This race commentary starts at Tuning
Technologies where we broke in Mitch’s (Engintecs) new motor and Scot Gray did his
usual magic with the EMS.
Alfred Beltran, the owner of the dyno shop, greeted us with open arms and a glass of cold
water. It was 113.79 degrees in the garage that weekend before the 4th of July and there
must have been a half dozen cars waiting for their dyno time. Al is the guru of EVO’s
in So Cal, which was proved by all the sweating people waiting for their performance
modifications or his magic tuning touch. Al’s a great guy and even contributed a new
Dejon manual boost controller to the cause of the “Flying Banana” when we
discovered the Greddy one was faulty!
When the session was over, Scot Gray gave me a big smile and shook his head saying,
“I don’t know how you’re gonna be able to control this much power in a FWD
car?” We’re looking at our final tune to be 500hp at 21psi.
On to the track
Friday July 7, we left for our four and a half hour drive to the high desert where we
reached Willow Springs International Raceway at high noon. The track is located in the
community of Rosemond California, which is located at the entrance of the Mojave Desert.
That puts the summer temperatures in the three digits where as our last race at Cal
Speedway was in the freezing rain. I think they call that snow?
All nestled in our concrete hotbox paddock garage with box fan a-blazing, I set up for
some testing for the day. I drove the car out on to the track and at half speed completing
a full lap. I came on to the hot pit lane and we checked for any leaks. The car was good
so I proceeded to take some laps at progressively higher speeds. After about 10 laps and
good water and oil temps I parked in the garage and we checked that all systems were
functioning properly. I had a small drip at the FP oil filter turbo hose but everything
else looked great. About twenty minutes passed and I cranked it up and put it back on the
track for some even greater speed maneuvers. It was around 2PM and the track temps were
around 111 degrees, which put it about 120 in the car. The new Hoosier Grand Am tires were
as sticky as bubble gum but the surface of the asphalt was so hot it felt greasy slippery.
I parked the car and we were off to the air-conditioned hotel, and all was good…
Race day
5AM Saturday morning comes really early in the desert with a cool 70-degree wind. We made
it to the Carnival, I mean track. There was at least fifty huge double decker 18-wheeler
trailers at this event. I wouldn’t have thought that so many people would show up in
that heat but I was obviously wrong.
We took care of the logbook tech signing ritual and got ready for our 8AM warm-up session.
As I drove over to grid I couldn’t believe how many cars were there. My run group
consisted of Super Unlimited, American Iron Mustangs, and the Factory Five Shelby Cobra
Challenge. There were 50 cars total and that’s bigger then a frigging NASCAR field.
On to the track we all went out as one big cluster f- -k under a double yellow flag.
Everyone took it surprisingly easy during the session as we all built up momentum. With a
flash of a checkered flag the warm-ups seemed to be over in moments. The car was running
temps of 210 through the uphill turns and would cool down to 200 through the sweepers and
straights. The “V” mount intercooler fabrication was functioning just as
planned. I can tell you that I was a bit concerned with engine temps having the new FMIC
in that heat, especially on the ass of another car in race conditions.
With the car back in the paddock garage we prepared for qualifying which was only a little
over an hour away. We topped the fuel cell with gas the night before to be ready for the
morning. When we went to add gas for qualifying we were amazed how little we had used in
the ten warm-up laps. I couldn’t believe it, not only is the car running excellent,
we’ve almost got double the horsepower, and now we’re getting better gas mileage
too? Mitch has really out done himself on this new motor, and at almost $8.00 a gallon for
race fuel that’s frigging awesome!
Qualifying
It was qualifying time and the moment your front wheels hit the track it’s balls out.
My huge and seemingly smart run group, turned into a bunch of crazy freaked out
Africanized Bees swarming through all the turns. I mean these guy’s tires
weren’t even warm and their pedals went through their floorboards. Cars were flying
off the track left and right while gigantic plumes of dirt (like brown smoke) blanketed my
windshield. The session lasted maybe 4 laps before it was black-flagged. A Stockcar
running in my Super Unlimited class was almost teetering on the flag station at turn two.
It took the wreckers almost 20 minutes to get the car back into the pits. My lap times
sucked because I was driving “smart-old-fart” cautious
Race time
The Super Unlimited series hosted a group of twelve, consisted of big-ol V8 Pro-Trucks,
Stockcars, 3rd Gen tube framed Mazda turbo RX-7’s, and a totally build 750hp GT-1
series Trans Am car with fat 18-inch wide Good Year slicks. A pro-driver Jack Mardikian,
who drives one of the supercharged Cobalt’s for GM in the Grand Am series, was
driving his personally built, full race, 400hp 3rd Gen RX-7. The guy was insane fast!
It was 1PM and the field was set with my series taking the first green flag, the American
Iron the next one, and the Shelby Cobra’s coming up the rear taking the last wave. We
did our parade lap behind the pace car and tightened up as we reached the front straight.
The starter kept us together until we were almost half way down the straight. All I can
assume is that the race director didn’t want us to be carrying too much speed as our
group went through turn one.
Green, green, green, and we were off in a belching frenzy of smoking tires and highly
toxic race fuel. I saw a hole were I could pass at least two cars and take the inside of
the turn. Remembering qualifying and how nobody was giving an inch I held my ground. The
two cars that left the hole open immediately closed it so tight that they touched doors.
We had made an agenda for the weekend by running conservative in the middle of the pack
and put some track miles on the new motor. I didn’t have a problem with that as the
last time I’d driven the car was back in March. We wanted to come home with points
and the car race ready for August.
Willow Springs is legendary as the fastest track on the West Coast. At 2.5 miles long,
with only nine turns, it’s just that. There’s an elevation change of 185 feet by
the time you reach turn four and then it’s extremely fast down hill through
non-existent turns 6 and 7. When you’re power drifting the 900 foot radius of turn 8
at 160mph, you’re setting up for the 600 foot radius of turn 9 onto the front
straight, which is a half mile long. If your driving line isn’t close to perfect
through 8 and 9, you risk rolling you car in the dirt off 9, or hitting the pit entrance
wall at the beginning of the front straight. One of those scenarios happened over the
weekend when a Honda Cup car spun and t-boned the pit wall. The driver was shaken up but
ok, his car on the other hand…
The Saturday race was insane I had two separate incidents where cars spun out in front of
me stalling on the track. There where at least a dozen people that blew motors or trannys
or just outright crashed into the dirt hill sides.
Track temperatures were 135 degrees that put it approximately 150 degrees in the car. I
was wearing my cool shirt with ice-cold water circulating over my entire upper torso.
Believe it or not I was the coolest all weekend when I was actually racing.
We made it through the Saturday madness and took the checkered flag… and all was
good!
Sunday
Sunday’s event was pretty much like Saturday but the ambient temperature was even
hotter if you can believe that. The track was slippery than hell and my lap times showed
my lack of confidence. I don’t know if it’s getting older or my fear of screwing
up the new motor, but I literally sucked the whole weekend. I do know that my wife and I
drank over 35 -16oz bottles of water and probably made as many trips to the bathroom.
Race time
We took to the track in the same order as the day before. I think we were short a dozen
cars from all the different race series do to the accidents that resulted from Saturday.
There was one point on Sundays race when the GT-1 Trans Am car, number 51 and I came out
onto the front straight together. It was a neck and neck drag race as we passed the flag
stand. If you’ll notice in one of the pictures below… I won! How cool is that?
With three laps to go in Sundays race I was coming down the front straight in to turn one
when this “whoosh” of water hit my passenger side windshield. There were no cars
in front of me so I immediately deduced it was my water. I shut down the engine and
coasted off the track over the dirt, all the while sucking up ¾ inch aggregate rocks into
my super sticky Hoosiers. I was still carrying enough momentum that I was able to make it
to the paddock where I coasted down to my garage. Engine temps were right at 210 so no
harm no foul. A chill went down my spine remembering the incident at Cal Speedway, or
maybe my cool shirt sprung a leak? Nope it was the Cal Speedway memory!
The upper radiator hose had blown (see picture below). I’m really glad it happened
where it happened or I would have been sitting way out on the track with no relief in
sight until the end of the race.
We pushed the car on the trailer and packed up the truck. With the air-conditioner on full
blast we drove back to San Diego counting our blessings from the weekend. We accomplished
everything we set out to accomplish, and more importantly came home with a racecar
that’ll be racing again another day…
Greg
