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Chumpcar Double 8h race at Autoclub Speedway
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KDJones2000  



Joined: 14 Sep 2010
Posts: 322
Location: Phoenix, AZ

PostPosted: Sat Nov 09, 2013 4:36 am    Post subject: Chumpcar Double 8h race at Autoclub Speedway Reply with quote

Team Toofah Racing towed out to Fontana, CA for the CCWS Double 8 hour race weekend at Autoclub Speedway. Forty cars took the green flag for the Saturday race, with a similar number on Sunday. The team for this race consisted of 2 veterans (Bob, Keith), one novice (Andy) and one driver who has done HPDE’s before, but never had participated in a race (Dave). Dave is Grenadiers from this very forum, who joined us as our 4th driver

Saturday’s Race:

Driver order was set as follows: Andy was the first driver in the car, in order to help make up for his lack of seat time the previous time he joined the team. Following Andy was Dave Jacobs, our newest team member, then Bob and Keith planned to take the final stint.

Andy ended up starting in 12th place. Andy was quickly consumed by the faster cars in the pack and our position dropped to 31st place. Andy held it steady there while all sorts of spinouts, contact and other shenanigans went on around him. Consistency paid off and Andy had worked the car up to P18 by the time he began to feel ill from the tight-fitting helmet he was wearing – about 1 hour into his stint. He pulled in unexpectedly, catching the rest of the team unprepared.

The longer than necessary pit stop dropped us down to P32, after Dave took over the helm. The Guppy continued to excel at holding tight lines on the twisty portions of the track, while getting overrun on the main straight. Dave started working his way up the standings, eventually finish his stint at P26 before the battery in the car finally died. During the pit stop to change the battery the starter decided to die, resulting in the remaining pit stops requiring push-starting the car. Fortunately the car consistently started on the first push, so no significant time was lost.

Dave finished out his stint with no further drama, ending up in P25. Bob then jumped in the car and headed off into the fray, only dropping 1 position by the time he made it out on the track. Halfway through Bob’s stint the battery again failed, so it was into the pits for a swap. We only lost 1 position this time, and Bob was able to work us up to P22 before his time was up.

Keith took the next stint, starting out with a more fuel and a hankering to kick some butt. He started out at P24, and with the significant spread of cars in the field he was only able to P22 before that battery died. A quick battery change (we were getting REALLY good at battery changes by this time) put us back down to P23, but he was able to work back up to P22 until that battery died. The charger in the hot pits had overheated meanwhile, so there was no battery to put into the car. That meant a slow push of the car to the cold pits, and a search for another battery that we could borrow to finish the race. Turdmeister Racing lent theirs to us, since they were fighting a differential bolt issue. We ended up trading an M19 bolt to hold their differential for their battery.

Andy was sent out to take the final stint and hopefully, the checkered flag. Ten laps later that battery died while he was out on the track, requiring our one (and only) tow into the pits. One of the charging batteries was put into the Guppy in order to run the final 30 minutes of the race, but hopes of taking the checkered flag were dashed when the high pressure fuel line coming from the fuel pump split in the cold pits, which ended our day.

Team Toofah’s final position for the Saturday race was P27, just ahead of Turdmeister and behind Nocturnal Emissions.

The evening was spent finding a new alternator (O-Reilly’s actually had one that they got in stock by 4:30 on Saturday!), fixing fuel lines, fixing the starter, checking tires and troubleshooting our electrical issue.
The new alternator was installed in the evening, and the poor voltage issue was still present. So apparently it wasn’t the alternator after all!

Poring over the electrical diagrams led the trail to a general purpose, 30A relay that is used in the charging circuit to shunt the alternator energy to a drop resistor when the kill switches are engaged. Examination of the relay showed nothing abnormal, with the relay energizing and moving accordingly. When the relay was replaced with an equivalent from the headlight motor however, tests came in positive – a solid 13.6V at the battery, even with the fans and headlights on. We had solved our electrical issue!

Sunday’s race

Sunday started out much better than Saturday – we had a working starter again, and a fully charged Optima battery with a working charging system! Driving order for the day was decided: Keith to take the green flag, then Bob, Andy and Dave to take the checkered. 37 cars lined up in Pit Lane to start things off, with the remnants of morning fog still hanging around the track.

Telemetry was being collected using the Wiflapper setup, but things started out rocky, as the Droid phone would not connect with the IOIO board, and the phone used on Saturday still was full with that race’s data. The second backup phone, an LG C800, was used instead, and put in during the final preparations in Pit Lane. This phone ended up working very well with the entire setup, posting lap data back to the Pitside computer on almost every lap. However it stopped connecting to the network after the first pitstop/driver’s change, so only Keith’s stint had telemetry data of any sort.

Keith took the green flag holding P16, but faster cars eventually passed him and he moved down to P21. Issues with other cars and field sorting eventually allowed him to move up to P19 after 20 laps, but then the exhaust system broke. A very loud Guppy then slowly circulated the track to Pit In, then to the hot pits where it was determined that the exhaust broke just before the catalytic converter. Off to the hot pits and 30 minutes of work to use bailing wire to hold everything together again. Unbelievably, this fix worked for the remaining 7 hours of racing, and gave the Guppy a more ferocious sound!

Keith got back in the car and finished out his stint, starting out now in P34. He moved up to position P27 before handing off the car to Bob. Bob started out at P30, but by now the field had spread out and positions were harder to come by. He was able to fight his way back to P27 by the end of his stint, which ended early due to contact with a yellow Miata. Circumstances indicate that the Miata was fighting for position with another Miata when they both came up to Bob. One car went to the outside of a left-handed turn, while the other tried the inside line. There was nowhere to go and the inside car ended up hitting fairly hard into the driver’s side of the Guppy. Bob came into the pits for inspection, and it was determined that the door was stuck, the control arm possibly bent and the front end alignment thrown off.

Time for a trip back to the cold pits where the control arm was replaced and a quick and dirty alignment completed, which took about 30 minutes. The car was then handed off to Andy for him to run his stint. By this time we were in last place of the cars still running, P31. Andy manned up for his stint, taking several seconds off of his lap times from Saturday. Aside from poor communications between the pit and the driver everything went smoothly, and he handed the car off to Dave after moving up to P27.
Dave had the final stint for Sunday’s race, and with 10 gallons of fuel added he started off in P28, with slightly less than 2 hours to go. Dave continued to push, running a solid stint where he was able to move back up to P27. The last 2 laps were interesting, as he was closing rapidly on Calzone Racing’s Opel car, being only 1 lap down to it at the checkered flag. If the race had gone on for 10 minutes more then we would have been able to make P26.
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Grenadiers  



Joined: 20 Feb 2007
Posts: 3222
Location: Nelson, WI & Prescott, AZ

PostPosted: Sat Nov 09, 2013 8:28 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Great write-up Keith! Here are some shots I took of the speedway, the Guppy, all the stuff you need, and our spot in the hot pits. Lots of fun, took a couple of days to recover, but, can't wait to get back onto the track!




[URL=http://s253.photobucket.com/user/rangerpearl/media
/2013chumpcar101425710004.jpg.html][/URL]

video probably won't work.
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emoore924  



Joined: 13 Apr 2004
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PostPosted: Sat Nov 16, 2013 12:01 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Video worked, very nice. But it seemed to jump forward every couple of seconds. Kinda weird.
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Harm  



Joined: 02 Apr 2009
Posts: 1373
Location: Holland

PostPosted: Sun Nov 17, 2013 4:47 am    Post subject: Re: Chumpcar Double 8h race at Autoclub Speedway Reply with quote

^No problems watching the video.

Enjoyed the Toofah adventure, thanks for sharing.
Can't believe Dave was sober…

Cheers, Harm
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Paul  



Joined: 02 Nov 2002
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PostPosted: Sun Nov 17, 2013 5:14 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Looks like a lot of fun, might have to build a chump car this winter.....what cars do well at these races?
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Grenadiers  



Joined: 20 Feb 2007
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Location: Nelson, WI & Prescott, AZ

PostPosted: Sun Nov 17, 2013 6:59 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

The car is the easier part, finding 3 other drivers is the hard part. The Guppy did ok, but could have used a 5 lug upgrade for better brakes.
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brian19600  



Joined: 28 Oct 2013
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Location: NJ/CT

PostPosted: Tue Nov 26, 2013 9:33 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

That dash looks alot like mine.
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Rasta Monsta  



Joined: 12 Jul 2006
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PostPosted: Tue Nov 26, 2013 5:04 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Paul, Dave. . .let's build a 2.5 for Road America.
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Grenadiers  



Joined: 20 Feb 2007
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Location: Nelson, WI & Prescott, AZ

PostPosted: Wed Nov 27, 2013 12:06 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Easy enough, have that fugly '88 924S sitting in WI. I'm pulling the engine some time this spring for a trip to Paul's house for an FOES/bearings/beer. I already have a new clutch for it. And, with the short 5th, and a long track, car should do well! I'd pony up the car, and others can pony up the safety equipment! I have, ahem, 500 bucks into the car...

PS I also have a 28mm welty sway bar, delrin bushings on spare front control arms, paint them black, they'll never know! Hiding a few things in the rear end would be easy too.
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Paul  



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PostPosted: Wed Nov 27, 2013 1:06 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

This year the RA events were in April and Oct (think cold). Anyone know what the 2014 schedule is?
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Silver 98 986 3.6l 320 HP "Frank N Stein"
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MikesCoupeGT  



Joined: 18 Oct 2006
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Location: Ontario Canada

PostPosted: Wed Nov 27, 2013 1:25 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Here is the link to the chumpcar schedule for 2014.

http://chumpcar.com/downloads/2014ChumpCarSchedule.pdf

Cheers;
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Rasta Monsta  



Joined: 12 Jul 2006
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PostPosted: Wed Nov 27, 2013 1:27 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

We also need a late fuel tank, with mounting brackets, straps, and a late crossmember. Two hour burn is CRITICAL.
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Grenadiers  



Joined: 20 Feb 2007
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PostPosted: Wed Nov 27, 2013 2:30 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Road America June 22-23
Brainerd (northern Minnesota) August 2-3
Michigan August 23-24
Road America October 18-19
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Ian89C4  



Joined: 01 Apr 2011
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Location: North Carolina

PostPosted: Wed Nov 27, 2013 11:01 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I am going to blame all of this on Keith....

Me and few buddies are attempting a 10 hour race at VIR in March...

Not a P Car, but here is the mighty steed...


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Fifty50Plus  



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PostPosted: Thu Nov 28, 2013 10:12 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

CHOKE
Ian...Ian...Ian...
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