Next Race... Revenge of the Underdogs, February 12-14

Well the December race was a bit of a bust. 24-hour Hours Lemons was forced to cancel the race for the Holiday Covid closures. 

However, two months later, and we are at it again. It still looks like a go for the race hoisted by Lucky Dog Endurance Racing at Sonoma. To get ready we only really need to dusted off the Z, refreshed the safety equipment, and apply a coat of paint (I suck at painting so Picasso you will have a bit of work to recover from my mess).  And with that, I think we are ready.

For this race, there are still a lot of Covid restrictions, so this will be a light affair for the team. Only Lugnut and myself will be piloting the Z. On Friday we will have an extended practice in two sessions, followed by a qualifying session. First qualifying, of the lower half paced cars will be from 3:00-3:45. Second qualifying, will be from 4:00-4:45. The Z should be quick enough to be in the top half, but one never knows until we hit the track.

Then for the race the schedule will be:

Saturday 9:00-5:00

Sunday   9:00-4:00

Now, we will try to run the video for most of this. Sparky will not be there, so it is up to me to see if I can make it work (no guarantees I can get it to run or keep it running). We did perform an upgrade that might help. Sparky added an axillary battery to the system that will keep parts running and connect while we are pitted and refueling. This will mean we only need to launch the system in the morning, and it should run all day. I am meeting with Sparky tomorrow to review how to operate it. I will post the url address in a later post, so you can gain access to the video.

We also have two other upgrades in the rear differential that will get their shake down cruise. 

The first part is the rear differential has been replaced as a result of the catastrophic failure at Laguna Seca last January 2020. This new differential is thought to give a little better speed out of the corners. Two place it should show up, is turn 2 exit and 7B through turn 8A. Out of turn 2, it should give a better feel when you get on top of the hill and the road goes off camber all the way through the exit. For turn 7B the old setup required a lot of finesse on the exit and all the way through 3rd gear. The new setup should get you through with more pedal and thus more speed. In addition to the differential core change, the ring and pinion was exchanged for a Q45 setup. 

This give us a little high gear ratio and should allow us to use more of the gears (i.e 2nd might be an option and look at those nice teeth.  The last ring in there had those as optional). 

So, 5 days to go.