Monday, December 5, 2011

Sunday, December 4, 2011

2 checkers

Both cars got to the checker today. The D ended up in 29th and Claus turned a 2:18.8 2 laps from the end. He definitely likes the car.

The Z ended up in 77th place. Fast lap was a 2:14 so the D even with its 1.6 liter motor is quick.

Adding a little addendum, the Z picked up a crunched fender on the last corner. Guess the sheet metal guys have work to do.

15 minutes to go

After Rod, I took a turn in the D and now Claus is out there shooting for the checker.

While I was out in the D, Tony took out the Z, and since then we put we've Doug in there till the end.

Last couple of hours have been totally uneventful. The judges threw out my penalty after we appealed with the track mate data, so I got my cookie but we did lose our hour just the same.

In the pits we are packing up while we drive to the finish. The two cars are in 77th and 32nd place.

1:30 update

We did a driver change in the D and served our time in the Z.

Rod is running circles in the D and things are continuing to be smooth. We are in 32nd place and merrily putting in nice laps.

Claus has been running fast in the Z. You can here the brake squeal so you know it is coming, but it also looks great out on the track.

Penalty box

The D has been flawlessly turning circles from the start of the day. Brandon took the car out first and then we put Kirsten in at the first driver change. We have moved up from 42nd last night to 37th at last check.

I started the day in the Z. We got off to a rough start as the alternator wasn't charging again. We swapped the alternator and then got onto the track.

From there I had a great run and was all set to get my cookie since that is the no-black-flag award. We fueled up, topped off the radiator and sent Claus out on the track.

A couple of laps later and he was in the penalty box. The infraction was speeding in the pits. 20 mph and the limit is 10. But since it was at pit exit, it was my speeding ticket on the way out, not Claus. One hour in the box :-(

So here I sit... No cookie for me.

Sunday morning

The race is living up to its billing as the Arse-freeze as it got down to 27 last night and is still below freezing as the crew is showing up to get things rolling.

The D ended up in 42nd place yesterday and I'm not sure where the Z is but it is down a lot lower given the time out in the afternoon.

Breakfast is cooking and the mood is good.

Saturday, December 3, 2011

Yummm

Work is done on the cars and we are having dinner. It is my favorite, lamb chops. A Super supper, thank you Cindy.

Checker flag- day 1

The day is done and we took one checker flag. Muddy ran to the checker without any incidents! On top of that, he turned a faster lap in the D as attrition took out a lot of the traffic than he did in the Z first thing this morning. The drivers are really liking the car we you can carry momentum.

We don't have a lot of work tonight. Megan dressed up the wheels to make the car easier to see on the track and we are looking for a water leak on the D.

The throttle cable seems to have fixed our starting and running rich issues that the Z was having so I think we'll give the car a once over and be ready to go in the morning.

The brakes on the Z are much better than what we ran at sears, the squeal something awful and are too biased to the front but everyone is much happier with the new brakes.

Driver change

Doug is out in the D after a tough driver change since we had to adjust the seatbelts. He was sent out with a strong demand to keep it smooth and get no black flags. Cross your fingers.  The car is running great and the drivers in the D have been also just keeping it running so we have a nice position with it.

The Z is out for the day

Tony had a nice run and with the new throttle cable the car is much better. So much better that Claus cooked a turn and spun. That is our third flag for the day and we have a 3 hour penalty. Since we are about an hour and half from the end, the Z is done for the day.


The D is running smooth and Rod is coming for a driver change.

Lost the throttle cable

Muddy got a black flagged with after an off with a stuck throttle after about an hour. At that point we did some spray lube and I went out.

I ran for an hour and then the throttle stuck for me as well. I parked it by a flag stand and then restarted it. It would run full throttle so I got the car running and just turned it on and off to nurse back to the pits.

A bit of work later and they have cut out the frayed throttle cable and are trying to figure out how to put it back together.

After getting clearance from race HQ, Tony is on the track.

The D has been pretty smooth except for Kirsten spinning once.

Race on

After a protracted yellow while they sorted out the cars that couldn't make it one lap, we are now under green.

Doug is out in the Z and Brandon is out in the D.

More as things progress.

Good morning buttonwillow

I missed practice day yesterday as I couldn't get out of work for the day. The rest of the team was here setting up and getting practice runs in.

The D (now in British Racing Green since the judges didn't like the red and yellow) ran flawlessly and everyone got in a series of laps in.

The Z was not operative with and electrical problem. The alternator wasn't charging so we were running off the battery. They still put it on the track to test out the new brakes.

After swapping out the alternator, it still wasn't charging !?@#

After a bit of debugging, turns out since I didn't wire up the sense line to the charge light, the alternator wasn't firing up properly, or recently at all. I added a new wire to replace the charge light and what do you know, everything works just fine.

Back when I was an electrical engineer, the mantra was never leave a wire disconnected and I forgot that when building a new harness for the Z. Hopefully this is the last of the electrical issues.

The brakes work really well, but we have way more front brake than rear brake. We'll have to see if we can adjust the bias today and how it works in practice.

Good news is we are having a great sausage breakfast and waiting in the cold for the drivers meeting.

More once we get going.