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[924RACR]

Just getting clear of the 5th race of the Waterford Hills season - one more weekend left in the season. Here's a quick run-down on how things went.

To recap where we were finishing last race weekend, we left in disarray with a broken windshield and a misfire that suddenly cropped up with two laps to go in the first race - taking us out of second place. Furthermore, we still had not recovered to our best pace after putting the car into the wall Race 2 weekend. Finally, with such a dismal showing and scoring only 3 points that weekend, we'd finally lost our grip on first place in the ITB Championship and fallen to 3rd.

We got the windshield replaced the week after the race, and the misfire was cured after wiggling the distributor pickup connection. To fix the speed issue, we replaced the left rear trailing arm. We'd not been able to correctly align the car after the wall hit; while the front was OK after replacing the a-arm, the rear retained a bit of toe-out we were never able to eliminate, and we decided to try replacing that arm. Apparently it was bent, though not visibly; after replacing it, we were able to get back the normal 1/8" toe-in desired. Camber setting was never an issue, but evidently the tire wall had exerted some unexpected force on that arm and put us out of spec.

The weekend weather was iffy throughout, with occasional mist and full, gloomy cloud cover. Yet despite a few race groups getting hit with wet conditions, we were clear and never raced in anything but pretty dry conditions.

We were also once again racing to benefit the Lung Cancer Alliance, in memory of Jim Hawkins - www.racing4jim.com - and did very well this time, scoring two solid second places and 18 points!

Qualifying Saturday morning showed that the car was straight again; in addition to qualifying well, back up to 2nd in ITB as per our norm, our lap times were coming back down within a second of where we should be, and the car felt very stable and happy. In fact, we had a bit of a push (understeer); we juggled tire pressures in setting up for the Saturday afternoon race to try and reduce the understeer.

The biggest concern for the Sat race was the start; getting a clean start without any incidents, then settling down into our pace chasing the lead Bimmer and pulling clear of the Mustangs. We'd had some rather messy starts previously, and were in prime territory to suffer this time around. Thankfully the start, a very fast one (3rd gear!) met our needs and we were able to slot right in behind the Bimmer, the #8 Capri right behind us and slowly falling behind a few tenths each lap. After an exciting moment coming onto the front straight, the Capri dropped further back and lost his momentum. We finished 2nd in ITB, only 2.4 seconds behind the BMW at the end. After so much disappointment the previous two weekends, a much more rewarding and enjoyable result!

Sunday brought renewed determination to chase down the BMW; as we'd still had a bit of understeer slowing us down during the Saturday race. As it was mainly a lack of turn-in response, and we were running 0 toe-in up front, we decided to add a little toe-out - 1/8" total. This gives a little more turn-in response (oversteer) without affecting mid-corner or corner exit performance. The car still gripped well at the apex, and will track out with a little oversteer if the throttle is spanked hard.

This provided the desired result, allowing incrementally better turn-in for the race. As with the Saturday race, we benefitted from a clean start, hanging on to the BMW and slowly pulling away from the Capri. The second half of the race really began to fall to our favour, as we slowly but steadily reeled the BMW back in, reducing the gap from over 1 second mid-race down to .35 seconds with a few laps to go. Then we got into trouble again, trying to hard, and slid wide mid-way through the last corner (leading onto the front straight - a 2-apex turn) and dropping the outside rear wheel into the dirt. We saved it from a spin or otherwise losing control, but lost ground and ended up finishing 1.4s behind the BMW. Still, a good result, no problems with the car, held second place solid without challenge, and turned faster laps than the BMW for the entire second half of the race, excluding the loss of control.

Final Sunday (Feature) race - we had ITB pole!!! In the first Sunday race, we turned a faster lap than the BMW - by 6/1000th of a second! Grid for the Feature is decided by fastest race lap, putting us in front. The start was excellent, we were right on the ball and timed it perfectly; the BMW and Capri, behind us, were trapped behind a GT Mini that got off to a weak start. This gave us the opportunity to pull well ahead of the pack, to creat a comfortable lead that should've been very difficult to reduce for the BMW - especially given his late-race performance in the first Sunday race.

But the pace wasn't with us; without pressure or reference points, we were unable to hold the pace we'd shown earlier, failing to capitalize on the gift of a clean start. The Mini caught us 4 laps in as his tires heated up, and moved back in front of us (where he'd started), and the BMW moved inside for a pass shortly after. We held him off side-by-side for 3 corners, but it was inevitable, and we lost the spot. Indeed, due to all that side-by-side action, we very nearly lost 2nd as well, before closing the door on a charging Capri. Once back in single-file, we picked the pace back up and tried to tag along with the BMW. However the driver must've been burned out after the first race, and just couldn't hold the pace. Final gap at the checkered flag was 1.7 seconds, nearly 4 seconds in front of the Capri in 3rd place.

So a good weekend, a fair bit of good video (will post later) and pics, and nothing we need to do to the car except maintenance and some tweaking of the alignment. We're going to bump the camber back up to 3 degrees up front, maybe the same in the rear, and see if we can get this thing to stick with the rear bar on full stiff.
_________________
Vaughan Scott
Webmeister
'79 924 #77 SCCA H Prod racecar
'82 931 Plat. Silver
#25 Hidari Firefly P2 sports prototype

[924RACR]

Forgot to add, photos are uploaded...
http://www.vaughanscott.com/Races/2006/race5_06.htm
_________________
Vaughan Scott
Webmeister
'79 924 #77 SCCA H Prod racecar
'82 931 Plat. Silver
#25 Hidari Firefly P2 sports prototype

[924RACR]

Videos are now uploaded too...


_________________
Vaughan Scott
Webmeister
'79 924 #77 SCCA H Prod racecar
'82 931 Plat. Silver
#25 Hidari Firefly P2 sports prototype