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Post Race Recap - 2016 Daytona 14 hours with Chumpcar
A bit overdue but at the beginning of April our 944 Chumpcar team competed in the 14 hours of Daytona. We had previously competed in the 14 hours of Sebring and had driven for 12-13 of the 14 hours with a vibration from the driveline. Half an hour from the finish line the clutch grenaded and kept us from finishing, which was a big disappointment. We still ended up about 50th of 100 cars by the laps we had completed.
So after Sebring we went back to work on the car. New clutch (never again, please), new fuel supply line from Rennbay (after seeing a 944 go up in flames at COTA), and a new timing belt (since the age of our current one was unknown) and the car was ready to race again. We added some new radio gear as well for better driver communications, I added a camera mount and a few other non-essentials.
Race day morning started out pretty grey. Our starting driver took the car out for the pace laps and it immediately started raining. Lots of full course caution and the entire field was having off-track excursions.
I had never driven Daytona and I was set to go next in the rain, so I was pretty nervous. Fortunately, despite spinning the car twice due to an over-abundance of confidence putting the power down coming out of a turn, I hit nothing and managed to stay out of trouble while picking up a few track positions.
Our first set-back occurred when I got out of the car. As we were putting the next driver in we noticed steam and water pouring out of the front end. The reservoir cap had come loose and the water had boiled and emptied out in pit lane for no apparent reason. It was either a loose cap or the heat soak of coming in hot and immediately shutting off the car. We refilled the car with water and sent the third driver out. After a few laps, we radioed for him to come back in so we could check the temp and it seemed to be holding properly. Fingers (nervously) crossed.
The rest of the day went by without too much incident. By the third driver the track started to dry out and things picked up pace. Some minor door contact left us with a nasty tire mark and a caved door which looked uglier than it really was.
After our first rotation, we put our first driver back in the car around 1pm. For the rest of the day, our lead driver and I would flip-flop holding the fastest lap time of the day until we finally ended with a 2:36.
Winding into the evening hours we started planning our exit strategy and so that myself and our lead driver could finish out the last 3 hours with only 2 more stops. I ran my last hour and a half with an increasingly noticeable flat spot on the right rear. We opted to run it to the end but had a spare ready just in case.
With an hour and half to go, an E36's engine met an early end in front of me in the bus stop and I took the long full-course caution as an opportunity to pit under yellow and handed the car over to our lead. He finished the last half hour with some minor contact but drove it across the finish line for a 39th place finish out of 130 cars. It was incredibly satisfying to finish by our second race, and at Daytona of all places.
As we pulled into the pits after taking the checkered flag. Someone got our door good.
It was an especially nice feeling to drive the car back up onto the trailer before leaving (rather than pushing it up). We may not be the fastest team out there but everybody on the team is committed to giving their all and puts in the effort. I can't ask for anything more. Unfortunately I don't think I have a photo of our entire team together, which consists of more than just our drivers as we have several friends and family that crew for and support us to make these races happen. Its much more than a 4 person event.
There were 6 944s in the field, we finished 3rd (mostly due to the fact that we finished).
Fourth column is number of laps turned. Seventh column is fastest lap.
For next time, we know that we need to increase the water and oil cooling and keep the heat-soak to a minimum on pit stops, so we're adding a 951 oil cooler and a puller fan.
We also know that we need to spend a little more effort to even out the corner weights so that we're not prone to locking the tire on the light corner.
Last, we sourced a short 5th gear which should pick us up a few seconds per lap.
The work is getting started for Sebring again in September. Starting to bang out the body damage first...
05-26-2016, 10:45 PM
Post Race Recap - 2016 Daytona 14 hours with Chumpcar
