Sebring 11/00

The car is back together and is better then ever.  I fixed the load exhaust problem by installing a set of used headers I bought from a Rennlist member and some new mufflers.  I was installing them when I found the engine problems in September.  I took the new mufflers and headers to a local shop and told the manager I needed the mufflers to mount to the headers.  They welded on the appropriate flange and they worked great.  My sound readings this past event were in the mid to low 90's for the race.  Mission Accomplished.

I got a friend of mine from work to come crew for me.  I'm very glad he came, as he was very helpful.  It was a sunny and cool day as we drove to the track.  We arrived about 30 minutes before registration opened Friday night.  We got in line and waited with all the others.  From the number of people in line and the large number of cars already in the paddock, it looked like it was going to be another large Thanksgiving weekend event.  This counts as the first race for points for next year for both the Central Florida Region and SARRC. (South Atlantic Road Racing Championship)

We get inside, claim a piece of land for our paddock area and proceed to unload.  The wind is blowing hard, so we decide not to put up the canopy.  We are in group three so we'll have very little time in the morning to get final prep done on the car.  We'll put the canopy up after the practice/qualifying session.  Rain was predicted for the weekend, but there was hope it would miss us to the north.  Cover up the car, get my helmet and log book checked at tech and head to the hotel.  We check in, clean up a little and head off to dinner.

Early Saturday morning the phone rings with our wake up call.  I get up and look out the window.  It's still dry and looks OK.  Get some morning refreshments and ice and head to the track.  It's amazing how quick the weather changes in Florida.  Before we know it, it's starting to pour.  We continue getting the car ready.  I make the decision to keep the spares on the car as the front tires have more tread depth, but are very hard.  This would prove to be the wrong decision.

 Sid's here again with his F Production 356.  He's in group one and frantically changing over to rain tires.  He's also here to support me as this is the first event on the new motor.  We still have some fine tuning to do.

After Sid comes back in, I get the low down on the track conditions.  SLICK SLICK SLICK and lots of puddles.  BE VERY CAREFUL.  The rain has stopped and the second group is on the track.  The section of track I can see is starting to develop a dry line of sorts, and the big puddles are receding.  I get strapped in and proceed to the false grid.  We head out onto the track and I get a first hand view of the water.  I use the first lap as reconnaissance to see what puddles are still on line.  I've driven Sebring in the rain during the PCA race in 1997, so I know where the real bad spots are.  After a couple of laps the tires have some heat and traction is improving some.  I decide to step up the pace a little and that's when things start to get interesting.  A car I was following for awhile pushed off the track heading into the back section of the track.  I continued on and soon found myself sliding off the track with little or no steering in some corners.  I decide to come in before something really bad happens.  It's so slick that I slide off during my cool down lap.
 
 

When I get back in I make the call to change the tires, come hell or higher water.  My race tires are Hoosier Street TD.  These are a bias ply DOT tire.  This will be my first weekend driving them.  We decided these will be a good transition from DOT radials (Yokohama, BFG) to cantilever slicks (which are bias ply).   The Hoosier's are not much of a rain tire, but they'll have to do.  We give the car a thorough going over to make sure everything is OK.  It's weeping some oil in a couple of places, but nothing serious.  By the time my race comes around the track has dried and the sun is shining.  I take the car up to the grid and find I'm gridded 20th.  There are several fast cars behind me that must not have gone out in the wet qualifying session.  They'll be coming through the back of the pack pretty quick.

We head out on the pace lap.  I'm a little surprised, I don't feel very nervous for my first ever SCCA race.  While on the pace lap, I want to make sure I get the tires scrubbed in really good.  We start to form up going down big bend, but we have to go single file through the "Safety Pin".  (For those unfamiliar with the changes they have made at Sebring, the old hairpin is no longer used except as an emergency run off.  The new turn has been nicknamed the Safety Pin.)  By the time I get through there the front of the pack has already got the green flag.  I'm on the gas, accelerating as quick as I can.  Those faster cars are coming by me on both sides.  I give everyone plenty of room and we all get through the first couple of turns with no problems.  As we get to the back section of track, where there are some long straights, the faster cars pull away.  For most of the race I'm running around by myself.  This is fine with me as I'm just trying to get my rhythm back after not being in the car since February.  The engine does not seem to be running consistently on all six, but good enough to continue on.  As the race continues, I see one of my competitors sitting off the side of the track.  A couple of laps later, I see another one.  Just the fact that I'm still running, I've moved up two places.  On what would be the last lap, I see the last of my competitors sitting off track.  It does not dawn on me right away, but after I get back to the paddock and cool down, I realize that I won my class.  Not bad for the first time out.

We look at the car again and start to prep it for the next day.  In doing this we find there is some debris in one of the intermediate jets.  We also do pull all the spark plugs.  Most of the plugs look very good.  One looks like it never fired or at least not very often.  We check the plug wire on that cylinder and find a rubber o-ring that helps lock the wire down has shifted and is blocking 75% of the connector.  We fix the plug wire, clean all the carb jets, replace two plugs and re-install the others.  We start it up and it sounds and is running much better then it did earlier.  A little fine tuning with the sync, and we're ready for the next day.

I told Sid I wanted to let him take the car out during the morning warm-up to see what he thought of the car.  It's only a 10 minute session, so he's only going to get 2-3 laps.  When he came back in he was happy with the handling, but we also talked about some changes he thinks will help the car, more on this in future posts.  Anyway, we got the car ready for the race and then the sky opened up again.  It's raining harder now then it did yesterday.  The rain went on for quite awhile and the track had huge puddles.  It did not look like it was going to let up, so I decided to end the weekend without wrecking the car.  I went over to the stewards trailer to get my novice permit back.  While I was waiting, the sun came back out again.  The clouds heading towards us were big and dark, so I stuck to my decision, and we started packing the truck.

The cars from my group were heading towards the grid.  It continued to dry out, and I was beginning to second guess myself.    My race had not started yet and we had just put the car on the trailer when it started pouring again.  I could see most of the GT gars were driving back to their paddock spots to change to rain tires.  Most of them did not go back out.  So that concludes a very successful race weekend.  The next Scheduled race for us will be the SCCA race the last weekend of February.