NASA 8-hour enduro in the Frankencar at Road Atlanta
12-23-2008, 09:49 AM
#1
Nordschleife Master
Thread Starter
NASA 8-hour enduro in the Frankencar at Road Atlanta
For the A-type personalities, I’ll tell you up front that our team won our class (E0) and turned a total of 205 laps. In the process we raised a few thousand dollars for the UAB Comprehensive Cancer Center and had a fantastic time. If you are bored, this is a good place to stop, otherwise read on.
Preparation for the event began months in advance. One of the biggest issues was getting all three drivers to fit in the car. I’m the most “height challenged” of the three at 5’7” and RL Mitchell at 6’3” (this is a guess, he’s probably taller). Clearly my fixed seat had to go in favor of a seat with sliders. We spent a good bit of an afternoon mounting the seat; when finished, it worked fine for me at its foremost position and for RL at its most aft position. Joe (Joe Sharrow) is smack in the middle height wise, so he had no problems. On that day we also wired up the radio, lap timer, and fog lights. This was just one day in many as the pre-race list of things to do was nearly two pages in length. One of the bigger items being to rebuild and install my spare engine having destroyed my primary engine (broken rod) at Barber Motorsports Park in September
I was the first of the team to arrive at Road Atlanta on Friday December 5th. It had rained Thursday evening and turned quite cold. When I stepped out of the truck the paddock was spotted with “black ice” and the temperature was still below freezing. I can’t say that I was very happy at that point as the plan was for me to drive the first two hours of the race. I kept telling myself that the sun would come out and melt everything prior to the race start. Joe, his son Josh, and RL showed up a bit later and did all of the little last minute items prior to the race.
The racers meeting seemed to drag on forever and I was nervous to get back to the car. The drivers were warned that the track was going to be very slick at the beginning of the race and to expect a few laps behind the pace car before getting the green flag. After the meeting we headed back to the car, I suited up, and headed for grid.
I started the race in 9th position, based on year-to-date points for the enduro series. The first lap behind the pace car was unreal. The “S’s” and downhill braking zone for Turn 10A were incredibly bad, in fact they were “icy” and remained that way for quite some time. I don’t remember, but looking at the results from MyLaps.com it seems that we did 4 laps behind the pace car in an attempt to warm tires, track, and minds. During those 4 laps, I kept wishing that RL had started, as he is a much better wet-track driver than I. During the laps, I convinced myself to take it easy and make sure that the car didn’t go off track and hit something as it was going to be a long race. Not to mention that Joe and RL were expecting to get some track time!
As we approached the tunnel after 10B, I saw the pace car pull off and my guts tightened. I was pleasantly surprised when everyone went into the first turn without doing anything crazy; I guess the 20 minute lecture at the driver’s meeting actually worked? The first couple of laps were extremely slow with my lap times being right around 2 minutes due to the icy/wet track. As the race continued, the track started drying and lap times improved. I will say one thing, cars do produce more HP when temperatures are in the low 30’s, the car was running strong. After 49 laps the low fuel light was coming on and I headed for the pits for our scheduled driver change and fuel stop. By the finish of my segment, lap times had dropped from 2 minutes to the mid to low 1:40’s. When I came off the track we were 1st in class and 6th overall.
At the pit stop, Joe jumped into the drivers’ seat while RL fueled. Joe had only driven Road Atlanta once and that was a few years ago prior to the track changes that took place last year. At the end of his first lap, RL and I were surprised to see Joe entering the pits. We thought that there must be something wrong, but it turns out that he took the old line under the bridge, putting him onto the pit road instead of heading down the hill into turn 12. You can rest assured that RL and I will never let Joe live that down! After that incident, Joe’s lap times progressively decreased and RL and I were calling over the radio cheering him on.
Did I tell you that Joe’s nickname is “spin doctor”? I knew it was going to happen, and it did on lap 61. I was working the radio and got the call from Joe that he had spun in turn 3, the car was vibrating badly and he needed to pit. RL, Josh, and I got ready and watched as Joe came into the pits not knowing what to expect. Joe radioed that the vibration was on the driver’s side, so as he came to a stop, I jacked up that side and RL and I dove under each end of the car. RL was the first to yell, “get the mud out of the wheels, that’s the problem”. Sure enough there was at least 10 to 20 lbs of red Georgia clay packed into the front and back wheels, which we quickly scooped out by hand. We looked over the suspension and all looked normal, albeit everything was a bit reddish in color. We sent Joe out and he quickly reported that “all was well” and he impressed us by decreasing his lap times.
All was well until Joe reported that a bit of smoke was coming into the car via the gear shift. Joe didn’t seem overly concerned so we told him to keep going. Then all “you know what” broke loose. Joe called to say that he couldn’t shift and we told him to pit. RL and I knew that if it was the shift linkage that it would either be in the car at the shifter or under the car at the transmission. When Joe stopped, RL headed for the cockpit and I crawled under the car to check the transmission where I saw no problems. RL found the problem, turns out that the plastic bushing holding the gearshift was melted. Why? Well remember the smoke? It turns out that the header was broken and blowing hot exhaust at the torque tube and shifter. We jacked the car up and RL began patching the split header with metal tape and clamps. After approximately 20 minutes, we sent Joe back out to finish his laps.
After Joe had used his 20 gallons of gas, he pulled into the pits and RL jumped into the drivers’ seat. At that point it appeared that the header was still holding together so we only did the driver swap and 10 gallons of gas (10 g was the limit for each stop). After 15 laps, RL had set our fastest lap at a 1:41.7, he was doing well (we expected that, afterall, RL is the 2008 SE SuperCup Champ). He kept a great pace for 30 laps until he was forced to pit. Really he should have pitted much earlier considering the smoke that was coming into the car from the broken header. When he did come in on lap 161 the header was in very bad condition. We attempted to patch the header again, this time clamping soda cans to the broken pipe. After a 25-minute pit stop we sent RL back on the track with instructions to take it easy on the car. We were leading our class and just needed to keep the car on the track to win. On lap 178 RL came into the pits and we swapped tires, bled the brakes and changed drivers.
I drove the last portion of the race, the car was down on power due to the exhaust leak and smoke was filling the cockpit. RL had complained that his eyes were burning from the smoke and I will tell you it was bad. Every time I got onto the long back straight I would put my hand out the window to direct fresh air at my face. Luckily this lasted for less than 30 laps when I had the pleasure of taking the checkered flag at 5pm. We had turned 205 laps, placed 1st in class and 14th overall. Not bad for a car that broke a header 3 hours into the race.
We celebrated with a bottle of champagne. It was a grand time, with all of us working hard to keep the car working during the day. We are looking forward to running the race again next year but there will be a change, we will have to run an extra 2 hours as the race is scheduled to go for 10! We learned quite a bit from this years’ race and hope to be in a better position in the overall classification next year. Regardless of our finish, we did what we set out to do: we finished a grueling 8-hr race, raised money for a great cause, and had one heck of a good time.
Preparation for the event began months in advance. One of the biggest issues was getting all three drivers to fit in the car. I’m the most “height challenged” of the three at 5’7” and RL Mitchell at 6’3” (this is a guess, he’s probably taller). Clearly my fixed seat had to go in favor of a seat with sliders. We spent a good bit of an afternoon mounting the seat; when finished, it worked fine for me at its foremost position and for RL at its most aft position. Joe (Joe Sharrow) is smack in the middle height wise, so he had no problems. On that day we also wired up the radio, lap timer, and fog lights. This was just one day in many as the pre-race list of things to do was nearly two pages in length. One of the bigger items being to rebuild and install my spare engine having destroyed my primary engine (broken rod) at Barber Motorsports Park in September
I was the first of the team to arrive at Road Atlanta on Friday December 5th. It had rained Thursday evening and turned quite cold. When I stepped out of the truck the paddock was spotted with “black ice” and the temperature was still below freezing. I can’t say that I was very happy at that point as the plan was for me to drive the first two hours of the race. I kept telling myself that the sun would come out and melt everything prior to the race start. Joe, his son Josh, and RL showed up a bit later and did all of the little last minute items prior to the race.
The racers meeting seemed to drag on forever and I was nervous to get back to the car. The drivers were warned that the track was going to be very slick at the beginning of the race and to expect a few laps behind the pace car before getting the green flag. After the meeting we headed back to the car, I suited up, and headed for grid.
I started the race in 9th position, based on year-to-date points for the enduro series. The first lap behind the pace car was unreal. The “S’s” and downhill braking zone for Turn 10A were incredibly bad, in fact they were “icy” and remained that way for quite some time. I don’t remember, but looking at the results from MyLaps.com it seems that we did 4 laps behind the pace car in an attempt to warm tires, track, and minds. During those 4 laps, I kept wishing that RL had started, as he is a much better wet-track driver than I. During the laps, I convinced myself to take it easy and make sure that the car didn’t go off track and hit something as it was going to be a long race. Not to mention that Joe and RL were expecting to get some track time!
As we approached the tunnel after 10B, I saw the pace car pull off and my guts tightened. I was pleasantly surprised when everyone went into the first turn without doing anything crazy; I guess the 20 minute lecture at the driver’s meeting actually worked? The first couple of laps were extremely slow with my lap times being right around 2 minutes due to the icy/wet track. As the race continued, the track started drying and lap times improved. I will say one thing, cars do produce more HP when temperatures are in the low 30’s, the car was running strong. After 49 laps the low fuel light was coming on and I headed for the pits for our scheduled driver change and fuel stop. By the finish of my segment, lap times had dropped from 2 minutes to the mid to low 1:40’s. When I came off the track we were 1st in class and 6th overall.
At the pit stop, Joe jumped into the drivers’ seat while RL fueled. Joe had only driven Road Atlanta once and that was a few years ago prior to the track changes that took place last year. At the end of his first lap, RL and I were surprised to see Joe entering the pits. We thought that there must be something wrong, but it turns out that he took the old line under the bridge, putting him onto the pit road instead of heading down the hill into turn 12. You can rest assured that RL and I will never let Joe live that down! After that incident, Joe’s lap times progressively decreased and RL and I were calling over the radio cheering him on.
Did I tell you that Joe’s nickname is “spin doctor”? I knew it was going to happen, and it did on lap 61. I was working the radio and got the call from Joe that he had spun in turn 3, the car was vibrating badly and he needed to pit. RL, Josh, and I got ready and watched as Joe came into the pits not knowing what to expect. Joe radioed that the vibration was on the driver’s side, so as he came to a stop, I jacked up that side and RL and I dove under each end of the car. RL was the first to yell, “get the mud out of the wheels, that’s the problem”. Sure enough there was at least 10 to 20 lbs of red Georgia clay packed into the front and back wheels, which we quickly scooped out by hand. We looked over the suspension and all looked normal, albeit everything was a bit reddish in color. We sent Joe out and he quickly reported that “all was well” and he impressed us by decreasing his lap times.
All was well until Joe reported that a bit of smoke was coming into the car via the gear shift. Joe didn’t seem overly concerned so we told him to keep going. Then all “you know what” broke loose. Joe called to say that he couldn’t shift and we told him to pit. RL and I knew that if it was the shift linkage that it would either be in the car at the shifter or under the car at the transmission. When Joe stopped, RL headed for the cockpit and I crawled under the car to check the transmission where I saw no problems. RL found the problem, turns out that the plastic bushing holding the gearshift was melted. Why? Well remember the smoke? It turns out that the header was broken and blowing hot exhaust at the torque tube and shifter. We jacked the car up and RL began patching the split header with metal tape and clamps. After approximately 20 minutes, we sent Joe back out to finish his laps.
After Joe had used his 20 gallons of gas, he pulled into the pits and RL jumped into the drivers’ seat. At that point it appeared that the header was still holding together so we only did the driver swap and 10 gallons of gas (10 g was the limit for each stop). After 15 laps, RL had set our fastest lap at a 1:41.7, he was doing well (we expected that, afterall, RL is the 2008 SE SuperCup Champ). He kept a great pace for 30 laps until he was forced to pit. Really he should have pitted much earlier considering the smoke that was coming into the car from the broken header. When he did come in on lap 161 the header was in very bad condition. We attempted to patch the header again, this time clamping soda cans to the broken pipe. After a 25-minute pit stop we sent RL back on the track with instructions to take it easy on the car. We were leading our class and just needed to keep the car on the track to win. On lap 178 RL came into the pits and we swapped tires, bled the brakes and changed drivers.
I drove the last portion of the race, the car was down on power due to the exhaust leak and smoke was filling the cockpit. RL had complained that his eyes were burning from the smoke and I will tell you it was bad. Every time I got onto the long back straight I would put my hand out the window to direct fresh air at my face. Luckily this lasted for less than 30 laps when I had the pleasure of taking the checkered flag at 5pm. We had turned 205 laps, placed 1st in class and 14th overall. Not bad for a car that broke a header 3 hours into the race.
We celebrated with a bottle of champagne. It was a grand time, with all of us working hard to keep the car working during the day. We are looking forward to running the race again next year but there will be a change, we will have to run an extra 2 hours as the race is scheduled to go for 10! We learned quite a bit from this years’ race and hope to be in a better position in the overall classification next year. Regardless of our finish, we did what we set out to do: we finished a grueling 8-hr race, raised money for a great cause, and had one heck of a good time.
12-23-2008, 10:16 AM
#2
Addict
Rennlist Member
Rennlist Member
Great,get started on chapter two with logistics ect... Some of us have never done one(yet)
Thanks
Thanks
12-23-2008, 10:50 AM
#3
Rennlist Member
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: Phoenix and Forest Virginia
Posts: 1,947
Received 303 Likes
on
169 Posts
Tim- great write up and great story. I have always wanted to run an enduro race but still have not. We were considering running in the 24Hours of Lemons next year just for fun. (not a typo- yes lemons) It is a 24hour, 4-6 driver race series that limits you to a $500 dollar car. All safety eq like seat, rollbar, brakes, tires, fire sup are not in cluded in the $500 so the car will be safe for the drivers....
Would love to run the NASA or one of the SCCA events but I have a formula car and they rarely if ever are classified to run.
Thanks for the story, keep up the good work- Need an extra shifter- I've got a few lying around...
Cheers, Mike
Would love to run the NASA or one of the SCCA events but I have a formula car and they rarely if ever are classified to run.
Thanks for the story, keep up the good work- Need an extra shifter- I've got a few lying around...
Cheers, Mike
12-23-2008, 03:24 PM
#4
Nordschleife Master
Thread Starter
Tim- great write up and great story. I have always wanted to run an enduro race but still have not. We were considering running in the 24Hours of Lemons next year just for fun. (not a typo- yes lemons) It is a 24hour, 4-6 driver race series that limits you to a $500 dollar car. All safety eq like seat, rollbar, brakes, tires, fire sup are not in cluded in the $500 so the car will be safe for the drivers....
Would love to run the NASA or one of the SCCA events but I have a formula car and they rarely if ever are classified to run.
Thanks for the story, keep up the good work- Need an extra shifter- I've got a few lying around...
Cheers, Mike
Would love to run the NASA or one of the SCCA events but I have a formula car and they rarely if ever are classified to run.
Thanks for the story, keep up the good work- Need an extra shifter- I've got a few lying around...
Cheers, Mike
12-23-2008, 07:08 PM
#5
Rennlist Member
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: Phoenix and Forest Virginia
Posts: 1,947
Received 303 Likes
on
169 Posts
CMP is what I was thinking also in the spring- or maybe the CT race. I have family there. It sounds like great fun. If you follow through or we do I'll keep in touch- Merry Christmas , Mike
Trending Topics
12-26-2008, 01:23 PM
#8
Rennlist Member
Tim, that was a wonderful read. Thanks for sharing.
Was it a SS header? Just curious and where did it break? I am wondering if a slip fit would have fixed this issue. I am sure you will be looking into it as well.
Regards.
Raj
Was it a SS header? Just curious and where did it break? I am wondering if a slip fit would have fixed this issue. I am sure you will be looking into it as well.
Regards.
Raj
12-27-2008, 06:01 PM
#9
Nordschleife Master
Thread Starter
The header that broke was a Stahl header (from RSbarn). It actually split near the 02 bung in 2007. I had it welded and the weld lasted about 1.5 years until the enduro. I really think that the reason that it broke was my poor excuse for exhaust hangers (or lack there off). There was far too little supporting the header and I tend to be a curb jumper. I just cut the busted section out and welded in a new section and 02 bung. I've also installed a much better support system, so hopefully this won't happen again.
Franky is currently undergoing another transformation. I've installed fiberglass fenders, hood, front air dam, and will install rear flares tomorrow. This is to allow me to make the jump from 15" to 17" wheels (will run 275/40-17's) on all 4 corners in 2009. I upgraded the front end to late offset (hub and spindles) so that I can mount 968 brakes all around (will stay early offset in the rear and use 86 turbo brake rotors). The brakes that I got were well used so I've ordered the complete rebuild kit from Sunset (including pistons - not cheap).
Franky is currently undergoing another transformation. I've installed fiberglass fenders, hood, front air dam, and will install rear flares tomorrow. This is to allow me to make the jump from 15" to 17" wheels (will run 275/40-17's) on all 4 corners in 2009. I upgraded the front end to late offset (hub and spindles) so that I can mount 968 brakes all around (will stay early offset in the rear and use 86 turbo brake rotors). The brakes that I got were well used so I've ordered the complete rebuild kit from Sunset (including pistons - not cheap).
