As promised! It's long, fair warning!
Sunday Enduro
It was too dang hot to work on the car after the race on Saturday, so we left a few things to fix early Sunday morning when it was cooler. Blake had gone off and knocked the steering off center and that had to be checked, as well as brake pads, and a bolt check. We found nothing wrong with the steering, and nothing bent. We decided to run it as is. Jesse improvised a driver cooling solution with old brake duct hose and zip ties on the A-pillars. Today’s going to be even hotter at 115F. We’re all wondering how long the race is going to be considering the last race was cut short due to much lower temps. At the drivers meeting, race control confirms our suspicions. The race will be shortened from 8 hours to 4 hours, with a maximum stint length of 1 hour. Fine with us! We don’t want to be driving any longer than that anyways.
Race start and Jesse’s stint
We belt Jesse in, and he pulls the car to grid. Recall that the day before, Jesse had some heat exhaustion problems and had to pit early. Getting Jesse a stint with lower temperatures so that he could compete and enjoy himself was the only unfinished business that really mattered. He got the first choice of stint and of course that meant the coolest part of the day. As he sits on grid at 9am it’s already 85F.
He makes his way through the formation lap and reports that the driver cooling mods are a night and day difference! The green flag drops and we start the race in 26th out of 35 cars. He’s cautious as he starts to get into the groove of the race, and before we know it his times start dropping to competitive levels. By lap 14 he clicks off a 1:38.3 and a personal best. Jesse had a great time and was able to battle with Team Neon and the Battle Forged Heroes VW. This is what it’s all about. Jesse pit’s in 22nd and is happy. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED! Now let’s go run the best race we can. We’ve got nothing to lose!
Tyler’s Stint
Tyler belt’s in for the second stint. We gave him a *cooler* stint today because last race he was baking in the afternoon heat. Our pit stops are getting almost as good as they can get. We push start the car right as the 5-minute timer goes off. Tyler rejoins in 28th. We didn’t know much about Tyler’s stint because he’s a racing machine and didn’t say anything. Later Tyler reported that he was trying to focus on his line and work on the areas where he knew he was slow. Apparently this worked because Tyler ran his personal best time of 1:39.8, which meant all our team was running in the 1:3X’s. Tyler’s driving has improved by a few seconds per lap since his first race last year (and in much worse conditions than last year). Toward the end of his stint, he decided to be the drift king in turn 7 which precipitated some massive fuel cut. We are brainstorming on how to improve the fuel cut in the future because it seems to happen even with 4 gallons left. Soon after, he pulls into the pits in 21st place. By this point, race control has notified us that our transponder signal is extremely weak. They give us a new rental transponder to stick on the car. Somehow, we’re able to swap transponders, drivers, and fuel, all within 5 minutes and 2 seconds. After running mid-to-back of C-class most of the morning, we’re starting to see that our consistency is moving us up the order. There are also a lot of car’s dropping out. If we keep running a clean race, and a bit of luck goes our way, we could be on the podium.
Blake’s Stint
Blake rejoins in 22nd place. It’s really hot at this point. Blake is paying the price now for having a cooler stint the day before. His lap times are good, but not quite as fast as the day before. He is able to get down to a 1:37.3. Despite the heat, he’s able to push, and we start moving up through the field. Unfortunately, our transponder problems are still present. Blake is not recording laps that he’s clearly making. Race control tells us that the location of our transponder must be the issue. We don’t know why this is, because it’s very close to the ground and in the same place we’ve always put transponders. They tell us to bolt 3 rentals on to it if we have to, but they need another signal for our car. After a trip to race control, we’re credited back a lap for every “double lap time†we have (laps that register double our normal lap time). They give us another transponder and tell us to bolt it on in a totally different area of the car. Once all of our laps are given back we finally get an idea of where we are in the standings. Blake has moved us up to 15th overall and 5th in C-Class. He pulls into the pits and we get to work refueling. He gave us this report about his stint “Hot, go fast, don’t crash, almost crashed, go faster, hotâ€. Thanks Blake. Tyler sheet metal screws the new transponder somewhere near the back bumper. Jesse gets the camera reset. Somehow, we do this all and only lose 1 minute for a total of 6 minutes in the pits.
My Stint
I leave pit lane and we all believe there’s a legitimate chance at being on the podium, so long as our transponder works, I don’t crash, I survive the heat, and we get a little bit of luck going our way. We can’t be sure because of our transponder issues, but it appears I’ve rejoined 6th in class with #246 Shift Happens CRX leading, with #153 Bunny Boy’s miata, #323 Durkee Walker Racing miata, #606 Sleepyrace miata, and the #943 Porsche 944 ahead of us. Shortly after my stint begins, I overtake the green 944 as they pit for their final driver change which moves us into 5th. After that we’re all racing heads up to the checker, everyone else short of an issue does not need to pit. A few laps later I catch up to the #606 Sleepyrace Miata, and overtake on the inside entering turn 7, moving us in to 4th place in class. A safety car comes out to deal with a stalled vehicle in turn 11. After a lap or two under full course yellow we get a green flag. I can see the #167 Miata that is running 6th in class and I’m able to pull very close to them by the exit of the chicane. At that very moment we come up on the #246 CRX that’s going slowly into turn 4. The CRX is running 1st in class and it appears their LF wheel is coming loose! Huge bummer for them, but thankfully they were able to limp it back to the pits safely. This means if we put a few more laps in we will eventually overtake them. On the back straight I motor past the #167 miata to put one lap up on them, and by the front straight we’re back on a full course yellow for the disabled CRX. These restarts have gone our way in that all the cars are bunched back up and they’re within striking distance when we go green. Green flag drops and I’m right behind Durkee Walker, Bunny Boys (who were both laps up on us), and the green 944. By the back straight I’m close enough to the miata’s to motor by and pull within a few car lengths of the 944. By turn 12 I’m right on the 944, and able to draft and overtake him on the front straight to put one lap on them. At this point, not only is the race going my way, but I am also the fastest I’ll be all race setting a 1:37.5 right as I pull past the Porsche to put a lap on them. Shortly after we reach the number of laps the #246 CRX completed, and we overtake them by default and move into 3rd place. Unfortunately, this is the point where we get some luck that doesn’t go our way. About 10 minutes left in the race the orange General Leif Volvo runs out of fuel and coasts off course in the chicane, which brings out a local yellow in turn 1. I come up on this flag station and am right behind an e46 BMW in another class. We coast through turns 1-3, and past the volvo on the side of the track. As we approach the apex of turn 3 I stay tight to the bumper of the BMW, and as soon as the turn 4 flag station is within view and without a yellow flag I go for it. About a minute later Blake comes on the radio and says, “MAX did you pass someone under yellow?â€. “I don’t think so!!!†I reply. I was getting really tired and hot. It was nearly an hour into my stint in the heat so I didn’t flat out deny it even though I was pretty sure I didn’t. Anyways, sure enough I see a black flag the next time I’m on the front straight. I pull into pit lane and am held in the doghouse for a couple of minutes. While sitting there idling I see the oil pressure gauge hovering around zero, and I panic and shut the engine off. My team sprints down pit lane to be ready to push start me while I debate if I should not go back out (my brain is not working very well at this point). There is only 3 minutes left to the checker. The guys get to the doghouse, and I’m released. They push start me, and as soon as the RPMs come up, the oil pressure does too… Maybe it’s just really hot. The penalty cost us about two extra minutes. After the race we would review the video, and all agree that it should not have been a penalty. We presented it to race control and they say I should have waited longer to make the pass. Unfortunate, but that’s racing sometimes. Thankfully my team doesn’t think it should have been a penalty, and not letting them down is what really matters to me. Two more laps to the checker and I have no idea where I stand, although I can see the green Porsche in my mirrors. Somehow, I’m still able to crank out a 1:38 on the last lap of the race, which proves to be important. I buzz the wall to the checkered flag. It’s 104 degrees when I get out of the car, and I learn that we came in 4th place in C-Class, and 15th overall. The #606 Sleepyrace Miata was about 20 seconds ahead and took 3rd. Amazingly, the Porsche behind me was on the same lap in 5th place and only 3 seconds back. After 4 hours of racing 3rd-6th place were separated by only 35 seconds!!!
We all had an epic weekend that we’ll never forget. After actual years of work, we make it to a race weekend hoping to finish a race and preferably have a running engine at the end. Instead we finish BOTH races, the car is 3 seconds faster than the year before, every driver drove, every driver went the fastest they’d ever gone, we actually get to push and compete, we come within 20 seconds of a podium, AND we drove the car on to the trailer in working condition. If you would have told me this weekend was going to turn out THIS GOOD I would have never believed you! I’m so proud of my team and there couldn’t be a happier team owner than THIS GUY!
check out how close the 5th place Porsche was!
https://youtu.be/fUs8VJltZ4c