the tach drops out again. I have a rare off with the car where I try to catch a slide and fail. I'm used to power steering in my drift car where I can flick the wheel, and I am too slow with my countersteer and go off track. Luckily with dry grass it is no harm done and I make it right back on track. On lap 71 a full course yellow comes out. Now normally if they bring out the pace truck it picks up the 1st place car. Occasionally that doesn't happen, and that was the case here. The pace truck just missed the leader, so they pick us up. Well that is unfortunate.. that means the leader basically got a free lap around behind us now. Eventually I make it around and I'm behind Dimsum racing. It's kind of funny, both Nissan/Datsun cars, with 3.0 liter fwd V6s moved to rear drive.
I finally get by him, and now we are in 1st place! I run a fastest lap of 1:33.0, which is well off of Nathan Feigion's pace. What is my excuse this time? Let's see.. I'll go with tires. It can't simply be that he's a better driver! Nathan must have used the last of the RS3s very long life, as we've put around 18 hours of racing on these tires at this point!
After our pit stop Dimsum is now back into 1st place, and Dave is in the car. It is busy out there with 78 cars on the track! Dimsum pits on lap 163 and Dave pits on lap 175 so Dave is in first when he pits, but Dimsum gets us back.
Nathan jumps in for his second stint in the car, and is in 2nd place chasing Dimsum. As the race is winding down, we still have not made it past Dimsum. We think we are going to have to settle for 2nd place, when Dimsum has to pull in the pits for a mechanical issue! This puts us in first and we have now won three Portland races in a row! Nathan ran a fastest lap of 1:32.9 in the last session, so these tires are just done. Tomorrow we will try the Hankook RS4 for the first time!
Video Overview: