August 29, 2009

Changes since August 22nd race: 

Worked on the fuel and ignition maps a little more. Yes, the car won last weeks feature, but the engine still had a flat spot on restarts and when I get "hard" back on the throttle coming off the corner (I have to "ease" into it).

We're changing up the base setup and starting the night with 1 inch less rear tire stagger and the right rear tire in 1/2" farther then our previous setup. We are also starting with a 2-Compression / 1-Rebound shock on the right front.

Hot Laps: 

The track is already slick, so we drop right rear air pressure down to 7 psi and add wing angle. The car ran pretty good. We're right there with the fast guys. Taking the stagger out and adding wing angle definitely helped the car off the corner compared to Hot Laps last weekend.

Changes before the Heat:

Didn't even plug in the computer - we're just going to run 'er how she is.

Track is REAL slick and drying out. Turn 3&4 has no cushion to lean on.

Tightened the car:
Dropped RR air pressure (5psi)
Increased wing angle.
Changed to 1/2" larger (circumference) left rear tire.
Started with the shock compressions at: LR and RR set to #2 position I also added six clicks of rebound to both rear shocks to hold the rear end down coming off the corner.   

Heat Race: (started 3rd / finished 2nd) 

Started on inside second row - engine again hesitates on the start - we fall back from the pole sitter, but take second place. Fought off the third place car for a few laps then pulled away. Car was not quite tight enough and I had to abuse the brakes to hold the car on the bottom of the track.

The engine is pretty good, but the hesitation on the start has me scratching my head. We'll analyze the data logs and try to fix the problem.

Changes before Feature: 

Starting 2nd:

Reviewed the data logs trying to solve the hesitation issue -- I really cannot find the exact problem - it acts very lean - so I richen up the low RPM area of the map that is used for the starts.

Track is sealed over (slick) and wide with a cushion pushed way wide - no one's going to win on the cushion in this race!

Tightened the car:
Changed right rear tire to a lesser grooved RD12 compound with a lot of siping and a 5psi bleeder. We also moved the RR tire in another 3/4inch.
Set RR and LR shocks to #2 compression position to start the race and put two more clicks into the rebound on both rear shocks (8 total clicks).
Changed to big sideboard wing.

  

Feature: (started 2nd, finished 1st) 

The car JUMPS on the start and we lead by three car lengths into turn one! Once again, the car was hooked up all over the track, but especially right in the middle of the black slick! We quickly pulled a staightaway lead and drove into lapped traffic. The car is so good in the black of the track that it makes passing the lapped cars much easier - no one else can run in the black and I can drive by them getting into the corner. This race had three cautions. The final restart on lap 25 showed Matt Brosch in second without any lapped cars between us. We pull a couple of car lengths off of turn two and slowly inch away over the last five laps.

Wrap-up: 

Two in a row! One month ago, I thought a top five was going to be the best I could achieve this year. I like this turnaround much better! What stinks is that the track took a little rubber and became abrasive; thus, we destroyed both rear tires. We'll get some more and be ready in two weeks.

I am not racing the Labor Day Friday night race. Instead, we are preparing our new throttlebodies and hope to get them installed by the September 12th race (The Redd Davidson Classic). It is hard to change throttlebodies when we are winning races, but believe it or not - I believe our current throttlebodies are holding us back!

Check out the U-Tube video of our feature win -- Courtesy of Becky Hand!