Dragon goes to VIR- come watch!
04-04-2010, 05:15 PM
#50
Drifting
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: Eville, IN
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04-04-2010, 05:20 PM
#51
Unaffiliated
AWESOME!!!!
04-05-2010, 12:15 AM
#54
Rennlist Member
Thread Starter
that first car- camaro- was Tony Stewart- the nascar guy yeah! He had his big rig in the back full of parts. More to tell tomorrow when im rested. I'll try to get some pics as well. I had an interesting finish to say the least.
04-05-2010, 10:44 AM
#58
Race Director
Those tires held up GREAT considering they were already "used" from Nelson Ledges. When I came out of the car at 2AM I checked all 4 and only 1 tire was wearing uneven - it was the pass front, worn on the inside edge. All the others looked fine...if we would have rotated it out it probably would have been OK....but it did last just long enough which is all the matters!
We will keep the other 3 as spares and get another set for the next race.
Just past the finish line:
the damage:
We will keep the other 3 as spares and get another set for the next race.
Just past the finish line:
the damage:
04-05-2010, 12:38 PM
#60
Rennlist Member
Thread Starter
awsome time and great job, big thanks to everyone involved. We put numbers in a hat and somehow i ended up driving first again, followed by Neal, Sam, Ben and then Alan. My first session out the car would stall for a second around very tight corners. I ignored it when i could, but it was really concerning me. The exhaust was also banging on the rear swaybar the whole weekend, i guess our cat delete wasnt clocked right. The stalling got progressively worse the whole day and at 5pm break we pulled the fuel pump and strainer but found nothing wrong. We swapped the oil as well since the bearings had about ten miles on them and found that they had definitly broken in durning the last nine or so hours. One of the fans were making alot of noise so we swapped motors and had to trim the housing to clear for some reason. Everyone did a great job keeping the car on the track, i had one off road excursion after passing someone on the inside with an almost empty tank, and neal did the same thing in the same spot the next morning. I had some flat spotting on the right front tire as it would lock up if the brakes were applied at all entering tight corners. My third and last session-the last of the race- the car was really feeling bad. The shifter had come loose somewhere and was really sloppy. The exhaust was banging even harder and the front right tire was vibrating badly- prob a broken belt. The car was toed out on the right front slightly but the car didnt pull in the straights so we thought it would be ok. About an hour and a half in the front was still vibrating shaking the whole car and i was afraid the tire would blow, but it seemed to be holding up. We had to hold our position at third place by not letting this red prelude team make any ground on us. The last ten minutes he caught up to us and passed, i passed him back and we pretty much had a dog fight until we believe he ran out of gas and had to pull into the pits to refuel. Two laps before the finish i heard a loud POP. I entered a right hander before the front straight and the car seemed fine but in the straight i could tell that something was wrong. It started pulling really hard to the left. I shifted up into fourth gear and stayed in it, passing a RX7 on the straight with the flat right front tire. The right hander turn one was fine but any lefts were almost impossible at any kind of speed. After limping around the rest of the track, the cars behind me almost seemed to be supportful as they would not pass and just crept along behind. Back on the front straight i hoped for a checkered flag as the time said 10:00 am and the race should be over!!! I radioed in "wheres the checkered!!!" and heard we had one more lap. One more lap going as fast as possible w/ the dead right front, i could tell the tire was starting to shred. I turned the last right hander onto the front straight for the last time and saw the checkered flying, so i floored it and headed straight for the tower. Suddenly the tire exploded into flying bits and started slapping the fender and floor. I saw the ps floorboard start denting in, popping a drain plug out of the floor but nothing was going to keep me from that damn checkered flag. I crossed the line and pulled to the right, trying to save the track from damage from my wheel digging into the pavement or something. I sat there for a minute, then noticed most the field didnt even cross the finish, but instead just finished on the hot pit. I fired the car back up and cut across the grass, entering on the pit out. Back in the paddock i saw the damage. Front fender is bent up pretty badly and tire was shreaded. Amazingly the wheel looks fine, not even a scratch! We swapped on a spare late wheel from the trailer and drove right down to the hot pit for pictures, beers in hand- awsome time!! WE ended up winning third place and split the prize for best theme with the bat mobile- Barfing Duck.
I'll try to post some vid of some track time- i could only record about the first half hour of each session so no vid of the tire blowing but it should be sweet.
I'll try to post some vid of some track time- i could only record about the first half hour of each session so no vid of the tire blowing but it should be sweet.