Tech and BS Inspection

 Off to tech and BS Inspection.  Life is good.

Earlier too tech, and all is well.  Jay and John are looking looking over the cars and are happy with the car safety items.

Trouble. BS, judge does not like the Turbo on the Miata. -15 Laps. Because we are a team both cars are listed as A with -15 laps.

Then there was a second trouble. The Timing Control Inspector was really unhappy about the Z number 137. To confess, I did change the number in the database. I had little hope of the Z to make the tack, so I changed the registration to the D. Thus they had the car number as 227 and thus failed the car.

My bad. I forgot about that. After some brake cleaner on the number, hand developed stencil, some black spray paint, and we were able to change the badging. So this weekend we will run as 227.

All is well.  Off to practice.

Landing at the Track

Good Morning all!

We left for the track close the 9:30 projected times.  With clear traffic we arrived at the track with plenty of time to setup.

For this race they have everyone more spread out then normal.  So we found a nice spot at the end of the line and grand stands.

Two cars ready to go!

Sears Pointless 2021

Onto the next race. This coming weekend April 3-4, the 24-Hour Lemons - Sears Pointless Race is occurring at Sonoma Raceway. Work for this race has been ongoing since the last February race. Several work sessions have occurred to figure out the Z electrical troubles. Sparky has spent several days coming through the wires to figure out the trouble.

For the first weekend wires in the Z were traced, and sensor checked. Three wires were found exposed and had low power to at least one. So, like all good Sparky's, the volt present seem weird (stead 5 volts), so testing the line seem like a good idea. Yea, after that all ECU combination stopped. Whoops. It i now believed these wires ran the controls to the AC unit (no longer on the car), were covered by tape, and bundled away. After the many races the tape appears to been removed, and likely did a small short, doing enough damage to prevent the ECU allowing a starting, but still communicating.

Ok,

So, the search for the next ECU started. After a thorough search, it was determined the current VQ35 motor in the car is a 2006. So, like a good solider, I search and could find a new 2006 Manual Transmission (MT) ECU. Great, Sparky then arrived two weeks ago, and after another day of work, we got no further in starting the car. Harrumph!

After some head scratching, Sparky decided to take all the ECU back to his house, build a test bed and see if he could determine the trouble with the ECU and why it will not let the car start. 

On a parallel track, we did determine in the process of getting the car to run the first time we had used a 2003 MT ECU. So, I search E-Bay can could fine 1 2004 MT that is similar spec to that first generation ECU platform.  That ECU was schedule to arrived Monday the week of the race. Being so close to the Race, we turned to the D to get ready. Torch and I then jump on the D last weekend it is now for another run. So here we go.

On Wednesday, morning I finally received the new ECU. Well what could go wrong? I plug it into the Z and:

Ok, after a quick talk with Sparky, a change of plans. This evening we had the team over to prep and pack for the race. Sparky was kind enough to come over, clean up and rebundle the wires, terminate the loose ends, and away we go. After finishing the repair, we loaded the Z, and we are posed to hit the track tomorrow.

Here We Go!!!

Revenge of the Underdogs - Day 2

Day two started off really well for me. My normal trip to the gas station to fill fuel cans (for the Z car ~60 gallons ) was not needed. So, we head straight to the track. When we got to the paddock little was needed, and we quickly rolled into my track favor breakfast, the Egg Croissant sandwich. Yeah baby!!!

After the quick drivers' meeting I suited and hit the rack again. Again like the previous day the 10 duked it out going into turn one. This time 54 cars and 6 of my Super Dog racing pals went storming into the morning. Again all went well. I found a little more time. This extra speed had me passing a little bit more often than the day before, and I finished my stint with no troubles. Z-mom and Z-dad again jumped in, and we had no troubles getting Lugnut back on the track within the 10 minute allot time.

Lugnut, put in a good stint, with no major troubles. He can in and again with the team jumping in, I was on track within the 10 minutes, accumulating more laps. By this time the car had changes some, the tires were most definitely not at their best. They were still round, but the shoulders had noticeable been removed, so there was little to lean on when we pitch it into the corner. However, we still ran at 2:08-2:06 pace.

I finished my stint, got to the paddock, the team jumped on the car, and we turned the car around within the 10 minutes. Just as the Lugnut left the pit he let me know that we were in 1st place, and we had 30 laps on the next place car. Wow! Ok, Lugnut stint must have been tuff. The tires were done, but drive he did. So, when the checked flag flew at the end of the day, the D was right there.

So, for Day 2 of the Revenge of the Underdogs, I give you the 1st Place in the Super Dog class!

The little D that did.  (Note; by the end of the race only 4 Supper Dog cars were running.)  No matter we got two checkers with not major trouble and in the end there was a lot of smiles on everyone faces.

Success!

Revenge of the Underdogs - Day 1

 Lugnut and I had an easy morning.  The car was placed in Torch and Queen's garage stall, so the rain that morning was not a problem for us.  We enjoyed our Breakfast Burritos, attend the Drivers meeting, and hit the track on time.  

The 10 cars from qualifying was gridded and then the rest staged behind. For Lucky dog they have a rolling start side by side, so charging up into turn 1 can be dicey. We were a bit too far back to make it any additional challenge into turn one, so our start with 87 other cars went well.

This continued for the rest of the stint. Only occasionally was I able to coax the D around other cars. The pit stop went smoothly with the help of Z-mom and Z-dad. The team was able to turn the car around in the allotted 10 minutes, and away we went.

This theme repeated itself all afternoon. The Car keep running, we keep coaxing, and laps were accumulated. In the end of the Day, we landed 2nd in Super Dog. Not that anyone counts this class. We finished the day with a quick checks, oil change, and rubbing marks covering. Within 30 minutes the Stack and Lobbers it the grill and again ended the day with smiles.

Practice and Qualifying

Following the successful enough tech inspection we quickly turn the car around and got it on track. As expected the D performed D like and scooted around the track. It was quite clear that the other cars were not $500 car, but just cars that were 15 years or older.

The time we put down in the D was good enough for the first qualifying. Lugnut took the 15 minutes and put a time of 2:05. If we had all the correct equipment, that would have put us in the lower reaches of the B class. However, since we were not running the series spec tires we were placed in the Super Dog class. For that class we were the slowed of the ruffle 10 cars in that class.

No worries. He had a car that ran. We had little work to prep the car for the next day. So, there were smiles as we enjoyed our Bratwurst and beer.