Trying Some New Tires (7/23/17) - 8 hours - Portland International Raceway:
Today we finally retired our well-worn Hankook RS3s and put on some nice new Hankook RS4s. It is an even hour race, which means pit stops every two hours for all that are able to make it that long. It means there is less margin for error and less ability to strategically pit where there is a yellow, the window is very small. With some attrition from the first day, we were down to 69 cars for this race, which is still a large field. Our tach is still not working, and I am first out in the car. At the beginning of the race we realize that the camera is not charging.. and I forgot to charge the GoPro last night. Ok, no morning footage.
The sun is out and the weather is perfect, and I start from 12th place. The tires feel better than the RS3s, there is definitely a stiffer sidewall. I'm not sure the rubber compound is much different though, as my fastest lap was 1:32.2 as I get us up to 3rd place.
My dad is in the car next, he runs a 1:35.0 and slips back to 5th place. The teams ahead of us at this point are Son of Andre (light V8 Mustang), Race Invaders (Ecotec-swapped Miata), Scrap Attack (Honda Civic), and Dimsum Racing (V6 240Z).
I get in the car at the next pit stop, and the car does not want to start. I then shut off all the accessories (including dataloggers), thinking that will help. The car still won't start, and I try turning on the DL1, and the car immediately fires. Is that a clue to what is going on? Or is this random?
I get out on course and I'm chasing Dimsum Racing. I keep getting hung up in traffic as the very expertly piloted 240Z keeps disappearing. A little while later I am in turn 6, trying to eek every last bit of traction out of the car.. and the Race Invaders Miata just drives around me on the outside. They have a wing, and suddenly I'm jealous. I can definitely see the advantage they have cornering, I may have to look into aero a little more seriously! Due to our issues in the pits, we are a lap down on the leader Dimsum Racing. On a yellow flag restart they are just one car ahead of me. The green flag drops and they are off like a rabbit! I chase them down in the corners however with a few years of technology in the suspension between the 70's 240Z and 90's 240SX. After a lap I make it around them, and now I need to put another whole lap on them to get the lead. I don't have a chance to make up the whole lap before I need to come in.
Nathan Feigion gets in the car next, and thankfully it actually starts in the pits. Dimsum has their fastest driver in their car, and.. as much as I hate to say it, so do we! Nathan is pushing the car hard, and he is getting close to Dimsum. There are very few yellows, and Nathan is putting in a lot of quick laps. With 15 minutes to go, Nathan starts running out of fuel. When trying to rev match for the chicane, enough fuel is leaving the pickup that the car is stumbling and not reving up quickly enough. The factory S13 240SX tank is fantastic for a factory tank, but it is just *barely* big enough for our 200 horsepower. Amazingly this engine doesn't really use any more fuel than the 4-cylinder that it replaced. Technology is great! Dimsum gets called in for a black flag which gives us 1st place, and we get *very* lucky that there is an incident and the last two laps are completed under caution. Multiple cars were running out of fuel, and amazingly we limped all the way to the finish line and won the race!
Now we have a lot of work to do before our next race. While we managed to win both days with manual steering, I ended up with a blister on my palm from 6 hours of racing in the heat and manual steering. So power steering is up next on the mod list. Figuring out what is going on with the electrical system is also very high on the priority list now!
Video overview!