Norcal Lemons racing TOMORROW!!!!
10-23-2011, 02:14 AM
#16
Race Director
Thread Starter
That was my near heat stroke pic.....once I got out of the car I was HURTING...damm....I didn't think 1:45 in the car with in car temps of about 107F would HURT that bad..... Who would have thought Sears in late Oct would be 85F.....NOT ME....
I would say 25 laps is about 100% accurate too...It was just about 1 hour exactly....since I brought the car in with 1/3 tank....I could have stayed out at least another 30min...but I would have been in really bad shape afterwards....just like our 1st driver was after almost 3 hours.....BUT we were in 1st place!!!!!
10-23-2011, 03:19 AM
#18
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Wow - Brian - where did you find all these models? 
I guess the author of the article didn't understand what a "Krankenwagen" is...
Who is running the other 928?
How did Jim Morton's team do with the BMW?
Best of luck tomorrow!
I guess the author of the article didn't understand what a "Krankenwagen" is...Who is running the other 928?
How did Jim Morton's team do with the BMW?
Best of luck tomorrow!
10-23-2011, 03:32 AM
#19
Rennlist Member
Here is some "press" coverage the 928 Estate got during "BS" inspection
http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/201...urs-of-lemons/
http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/201...urs-of-lemons/
10-23-2011, 03:38 AM
#20
Rennlist Member
Tall dark and curvy...a friend of Ken Kurtz, our Stig. (2:04 in 170 car traffic)
The NAUGHTIEST nurse..I recruited off craigslist. An underemployed journalism major currently working as a Bikini Bar Barista..and yes, when I picked her up to come play Friday, that -was- her uniform. The lab coat I provided. She did it for free, and had a HELL of a time..she wants into racing a lot now.
Guaranteed she will be part of future lemons efforts for us.
10-23-2011, 03:35 PM
#21
Rennlist Member
Geesh...progress so far.
HERE was the starting grid:
Started the race yesterday with our Stig, Ken Kurtz at the wheel..here's a short video of MOST of the starting grid. Probly 8 more rows actually showed up after I took this:
We were off to a Skanktastical start..slowly climbed up from the mid 20s (no official starting grid, just show up and go) and sorted thru the pack to lead the race for most of the first 2hrs.
We got pulled in for a PUY (passing under yellow) penalty that we honestly didnt think we had..but the truth to be told is that flaggers literally had 40-50cars to watch for this AND manage the flag AND stay in communication with the tower any any given time, and mistakes happen. As a race official..I can understand that. So we came in, THEY didnt know why, and happily sent is right back out.
My job was to make sure everyone..drivers or not, thanked judges for their attention for ANY reason we come in contact with em, and never take anything that happens seriously.
If you take a Lemons penalty up the wrong shaft..they feed on it, and it gets worse, fast.
After that, we dropped to 3/4th, and held that steady, and in the last 30min of his shift, I radioed out the OK to pull another 500rpm out of the car..and we dropped three seconds/lap immediately, and consistently.
Fueled..that went well, and sent Brian out.
That was mostly uneventful (the drivers can update with their contact stories greatly embellished of course)
Brian was about 5-10sec a lap slower than Ken with traffic, but thats not a bad thing..its understanding what you're comfortable with in HEAVY traffic that counts. There's no honor in overdriving your comfort level.
Brian was love-tapped in the drivers door, and a radio report of "heavy contact" came in…and he said he was comin' in. I refused the pit request on that until I understood the PROBLEM. "Does it still go straight, is it broken". After a bit..the real problem came over the air. "It doesn't run right it stutters.." Ok..come on in. Were not gonna throw away laps on a premature stop (all stops are in the cold pits, so it is a hefty time penalty you give yourself for being in..when you don't NEED to be).
Our major impact..was a lightest of tire donuts on the pass door, and a few inches of door bump trim missing.
Car came in, fueled up, and put in Mr Finn (Sean AKA Mr. Canada 2005). The car RAN fine in the pits..so after he went out after ensuring that all relays/fuses/ECU connections felt solid..kicked on the door..nothin wrong we could see However, the problem became HUGELY aware back on track. He struggled thru a lap, then came in. Something was disturbed, and fading fast.
Car died, no start, about 200yds from our paddock space. Grab a strap, get in truck..and we towed it in.
There…was a little bit of a Helmet Fire going on in the pits (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helmet_fire) and well…wasted some time on AFM diagnosis, before I handed Brian a relay, and said "fuel pump". After another long spell, Im under the back of the car..new pump at my side, all the tools ready..short the panel for the pump, and it feels like a rock crusher..its shot. After waiting 10min for the helmet fire in the crew to extinguish itself, I finally got the OK to replace the pump.
All I know about 928 pumps, is where they are.
But, took about 5min to swap it out..and car ran fine..sent out Sean to tear it up. My first 928 FP swap. It was a tender moment.
We came in 4th, went out 66th.
In the last hour..we struggled thru a LOT of traffic to end the day in 47th place.
Sunday AM..got out to the track, re-tightened up the bearing pin on the drivers-rear (If you have Carls tie down plates, GET THEM FIXED DAMNIT). Also found a bent sway bar end link in the same rear corner…no spare, screw it..left it. Woohoo!
Commander Petty started Sunday, and diced with a ton of traffic..and although he was called in for one PUY, we've so far held the same position we started in..so we gained some, but lost some in the penalty..which is a 2-3lap cost in hassle minimum. No "extra" penalties were assessed. Petty ended in 49th place.
One team yesterday did earn the Viliage People penalty. Come in, park car..and follow the judges thru the paddock dressed up as the VP, doing at least two full runs of YMCA. Ya..that costs laps…
Cmdr. Petty just came in..and Brian is back out and is currently…up to 46th, and just turned a 2:10.830 on lap # 175. Leaders are on lap 215.
The personal struggle:
The racing..in this format is mentally challenging...a LOT going on.
Ken came in after using his 'tank of gas'..but that was after about 20 min sitting on grid in the sun, then 35min of pace laps.
Oh ya..35 minutes of WHAT? Ya..pace laps.
Turns out, that ONE of the 171 cars, had a radio that was set to the frequency of these friendly folks:
..after NUMEROUS loud pit announcements for the offending team (with quoted conversations they were having that the VPD was relaying to the track over the phone) THE TEAM DIDNT GET THE CLUE. So they had to black flag the entire session (bring everyone one in) and one car at a time..check every radio..and its clear to someone that knows what a proper radio looks like..those few cars were checked with radio calls, to smoke em out. VPD was about 5min away from shutting down the event for the whole weekend..and they were inadvertently using an unlisted frequency, but critical to VPD all the same.
They found em. Their penalty was purchasing beer for EVERYONE on propery, after the race. And..they did. They amassed a staggering amount of coors light..and handed it out wholesale after 6pm.
So Ken's time in car was from 10a, to 1:52p. The man was wasted, and he's a professional racer...also having completed a 12hr Kart enduro in vegas a few days before.
Brian..he's doing well for his relatively short run so far yesterday, and Sean's run was tiring as well..but sean came away with this heat blister:
From the floor of the car by the go-pedal. Brian's gonna have to put down a plate for that...
Petty had a great time, but called in as "wore out" after a bit as well.
Brian is in now, then Sean, and the Stig will end the day..we cant win..but we can run clean, and maybe pull out in the top 20s somewhere.
HERE was the starting grid:
Started the race yesterday with our Stig, Ken Kurtz at the wheel..here's a short video of MOST of the starting grid. Probly 8 more rows actually showed up after I took this:
We were off to a Skanktastical start..slowly climbed up from the mid 20s (no official starting grid, just show up and go) and sorted thru the pack to lead the race for most of the first 2hrs.
We got pulled in for a PUY (passing under yellow) penalty that we honestly didnt think we had..but the truth to be told is that flaggers literally had 40-50cars to watch for this AND manage the flag AND stay in communication with the tower any any given time, and mistakes happen. As a race official..I can understand that. So we came in, THEY didnt know why, and happily sent is right back out.
My job was to make sure everyone..drivers or not, thanked judges for their attention for ANY reason we come in contact with em, and never take anything that happens seriously.
If you take a Lemons penalty up the wrong shaft..they feed on it, and it gets worse, fast.
After that, we dropped to 3/4th, and held that steady, and in the last 30min of his shift, I radioed out the OK to pull another 500rpm out of the car..and we dropped three seconds/lap immediately, and consistently.
Fueled..that went well, and sent Brian out.
That was mostly uneventful (the drivers can update with their contact stories greatly embellished of course)
Brian was about 5-10sec a lap slower than Ken with traffic, but thats not a bad thing..its understanding what you're comfortable with in HEAVY traffic that counts. There's no honor in overdriving your comfort level.
Brian was love-tapped in the drivers door, and a radio report of "heavy contact" came in…and he said he was comin' in. I refused the pit request on that until I understood the PROBLEM. "Does it still go straight, is it broken". After a bit..the real problem came over the air. "It doesn't run right it stutters.." Ok..come on in. Were not gonna throw away laps on a premature stop (all stops are in the cold pits, so it is a hefty time penalty you give yourself for being in..when you don't NEED to be).
Our major impact..was a lightest of tire donuts on the pass door, and a few inches of door bump trim missing.
Car came in, fueled up, and put in Mr Finn (Sean AKA Mr. Canada 2005). The car RAN fine in the pits..so after he went out after ensuring that all relays/fuses/ECU connections felt solid..kicked on the door..nothin wrong we could see However, the problem became HUGELY aware back on track. He struggled thru a lap, then came in. Something was disturbed, and fading fast.
Car died, no start, about 200yds from our paddock space. Grab a strap, get in truck..and we towed it in.
There…was a little bit of a Helmet Fire going on in the pits (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helmet_fire) and well…wasted some time on AFM diagnosis, before I handed Brian a relay, and said "fuel pump". After another long spell, Im under the back of the car..new pump at my side, all the tools ready..short the panel for the pump, and it feels like a rock crusher..its shot. After waiting 10min for the helmet fire in the crew to extinguish itself, I finally got the OK to replace the pump.
All I know about 928 pumps, is where they are.
But, took about 5min to swap it out..and car ran fine..sent out Sean to tear it up. My first 928 FP swap. It was a tender moment.
We came in 4th, went out 66th.
In the last hour..we struggled thru a LOT of traffic to end the day in 47th place.
Sunday AM..got out to the track, re-tightened up the bearing pin on the drivers-rear (If you have Carls tie down plates, GET THEM FIXED DAMNIT). Also found a bent sway bar end link in the same rear corner…no spare, screw it..left it. Woohoo!
Commander Petty started Sunday, and diced with a ton of traffic..and although he was called in for one PUY, we've so far held the same position we started in..so we gained some, but lost some in the penalty..which is a 2-3lap cost in hassle minimum. No "extra" penalties were assessed. Petty ended in 49th place.
One team yesterday did earn the Viliage People penalty. Come in, park car..and follow the judges thru the paddock dressed up as the VP, doing at least two full runs of YMCA. Ya..that costs laps…
Cmdr. Petty just came in..and Brian is back out and is currently…up to 46th, and just turned a 2:10.830 on lap # 175. Leaders are on lap 215.
The personal struggle:
The racing..in this format is mentally challenging...a LOT going on.
Ken came in after using his 'tank of gas'..but that was after about 20 min sitting on grid in the sun, then 35min of pace laps.
Oh ya..35 minutes of WHAT? Ya..pace laps.
Turns out, that ONE of the 171 cars, had a radio that was set to the frequency of these friendly folks:
..after NUMEROUS loud pit announcements for the offending team (with quoted conversations they were having that the VPD was relaying to the track over the phone) THE TEAM DIDNT GET THE CLUE. So they had to black flag the entire session (bring everyone one in) and one car at a time..check every radio..and its clear to someone that knows what a proper radio looks like..those few cars were checked with radio calls, to smoke em out. VPD was about 5min away from shutting down the event for the whole weekend..and they were inadvertently using an unlisted frequency, but critical to VPD all the same.
They found em. Their penalty was purchasing beer for EVERYONE on propery, after the race. And..they did. They amassed a staggering amount of coors light..and handed it out wholesale after 6pm.
So Ken's time in car was from 10a, to 1:52p. The man was wasted, and he's a professional racer...also having completed a 12hr Kart enduro in vegas a few days before.
Brian..he's doing well for his relatively short run so far yesterday, and Sean's run was tiring as well..but sean came away with this heat blister:
From the floor of the car by the go-pedal. Brian's gonna have to put down a plate for that...
Petty had a great time, but called in as "wore out" after a bit as well.
Brian is in now, then Sean, and the Stig will end the day..we cant win..but we can run clean, and maybe pull out in the top 20s somewhere.
10-23-2011, 08:58 PM
#24
Rennlist Member
Everyone got at least one session today..we sent out Ken in pos#31 at 2, and pulled him in at 430 so Petty could get one more session and take the checker.
Ken got us to Pos#20, which..was 4laps under the next car at 19...so..we did _well_.
10-23-2011, 10:57 PM
#25
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Nicole:
Our team did great... mission accomplished with lots of fun had all around.
Our weekend changed quite a bit Friday after the "BS" inspection where we were assigned 4500 (yes 4500) BS laps for having too nice a car and accused of being race prepared. There was no way to get a word in edge wise with Judge Phil, so as noob's to the event, we took the 4500 and went out to run the car as long as we could. We also lost one of our 5 drivers to chickenpox so we had to plan for more driving time than we had figured on as the race started on Saturday.
Everyone drove clean, no black flag penalties for our team. We met some great folks and hope to come back... just not with a BMW or at least not without having the BMW VERY disguised.
With this post, the car is home safe, still runs fine. The tires are pretty worn as are all of us drivers.
Tomorrow comes lots of shop and trailer clean up. Maybe with the shop cleaned, I might find some time to work on an engine for the engineless GTS...
Our team did great... mission accomplished with lots of fun had all around.
Our weekend changed quite a bit Friday after the "BS" inspection where we were assigned 4500 (yes 4500) BS laps for having too nice a car and accused of being race prepared. There was no way to get a word in edge wise with Judge Phil, so as noob's to the event, we took the 4500 and went out to run the car as long as we could. We also lost one of our 5 drivers to chickenpox so we had to plan for more driving time than we had figured on as the race started on Saturday.
Everyone drove clean, no black flag penalties for our team. We met some great folks and hope to come back... just not with a BMW or at least not without having the BMW VERY disguised.
With this post, the car is home safe, still runs fine. The tires are pretty worn as are all of us drivers.
Tomorrow comes lots of shop and trailer clean up. Maybe with the shop cleaned, I might find some time to work on an engine for the engineless GTS...
10-24-2011, 01:59 AM
#27
Race Director
Thread Starter
It was a successful "lemons" race weekend for all involved rennlisters....
Jim's car is very well prepared and turned impressive lap times..... I had a nice 10 or so lap "battle" with Dennis Kao at the end of my stint today.... Classic "teacher vs student" scenario....since Dennis was my very 1st DE instructor 5 years ago... The cars are very evenly matched....I'd say the BMW handles better, especially at Sears...since it seems to change direction quicker...but the 928 has a slight edge in HP.... Trying to make a pass stick in such heavy traffic with SO many local yellow flags is quite difficult....still it was VERY fun....
The 928 Estate finished in 24th place....what an emotional roller coaster.... Our plan of "theme extreme" with the Krankenwagen & naughty nurses paid off extremely well and got us ZERO penalty laps...a perfect start!!!
We were as high as 1st place after about 90 minutes on Saturday....and held it for about another 30 minutes until our ringer got a PUY (pass under yellow) flag....the judges were kind and let us back out after a short lecture....
Ken fought back to 4th when he handed the car over to me.....Ken put in a 3 hour stint....when I got in the car the interior temp was over 100F......after 90 minutes I was WASTED.....which probably contributed to making an aggresive pass where I got a nice "donut" on the passenger door from an aggresive pass....BUT the other cars front tire hit my passenger door...so I think I owned the corner...anyway I didn't get a flag...but oddly enough it caused the fuel pump to fail...so it had to be near death anyway.....
After a bit of drama over the course of an hour Jeff got the Estate running again with a new fuel pump....I made a nice organized L jet no-start or poor running packet that contained everything you would need...BUT OF COURSE I left it at home :>(
I was pleasantly surprised when the final diagnosis was fuel pump, and everyone was looking depressed....then I said "swap it out with the new one" and everyone looked stunned....but I bought a spare prior to the 1st race back in 2009.....it really came in handy this time!!!!!
The Estate ran great the rest of the day....we fought back from 64th to 47th or so by the end of the day Saturday
Sunday started great.....car ran perfect.....sure the bent drop link made right turns a bit more loose than left....but it was okay.... Jeff ran a tight ship as Crew Chief and the drivers did their job.... we got as high as 20th overall...and held on to finish 24th.....
So the 928 Estate logged 17 hours on track over the weekend...burned a grand total of about 3.5 qts of oil......got 7.5 gallons per hour of fuel.....ran 738 miles in the race..... The $300 engine now has 69.5 HOURS of race time on it....I will have the oil analysis of the 21.5 hour long oil change in about a week....I am sure its fine...
17 hours in 3 days.....I doubt the next closest "race" 928 logs that many hours in a YEAR....
Jim's car is very well prepared and turned impressive lap times..... I had a nice 10 or so lap "battle" with Dennis Kao at the end of my stint today.... Classic "teacher vs student" scenario....since Dennis was my very 1st DE instructor 5 years ago... The cars are very evenly matched....I'd say the BMW handles better, especially at Sears...since it seems to change direction quicker...but the 928 has a slight edge in HP.... Trying to make a pass stick in such heavy traffic with SO many local yellow flags is quite difficult....still it was VERY fun....
The 928 Estate finished in 24th place....what an emotional roller coaster.... Our plan of "theme extreme" with the Krankenwagen & naughty nurses paid off extremely well and got us ZERO penalty laps...a perfect start!!!
We were as high as 1st place after about 90 minutes on Saturday....and held it for about another 30 minutes until our ringer got a PUY (pass under yellow) flag....the judges were kind and let us back out after a short lecture....
Ken fought back to 4th when he handed the car over to me.....Ken put in a 3 hour stint....when I got in the car the interior temp was over 100F......after 90 minutes I was WASTED.....which probably contributed to making an aggresive pass where I got a nice "donut" on the passenger door from an aggresive pass....BUT the other cars front tire hit my passenger door...so I think I owned the corner...anyway I didn't get a flag...but oddly enough it caused the fuel pump to fail...so it had to be near death anyway.....
After a bit of drama over the course of an hour Jeff got the Estate running again with a new fuel pump....I made a nice organized L jet no-start or poor running packet that contained everything you would need...BUT OF COURSE I left it at home :>(
I was pleasantly surprised when the final diagnosis was fuel pump, and everyone was looking depressed....then I said "swap it out with the new one" and everyone looked stunned....but I bought a spare prior to the 1st race back in 2009.....it really came in handy this time!!!!!
The Estate ran great the rest of the day....we fought back from 64th to 47th or so by the end of the day Saturday
Sunday started great.....car ran perfect.....sure the bent drop link made right turns a bit more loose than left....but it was okay.... Jeff ran a tight ship as Crew Chief and the drivers did their job.... we got as high as 20th overall...and held on to finish 24th.....
So the 928 Estate logged 17 hours on track over the weekend...burned a grand total of about 3.5 qts of oil......got 7.5 gallons per hour of fuel.....ran 738 miles in the race..... The $300 engine now has 69.5 HOURS of race time on it....I will have the oil analysis of the 21.5 hour long oil change in about a week....I am sure its fine...
17 hours in 3 days.....I doubt the next closest "race" 928 logs that many hours in a YEAR....
10-24-2011, 02:00 AM
#28
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10-24-2011, 03:00 AM
#30
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Thanks, everybody, for the updates! Yeah, if your car looks too nice or strong, you get penalized. Brian learned that early-on - right, Brian?
I loved the blue lights on the roof during inspection! However, I keep wondering, if people there "get" the word "KRANKENWAGEN", of if they may think it means "KRAKEN-WAGON", or something like that...
So, who ran the other 928, and how did it do?
Glad you all had fun! It was a beautiful weekend, and I wish I could have made it to the track today.
I loved the blue lights on the roof during inspection! However, I keep wondering, if people there "get" the word "KRANKENWAGEN", of if they may think it means "KRAKEN-WAGON", or something like that...
So, who ran the other 928, and how did it do?
Glad you all had fun! It was a beautiful weekend, and I wish I could have made it to the track today.