After getting what turned out to be a leaking head gasket replaced (long story but, based on past experience with this head design on another BMW racecar, I was worried I’d warped the head) along with some missing internal bolts (!!), there was nothing stopping me from heading to Portland for the traditional Father’s Day week-end race. Unfortunately, what had been forecast as mid- to upper-70s and sunny for the whole weekend was looking progressively colder (mid-60s) and potentially wet (what, again?!) for Saturday and possibly also Sunday.
I also wasn’t thrilled to find out the Formula E race (all those exotic world cities on their tour, plus… Portland? okay) that follows in two weeks had taken over HUGE chunks of “our” paddock area, which caused me some concern about where and how I was going to find a paddock space.
Friday
With my first on-track session not until 11:30 in the morning and knowing that registration was only going to take a few minutes, I found myself mentally thrashing around whether to leave at the usual midday Friday time, wait until Friday evening after most of the worst-of-the-week traffic typically went away, or just go down at the crack-of-dawn on Saturday morning. After much debate, I decided that saving on one night of hotel charges wasn’t worth the lack of sleep and general tired-before-I-started-racing effect, so Friday it was. I wasn’t sure if the track gates were closed at 10 or 11 pm, but the latter turned out to be the case, which meant going late was a viable option. After much playing around with Waze to test different arrival times it seemed that, by leaving around 5:30, I’d arrive at the track between 8:30 and 9 pm and save myself over an hour’s travel for the “best” alternate times; winner! In the end, it took… 4 hours, which is pretty much the same as usual (barring unexpected slowdowns).
The paddock was even more of a mess than it had been with the chaos caused by the Spec Miata Tour visit in April (plus there were loads of containers and equipment in other areas in the infield that we don’t generally use) and I considered myself lucky to squeeze into a space “up in the meadow” again, coincidentally just across the paved access road from most of the other SE46 cars and next to one of the others. As I’d arrived so much later than I’d expected, it was fully dark as I unloaded the car and set up the canopy, car cover, chairs, and so on, but it wasn’t horrible and I got enough done that I felt comfortable leaving the rest for the morning.
Saturday
When I woke up, the first thing I did was check my weather app that said… both days are going to be dry now! Yea! A quick trip to Costco for gas and then off to the track. I just missed the track crossing before they closed it for the first session, but Saturday morning sessions are only 15 minutes long, so time for a quick chill-out before I have Things To Do. Once across, I registered and finished setting up the car and my gear for the day. (I’ll save setting tire pressures until much closer to session start.)
Eric was just blitzing down in the morning, running Group 4, and then heading back home after, and it was about this time he showed up to find an even worse paddock situation than I had the night before. We managed to get him squeezed into the chaos and, even though he was several paddock spaces away from me, we were BOTH across the access road from the other SE46s… Racer on Rails was supporting two novices (one in an SE46), one PRO3 car, and two SE46s. (They also directly support or have an element of connection with most of the other SE46s I’ve raced against so far; I’m feeling outnumbered…)
The weather report had changed again, of course, now indicating 100% chance of rain from 11 am to noon, which is perfect as our qualifying session is set for 11:30. 😐
Qualifying
It did, in fact, start raining about 11:00, but someone took pity on us and it stopped by the time the group made it to pregrid. And okay, yes, I was using incredibly old tires. Tires that were so old, in fact, this was the last day I was going to use them, but even so I was surprised that the limiting factor in the session seemed to be me rather than the (lack of) grip in the tires. Other than one lap, where I overcooked it into the chicane, I don’t feel like I was making any mistakes (in fact, I think I was hitting Turns 10 and 12 [my old nemesis!] pretty well), but I think maybe more I just wasn’t really pushing it. Shades of a qualifying session here from a few years ago, where I was just kind of doing my own lapping session vs running a qualifying pace.
I also experienced the return of a weird engine stumble I ran into in the first race that “shouldn’t” be fuel-related, but it happens in the same place(s) here, a flat-out throttle run shortly after going through a quick right-hander, so… maybe? I had the same problem for the first lap or so in my first session at Pacific, but then it went away and didn’t reappear that week-end. Mysterious, and not in a fun way.
I finished the session 6/6 in class (4/10″ behind fifth) and would start 16th of 17 runners (only not last overall because the GT2-classed novice who had so many, um, “challenges” from the last race was placed at the back, although with the split start I was still actually the car at the back of the entire group) with a 1’30.710″ when pole was 1’27.251″. I really should’ve been in the 28’s, so we’ll see what I can manage in the race with rabbits to chase (he said, putting a positive spin on it).
Race
After the chaos we’ve experienced at doing split starts, I brought up the question in the drivers meeting of how, exactly, we should be doing them. Will the starter pull the green and then bring it out again for us? Will they just wave it for the group and it’s up to us to determine when to go? The PRO3 group regularly does split starts (with the green-wait-green-again method) and they don’t seem to have problems with grids of 20+ cars, so it seems like the 6-12 of us should be able to manage it. The steward said that the PRO3 method seems to work well, and it’s kind of the expectation, but that technically the track is green when the flag first comes out, so it’s up to us to exercise the willpower to wait for the second green. All well and good, but that means we as a class need to A) do a better job at coming to a consensus and sticking with it, and B) making sure that the cars that drop in from race-to-race are on the same page as the rest of us.
On the “fun” side of things, this would be the first race with my new camera setup, where I installed my GoPro facing backwards with the SmartyCam facing forwards, so that I could present a better perspective of the race. On the less fun side, starting at the back meant the rear-facing camera wasn’t going to have much to show until I started getting lapped by the GT-classed cars. Ah, the life of a snail.
If my engine stumble was caused by fuel issues, an easy way to cure that would be to make sure I had plenty to work with, so I made sure I had a little over 10 gallons in the tank for a race that should need less than seven. Take that, dual fuel pumps!
Putting another positive spin on things, I’ll say that we clearly tried to do a decent split start. 😀 You can see from the start of the video that we start to pick up the pace in preparation for the green, then the polesitter checks us all up (I can’t see why from three rows back), then some people go and some don’t, then we apparently all just throw in the towel and go for it. I found out later that the starter didn’t get the message about split starts and just waved the green for a really long time. (I would find out later that the PRO3 split start in Group 1 had the same problem, but at least they’re more used to split starts and managed it slightly better than we did.)
As if that wasn’t enough, the engine stumbled again going down the back straight and what was already a gap to the pack because of the start got a little bigger as I lost momentum. And then again on the front straight, and yet again on the back straight. Obviously, the mystery of the cause is now leading toward something electronic? (Oooh, car electronics! So simple to diagnose!, he said very sarcastically.)
Chris Johnson in fifth had made it to third during the chaos of the start, but after the first lap was back down to fourth, and then Mike Ramberg in fifth caught him up and passed him in the chicane, the disruption of which let me catch them both and put me right on Chris’ bumper. He pulled away from me a bit, partly because he’s faster but also because I’d figured out a mitigation for the engine stumble: if I don’t put the throttle all the way to the floor, the stumble doesn’t occur (so, throttle position sensor?). Of course, this does a number on my ability to pull hard off any corner that leads to a fast straight, but at least it’s less annoying. “Slower but not as annoying” is a tough way to experience a competitive event.
So he’s gapping me on the straights, a little, but I’m catching him again in the corners, especially in the Turn 10-11-12 complex. I’m losing out a little in Turns 4 and 5 (the end of the front straight, if you ignore the chicane in the middle) and gaining it back in Turn 6. On the following lap, in the brake zone for Turn 7, I go to the inside and make the pass. I’m very slowly able to pull away a little, although not enough to ignore him given his better overall pace, but then he gets caught by one of the GT cars in a bad place and loses a bunch of time. And that was the first half of the race.
A little after the halfway mark, something happened with Stefan’s ST car that caused him to drop well back as another rabbit for me to chase, but I knew I was unlikely to actually catch him… and didn’t. And then with about two laps to go, I was gifted a place in class when I came across Mike Ramberg’s car heading off-track driver’s right in Turn 8. I’d later find out he’d had “a moment” with one of the GT cars and spun. My best lap was still about 1.3″ off the fastest in class, but I like to view it as another “win” in what (if I didn’t know better) could look like an intentional plan to just not be last in class.
I was pretty sure I heard a new rattle from under the car when I pulled into my paddock area after the race and that got added to my list of things to check. First, though, I confirmed that, yep, I’d squeezed brake fluid out of the reservoir that I suspected I’d overfilled in my pre-race prep. (I realized later I could actually see evidence of it on the windscreen.) I went off for a quick chat with Eric and returned to my car (with the hood still up) to notice the plastic reservoir used to catch any fluid coming through the vent hose from the radiator overflow tank was missing from the front of the engine bay where it’s supposed to be. Instead, it was down at the bottom of the engine resting on the exhaust manifold, partially melted. I’m pretty sure the rattling I heard was it bouncing around off the manifold and the right-side half-shaft. With no other options, I used cable ties to mount a good ol’ empty Gatorade bottle and secured the hose with duct tape… a trifecta of shade-tree mechanic “good ’nuff” solutions!
I also finally retired my 20+ heat cycle Toyo RRs for the new set I’d used in Sunday’s race at Pacific, so I won’t be able to use them as an excuse for my poor lap times anymore. 😀
Sunday
There are lots of volleyball/softball/cheer teams that seem to stay at the hotel I’m usually at and whoever was there that Saturday night was definitely doing the “group of young teenage girls” thing to a “T,” as they were talking loudly, giggling like… teenage girls, and running from room to room until pretty late. Not to be outdone, there seemed to several dudes in the early-dawn hours who thought it’d be fine to walk down the hall talking and laughing like we were all up already. Somehow, I actually fell back to sleep and ended up with what’s, for me, a normal amount of sleep. On a race week-end, no less!
I missed the track crossing at 9:25 so I spent my time waiting at Turn 8 watching Group 5’s entry, mid-corner, and exit from Turn 7. I concluded that I might hit the apex a bit earlier than most, but I resolved to check during qualifying. I got things ready for the first session and then chilled out until it was time to get ready.
Qualifying
A bit of a mixed bag: I knew I was going to be at the back (of the whole run group!) or close to it, so I wasn’t especially worried about my lap times other a desire to improve over yesterday. I was also specifically going out in the session to work on my speed through Turns 4 and 5 and to a lesser degree 7, so, again, improvement was what I was looking for vs pure speed. That said, a little disappointed to be the only car to qualify in the 1’30″s.
I also didn’t have a single moment with the engine stumbling despite “matting the throttle” as normal. Curious.
Race
SO MUCH TIME! After I got the car ready for the race I had literally hours to wait. I mean, seriously: I read a book, took a nap, started packing the trailer, took down the canopy, and so on and I STILL had over an hour before I had to go to pregrid. Just doing one class/run group will result in that, of course, but I could’ve just as easily been bemoaning the lack of time if I’d had an issue with the car I needed to resolve.
We did another split start but this time we were a little more organized and it seemed fair to everyone. There were two novices on the grid today, one of whom was in an SE46, so there was someone behind me at the start. Then again, this “novice” (from the Racer on Rails camp) had set a qualifying time faster than every other car in class, so I wasn’t expecting him to be back there for long.
I was stuck on the outside column in the run to the chicane, a position that always makes me a little conservative going into the chicane where I can’t escape visions of getting T-boned on turn-in, but I was surprised that Karl stayed behind me and even wider rather than following Chris to the inside. Regardless, that was the order we kept for a lap-and-a-half until I made the same move on Chris to the inside of Turn 7 that I had the day before.
A few corners later, in the brake zone for Turn 12, things got a bit interesting when I just about found myself the unexpected co-pilot of the GT2, driven by the other novice, who had comparatively-speaking parked it in the corner. This completely killed my momentum and, sure enough, Karl drafted me for a bit, then pulled to the inside and outbraked me for the chicane (which I didn’t fight too hard). Now it was his turn to get held up by the GT2 car, followed by another “parking” episode in Turn 5 that stacked all of us up (to the point I downshifted a gear) and let Chris get his nose to the inside, but I was able to hold him off and stay in front. Then, when we got to the brake zone for Turn 7, I think Karl was either unsure of what do, between the car overslowing in front of him and me coming up hard to his right, or just playing it safe, but I was able to take the inside and pass him back by (incidentally, if I’m honest) using the GT2 car as a blocker while I accelerated away. The GT2 was slightly less slow in Turn 12 than the previous lap and I was able to maintain enough momentum that Karl couldn’t draft me down the straight again… until the following lap, where he repeated his drafting/outbraking move into the chicane. Rather inevitably, though, given our relative qualifying times, he slowly pulled away from me as I (somehow) pulled away from Chris. Before long, he was a silver dot in the distance ahead of me while Chris was a blue dot in my mirrors.
With most of my lap times hovering in the 1’30” range, I guess it wasn’t surprising that Chris closed up on me roughly five laps later… except I totally was surprised by it at the time. I hadn’t seen much of him for so long that I’d sort of forgotten he was back there, and then all of a sudden I made a check for approaching GT cars only to find him looming in my mirrors. Within a couple laps, he was close enough that I thought we might be dueling again before the race ended, but I was relatively confident I could out-race him until the checkered flag. I think part of my confidence was actually due to distraction, as I’d suddenly become very aware that I’d over-hydrated before the race and now really needed it to be over. If you know what I mean. 😉
On the very next lap, we came across the “surface conditions” flag in Turn 12 because a GT car had dumped what looked like gear oil down the whole front straight from corner exit to where the driver had pulled over to the right just before the chicane. Chris and I both backed off a bit as we had to cross over the line of fluid to get to the chicane and its braking zone, but then resumed our battle.
As we approached Turn 7, I could see double-yellow flags (from the video, I think they’d probably come out as we passed the Turn 6 flag station) and, not wanting Chris to do what I’d done at Pacific, I held up my hand to indicate I was slowing down and he should, too. I don’t know if he didn’t realize what was up or what, but he overtook me down the inside of the corner. He immediately checked up, though, and so I drove back past him. Now, technically that’s two passes-under-yellow, but there was no one else around us, we were on the opposite side of the track from where the workers were helping the GT driver, we were both going quite slowly by then, and we (in my opinion) “fixed the problem,” so I’m assuming the corner workers viewed it as a “no harm, no foul” situation.
In any event, we then scurried around for another lap to catch up to the pack behind the safety car, which we finally did as we approached Turn 10 (damn, but we were a long way behind!), only to see the checkered flags waving as we approached the start/finish stand.
As I watch my videos after the week-end I can tell I’m really only driving at about 8/10s, much like you’d do at a lapping day if you were pushing it. This is really something I need to work on… I mean, I’m still getting faster in each session I run, so that’s great, but I’m probably at the point where “seat of the pants’ing it” isn’t producing progress anymore and it’s time to dig into the data.