Race Car Stuff

The last major racing event of the 2006 season was yesterday, with the exception of some awards banquets, winter time arena racing, indoor monster truck events, and racing in the southern hemisphere. So looking back I was wondering about the major stories of last year. Locally I was able to participate in a handful of events that were quite enjoyable for me, but I doubt they are the big stories of the year, except to me.

The big story of the weekend were the events at Homestead. Jimmy Johnson won the NASCAR Nextel Cup championship, but there was also the story of Mark Martin’s last race with Jack Roush. I suppose it would be a bigger story if it were his last race. It feels like we have had two years of farewell tours for Martin, and in the end, he is still going to be at Nextel Cup races next year.

Toyota made the big announcement that they are entering Nextel Cup, and the shuffle of teams and drivers scurrying around for a piece of the Toyota pie. It is a bigger story that there will be somewhere around 55 well funded teams qualifying for 43 starting positions. That is going to be lots of disjointed sponsors not getting their moneys worth. The sad side effect of this is that teams like Kirk Shelmerdine and Carl Long will probably never qualify again. It also could well mean the end of teams like the Wood Brothers and PPI Motorsports. The strong will survive and those teams may be vulnerable without some major help.

In ChampCar racing (yaaaaawwwnnnnnn) the only entertainment were the antics of Paul Tracy. Unfortunately the tremendous skills he once had seemed to slip a little for whatever reason. He was in the news time after time about incidents both on and off the track. I am a Paul Tracy fan, but he seems to be on a path of career destruction. It is a shame that the championship of Sebastian Bourdais, or the breakthrough of AJ Almandinger could not make bigger headlines, but the competition level of the series that is scrapping to fill the field is lacking.

In the other half of the American open wheel world, the IRL the news was almost as uninteresting. I think Sam Hornish won the championship and the Indy 500. The championship went down to the wire, but it was fairly much a given that a Penske car would win it all. Danica Patrick had a bit of a sophomore slump, to all except those really in the know. She actually drove better this year, but was in a slower car, but the bottom line is that she did not generate the mainstream media headlines she had made the year before.

In sportscar racing the ALMS series made attention with the appearance of the diesel Audis. But there were no other real surprises on the track. The Grand American series had some great racing, but nothing that was really news worthy.

In NHRA drag racing there were two big stories. On was John Force winning yet another championship. But the last round comeback to win the championship by Tony Schumacher. Tony needed to win the last round and set a national record at the same time to win the championship. As he said, there were about 2000 ways to lose the championship and one way to win it, and he found that one way. It was truly one of the stories that keeps true fans interested when we get tired of the commercialism and bland-ness of all forms of professional racing.

Then there was exactly one story that can be the story of the year. It was the retirement of Michael Schumacher. Michael had rewritten every record in the books. He won when he had the best car, but he also won when others had better cars. He retires with seven F1 world championships, but could have very nearly had ten or eleven with just a few breaks. With two races left it looked like he was on a roll for his eighth championship, but two very uncharacteristic mechanical failures with his trusty Ferrari relegated him sadly to second place.

The feel good story it would have been if Schumacher and Mark Martin won their respective championships as they retire would have been unparalleled. But as it turns out they are just the best stories of the 2006, not in the history of racing.

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Click here for part I

Last time we got the car through tech inspection and found the screws that were causing a run out problem on the rear wheels.

The previous commentary did not give justice to the process of a car going through the first tech inspection. Everyone is nervous through this process. Building a racecar takes at least hundreds of parts. The theory of technical inspection is that someone looks over the car and checks for the most obvious problems. As with all other SCCA specialties, Tech is manned by a great group of volunteers. They spend much of the race weekend looking closely over racecars. They don’t get to watch the races. They are very good at what they do in making sure the racecars that hit the track are safe and meet the rules. When a new racecar comes through tech, there may be some small thing that the inspectors find that may keep the car from getting on the track for that weekend. The entire crew is nervous until the inspector’s finish and the tech sticker is placed on the car allowing it to run for the weekend.

Steve’s first session is wet. There has been rain, but it has slowed to a mist. I stress to Steve to keep the car on the track. The two worst results from this session are to have the car stuck in a gravel trap or worse to come in contact with barriers around the track. He went cautiously, gradually getting faster during the session. Each of the first few laps there was a different car spinning at the exit of turn 10. I think that Steve was the only Spec RX7 that did not spin during this session. Maybe he had good coaching .

After the session Steve had nothing negative to say about the car, but said that there were cars off the track at several places around the track. One of the Spec Miatas came in on a roll back very bent up. The car was definitely totaled; his race school weekend was over in the first session. Not a desirable situation.

Steve quickly learned why a crewmember was required for a race school. He immediately had to go to debriefing, chalk talk, and classroom sessions. He returned just a few minutes before his next session was ready to go out. I spent much of the time between the session doing small things to the car. I did the usual fluid checks, felt the brakes, a quick glance at all the important nuts and bolts, and cleaning of the windows. I glance at the alignment, and can tell from looking that there would be much gained with a more aggressive alignment. Steve’s car seems to sit much higher than most of the other Spec RX7’s, so I know there is something to be gained there as well. Steve is running a complete stockish exhaust system. There are many small things that will make the car faster, but right now the concern is to finish the weekend with no problems. So, there are no changes that will be made this weekend. Those are for going fast, which is another weekend.

The second session is sunny, but the track is still wet, without even a dry line around at the start of the session. I remind Steve that it has been raining heavily for more than 24 hours, and that if he goes off the track, chances of him getting the car stuck in the mud are high…. So keep the car on the track. Steve goes out and runs well. He passes a couple of cars and a couple others pass him. I lose track of him a couple of laps, but pick him and follow him through the rest of the session. After the session we discuss the car, but Steve is quick to admit that he spun the car while the track was still wet, but he did stay on the track. The car is no worse for the wear, and everything still looks great on the car. Steve takes off to the classroom sessions and I jack up the car give things a check.

The sun has now come out, and the temp warms up to where I have to remove my jacket, and consider removing my long sleeve shirt for a short sleeve t-shirt. Lunch break gives me a break with a trip to the Summit Point concession stand and a step back into my past. Most of the racetracks have tried to do something special for the racers, crews, and fans. Summit Point has excellent bratwurst, wraps, etc in addition to the usual concession stand fare.

Steve’s next session is finally in the dry. Again I remind him that off the pavement is still plenty of mud that is anxiously waiting to ruin a session with the car stuck it the special Summit Point mix. But he keeps the car on the track, and gets some dry track experience. After this session Steve goes to the classroom, and I drive the car out to the nearest gas station. We did not bring gasoline to the track, and his Spec RX7 is street licensed, so I drive it there. On the way I discover a troublesome shimmy in the right front suspension. I have to look at this before the car hits the track.

Jacking up the front, I find something disturbing. The bolts that hold the strut to the lower ball joint have been changed on this car. These struts have through bolts with nuts, and they have loosened. The nuts falling out can cause a catastrophic failure. I disassemble everything and realize that I can’t do much about it with what I have available to me. I tighten up everything, apply some Locktite and put it together the best I can. I warn Steve what feeling to be aware of while on the track.

In the mean time, the clouds have come, and the wind blows very hard. The few awnings that were still up have either been blown away or they have been taken down. As I take the car to the grid, there is rain again. But the sun comes out…. And what is that in the rain? That is ice. There is with small hail or sleet mixed in the rain. All during bright sunshine? This has been a very strange day from a weather point of view. I tell Steve that we don’t have and snow tires for the icy conditions.

As Steve goes out, I run down to the carousel area of the track to see if there are any driving pointers I can give Steve. I watch several cars go off the track, but Steve drives a steady session. After the session Steve and I discuss the bolts in the front struts. I have driven my daughters car to this race specifically for the reason of having spare parts. I may use the struts off her car. We had over to the traditional beer party after the Saturday of racing. But the weather turns very cold, colder than we have coats for. So our trip to the party is cut short and I head back to the hotel for diner.

It was a successful day at a drivers school. Steve was a little slow, but some of that is his car, and some of it is my coaching attempt to keep him focused on the need to finish the weekend without incident. I realize that he is one of the slower Spec RX7’s but this is a drivers school, not a race….. At least not yet.

Next time, Sunday, and the race

I have been an SCCA member for more than 25 years. I think this little promotional video does a pretty good job of explaining it.

If you like that and want to get more of the SCCA life, be sure to watch the TV footage from this years SCCA Runoffs. All showings are on Speed Channel, check your local listings.

I think this speaks for itself

That is correct. I decided to be a crewmember for my recent student Steve as he went to his first SCCA Competition Licensing School at Summit Point Raceway. As some of my more regular readers probably know, I consider Summit Point home. Most of my racing years were spent at this track during the years that Virginia International Raceway was closed down. VIR may be a nicer facility, but Summit is where I belong. I know the place well. It has changed over the years, but in most ways it remains unchanged. It still has the character it always had, even if now if has some nicer window dressing.

Part II
While the basic format of an SCCA school has not changed since I attended my first one more than 25 years ago, they have added some features. Each student is required to have at least one crewmember since all of the driver’s time is pretty much accounted for during the weekend. Someone has to keep the car. I really looked forward to getting back to the grassroots of the sport.

One of the nice additions in the last quarter century is the crew classroom session while the driver is attending the Friday night chalk talk. Since my feeling is that there are always things to be learned, so even though I have spent more years crewing than I have driving, I looked forward to the experience. As it was, I learned a few things from the classroom session, but I learned more about the other crewmembers that would be here this weekend. After the class I finally met up with Steve. He took me for a quick tour of the car (your basic Spec RX7) which he has recently completed building from an 85 RX7 GSL. The car was built well, but Steve was also a first time builder, so I planned on checking everything I could over the weekend. Time to go back to the hotel and crash.

Early to the track the next morning, it is still raining. The weather forecast says that the rain will end early, but it will be windy with gusts possibly as high at 50mph. Guess that means any awning will be useless. I get to the track and give the car a quick once over and take it to tech inspection. Steve drove the car there, and I watched it drive there. I noticed a huge amount of runout on the rear wheels. I know the tech inspectors will not notice this, so I let the car go through tech and get the sticker. They asked me to come by later and get the log book number stamped in the rollbar. So the car passed tech.

As soon as we get the car to the paddock space I tell Steve about the wheel runout. He only has time to look before he has to go attend more class sessions and go for his instructor ride around session. I realize that the cause of the runout is either the rim is bent or the axle is bent. So I plan to replace the rear wheels with a set of aluminum wheels Steve has as spares. When I remove the wheel I discover the problem. The brake rotors are held on by screws that are not flush with the mating surface of the rim. So I only have to remove the screws and put the wheels back on. I had to borrow a couple of tools from nearby competitors to remove the screws, but it was accomplished and the problem was fixed. I check the car over some more and find a few details, but nothing the must be changed.

Next time… The car hits the track.