924Board.org

[924RACR]

As alluded to in the Castle Combe thread, we met with some success this weekend!

Practice and Qualifying wasn't bad, but not stellar, and we qualified OK, but not great; .040s off 1st place ITB, but both of us (#77 and Doug Spencer in the #66 Bimmer) were back in the 3rd row, as we'd both slowed down equally. Of course, that may have been due to the fact that we spent the whole qualifying session chasing each other and swapping the lead! LOL But it sure was fun! Best of all, there was no pressure, since it wasn't for a win or anything... heh heh...

First Class Race starts, and we go side-by-side for 3 turns - me unwilling to yield and fall back in second (after actually getting a good run around the outside of Doug in 1 and 2, I was almost completely ahead, but he pulled even again in Turn 3), Doug doing much the same... I finally pulled ahead at the top of the hill, getting a clean run onto the back straight (very important!!!).

But once again the car is pushing, so it's tough to really make the car work like I'd like to, and I end up just barely managing to stay in front of Doug... but continue to hold him off all the way to the checker!!! There it is, we've beat him fair and square, a sweet if tough to earn win!

But we're still fighting this push... so to try something drastic, we disconnected the front swaybar entirely, tried it out in emergency practice Sunday AM - felt OK, so we leave it that way for the race. Bad move! In spite of managing a repeat of the first race, pulling ahead only at Hilltop and leading the pack, after a few laps we swing wide coming out of 2, drop a rear wheel in the grass, and snap sideways. Doug dives for the grass to avoid, pulls clear, and we tuck back in behind. At this point, driver confidence is shot, and so we end up finishing a bit of a distant 2nd, after one more off coming round to take the checker. Frustrating.

Clearly not moving in the right direction, so we go refit the front swaybar. After fighting with it a while, we got it set and go to the back to put the rear bar back to full stiff... and realize we never softened it after removing the front bar! So we were running around with no front bar, and full stiff rear bar! No wonder it was a little bit of a handful! Ok, then... change gears, put the rear bar at full soft, and re-remove the front bar.

Back out for the Feature race, the car's much more manageable, we're doing well again... except that the whole first two laps of the race are a mess. We end up with a clueless Prod driver up front, who holds the whole field up for the first half a lap... then the second half of the track was oiled-down thoroughly by the preceding group, so it's risky to make a move anywhere there. By the time we're sorted out from all that, Doug's pulled out a substantial lead.

While the car was working better than the first Sunday race, driver confidence was clearly not there, and so while we were able to close the gap, we weren't able to contend for position until the last lap, at which point it was too difficult to get anything done in time - though we did have the advantage, clearly. So we ended up in second place, once again inches from his bumper.

Teammate Chris Marsh in the #55 car, meanwhile, on only his second weekend racing as a rookie, continues to make solid improvements, now running down in the 1:26's, and is finally getting to race wheel to wheel with the Mustangs, and come to grips with the field. He made a solid showing in particular in the Feature, moving up a few spots after pressuring the ITB Fiero of Franz Leider into a mistake with a few laps to go, after closing the gap from the start. The #55 car ran solidly through the weekend, allowing Chris and the crew to make some adjustments and start to get the car better matched to Chris's style. The weekend wasn't without it's scary moments, though; in the first race, Chris noticed his oil pressure gauge bouncing and doing unkind things! More investigation Sunday, however, revealed that the gauge had apparently just decided to get loopy, and after replacement the oil pressure was just fine.

All was not well in the ITS Porsche camp, however, with nearly all 3 cars retiring. Mark Mazuro in the #13 944 was taken out in dramatic style by a car that spun in the grass and reentered in front of him. After a hard impact, at speed, Mark ended up tearing across the grass to the other side of the track entirely, sliding on his own oil, even starting a small grass fire, before getting things under control and managing to park the car safely by a turn station.

In the same race, Greg Steen (#35 944), who had been having a nice dice with the #99 ITS 924S of Steve Phillipson, seemed to also have hit a terminal point with his engine; while it didn't let go, he disclosed after the race that his oil pressure was bouncing erratically and only 3 bar - a typical sign of rod bearing failure in these cars, which are known to have touchy rod bearings. We hope the teardown doesn't reveal any damage to the crank or rods, and that he'll be able to get by with only the addition of a new set of bearings.

Steve Phillipson also had his share of technical difficulties this weekend; after Sunday's race, he found that his fuel injector rail was leaking badly, spraying fuel all over the engine! It's a good thing he didn't hit anything! After attempting to get the rail welded back up, which attempt failed, they had to resort to JB Weld to seal it back up. Thankfully the fix held, and Steve was able to finish both races on Sunday. Steve still appears to be struggling with the handling of the car, though, as he'd lost a little bit of time compared to the previous race weekend, and ended up looping the car at Turn 3 in each race.

Now we have some more figuring to do, try to make a plan for the next race weekend, decide on a setup to use - there are many options in chassis tuning, but which ones to use!?!

Points continue to stand strong; we've held our ground in the ITB Class Championship, only 4 points behind, and while this has probably cost us some position in the Top Ten Drivers ranking (we were 3rd coming into the weekend, out of 150 drivers in all classes), we're only halfway through the season, and plenty more race miles to go!
_________________
Vaughan Scott
Webmeister
'79 924 #77 SCCA H Prod racecar
'82 931 Plat. Silver
#25 Hidari Firefly P2 sports prototype

[endwrench]

Cool, love reading your synopsis and updates!

Todd
_________________
'79 924NA. Rebuilt 9.5:1, MSDS header, Mega Squirt Injection, MJLJ-EDIS Ignition, 1.6L Whipple Charger and Intercooler, 10lbs Boost, 944 Trans, Custom HD Clutch.
"simsport" said....superchargers are better than turbos its official!....

[924RACR]

Videos are now on YouTube - as always, just search on 924RACR...
_________________
Vaughan Scott
Webmeister
'79 924 #77 SCCA H Prod racecar
'82 931 Plat. Silver
#25 Hidari Firefly P2 sports prototype

[924RACR]

Pics are loaded on the website now too!
http://www.vaughanscott.com/Races/2007/race3_07.htm




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

[PORSCHEV]

Nice pictures. Looks like a well rounded group to compete with.
_________________
1976 924
5 lug conversion, 17'C2 wheels,custom body work,327 vette engine.

1978-#53 "D" track racer.