Final Race Prep

Newly re-rimmed Panasport C3 wheels with rains. They were a bit of work to get together, but they seem to hold air nicely. So now I am ready for the wet weather.

Front repairs all done. Nose came out perfectly nice. New lower a-arm was a pain to install, but in the end it all came out looking good during the alignment process.

One brain fart to tell on myself. After the repairs were done, I wanted to scale the car to make sure that the new a-arm hadn't changed the corner weights... So up on the scales it went, and to my surprise the readout read 167/276 for the fronts. I sat there scratching my head for a while wondering how I had managed to get the corners 100# off with a simple a-arm change.

Well after a few minutes, I figured it out. The rears were reading 274/170. Checked my scale cables and yep, I had one set reversed (front in rear, rear in front). So the real corner weights were spot on...Whew!

Tonght is the final load up for the Glen. Hope it cools off soon, becuase pushing aropund a 800# racecar in 95 degree weather kinda sucks.

Later,
Sean

Nose job complete!

So after several hours of prep work, out came the paint gun and the part is now "finished". A little wet sanding and polishing tomorrow morning, and it will definitely pass the 50/50 test (looks good from 50 feet at 50 mph).

Tomorrow I should finish up my prep for the Glen round of the F1600 Championship Series. I still need to reset the front toe and check out the camber/castor/corner weights. Then load it all up for next weekend.

I am getting pretty excited about going back to the Glen. I haven't raced there since 1995 (in my old Reynard FC). But I really enjoyed the track and the area back then. So I am hoping for a similarly positive experience this time. My dad (Bill Maisey) will be tagging along as my 'crew' and chief engineer. Hopefully we can pull off a couple of respectable finishes...

Sean

Nose Job

Repairs to the damaged upper nose are nearing completion. There were two big jagged tears in the part about 9" and 12" long. All bonded back together and filled. I spent the better part of the Indy 500 sanding and finishing the repairs.

Post Summit Damage Assessment

On the opening lap of the Summit Point National this weekend I had a little coming together with Jim Oseth in his Van Diemen. I can't really blame Jim at all - Colin Thompson was fighting for the lead into turn one directly in front of us, and inexplicably he either missed a shift or brake checked us. At full accelleration under green things happened VERY fast and before I could zig enough to miss them I was climbing Jimmy's left rear wheel. The impact was enough to send the nose of my car skyward to about 45degrees.

My dad was running a couple of positions behind and caught the action on his incar: Here

The rear tire ran up the right side of the nose and dinged the lower a-arm and tie rod. I continued on and ultimately worked my way up to 3rd overall, but the race was not kind to me. On lap 8 I developed a slight miss. By lap 9 it was getting worse and coming into turn 9 the car quit completely. The AIM system was in alarm mode and the fuel pressure was dropping like a stone.

Poor focus in the photo, but the point here is that the failure was the spade connector on the fuel pump switch on the back of the dash. The hard impact of the car coming back to the tarmac apparently knocked it a little loose. Over the 9 laps afterward it started to arc and voltage to the pump dropped. By the time the engine quit pressure was down to 7psi. I wish I had thought to reach under the dash, bacause a quick reseat of the connector returned operations to normal and 52psi. A probable National podium finish wasted.

When it bagan to rain around noon at Summit I was really sweating it. I had rain tires in the trailer, but they were not mounted. Fortunately the rain let up shortly after lunch and the group before us largely dried the track, so I did not have to go out on a wet track on slicks (the tire guys were long gone).

Monday afternoon my new wheel halves arrived to allow me to rerim the Panasport C3 wheels to 5.5". Another small project for this week as I prepare for the next Pro Series races at the Glen. They look very pretty and seem pretty light too.

As the week progresses:
1) Replace bent a-arm
2) Replace bent tie rod
3) Fix Nose and paint
4) Fix crush box cover and paint
5) Rerim the C3 wheels and mount the rains
6) Install Glen gearing
and so on...

Sean

All packed up and ready to go...

So the car is prepped. The trailer is packed, and the truck is ready to pull out Friday afternoon. Off to Summit Point - one of my personal favorite tracks - for the reinstituted National. Can't wait!

Sean

Final Summit Prep Work

Sadly time to swap out the 31.0mm restrictor for the wimpy 29.0mm unit. The SCCA will wonder as the season progresses why more Honda owners aren't running Nationals. Where are the Hondas? In the Pro Series where they are given a fair shot...

So I will go to Summit playing the role of the poor sucker who is bringing a knife to a gun fight. I bet Bill Valet will be running at full HP with his Ford motor... (no offense meant to Bill BTW). Hopefully I can at least put in a respectable showing.

I think this will probably be my only SCCA National this year. A pity, but the F1600 Series is too appealing by comparison, and the SCCA politics have left a very bad taste in my mouth.

Sean

Prep Work for Summit

Over the break between races I accumulated a stock of 2"ID springs in a variety of rates from 350-750#.

I also decided to fit new fule injectors and a 10 Micron version of the XRP filter than came with the HPD kit. The 10 micron filter is the same external dimensions so it was an easy bolt in swap. Removing the injectors was easier than I thought it would be too. I just popped off the top half of the intake manifold and access was fairly easy.

New rear springs (now also in the correct rate). A quick scale check suggests that the springs are good for a couple of pounds weight savings between the front and rear. They look much better too.

I really wanted to mount a camera after watching all of the cool VIR videos. But, I struggled on how best to mount it given the minimal options on the Citation bodywork. In the end here is what I came up with. I will try it out at Summit this weekend...

Sean

VIR Complete

And so after two fairly successful races, it was time to pack it all back up. The #99 Citation had performed flawlessly all weekend. It was one of those rare races where I just made minor tuning adjustments and added gas. I ran more and more competitively all weekend, and finished 9th in both races - leaving me 8th in points going in to the Watkins Glen rounds in June.

VIR Weekend (continued)

Dad arriveed with his Swift DB1 mid day on Thursday. Fortunately the garages at VIR are more than adequate for two FF cars. In fact we had the scale platform in there as well as a lot of tools and supplies.

Fellow FF racers Mark Walthew (crouched over the cockpit) and Karl Barbru (holding up the wall) came out for the weekend to help out. With 7 Practice sessions, two qualifiers and two races over four days, there help was much needed and appreciated.

Unfortunately my dad's weekend got off to an eventful start. In the first session Friday, he had the lower bolt start to back out of the left front upright. It rubbed his new Panasport rim until it exploded in Turn 5 - sending him spinning off into the weeds.

In the second session, the upper rocker arm suffered a material failure at the outer bearing race. The suspension collapsed with a "Bang!" by his report entering "Oak Tree" - once again sending him spinning off of the track. This time into the tirewall on the outside. It was not looking like a good weekend at this point. Two sessions - two wrecker rides.

But with a little help from our friends (Karl shown here) it came back together. Dad had most of the spare parts needed. A tie rod was borrowed from fellow Swift pilot Russ McBride, and after a late evening Friday, the car was back together in time for Saturday qualifying...

Arrival at VIR

By dumb luck I managed to finagle a garage at VIR. This was extra fortunate since we needed to fit the new Penske shocks to the car on Wednesday night prior to the first practice sessions Thursday morning.

Pictured is intrepid race engineer and fabricator Eric Langbein. It is about midnight, and we have just finished the job.

Sean

Been away for a while...

Well I got pretty busy on several fronts after the VIR race in April.  The race itself went really well, and I brought the car home 9th both days.  Afterward it has been hard to get the time to come back out here on a consistent basis...

But with the Summit Point National looming I am back in the garage again.

I will post some more photos soon, but here is what I have been working on...

Fuel System - I was running increasingly lean through the VIR weekend.  So I replaced the injectors and installed a new 10 Micro version of the XRP fuel filter.  The old injectors definitely showed signs of clogging and will be sent out to be cleaned and flowed professionally.

Shocks and Springs - For VIR I made do with slightly less than optimum 2.25" ID springs on my new shock's 2" perches.  So over the break I built up an inventory of 2" ID springs and installed the correct sets on the car.  Probably good for a 5# savings overall! (and they look much tricker).

Camera - After watching all of the in-car action from the VIR race, I decided I needed to do something.  I liked Russ McBride's video (lens smear and all) and the price was right so I bought a ContourHD unit and fabricated a mount to attach it the the side of the main roll hoop.

Other Maintenance - I changed the oil and filter (test day plus the VIR weekend) it still looked pretty good but I figured it was cheap insurance.  I also replaced a few of the teflon washers in the suspension that were getting pretty chewed up from the shock and suspension adjustment process.

Brake Pedal - Eric Langbein noticed that the brake pedal was pretty far over center - leading to the need for increased pressure.  I readjusted the pushrods and brake bias to aleviate this problem.  Hopefully this will make the brakes a little more user friendly.  (I must have missed this section in my Carol Smith books, but apparently it is bad practice to let the pedal come over the 12 'oclock position because it decreases the leverage the further it goes)...

Tomorrow night I will recheck the corner weights and time and weather permitting, load the truck and trailer up for Summit...

Sean

Photos to follow shortly...