PUB Racing #77 takes 2nd in ITB Season Points at Waterford Hills
09-24-2005, 02:08 PM
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PUB Racing #77 takes 2nd in ITB Season Points at Waterford Hills
Heading into the last race weekend of the season, PUB Racing was trailing the points leader, Doug Spencer in his #66 BMW 320, by 19 points back in fourth place in the standings. While it was mathematically possible to take over the lead (with 2 points-paying races each weekend), we knew it was unlikely. We therefore decided to use the weekend to prepare for next season's championship win, putting on new springs and bars (660# front, 34mm hollow rear t-bars) and using the weekend to dial them in. We'd try hard, but wouldn't put out hopes on regaining 1st place. A little background here - we were forced to pass up race weekend 5 of 6 when I had to travel for work that weekend. If we had been present, we would already be leading the points due to Doug's mechanical problems that weekend. After Race 4, we were only 7 points behind him in 2nd.
(pics online, video to follow: http://vaughanscott.com/Races/2005/race6_05.htm)
First major problem showed up on loading the car - brakes had gone to crap. We proceeded to spend the entire first day re-bleeding the brakes repeatedly. While we got a half-decent pedal, it never really got great, and we will have to rework the entire brake system over the off-season. At least they held up.
So between the new suspension and iffy brakes, qualifying wasn't impressive - 3rd in class. However after a hard battle with the 2nd place Rustang (2nd in points), we were able to get by and pull ahead (though not without a parting shot from him on the front straight), taking second in the race and moving up to 3rd in points.
However the car was still not handling properly; despite adjustments after practice/qual, the car was still loose on the LH turns, pushing (though not as badly) on the RH turns. Driveable, consistent, but tricky. We continued to fiddle a bit with camber, but the track scales were not set up for crossweights. As we did not have time to visit the scales at work prior to the weekend, we were unable to rectify this. We should have it back on the scales in another couple of weeks, at which point I'm sure we'll find out that the car is pretty well wedged.
So with this imperfect setup and less-than-impressive brakes (for the first time ever, mind you), we roll up to the track Sunday AM to find? Yep, a yellow Volvo. One of the Volvos From Hell has decided to drop in for a little fun! Just what we need, as we're trying to lay down some serious points to regain second. Well, we went to talk with him - the driver, Rotem Gill, is a great guy as well as a great driver, and runs one of our main suppliers, All European. We pointed out that we were gunning for the championship, and he assured us that he was just out to have some fun, not going to spoil our season. At this point, in order to take over 2nd, we need to win the race (difficult to do with our handling problems, unless Doug has a problem) and have the Rustang finish fairly well down in the order.
So we line up on grid between the Rustang (still in 2nd, but only a few points ahead) and Doug in the Bimmer, with Rotem in his Volvo all the way in back (since he didn't race on Saturday). After taking the green, we push hard to get the most out of the balky car. A few laps in, we're passed by one of the fast (IT7) RX7's we're sharing the track with. We push hard to keep his pace, knowing that Rotem's worked his way through the field and is closing quickly - have to keep our pace up if we want to retain the 2nd place points!
Then just as Rotem gets to our back bumper, the RX7 and #77 close with Doug - who's having a problem! Smoking intermittently, we're worried he's oiling the track with a repeat of his oil cooler issue from the previous race weekend. So while he points us by, we drive it as safely as we can without giving up the lead to Rotem. Turns out later that his clutch slave cylinder came loose, expelling the piston and dumping fluid every time he hit the clutch pedal. Naturally he was not going to be able to maintain the necessary pace, but since he'd already won the first race, he no longer needed to win this race, the championship was locked in.
So we scooted on by, Rotem practically repainting our bumper the hard way! Pushing the car as hard as possible, the tires are getting greasy and the left-handers are turning into ugly slides... but there's only 3 laps left, Doug hasn't really backed off, and the 924 gets REALLY wide when it goes sideways! We survive a couple lurid slides, keeping enough speed and distance to prevent Rotem from gaining any position or chance at a run. As we come around the last LH turn, Swamp Turn, to take the checker, according to all reports Rotem and I are coordinating a synchronized slide through the apexes. He gets the run we expected, but is only able to get halfway up the length of the 924 before the stripe - giving #77 the win in a photo-finish! There a few better ITB drivers in the country, and to even be able to cleanly hold him off for 3 laps is indeed promising!
This win, our 4th and last of the season, also locks us in 2nd place in the ITB championship - as the Rustang formerly in 2nd had issues early in the race, unable to maintain his pace and finishing in 7th. We had gotten exactly what we needed to take 2nd, just in time, and had the added bonus of beating one of those tough Volvos.
Sunday's feature race (no points to affect the championship) turned into a bit of a letdown. Gridded by best race lap time, we were 5th behind Rotem in the Volvo on pole and a number of RX7's, but in front of Doug. We made a decent start, and pulled ahead of Doug coming out of turn 2. But all but the lead 2 cars got stuck behind a poorly-driven RX7, resulting in a chain of 8 or so very frustrated drivers - us 2nd in line. This frustration didn't help, and a mistake of grabbing the brake instead of the clutch allowed Doug to slip by into 2nd in class. After the 1st following RX7 was unable to make ground on the problem RX7, he pointed Doug and I by to have a shot. Doug eventually got by with a lap to go, but Rotem had long since disappeared. Besides which, a diversion onto the rumble strips leading onto the back straight left #77 with insufficient brakes to stop at the end of said straight, resulting in a detour through the grass (fortunately not into any gravel), and rejoining the field well back. Charging hard, we cut our lap times down significantly (2-3 seconds faster than when stuck behind the RX7) and worked our way past a number of slower ITB cars.
Most telling is the fast that we were able to rejoin the pack of cars stuck behind the slow RX7 BEFORE the end of the 14-mile race! This gives a true picture of the poor pace and the amount of blocking. But we were unable to get past the next Rustang in line (with further blocking and poor driving, and little time left to work anything out), finishing 5th overall.
Still, that race did not count for our championship - just disappointing to see one lousy driver (who'd been a turd all weekend to everyone he tangled with, to the extent of getting a talking-to from the stewards at the end of the race - too bad they didn't black-flag him) ruin what should have been a fun race - and ruin it for everyone! Even the leaders had their fun spoiled, as they were denied the chance to race others in their class.
Don't be that guy.
Ah well, it was still a great weekend to finish off a great season!
In the plans for next season: fix the brakes (rebuild and/or replace all hydraulics), re-balance the car, continue to tweak alignment settings for the new setup, and dyno-tune the engine. That's about all that's on deck. If we can get just a little more corner speed, and make sure the engine's optimized, we'll have every chance we can ask for to win next year's championship! And if we don't screw up the start to the year like we did this year (with driver error), we will be legitimately in the running all year long, not just due to our competitor's bad luck. After all, the 924 has consistently shown itself to be far more reliable than the BMW, if only due to preparation, and even if we struggle to beat them on track, we stand a chance to beat them overall with consistency...
(pics online, video to follow: http://vaughanscott.com/Races/2005/race6_05.htm)
First major problem showed up on loading the car - brakes had gone to crap. We proceeded to spend the entire first day re-bleeding the brakes repeatedly. While we got a half-decent pedal, it never really got great, and we will have to rework the entire brake system over the off-season. At least they held up.
So between the new suspension and iffy brakes, qualifying wasn't impressive - 3rd in class. However after a hard battle with the 2nd place Rustang (2nd in points), we were able to get by and pull ahead (though not without a parting shot from him on the front straight), taking second in the race and moving up to 3rd in points.
However the car was still not handling properly; despite adjustments after practice/qual, the car was still loose on the LH turns, pushing (though not as badly) on the RH turns. Driveable, consistent, but tricky. We continued to fiddle a bit with camber, but the track scales were not set up for crossweights. As we did not have time to visit the scales at work prior to the weekend, we were unable to rectify this. We should have it back on the scales in another couple of weeks, at which point I'm sure we'll find out that the car is pretty well wedged.
So with this imperfect setup and less-than-impressive brakes (for the first time ever, mind you), we roll up to the track Sunday AM to find? Yep, a yellow Volvo. One of the Volvos From Hell has decided to drop in for a little fun! Just what we need, as we're trying to lay down some serious points to regain second. Well, we went to talk with him - the driver, Rotem Gill, is a great guy as well as a great driver, and runs one of our main suppliers, All European. We pointed out that we were gunning for the championship, and he assured us that he was just out to have some fun, not going to spoil our season. At this point, in order to take over 2nd, we need to win the race (difficult to do with our handling problems, unless Doug has a problem) and have the Rustang finish fairly well down in the order.
So we line up on grid between the Rustang (still in 2nd, but only a few points ahead) and Doug in the Bimmer, with Rotem in his Volvo all the way in back (since he didn't race on Saturday). After taking the green, we push hard to get the most out of the balky car. A few laps in, we're passed by one of the fast (IT7) RX7's we're sharing the track with. We push hard to keep his pace, knowing that Rotem's worked his way through the field and is closing quickly - have to keep our pace up if we want to retain the 2nd place points!
Then just as Rotem gets to our back bumper, the RX7 and #77 close with Doug - who's having a problem! Smoking intermittently, we're worried he's oiling the track with a repeat of his oil cooler issue from the previous race weekend. So while he points us by, we drive it as safely as we can without giving up the lead to Rotem. Turns out later that his clutch slave cylinder came loose, expelling the piston and dumping fluid every time he hit the clutch pedal. Naturally he was not going to be able to maintain the necessary pace, but since he'd already won the first race, he no longer needed to win this race, the championship was locked in.
So we scooted on by, Rotem practically repainting our bumper the hard way! Pushing the car as hard as possible, the tires are getting greasy and the left-handers are turning into ugly slides... but there's only 3 laps left, Doug hasn't really backed off, and the 924 gets REALLY wide when it goes sideways! We survive a couple lurid slides, keeping enough speed and distance to prevent Rotem from gaining any position or chance at a run. As we come around the last LH turn, Swamp Turn, to take the checker, according to all reports Rotem and I are coordinating a synchronized slide through the apexes. He gets the run we expected, but is only able to get halfway up the length of the 924 before the stripe - giving #77 the win in a photo-finish! There a few better ITB drivers in the country, and to even be able to cleanly hold him off for 3 laps is indeed promising!
This win, our 4th and last of the season, also locks us in 2nd place in the ITB championship - as the Rustang formerly in 2nd had issues early in the race, unable to maintain his pace and finishing in 7th. We had gotten exactly what we needed to take 2nd, just in time, and had the added bonus of beating one of those tough Volvos.
Sunday's feature race (no points to affect the championship) turned into a bit of a letdown. Gridded by best race lap time, we were 5th behind Rotem in the Volvo on pole and a number of RX7's, but in front of Doug. We made a decent start, and pulled ahead of Doug coming out of turn 2. But all but the lead 2 cars got stuck behind a poorly-driven RX7, resulting in a chain of 8 or so very frustrated drivers - us 2nd in line. This frustration didn't help, and a mistake of grabbing the brake instead of the clutch allowed Doug to slip by into 2nd in class. After the 1st following RX7 was unable to make ground on the problem RX7, he pointed Doug and I by to have a shot. Doug eventually got by with a lap to go, but Rotem had long since disappeared. Besides which, a diversion onto the rumble strips leading onto the back straight left #77 with insufficient brakes to stop at the end of said straight, resulting in a detour through the grass (fortunately not into any gravel), and rejoining the field well back. Charging hard, we cut our lap times down significantly (2-3 seconds faster than when stuck behind the RX7) and worked our way past a number of slower ITB cars.
Most telling is the fast that we were able to rejoin the pack of cars stuck behind the slow RX7 BEFORE the end of the 14-mile race! This gives a true picture of the poor pace and the amount of blocking. But we were unable to get past the next Rustang in line (with further blocking and poor driving, and little time left to work anything out), finishing 5th overall.
Still, that race did not count for our championship - just disappointing to see one lousy driver (who'd been a turd all weekend to everyone he tangled with, to the extent of getting a talking-to from the stewards at the end of the race - too bad they didn't black-flag him) ruin what should have been a fun race - and ruin it for everyone! Even the leaders had their fun spoiled, as they were denied the chance to race others in their class.
Don't be that guy.
Ah well, it was still a great weekend to finish off a great season!
In the plans for next season: fix the brakes (rebuild and/or replace all hydraulics), re-balance the car, continue to tweak alignment settings for the new setup, and dyno-tune the engine. That's about all that's on deck. If we can get just a little more corner speed, and make sure the engine's optimized, we'll have every chance we can ask for to win next year's championship! And if we don't screw up the start to the year like we did this year (with driver error), we will be legitimately in the running all year long, not just due to our competitor's bad luck. After all, the 924 has consistently shown itself to be far more reliable than the BMW, if only due to preparation, and even if we struggle to beat them on track, we stand a chance to beat them overall with consistency...
09-24-2005, 02:12 PM
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Nearly forgot to mention - video this weekend was taken using the bullet cam setup, roof-mounted, with the Audiovox PVR. Quality and ease of download was amazing, helluva improvement. But the microphones sucked. Have to rework that, get a better mike.
09-24-2005, 02:41 PM
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First video - bit of a teaser, I intend to get the rest of it synched with TrackVision. It's a few laps into the first race of the weekend, and I make the pass on the 47 Rustang for 2nd in ITB (but he taps me from behind and puts the car sideways across the start-finish stripe - parting shot?):
http://vaughanscott.com/videos/race6...lass_race1.mpg (15.1Mb)
http://vaughanscott.com/videos/race6...lass_race1.mpg (15.1Mb)
09-24-2005, 10:13 PM
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Vaughan;
Congratulations! Great job.
Re: your audio problem on the video - sounds like the mic is overloaded. could be an input impedence problem, imho.
Go get 'em next year!
Alan
Congratulations! Great job.
Re: your audio problem on the video - sounds like the mic is overloaded. could be an input impedence problem, imho.
Go get 'em next year!
Alan
09-24-2005, 10:33 PM
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Congrats Vaughan! Great season. Here's to next season:
BTW, I think I know what caused your braking problem. I find Labatt's doesn't work as well as a heartier beer. I think I need to send you some Shiner Bock.
BTW, I think I know what caused your braking problem. I find Labatt's doesn't work as well as a heartier beer. I think I need to send you some Shiner Bock.
09-25-2005, 10:32 AM
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LOL! Well, we were loaded for bear with all that Spaaten Oktoborfest... 
People were actually walking by in shock and horror upon seeing our pile of empties... 1 case lasted only 1 night. Of course, the majority was drunk by the cornerworkers!
The brake problem was really funny. It started because I had to remove the rear suspension to swap in the T-bars. When I put it back together, looks like one of the hose fittings was weeping slightly - took us a little while to find that out. But even so, we would bleed it up and get a decent pedal, but that pedal would go away and be back to crap after a short drive or after sitting. As I said, we'll go through it 100% top-to-bottom, probably even replace a few more hard lines too as well as replacing/rebuilding hydraulics; there was one corner (front right) that was always a bear to get a good bleed on, and I think it was due to plumbing.
People were actually walking by in shock and horror upon seeing our pile of empties... 1 case lasted only 1 night. Of course, the majority was drunk by the cornerworkers!
The brake problem was really funny. It started because I had to remove the rear suspension to swap in the T-bars. When I put it back together, looks like one of the hose fittings was weeping slightly - took us a little while to find that out. But even so, we would bleed it up and get a decent pedal, but that pedal would go away and be back to crap after a short drive or after sitting. As I said, we'll go through it 100% top-to-bottom, probably even replace a few more hard lines too as well as replacing/rebuilding hydraulics; there was one corner (front right) that was always a bear to get a good bleed on, and I think it was due to plumbing.
09-25-2005, 12:55 PM
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Prosit!
Cornerworkers... ya gotta love 'em. But I have a funny story about cornerworkers partying.
The first time I went to the CART race at Mid-Ohio I had no idea what I was doing and we stayed at the campground a mile down the road in the overflow camping. We were having a hard time finding a place to plop but we found one in the back. Well, the back was part central, lead by the cornerworkers. I finally got to sleep about midnight and the cornerworkers were partying hearty. I woke up about 4:30 to go to the potty and they were still partying. I finally got up at 6:00 to get ready to go to the track. And there wasn't a trace of the cornerworkers. None. Nada. Zippo. They didn't sleep! I'm still amazed to this day.
Oh, and if the shop is intact and I still have a racing program, the suspension will be coming out of my car soon. Assuming we lost nothing, I cannot wait to get the car totally stripped and painted. I have probably 75% of what I need to put it together.
Cornerworkers... ya gotta love 'em. But I have a funny story about cornerworkers partying.
The first time I went to the CART race at Mid-Ohio I had no idea what I was doing and we stayed at the campground a mile down the road in the overflow camping. We were having a hard time finding a place to plop but we found one in the back. Well, the back was part central, lead by the cornerworkers. I finally got to sleep about midnight and the cornerworkers were partying hearty. I woke up about 4:30 to go to the potty and they were still partying. I finally got up at 6:00 to get ready to go to the track. And there wasn't a trace of the cornerworkers. None. Nada. Zippo. They didn't sleep! I'm still amazed to this day.
Oh, and if the shop is intact and I still have a racing program, the suspension will be coming out of my car soon. Assuming we lost nothing, I cannot wait to get the car totally stripped and painted. I have probably 75% of what I need to put it together.
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09-25-2005, 11:19 PM
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Congrats Vaughan. I really like your updates. I feel like I am living vicariously through you until I can find the time to race. I find amateur racing at your level more interesting than F1, ALMS or IRL. I like to hear about all the craziness of making it all happen.
Good luck to you next year and keep us all informed!
Good luck to you next year and keep us all informed!
